Clash Between Rural and Urban Values and Culture? — Opinion/Editorial — by Trent Loos

Reposted from High Plains Journal.  According to  Ag Radio personality Trent Loos, who often talks about the huge and seemingly growing divide between rural and urban America, the Bundy cases in recent years, based on both the Bunkerville Standoff and the Malheur Occupation really boils down to a clash of rural versus urban values and culture. The U.S. government has decided it needs to win the case to beat down the patriots of this nation who are willing to sacrifice life and liberty for the founding principles the authors of the Constitution envisioned for all future generations of Americans.

“I don’t believe it is ironic at all but rather 100 percent divine intervention that the first week of this trial included the day Sept. 17. In case your history lacks as bad as that of the Barack Obama administration, it was Sept. 17, 1787, that the U.S. Constitution was born. I can confidently share with you that not one of the individuals arrested or LaVoy Finicum, who gave his life for this cause, wanted anything other than for the federal government to live by the same U.S. Constitution that the rest of us do. May God bless you all, may real justice be served and may our freedoms be restored to their original glorious intent.

With the trial of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupiers in its second week, I had planned to bring you up to speed but I just read yet another “editorial board” piece from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that caused me to write with greater pressure on my keyboard.

The question is, when papers like PPG—and they are not the exception but rather the norm—print stuff like their recent editorial board piece titled “The Malheur misfits: The anti-government group will get justice” and we know it is full of falsehoods, how do we ever believe anything else that is written in that rag?

If you are out of the loop or just not paying attention, seven individuals are currently in their second week of trial for “conspiring to impede federal officers from performing their official duties.” The seven include Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who were there from day one, and also Jeff Banta, who was at Malheur Jan. 10, and then came back Jan. 25, which happened to be the day before the ambush and killing of LaVoy Finicum. Yet Banta too is charged with “conspiracy to impede federal officers from performing their official duties.”

So here is the commonly misused phrase when sources of ignorance speak about the occupation: “The occupiers, who brandished weapons and threatened federal officers, also made it clear that they didn’t recognize the government’s authority to own or even manage public land.”

First of all, Ammon Bundy never once possessed a firearm on his person while at Malheur. Even if he had carried one on his hip as Finicum did, that is his constitutional right.

Second, even Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward, who was the very first witness the federal government prosecutors called to the stand, did nothing but emphasize how cordial and respectful his meetings with Ammon Bundy were. In fact, most may not even know that Ammon Bundy reached out to Sheriff Ward two months prior to the occupation, impressing upon the sheriff that it was his job to protect the citizens of Harney County and that he should protect the Hammonds from the Feds when they came for the two men in January.

Sheriff Ward repeated how he was fine with all of his conversations with Bundy but he did have concerns about what the others might do. The thing you must remember is it is Ammon Bundy on trial here and not “the others” who were apparently reaching out to the sheriff via email and phone. Is guilt by association now a crime?

The bottom line here is that this trial is likely going to go on for months and if it weren’t for the people I got to know and trust while I was in Burns, Oregon, who are now present at the courthouse, none of us would be getting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In fact, we would be getting more of this engineered manipulation of the happenings via mainstream media.

One of my information sources is Todd MacFarlane. Todd is a rancher from Utah but also has been a trial attorney for 25 years, with a special emphasis in property rights. Todd was present in the courthouse every day the first week of the trial and can tell you more than you will believe about the intimidation that went on and the judicial security theater (three-ring circus). Please follow the happenings in and around the courtroom via Todd’s reporting at RangeFire.us.

This case has come down to a clash of rural versus urban culture. The U.S. government has decided it needs to win the case to beat down the patriots of this nation who are willing to sacrifice life and liberty for the founding principles the authors of the Constitution envisioned for all future generations of Americans. I don’t believe we should let that happen.

I don’t believe it is ironic at all but rather 100 percent divine intervention that the first week of this trial included the day Sept. 17. In case your history lacks as bad as that of the Barack Obama administration, it was Sept. 17, 1787, that the U.S. Constitution was born. I can confidently share with you that not one of the individuals arrested or LaVoy Finicum, who gave his life for this cause, wanted anything other than for the federal government to live by the same U.S. Constitution that the rest of us do. May God bless you all, may real justice be served and may our freedoms be restored to their original glorious intent.

HPJ Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information atwww.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].

RANGE / RANGEFIRE! — Addressing Issues Facing the West / Spreading America’s Cowboy Spirit Beyond the Outback