http://www.8newsnow.com/story/25231502/breaking-news-protesters-gather-on-i15-causing-traffic-delays-cliven-bundy-blm
Posted: Apr 12, 2014 3:06 PM EDTUpdated: Apr 12, 2014 6:46 PM EDT
http://www.infowars.com/bundy-demands-sheriff-disarm-blm-as-showdown-looms/
FEDS BACK OFF !
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/lvfo/blm_programs/more/trespass_cattle.html
From Earlier Today.....
http://www.infowars.com/faa-designates-bundy-ranch-a-no-fly-zone/
http://twitchy.com/2014/04/11/tension-escalates-at-bundyranch-as-more-protesters-arrive/
Others are arriving with handmade signs.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/good-progress-cattle-roundup-decelerate
http://www.infowars.com/breaking-sen-harry-reid-behind-blm-land-grab-of-bundy-ranch/
Deal reached; BLM will release confiscated cattle to rancher
Posted: Apr 12, 2014 3:06 PM EDTUpdated: Apr 12, 2014 6:46 PM EDT
LAS VEGAS -- A deal has been reached between Bundy family leaders and the BLM, but not without some very tense moments.
Armed Bundy family leaders met with BLM officers Saturday afternoon in Mesquite to discuss the fate of the Bundy's cattle that the feds removed from BLM land, over the past week. The cattle are being held at a holding area in Mesquite.
Prior to the meeting, hundreds of protesters, some armed, tried storming the BLM's cattle gate, but weren't successful. The crowd was urged to wait 30 minutes and give both sides a chance to talk. An agreement was reached that the cattle will be released to the Bundy family later Saturday.
At one point, I-15 was closed in both directions, about seven miles south of Mesquite, because protesters had blocked the freeway. Nearly two dozen police officers and a SWAT unit were at the scene to keep the peace and assist the BLM enforcement officers to safely leave the area.
"We had a lot of fears. Individuals being shot, trampled. Individuals being run over on the highway. So it took a lot of resources, a lot of resources to associate with this," Assistant Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.
Protesters have been gathering all week in support of Bundy, who has been locked in a legal battle for the past 20 years over grazing rights with the federal government
It was announced Saturday morning that Sheriff Douglas Gillespie, Bundy and the BLM were able to reach an agreement over the cattle the BLM has already removed from the federal property.
The agency said it is concerned about the safety of its employees and the public. Earlier this week, BLM officers and supporters of the Bundy family were involved in a scuffle. Cliven Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, was tased twice by federal agents. Another woman said she was thrown to the ground by an officer.
With more Bundy supporters pouring in from around the country, safety concerns began to grow.
Sheriff Gillespie has been negotiating with Bundy behind the scenes for months and reached a tentative agreement Friday night, though Bundy insisted the sheriff come to his ranch to finalize the arrangement face-to-face.
In its statement, the BLM said its actions this past week were progress in enforcing two court orders to remove the trespassing cattle from public land.
The agency director also asked that everyone involved in the dispute remain peaceful and law-abiding.
The BLM had offered to pay Bundy for the cattle already confiscated, sources said, but the protesters wanted the cattle returned to Bundy.
http://www.infowars.com/bundy-demands-sheriff-disarm-blm-as-showdown-looms/
Feds Threaten to Shoot Bundy Supporters as Showdown Looms
Thousands of supporters attempt to seize back cattle
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Infowars.com
April 12, 2014
Infowars.com
April 12, 2014
BLM federal agents are threatening to shoot Cliven Bundy supporters who are attempting to seize back stolen cattle as a showdown looms.
Go to 3:39 in the video to learn about the feds’ threatening to shoot people.
Despite the fact that the Bureau of Land Management has backed down and announced it will cease its operation to round up Bundy’s cattle, the rancher gave Gillespie a one hour time limit to seize all firearms from BLM agents involved in the siege.
Video footage from the scene in Bunkerville shows hundreds of cowboys on horseback, with supporters now vowing to take back hundreds of cattle the feds have already stolen from Bundy.
Infowars reporter David Knight is at the center of the scene and says he clearly heard BLM federal agents threaten to shoot men, women and children.
Police are now blocking roads and demanding that hundreds of Bundy supporters turn back as tensions mount.
SWAT teams are also in place.
FEDS BACK OFF !
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/lvfo/blm_programs/more/trespass_cattle.html
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The Sheriff of Clark County, Nevada, Douglas Gillespie, announced to tremendous applause Saturday that the Bureau of Land Management would cease their efforts targeting cattle rancher Cliven Bundy.
In an emotional response, Bundy told the Sheriff he had one hour to disarm the federal agency.
From Earlier Today.....
http://www.infowars.com/faa-designates-bundy-ranch-a-no-fly-zone/
FAA Designates Bundy Ranch a No-Fly Zone
BLM attempts a media blackout with FAA flight restrictions targeting news helicopters
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
April 12, 2014
Infowars.com
April 12, 2014
Yesterday afternoon the Federal Aviation Administration designated the airspace above Bundy Ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada a “no-fly zone” with altitude restrictions that effectively ban news helicopters.
The BLM “no-fly zone” targets news helicopters from covering the story. Original photo credit: Peter Clarke / Wiki
The “temporary flight restrictions,” revealed by a contributor to the Free Republic, bans all air traffic under an altitude of 3,000 feet in the vicinity of the ranch except for aircraft operating under the direction of the Bureau of Land Management.
