The fight over access to water in Southern Oregon is tense enough as it is: On May 12, the federal government announced that no water at all would be passing through a canal that typically irrigates tens of thousands of acres of farmland in Oregon and California.
I don’t know what the solution here is but I know Ammon Bundy won’t be part of it. The family is a pack of dull-witted grifters like others that come to mind. And even my sympathy for the farmers is limited. Do they own that water? Were they unaware droughts happen in the west? Do other businesses plan for downturns? If I had hard times, did I just go and take other people’s stuff? How many of these farmers are like the Joads and how many are vast resource-rich agribusiness types? The first time I heard of these Bundy jerks it was in a dispute about whether they should pay their bills or not. This is evidently becoming a theme in their truculently whiny schtick.
There are many users for a limited amount of water. The annual runoff depends on winter’s snow fall, not water rights. There is a system to share the available water which no doubt keeps a number of civil engineers and resource attorneys employed to argue who gets what and how it gets there. Acre feet of water are converted to livestock and crops and tribal resources. It’s not a perfect system but it works more or less. Throw in the Bundy racists blaming the Native Americans and the hated government, and we are looking at a lost year of the life the water supports.
Ted, I mean Ammo Bundy exemplifies the whiny, petulant, me first, immature nature of the GQP deplorable.
Resourceful people could harvest rainwater and make a go of it. But I guess they’re too attached to their God-given, federally funded waterworks.
Given a choice between salmon and a Bundy, it’s a no-brainer, just like Ammo Bundy.
Save the Salmon, they have a purpose, unlike Ammo Bundy.
It’s a pretty great philosophy, though: I have a “right” to everybody’s stuff everywhere because something something, constitution, America, I have a cowboy hat.
The amateurishly childish hand painted sign is a really nice touch.
It goes well beyond “me first” and “immature”.
This is a clear example of the perceived divine entitlement of the mental disease of Mormonism which, unfortunately, was not included in DSM5.
Fish held sacred to local tribes, sounds a bit religious there. Is Ammo (stealing this from @maximus) going to pit business rights over religion? It may not be his religion, but the fish are sacred.
Well there’s that, and not diversifying. Looking at what is grown in Southern Oregon there’s some water intense plant and animal farming and ranching going on there.
Ted, Ammo, Cliven, McGeorge, Al - I can’t think of a Bundy who is really any damned good.
But this particular Bundy is a loud-mouthed, attention-seeking social parasite and general dickhead who blows an ill wind.
Let us all remember it’s now a Biden/Garland DOJ, not a Trumpista one.
He’s gonna get his grifting welfare queen ass arrested and he won’t catch a pardon.
Hopefully Biden won’t play nearly as nice and accommodating as Obama did during the Mahleur occupation.
I really don’t understand why Ammon Bundy and his band of mental defectives are allowed to get away with their crap. I do not wish for bloodshed, but I think we can all agree that the gov’t would declare WWIII if black folks tried a 10th of the crap that the Bundy’s seem to get away with scot free.
No, Mammon Fundy, you don’t have a “right” to water brought by a canal. It’s not like they’re damming a river that used to feed into these lands.
I love where the guy is demanding $150 million in government paid Socialism if he doesn’t get his way. I hope the feds take care of Bundy once and for all.
OT. This woman Sinema is getting on my shit list. It was bad enough when she voted against the minimum wage raise, but she had to do it in an insulting way histrionically thumbing it down. And now this…
Water rights issues in the face of climate change is about to change the world as we know it. It’s going to lead to migration, war, famine, etc.
As the Bundy clan demand special rights for themselves, they will be the first to turn their back on others in a similar plight because they have the wrong skin tone, religious beliefs, or speak the wrong language.
These people don’t believe in compromise or intelligent reality based discourse or common sense solutions, they want to use the threat of violence or actual violence to get their way. Almost reminds me of a certain insurrection that Republicans don’t want to investigate.
This multi year drought has wreaked havoc in the west. Opening the gates does not mean water is available for the entire growing season. Lack of snow pack and warmer springs mean less water for everybody not just the farmers. Ammon Bundy and his brigade of gun toting bullies are clueless. Sure just open the gates and when the water is gone, it is gone.
Some states outlaw or limit rain water harvesting and claim rainwaters become waters of the state or landowners.
In Western states, restrictions exist because old water laws stated that all precipitation belonged to existing water-rights owners. These laws were known as prior appropriation, or “first-come, first-serve” laws for settlers in the Old West.
Western water law is complicated.