Sometimes art does not just mimic life but it also can be a foreteller of things to come. In the Classic movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” starring James Stewart, the Senior Senator from Stewart’s home state is involved in a land deal which will not only make the Senior Senator but also his cronies hundreds of thousands of dollars. A tidy sum in the 1930’s. The idea was to seize land, ostensibly to be used for a Boy Scout camp, and use it for a public works project. Of course being first purchased by the Senior Senator and friends. The seizure would be accomplished through the might of the U.S. Government. The story was not about Democrat or Republican. It was not about liberal versus conservative. The story was about right versus wrong and the words uttered by Patrick Henry.
Since the press was in the pocket of the political machine, much like today, it went to work vilifying Mr. Smith and his naivete. Of course all the actions of land theft went on behind closed doors.
That was the cinematic art, now come the real life.
Bill O’Reilly called the actions of American citizens at the Clive Bundy ranch anarchy and implied that those citizens with their signs and flags were anarchists. Of course Bill, along with the rest of the main stream media look at the so called Bureau of Land Management’s army with their full battle gear and support vehicles and call them heroes.
Public lands, unpaid fees, endangered species, end of story, go to commercial.
However there is a much bigger story of corruption than even the venerable Mr. Smith could imagine. The BLM overseas 264 million acres of public land, mostly in the west. The new head of BLM, overwhelmingly approved by Harry Reid’s Senate, is Harry Reid’s former assistant. Harry Reid’s son negotiated with a Chinese solar company for the BLM controlled land in Nevada. The only problem is not the BLM, the Obama administration, the main stream media or even Bill O’Reilly. The problem is Clive Bundy’s cattle.
Why should a fictitious Boy Scout camp stand in the way of a fictitious Senator and his friends? Why should real cattle stand in the way a real Senator and his friends?
The story is simple enough to see if you only look.
Unfortunately Mr. O’Reilly and other main stream media simply choose to go along and facilitate what Patrick Henry said so long ago, “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”