The restrictions in full:
FDC 4/1687 ZLA NV..AIRSPACE MESQUITE, NV..TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS WITHIN AREA DEFINED AS 3NM RADIUS OF 364624N/1141113W (MMM71 RADIAL AT 4.3NM) SFC-3000FT AGL LAW ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATION. PURSUANT TO 14 CFR SECTION 91.137(A)(1) TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE IN EFFECT. ONLY RELIEF AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS UNDER DIRECTION OF BLM ARE AUTHORIZED IN THE AIRSPACE. BLM TELEPHONE 702-335-3191 IS IN CHARGE OF ON SCENE EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACTIVITY. LOS ANGELES /ZLA/ ARTCC TELEPHONE 661-265-8205 IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY. 1404112140-1405111434
A map of the no-fly zone is available here.
Undoubtedly these flight restrictions are in response to the intense media presence now surrounding Bundy Ranch.
“Keeps the media choppers away so the BLM can do what it wants,” a contributor named SkyDancer pointed out on the Free Republic.
It’s quite obvious that this is the case considering that news helicopters routinely fly at an altitude under 3,000 feet in order to capture the best footage.
Recently, cowboys who are supportive of Cliven Bundy have been successful at rounding up Bundy’s cattle before the BLM could impound them, so it certainly appears that the agency is using the flight restrictions as a cover to target these cowboys without any fear of potential brutality being leaked to the media.
BLM agents have already assaulted several protestors, including a pregnant woman and a cancer victim, which was fortunately caught on tape.
The feds are attempting to regain control of the narrative surrounding the standoff, especially since it is now known that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is behind the land grab for the future development of solar farms with Chinese energy companies.
It is also concerning that by interpreting the no-fly zone to the letter, the BLM could even delay medical helicopters from flying into the area to evacuate individuals who are severely injured.
Although air ambulances are typically exempt from temporary flight restrictions, pilots are still supposed to gain clearance before taking off, which in the past has kept medical pilots grounded until permission was granted.
This scenario is especially frightening considering Clark Co. Commissioner Tom Collins’ recent statement that those traveling to Bunkerville to support Bundy in his standoff against the feds “better have funeral plans.”
http://twitchy.com/2014/04/11/tension-escalates-at-bundyranch-as-more-protesters-arrive/
“I’m wondering where I am,” Bundy told the press at a news conference Friday. “I’m not in Afghanistan. I think I’m in Nevada. But I’m not sure right now.”
Fox News reports that members of a Utah militia arrived at the ranch Wednesday, and other militias from Texas, New Hampshire and Florida are said to be on the way.
Others are arriving with handmade signs.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/good-progress-cattle-roundup-decelerate
The federal roundup of Cliven Bundy’s cattle in northeastern Clark County was expected to take up to a month.
In the first seven days, contract cowboys collected almost 400 animals, more than two-fifths of Bundy’s herd.
But while federal officials believe they have made “good progress” so far, they also agree with the embattled rancher and his family about one thing, if nothing else: Bringing in the rest of the cattle won’t be quite so easy.
Early this month, just before the roundup got underway, a survey conducted by helicopter counted 908 head of cattle scattered across roughly 1,200 square miles of remote mountains and desert managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.
That’s an even larger area than the roughly 900 square miles of public land that have been closed to the public for the duration of the roundup, and roads out there are few and far between.
As one BLM official put it, “We don’t expect the same number of cattle to come in every day.”
Already, the capture rate seems to be slowing down. On Monday, 100 animals were collected. By Thursday, that number dropped to 25.
Meanwhile, pressure is mounting to wrap up the operation as quickly as possible.
On Wednesday, demonstrators and BLM rangers clashed as trucks involved in the roundup tried to turn off the main road leading past Bundy’s ranch. Now outside groups are joining the fray, including some armed militia members sympathetic to Bundy’s cause.
Security on the government’s side has been tight from the start, especially right around the contractors and federal employees who are conducting the roundup. One official suggested earlier in the week that the law enforcement presence would continue to grow as the number of threats do.
“Unfortunately, the more threats there are, the more this is going to cost the taxpayers,” said the official who asked not to be named because of safety concerns.
The BLM and Park Service have not released any cost projections for the operation, but almost $1 million will be paid to a Utah-based livestock contractor hired to collect Bundy’s cattle.
Earlier in the week, officials said a report with cost figures would be released at the operation’s halfway point. But on Thursday, state BLM director Amy Lueders said a full accounting will not be done until the roundup is over.
“We’re not providing estimates at this time,” she said.
According to state brand inspectors, almost 90 percent of the cattle rounded up by midweek bore Bundy’s brand. Of the remaining animals, five belonged to a neighboring rancher, four were marked with brands that couldn’t be read, and the rest were “slicks,” a ranching term for unmarked livestock.
The animals are being herded into temporary corrals by helicopters and contractors on horseback or lured in with food. From there, they are loaded into cattle trucks and delivered to holding pens at the government’s heavily guarded incident command center just off Interstate 15, a few miles southwest of Mesquite.
Stetsy Cox is the youngest of Bundy’s seven daughters. She helped organize the protest rally Monday near the family’s ranch, where she moved through the crowd in a pink cap, boots with spurs and a black T-shirt that read: “Guts. Glory. Bundy.”
She can also be seen in the YouTube video of Wednesday’s scuffle with BLM rangers. She’s the one who tells one of the officers that she’s pregnant and yells at him for threatening a woman with his police dog.
Cox said she is worried about the health of the cattle, especially in the midst of calving season as daytime temperatures climb into the 90s.
Her fear is that the animals will be driven too hard in the heat or that calves will be left behind to be eaten by coyotes or mountain lions. She also worries about cows getting hurt trying to escape their captors to get back to the newborns they left hiding in the dense underbrush.
