Lucas Oil forrest

<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">also lt gov larry rhoden , both in hat and boots?</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">lucas oil logo</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://m.facebook.com/ProtectTheHarvest/videos/the-stand-at-paxton-county-private-screening-behind-the-scenes/690625521520170/">https://m.facebook.com/ProtectTheHarvest/videos/the-stand-at-paxton-county-private-screening-behind-the-scenes/690625521520170/</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2018?</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.change.org/p/dr-susan-keller-ask-nd-state-veterinarian-to-perform-risk-assessment-of-gary-dassinger-s-horses-and-cattle">https://www.change.org/p/dr-susan-keller-ask-nd-state-veterinarian-to-perform-risk-assessment-of-gary-dassinger-s-horses-and-cattle</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>facing felony charges of Animal Neglect and Cruelty in the case of the State of North Dakota vs Gerald Dassinger, Mr. Dassinger, on the day of trial, chose to avoid the very real possibility of receiving 4 Felony Animal Cruelty charges, and pled guilty to 6 Class A Misdemeanor charges of Animal Neglect.&nbsp;</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sentencing has been delayed for 60 days until a Pre-Sentence Investigation and Risk Assessment of Mr. Dassinger's remaining horses and cattle can be performed by the State Veterinarian, Dr. Susan Keller, DVM.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This petition is intended to encourage Dr. Keller, DVM, to perform the investigation and risk assessment as soon as possible. Given the winter weather conditions and the drought from last summer, we believe Mr. Dassinger's animals are still at risk of neglect. The animals under Mr. Dassinger's "care" have been neglected the basic rights of adequate food, water, shelter, and vet care for many years. He has continually proven that he lacks the financial and functional responsibility to care for such a <b>huge herd of cattle (20+) and horses (100+)</b>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="type-no-wrap type-uppercase type-weak" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase !important; white-space: nowrap !important;">aPR 21, 2018 —&nbsp;</span>Per court documents, the sentencing hearing for Gary Dassinger's animal neglect case is scheduled for 05/14/2018. There is still time to sign the petition. We, that are familiar with the specifics of the case, URGE the State Vet, Dr. Susan Keller, to perform the pre-sentencing investigation and risk assessment immediately. We also request Judge Rhonda Ehlis to sentence Mr. Dassinger to the fullest extent possible. Mr. Dassinger needs to be held accountable for his neglible behavior regarding the upkeep of his farm and the animals forced to survive in life-threatening conditions. We humbly, but assertively, ask that justice be served upon the innocent animals who cannot speak for themselves.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a href="http://publicsearch.ndcourts.gov/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=3747814" data-pass-thru="true" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">http://publicsearch.ndcourts.gov/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=3747814</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Gladstone rancher gets probation in animal neglect case</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp; fox station</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/Gladstone-rancher-gets-probation-in-animal-neglect-case-488424921.html</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(KFYR)&nbsp;<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">By Andrew Horn</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Published:<b> Jul. 17, 2018&nbsp;</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>UPDATE: Gladstone rancher Gary Dassinger will not go to jail after pleading guilty to six counts of animal neglect in February. The case against him started more than a year ago, when police tried to seize his animals. An injunction stopped it, but raised a larger debate about whether seizing animals is constitutional.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dassinger won't serve a day in jail because of his plea deal, but he says it shouldn’t have come to that.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Facts were not looked at, questions were not asked and I had to plead guilty because I ran out of money,” said Dassinger.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Stark County sheriffs went to Dassinger's ranch in<b> April 2017 with two veterinarians to check on Dassinger's horses. Those vets recommended seizing the animals in place because moving the animals could have killed them. </b>A month passed and the horses improved according to multiple vet reports, but Stark County Sheriff Terry Oestreich says his hands were tied, and moved in to take the animals May 25, 2017.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>"If we decide to ignore that court order, we can be held in contempt and other law enforcement will be brought in to enforce the order. So we really had no choice in the matter,” said Oestreich.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">An injunction later that same day would keep the horses at Dassinger's ranch. He wouldn't appear in court until June 5, <b>11 days after the seizure in a hearing not required by law, but agreed to by both the state and Dassinger.</b> It wasn't until July 10 a judge denied the seizure order.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Oestreich wants the law changed to mirror child abuse proceedings; where the animals would be taken from the owner immediately and a hearing to determine custody within days.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"That way, there would be a guarantee that right away someone has their day in court,” said Oestreich.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Making a change would mean a new bill in the next session. Assistant State's Attorney Amanda Engelstad says she believes the spirit of the law is correct, but there's room for improvement in the language. She agreed making the seizure hearing mandatory and quick appearances could improve the law.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ORIGINAL STORY: Gladstone rancher Gary Dassinger won't be going to jail after pleading guilty to six counts of animal neglect in February.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Dassinger was sentenced to two years differed sentence and two years of supervised probation.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>He will get to keep his animals and will not be limited to a specific number.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">You know I'm still alive </span>and I'm still here but it's terrific that I'm able to keep them and the horses are doing great and the colts are growing big," said Dassinger.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">One of the issues in the case was the seizure process. Police tried to seize his animals on May 25, 2017, but an injunction allowed Dassinger to keep his animals.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Assistant State's Attorney Amanda Engelstad says she believes the spirit of the law is correct, but there's always room for improvement in the wording.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">She added she'd like to see a more expedited process to address the seizure of animals going forward. Engelstad says a legislative fix would be best.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Netflixable? More Lucas Oil BS — courageous ranchers fight animal rights “conspirators” in “The Stand at Paxton County”</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Posted on January 12, 2021 by <b>Roger Moore</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A North Dakota rancher accused of neglecting his livestock becomes a fictional Big Conspiracy wingnut wet dream in “The Stand at Paxton County,” a nasty little piece of prairie propaganda that no film distributor would touch but Netflix has picked up for streaming.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">So “true story?” Not exactly. Not even close.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It’s a film of animal rights activists conspiring with veterinarians and a corrupt sheriff’s department to seize animals and perhaps, it’s suggested, ranches themselves.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The little hints of truth — aged farmers and ranchers losing their grip on operations and animals that they aren’t able to pass down as their children are moving away — is buried under a mountain of horse manure, weekly newspaper “hit” pieces on targeted ranchers, animals seized for cash value and the fond hope that failing ranchers will just commit suicide.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jacqueline Toboni plays Janna, a surgeon summoned from her Army field hospital in the Middle East back home to North Dakota because there’s trouble on the ranch. Her curmudgeonly dad (Michael O’Neill), was confronted with surprise inspections from the sheriff’s department and state-authorized veterinarians who have found the place in disrepair and the horses he keeps skin and bones.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Dell had a heart attack.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">When Janna gets back, she wonders who ratted them out, wonders why the hunky ranch hand who was supposed to be keeping the place up didn’t do the work and wonders where that ranch hand ran off to once the inspections begin and the ranch is imperiled.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">For some reason, this corner of Western North Dakota (it was filmed in California) is covered by a snooty reporter from The Fergus Falls Gazette, when Fergus Falls is hundreds of miles away, in Minnesota.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Anyway, Janna and this newer hunky ranch hand (Tyler Jacob Moore) and a local lawyer team up to fight whatever conspiracy is behind all this and save the ranch.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Christopher MacDonald (“Quiz Show”) plays the sheriff, who might be sympathetic but might just be in on it, too.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The leads are fairly low on the charisma pecking order, save for MacDonald, and the movie’s drama is tepid, even at its most worked-up.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The picture is designed to push a lot of buttons and isn’t the least bit subtle, or honest about it. Got to have a soldier so you can wrap all this up in the flag and camo, got to have “liberal elites” taken on by slow-talking cowgirls, cowboys and their kin. Even the lawyer’s wearing a ten gallon hat.</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But maybe you don’t see how you’re being played.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">If you’re an angry, anti-government Western conservative looking for comfort that “they’re out to get Real Americans” in this, I have a news flash for you. Big Oil anti-environmentalist Lucas Oil money backed the picture.<b> These are the same right wing propagandists who blamed environmentalists for droughts in “Pray for Rain.”</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">THAT is your real conspiracy.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Any time you muck out a barn, you’re getting a gander at what the Lucas (Kochs without the clout) clan is serving up in feature film form. They’re full of it. I didn’t have to look up the production company’s real owners to smell Lucas BS, HS and whatever other S they’re serving up here.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MPA Rating: R for some violence and language&nbsp;</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cast:&nbsp; Jacqueline Toboni,<b> Michael O’Neill,</b> Tyler Jacob Moore and Christopher MacDonald.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Credits: Directed by Brett Hedlund, script by Carl Morris, David Michael O’Neill. <b>An ESX Entertainment </b>Netflix</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Running time: 1:42</font></font></font></font></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.capjournal.com/news/protect-the-harvest-releases-movie-with-inside-look-at-animal-activists/article_26fb0d10-50fc-11ea-ad20-6ff8e384c96a.html">https://www.capjournal.com/news/protect-the-harvest-releases-movie-with-inside-look-at-animal-activists/article_26fb0d10-50fc-11ea-ad20-6ff8e384c96a.html</a></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cap jrnl?</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>rAPID CITY — Protect the Harvest, an advocacy group that opposes the radical animal rights movement, premiered a movie during the Black Hills Stock Show [goc and lt gov]&nbsp;</b>based on a North Dakota man’s experience in having his horses and cattle impounded due to a law passed with the backing of animal rights groups.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former law enforcement official who worked for animal rights groups before leaving to speak out against the organizations said the movie is an accurate depiction of how animal rights organizations work.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Their hidden agenda is to end animal ownership, period. They’ll go to great lengths to do that,” said former U.S. Marshal John Bolin.</b> Bolin worked in law enforcement for years and then in 2014 went to work for the animal rights group The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.</font></p><div class="tnt-ads-container text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center !important; min-height: 1px;" /></div><div id="tncms-region-article_instory_top" class="tncms-region hidden-print" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Part of my duties were to train law enforcement officers with the ASPCA’s curriculum on investigating animal cruelty,” he explained.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He eventually left the organization and now speaks out against such animal rights groups. Bolin said the actions portrayed in “The Stand at Paxton County, a movie released by<b> Protect the Harvest and produced by Forrest Films,</b>&nbsp;[note no ID] is very common and is happening all over the country.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The movie is based on the case of Gerald “Gary” Dassinger, a Gladstone, N.D., man who in 2017 was charged with four Class C felony counts of animal cruelty and six Class A misdemeanor counts of animal neglect. The charges stemmed from a complaint from a<b> Wisconsin resident who drove by his ranch </b>and reported his cattle and horses were undernourished and a veterinarian’s report of animals in need of care.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The law says that if somebody drives past and sees something that’s suspicious, they have the right to go in and investigate,” Dassinger said.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Stark County, N.D., Sheriff’s Office temporarily seized 70 of Dassinger’s horses and 25 head of cattle, but a judge ruled the state could not seize the animals and released them to his care. Dassinger pleaded guilty to the six misdemeanor counts, which he said he did to prevent his ordeal from <b>setting case law</b>. He received a deferred imposition of sentence and remains on probation until later this year. He had to pay $5,412.92 in court fees and restitution in the case.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The law under which Dassinger’s livestock were removed from his care passed the North Dakota Legislature in 2013 as an update to animal neglect statutes. It had the backing of many agriculture groups, since it required law enforcement consent to remove animals whereas previous laws had allowed a broader scope for who could remove animals. However, some groups remained concerned about the lack of due process afforded to animal owners under the law. Animal rights groups backed the changes.</span>
