Oregon Standoff, Public Land, Federal Land and Demonizing MilitiaOregonUSA
Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : The standoff between ranchers and authorities at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge continues to escalate as armed unorganized militia members have come to support the protesting ranchers. The initiative to occupy a public building in the wildlife refuge on January 2 was led by Ammon Bundy, known from the standoff between the Bundy family and law-enforcement over the use of public land in 2014. The situation is, not surprisingly, grossly misrepresented in US media. The initiative was launched after two ranchers who burned off grasslands used for ranching to prevent wildfires and yield better grass for cattle were sentenced for arson. http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2...SA-300x155.jpgBack to the 2014 Bundy Ranch Standoff. In 2014 US and Nevada authorities violently seized cattle from Cliven Bundy, a private rancher who, as many other ranchers, used public land for grazing cattle. The seizure of Bundy’s cattle had direct links to Senator and Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Obama administration. The seizure of the cattle and what local ranchers describes as “land-grab” was according to several analysts directly linked to projects under the umbrella of Agenda 21 initiatives.The situation that led to the standoff also involved factors such as the fact that Reid applied “pressure [to] Nevada’s largest power company, NV Energy, to sign up as [ENN Energy Group’s] first customer.” This deal with ENN and Reid is worth $5 billion for a “solar farm and panel manufacturing plant [to be constructed] in the southern Nevada desert.” In conjunction with this accord, Reid’s son Rory Reid, who is a “prominent Las Vegas [lawyer] that is representing ENN”, and focused on making clean energy projects a specialty at their firm, is assisting the Chinese solar energy corporation in acquiring “a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site . . . well below appraised value from Clark County.”http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2...OC-300x168.jpgBundy Ranch Courtesy Occupy Corporatism)
In her article entitled “The REAL Truth Behind Bundy Ranch Land-Grab in Nevada”, Susanne Posel would notice other facts. For instance that Neil Kornze, “former senior adviser” to Reid was named the director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The article details the background of the standoff between the family that had used the disputed land for two decades and authorities. The article explains why Ammon Bundy would lead the initiative at the current standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.Bundy, other ranchers as well as supportive militia members stress that “What we’re doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land”, while they consider de facto land grabs from ranchers and the sentencing of ranchers who burn off grass to avoid wildfires and to yield better grass for cattle grazing as arbitrary and as an infringement on rights by the federal government.The Malheur Wildlife Refuge is a 187,757-acre wildlife refuge. It is among others a refuge for greater sandhill cranes and other native birds in eastern Oregon. Critics of the ranchers would denounce the grazing of cattle on public lands and the occupation of the public building in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge as “an attempt to destroy the national system of public lands, forests, parks and refuges”. Underhanded deals with corporations to develop solar industry on the land that was previously used by the Bundy family does, however, cast serious doubts on the integrity and honesty of such accusations.Native Americans in Legal Limbo.One factor that is largely being omitted is that these land disputes tend to leave first nations Americans in a legal limbo. The first people to live on the land that now is designated as Malheur Wildlife Refuge were the Paiute. The tribe lived of the land as hunter-gatherers and fishers, maintaining an ecological balance between themselves and the land that sustained them. Colonizing “settlers” considered the Paiute as uncivilized savages without fixed habitation, culture, etc.. They were largely considered as “sub-human” and forced into signing a treaty in 1887. A brief uprising was violently crushed. The Paiute were forcibly marched through winter-weather and snow to the Yakama reservation. in southeastern Washington State. Countless died during the ethnic cleansing operation. Ironically, their relocation would later put them at risk from radioactive contamination from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Understandably, first nations tribes don’t necessarily sympathize of feel solidarity with ranchers who feel oppressed by the federal government, the Bureau of Land management and environmental agencies. They do, however, have one issue that could bridge the gap between these communities.http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2...O-300x199.jpegThe Right to Organize the Unorganized Militia and to Resist Tyranny.The standoff between the disgruntled ranchers, militia and the government brings to mind the heavy-handed, violent crackdowns against natives who organized armed resistance against infringements on their rights. Many of them who were not shot and killed ended up in federal prisons. This as well as the current standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge bring to mind the words of two of the so-called Founding Fathers; James Madison and John Adams.James Madison:“Americans need never fear their government because of the advantage of being armed, a right which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation”.John Adams:“Arms in the hands of the citizen may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny, and for self-defense”.
While almost all US media as well as most Democrats and Republicans alike misrepresent the militia members that have arrived at the Malheur Wildlife refuge as everything from “radical right-wingers” over “fundamentalist Christians” to “criminals and terrorists”, it is worth to have a close look at how the right to form militia is regulated.In the United States “the militia” consists of all able-bodied men with personal firearms. That is, it does not consist of conscripts or professional soldiers. The militia has the purpose to guarantee a free State by repelling foreign invasions, domestic insurrections and Federal Government Tyranny. The US Constitution’s Article 1, Section 8 – 15-16 stipulates:The Congress shall have the power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union (not to be confused with the Federal Administration in the District of Colombia) to suppress insurrection and repel invasions. It is the duty of the militia to execute the laws of the Union. … To provide for organizing army and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States of America, reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
It is important to notice that the “National Guard” is not “The Militia” but that the militia is the people. More specifically, the militia is regulated in Section 57 in the Officer’s Guide of the National Defense Act. The Act stipulates that:The Militia of the United States consists of all male citizens of the United States and all other able-bodied males who have or shall have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, who are more than 18 years of age and not more than 45 years of age, and the Militia shall be divided into three classes. The National Guard which our forefathers described as the Select Militia, separate from the term “The Militia”, the Naval Militia, and the Unorganized Militia.
The Unorganized Militia – Not Unregulated or Irregular.It is especially the latter, the “Unorganized Militia” that Madison, Adams and others were referring to when they stressed that “the people” have the right and ability to resist against tyranny. The Constitutions of the constituent States of the USA vary with regard to the age and gender, some specify military age between 17 – 45 years of age, others specify the military age up to 64 years, others again do not implicitly exclude women.Citizens in all States of the United States have the constitutional right to form registered units of the Unorganized Militia, to possess and bear military-grade weapons provided that these militia units are well-regulated.This implies that members of militia units are well-trained and well-educated. This includes military training as well as it does education about the rights, obligations and duties of the Unorganized Militia. Of special importance is that militia units have to be educated about and adhere to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and that it trains and operates overtly instead of covertly. Regardless what position one has with regard to wildlife conservation, the debate about the standoff must be brought on the right track unless the United States and its citizens want to risk descending further into tyranny, imposed on them by their federal government.CH/L – nsnbc – 10.01.2015
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Originally Posted by monty
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