But Cox said the timing of the operation is questionable for another reason: All those trucks and riders on horseback are pushing the cattle across the range just as federally protected desert tortoise are emerging from their winter sleep.
“If they’re so worried about the turtles, why are they out here now?”
Despite repeated requests, federal officials have not yet disclosed if any cattle have been injured or killed during the roundup so far.
All they have said is that the operation is being monitored by state brand inspectors and a veterinarian, and that there are protocols in place for deciding when animals should be euthanized. Lueders said cattle can be humanely killed if they are dangerously aggressive or hopelessly sick or injured.
Bundy stopped paying federal grazing fees in 1993 in a dispute with the BLM over range restrictions aimed at protecting the threatened desert tortoise. He spent the next 20 years ignoring or unsuccessfully challenging repeated orders for him to get his livestock off the range.
The federal government removed the first of Bundy’s cows from public land on April 5. No cattle are being impounded from Bundy’s private property, which totals about 160 acres along the Virgin River, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
The rancher and his supporters like to characterize him as a folk hero, one man standing up for state sovereignty and against federal oppression. Others have called him a “welfare cowboy” who has spent decades operating a business on land he doesn’t own and getting something for free that other ranchers have to pay for.
The roundup goes on regardless.
Cox didn’t seem surprised by the number of cattle collected in the first few days of the operation. She said the crews seem to be going after the “gravy” first, namely those animals closest to roads and towns and more accustomed to human contact.
“These are the easy ones,” the 21-year-old said on Monday. “These cows along the river, we leave them. They come to the corral on their own.”
Cox expects the contract cowboys to be able use their helicopters to track down almost any cow out on the range. Collecting them all is a different story.
The real test will come in the backcountry, she said. Out there, the contractors will confront bulls that have been known to gore horses right out from under their riders, Cox said. The Bundy herd can be a wily bunch, even before you get a rope around them.
http://www.infowars.com/breaking-sen-harry-reid-behind-blm-land-grab-of-bundy-ranch/
Breaking: Sen. Harry Reid Behind BLM Land Grab of Bundy Ranch
BLM attempted cover-up of Sen. Reid/Chinese gov’t takeover of ranch for solar farm
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
The Bureau of Land Management, whose director was Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) former senior adviser, has purged documents from its web site stating that the agency wants Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle off of the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations.
The first segment of the document pulled by the feds from BLM.gov.
Deleted from BLM.gov but reposted for posterity by the Free Republic, the BLM document entitled “Cattle Trespass Impacts” directly states that Bundy’s cattle “impacts” solar development, more specifically the construction of “utility-scale solar power generation facilities” on “public lands.”
“Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle,” the document states.
The second segment of the document pulled by the feds from BLM.gov.
Another BLM report entitled Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone (BLM Technical Note 444) reveals that Bundy’s land in question is within the “Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone and surrounding area” which is part of a broad U.S. Department of Energy program for “Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States” on land “managed” by BLM.
“In 2012, the BLM and the U.S. Department of Energy published the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States,” the report reads. “The Final Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement assessed the impact of utility-scale solar energy development on public lands in the six southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.”
Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone and surrounding area (Click to enlarge.)
“The Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments/Record of Decision (ROD) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States implemented a comprehensive solar energy program for public lands in those states and incorporated land use allocations and programmatic and SEZ-specific design features into land use plans in the six-state study area.”
Back in 2012, the New American reported that Harry Reid’s son, Rory Reid, was the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada.
And journalist Marcus Stern with Reuters also reported that Sen. Reid was heavily involved in the deal as well.
“[Reid] and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert,” he wrote. “Reid has been one of the project’s most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada.”
“His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.”
Although these reports are in plain view, the mainstream media has so far ignored this link.
The BLM’s official reason for encircling the Bundy family with sniper teams and helicopters was to protect the endangered desert tortoise, which the agency has previously been killing in mass due to “budget constraints.”
“A tortoise isn’t the reason why BLM is harassing a 67 year-old rancher; they want his land,” journalist Dana Loesch wrote. “The tortoise wasn’t of concern when [U.S. Senator] Harry Reid worked with BLM to literally change the boundaries of the tortoise’s habitat to accommodate the development of his top donor, Harvey Whittemore.”
“Reid is accused of using the new BLM chief as a puppet to control Nevada land (already over 84% of which is owned by the federal government) and pay back special interests,” she added. “BLM has proven that they’ve a situational concern for the desert tortoise as they’ve had no problem waiving their rules concerning wind or solar power development. Clearly these developments have vastly affected a tortoise habitat more than a century-old, quasi-homesteading grazing area.”
“If only Cliven Bundy were a big Reid donor.”
Update: The Drudge Report, the #1 news aggregate site in the world, has now picked up this story. Unfortunately for the BLM, the documents they wanted to delete are now exposed for the world to see.
Threats and intimidation.......
County Commissioner Says Bundy Supporters “Better Have Funeral Plans”
War of words over standoff with feds intensifies
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins has caused outrage by remarking that Utahns planning to travel to Nevada to support Cliven Bundy in his standoff against the feds “better have funeral plans”.
Image: Tom Collins (YouTube).
The comments were revealed by Darin Bushman, a Piute County, Utah, commissioner after he spoke with Collins about Utah ranchers and his colleagues on the County Commission complaining about tactics used by Bureau of Land Management agents during their seizure of Bundy’s cattle in southern Nevada.
“I was just told by commissioner Collins of Clark County NV that all of us folks from Utah are a bunch of “inbred bastards” and if we are coming to Clark Cointy NV to support Cliven Bundy we all “better have funeral plans”. We should “turn our asses around on mind our own f-ing business”. Now there’s some classy leadership for you,” wrote Bushman on his official Facebook page.