</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The Humane Society </b>came in, convinced the legislators that you’ve got to do this to protect these poor animals. So, they got that law passed, then the Humane Society came in and trained all the law enforcement in the state, especially the sheriffs,” Dassinger said.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dassinger never thought something like that would happen to him, especially in an agricultural state like North Dakota, and he said he would have never made it through the ordeal without the help of Protect the Harvest. The organization’s National Strategic Planner <b>David Duquette </b>said their organization has been on the <b>front lines for more than a decade, defending the way of life for producers and exposing the activists and special interest groups.</b></font></p></div><div id="tncms-region-article_instory_middle" class="tncms-region hidden-print" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Really we’re the only one of our kind in the agriculture world. So, we saw a pretty major need to go after the animal rights groups and the <b>environmentalists who are trying to take away our food supply,”</b> Duquette said.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Most of the activist groups have big bankrolls they use to attack farmers and ranchers and their way of life, Duquette says.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“They have billions of dollars a year they get in donations, whether its donations or corporate money. Some of them we’ve found are even getting money from overseas,” he explained. He said they have traced back funding to countries such as Russia. “If these environmental groups stop us from producing our natural resources here, then Russia gets to sell all their natural resources on the world market,” he said.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dassinger is just one of many farmers and ranchers targeted by animal activists’ groups, in this case the Humane Society of the United States.[no evidence]</font></p><div class="tnt-ads-container text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center !important; min-height: 1px;"><div id="tnt-smart-ad-3" class="tnt-ads dfp-smart-ad" data-google-query-id="CKiJqOrAkvkCFYhiwQodaTIDRg" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 40px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe/132916964,1098308/capjournal.com/news_10container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; border: 0pt none;" /></div></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"The ultimate goal of the Humane Society is not to have any animal being controlled by any human. It’s crazy and it’s happening all over the United States. They’re taking away our right to do what we want to do with our property,” Dassinger said.</b></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Duquette said Protect the Harvest was effective over the years at stopping the activist community in Washington D.C. and then the groups shifted their strategy. “So now they’re doing it at the county level, the state level and the federal level. So, now we’re really running hard,” he said.</b></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The purpose of the movie, which will be in theaters across select cities in the U.S., is to get the message out about what animal activist groups are doing.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It’s a movie we made about a situation that happened in North Dakota over the<b> Century Code.</b> We’re able to effectively go in, enlighten everybody, get to the legislators, get them to change it and help the man Gary Dassinger that was having the problem,” Duquette said.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolin, the former law enforcement officer, said the best way for farmers and ranchers to protect themselves is to build a relationship with local law enforcement.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Have a very good working relationship with your local sheriff and if you have a Humane Society or animal control or anything like that have a good working relationship with them,” he said.<b> “And make sure that they’re not being influenced by one of these organizations.”</b></font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">lucas $</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://blog.independent.org/2020/05/27/the-stand-at-paxton-county-puts-leftist-activism-at-center-of-corruption-drama/</font></font></font></div><div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="https://forrest-films.com/films/the-stand/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(144, 188, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;Stand at Paxton County</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">,</span></b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> an independently produced drama now streaming on Netflix, has a surprisingly straightforward message: Our freedoms and property rights are at risk when dogmatic special interests use the legislative process to achieve their goals. Moreover, poorly designed legislation opens the door to corruption.</span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The movie, produced by&nbsp;<a href="http://forrest-films.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Forrest Films</a>&nbsp;(founded by entrepreneurs&nbsp;</span><a href="https://forrest-films.com/bios/forrest-charlotte-lucas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Forrest and Charlotte Lucas</span></a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">), </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">does something else unusual for contemporary films: It raises awareness and makes relevant the plight of ranchers and farmers under a gun from political activists. Many of these advocates know little, or don’t seem to care, about this industry, its culture, and its values.&nbsp;</span></span><span id="more-48236" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" /></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">While a few think tanks and other nonprofits work on these issues—the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://mslegal.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Mountain States Legal Foundation</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.perc.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Property and Environment Research Center</span></a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;(PERC)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, to name two—contemporary filmmakers largely ignore the political threats to the modern small farm. As a result, even well-meaning activists tend to misinterpret, or misunderstand, the nature of agricultural businesses and family-owned enterprises that work on or beyond the urban fringe.&nbsp;</span></span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The story underlying&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Stand</em>, inspired by a real event, centers on a family’s attempt to save its farm from corrupt public officials in South Dakota. Dell Connelly (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642259/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Michael O’Neill</a>,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Messiah</em>,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Scandal</em>), an aging and ailing ranch owner, is coming out of a particularly brutal winter. His horses and livestock are the bread and butter of his operations. His horses are skinny and, to the naked eye, look malnourished. Connelly and other ranchers know that this condition is cyclical and that their horses will soon return to a healthy weight.&nbsp;</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A new state law, however, allows anyone to claim animal abuse,</b> triggering an investigation by a local veterinarian (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4076240/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Marwa Bernstein</a>). Connelly’s livelihood, and the family farm, are threatened when the vet declares his horses unfit and abused, and the local sheriff (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001520/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Christopher McDonald</a>,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ballers</em>,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Real Bros of Simi Valley</em>) seizes his livestock.&nbsp;</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of this is suspicious to Connelly’s estranged daughter Janna (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6452826/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Jacqueline Toboni</a>,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The L Word</em>,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Grimm</em>), an army combat medic summoned home when her father becomes gravely ill. She sees that the ranch has fallen into disrepair despite her father’s hiring of a full-time ranch hand. Nevertheless, the horses, including her favorite, seem healthy if a bit thin from the winter. She begins to investigate. Soon, Janna suspects the long-time sheriff is hiding something, and may be in collusion with a local veterinarian.&nbsp;</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Stand</em>&nbsp;is surprisingly engaging despite its use of well-trodden themes. Corrupt law enforcement figures, particularly sheriffs,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=corrupt-sheriff" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">are a staple of the traditional westerns and modern thrillers</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">&nbsp;(e.g.,&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Unforgiven</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">,&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Rambo: First Blood</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">,&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Young Guns</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">, just to name a few). The estranged child returning to find their roots is also so familiar it’s cliché. But Toboni’s portrayal of the daughter, pushed away then reluctantly pulled back by family obligations, is convincing.&nbsp;</span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The twist that&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Stand&nbsp;</em>brings to the screen is its explicit tie-on to state level politics and the local corruption it engenders. Fortunately, the plot follows a more conventional thriller line, bringing the audience along as Janna unearths clues to the corruption even as it puts her life at risk. Thus, the audience engages through the drama rather than a lecture on politics. While the plot and the climax are predictable, the twists and setting are sufficiently different that audiences are likely to stay focused and in the story.</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The sheriff and the veterinarian are not nuanced characters, but given the genre and film tradition, most audiences won’t stumble on these tropes. Janna’s journey from estranged child driven away by a difficult father to later appreciate the values, hard work, and simplicity of ranch life is well scripted and convincing. The movie also wrestles effectively with the tension between a population increasingly distant from its agrarian legacy, and largely ignorant of its practices, and those who remain committed to the lifestyle and business.&nbsp;</font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Stand&nbsp;</em>is most likely to lose its audience when it fails to give dimension to the animal rights activists. The advocates are caricatures, equating them to the greed of the sheriff and vet. The failure to give these characters more complexity limits the movie’s ability to elevate the story and broaden its appeal to general audiences.</b></font></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nevertheless,&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Stand at Paxton County</em>&nbsp;is entertaining and a welcome entry into an emerging genre (now dominated by progressives) of films crafted to entertain and raise awareness about social-justice issues. In this case, the injustice is meted out against ranchers and farmers. The movie and Forrest Films deserves praise for addressing this little understood or recognized problem in rural America even if it might stumble in reaching a truly broad audience.&nbsp;</font></span></font></p></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(217, 215, 201); border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 13px 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(217, 215, 201); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="author_bio_archive" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">Samuel R. Staley</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Director of the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">DeVoe L. Moore Center in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy at Florida State University</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. He is a contributing author to the Independent books,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.independent.org/store/book.asp?id=87" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none !important;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Property Rights</i></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.independent.org/store/book.asp?id=76" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none !important;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Housing America</i></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a href="https://blog.independent.org/author/sam-staley/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none !important;">Beacon Posts by Samuel R. Staley</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;|&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=1371" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(85, 153, 255); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none !important;">Full Biography and Publications</a></font></font></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><h1 class="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 40px; line-height: 3.375rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pardoned by Trump, Oregon ranchers ride home in style on Pence ally’s private jet</font></font></font></h1><div class="page-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 40px; display: flex;"><main class="page-main" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 300px; width: calc(100% - 320px);"><div class="page-main-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 750px;"><article class="story" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 750px;"><div class="byline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: column nowrap; align-items: flex-start; justify-content: initial; margin-bottom: 20px; max-width: 680px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><div class="authors" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; margin-bottom: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;"><div class="author-name" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0.875rem; display: inline;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="byline-prefix" style="box-sizing: border-box;">BY</span>&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/people/matt-pearce" aria-label="Matt Pearce" data-click="standardBylineAuthorName" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">MATT PEARCE</a><span class="author-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0.875rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 4px; display: inline;">STAFF WRITER&nbsp;</span></font></font></font></div></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><time datetime="2018-07-12T17:30:00.000Z" class="published-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0.875rem; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-transform: uppercase; word-break: keep-all; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="published-date-day" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>JULY 12, 2018</b></span></font></time></font></font></div><div class="page-article-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 680px; margin: 0px auto;"><div class="page-article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="rich-text-article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="rich-text-article-body-content rich-text-body" data-subscriber-content="" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.9375rem;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A day earlier, ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond were prisoners at the minimum-security federal prison on Terminal Island in San Pedro, serving five-year sentences for arson.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But on Wednesday, following a Tuesday pardon by President Trump, the father-and-son pair got to fly home in style to Burns, Ore., on an oil company’s private jet, riding alongside the company’s founder,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;Forrest Lucas — who used his relationship with Vice President Mike Pence to help secure the Hammonds’ release.