Friday, April 11, 2014

Is Sen. Harry Reid Behind BLM Land Grab of Bundy Ranch?

“[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.
The land in question is the land on which Cliven Bundy and his family have grazed cattle for more than 100 years.  Land on which they have for years taken steps to provide habitat for tortoises the Bureau of Land Management says are (suddenly) threatened.
“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.”
Harry Reid is involved in something filthy.  Are you surprised?  I'm not. 

Read more.

27 comments:

Amartel said...

Wonder if all that wacky attempted Koch blocking earlier this week was a screen. As well as a base-excitement technique. Dem base needs something to hate, stat! I'm on it, boss, I'll throw them a Koch!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm just getting up to speed on this.

It's totally missing from the MSM.

Michael Haz said...

Missing, indeed. Drudge has picked it up, and it may show up on FNC tonight. Greta and Megan have been on it this week.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

This is what happens when people in power are not held accountable and are allowed to operate by a different standard of conduct.

They grow bolder and bolder.

The Dude said...

Moves like this are how "public servant" and accused pederast Dingy Harry has grown wealthy during his life.

How much of that 5 billion gets funnelled to his family?

Hey - how do you get spell check to work on an Epic Browser - I need speel czech!

Amartel said...

Anyone remember that scene from Breaking Bad with the tortoise in the desert? In Breaking Bundy it will feature Harry Reid's head (as seen through BLM binoculars).

Icepick said...

Harry Reid is SUCH a demented old whore.

I'd say he isn't a demented old whore. Well, he's an old whore, that's clear.

But demented?? Hardly. He's laughing all the way to the bank, AND he's making bank for his children, too. They'll be getting rich whoring for generations.

Icepick said...

Anyone remember that scene from Breaking Bad with the tortoise in the desert? In Breaking Bundy it will feature Harry Reid's head (as seen through BLM binoculars).

That would be fucking awesome. But it isn't going to happen. Bundy will never get that close to the people in power. If anything, the people showing up to defend him and his land are about to get slaughtered by federal forces. Our rulers live by a different set of rules than we do.

Amartel said...

Icepick, he's mad with power. Take, take, take. At some point the music is going to stop ....

Lydia said...

Breitbart.com was onto this back in 2012, around the time Reid was saying that Romney hadn't paid taxes for 10 years.

Guess which one got the most air time?

edutcher said...

Didn't Harry ever learn you don't turn some poor innocent little guy into a martyr?

It always comes back to bite you.

But, yeah, the idea of Harry and the Red Chinese as soul mates is a natural.

edutcher said...

PS I hear the militia movement is getting involved on Bundy's side.

Why does all this start to sound like the old Mussel Slough shootout?

Chip Ahoy said...

I know a person who is a bit strange. His family owns a brick factory in Nickawragwahxxxxx Nicoraguaxxxx Nicaragua at the time in the same gated area as the president.

He told me the president just took that house. Because he needed it, wanted it, and liked it. There was nothing glamorous about living in the same place.

They also owned a vacation house that was taken the same way. El presidente or whatever rode by in his boat, saw the place, liked it and took it. Just like that.

When he told me this decades ago I thought, we thought, boy, sure is good nothing like that happens here.

This is why government Departments must be small and far less numerous. We are paying people, arming people to beat us up. This is not the country I care to leave to your kids.

The Dude said...

Muckraking journalists - how very quaint!

Unknown said...

Harry Reid belongs in jail.

Michael Haz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Haz said...

Cell fone. Can't post.

Michael Haz said...

Try again.

Article.

virgil xenophon said...

It's the time immemorial story as far as the Donkeys go. How do you think LBJ became a multi-millionaire? By saving his salary? Or countless others too numerous to name? But yes, Reid is a raving POS.

Aridog said...

This incident is confounding, and it appears there are no righteous positions being taken on either side.

The rancher has said, publicly, this week, that he will not pay federal grazing fees, period...that he will only pay "state and/or county" fees. That is Posse Comitatus crap and does not withstand scrutiny. The 1878 Act of that name restricts use of federal military for enforcement of state laws ... it does not prevent federal land management.

This is why he has repeatedly lost in court. The grazing fee for use of federal lands is $1.35 per animal unit month (AUM)...e.g., not a lot of money to feed an animal, that you will sell for profit, for a month. Anyone like me who has kept multiple horses knows what monthly costs are in real life without federal land access. That said, the "open range" concept is historically valued, with precedent, when lands are publicly owned. Rancher Bivens does not own the land, nor, apparently has he kept his land use agreement...failure to comply is reason for cancellation by BLM.

Problem to me is that BLM is not being forthright on this issue. The obviously want the rancher gone, fees paid or not. Given the fee level's moderate cost, there is no reason why BLM cannot take civil action to collect the fees, from the ranchers bank accounts, etc., rather than conducting a cattle "gather" operation that is costing far far in excess of any fees not paid. Therefore the motivation of the BLM is highly suspect. It appears there is something in the works to make a "taking" of sorts to benefit private enterprise (cronyism)...a practice that is becoming all too common these days. It happened in the very middle, literally, of Detroit long ago when local government took multiple home owner adjacent properties for use by General Motors (the "Poletown" plant).

BLM is notorious for aberrant land use rule changes, and careless "gathers" of livestock. In this case, purportedly, a "removal" per se because fees were not paid...while said "removal" costs far more than any unpaid fees? That's called "rustling" and it used to be a hanging offense. This rancher is making his own life worse by refusing to pay the fees owned for use of public lands. There is a whole lot more going on here than what has been reported and documented to date.

BLM needs to pack up all that quasi-militarized shit and go home. Then BLM should move in civil court to collect their (our) fees.

This rancher needs to join the 21st century and quit the "Lonesome Dove" act. Ranchers of his kind are prone to force other animals, such as feral horses, as well as other herds of wildlife, off public lands so they can exclusively use it for cattle. I don't have much use for them either....and I've seen cattle driven under cover of darkness onto wild horse ranges just to assert a precedent claim later.

The wars of the old west are still going on it seems.

Known Unknown said...

Very good post, Aridog.

virgil xenophon said...

Aridog is spot on on all points save one. The uninitiated, having read Aridog's post, would come away with the impression that this is just an imbroglio between a recalcitrant rancher and faceless ham-fisted bureaucrats. Left out of Ari's equation is the devious, nefarious, hand of a political miscreant out for personal gain using the heavy hand of government bureaucracy to further his financial goals..

AllenS said...

When the Chinese build their solar power dishes on the rancher's property, then you'll know the rest of the story.

rcocean said...

There

rcocean said...

There have been plenty of stories about "Dirty Harry" over the years. He bought up some cheap land years ago, near LV, that mysteriously became valuable after a zoning change. He keeps getting re-elected because Nevada is the home of a large number of immigrants, particularly Filipinos and Asians, who are Yellow-dog Democrats. If you love immigrants and "open Borders" look forward to more "Dirty Harry's".

The Dude said...

Did the BL(a)M back down?

Aridog said...

Virgil...uh, excuse me, I said:

Therefore the motivation of the BLM is highly suspect. It appears there is something in the works to make a "taking" of sorts to benefit private enterprise (cronyism)...a practice that is becoming all too common...

I was struggling to be concise...usually I use too many words, this time, not enough I guess :)