Trump pardons Oregon cattle ranchers at the center of Bundy standoff

I'm putting this under Elections & Campaigns as a statement about why I think Trump has done this. It doesn't get any more populist than this. Trump is behaving like an emperor desperate to please, and obviously it's a wise gamble since it's not going to deter as many voters as it's going to please. Like past pardons, it will also be the kind to generate media attention (free advertising, essentially).


https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...chers-center-bundy-standoff/story?id=56487437

President Trump pardoned two Oregon cattle ranchers on Tuesday whose sentencing sparked a standoff led by states' rights activist Ammon Bundy in 2016.

In 2012, Dwight Hammond and his son Steven Hammond were convicted of committing arson on federal land on two separate occasions. When first convicted, Dwight Hammond was sentenced to serve three months and Steven Hammond a year and a day - far less than the five-year mandatory minimum.

Three years later, prosecutors were granted an appeal which increased the Hammonds time behind bars to that a minimum of five years.

“At the Hammonds’ original sentencing, the judge noted that they are respected in the community and that imposing the mandatory minimum, 5-year prison sentence would “shock the conscience” and be “grossly disproportionate to the severity” of their conduct,” White Press Secretary Sarah Sanders wrote in a statement.

In 2016, as a result of their sentencing, Ammon Bundy gathered supporters and took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. Federal authorities were faced with a 41-day armed standoff which resulted in one fatality. Bundy, who along with others, was acquitted of any charges, saidhe believed the pair of ranchers were victims of federal overreach.

In 2014, Ammon Bundy and his father Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher, were involved in an armed standoff with federal agents trying to confiscate the father's cattle for his refusing to pay fees for grazing on public land. Charges were dismissed.

Sanders also took a jab at the Obama administration calling the government's appeal of the Hammonds' original sentences “overzealous” and “unjust.”

"The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West,” Sanders wrote. “Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency.”

The Hammond pardons have garnered attention from conservation groups calling Trump’s action “dangerous.”

“Pardoning the Hammonds sends a dangerous message to America’s park rangers, wildland firefighters, law enforcement officers, and public lands managers,” Center for Western Priorities said in a statement. “President Trump, at the urging of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, has once again sided with lawless extremists who believe that public land does not belong to all Americans.”

These are the sixth and seventh pardons President Trump has issued.

 

Bundys never paid their grazing fees.. Trump really is an idiot.

 

Good. Justice for the Hammonds.

 

Pretty typical of the a leftwing partner of the New Democratic Party to erase critical issues related to the entire case. As usual, it's another hour, another day, and another bit of click bait to generate revenue with.

The case is/was quite complicated, with land grabs, absurd actions by Federal officials, etc..

Background: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-is-the-oregon-standoff-really-about/

Excerpt example: Emphasis added

And it isn’t just the junipers that are hogging all the water. In the early 1990s the Hammonds applied for and were granted water rights in an area adjacent to the Refuge by the state authorities. The BLM and FWS went ballistic, with the latter challenging the water rights in Oregon State Circuit Court. They lost—and that’s when the bureaucrats really starting going after the Hammonds.

Not long after being told by a judge to back off, the BLM and FWS fenced off the Hammonds’ water—a brazenly illegal act. The Hammonds struck back, dismantling the fence: the feds called in the Harney County sheriff, who arrested Dwight Hammond. Charged with “disturbing and interfering with federal officials,” a felony, Dwight was jailed for two days. Brought before a federal judge, he was released without bail: the hearing was at first postponed, and then it looks like the government was so embarrassed by the illegal actions of the BLM and FWS that they forgot to schedule another hearing date. The whole matter was dropped. But the feds had sent a message to the Hammonds—that the government would not be bound by the law.​

This was a good call on the part of the President.

 

I thought the whole point of being an Emperor is that you don't have to please anyone let alone be desperate to do so.

You guys are so eager to malign the President you just throw stuff together, whether it makes sense or not.


[/QUOTE]

 

The stunning defeat for the government – which has also been accused of lying and deceptive tactics in their prosecution of the Bundys
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/08/bundy-family-charges-dropped-nevada-armed-standoff

BLM land is public land not federal government land. The BLM only over sees the land.

BLM land is the open range for all Americans to use.

The Obama administration politicized the Dept. of the Interior and the BLM and went as far as militarizing the BLM with BLM SWATT armed with full automatic weapons and armored vehicles for what ???

We soon found out why...it was a land grab by the Obama administration to take public land away from Americans and putting up fences, locked gates, restricted use by Americans.

Today the public land, the open range where Bundy's cattle use to roam the range is now the Gold Butte National Monument, limited access by the public, no camping, no hiking, no hunting, no fishing, MS-13 welcomed with open arms.

President Trump want's to return hundreds of thousands of acres of Gold Butte National Monument back to their rightful owners, the American people.

 

Trump gets it. Obama never did.

 

The judge had no business disregarding the jury's decision and increasing jail time as much over 1000%. It is very clear that the jury was NOT willing to convict if it meant 5 years in prison.

The ONLY legitimate action - if that - would have been a new trial. This was a jury trial and the jury voted AGAINST 5 years.

However, predictably, many Democrats will want the right to a jury eliminated on behalf of government power.

 

That had absolutely NOTHING to do with the criminal charges. Your message is ignorant.

To recognize JUST HOW DANGEROUS the Democratic Party and so many Democrats have become, just look at how so many Democrats on the forum want anyone who dares defy the government to be imprisoned - UNLESS it suits their political agenda and then rioting, violent, property destruction all should be legal.