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With the massive amounts of pardon requests the federal government receives every year, “It takes talking to someone to be able to get it done, and that’s what happened here,” said David Duquette, national strategic planner for&nbsp;<b>Protect the Harvest, Lucas’ nonprofit advocacy group for ranchers and farmers.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pence was “very instrumental in helping to get this to the front and getting it out there” for a pardon by Trump, Duquette said.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Hammonds, who own a ranch in remote eastern Oregon, had been convicted of arson for setting fires that burned federally owned land. Their five-year mandatory minimum sentence drew criticism from ranchers’ groups who have been critical of the government’s stewardship of the nation’s expansive federal lands.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Hammonds’ case captured national attention after an armed group of antigovernment activists protested their prison sentences by seizing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for 41 days in 2016. Public-lands advocates have criticized Trump’s pardon as a tacit approval of the occupation.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Hammonds’ ride home with Lucas — whose company owns the naming rights to the Indianapolis Colts’ NFL playing field, Lucas Oil Stadium — illustrates the depth of the lobbying effort that helped secure clemency for the ranchers.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Lucas had taken an interest in the Hammonds after they were sentenced and imprisoned in 2015,</b> and he broached the issue with Pence before the 2016 election, when Pence was still governor of Indiana, according to Duquette, who said Lucas wasn’t available for an interview Thursday.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;" /><div class="enhancement" data-click="enhancement" data-align-center="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin: 30px 0px; width: 680px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><ps-nativo-module data-fetch-offset="1.0" data-integration-script="https://s.ntv.io/serve/load.js" data-hide-mobile="true" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></ps-nativo-module></font></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Lucas, a fellow Indiana native, is a generous donor to Republican candidates, including to Pence, who received at least $50,000 from Lucas and his wife when Pence was running for governor of Indiana.</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lucas also gave Pence two tickets worth $774 to attend a Colts game in 2017 that Pence abruptly left after players on the opposing team kneeled during the national anthem</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Lucas was also rumored to be&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/forrest-lucas-trump-interior-secretary-228364" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box;">a top choice</a>&nbsp;to become Interior secretary by Trump’s transition team, which was led by Pence.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In the political world, Lucas is also known for his battles against animal-rights advocates,</b>&nbsp;founding the Protect the Harvest activist group.</font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Protect the Harvest, like other ranching advocacy groups, pressed public officials for the Hammonds’ release.&nbsp;<b>Lawyers for the Hammonds had filed a clemency request with the government during the Obama administration, but only heard back silence.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">With Trump’s election, and his increasingly confident use of his presidential pardon powers, the Hammonds’ supporters grew hopeful. Trump “has been very vocal, even publicly on TV, asking for more cases like this, where people know that there was a major injustice [WHITE GREIVANCE? COWBOYS? ]and they need to look at it,” Duquette said.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Hammonds’ advocates also reached out to Oregon’s congressional delegation. They found little support among the state’s elected Democrats&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">but managed to secure help from the state’s lone Republican congressman, Greg Walden,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;according to&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lawrence Matasar, a Portland attorney who represented the Hammonds at trial and helped file the clemency petition.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“He was very helpful. He said he’d take a look,” Matasar said. “What really happened? I don’t know. It was a black box to me. From what I heard, Walden reached out to Pence.”</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Two weeks ago, Walden gave a speech on the House floor calling for Trump to pardon the ranchers, and on July 1, Walden wrote in a Facebook post that the president had called him to say he was “seriously considering” clemency.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pence’s office did not immediately respond for comment, and the Hammonds could not be reached for comment.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The former U.S. Attorney for Oregon who handled the case, Amanda Marshall, said in an interview earlier this week that the pardon was a “slap in the face” to the jurors who found the ranchers guilty, adding, “There’s no place for favoritism in law enforcement, but that’s exactly what this comes down to in the Trump administration.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="link" href="mailto:matt.pearce@latimes.com" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">matt.pearce@latimes.com</font></span></a></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 30px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Pearce is a national reporter for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.twitter.com/mattdpearce" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">@mattdpearce</a>.</font></font></p></div></div></div></div></article></div></main></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/forrest-lucas-hammond-pardon-bundy-trump-pence">https://www<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.buzzfeed</span>news.com/article/annehelenpetersen/forrest-lucas-hammond-pardon-bundy-trump-pence</a>#.syD8RwE3w</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><b>the last call Oregon rancher Dwight Hammond Jr. made before heading to federal prison on two counts of arson in 2016 was to a man he hardly knew. Forrest Lucas, who made his fortune on oil engine additives, promised Hammond that he would do whatever he could to get him and his son, Steven, out of prison.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Early Tuesday morning aboard Air Force One, en route to the NATO summit, President Donald Trump signed an official clemency order pardoning the two men.</span>&nbsp;Lucas — a 76-year-old Indiana self-made millionaire with tight ties to the Trump administration — had fulfilled his pledge.</div><div>
</div><div>For nearly two decades, the Hammonds had been engaged in skirmishes with the Bureau of Land Management, an agency that functions as a go-between for ranchers and the federal land they lease for grazing. They pushed back, often threateningly, on regulations regarding the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, which bordered the Hammonds’ grazing allotment, and they set unpermitted fires on BLM land. After a second fire in 2006, the pair were charged with 19 different crimes, but eventually arranged a plea deal for just two charges of arson on federal land, which carried a minimum of a five-year sentence. The judge declared that such lengthy jail time qualified as cruel and unusual punishment, instead sentencing Dwight to three months and Steven to one year and one day. The pair served their time and returned home. But the federal government successfully appealed the sentence, and on Jan. 4, 2016, the Hammonds were ordered to return to prison.</div><div>
</div><div>[US Department of Justice</div><div>Steven Hammond (left) and his father, Dwight Hammond, after their arrest.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The verdict brought Ammon and Ryan Bundy — who, along with their father, Cliven, had been involved in an armed confrontation with BLM officials over the management of their grazing allotment in Nevada — to Eastern Oregon</b>. On Jan. 2, Ammon led several hundred people on a peaceful march through Burns, Oregon, in support of the Hammonds. At the end of the march, he made a declaration: Whoever wanted to take a “hard stand” against the government should follow him — thus launching what would become the 41-day armed standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.</div><div>
</div><div>The Hammonds, however, weren’t there. Nor did they condone what the Bundys and others had done in their name. When the occupation began, they were back on their ranch with&nbsp;<b>Dave Duquette, Lucas’s close associate.&nbsp;</b>When the Hammonds flew back to a hero’s welcome in Burns, Oregon, it was aboard Lucas’s private jet. Lucas, whose company, Lucas Oil, currently holds naming rights for the Indianapolis Colts’ stadium, has made a pro-agriculture, anti-regulation agenda his mission over the past eight years — and had decided that the Hammonds fit into his larger master plan.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">To achieve his goals, Lucas has used a nonprofit he founded, Protect the Harvest — devoted to “working to protect your right to hunt, fish, farm, eat meat, and own pets” — as well as his close ties to Vice President Mike Pence,&nbsp;<b>Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue</b>, whose top adviser is a former employee of Lucas’s. As Duquette puts it, “the access is very good.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>“Most people wouldn’t get involved,” Duquette told BuzzFeed News in early June.&nbsp;<b>“But thank god for Forrest Lucas, because he’s been willing to take on the hard issues.</b>” Among those hard issues: fighting environmental activists, pushing back against regulation, and protecting farmers and ranchers from what they see as federal overreach. That’s why Lucas grew interested in the Hammonds in the first place. “We’re all about affordable food and land use and personal rights,” Duquette explained. The Hammond case “intersects perfectly with the Protect the Harvest mission.”</div><div>
</div><div>Protect the Harvest has built a positive rapport with the ag community by sponsoring scholarships and racetracks and film festivals. But the nonprofit has also benefited by inflaming the community’s anxieties that a time-honored way of life is coming to an end —<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;while eliding the fact that its own lobbying on behalf of corporations and against regulations has hastened the destruction of that lifestyle.</span></div><div>
</div><div>For those active in the agricultural world, Lucas has primarily been known for his strong stance on animal regulation, actively opposing attempts to limit or monitor mistreatment of pets and livestock with laws that would, for example, establish minimum spacing for hen cages or veal calf pens, crack down on puppy mills, or prevent intentional mutilation of Tennessee walking horses. A particular target of his&nbsp;<b>efforts has been the Humane Society of the United States — the national organization that has spearheaded the vast majority of initiatives related to animal regulation, and which Lucas has referred to as “terrorists.</b>”</div><div>
</div><div>Justin Sullivan / Getty Images</div><div>Ammon Bundy (left), the leader of an anti-government militia, prepares to speak to members of the media in front of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters on Jan. 5, 2016, near Burns, Oregon.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But Lucas’s agenda is hardly limited to cage sizes and puppy mills, as reflected by his support of the Hammonds and, by extension, the Bundys and others opposed to federal control of public lands. And to get what he wants<b>, Lucas has employed a highly sophisticated lobbying and messaging machine,</b>&nbsp;which does everything from funding opposition to municipal spaying and neutering ordinances to orchestrating “range rights” conferences, streamed live on Facebook to an audience of thousands.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Protect the Harvest has spent millions producing web videos and memes that spread across the dozens of Bundy-adjacent Facebook pages that have popped up in the last decade.</b>&nbsp;It also focuses on messaging to children: There are anti-regulatory Protect the Harvest coloring activity sheets, and a pro-ag Protect the Harvest–branded teaching curriculum available for download on their website.<b>&nbsp;In 2015, Lucas began producing feature-length films — starring Hollywood actors like Sharon Stone, Jon Voight, and Jane Seymour — to promote his strongly anti-regulation agenda.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2015, Lucas began producing feature-length films — starring Hollywood actors like Sharon Stone, Jon Voight, and Jane Seymour — to promote his strongly anti-regulation agenda.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lucas’s film and television production studio, the Corona, California–based ESX Entertainment, currently has five films in production — including Stand at Paxton County described as the story of a rancher and his daughter who “face off against state and local authorities who by questionable means relieve local ranchers of their livestock and way of life.</span>”</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After Trump took office, Lucas made the short list of potential appointees for interior secretary. Although Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke ultimately got the job, he has provided an open door to both Lucas and Protect the Harvest. Meanwhile, Brian Klippenstein, who is still listed as PTH’s executive director, now works as senior adviser to Perdue. Pence’s vice presidency has been a boon for Lucas, who, according to a Protect the Harvest spokesperson, has been friends<b>&nbsp;[funder]&nbsp;</b>with Pence since before he took the office of Indiana governor.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In addition to Lucas’s own role as one of Trump’s agricultural advisers, public records indicate that Lucas met with Zinke in April 2017 to discuss wild horses, grazing access issues, and national monument designations</span>. In October, when Pence flew to attend an Indianapolis Colts game, abruptly leaving when players knelt during the national anthem, he first spent time posing for photos with Lucas and&nbsp;<b>Duquette.</b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Protect the Harvest also has ties to former EPA chief Scott Pruitt,</span>&nbsp;who was a featured speaker at a Protect the Harvest event in Indianapolis on Jan. 26, 2016.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Protect the Harvest / Facebook</div><div>Lucas, the Hammonds, and Duquette on Lucas's private plane back to Burns.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Lucas’s investment in the Hammonds — and the Bundys, who’ve been invited to Protect the Harvest–sponsored forums — is a means to an end. They have become symbols of the way many rural Americans feel they’ve been wronged by<b>&nbsp;federal overreach, and Lucas, much like Trump, leverages those feelings to build support for one of his overriding goals: wide-scale deregulation of big business.</b></span></div><div>
</div><div>This is the story of how Forrest Lucas became the behind-the-scenes architect of a multipronged political and propaganda machine — unknown to most Americans, yet with an outsize influence on the current administration and the way millions think of their rural way of life, the industries that shape it, and the government’s role within it.</div><div>
</div><div>“This administration has been pretty good at asking for problems,” Duquette explained. “And then addressing them.” The Hammond pardon is the first such Protect the Harvest “problem” that’s been directly addressed on the national stage. But with Lucas’s direct access to multiple wings of the administration, it’s unlikely to be the last.</div><div>