After the story was picked up by the Las Vegas Review Journal, Bushman responded to the controversy by posting on Facebook, “I guess I’ve made an enemy in Las Vegas.” The commissioner also lambasted Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie as being, “too spineless to exercise his Jurisdiction”. Earlier this week, Cliven Bundy called on Sheriff Gillespie to start arresting BLM feds on charges of trespassing and theft.
Collins’ remarks were made in the context of him fearing that protests against the BLM could turn violent, which is ironic given that the only person invoking direct violence is Collins himself.
“I’m trying to do everything I can to discourage anybody who tells me they’re coming here with loaded guns,” Collins said. “I’m going to tell them not to come,” adding, “The Bundys want peace, they don’t want any violence going on so all these gun-packing folks just need to go home.”
Clark County commissioners will hold a meeting next week to discuss issues of decorum in response to Collins’ comments. It is unclear whether or not any action will be taken against him.
Bushman questioned Collins’ sanity in light of his offensive comments.
“This guy was just off-the-hook weird,” he said. “I’ve never ran into a fellow commissioner who treated me like that.”
http://freebeacon.com/issues/blm-rangers-brought-in-from-out-of-state-for-nevada-ranch-emergency/
BLM Rangers Brought in From Out of State for Nevada Ranch ‘Emergency’
‘They’re almost like a hired gun’
Cliven Bundy supporters raise a banner during a rally / AP
BY:
Armed Rangers were brought in from out of state by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to assist in security surrounding the Bundy Ranch, according to the family.
A heated confrontation on Wednesday resulted in Cliven Bundy’s son Ammon being tasered by BLM officials and a 57-year-old protester being shoved to the ground.
Stetsy Bundy Cox, Cliven’s daughter, told the Washington Free Beacon that some of the rangers had Oregon and California license plates.
“You know, some of these guys don’t even know why they’re here,” she said. “A few people have talked to them and they got called in here on an emergency feed and they didn’t know what it was for, it just said they had to be here.”
“They’re almost like a hired gun,” Cox said. “Because what they’re supposed to do is they each have a road, and are told to stay on that road, and they’re supposed to keep people off that road, whatever means possible. That’s their job. They don’t even know how many cows have been gathered.”
The BLM did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Cox said she spoke with an out-of-state Ranger who was ashamed of his job.
“I actually went and talked to one, he was in the back, nobody was even talking to him. He didn’t say much,” she said. “He had a huge big gun on him, but he didn’t really even touch his gun.”
“I asked him, ‘What are you doing? Do you know what you’re doing? You’re stealing an old man’s cattle, his livelihood. He’s a poor man that doesn’t have anything,’” she said. “And I said, ‘You’re pushing baby cows’—I watched a baby cow not want to move and a helicopter swoop down and honk at him till he had to move.”
Cox said the Ranger said, “No, no, we don’t want that.”
“But I saw it,” she said.
“‘Well, well,’ and he goes, ‘I don’t even want to be here. Do you think my grandfather’s proud of me? You think I like this? You think this is fun for me?’”
“Then what are you doing here?” Cox asked him.
“He said, ‘It’s my job.’”
As of Wednesday, 352 cattle have been removed from the public land ranched by the Bundy family for more than a century. An estimated 200 armed officials have surrounded the ranch, the culmination of a dispute dating 20 years over “grazing fees” and the protection of the “desert tortoise.”
In a statement Wednesday evening, the BLM and the National Park Service said safety “remains the number one priority for the operation.”
“In recent days, some peaceful protests have crossed into illegal activity, including blocking vehicles associated with the gather, impeding cattle movement, and making direct and overt threats to government employees,” the agencies said. “These isolated actions that have jeopardized the safety of individuals have been responded to with appropriate law enforcement actions.”
“Today, a BLM truck driven by a non-law enforcement civilian employee assisting with gather operations was struck by a protester on an ATV and the truck’s exit from the area was blocked by a group of individuals who gathered around the vehicle,” they said. “A police dog was also kicked. Law enforcement officers attempting to protect the civilian federal employee from the attack were also threatened and assaulted. After multiple requests and ample verbal warnings, law enforcement officers deployed tasers on a protestor.”
The Bundy family posted a statement online that the Wednesday confrontation began after members of the family were taking pictures on an unmarked road of “helicopters running Bundy cattle to death.”
“When we saw the BLM start to surround them we knew they needed our help so we didn’t have a repeat of what happened to Dave Bundy,” they said, referencing their other son’s arrest on Sunday. “We didn’t go there to start a fight we went to stand for our rights, video what was happening and protect those boys and gentlemen.”
http://freebeacon.com/issues/blm-wont-say-if-theyve-euthanized-cows-in-ranch-standoff/
BLM Won’t Say if They’ve Euthanized Cows in Ranch Standoff
‘We do have a protocol in terms of when we would euthanize animals’
A helicopter takes off from a staging area of Bureau of Land Management outside the Bundy ranch / AP
BY:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will not say if they have euthanized any cows in the roundup of Cliven Bundy’s cattle on public land in Nevada.
Amy Lueders, the Nevada state director for the BLM, said in a conference call Thursday evening that the agency does have a “protocol,” but would not release any numbers for animals they have found dead or that they have euthanized.
A reporter asked about heavy construction equipment that was seen coming in and out of the blockade, and whether cattle have been found dead, injured, or euthanized during the operation.
“In terms of the number that we’ve found, animals who are, I think, deceased on the range, or if we’ve had to euthanize an animal, we don’t have an answer to that question at this time,” Lueders said. “We will euthanize an animal during the impoundment if they exhibit dangerous characteristics, threaten the health and safety of the employees, display a hopeless prognosis for life.”
