Armed Militia Takes Over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ

You won't be allowed on my 2 million acres.

LAS VEGAS, NV — Ahead of Tuesday night’s Republican caucuses, Sen. Ted Cruz is attempting to win over Nevada voters by channeling the state’s recently indicted rogue rancher and Oregon occupation instigator Cliven Bundy.

“Eighty percent of the state of Nevada is owned by the federal government. That is going to end,” he told hundreds of supporters in Henderson on Sunday night, standing in front of a banner depicting a mountain range with bold red letters reading, ‘RETURN OUR LAND.’

“The land of Nevada needs to be owned by the state of Nevada,” Cruz told the crowd, “or even better, the people of Nevada.”

On Monday, when he delivered the same speech to a crowd of wealthy retirees in the posh suburb of Summerlin, Las Vegas resident Vinny Spotleson stood up and challenged him, saying that most Nevadans, including a majority of Republicans, want public land to stay public. “Trump is the only candidate to come out against privatizing public land, and he’s expected to win here,” he noted. “And even though Cruz has distanced himself from Cliven Bundy, he continues to have the same political objectives as Cliven Bundy, to take all the land away from the public and put it in private hands. When they talk about ‘opening up’ federal land, they’re not talking about everyone being able to enjoy the outdoors. It’s because they want to sell it off to oil drilling and fracking and mining. Just look at what happened in Cruz’s own state of Texas, where so much land has been auctioned off and they’re drilling all over. We don’t want to see that here.”

Spotleson, who used to work for the Sierra Club and is currently running for the Nevada State Assembly, said he fears Cruz’s proposal would threaten everything he values about his home state.

Spotleson is a Democrat, but Nevada Republicans also told ThinkProgress they take issue with Cruz’s call for land privatization, and are “embarrassed” by the association with the Bundys’ cause.
The federal government doesn’t own the property, they manage it for the rest of us.

Las Vegas resident Ralph Morales, who owns a cattle ranch in Alamo, Nevada, said he was frustrated with Cruz for “not telling the truth.”
“The reality is that the federal government doesn’t own the property, they manage it for the rest of us, because we ask them to. It’s called the Bureau of Land Management,” he stressed. “Believe it or not, they’re doing us a favor. We’re talking about a lot of vast lands. I’m not going to buy it. I sure as hell don’t want to. So it just sits there, and what do we do with it? Do we give it to the states? No. We already have a big enough budget as it is. We don’t have enough money to take care of a lot of open land.”

Peering out from under the wide brim of a black cowboy hat, Morales said he appreciates that under current law, any time the federal government wants to sell off a piece of land, “they actually have to ask the American people and Congress.” While he agrees with the Bundys’ call for cattle ranchers to have more grazing rights on federal land, he says the family that participated in two armed standoffs with the federal government “were wrong in what they did.”

Morales plans to caucus on Tuesday night for Trump, who has said he wants to “keep the lands great,” adding, “I don’t think it’s something that should be sold.” Cruz has gone after Trump in TV ads and on Twitter in the lead-up to the caucuses, saying, “Donald Trump wants to keep big government in charge. That’s ridiculous.”

Cruz has also aligned himself with Nevada Assembly member Michele Fiore, a major supporter of the Bundys’ armed occupations who has introduced a bill to allow Nevada to seize federal lands. Though Cruz has denounced the Bundys’ past racist remarks and called for them to “stand down” in Oregon, Fiore remains a key member of his campaign’s Nevada leadership team.
But even die-hard Cruz supporters, like Henderson resident Lisa, who declined to give her last name, said they were less than enthusiastic about his connection with the Bundys.

“It’s been a little bit embarrassing when people back East have asked me if I agree with those people, because I’m not so sure I do,” she said. Describing herself as “a little bit neutral” on the federal land issue, Lisa told ThinkProgress, “I was surprised when I moved here that 80 percent of the land in Nevada is owned by the federal government, but there may be good reasons for that.”

One of those reasons, critics argue, is that privatizing Nevada’s vast public lands would deal a severe blow to the state’s economy. Outdoor recreation in Nevada, which relies almost exclusively on access to national public lands, contributes an estimated $14.9 billion in consumer spending every year and supports 148,000 jobs in the state.