</div><div>Dave Duquette /<b>&nbsp;Facebook</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lucas, Duquette, and Ramona Hage Morrison at the Department of the Interior.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To understand why an incredibly wealthy man like Lucas would care about the fate of a pair of Oregon ranchers, you have to consider the concept of “the harvest” as Lucas is using it: a stand-in for everything from actual crop yields to what he views as the fundamental right to make a living as one sees fit off the land. In tax filings,&nbsp;<b>Protect the Harvest describes its mission as educational</b>: “to ensure accurate information is communicated to the general public with the rise of various groups threatening to end modern agriculture and hunting in the United States.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>In practice, this “accurate information” has centered on a cluster of issues that are closely tied to Big Ag’s priorities:</b>&nbsp;portraying animal rights activists and environmentalists as out-of-touch liberals bent on ending the rural way of life; characterizing regulation and federal oversight, particularly on public lands, as a means of curtailing American liberty; and advocating for and providing platforms for public figures — such as the Hammonds — to function as symbols of widespread persecution of the ag community.</div><div>
</div><div>That this apparatus was built in just eight years, by a man with little in the way of a visible political profile, is a testament to what a few million dollars can do in our current American ideological landscape. And while Lucas may seem like an unlikely political figure, his “all-American” rise, and the obstacles that defined it, go a long way toward explaining the ardor and anger fueling his cause.</div><div>
</div><div>While Lucas may seem like an unlikely political figure, his “all-American” rise goes a long way toward explaining the ardor and anger fueling his cause.</div><div>At age 76, Lucas has deep brown hair that seems to belie the natural aging process. When he speaks with the press, he tends to wear shirts emblazoned with the Lucas Oil logo of his company, or a race car jersey. He’s the sort of man who’d commission a documentary about his own life — titled<b>&nbsp;American Real: The Forrest Lucas Story&nbsp;</b>— show it at a film festival, and then make it nearly impossible for anyone to view it again. He considers himself an embodiment of the American dream: a boy who, as he tells it, grew up without electricity in rural Indiana but then, over decades of hard work and fair dealings, scraped his way to a multimillion-dollar company.</div><div>
</div><div>Born in 1942, Lucas grew up on a farm in Elkinsville, Indiana — living, as he put it, “pretty much like people lived in the 1800s.” “Most people now could only read about that,” he said, “but I got to see the tail end of it. Most people think it’s kind bucolic, but it’s actually a pretty hard way to go.” According to Lucas, when he was 9 years old, he got his start as an entrepreneur by going door-to-door, barefooted, selling a supposed miracle cure called Cloverine Salve.</div><div>
</div><div>Lucas was, in many ways, a typical farm kid. He’d wake in the morning to take care of the cows and pigs, go to school, and return home to care for them again. At age 15, he left home to work at a cattle ranch in Harrison County, near the Kentucky state line. He graduated high school, then, as he later put it, “went to a long college called hard knocks.” By age 18, Lucas was a married man with a child — and left the ranching life to make a living for his family, hauling dirt, finding odd construction jobs, selling Singer sewing machines, and working a muffler assembly line at night.</div><div>
</div><div>But what Lucas really wanted was a semi. “I’d see these guys going down the road,” he said, “and maybe they were going somewhere. I wanted to get into the truck and go somewhere.” At 21, he pulled together enough money to buy his first semi — the first in what would eventually become a fleet. Two years later, the creek that ran near his childhood farm would be dammed in order to power the nearby city of Bloomington. The entirety of Lucas’s hometown of Elkinton was acquired through eminent domain. His childhood farm was gone, superseded by the needs of those in the city nearby.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Lucas didn’t make his fortune on trucks. He made it on oil additives, created using a “secret formula” that Lucas claims to have discovered almost by accident and which, his company claims, has seemingly miraculous effects on the performance of engines</b>: It reduces wear, lengthens engine life, improves gas mileage, and makes motors run quieter, among other things. Lucas Oil is marketed to car aficionados, gearheads, and truckers with aging rigs.</div><div>
</div><div>Getty Images; Alamy</div><div>
</div><div>In the ’80s, Lucas Oil began putting its logo on race cars as a means of advertising. The Lucases bought a cattle ranch in Cross Timbers, Missouri, that has grown to 15,000 acres, with over 3,000 cattle. They opened an oil processing plant in Corona, California, and a second one in Corydon, Indiana, where they also purchased the local railroad. In 2011, Lucas acquired a television channel, MAVTV, and filled it with races featuring cars emblazoned with the Lucas Oil logo. “I realized several years ago that people were starting to [skip] commercials,” Lucas told Autoweek. “We needed to be in the TV show itself, more so than just be on the car.”</div><div>
</div><div>Lucas began to acquire the entire means of production: He sponsored the cars, he built or bought the tracks, he owned the broadcasting network, and when the production company he’d employed to make commercials went bankrupt, he bought their gear and trained his loading dock employees to operate it, moving to a dilapidated Sunkist factory in Corona. By 2012, at least 700 different racing teams wore the Lucas Oil logo; today, many of those teams have transitioned to wearing the logo for Protect the Harvest. It’s vertical integration, done the Lucas way: first to promote his oil brand, now to promote his ideological one.</div><div>
</div><div>Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.</div><div>
</div><div>“The thing that’s interesting about Lucas — I don’t think anyone realizes what kind of reach he has,” a correspondent for Speed magazine said in 2012. Apart from the racing, Lucas’s name and brand is broadcast into millions of homes every week via nationally televised games at&nbsp;<b>Lucas Oil Stadium. The $121.5 million gambit, which affixes the Lucas Oil name to the stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play until 2028, launched Lucas and his second wife, Charlotte, onto the radar of the Indiana elite. Suddenly, the farm boy was a person to know.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The Indianapolis elite began actively courting his full-time return from California, where he’d been running Lucas Oil for decades. “Forrest would be a big fish in this pond,” then-mayor Bart Peterson told Indianapolis Monthly in 2007. “He would be somebody who would be noticed, because of his roots, and the fact that he’s proud of those roots.” In 2010, the Lucases purchased a sprawling mansion, known as Le Chateau Renaissance, outside of Indianapolis, with the primary intention to use it for fundraisers and benefits. He added a 220,000-square-foot expansion to his Indiana plant, effectively making it the home base for Lucas Oil operations. Seven decades removed from an electricity-less farm in Elkinsville, Indiana, Forrest Lucas had arrived.</div><div>
</div><div>Like many who find their fortunes secure, Lucas decided to throw his newfound influence around. He began donating to political figures — to then-governor Pence, but also to multiple representatives in Missouri, where Lucas ran a cattle ranch. It was there, in 2010, that he took on his first major political fight against Missouri’s Proposition B, colloquially known as the “puppy mill bill.” The bill aimed to limit dog breeding facilities to 50 unspayed/unneutered animals, which would effectively eliminate the “puppy mill” industry in the states where such facilities are most concentrated.</div><div>
</div><div>“We’ve got to go on the offense. We’ve got to start staking out ag turf.”</div><div><b>For outsiders, regulating dog breeding and preventing abuses might seem like an easy call, but to dog breeders, it felt like a threat to their way of life.</b>&nbsp;The fight over Proposition B became a proxy for a much larger battle, between animal rights activists — and HSUS in particular — and the agricultural industry writ large. Prop B ultimately passed with 51.59% of the vote — only to be overturned by the Missouri legislature. The struggle over Proposition B emboldened Lucas. Together with other ag producers, he constructed a blueprint for a larger organization that would promote the interests of agriculture<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. “We’ve got to go on the offense,” Erik Helland, then-majority whip of the Iowa House of Representatives, and one of early architects of this organization, said. “We’ve got to start staking out ag turf.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>In 2012, Protect the Harvest filed paperwork with the FEC to create a political action committee known as the Protect the Harvest Action Fund.&nbsp;</b>Brian Klippenstein — the son of a longtime Missouri state senator, who’d spent the previous&nbsp;<b>five years as then-senator Kit Bond’s chief of staff&nbsp;</b>— became the group’s executive director. While Klippenstein comes from a long ranching heritage, he has the polish and hairstyle of someone who’s spent decades rubbing elbows in DC. According to his Protect the Harvest bio, Klippenstein has “completed over 50 marathons, including over a dozen 50-milers and four single-day 100-milers…all fueled by a high-protein diet centered around nutrient-dense red meat.”</div><div>
</div><div>Source: Pro Publica Nonprofit Explorer</div><div>Protect the Harvest expenditures 2012-2016</div><div>
</div><div><b>Between 2012 and 2016, the latest year for which tax returns are available, Protect the Harvest Action Fund has spent close to $4 million on influence and lobbying activities</b>. (All tax filings are available here.) Since 2012, the vast majority of Protect the Harvest’s PAC money has been directed toward supporting “Right to Farm” legislation and combating initiatives, most of them spearheaded by the HSUS, that Lucas’s group sees as infringing upon agricultural liberty. The language of contemporary Right to Farm amendments guarantees farmers and ranchers the right to engage in their livelihoods and produce food for others. If that sounds vague, it’s purposeful: It’s less intended to address a current threat than future ones. In practice, it helps bolster the feeling that an industry is vulnerable.</div><div>
</div><div>You can get a sense of that perceived vulnerability in a post in ranching publication Drovers, written by cattle genetics specialist Jared Wareham: “Our industry has plead [sic] for a way to help block and then counterpunch anti-ag initiatives and the well-funded organizations that spearhead those efforts,” Wareham writes. “It is unnerving to know that if left unmonitored, these groups could lead initiatives to change the laws of a state or influence the language of those laws so something we have done for a living could be unlawful. If these organizations can win battles in one state, it could easily open the door to successes in other states.”</div><div>
</div><div>And who happens to be defending the industry from this alleged war? Protect the Harvest, which Wareham describes as “the shield of armor we’ve been looking for.”</div><div>
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</div><div>Protect The Harvest / Facebook</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Protect the Harvest’s first foray into the fray came in Missouri, where it offered broad media support for a 2014 Right to Farm amendment, copied from a 2012 version drafted in North Dakota. For that campaign, Lucas enlisted then–state senator Mike Parson, who is now governor, and to whom Lucas has given more than $175,000 in campaign donations.</b>&nbsp;The two men first connected in 2010, during the campaign against Proposition B. After it passed, Parson, whose district included Lucas’s cattle ranch and one of his speedways, sponsored the legislation that effectively defanged the bill. From 2013 to 2015, Parson served as the treasurer of Protect the Harvest, and when Parson ran for lieutenant governor in 2016, Lucas and his wife campaigned alongside him; after he won, he framed a Protect the Harvest poster in his office.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In North Dakota, the Right to Farm amendment had sailed to an easy victory, winning two-thirds of the vote. But in Missouri, it was hotly contested.</b>&nbsp;One public radio story framed it as pitting “farmer against farmer,” leaving little way for small producers to defend against the incursion and growth of larger ones. Protect the Harvest argued, “Our rights don’t come from government. They are God-given freedoms that come with our humanity. However, bureaucrats and activist judges have made it clear that they will not respect those rights unless they are codified in statutes or constitutions.” Together, both sides spent a total of $1.5 million on messaging. The amendment barely passed, eking out 50.12% of the final vote.</div><div>
</div><div><b>A version of the amendment then migrated to Oklahoma, where Protect the Harvest was joined in support by the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, and the Oklahoma Pork Council.&nbsp;</b>Their opposition, led by HSUS, the Sierra Club, the ASPCA, and the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, argued that the bill, SQ 777, would make it impossible to act if and when ag polluted or otherwise threatened a water source or the land.</div><div>
</div><div>“I work with family farmers from all over the state,” said Adam Price, a representative of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. “And I can say with absolute certainty that SQ 777 was not conceived with them in mind.” The “yes” argument was crystallized in a television ad created by Protect the Harvest: “Have you seen the ads attacking 777? ALL LIES. Paid for by the same out-of-state animal rights groups that oppose the right to hunt and fish.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>In the end, the Yes side lost by 20 points — the first major defeat for the new wave of Right to Farm legislation and Protect the Harvest.&nbsp;</b>Brian Jones, an attorney who spent a year working for the “no” side, links the amendment’s failure to reactivated memory: “Most people in Oklahoma have an agricultural heritage, meaning their grandparents or parents were farmers,” he told BuzzFeed News. “One of the consequences of the industrialization of ag is that fewer and fewer people are involved in it. Most of what is out there, in the market right now, is Big Ag.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During this same period in the ’90s, there was enormous consolidation in ag production — basically, big farms buying up smaller ones — that marked an end to many farming families’ way of life. “There were some fights about all this back then,” Jones said. “But 777 reraised all these questions: Where did the jobs go? What happened to the people?”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Protect The Harvest / Facebook</div><div>
</div><div><b>In Missouri, Protect the Harvest had effectively mobilized those rural anxieties, papering over the role of larger industrial and legislative forces that had ended that way of life years before. In Oklahoma, that project failed — but their defeat has only served to bolster Protect the Harvest’s argument that outsiders are determined to fight against one’s “right to farm</b>.” (In an email to BuzzFeed News, a spokesman responded to a question about the effects of deregulation on small farms with the following statement: “Protect the Harvest supports all forms of agriculture. Our mission is to educate and inform the public about issues that impact our American traditions, heritage and way of life. There are many overreaching regulations that impact farms, both large and small which ultimately affect the American public as both large and small farms feed our nation.”)</div><div>