“So, we do have a protocol in terms of when we would euthanize animals,” she said. “But we don’t have any answers at this time in terms of the numbers.”
Lueders said she understood that the heavy equipment was being used to “restore land that has been affected by the trespass cattle.”
The Bundy family has expressed concerns that the cattle are being mistreated. Stetsy Bundy Cox, Cliven Bundy’s daughter, told the Washington Free Beacon that she believes calves are being left behind.
“I watched them gather a herd off the river with helicopters, and they had rounded them for miles and by the time I saw them they were pushing them up the wash,” she said. “Most of them were mamas with babies because it’s calving season, and they’re just little. And I watched the calves, they couldn’t keep up very good and they kept slowing down and the helicopter would swoop down and you could hear them honking at them. And he kept swooping down and honking at them.”
Cox said that calves will hide under brush, and it is likely that employees removing the cattle would not see them.
“I also know my dad’s cows, because a few of those cows out there are my own personal cows,” she said. “When you push them too hard, or if you rope them they sulk. They’re kind of stubborn. And if they don’t want to go they’ll sulk. And if they get down and sulk they’ll sulk so long they won’t even get up, they’ll just die. So if you stress those cows out too much, they’ll do that.”
“Do I think they are leaving baby calves out there? I do,” Cox said. “Do I think that cows are dying? I do.”
The BLM refused to estimate how much it is costing to remove the cattle, though some estimates have risen to $3 million.
“Mr. Bundy currently owes the taxpayers over $1 million and if Mr. Bundy had chosen to comply with the law, and chosen to comply with two court orders, we would not be undertaking this operation,” Lueders said. “The cost will be a matter of public record once the operation concludes, we are not providing estimates at this time, because there are certainly a number of factors, including the duration that will determine the ultimate cost.”
As of Wednesday, 352 cattle have been removed from the public land ranched by the Bundy family for more than a century. An estimated 200 armed officials have surrounded the ranch, the culmination of a dispute dating back 20 years over “grazing fees” and the protection of the “desert tortoise.”
The majority of public land in Clark County, Nev. was set aside for the tortoise in 1998. Only three grazing permits are currently held on public land in Southern Nevada, the BLM said on Thursday.
Gov. Brian Sandoval (R.) had expressed concern over the tactics used by the BLM, including the use of so-called “First Amendment Areas,” designated locations set up by the BLM where citizens can protest the removal.
The BLM said on Thursday they are now “allowing the public to congregate on public lands,” but safety remains their number one priority.
“We certainly have heard the Governor’s concerns, and we welcome his input,” Lueders said. “Hearing his concerns, we have made some adjustments, and we are allowing [the] public to congregate on public lands, as long as they do not impede the operation.”
Sandoval urged everyone to act with restraint in a statement Friday, following a heated confrontation between protesters and BLM rangers, in which one of the Bundy sons was tasered.
“Earlier this week, I advised the BLM not to limit or hinder the constitutional rights of Nevadans and be mindful of its conduct,” Sandoval said. “The ability to speak out against government actions is one of the freedoms we all cherish as Americans.”
“Today I am asking all individuals who are near the situation to act with restraint. Although tensions remain high, escalation of current events could have negative, long lasting consequences that can be avoided,” he said.
Reps. Matt Salmon (R., Ariz.) and Steve Pearce (R., N.M.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Friday expressing their concern about the “escalation of force” used by the federal government.
“This escalation of force reportedly includes the deployment of roughly two hundred heavily armed personnel, including snipers, along with the deployment of Tasers, the use of K-9 units, and brutal physical force against members of the Bundy family and their neighbors who had come to support them,” Salmon and Pearce wrote.
“One of the victims of this aggression is reported to have included Margaret Houston, a 57-year-old mother of eleven children and a recovering cancer victim.”
“Unfortunately, we know all too well that in situations like these, if tensions continue to escalate the consequences can be devastating,” the lawmakers said. “We ask that the BLM allow ‘cooler heads to prevail’ and to pursue a non-violent resolution to this disagreement.”
Will Feds Stage Violence to Frame Cliven Bundy?
Infiltrators could be used to demonize Nevada cattle rancher’s cause
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
Will the feds resort to staging violence in order to frame Cliven Bundy and his supporters?
With hundreds of “militia members” heading to Nevada, the possibility of the feds inserting provocateurs posing as protesters in order to demonize Bundy’s cause is a major threat.
Remember, Ed and Elaine Brown mistakenly invited U.S. Federal Marshals posing as supporters into their own home before they were arrested.
Supporters line up for Bundy's defense of their family ranch and cattle .....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/11/militias-head-nevada-ranchers-standoff-feds-were-n/
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s decades-long battle against the federal government over grazing rights has heated to the point where militia groups have joined in and taken up spots against the feds who’ve circled his land — and talk is, they’re not afraid to open fire.
A spokesman for the one of the militia groups said as much to local 8 News Now: I’m not “afraid to shoot,” he said.
Margaret Houston, Mr. Bundy’s sister and a cancer survivor, said at a town hall gathering this week that the situation “was like a war zone” and that she felt “like I was not in the United States,” The Daily Mail reported.
A spokesman for the one of the militia groups said as much to local 8 News Now: I’m not “afraid to shoot,” he said.
Margaret Houston, Mr. Bundy’s sister and a cancer survivor, said at a town hall gathering this week that the situation “was like a war zone” and that she felt “like I was not in the United States,” The Daily Mail reported.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal described it this way: “Serious bloodshed was narrowly avoided,” in a story about how dogs were unleashed on a woman who was pregnant while the rancher’s son was hit with a taser.
