Puck Magazine, Nov 27, 1897 There’s a lot of out-of-state groups, corporations, and individuals that are scraping their forks and knives together and drooling over Montana.
Why? We’ve got public lands and they want to make those private so they can buy them and then sell them or develop them.
It’s that simple, and there will be a lot of fancy-pants politicians and bigshot corporate types that will come in and tell you otherwise. Just ask them how much they get paid – it shuts them the fuck up real quick.
If you’ve got one of the ‘brass balls’ type that won’t be slowed by that kind of talk, just send them my way – I don’t give a fuck about them, just like they don’t give a fuck about Montana, your family, or whatever plans you might have had for the future. This is America, pal – you mean shit.
Well, that’s the attitude I get from the American Lands Council website, which is so full of propaganda that it makes old WWII newsreels look like Saturday morning cartoons. Take a look:
Why? We’ve got public lands and they want to make those private so they can buy them and then sell them or develop them.
It’s that simple, and there will be a lot of fancy-pants politicians and bigshot corporate types that will come in and tell you otherwise. Just ask them how much they get paid – it shuts them the fuck up real quick.
If you’ve got one of the ‘brass balls’ type that won’t be slowed by that kind of talk, just send them my way – I don’t give a fuck about them, just like they don’t give a fuck about Montana, your family, or whatever plans you might have had for the future. This is America, pal – you mean shit.
Well, that’s the attitude I get from the American Lands Council website, which is so full of propaganda that it makes old WWII newsreels look like Saturday morning cartoons. Take a look:
That last one is something, huh? “Will our grandchildren ever know what a healthy forest looks like?”
Jesus. This is the mentality that we’re dealing with here, folks, one that pretty much says this:
That’s about the agenda I can see when I visit the website of these folks, although they try to pretty it up a bit and give it a G-rating, unlike me:
Jesus. This is the mentality that we’re dealing with here, folks, one that pretty much says this:
- First we’ll come in and tell you all kinds of pretty and gussied-up things to make you think we’re helping you and that we’re the good guys;
- Then we’ll pretend that we’re solving your forest problems, and we’ll make sure to point out how inefficient the federal government is;
- After that we’ll con and bamboozle your legislators and judges and media and whoever else that we’ll just fix things up, nothing more;
- Next we’ll ensure our legislation is passed, you know, the ones that take that favorite place of yours and puts a fence up around it and a big ‘keep the fuck out you dumb hick bastard’ sign on it;
- Finally we’ll call all of our multi-million- and multi-billionaire friends on the phone and tell them where the best land is to buy up dirt cheap, to do with it what you will (so long as those fences and signs stay up).
That’s about the agenda I can see when I visit the website of these folks, although they try to pretty it up a bit and give it a G-rating, unlike me:
Ken Ivory’s Baby
So who started this outfit? That’d be Ken Ivory, a current state legislator from Utah. It was Ivory that was the main pusher of HB 148 in the Utah Legislature, which allowed federal lands to be transferred back to the state.
There was fierce opposition to the bill, and there still is. On the Sierra Club Utah website you can see what this boils down to, both in Utah and here in Montana:
An attempt to assume state ownership of lands currently owned by all Americans, HB 148 is a thinly veiled attempt to sell Federal public lands to the highest bidder for the purposes of fossil fuel extraction and development while providing a permanent roadblock to all future to wilderness designation, lands preservation and habitat restoration. This bill totally ignores the multi-billion dollar tourism industry in Utah in favor of the fossil fuel extraction industry, who provide significant financial support to Utah’s governor and legislators.
To get a lot of support for that bill, Ken Ivory started up American Lands Council. So…how much money does this guy make, anyways? I was able to get ahold of some financials for the American Lands Council, and this is what they look like:
As you can see, the organization goes through a lot of money, and $40,000 of that is Ken Ivory’s pay:
What’s more, you can see what their legislative mission is:
And finally, here’s what it costs to bring that mission about:
So the American Lands Council spends $19,535 a year talking on the phone. Damn, they must be some interesting people, huh? Or do you think they might be kissing ass and getting their nose brown in it a lot? That’d be my take on it.
And it was enough to get the bill passed…but so far the lands haven’t been transferred from the Department of the Interior, even though a lot of people in Utah support that. That’s not the case in the rest of the West.
And it was enough to get the bill passed…but so far the lands haven’t been transferred from the Department of the Interior, even though a lot of people in Utah support that. That’s not the case in the rest of the West.
There’s a 52-42 margin of residents in “eight intermountain states said they opposed taking over federal lands in their states, despite their frustrations with federal government gridlock,” the Salt Lake Tribune reported just last month.
The thing you have to realize about Utah, however, is that there are a lot of anti-government nuts, and this owes to the dominant religion in the state, Mormonism. Hey, I wasn’t the one that fought a war with the federal government in the 1850s so I could continue to…what, have more than one wife? And I don’t need Mormons coming up here to Montana and telling me to do with the land I’ve been using freely my whole life.