</div><div><b>Lucas’s design to “protect” the harvest has largely entailed fighting regulation. Like many conservative operatives, Protect the Harvest views any type of regulation, whether on the hours a long-haul trucker can legally drive or the conditions for raising chickens, as unnecessary and restrictive incursions on free enterprise, but one area of particular interest has been wild horses.</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Back in 2012, Dave Duquette attempted to bring a horse slaughterhouse to his hometown of Hermiston, Oregon,&nbsp;</span>promising much-needed economic stimulus to the area, but local leaders balked at the prospect of the town being equated with a taboo industry.&nbsp;<b>Fast-forward six years, and Duquette is the “equine specialist” for Protect the Harvest.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Duquette, who is rarely without his cowboy hat and a cowboy shirt embroidered with the Protect the Harvest or Lucas Oil logo, has spearheaded Protect the Harvest’s efforts to change the messaging around wild horse management from cruelty to benevolence.</div><div>
</div><div>“It was really scary to be targeted by that machine.”&nbsp;</div><div>“American wild horses are suffering due to overcrowding, which has led to starvation and death,” the opening to a four-part series on Protect the Harvest’s homepage claims. “We have the opportunity and obligation to protect them from long and painful suffering by controlling their numbers.” A 15-minute PTH-produced video, titled “Horses in Crisis,” features an array of sick and starving horses, as well as ranchers and others condemning “horse advocates” for their lack of knowledge about horses on the range. “It’s time to bring facts, reason, and a special perspective to an issue dominated by emotion,” a solemn-voiced narrator says. The overarching message: Those who deal with wild horses on the land should dictate how to manage horses on the land, and not faraway regulators.</div><div>
</div><div><b>That was Duquette’s message in 2015, when he visited Nevada in support of a rancher named Kevin Borba, who had repeatedly and progressively flouted rules governing the treatment of wild horses on his grazing allotment</b>.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Duquette posted a picture of Borba in a Protect the Harvest–branded four-wheeler, out to “document” the “lies” spread by Laura Leigh, who was heading up an experimental fertility control program on the horses.&nbsp;</span>Protect the Harvest created a series of videos framing Borba as a victim of the BLM, whose “mismanagement hurts both the horses and the ranchers whose livelihood are being taken away.” According to Leigh, an initial version of the video, later taken down, included her name, prompting immediate harassment. (Protect the Harvest disputes this claim.)&nbsp;<b>“I was getting a dozen death threats with my morning coffee</b>,” Leigh told BuzzFeed News. “It was really scary to be targeted by that machine.”</div><div>
</div><div>George Frey / Getty Images</div><div>Wild horses are held in a BLM holding/adoption facility after being rounded up from BLM land in the western United States on June 1, 2017, in Delta, Utah.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Lucas has repeatedly referred to HSUS and animal rights activists as “terrorists” intent on “passing laws to ruin America”</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;that deliberately impugn the small-time farmer’s way of life.&nbsp;</span>Lucas’s political donations and Protect the Harvest’s messaging around ballot initiatives underlined that ideology. But to make those ideologies even more robust and persuasive required something more effective than political ads. They needed propaganda.</div><div>
</div><div>Propaganda is anything from a pamphlet to a television program that attempts to make an argument for a particular political stance, whether on the right, left, or center — but much of it can be heavy-handed, simplistic, or misleading. When it comes to agriculture and animal rights issues, both sides of the issue produce propaganda. But only one side has its own film studio.</div><div>
</div><div>When Lucas first started producing television programming for his television channel, the focus was vehicles to broaden his company’s name recognition. “We got into the entertainment business to sell oil,” Lucas once said. “And nothing is more entertaining than fast cars, trucks, planes, and boats.” By 2015, his intentions had expanded. “For me, venturing into the film business is not about money, glamour or fun,” Lucas said. “It’s about being able to deliver messages and having a viable vehicle to do so.”</div><div>
</div><div>“For me, venturing into the film business is not about money, glamour, or fun. It’s about being able to deliver messages and having a viable vehicle to do so.”</div><div>But what sort of “messages” did Lucas want to transmit? Protect the Harvest messages.</div><div>
</div><div><b>&nbsp;Last year’s Pray for Rain, starring Jane Seymour, suggests that corrupt environmentalists, in league with shady gangsters, are prolonging the terrible drought afflicting Central California and threatening the livelihoods of desperate local farmers.&nbsp;</b>R<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">unning Wild, also from 2017 and starring Sharon Stone — who also coproduced — depicts a wild horse advocate, whom Laura Leigh believes is loosely based on her, as an evil villain trying to shut down a horse rehabilitation program. The 2016 film The Dog Lover, featuring Lea Thompson, involves a young woman who volunteers with an animal protection group to go undercover at a puppy mill — only to discover that the organization is far more dangerous than the “mill” itself, which, turns out, is actually a kindhearted breeding operation.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>ESX films are regularly panned by critics, do not receive theatrical releases, and go straight to video or VOD.</b>&nbsp;But profits, according to Lucas, are secondary. They’re reaching an audience: ag families who don’t feel that their way of life is represented accurately onscreen, and those who may not know a thing about agriculture but will be called upon to vote or think about the issues represented in the films. Watch The Dog Lover, for example, without much understanding of the dog breeding industry, and it’s easy to believe that “puppy mills” are an idea concocted by manipulative animal rights activists who have no idea what they’re talking about.</div><div>
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</div><div>ESX Entertainment</div><div>
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</div><div><b>The feature films are only one arm of Protect the Harvest’s messaging apparatus. Back in 2014, Lucas commissioned a documentary about his life (produced by advertising company MARC USA), which screened at the Heartland Film Festival</b>. (<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Earlier that month, Lucas’s wife, Charlotte, had drawn national attention for a Facebook post, later deleted, that declared, “I’m sick and tired of minorities running our country! As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think that atheists (minority), muslims (minority) or any other minority group has the right to tell the majority of people in the United States what they can and cannot do here. Is everyone so scared that they can’t fight for what’s right or wrong with this country?”)</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The day after the Facebook post, Lucas — who has previously acknowledged that his workforce is largely composed of immigrants — issued a full-page apology in the Indianapolis Star for his wife’s post, explaining that it&nbsp;<b>did not “reflect the feelings in her heart,”</b>&nbsp;and underlining that Lucas Oil “is proud to have employees, friends, customers, and business partners reflecting ethnic and racial diversity.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Apart from the films, Protect the Harvest maintains a robust Facebook presence: Its page currently has 258,000-plus followers&nbsp;</b>and posts links, petitions, editorials, and memes five or six times a day. The Protect the Harvest website features links to civics workbooks that can be suggested as additions to local curriculum; at the bottom of the first page, a logo declares, “You could be forced to give up your freedom to hunt, fish, and own animals. Learn more at ProtectTheHarvest.com.” For class activities, the workbook suggests observing the judicial branch at work in movies like To Kill a Mockingbird, My Cousin Vinny, or Protect the Harvest’s own The Dog Lover. For kids, there’s a section of downloadable coloring sheets bordered with “PROTECT YOUR PET! PROTECT AMERICA! PROTECT THE HARVEST.COM!”</div><div>
</div><div>In Range magazine — an independently owned quarterly publication full of beautiful rural landscapes and essays about how “the U.S. government has inflicted 40 years of abuse on Nevada’s Hage family” — Protect the Harvest now occupies about half of the ad space, promoting Protect the Harvest films and the Hammond pardon. Partnering with Range, Protect the Harvest has helped fund three “<b>Range Rights” conferences — in Layton, Utah; in Bellevue, Nebraska; and in Modesto, California.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>The two-day conference was founded in 2015 as a way to harness the energy following the Bundys’ Malheur occupation;</b>&nbsp;attendants include a mix of Malheur devotees and local ranchers. In Modesto this April, the attendance hovered around 40, and half the attendees were speakers themselves — but the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;real range rights audience was online, where each of the speeches was streamed in full.<b>&nbsp;Rep. Devin Nunes,&nbsp;</b>once part of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation, attacked the press; the local sheriff emphasized that his officers knew to look the other way when local ranchers had an unlicensed firearm.&nbsp;</span>The daughter of LaVoy Finicum spoke about the legacy of her father, the rancher who was killed by Oregon State Police in what have become heavily contested circumstances, effectively rendering him a&nbsp;<b>martyr for the Bundy movement.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;Finally,<b>&nbsp;Ammon Bundy</b>&nbsp;preached the latest chapter in the family’s gospel, emphasizing that environmentalists are “an enemy to humans” practicing their own heretical religion.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The entire event was hosted by Trent Loos, a Nebraska farmer, member of President Trump’s Agricultural Advisory Committee, and one of Protect the Harvest’s most visible activists, united with Lucas in his fierce opposition to HSUS.</span>&nbsp;(<b>When HSUS began using Michael Vick’s role in dogfighting and other forms of animal abuse to make the case for tougher legislation, Loos wrote that Vick was being persecuted for “not ... treating his dog like a kid.</b>”) With his bushy mustache and ranching vest<b>, Loos — who pleaded no contest in 2005 to charges of cattle fraud —</b>&nbsp;looks the part of the cowboy, and will play one in a forthcoming PTH film.<b>&nbsp;In Modesto, Loos took the stage with Nunes.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">As a member of the ag committee, we have a certain level of frustration that we haven’t&nbsp;<b>drained the swamp quicker,</b>&nbsp;t</span>hat we still have old-school bureaucrats in the positions of decision-making,” he said. “So how do we get that fixed? Because obviously there’s a bigger plug in the swamp than anticipated.”</div><div>
</div><div>Juice Images Ltd / Getty Images</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At that point, Protect the Harvest had been working to “unplug” the swamp for well over a year. When journalist Michael Lewis began investigating the transition officials appointed by the Trump administration, he zeroed in on Brian Klippenstein’s USDA role.</span>&nbsp;In an interview with Fresh Air, Lewis described Protect the Harvest as an organization that sees its job “as essentially trolling the Humane Society,” and is “hypersensitive to animal rights people and tries to respond to animal rights activists wherever it can.” USDA employees found Klippenstein’s appointment odd because, as Lewis put it, “one of the things the USDA does is stand up for the rights of animals in animal-people disputes.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Dogfighting, circuses, animal slaughter, animal testing — the USDA is charged with documenting and monitoring those operations. In the subsequent weeks, Klippenstein alone took on the responsibilities of a transition team that usually would’ve been entrusted to a team of at least 20.</b>&nbsp;Through his briefings, he became intent on figuring out which of the existing Department of Agriculture employees had been researching climate change and its ramifications.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The request was denied, but Klippenstein made his mark in other ways. He now serves as a senior adviser to&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue,&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">who has overseen the removal of USDA documents detailing past animal inspections, enforcement actions, and annual reports on 7,800 different facilities.&nbsp;</span>The removal was prompted by a lawsuit, filed during the Obama administration, alleging that a report identifying Tennessee walking horse owners as “violators” of anti-soring regulations&nbsp;<b>impinged on their rights to due process and privacy. To address the suit, Perdue has removed all records.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">According to Duquette, Lucas first brought up the idea of a pardon to then-governor Pence before Trump’s election.</span></div><div><b>The move was celebrated by Tennessee walking horse groups</b>, but it has broader beneficiaries: practitioners of industrial agriculture, whose husbandry, living, and slaughter practices are also monitored by the USDA. The lack of publicly accessible monitoring records will make it increasingly difficult to prosecute, legislate, or otherwise regulate current agricultural practices.</div><div>
</div><div>“We’re lucky with the things this administration has been doing,” Duquette told BuzzFeed News. “It’s been really good to deal with, and find problems to fix. That’s probably been the best thing to happen for animal agriculture, the pet industry, and the food supply.”</div><div>
</div><div>This sort of access and influence helps explain how the Hammonds’ appeal made its way to President Trump’s desk. According to Duquette, Lucas first brought up the idea of a pardon to then-governor Pence before Trump’s election. When Lucas and Pence had dinner in May, Lucas brought up the case again, making the argument for a commuted sentence. Soon after, the case was moved to the office of Pence’s chief counsel.</div><div>
</div><div>“You know, it’s ‘a squeaky wheel gets the grease’ deal,” Duquette told BuzzFeed News. “<b>And I know the president needs help from people to highlight injustices.” Since late May, Protect the Harvest’s social media accounts have been in overdrive eliciting popular support for the Hammonds’ cause. Protect the Harvest has also moved to distance itself and their cause from the Bundys, who’ve been grouped with the Hammonds since the days of the standoff.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Indeed, Duquette believes that if the Malheur occupation hadn’t happened, the Hammonds would’ve been pardoned long ago. “I don’t disagree with [the Bundys’] issues, but the tactics are...” he said, pausing for a moment. “I understand the tactics because of their frustration with what they’ve had to deal with over the years.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>During the occupation, Duquette and Trent Loos posed for a photo with Ammon Bundy;&nbsp;</b>while a representative from Protect the Harvest has denied offering material support to the occupiers, Todd Macfarlane — a lawyer, Bundy supporter, and standoff spokesperson — blogged that Protect the Harvest had made “its people, resources and checkbook available.” Protect the Harvest counters that a representative “went to Malheur Refuge one week into the occupation to do an interview with Ammon Bundy.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>But as the Hammond petition made its way to the White House, Duquette told BuzzFeed News that he called Ammon Bundy to let him know that Protect the Harvest would be publicly distancing itself from the Bundy family.</b>&nbsp;Still, the Bundys threw themselves behind the pardon petition, posting multiple links to it. When the news was announced, the Bundy Ranch Facebook page’s post alluded to the connection: “Thank you @POTUS for carrying out justice and pardoning Oregon ranchers Dwight & Steven Hammond. Many ranchers in the West have suffered under the heavy hand of the federal government. These men are great patriots.”</div><div>