On Tuesday, armed Bureau of Land Management agents stormed Mr. Bundy’s property, escalating a court dispute that’s wound for two decades over the rancher’s refusal to pay for grazing fees.
On Tuesday, armed Bureau of Land Management agents stormed Mr. Bundy’s property, escalating a court dispute that’s wound for two decades over the rancher’s refusal to pay for grazing fees.
Mr. Bundy’s view is that he owns his property — that it’s been in his family’s hands for centuries — and he doesn’t have to pay for his own 900-head of cattle to graze on the 600,000 acre Gold Butte property.
The government, meanwhile, says the land belongs to it, and agents have swooped and circled, closing off roadway access to the property and flying helicopters overhead the family’s home.
Following the agent occupation, one of Mr. Bundy’s sons, Ammon Bundy, was tasered by a federal official to the point that blood seeped through his shirt, video showed. Ms. Houston, meanwhile, said she was roughed up and manhandled by authorities, telling town hall attendees that she was “hit from the back; it was like a football tackle” and that “they just took me and threw me down to the ground,” The Daily Mail reported.
BLM, for its part, says the situation only turned violent when protesters who rallied to the family’s defense kicked a K-9 unit officer.
Now militia groups are on the scene, promising to help the Bundys keep up the fight.
“This is what we do, we provide armed response,” Jim Lordy, with Operation Mutual Aid, told the local broadcast station. “They have guns. We need guns to protect ourselves from the tyrannical government.”
Mr. Lordy also said “many more” militia groups are coming to the site to join in the Bundy family defense.
“They all tell me they are in the process of mobilizing as we speak,” another member told the Review-Journal.
Following the agent occupation, one of Mr. Bundy’s sons, Ammon Bundy, was tasered by a federal official to the point that blood seeped through his shirt, video showed. Ms. Houston, meanwhile, said she was roughed up and manhandled by authorities, telling town hall attendees that she was “hit from the back; it was like a football tackle” and that “they just took me and threw me down to the ground,” The Daily Mail reported.
BLM, for its part, says the situation only turned violent when protesters who rallied to the family’s defense kicked a K-9 unit officer.
Now militia groups are on the scene, promising to help the Bundys keep up the fight.
“This is what we do, we provide armed response,” Jim Lordy, with Operation Mutual Aid, told the local broadcast station. “They have guns. We need guns to protect ourselves from the tyrannical government.”
Mr. Lordy also said “many more” militia groups are coming to the site to join in the Bundy family defense.
“They all tell me they are in the process of mobilizing as we speak,” another member told the Review-Journal.
and.....
Armed Right-Wing Militia Members Descend On Nevada To Help Rancher Defy Court Order
BY IAN MILLHISER ON APRIL 11, 2014 AT 1:37 PM
A protester kicks a police dog during an altercation between law enforcement and supporters of a Nevada rancher
CREDIT: YOUTUBE
“We provide armed response,” according to a Montana militia member named Jim Lordy. Lordy traveled to Nevada in order to support a local rancher for believes that he should not have to follow federal court orders. When he arrived there, he told a local reporter that “[w]e need guns to protect ourselves from the tyrannical government.”
Lordy belongs to a militia group called Operation Mutual Aid, which provides “[d]efense of public and private property, lives, and liberty to exercise God-given rights, seen plainly in the laws of Nature, and codified in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, at the request of such parties in need of such defense,” according to a website associated with the group. Although only three militia members had arrived at the Nevada ranch by late Wednesday, when the latest reports came out, other militia groups reportedly “inundated the [rancher's] household with calls and pledges to muster at the site.”
The Oath Keepers, a right-wing law enforcement organization that warns about the government “disarm[ing] the American people” and “blockad[ing] American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps,” also announced that it will send people to support the defiant rancher.
This conflict arises out of rancher Cliven Bundy’s many years of illegally grazing his cattle on federal lands. In 1998, a federal court ordered Bundy to cease grazing his livestock on an area of federal land known as the Bunkerville Allotment, and required him to pay the federal government $200 per day per head of cattle remaining on federal lands. Around the time it issued this order, the court also commented that “[t]he government has shown commendable restraint in allowing this trespass to continue for so long without impounding Bundy’s livestock.” Fifteen years later, Bundy continued to defy this court order.
Last October, the federal government returned to court and obtained a new order, providing that “Bundy shall remove his livestock from the former Bunkerville Allotment within 45 days of the date hereof, and that the United States is entitled to seize and remove to impound any of Bundy’s cattle that remain in trespass after 45 days of the date hereof.” A third federal court order issued the same year explains that Bundy did not simply refuse to stop trespassing on federal lands — he actually expanded the range of his trespassing. According to the third order, “Bundy’s cattle have moved beyond the boundaries of the Bunkerville Allotment and are now trespassing on a broad swath of additional federal land (the “New Trespass Lands”), including public lands within the Gold Butte area that are administered by the BLM, and National Park System land within the Overton Arm and Gold Butte areas of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.” The third order also authorizes the federal government to “impound any of Bundy’s cattle that remain in trespass.”
On Saturday of last week, the government hired wranglers to round up Bundy’s livestock. As of Wednesday, they’d impounded a total of 352 cattle. That’s when a tense standoff broke out between a group of Bundy’s supporters and federal rangers armed with stun guns and police dogs. In one video, a ranger tackles Bundy’s sister away from a moving vehicle (she later admitted that she was blocking the path of government trucks shortly before this incident). Another video shows rangers using a stun gun on a protester immediately after he kicks a police dog.
