GOP Platform Committee Wants Feds To Turn Lands Over To States

[struggle4progress]

ByLAUREN FOX
PublishedJULY 11, 2016, 3:44 PM EDT

In a .. vote Monday, the committee tasked with writing the Republican Party's 2016 platform voted to include language calling on Congress to return federal lands to the states ...

... instead of being recorded by voice vote, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) asked members of the platform committee to stand to show their support.

The amendment has new resonance this year after dozens of anti-government protestors took over the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in January to protest federal control of lands. Many affiliated with that takeover had argued the federal government had no business managing federal lands ...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-platform-committee-wants-feds-to-turn-fed-lands-over-to-the-states

[TheFarseer]

1. Good idea

Ass-clowns like Mitch Daniels and Sam Brownback would sell the land to China so they can cut taxes.

[merrily]

2. How did the feds first acquire the land? If the feds paid for it, the feds own it, no?

[2naSalit]

3. Those lands were NEVER included in the

so-called ownership or control of the states to begin with so there's no such thing as "taking back" these lands. What these clowns really want is to steal it from we the people and sell it off to the highest bidding exploiters.

[merrily]

4. Yes, I get what they want. My question was more technical.

Also, I did not identify the seller(s) of the land, if any.

[2naSalit]

6. Well, in reality

it was taken from the indigenous peoples who were here long before "settlers" showed up but legally the lands belong to we who are citizens of the US of A and administered/managed by the federal government as a public trust arrangement. That's why there's a US Forest Service, a National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management so that states don't try to claim ownership or management authority for the very reasons the states are trying to gain control/ownership now. It's not a matter of who paid for it unless you take into consideration the lives of those who fought over it when the indigenous peoples were wiped out or removed. It's bad enough that we have allowed much of the lands to be ravaged by mining, timber harvests and cattle grazing.

[merrily]

7. All my post meant was what it it said: IF the feds paid for it, it's clear the feds own it.

If they got it by stealing it from First Americans, title is much less clear, but it's still clear the states don't have a claim on it. The fight is only between First Americans and the federal government.

And yes, the feds have allowed exploitation of public lands for massive private profit, much as they have allowed exploitation of public airwaves for massive private profit. It stinks.

BTW, railroad owners convinced TR to create national parks so they could sell more railroad tickets.

[2naSalit]

8. Yup

a continuous pack of swindlers and crooks started this country and, by gum, there are still some intent in carrying on the tradition.

[merrily]

9. And government has often enabled, aided, abetted and facilitated them.

Though I think the National Parks thing worked out relatively well for the public anyway. Maybe the railroad barons should have been made to at least share in the cost of something from which they hoped to profit, though.

[2naSalit]

12. Yup

again to all of that. I am a paid by the taxpayers protector of public lands and wildlife and I think that there need to be more of us, and that's one point where Congress needs a couple of serious dope slaps upside the head for consistent budget cuts over the past couple decades. They do this so that they can make the argument for selling off the public lands because private entities do a much better job of managing these places in their reckoning. Too many of us are seasonal workers which ends up wasting tons of our minuscule budgets for training every summer/winter where if we were full time permanent, we could go through training less often and be more efficient in our duties as well as have more of our budgets go to other needs for preserving the public lands/wildlife and improving the recreation experience... IMHPO.

[SuperDutyTX]

5. Ridiculous

[Mc Mike]

10. Funny, that's what the bundy teabags want, too.

Almost like there's some co-ordination between the repug party and the deranged well armed right wing terrorists.

[2naSalit]

13. There's no

almost about it. I live and work out here in the western states where these idiot Congress critters and their henchmen are... they're pretty obvious in these parts. See post #12.

[Mc Mike]

14. Agreed. Bircher money people like the kochs fund rightwing nutjob pols,

and they're behind the wide range of rightie nutso nazi violent armed groups, too.

There are some beautiful places I've seen in the West that are National Parks, National Grasslands, National Monuments. Owned by Natives, with no clear proof that title was legally transferred to the US, or Spain, or England. Our gov either stole them outright from the natives, or stole them illegally from those other thieves. And the surviving First Peoples aren't going to get their completely justified legal claims recognized. But we don't have to give 'publicly owned' lands away to billionaire thieves that are trying to 'appropriate the commons'.

You deserve respect for your work preserving that land, it's a 'right livelihood'. I know it's hard work, and hopefully the beauty of what you sustain helps compensate for the tiring exertions our personnel put in to safeguard those places. And I hope you don't have to have a lot of interactions with those yahoo militias.

[2naSalit]

15. Thanks.

I appreciate the appreciation. I encounter the RWNJs at work and off duty whether it's at an official meeting w/electeds and appointees or out when I'm in the field-including when I'm off duty just enjoying the beauty of a place, they are way too eager to state their misinformation like it came from gawd. I handle the encounters with the main intent of getting away from them safely. Funny, I never have that problem when I am engaged in any encounter with the indigenous folks.

[Mc Mike]

16. It's amazing how the most ignorant want to spend all their time proselytizing,

or constantly stand on their 'right' to espouse their incorrect viewpoints to everyone else. You're right in minimizing the amount of time you have to spend with them. Some of them are only foolish and misled, but the committed righties are stupid and want to be doing something wrong.

Maybe the Native people you interact with see how you care for the land like they do, not in a proprietary way, but because it deserves care, so they respect you. They don't think they're going to get it back, but they know it deserves to be cared about.

[2naSalit]

17. The way I see it...

It's all about respect. My indigenous friends know I understand that, thus we have many ways to connect and work together. As for those who want to be doing something wrong or against the natural world, mother nature will bite them in the butt eventually... one way or another.

[Mc Mike]

18. Good post. Thanks. nt

[Johonny]

11. The Republican party is dead to me.

It's just a collection of goofballs and ignoramuses now. The mighty have fallen.