</div><div>Pardoning the Hammonds suggests not only that this particular case was mistreated, but that fears of government are warranted.</div><div>Duquette acknowledges that a Hammond pardon will be treated as a win for the Bundys and their supporters. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he said. “The president would have an outpouring of support in the West, and throughout the Midwest, from all the people that are his base for doing this. It would show a good sign of goodwill for all the people out there.”</div><div>
</div><div>To pardon the Hammonds is to ratify that their case, like so much of what Protect the Harvest lobbies against, is an example of federal overreach — engineered by ignorant outsiders who resent and misunderstand the people who make American life possible.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;As Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte phrased it in a public statement, “President Trump’s decision to pardon Dwight and Steven Hammond is a win for property rights and our way of life.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>But like so many of the issues on which Protect the Harvest’s advocacy pivots, the reality is far less stark. The Hammonds were sentenced for committing arson on federal land. An appeals court vacated that sentence because it did not satisfy the mandatory minimum sentencing requirements, and resentenced them for the mandatory minimum for that crime. Apart from the back-burning, the Hammonds have a long history of taunting BLM management and flouting their regulation. Like the Bundys, the Hammonds have long believed that the federal, public land they pay pennies on the dollar to graze should be considered their own, to manage as they please — including setting fires. The federal government, at least for the time being, disagrees.</div><div>
</div><div>Pardoning the Hammonds suggests not only that this particular case was mistreated, but that fears of government overreach are warranted — and that Trump will continue to act in a way that acknowledges those fears.</div><div>
</div><div>[Protesters on horseback ride above a rally site in Bunkerville, Nevada, April 12, 2014.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>All over ag country, Oregon to Arkansas, small schools are closing their doors. Part of the reason is that the consolidation of agriculture</b>&nbsp;— larger farms gobbling up smaller ones to stay alive — has made it impossible for those onetime small farmers to remain. The population of the small town dwindles, and the schools close, which makes it even less desirable for others to move to that town, provide services, attract jobs, or maintain the “way of life” associated with rural America.</span></div><div>
</div><div>When you look at the Protect the Harvest logo, you don’t see a family. You don’t see a way of life. You don’t see a person at all. You see a combine harvester — one of the primary advances in farming technology that led the agricultural industry to the place it is today. “All of their imagery is of big, beautiful tractors churning through a commodity crop, essentially dripping Lucas Oil,” Ryan Bell, a journalist and close observer of fights around the agricultural way of life, told BuzzFeed News.</div><div>
</div><div>Protect the Harvest and Lucas Oil logos are displayed at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018, in Dover, Delaware.</div><div>
</div><div>“But that tractor, that’s what took the community away from ranching. It undercuts a long-term, sustainable agrarian society,” he said. “There’s no need for a big family to work the farm, and no need for the family you have to stick around.&nbsp;<b>T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">oday, a man might have a thousand acres of corn, and he’s tilling it all alone with a $250,000 combine.&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">His kid’s gone. And oddly enough, this is exactly the type of person who’s pretty susceptible to Protect the Harvest rhetoric.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>There are dozens of intersecting reasons for the end of the agrarian way of life. Some of them stem from bad legislation, improper federal regulation, and advocacy from groups with little sense of the larger effects of a disruption in the food chain. There is an impending food crisis in the world’s future. To solve it, however — while also preserving the Earth long enough for our descendants to confront that crisis — all sides of the issue need to spend less time creating bogeymen of the others; less time on “offense” or “defense.”</div><div>
</div><div>The production of food may be an industry, but it’s not a game. Whether in the form of government subsidies or a vaunted position within the American imaginary, the harvest has been protected for centuries.</div><div>
</div><div>Taken separately, Protect the Harvest’s initiatives — the feature films, the fight against HSUS, the move to root out those studying global warming, the Right to Farm advocacy, the Hammond pardon — none of it seems, on its face, like a means of protecting business interests. It’s only when examined together, as part of a larger, motivating whole, that Lucas’s actual passion becomes clear. It’s not the small-time farmer. It’s certainly not the harvest. It’s not dogs, or hunting, or horses. Forrest Lucas prides himself on his identity as an all-American man. And nothing is more all-American than unfettered industry, and the profits that flow from it.&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div>BuzzFeed News Reporter</div><div>Anne Helen Petersen is a senior culture writer for BuzzFeed News and is based in Missoula, Montana.</div><div>Contact Anne Helen Petersen at anne.helen.petersen@buzzfeed.com.</div><div>Ken Bensinger</div><div>BuzzFeed News Reporter</div><div>
</div><div>Contact Ken Bensinger at ken.bensinger@buzzfeed.com.</div><div>also hernandez</div><div>
</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/usda-food-stamps-school-lunch-trump-administration">https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/usda-food-stamps-school-lunch-trump-administration</a></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">michael lewis moneyball</font></font></p><h1 class="hed" data-reactid="174" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 56px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">INSIDE TRUMP’S CRUEL CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE U.S.D.A.’S SCIENTISTS</font></font></h1><div class="dek" data-reactid="175" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span data-reactid="176" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The folks at the Department of Agriculture laid on a friendly welcome for the Trump transition team, but they soon discovered that most of his appointees were stunningly unqualified. With key U.S.D.A. programs—from food stamps to meat inspection, to grants and loans for rural development, to school lunches—under siege, the agency’s greatest problem is that even the people it helps most don’t know what it does.</font></span></font></div><div class="dek" data-reactid="175" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span data-reactid="176" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></font></div><div class="dek" data-reactid="175" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="" times="times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">More than a month after the election, the Trump transition team finally appeared. But it wasn’t a team: it was just one guy, named Brian Klippenstein. He came from his job running an organization called Protect the Harvest. <b>Protect the Harvest was founded by a Trump supporter, an Indiana oilman and rancher named Forrest Lucas. </b>Its stated purpose was “to protect your right to hunt, fish, farm, eat meat, and own animals.” In practice it mainly demonized organizations, like the Humane Society, that sought to prevent people who owned animals from doing terrible things to them. They worried, apparently, that if people were forced to be kind to animals they might one day cease to eat them. “This is a weird group,” says Rachael Bale, who writes often about animal welfare for&nbsp;</span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;" times="times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">National Geographic....</em></font></div><div class="dek" data-reactid="175" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px; margin: 20px 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;" times="times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><section class="content-section" data-reactid="242" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 30px;" times="times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-style="font-style" normal="normal"><p data-reactid="244" style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 35px 0px;">To make the Trump people feel at home the U.S.D.A. people had set aside the nicest rooms on the top floor of the nicest building, with the nicest view of the National Mall. They had fished out of storage the most beautiful photographs from the U.S.D.A.’s impressive collection and hung them on the walls. They had brought in computers and office supplies, and organized a bunch of new workstations. <b>When they heard that Joel Leftwich, the guy Trump wanted to lead his U.S.D.A. transition team, had been a lobbyist for PepsiCo, they brought in a mini-fridge stocked with Pepsis. </b>That was just the way they were at the U.S.D.A. They didn’t think: How the fuck can people paid to push sugary drinks on American kids be let anywhere near the federal department with the most influence on what American kids eat? Instead they thought: I hear he’s a nice guy!</p><p data-reactid="245" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 35px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">No one showed up that first day after the election, or the next. This was strange: the day after he was elected, Obama had sent his people into the U.S.D.A., as had Bush. At the end of the second day the folks at the Department of Agriculture called the White House to ask what was going on. “The White House said they’d be here Monday,” recalled one. On Monday morning they worked themselves up all over again into a welcoming spirit. Again, no one showed. Not that entire week.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> On November 22, Leftwich made a cameo appearance for about an hour. “We had thought, Rural America is who got Trump elected, so he’ll have to make us a priority,” said the transition planner, “but then nothing happened.” </span><span style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">(The U.S.D.A. did not respond to questions from&nbsp;</span><em style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); box-sizing: border-box;">Vanity Fair.</em><span style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">)</span></p><p data-reactid="246" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 35px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">More than a month after the election, the Trump transition team finally appeared. But it wasn’t a team: it was just one guy, named <b>Brian Klippenstein. He came from his job running an organization called Protect the Harvest. Protect the Harvest was founded by a Trump supporter, an Indiana oilman and rancher named Forrest Lucas.</b> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Its stated purpose was “to protect your right to hunt, fish, farm, eat meat, and own animals.” In practice it mainly demonized organizations, like the Humane Society, that sought to prevent people who owned animals from doing terrible things to them. They worried, apparently, that if people were forced to be kind to animals they might one day cease to eat them. “This is a weird group,” says Rachael Bale, who writes often about animal welfare for&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Geographic.</em></span></p></section><section class="content-section" data-reactid="247" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 30px;" times="times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-style="font-style" normal="normal"><p data-reactid="248" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 35px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">One of the U.S.D.A.’s many duties was to police conflicts between people and animals. It brought legal action against people who abused animals, and so maybe it wasn’t the ideal place to insert a man who was preternaturally unconcerned with their welfare. The department maintained its composure—no nasty leaks to the press, no resignations in protest—even as </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Klippenstein focused, bizarrely, on a single issue. Not animal abuse but climate change. “He came in and wanted to know all about the office on<b> climate change</b>,” says a former U.S.D.A. employee. “That’s what he wanted to focus on. He wanted the names of the people doing the work.” The career staffer running the transition politely declined to give Klippenstein the names, but he said he bore no ill will toward him for asking. Klip—as he became known affectionately—had reassured everyone by saying, to anyone who would listen, that just as soon as this transition was over he was going straight back to his small livestock farm in Missouri.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"> Bless his heart! Everything on the farm was still normal! (And just you never mind why Uncle Joe likes to be alone with his favorite sheep.)</span></p><p data-reactid="249" style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 35px 0px;">It was obvious to everyone inside the U.S.D.A. that Klip was in an impossible position; no one person could get his mind around all the things the department did. Just a couple of weeks before the inauguration, Klip was joined by three other Trump people. The four-person team made a show of sitting down with some of the roughly 100,000-person U.S.D.A. staff to hear what they had to say. These briefings lived up to their name: the entire introduction to the U.S.D.A.’s vast scientific-research unit lasted an hour. “At most of the federal agencies, there were no real briefings,” says a former senior White House official who watched the process closely. “They were basically for show. The Trump transition sent in these teams in the end just to say they were doing it.”</p></section></em></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/trump-usda-klippenstein-heitkamp/">http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/trump-usda-klippenstein-heitkamp/</a></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Choosing a centrist Democrat like Heitkamp would be quite a departure from earlier versions of Trump’s USDA short list, which&nbsp;<a href="http://www.agriculture.com/news/business/who-is-on-trumps-short-list-for-secretary-of-ag" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">included</a>&nbsp;wild cards like Texas Agriculture Commissioner&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/meet-other-colorful-character-advising-donald-trump-ag-policy" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Sid Miller</a>, who&nbsp;<a href="http://kut.org/post/sid-miller-defends-fake-news-his-facebook-page-im-not-news-source-updated" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">unapologetically shares fake news stories on his office’s Facebook page</a>&nbsp;and once&nbsp;<a href="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Oklahoma-lawmakers-deny-inviting-Sid-Miller-on-6920385.php" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">tried to bill taxpayers for a trip to take a medical procedure called a Jesus shot</a>.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/trumps-ag-czar-running-MLM" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Charles Herbster</a>&nbsp;has also appeared as a prime candidate for USDA chief—he’s a man who currently runs a a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mlmlegal.com/profiles/mlm-profiles-conklin.htm" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">multilevel marketing operation&nbsp;</a>(a highly controversial business model that relies on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.conklin.com/finddistributor.cfm?enroll=true&CFID=4531255&CFTOKEN=d6df17d5f713dc07-65001AC6-237D-E16E-6E0779FB340E73E4" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">a network of individual “distributors</a>” to sell products) and who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00567560&cycle=2016" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">finances&nbsp;</a>and&nbsp;<a href="http://ouragfuture.com/leadership/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">helps lead a</a>&nbsp;Big Ag federal super-PAC also funded by Monsanto, DuPont, Archer Daniels Midland, and other agribusiness giants.