Twenty years of federal forcibly-imposed wolves and grizzly bears. Human deaths; livestock losses in the millions; dog deaths in the thousands; disease vectors spread over untold miles and untold acres; game populations disappearing; ranchers and sheepmen disabled and gone; Local governments starved for revenues and steadily emasculated; and local communities’ economies and family life going the way of dodo birds: and what is the status of American governance and Rural American political life?
The US Congress holds a hearing and we are heartened that the Idaho Wildlife Chief boldly says the state will do a better job of managing wolves! Congressmen pose with statements like this is a real problem and we are going to do something. Newspapers whine about how the pro-wolvers are not getting enough attention. Radicals scream about wolves and how they are of more importance than people or ranches or dogs, in truth the whole human race (that lives in rural America. The Minnesota DNR remains silent as the big MN federal wolf biologist admits what he and the DENR absolutely denied for years: wolves kill and all but eliminate moose.
It is all posturing. As long as the Endangered Species Act exists and its precedents honored - NOTHING WILL CHANGE, things will only continue to get worse. Federal bureaucrats are untouchable and state bureaucrats have become little more than federal handmaidens.
I am in receipt of hate mail and condemnation of late for endorsing Trump when I am supposed to be only a former whistleblower with a grudge against the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Well, wolves, the ESA, property taking, et al in the natural resources arena are only some of the symptoms of the cultural corruption and elimination of traditions and decay of the rule of law all around us.
Today’s paper reports that Fox News’ Share Price has fallen 17% and revenue has dropped 5.7% in the past 12 months. Why is this important? Fox is the ONLY news network that WAS questioning the Imperial Presidency and the corrupt (lying, destroying evidence, granting immunity, private servers, Billions to Terrorists, etc.) government activity. While Fox credits its losses to a sex scandal (surprise, surprise when you hire “babes” with mini-skirts and navel shirts for everything) in truth Fox, like the Republican “Establishment”, tuned out Rural America long ago. All those Congressmen and Senators (both D & R) no more care for or understand Rural America than O’Reilly, Kelley, Cavuto, Baer or Hannity. Like the Senators that no more represent “their” State (thanks to a popular election process that allows out-state and foreign to “buy” them) than Cavuto understands or portrays Local government issues: American media is sinking further into a morass of increasing government propaganda, lying, and criminality.
Also in today’s paper is an expose’ of “Utah’s Native Tribes” opposition to our Imperial President and his Secretary of the Interior’s march to “create a Federal Monument at Bears End” of 1.9M Acres in Utah. The saga is complete with a US Senator crowing that “A wealthy man’s playground should never come at the expense of a working man’s home”. Locals scream about how Clinton’s similar Proclamation of a Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah in 1996, “virtually eliminated historic social and economic stability”. (Unmentioned was that Clinton got a big “donation” from the Indonesian owner of the world’s largest Low-Sulfur Coal deposits as he was running for re-election and the “Grand’ staircase monument was the 2nd largest Low-Sulfur coal deposit in the world and is now off limits . Think of it as an unpunished and early example of “Pay to Play” that preceded the Clinton Foundation and followed the Capone/Big Jim Thompson Chicago model of Prohibition, similar to ESA governance. Think of all the ESA thefts and precedents of property taking cited today.)
The Natives are simply like all other Americans regarding things like Endangered Species and Wilderness; “The more distant you are as a Navajo tribal member the more likely you are to support the monument because you view it as an abstraction or concept or theory of tribal sovereignty”. “The closer you get to the monument, the more likely you are to view it as land that can and should be used properly”. Sound familiar? If you don’t hear echoes of “Endangered species”, “Critical Habitats”, “Wilderness Declarations”, “Scenic Rivers Declarations”, “Historic Area Designations”, “All Waters of the US Claims”, etcetera, etcetera: you haven’t been listening.
The enrollment at one high school in the “Grand” staircase ”monument” “dropped by two-thirds from 150 students in 1996 to only fifty”. Maybe the 50 should write a thank you to President Clinton for relieving classroom crowding and then hold a fund raiser for his spouse (?) who helps run their Foundation while running for President?
The newspaper reporting this debacle in Utah, quotes a “perfessor” “who specializes in natural resource and property law” to wit “the Bureau of Land Management could tailor the solution by withdrawing portions of the land from use in consultation with local tribes.”
The WSJ goes on to report, “consulting with tribes isn’t the way of Washington, which has a long history of patronizing Native Americans.” You could add just like they patronize rural Americans, Local governments, and State governments. WSJ goes on to conclude, “A better approach would be to let Native Americans exercise more control over their native lands”. Really? What about ranchers, dog owners, rural residents, sawyers, rural businessmen, State Legislatures, State bureaucracies, hunters, trappers, fishermen, elderly rural residents et al? While native Americans are held back from responsibility for their very lives and communities; rural Americans watch silently as the very same political “Establishment” and ”THEIR” bureaucrats whittle away at the hard-won Rights and Freedoms of rural Americans for their very lives and communities. The state governments we pay to protect us are becoming just like those tribal governments that the writer describes as suffering, “the worst kinds of 19th century paternalism.”
What a “witches brew”! Radical Democrats; Neutered or co-operating for their own benefit (??) “Establishment” Republicans; the only news outlet with a modicum of interest in the reporting truth losing profit as they mimic and advocate “Establishment” Washington political preservationists; and another nail in the coffin of rural America as a mediocre at best President connives with HIS bureaucrats to close 2 M more Acres on the heels of another “Marine Preserve Declaration” just like his predecessor did as his term (hopefully) comes to an end. All in one day!
Like I said, if you don’t see how this destruction of rural America is increasing and how our common attitude to ignore those things that do not affect ”ME” is slowly killing us; then God help us because we are unable to help ourselves.
So, unless you somehow want more of this; voting for Hillary is not defensible. If you want more of these pandering “Establishment” Republicans that offer only an Obama-Lite brew; you will wind up at the same disastrous destination as Hillary, only about a year later. Trump is a businessman, and like Reagan who was an actor, offers a fresh look, common sense values, and a willingness to fight overwhelming odds that have come to the fore (“No new taxes’ Bush is voting for Hillary, Kaisich is pouting at a remote location, and nearly all the Fox pundits are disingenuous to say the least when ever given the opportunity to comment on anything Trump). Trump is willing to stand up to the “Establishment” and maybe, just maybe, give Rural America some positive attention for a change. I would be remiss if I avoided offending some when what concerns me so deeply has no other real or potential ally or potential solution on the horizon.
Vote Trump, and as they say in Chicago (and every other Democrat-ruled urban area) – Vote Often! While the Democrats mean stuffing ballot boxes (I was born in Chicago) or stationing thugs with blackjacks at the entrance to voting sites (like the two bums videoed in Philadelphia that our erstwhile Attorney General Holder demurred to prosecute) I mean tell your family, friends, associates and neighbors no matter their reaction or beliefs: more is riding on this every day that something is not done.
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Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.
Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting.
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