Overreaching government authority
There is a range war of sorts being reported from Nevada where a rancher whose family has grazed their cattle on public lands since the 1870s is being forced by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to vacate the land because environmentalists say the “desert tortoise” is endangered by the cattle. News reports from Nevada indicate that BLM has surrounded Cliven Bundy’s ranch with some 200 heavily armed BLM and FBI agents who are covering the removal of Bundy’s cattle by government contractors. This show of absolute power by the government is, in the very least, opposed by the locally elected sheriff and the governor of Nevada. But it doesn’t matter.
In true jack boot fashion, the BLM has established a “First Amendment Area” where citizens can protest the removal. Nevada Republican Governor Brian Sandoval said, “Most disturbing to me is the BLM’s establishment of a ‘First Amendment Area’ that tramples upon Nevadan’s fundamental rights under the US Constitution. To that end, I have advised the BLM that such conduct is offensive to me and countless others in that the ‘First Amendment Area’ should be dismantled immediately…The BLM needs to reconsider its approach to this matter and act accordingly.” How about the governor acting accordingly and giving BLM the boot? Has he heard of state’s rights? Big hat, no cattle. Literally.
BLM was originally the “Grazing Service” established to prevent drought and erosion on Western grazing land. BLM’s website says “But by the 1960s and 1970s, public appreciation for public lands and expectations for their management rose to a new level, as made clear by congressional passage of such laws as the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Consequently, the BLM moved from managing grazing in general to better management or protection of specific rangeland resources, such as riparian areas, threatened and endangered species, sensitive plant species, and cultural or historical objects.”
So there you have it. The ranchers, who were the backbone of the global food supply, became subservient to the environmentalists. The BLM is no longer an agricultural extension service but an armed gestapo of the militant environmentalist left; another un-elected government agency with armed absolute unconstitutional authority. People may be starving, but the dessert tortoise is happy. Worse yet, the governor of the state won’t do anything about it. Romans 12:21 says, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” If this government will use unconstitutional armed authority against a rancher in Nevada, it will use it against you. The good in us better stand before the evil in them stands us down.