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, a day before the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Politico</em>&nbsp;piece hailing Heitkamp as the likely pick, Trump veered in a quite different direction,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.greatagain.gov/news/president-elect-trump-announces-additional-agency-landing-team-members-7.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">announcing</a>&nbsp;a new member of the team overseeing the transition of the USDA: Brian Klippenstein,&nbsp;<a href="http://protecttheharvest.com/who-we-are/brian-klippenstein/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">executive director</a>&nbsp;of a group called Protect the Harvest. The&nbsp;<a href="http://protecttheharvest.com/who-we-are/forrest-lucas/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">brainchild of Forrest Lucas</a>—a right-wing oil magnate and cattle rancher who has himself emerged as a contender to serve as Trump’s secretary of the interior—Protect the Harvest seems to exist mainly to troll the&nbsp;<a href="http://protecttheharvest.com/hsus-exposed/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Humane Society of the United States</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On its&nbsp;<a href="http://protecttheharvest.com/animal-owners/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">website</a>, Protect the Harvest warns that HSUS seeks to “put an end to animal ownership.” This is nonsense—the Humane Society is by no means coming for your furry friend. Its&nbsp;<a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/?credit=ad_gg_search_eoy16_110116_footer_web_id93480558" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">website</a>&nbsp;features “tools you need to help the pets in your home and beyond.” I asked Paul Shapiro, vice president of policy at HSUS, whether his group opposes the keeping of pets. “That would certainly be news to the vast numbers of our staff who bring their dogs to work here,” he replied.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Protect the Harvest’s real beef with HSUS appears to be that the group promotes legislation that curtails some of the harsher aspects of factory-scale animal farming. The two groups recently clashed over a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/soda-tax-election-post" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Massachusetts ballot measure</a>&nbsp;this fall to ban tight cages in egg and pork production. Lucas personally&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ocpf.us/Filers/Index?q=95440&section=Reports#filer-data" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">donated nearly $200,0000 to defeat the measure</a>, and&nbsp;Klippenstein&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/04/28/opponents-call-cage-free-egg-ballot-question-rotten/rsdN5P94IiN7Jx5mKw00XL/story.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">actively campaigned against it</a>. The measure&nbsp;<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Minimum_Size_Requirements_for_Farm_Animal_Containment,Question_3(2016)" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">passed with overwhelming support on November 8</a>.</font></p><div id="InContent_Banner_2" data-adunit="InContent_Banner_2" data-size-mapping="InContent" class="dfw-unit display-none" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 1em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Protect the Harvest’s zeal to fight regulation of animal farming&nbsp;<a href="http://protecttheharvest.com/2014/05/06/illinois-pet-breeders-pet-stores-focus-next-hsus-attack/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">extends even</a>&nbsp;to “<a href="http://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/puppy-mills" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">puppy mills</a>“—large facilities that churn out dogs like factory farms churn out pigs. Back in 2010, the year before Protect the Harvest was founded, Lucas&nbsp;<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Dog_Breeding_Regulation,Proposition_B(2010)" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">vigorously opposed</a>&nbsp;a Missouri ballot measure to “require large-scale dog breeding operations to provide each dog under their care with sufficient food, clean water, housing and space; necessary veterinary care; regular exercise and adequate rest between breeding cycles,” and to “prohibit any breeder from having more than 50 breeding dogs for the purpose of selling their puppies as pets.” In 2014, Protect the Harvest&nbsp;<a href="http://protecttheharvest.com/2014/05/06/illinois-pet-breeders-pet-stores-focus-next-hsus-attack/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">opposed</a>&nbsp;an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/raining-cats-dogs/2014/05/illinois-aimes-to-ban-the-sale-of-puppy-mill-dogs-in-pet-stores/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Illinois bill banning the retail sale of puppy-mill dogs</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Klippenstein isn’t the only member of Trump’s USDA transition team. Recall that back in November, Trump&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/meet-soda-lobbyist-leading-trumps-food-policy-team" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">picked</a>&nbsp;a lobbyist whose clients include Little Ceasar’s Pizza, the soda and snack industries, and the Illinois Soybean Association to lead the agency’s transition. He soon abruptly&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/meet-soda-lobbyist-leading-trumps-food-policy-team" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">quit&nbsp;</a>after&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-lobbying-ban-231534" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">Trump announced a ban on registered lobbyists</a>&nbsp;serving in the transition.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But then, a few days later, Trump tapped Joel Leftwich, Republican staff director for the Senate Agriculture Committee, to help lead the USDA transition. Leftwich took the Senate job in 2015—after having spent the previous three years as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=78715" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">director of government affairs for Pepsi</a>. In 2010—just before another stint on the Senate ag committee staff—Leftwich had worked as a lobbyist for seed and chemical giant DuPont. In other words, Team Trump pushed out a current lobbyist for Big Soda and Big Ag—only to replace him with a guy who basically lives in the revolving door between government and agribusiness, and whose latest turn as a lobbyist ended way back in 2015.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So basically, we’ve got a two-time industry lobbyist and an anti-animal-welfare zealot teaming up to choose the next USDA chief.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What that means for the prospect of Heitkamp taking the USDA reins is unclear. She narrowly won her North Dakota Senate seat in 2012, and Trump&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/north-dakota-president-clinton-trump" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">won the state</a>&nbsp;in 2016 with 63 percent of the vote. As a Democrat, she&nbsp;<a href="http://us.pressfrom.com/news/politics/-6391-democrats-face-tough-senate-map-in-2018/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">faces a hard fight for reelection in 2018</a>, which may be why she agreed to meet with Trump on December 2, in what was&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/12/02/sen-heidi-heikamp-meets-with-trump-amid-cabinet-speculation/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">widely read as a job interview</a>. If she exits the Senate now, North Dakota would have to hold a special election to replace her, and the winner would almost certainly be a Republican. On Monday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev,), the soon-to-retire former Democratic leader of the Senate, sought to throw water on the Heitkamp-to-USDA rumor,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/harry-reid-joe-manchin-heidi-heitkamp-predictions-232511" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">telling CNN</a>&nbsp;that “I would doubt very seriously” that she’d agree to join the Trump administration. Whether he has knowledge of Heitkamp’s intentions, or is just hoping to keep a Senate seat in the party fold, is unclear.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;=</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/us/politics/sonny-perdue-georgia.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/us/politics/sonny-perdue-georgia.html</a></font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-picks-sonny-perdue-for-agriculture-secretary/2017/01/18/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-picks-sonny-perdue-for-agriculture-secretary/2017/01/18/</a></font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-agriculture/2016/12/trumps-usda-landing-team-looks-like-its-klip-and-zip-217913</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">TRUMP’S USDA LANDING TEAM LOOKS LIKE IT’S ‘KLIP’ AND ZIP: USDA, the federal department that most directly serves rural America — one of the key voting blocs that propelled President-elect Donald Trump to victory — has had little contact with his landing team — the transition team’s crack crew responsible for collaborating with agency staff to ensure a smooth handoff from the Obama administration, reports Pro Ag’s Helena Bottemiller Evich. Inauguration Day is little more than a month out and yet it’s questionable whether the Trump transition has even fielded a landing team — as in a group of transition officials working together — at the federal government’s sixth-largest department, which has more than 100,000 employees.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As of Monday, one Trump transition volunteer,&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Brian Klippenstein, began showing up at USDA. Klippenstein, known to many as “Klip,” is executive director of Protect the Harvest, a group that advocates for safeguarding animal agriculture and was founded by oil executive <b>Forrest Lucas</b></span><b>&nbsp;</b>(who was considered for Interior secretary early in the transition’s search process).</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/_interior/</font></font></p><div class="entry-content" style="margin: 5px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While names were announced for a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/politics/donald-trump-administration.html?r=1" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">slew of appointments</a>&nbsp;to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration last week, there are still some significant posts left — like running the Interior Department, which is in charge of wildlife and natural resources.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil execs and other pro-development types seem to be the leading contenders here, meaning it’s likely that the department will be taking a drastic shift away from its focus of the last few years on conservation and renewable energy.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Robert E. Grady:</b>&nbsp;The former George H.W. Bush speechwriter and policy advisor who ran the Office of Management and Budget’s unit on natural resources, energy and science, Grady is best known in the environmental world for his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/11/15/with-pen-bush-to-seal-administration-split-on-clean-air-act/777bc409-ad08-44e2-b57f-5c9ca72c6a84/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">key role</a>&nbsp;in negotiating amendments to push through the Clean Air Act of 1990. Though the administration championed the law for reining in acid rain and toxic pollutants,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/25/weekinreview/the-nation-the-environmental-impact-of-president-bush.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">environmental groups argued</a>&nbsp;that some of the administration’s provisions blunted its effect.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Currently a partner at private equity fund Gryphon Investors, Grady has donated a relatively modest $218,667&nbsp;to federal politicians, including $5,400 to Sen.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00030980&cycle=2016" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Kelly Ayotte</a>&nbsp;(R-N.H.),&nbsp;$1,500 each to House Speaker&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00004357&cycle=2016" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Paul Ryan</a>&nbsp;(R-Wis.) and his leadership PAC and $1,000 to Trump this year. In 2012, he donated $7,500 to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and $35,000 his joint fundraising committee.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grady is also a&nbsp;<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/02/25/christie-confidant-grady-private-equity/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">longtime aide</a>&nbsp;to New Jersey Gov.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00037008" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Chris Christie</a>&nbsp;and a former chairman of the New Jersey Investment Council, overseeing the $81 billion public pension fund.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grady’s name has also surfaced to run the Energy Department or the Environmental Protection Agency.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Forrest Lucas:</b>&nbsp;The sponsor of a number of racing events who also won naming rights to the Indianapolis Colts’ home stadium,</span> the founder and president of Lucas Oil is&nbsp;a familiar face in his <b>home state Indiana.</b> His appointment would be widely hailed by the oil and gas industry, which has battled conservationists in the Obama administration.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employees of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000062227&cycle=A" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Lucas Oil Products</a>&nbsp;(including Lucas himself) have donated a total of $965,486 since 2002 to federal candidates and committees; this year’s biggest beneficiary was GOP Indiana Rep.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00030891&cycle=2016" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Marlin Stutzman</a>,&nbsp;who had an unfruitful senatorial campaign.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Indiana oilman has also taken on a big role&nbsp;<a href="http://protecttheharvest.com/who-we-are/mission-statement/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">protecting</a>&nbsp;farmers, ranchers and outdoor enthusiasts from threats posed by <b>“animal rights groups” and “anti-farming extremists,” such as the Humane Society of the United States.</b></font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His 501(c)(4) nonprofit group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/political-nonprofits/summary?id=453551569" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Protect the Harvest</a>&nbsp;is a driving force of the anti-animal rights effort, spending nearly $1.9 million since 2010. The social welfare group has laid out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2016&strID=C00563825" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$246,297</a>&nbsp;for federal political ads in the past two election cycles, including $53,500 supporting <b>Sen.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00005195&cycle=2016" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Roy Blunt</a>&nbsp;(R-Mo.) this year.</b></font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Missouri Pork PAC, Missouri Cattlemen Association and Missouri Pork Producers are among the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2016&cmte=C00563825" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">top donors</a>&nbsp;to the nonprofit, and Lucas himself has given it $298,000.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.php?sort=D&name=forrest%2Blucas&state=&zip=&employ=&cand=&soft=&cycle=All" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Lucas</a>&nbsp;and his wife&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.php?sort=D&name=Charlotte%2BLucas&state=&zip=&employ=&cand=&soft=&cycle=All" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Charlotte Lucas</a>, who co-founded Lucas Oil, have donated a total of $752,272 over the years, including $197,054 this cycle. Trump’s joint fundraising committee,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00612903&cycle=2016" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Trump Victory Fund</a>, got $25,000 of that.