Bundy, for his part, claims that “our Constitution didn’t provide for anything like the federal government owning this land.” He’s wrong. The Constitution provides that “[t]he Congressshall have power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.”
and....
Cliven Bundy Ranch Dispute: Huge Difference Between Coverage by Conservative and Liberal Media
Krissy Thornton, right, looks at blood from a taser wound on Ammon Bundy near Bunkerville, Nev. Wednesday, April 9, 2014. Bundy was tasered by Bureau of Land Management law enforcement officers while protesting the roundup of what the BLM calls "trespass cattle" that rancher Cliven Bundy grazes in the Gold Butte area 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher)
The Cliven Bundy ranch dispute has gained a lot of attention but is getting hugely different coverage from conservative and liberal media outlets.
Bundy is involved in a dispute with federal authorities over cattle grazing northeast of Las Vegas in Nevada.
He says that he has the right to graze his cattle on open range, which currently includes a portion of desert that houses the endangered desert tortoise. His right comes from his Mormon family settling and ranching in the area since the 19th century, he says.
Federal authorities say that cows are trespassing on the arid and fragile habitat and note that Bundy lost federal court cases challenging the roundup and that he was ordered by a federal judge last October not to interfere in any roundup.
Bundy, who represented himself in the court cases, has vowed to do whatever it takes to protect his property. He has characterized the dispute as a “range war.”
Conservative outlets such as Fox News, the Blaze, and InfoWars are highlighting Bundy’s argument and claiming that the government is overreaching with armed federal agents and use of force in the case.
“Nevada Rancher Threatens ‘Range War’ Against Government,” reads one Fox headline. “Cliven Bundy Calls on Sheriff to Start Arresting BLM Feds” reads another article, from InfoWars.
Liberal outlets, meanwhile, are painting Bundy as a lawbreaker who deserves what he’s getting and playing down any use of force.
“The federal government moved some cows and Nevada’s governor isn’t happy about it,” read one headline from the Washington Post. “Cliven Bundy: right-wing extremist domestic terrorist lawbreaker,” reads another article, from Daily Kos.
See an update from The Associated Press that seems to illustrate both sides below.
Stun gun used on rancher’s son in cattle roundup
LAS VEGAS—Tensions have escalated between protesters and federal police who used a stun gun on a son of a Nevada rancher fighting a roundup of cattle that he claims have historical grazing rights northeast of Las Vegas.
No serious injuries were reported and no arrests were made, but family members told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that rancher Cliven Bundy’s 57-year-old sister also was knocked to the ground during a confrontation Wednesday involving dozens of protesters and several U.S. Bureau of Land Management rangers.
The son, Ammon Bundy, told the Spectrum of St. George, Utah, that he was hit with stun charges twice.
He acknowledged that he climbed on a dump truck, suspecting that it contained cattle that had been killed during the roundup.
Amy Lueders, Nevada state BLM director, would not discuss details of the incident during a conference call with reporters late Thursday, saying only that it is under investigation.
“Public safety is key to this operation,” Lueders said, who described the episode as a “very isolated incident.”
The incident on State Route 170 followed the arrest Sunday of another Bundy son, Dave Bundy. He was released Monday with a citation accusing him of refusing to disperse and resisting arrest.
A video posted to the Internet showed protesters waving signs and shouting and law enforcement officers holding yellow stun guns with barking dogs straining at leashes near trucks involved in the roundup.
The BLM and the National Park Service have shut down an area half the size of Delaware while hired cowhands using helicopters and vehicles gather about 900 cattle that officials say are trespassing.
Rancher Derrel Spencer speaks during a rally in support of Cliven Bundy near Bunkerville Nev. Monday, April 7, 2014, 2014. The Bureau of Land Management has begun to round up what they call “trespass cattle” that rancher Cliven Bundy has been grazing in the Gold Butte area 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher)
Krissy Thornton, right, and Burgundy Hall protest with others near Bunkerville, Nev. Wednesday, April 9, 2014. The group is protesting the Bureau of Land Management’s roundup of what they call “trespass cattle” run by Cliven Bundy in the Gold Butte area 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher)
Kellie Houston, niece of Cliven Bundy, cries after speaking at a public meeting in the Moapa Valley Community Center in Overton, Nev. Wednesday, April 9, 2014. The meeting was about the roundup by the Bureau of Land Management’s of what they call “trespass cattle” run by Cliven Bundy in the Gold Butte area 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher)
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Contractors for the Bureau of Land Management round up cattle belonging to Cliven Bundy with a helicopter near Bunkerville, Nev. Monday, April 7, 2014. The Bureau of Land Management has begun to round up what they call “trespass cattle” that rancher Cliven Bundy has been grazing in the Gold Butte area 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher)
Cattle belonging to Cliven Bundy are rounded up with a helicopter near Bunkerville Nev. Monday, April 7, 2014. The Bureau of Land Management has begun to round up what they call “trespass cattle” that rancher Cliven Bundy has been grazing in the Gold Butte area 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher)
Bundy, whose Mormon family settled, farmed and ranched in Bunkerville since the 19th century, claims branded and feral animals on the range are his — and that he has the right to graze his cows on open range.
Lueders blamed Bundy for the events.
“Mr. Bundy is breaking the law and has been breaking the law for the past 20 years,” she said.
“We are engaged in this because of a single individual … who has refused to abide by the law of the land,” Lueders said, adding that Bundy’s actions “do a disservice to the thousands of law abiding ranchers in the West.”
The showdown is seen as a flashpoint in a longstanding battle over state and federal land rights predating the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s and ’80s.