Hunters and fishers worry too that plans to seize federal land would lock them out of the habitats they can currently access. “These game-rich areas that currently belong to all of us will be developed or sold to large corporations, degrading critical habitat and locking out millions of sportsmen,” the magazine Field and Stream cautioned last year. “I can’t help but think that if Theodore Roosevelt could see the current scam being peddled to American sportsmen he’d be fighting mad.”

With limited time, Cruz never figured out how to win those voters back. In a TV ad, and in speeches, Cruz promised to hand over the 85 percent of Nevada land owned by the federal government over to the state. It drew applause – and some protesters – but did not move votes.

Cruz said that? What a sonofabitch! He IS a lying sack of sh#t.

Craig Mazin ✔ ‎@clmazin
Ted Cruz's dad seems to be the product of post traumatic stress disorder and Jack Chick tracts. Ted seems to be the product of his dad.
11:18 AM - 31 Oct 2013

It’s because they want to sell it off to oil drilling and fracking and mining. Just look at what happened in Cruz’s own state of Texas, where so much land has been auctioned off and they’re drilling all over. We don’t want to see that here

At the family home in Nevada, Cliven Bundy’s wife, Carol, acknowledged that her husband and sons Ammon, Ryan, Melvin and David Bundy were in federal custody. The mother of 14 children pleaded for prayer and echoed her husband’s call to fight government overreach.

“I truly believe this is showing the federal government thinks they have unlimited power over we the people,” Carol Bundy told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview. “What kind of government do we have?”

“This is going to be won in the court of public opinion,” she added. “When we the people make a stand, that’s when we’ll win.”

“This is going to be won in the court of public opinion,” she added. “When we the people make a stand, that’s when we’ll win.”

4 Idaho Men Indicted in Assault on Federal Officers, Conspiracy against U.S.
LAS VEGAS • Four Idaho residents, including two Hailey men, were named in a federal indictment that accuses renegade Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and 18 others of conspiracy, obstruction, assault, threatening federal officers and other charges in a 2014 armed standoff over grazing cattle on U.S. land near Bundy’s ranch.

Bundy and 18 other people’s names appeared in a 16-count indictment Thursday filed in United States District Court in Nevada. Seven people were already in custody, while 12 others were arrested Thursday.

They include Eric J. Parker, 32, and Steven A. Stewart, 36, both of Hailey, Todd C. Engel, 48, of Boundary County and O. Scott Drexler, 44, of Challis.

Fourteen more people are facing federal charges in connection with a 2014 armed standoff between backers of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and law enforcement agents who sought to round up his cattle for illegally grazing on public land.

In a superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada, the Justice Department charged Bundy and his supporters with a myriad of criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, assault on a federal officer, interference with interstate commerce by extortion and using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Bundy himself and four others had already been charged, though the Justice Department said 12 more people were arrested and two more — already in custody for the recent takeover of a remote wildlife refuge in Oregon — were slapped with fresh criminal counts.

The charges stem from an incident in Bunkverville, Nev., in April 2014 that served as a sort-of flash point for those opposed generally to government intervention and to federal management of western lands. When federal authorities moved in to seize Bundy’s cattle — claiming he had “trespassed” for 20 years in refusing to obtain the proper permits and pay the appropriate fees — the rancher rounded up hundreds of people, many of them armed, to his defense.


Those charged could face heavy penalties. Assault on a federal officer, for example, carries a 20-year maximum penalty, as does interference with interstate commerce by extortion.

The Justice Department identified those newly charged as Melvin D. Bundy, 41, of Round Mountain, Nev.; David H. Bundy, 39, of Delta, Utah; Brian D. Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville; Blaine Cooper, 36, of Humboldt, Ariz.; Gerald A. DeLemus, 61, of Rochester, N.H.; Eric J. Parker, 32, of Hailey, Idaho; O. Scott Drexler, 44, of Challis, Idaho; Richard R. Lovelien, 52, of Westville, Okla.; Steven A. Stewart, 36, of Hailey; Todd C. Engel, 48, of Boundary County, Idaho; Gregory P. Burleson, 52, of Phoenix; Joseph D. O’Shaughnessy, 43, of Cottonwood, Ariz.; and Micah L. McGuire, 31, and Jason D. Woods, 30, both of Chandler, Ariz. Those already charged were Cliven Bundy, 69, of Bunkerville; Ryan C. Bundy, 43, of Mesquite, Nev.; Ammon E. Bundy, 40, of Emmet, Idaho; Ryan W. Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont.; and Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati.