Ollin Magnetic Digiscoping System

Utah continues push to eliminate public land

Ben Lamb

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https://www.outdoorlife.com/senator-mike-lee-pledges-long-term-attack-on-public-lands



U.S. Senator and reputed short-lister for the Supreme Court Mike Lee has leveled his crosshairs on America’s public lands, pledging in a pointed speech and Twitter posts to a long-term goal of dismantling the system of federally owned land.

“Finally, our long-term goal must be the transfer of federal lands to the states,” the Utah Republican said in a series of Tweets on Saturday.

Lee’s timing is particularly striking given that his name is cited as a potential candidate to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. News outlets in Utah and Washington D.C. have reported that Lee is on President Trump’s short list for that lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.

Federal lands total about 640 million acres of national forest, national parks and wildlife refuges, as well as lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. These lands support millions of hunters and anglers every year. Popular big game including elk, mule deer, pronghorn and others depend on these large tracts.

In a speech to the to the Sutherland Institute on Friday Lee barely mentioned Theodore Roosevelt, the hunter-president who set aside public lands for the people to use and enjoy, and Gifford Pinchot, who said the lands should be used for the “greatest good, for the greatest number, for the long term.”

Instead Lee dismisses our national forests as “royal forests,” comparing the Forest Service to the British Royalty. In short, he turned Roosevelt’s conservation legacy on its head.



Lee says Western states would be better off if they were more like Missouri or Illinois, with virtually no public land.

Lee’s speech ignored several key facts:

• Most public lands are open for multiple use, including camping, hunting and fishing, with much less red tape and no trespass fees compared to state and private land. These lands can be used by all Americans.

• Western states are in no financial position to take over millions of acres of land and will be forced to sell them to corporations or developers.

• Many of the West’s most vibrant communities – like Bozeman, Montana, Sandpoint, Idaho, Bend, Oregon, and others are thriving in large part because of ready access to public land.

• The Redwoods, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone national parks and other federal lands are important for the people who live near them, but are also important for all Americans. They are also important for generations to come.

But the most striking thing about Lee’s speech is that he readily admits that his anti-public land vision is too ambitious to achieve in any one piece of legislation.

“This is an enormous task,” he said, “Nothing that can be accomplished overnight… Small reforms here and there are important. But we have to start pushing for what we actually want.”

In other words, America’s public lands legacy is like a tree that is too large to fell in one swing, so he intends to chop and chop until it falls. And if it falls, it will crush America’s hunting and fishing heritage on the way down.
 
Chairman of the "Ass Clowns R Us" delegation.

Not sure what it takes for people to realize what the end goal is for the fringe operators and how they are undertaking serious efforts to screw the public out of their land.
 
I think the scariest thing about this is Lee is being seriously contemplated for the US Supreme Court. That's a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. He could do untold damage there.
 
Supreme Court nominating strategy: Nominate a crackhead DB first. Watch the Senate whip themselves into a frenzy over flagrantly partisan nom, and reject same. Then nominate the real, intended guy (no way Trump picks a woman), who seems so much more reasonable than the last nom. But is in fact riding in the same ideological and political bus as the previous nom, and the nominator-in-chief. We better work to prevent any nom from confirmation until 11/18, and get some Senators elected who can stymie Trump's land purge agenda in SCOTUS and legislation.


Like the CO wildfire bearing down on my mountain getaway this week, this PLT push just keeps getting closer and bigger.
 
The scariest part is Randy calling them a "fringe" group. Everyone keeps saying it's only the fringe or it's only one issue and that tends to minimize the potential damage that can be done. Red flags don't go up if it's only the "fringe" or if it's only one issue. I hear things in MT from our Republican delegation that makes it sound like they are pro- public lands but when the vote is taken, they say it's only one part of the vote and they had to reconcile that with the good the bill did. They also say they are pro-public access but the "public" they are speaking of is oil, gas and timber...more roads to them means more access...not opening areas that have zero access points. These people are not on the fringe at all...they are dead center in their political party views...the "fringe" is ultra conservative. As said above, the scariest part is the Supreme Court may very well be pushed further toward that fringe and the middle ground of the Supreme Court won't be center right as it was, now the middle ground will be middle right. Those who said to not fear public lands with Zinke and Trump should be scared sh**less right now and should now be worried about the "fringe" that is now dead center in the Republican party.
 
Read another article where he wants to re-institute the homestead act or some version of it. I'm sure that wouldn't be a massive mess and favor the wealthy. I might have to start staking out a few of my favorite sections now.

Utah wouldn't have such a need for all that new housing if the people there would learn to have small families...
 
Mormonism – like Islam, at the fundamentalist level is a self-serving political agenda hiding behind the protections of relevant religion.

This is a strong example of religious extremism hiding behind a political movement- in this case conservatism, and damaging the Republican Party and the lands of the entire country for its own selfish gain. Senator Lee may have an R after his name, but the Utah delegation serves the LDS church first.


This conservative Christian would like to see politicians do the work of their church on private land and off the clock.
 
One of the scariest parts of this was the Facebook comments from hundreds of folks that are absolutely on the Utah delegation's side. Lots of the standard 'the Constitution prevents the Federal government from owning land', and more un-informed mentions of 'why should the gubment own our local lands!' than you can count.

If you follow BHA (and you should), take a look at the commentary on the article they shared. A few folks are adding education, but the PLT supporters are numerous.
 
The PLT argument is simple. The other side of the coin that we all are on is complicated. It's hard to put complicated into a sound bite. That's why we have to remember that for every minute we put towards keeping it public the other side is doing the same and maybe more.
 
Mormonism – like Islam, at the fundamentalist level is a self-serving political agenda hiding behind the protections of relevant religion.

This is a strong example of religious extremism hiding behind a political movement- in this case conservatism, and damaging the Republican Party and the lands of the entire country for its own selfish gain. Senator Lee may have an R after his name, but the Utah delegation serves the LDS church first.


This conservative Christian would like to see politicians do the work of their church on private land and off the clock.
Mic drop worthy [video=youtube_share;K_5sB4foJRg]https://youtu.be/K_5sB4foJRg[/video]
 
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Mormonism – like Islam, at the fundamentalist level is a self-serving political agenda hiding behind the protections of relevant religion.

This is a strong example of religious extremism hiding behind a political movement- in this case conservatism, and damaging the Republican Party and the lands of the entire country for its own selfish gain. Senator Lee may have an R after his name, but the Utah delegation serves the LDS church first.


This conservative Christian would like to see politicians do the work of their church on private land and off the clock.

Get the religious crap out of here. Keep it to politics. Yes many of the Utah delegation is Mormon but I can guarantee “The Mormon Church” isn’t driving their politics. It’s true many LDS members are conservative but you will be surprised that many are left leaning. Your ignorance and name calling are childish. Mike Lee is conservative and is unwavering on his beliefs of decreasing federal power and giving states the power. His belief in the constitution is what drives his opinions not the church. Just as Barbara boxer and the other crazy left leaning people believe they are following the constitution. I promise you the Mormon church doesn’t preach politics. Just Christianity (whether you believe their teachings or not) just Christianity. Each election the church encourages its members to do research on political candidates and their campaigns.

Keep it to politics or hunting. Not religion.
 
Get the religious crap out of here. Keep it to politics. Yes many of the Utah delegation is Mormon but I can guarantee “The Mormon Church” isn’t driving their politics. It’s true many LDS members are conservative but you will be surprised that many are left leaning. Your ignorance and name calling are childish. Mike Lee is conservative and is unwavering on his beliefs of decreasing federal power and giving states the power. His belief in the constitution is what drives his opinions not the church. Just as Barbara boxer and the other crazy left leaning people believe they are following the constitution. I promise you the Mormon church doesn’t preach politics. Just Christianity (whether you believe their teachings or not) just Christianity. Each election the church encourages its members to do research on political candidates and their campaigns.

Keep it to politics or hunting. Not religion.

Do I like anything that comes out of Utah with regards to their political view points absolutely not. But blaming ones religion on what they do or do not do is silly. Next we can blame different ethnicities too.
 
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