The government says the cows are trespassing on arid and fragile habitat of the endangered desert tortoise. They note that Bundy lost federal court cases challenging the roundup and that he was ordered by a federal judge last October not to interfere in any roundup.
Bundy, who represented himself in the court cases, has vowed to do whatever it takes to protect his property. He has characterized the dispute as a “range war.”
Shows of force by heavily armed federal agents and the creation of a protest corral labeled a “First Amendment area” drew complaints this week from Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and GOP U.S. Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada.
The tactics have also drawn attention from militia members vowing to protect Bundy and his family.
Ryan Payne and Jim Lardy, self-described members of a militia group from Montana, told the Review-Journal that they arrived Tuesday to place themselves as a barrier between tyranny and oppression.
Bearing holstered handguns they said they always wear, Payne, 30, and Lardy, 49, said their goal was for no one to be harmed and for Bundy’s property and rights to be protected.
Stephen Dean, 45, an artist from Utah, said he made the trip with a video camera in hopes of heading off another Ruby Ridge or Waco, referring to deadly confrontations involving federal agents in Idaho in 1992 and in Texas in 1993.
Photographers were on hand when BLM rangers shot Ammon Bundy several times with stun guns and Cliven Bundy’s sister, Margaret Houston, said she was knocked to the ground by a BLM officer.
The Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service released a statement saying the confrontation developed when a protester crashed an all-terrain vehicle into a BLM truck driven by a contractor and protesters converged on the area.
The statement alleged that peaceful protests of the roundup that started Saturday had “crossed into illegal activity,” including blocking vehicles, impeding cattle movement and “making direct and overt threats to government employees.”
“These isolated actions that have jeopardized the safety of individuals have been responded to with appropriate law enforcement actions,” it said.
Meanwhile, federal officials reported that 352 cows have been collected. State veterinarian and brand identification officials are expected to determine what becomes of the impounded cattle.
BLM's actions are unlawful ( and this was before the Harry Reid and China solar farm angle developed .)
BLM Action in Nevada is Unconstitutional, Here’s Why
A direct violation of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014
James Madison: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.”
The establishment media is now paying attention to Cliven Bundy and his struggle with the Bureau of Land Management. Most of this coverage assumes Bundy is engaged in illegal cattle grazing on federal land.
“The U.S. government is rounding up Bundy’s cattle that it says have been grazing illegally on public lands in Clark County for more than 20 years, according to the land-management bureau and the National Park Service,” CNN reports today.
The BLM insists “Mr. Bundy has… failed to comply with multiple court orders to remove his cattle from the federal lands and to end the illegal trespass.”
It is the BLM, not Cliven Bundy, who is in violation of the law and the Constitution, specifically Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution.
The clause, known as the Enclave Clause, authorizes Congress to purchase, own and control land in a state under specific and limited conditions, namely “for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings,” and not, as the feds now insist, to protect an endangered tortoise.
The Founders were opposed to providing a centralized federal government with unlimited authority to purchase and, as is routinely the case today, seize state and private land.
During the federal convention debates in September, 1787, Elbridge Gerry, who later went on to serve as vice president under James Madison, contended federal purchase of land “might be made use of to enslave any particular State by buying up its territory, and that the strongholds proposed would be a means of awing the State into an undue obedience.”
In order to make certain the federal government did not abuse the Enclave Clause, the words “Consent of the Legislature of the State” were added.
Madison, Jefferson and the Founders were primarily interested in limited government and the diffusion of federal authority over the states for the protection of individual liberty. In 1992, the Supreme Court issued an opinion on the framers’ reasoning behind the state consent requirement (New York v. U.S):
“The Constitution does not protect the sovereignty of States for the benefit of the States or state governments as abstract political entities, or even for the benefit of the public officials governing the States. To the contrary, the Constitution divides authority between federal and state governments for the protection of individuals. State sovereignty is not just an end in itself: rather, federalism secures to citizens the liberties that derive from the diffusion of sovereign power.” (Emphasis added.)
Madison knew unlimited federal power inevitably results in unbridled tyranny. “I venture to declare it as my opinion that, were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America,” he wrote.
Despite the desire of the founders and the originating principles of the nation, conceived as a constitutional republic, the federal government has repeatedly and habitually exacted dictatorial authority in Nevada and throughout much of the West.
“The United States government owns and has broad authority to regulate federal lands in Nevada,” theBLM arrogantly insists. “In response to challenges of federal ownership of the lands in Nevada, the 9th circuit held that the federal government owned all federal lands in Nevada, and that those lands did not pass to the state upon statehood.”
This is in direct conflict with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution.
Cliven Bundy’s struggle with the BLM in Nevada is exactly the situation Madison and the founders tried to prevent. The federal government does not have the constitutional authority to own land, beyond what is stipulated in the Enclave Clause, and its seizure of land, under the obviously fallacious pretense of protecting a tortoise, is a serious violation of the Constitution.
Madison made if perfectly clear in Federalist Paper 45:
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined… The [federal powers] will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce… the powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”
“It’s really about our constitutional rights and statehood,” Bundy has said. “And whether this area known as the state of Nevada is owned by the United States government or is owned by the sovereign state of Nevada.”
Mr. Bundy, despite a propaganda campaign to the contrary launched by the federal government and its subservient media, is absolutely correct – the war shaping up between the Nevada rancher and the federal government is about states’ rights and, ultimately, the rights of sovereign individuals.
This article was posted: Friday, April 11, 2014 at 10:31 am
Simon says , and he's got lazer drones...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dcclothesline.com/2013/11/17/agenda-21-population-control-map-usa/
NW
Funny you should mention drones... was wondering if they're being used at the Bundy Ranch situation ( to surveil at a minimum ) ?
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