The Battle of Bunker Hill Reincarnated—The Battle of
Bunkerville, Nevada
By Dr.
Donald W. Hendon
DonaldHendon.com
One
year ago, on April 12, 2014, the federal
government’s Bureau of Land Management sent hundreds
of armed men, including SWAT teams and snipers, to
Bunkerville, Nevada, home of rancher Cliven Bundy
and his large family. (Bunkerville is 80 miles from
Las Vegas.) The BLM went there to barricade roads,
seal off Bundy’s property, and steal all of his
cattle—600 of them. They said they were doing this
because he hadn’t paid fees to the BLM for several
years. The fees were to allow his cattle to graze on
federal land. (The feds own 86 percent of all land
in Nevada.)
Nevada’s
Democratic senator, multi-millionaire Harry Reid
(who I call “Dirty Harry” in my
Fractured
Fairy Tales, which you’ve read over the
years here on StupidFrogs.org) pressured the BLM to
do this. He claimed that Bundy’s cattle are
endangering a weird-looking turtle called the desert
tortoise. The turtle bears a startling resemblance
to Harry himself. So Dirty Harry got the BLM to
change the boundaries of the turtle protection area.
The new
boundaries included Bundy’s grazing area!
But Reid’s
real
reason was big bucks in kickbacks to him and his son
Rory Reid from a Chinese company, ENN Energy Group..
When
Ridiculous Rory was chairman of the Clark County
Commission (2003-2011), he sold 9,000 acres of
county land to ENN at a rock-bottom price—way, way
below market area. Why did Rory sell all that land
to ENN? So it could build a $5 billion wind and
solar power plant—right
in the middle of Bundy’s grazing area!
Rory used
his big-bucks kickback to run against Republican
Brian Sandoval for governor in 2012. Rory lost
big-time, thank goodness. Who knows what Dirty Harry
did with
his kickback! Maybe yet another facelift.
But he won’t get any more kickbacks from his good
buddy, Wang Yusuo, a solar billionaire from the
People’s Republic of China, Wang gave up and pulled
the plug on the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone. I’ve
heard rumors that Dirty Harry’s January 1, 2015,
“accident” wasn’t caused by his faulty exercise
machine. Rumor 1: Wang had him beat up. Rumor 2:
Vegas mobsters beat him up because he made a
“disrespectful” comment about them. Rumor 3: Dirty
Harry’s younger brother, Larry Joe, a 73-year old
alcoholic, beat him up at a family get-together,
just for the hell of it.
But
the story’s just beginning. The BLM goons, all
heavily armed, showed up on April 12, 2014, to seize
Bundy’s cattle. They corralled 400 of the 600. They
were going to arrest Bundy, too. But they didn’t.
Why not? Because they were met by several thousand
Bundy supporters, many of them armed. About half
were from southern Nevada. Others came from Wyoming,
Oregon, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho—and
even Florida and Virginia. I know. I was there to
support Bundy—I live only 3 miles away from him, in
Mesquite, Nevada. Nearby Interstate 15 was blocked
by around 30 big-ass white vans, full of BLM
goons—and by Bundy’s supporters.
The
confrontation started quickly. Cliven’s sister,
Margaret, was thrown to the ground. His son, Ammon,
was tased with 50,000 volts. Things were getting out
of hand, and so timid Doug Gillespie, the Clark
County sheriff, finally found the guts to stop the
confrontation before a lot of people were killed. He
had the legal authority to stop the BLM from closing
off roads in Clark County and to stop them from
threatening citizens with armed force.
So
Gillespie got on a makeshift platform with Bundy on
the banks of the Virgin River. He ordered the BLM to
back off. He tried to save face by saying the BLM
lied to him about having a place to take Bundy’s
cattle. I don’t know which was the biggest
liar—Gillespie or the BLM. Anyway, the crowd cheered
as the BLM retreated in disgrace, with their tails
between their legs.
Since April 12, 2014, around 5 to 10 RVs have been
camped at the entrance to the Bundy ranch—where the
confrontation took place. They are there in case the
BLM comes back. I’ve talked with them several times
during the last year, and they are very dedicated to
the cause.
Well, a year has passed since the Battle of
Bunkerville. History will tell us whether
Bunkerville will be as important as the Battle of
Bunker Hill, fought in Boston on June 17, 1775. I’m
willing to bet it will be included in American
history books for grade-school, high school, and
college students read. And I’m proud to have been
there.
To commemorate the 2014 Battle of Bunkerville, the Bundy family held a three-day event this past weekend. I was there all three days—April 10, 11, and 12. Great barbeque, lots of inspiring speeches, books and T-shirts for sale. And a church service on Sunday April 12, the one-year anniversary of the event. I enjoyed myself a lot. And I sold many copies of my 2014 book, Fractured Fairy Tales: Political Monkey Business. It includes a story about what happened in Bunkerville last year. It’s called “The Miracle of the Battle of Bunkerville—the Ghosts of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan to the Rescue.” In my story, Wayne and Reagan, looked down from Heaven and saw what was happening in Bunkerville one year ago. They came down to earth and used their heavenly powers to make the BLM goons think they were being attacked by demons with pitchforks. And so the BLM retreated, and everybody lived happily ever after—except for Dirty Harry and his buddy, Neil Kornze, head of the BLM.
Fractured Fairy Tales
contains 34 other short political satires. Get it at
Amazon or at Barnes and Noble.
Dr. Donald Wayne Hendon is a consultant, speaker, trainer, and author of 14 books, including The Way of the Warrior in Business, Guerrilla Deal-Making (with Jay Conrad Levinson) and 365 Powerful Ways to Influence. Jay Levinson recently passed away. He specifically chose Don to be his final co-author—the person most qualified to carry the torch of guerrilla marketing into the 21st century. Deal-Making contains the 100 most powerful tactics from 365 Powerful Ways—along with 400 winning countermeasures. There are 121 aggressive tactics, 92 defensive ones, 24 cooperative ones, and 16 submissive ones to get what you want from other people. Plus 81 dirty tricks to watch out for and 31 tactics to prepare you for your interaction with them. Download Chapter 1, free of charge, at www.DonaldHendon.com. Play Don’s free online Negotiation Poker game by going to GuerrillaDon.com. Apps will soon be available.