Don't pay a government fee? PRISON!!!! Throw rocks at police and looting? A-OK as "free speech." That is the NEW FASCIST DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

 

Back during the 1960's liberals and hippies liked farmers and ranchers.

Some where the left made a wrong turn and today the left hates farmers, ranchers, campers, fishermen and hunters.

 

I'm glad he pardoned them, but they probably deserved at least a little punishment.

No such mercy was shown to Marius Mason though.
Some of these types of crimes have a serious partisan political flavour to them, and whether leniency will be shown may depend on who happens to be in power.

 

True. Now the left openly attacks anyone rural.

 

That how Trump won back in November of 2016.

 

No, I think what at least I am against is the Faux rural. The types who remind me of Marie Antoinette on the garden swing dressed like a milkmaid. I've lived in a rural area all my life, yet I don't hate poor people and foreigners, I'm not proud of how ignorant I am and I've never known anyone whose first name was Goober in my entire existence. Conservative mythology notwithstanding people in the country have fire and the wheel, as well as radio, tv, computers and smartphones. I don't think the average conservative's stereotype of "country folk" is just outdated, I don't think it ever existed at all.

As far as the 2 guys who Trump pardoned I think he did the right thing. They were just trying to save their farms and if they broke the law then, just like the refugees who had their kids taken away, it was the law that was in the wrong.

 

Not really, not everyone who lived in rural areas voted for Trump. Even in those areas where Trump did win his margins were not overwhelming, this is how he was able to take the EC while losing the popular vote. The main reason Trump won was turnout. Conservatives came out while liberals stayed home. We must never forget and NEVER repeat that mistake again, definitely not in 2018 or 2020 or any other year for that matter, though those two are going to be all-important.

 

meanwhile when ferguson was burned and looted...lefties b like....we support them

 

7 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STATE LANDS AND PUBLIC LANDS



1. The American public owns all federal public lands, including National Parks, National Forests, Wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, and wildlife preserves. Every American has a personal stake and a guaranteed say in how these places are cared for. And all Americans have the right to experience and enjoy these places.

2. By contrast, state lands are held by state governments and most of them are required to generate revenue. State lands are not owned by state residents in the same way as public lands, and Americans who live in other states have no voice whatsoever in their management. Many states do a fantastic job of managing state parks and protecting recreation, but they are governed by different rules than federal public lands. You don’t have a right to be on state lands, or the same rights as to how they are managed and sold.

3. If it makes short-term economic sense for a state to lease a bunch of its land for mineral development, subdivisions, extraction, or logging, states are well within their rights to do so. States have no obligation to involve state residents in these decisions.

4. Most states are required to balance their budgets and have a hard time running any big deficits, so they make decisions under very constrained time horizons. Having a tough economic year? Sell some land. Can’t afford wildfire expenses? Subdivide. Does this impact people's right to these places? It’s simply not relevant when most states are balancing their budgets. While we are all owners on federal public lands, we are customers on state lands.

5. All Americans enjoy these places, and all Americans share the costs to preserve these places. On average, we pay about $4 a year in income tax for public lands. If these places were transferred to the states, their governments and taxpayers would be solely responsible for managing upkeep, infrastructure, building roads, and fighting fires. This means western taxpayers would be overburdened, or states would be forced to sell off lands to pay for maintenance. What would states sell and how would it impact the outdoor recreation community and business world?

continued

https://www.protectourpublicland.or...ferences-between-state-lands-and-public-lands

 

This got out of hand in the first place because Barack Obama wanted to make an example of Right of Center people. It's only right that Trump is fixing what Obama broke. Essentially the only things left of the eight years of the Obama regime is a gradually fading bad odor.

 

First: Everything in Red is land "owned" by the Federal Government




Second, what does your post have to do with case in Oregon?

 

They love them a FISA court which grants them power to kill American citizens sitting at home eating breakfast with their teen sons.

 

Nope.. It's about good maintenance of pasture. Ranchers who do pay their grazing fees which are VERY modest graze their herds for 6 months and move them back out of the park.. Bundy and his gang left their herds on the land year round.. Its a very poor practice and one which all the reputable ranchers understand because well managed grazing lands is important to them and their livestock.

Trump doesn't know that, but then he's stupid.. Trump just wanted another big headline.

 

The pardon has nothing to do with the Bundy situation.

 

Yeah, trump doesn't know about business or cattle or dealing with the government who overreach on everything they put their hands into. Trump is soooooo stupid, he only was successful in business 99% of the time with 4 out 400 businesses going bankrupt. What an idiot. Doesn't he know the average of new businesses go bankrupt 75% of the time?

Anyways, this myth of "maintenance" fees for allowing prairie land to grow grass is just another way the government looked to steal money from its citizens. Cows eat grass, poop the seeds, and move on. The cows don't even eat the roots, they are like lawn mowers. Ranchers know how to preserve land, they know what they can a cant do. They aren't going to allow their only source of income to be destroyed for a few bucks one year.

 

Trump failed 5 times and his father bailed him out. Celebrity Apprentice saved him.. and like most low class people Trump lies and brags about his wealth.

If you aren't a cattle rancher ASK rancher about pasture mgmt. .. or, maybe you are as ignorant as Trump.

 

Trump failed 5 times....out of 400. Sorry, I forgot.

So, since my retort countered yours, you think I am ignorant? Please, what are your credentials on being a cattle rancher and I show you mine. But between the both of us, Trump still has more experience in raising cattle. Just saying.