The thing you have to realize about Utah, however, is that there are a lot of anti-government nuts, and this owes to the dominant religion in the state, Mormonism. Hey, I wasn’t the one that fought a war with the federal government in the 1850s so I could continue to…what, have more than one wife? And I don’t need Mormons coming up here to Montana and telling me to do with the land I’ve been using freely my whole life.
Opposition to Transferring Federal Lands
Thankfully Utah is just screwing up its own state right now, mainly because they passed this bill with more than 50% support. But again, why aren’t those lands being taken and sold? I think it’s because sensible folks in the Utah state government have told Ken Ivory and his corporate buddies to go jump in a lake. It’s clear to many that these ideas just won’t work:
Democratic politicians, such as New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, say the movement is waning among conservatives when they see how land transfers could impact state budgets and public access to places they have long enjoyed. Heinrich contends some states would be forced to sell public lands to cover the cost of managing them and fighting wildfires.
Well, that’s a nice thought, and I like what these people are saying, but…I’m sorry, that just doesn’t do it for me. Why can’t Utah get its act together and take those federal lands like it said it would?
If you look at the Desert News, you begin to find some answers. According to an August 27 article, Utah legislators cannot meet their own self-imposed December 31 deadline to sue the federal government to get those lands.
Whoa, stop the presses…sue?!? WTF?
I thought that we passed this bill and the feds just gave us those lands…is that not the case? Shit, you’re telling me we’ve got to hire a bunch of lawyers, create special committees that meet a couple times a year for five years, and actually sit down and do some work? Damn, I thought this was gonna be as easy as boffing my multiple wives!
Here you see the idiocy of Ken Ivory come full front and center, and I’m not sure you’ll like the view. Here’s what the Desert News had:
If you look at the Desert News, you begin to find some answers. According to an August 27 article, Utah legislators cannot meet their own self-imposed December 31 deadline to sue the federal government to get those lands.
Whoa, stop the presses…sue?!? WTF?
I thought that we passed this bill and the feds just gave us those lands…is that not the case? Shit, you’re telling me we’ve got to hire a bunch of lawyers, create special committees that meet a couple times a year for five years, and actually sit down and do some work? Damn, I thought this was gonna be as easy as boffing my multiple wives!
Here you see the idiocy of Ken Ivory come full front and center, and I’m not sure you’ll like the view. Here’s what the Desert News had:
Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan and architect of the movement, said six other states are pursuing the same effort to achieve parity with Eastern states, of which none have the extent of federal land ownership like those west of Colorado.
What an idiot. Doesn’t he know his history? Teddy Roosevelt began creating national forests and national monuments out west around 1906 because it was easier. But that might take some homework, like looking at the Land Revision Act of 1891 to figure out why there are western and eastern departments of the Interior and what the hell they mean.
That’s not as easy as hoodwinking people on how beneficial owning federal lands will be for their states, however, as we’ve seen with Utah. Although, for the life of me, I just can’t therefore figure out what Ken Ivory is getting paid $40,000 a year for…can you?
What you have to realize is that Republican groups aren’t very intelligent. Each day they come to #mtpol, which I consider my playground. There I gather shit on people and later post it up, like this doozy on the clown Ken Ivory and his silly organization, one that Montanans will stand up to and say ‘get the hell off my doorstep.’
In other words, stupid Republicans, please stop giving me easy fodder each day. When you put up your propaganda I’m going to tear it apart, plain and simple. I don’t have a 9 to 5 job like you folks, so I can do this stuff. And no one’s paying me to do it, so it has a lot more validity that what you do. See, people have to pay you, so we know what’s most important to you. In my case, I do this for free because I want to, so you know where my loyalties are…to Montana.
So go pad your pocketbook elsewhere – the state’s closed to you fools.
That’s not as easy as hoodwinking people on how beneficial owning federal lands will be for their states, however, as we’ve seen with Utah. Although, for the life of me, I just can’t therefore figure out what Ken Ivory is getting paid $40,000 a year for…can you?
What you have to realize is that Republican groups aren’t very intelligent. Each day they come to #mtpol, which I consider my playground. There I gather shit on people and later post it up, like this doozy on the clown Ken Ivory and his silly organization, one that Montanans will stand up to and say ‘get the hell off my doorstep.’
In other words, stupid Republicans, please stop giving me easy fodder each day. When you put up your propaganda I’m going to tear it apart, plain and simple. I don’t have a 9 to 5 job like you folks, so I can do this stuff. And no one’s paying me to do it, so it has a lot more validity that what you do. See, people have to pay you, so we know what’s most important to you. In my case, I do this for free because I want to, so you know where my loyalties are…to Montana.
So go pad your pocketbook elsewhere – the state’s closed to you fools.
1896 editorial cartoons shows William McKinley and Mark Hanna about to carve up the presidency at Thanksgiving (2 Nov 1896 Puck Magazine)
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Salt Lake Tribune Article on Support and Opposition to Selling Federal Lands
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Information on Utah’s HB 148 to Gain Federal Lands
Utah’s KSL TV report on Stalled Land Transfer in Utah
Article on Western Land Grab from Frugal Café
Salt Lake Tribune Article on Support and Opposition to Selling Federal Lands
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Information on Utah’s HB 148 to Gain Federal Lands