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two years ago, Lucas took out&nbsp;<a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/10/09/forrest-lucas-apologizes-ad-wifes-comments-minorities/16961945/" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">a full-page ad</a>&nbsp;in the&nbsp;<em>Indianapolis Star&nbsp;</em>apologizing for a Facebook post by his wife that read, “I’m sick and tired of minorities running our country! As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think that atheists (minority),&nbsp;<span id="misspelledmuslims" class="misspelled">muslims</span>&nbsp;(minority)n or any other minority group has the right to tell the majority of the people in the United States what they can and cannot do here.”</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the apology, Lucas said his wife’s comments were “harsh and insensitive,” although he said she did not intend to offend anyone.</font></font></p><p style="padding: 5px 0px; margin: 5px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Harold G. Hamm:</b></font></font></p></div><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bull-riding sponsor Forrest Lucas forms anti-animal advocacy “Super PAC”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">JUNE 3, 2014 BY MERRITT CLIFTON</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Michael Eugene Matt, &nbsp;of Blanco, &nbsp;Texas, &nbsp;a four-time Professional Bull Riders world champion rodeo clown, &nbsp;was in 2009 sentenced to serve five years in prison for cattle rustling. &nbsp;(Showing Animals Respect & Kindness photo.)</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DAVENPORT, Iowa––Why did oil magnate Forrest Lucas form Protect The Harvest, among the most aggressive and best-funded of anti-animal advocacy fronts?</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Perhaps it was just to protect the enormous Lucas Oil Products investment in Professional Bull Riders, Inc., whose Touring Pro Division bears the Lucas name. Some individual PBR stars have also been sponsored by Lucas, better known for his investments in televised motor sports and the Indianapolis Colts professional football team, whose home is Lucas Oil Stadium.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But Lucas, &nbsp;70, &nbsp;also owns the Lucas Cattle Company, of Cross Timbers, Missouri, and has had lifelong associations with animal agriculture.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Home was Columbus, Indiana,” Lucas told Fortune magazine interviewer Dinah Eng in 2012. &nbsp; “Both sides of the family were farmers. By the time I was 13, I was showing registered cattle in professional breeder shows.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">From age 15 until after his first marriage at age 17, Lucas lived and worked on a cattle ranch owned by Jacque Glen, a commissioner in Harrison County, Indiana.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Whatever Lucas’ motivation, he founded Protect The Harvest in 2011, and Protect The Harvest has now spun off a so-called “Super PAC,” a political action committee that “intends to raise funds in unlimited amounts,” according to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“The Protect the Harvest Political Action Committee told the elections regulator that it intends to call for the election or defeat of federal candidates,” reported Michael Beckelemail of the Center for Public Integrity. “Which politicos will be targeted, however, is still unclear. Neither the super PAC’s treasurer, Brian Klippenstein, nor its attorney, Mark Roth, responded to requests for comment.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Super PACs are legally allowed to solicit unlimited contributions to produce political advertisements,” Beckelemail explained, “so long as their spending is not coordinated with any candidates’ campaigns.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Focused on HSUS</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lucas and Protect The Harvest are especially focused on the Humane Society of the U.S., mentioned three times in the eight-sentence Protect The Harvest mission statement.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Alleges the mission statement, “The animal rights movement in America, led by HSUS, has evolved into a wealthy and successful attack group determined to end the consumption of meat, threaten consumer access to affordable food, &nbsp;eliminate hunting, outlaw rodeos and circuses, and even ban animal ownership (including pets) altogether.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Mentioning HSUS by name twice more in, the mission statement goes on to declare intent to create “lasting legal safeguards for farmers, sportsmen and animal owners,” and “respond to the activities of radical groups like HSUS by opposing their efforts to pass laws or enact regulations that would restrict the rights and freedoms of farmers, sportsmen and animal owners.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Protect The Harvest mission statement might be said to have conflated HSUS with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also mentioned on the Protect The Harvest web page; HSUS has always distanced itself from “animal rights” philosophies, and has never campaigned to “eliminate hunting, outlaw rodeos and circuses, and even ban animal ownership,” but PETA has taken all of these positions.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Neither HSUS nor PETA has ever taken a position that could reasonably be construed as “threatening consumer access to affordable food,” since plant-based diets are markedly less costly to produce than diets centered on animal products.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“We’re not PETA”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Responded HSUS president Wayne Pacelle, “We’re not PETA or Mercy for Animals, but we do stand up for livestock––the eight billion chickens raised in filthy cages, the tens of millions of pigs in tiny crates. Somebody has to speak out for them.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Elaborated Humane Society Legislative Fund president Mike Markarian, “Lucas is perhaps the biggest pro-animal abuse money man in America. &nbsp;With his personal net worth of $300 million and his company’s annual revenue of $150 million, Lucas in 2010 spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bankroll the opposition to Proposition B in Missouri, which voters approved to set standards for the care of dogs in puppy mills. Lucas then supported an effort in the Missouri legislature to weaken and repeal parts of the voter-approved measure, before it even had a chance to take effect. In 2012, &nbsp;Lucas and Protect The Harvest spent more than a quarter million dollars opposing Measure 5 in North Dakota, which sought to establish felony-level penalties for malicious cruelty to dogs, cats, and horses. In 2013, Protect The Harvest lobbied against a local ordinance in Crawford County, Indiana to require proper shelter for dogs and cats, and another proposal in Harrison County to promote spaying and neutering pets.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Tanya Tuell, founder of River Valley Humane Society and coordinator of a Spay/Neuter Assistance Program operating in both Harrison and Crawford counties, had sought local ordinances to require doghouses to protect dogs from the elements on all four sides, and to have floors so that dogs are not left in ice, puddles, or mud.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Protect The Harvest in March 2013 aired 60-second radio ads throughout Oklahoma to promote legislation to revive the horse slaughtering industry, reported William Crum of The Oklahoman. Wrote Crum, “The ads accuse radicals of spreading lies about Oklahoma farmers and ranchers. &nbsp;HSUS is spending millions to put agriculture out of business, they say.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Republican connections</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Klippenstein, the Protect The Harvest super PAC treasurer, “spent 26 years on Capitol Hill working for Missouri Republicans, including Senators Roy Blunt and Kit Bond,</b>” summarized Beckelemail of the Center for Public Integrity. Protect The Harvest attorney Roth, Beckeleman continued, “is also listed as the registered agent and incorporator of the Protect the Harvest charity, according to Iowa business records.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lucas is the Protect The Harvest president.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Protect The Harvest charity “raised about $927,000 between October 2011 and December 2012. A report detailing its 2013 finances is not expected to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service until later this year,” Beckeleman wrote. “FEC records indicate, however, that Lucas Oil Products contributed $200,000 to Protect The Harvest in 2012. The American Action Network, led by former GOP Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, also contributed $100,000 to the group, according to its annual tax return. A group called Missouri Farmers Care donated $35,000 Protect The Harvest in 2012.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Missouri Farmers Care and Protect The Harvest itself have endorsed a Missouri ballot measure, backed by the Missouri Farm Bureau, which if approved by voters would amend the state constitution to guarantee that “the right of Missouri citizens to engage in agricultural production and ranching practices shall not be infringed.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The amendment could be a carte blanche protection of agricultural pollution and factory farming.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Recalled Beckeleman, “Protect the Harvest backed a similar—and successful — ballot measure in North Dakota in 2012.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Lucas backed Steve King</b></font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Lucas Oil Products money, Beckeleman reported, was spent “to fund advertisements critical of Iowa Democrat Christie Vilsack, who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Republican Representative Steve King.”</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">King in early 2012 introduced an amendment to the House version of the 2012 Farm Bill that would have prohibited states from enforcing their own hen caging standards against eggs imported from out of state. &nbsp;The language was aimed specifically at California Proposition Two, passed by voters in 2008.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Humane Society Legislative Fund subsequently spent more than $500,000 seeking unsuccessfully to unseat King in the November 2012 election, emphasizing King’s opposition to federal anti-dogfighting laws passed in 2007 and 2012.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">King retaliated with an amendment to the 2013 Farm Bill which in effect would have erased all state and local laws protecting farmed animals. This King amendment was not stripped from the House version of the Farm Bill until January 27, 2014, ten days before the long-delayed Farm Bill finally cleared both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on February 7, 2014.</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/forrest-lucas-trump-interior-secretary-228364"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/forrest-lucas-trump-interior-secretary-228364</font></a></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">

</font><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sources: Oil executive on Trump's short list for Interior Secretary</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH and ANDREW RESTUCCIA 09/19/16 01:02 PM EDT Updated 09/19/16 05:44 PM EDT</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">An oil industry executive who has spoken out against animal rights is a leading contender for Interior secretary should Donald Trump win the White House, two sources familiar with the campaign's deliberations told POLITICO on Monday - a prospect that drew immediate condemnation from environmental activists.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Forrest Lucas, the 74-year-old co-founder of oil products company Lucas Oil, is well-known in his native Indiana, where in 2006 he won the naming rights to Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Indianapolis Colts football team, for a reported $121.5 million over 20 years. He and his wife have given a combined $50,000 to the gubernatorial campaigns of Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, according to Indiana state records.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lucas' company, California-based Lucas Oil, is a fast-growing manufacturer of automotive oils, lubricants and other additives used in everything from cars to heavy-duty trucks.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">One person briefed by the Trump campaign said Lucas is a "front-runner" for the Interior secretary job. The person, who was granted anonymity to talk about private discussions, added that Trump wants a "more business-friendly and business experience-heavy cabinet."</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But environmentalists quickly excoriated the idea of an oil industry executive leading the department that oversees national parks and wildlife refuges, along with decisions about offshore drilling, fracking regulations and protections for endangered species.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Putting an oil executive in charge of our public lands and precious coasts in places like North Carolina, Virginia and Florida is a virtual guarantee that Trump's promise to throw open season on drilling in our special places will come true if he's elected," said Khalid Pitts, the Sierra Club's national political director.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">David Turnbull, the campaigns director at anti-fossil-fuels group Oil Change USA, worried that Trump's Cabinet could be full of people with ties to the oil industry. They include Harold Hamm, the CEO of Oklahoma oil company Continental Resources, who has emerged as a possible pick for Trump's energy secretary.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Catering to an industry dead-set on continued expansion of oil and gas drilling is not only totally out of step with climate science, but it's also out of step with the majority of Americans who are calling for a swift transition to clean energy and robust action on climate change," Turnbull said in an email.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It would be nearly unprecedented for major oil executive to get the top job in the Interior Department. Current Secretary Sally Jewell was an engineer for Mobil Oil early in her career and often touts her experience fracking wells, although she is best known as a conservationist and former outdoor retail executive.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lucas' nomination would be a coup for the oil and gas industry, which has battled President Barack Obama's Interior Department for years over everything from Endangered Species Act listings to access to federal lands for drilling. Trump has cultivated close ties to the oil industry, which was once skeptical of his campaign for president.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"In a lot of ways, having an oil and gas friendly person in the Interior Department is more important to the oil and gas industry than having someone friendly at the Energy Department," one industry official said.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Nominating Lucas would also break with the long-standing tradition of Interior secretaries coming from Western states.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It would also likely draw rebukes from animal rights groups. Lucas, who owns a ranch and serves on Trump's agriculture advisory committee, is one of the biggest donors to groups that attack the Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and defend animal agriculture, hunting, meat consumption, rodeos and circuses.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Another source with knowledge of the transition operation said Lucas was on a short list of about five names that are under consideration for the post, which has started to attract considerable interest from prominent "anti-conservation zealots." Donald Trump Jr., an avid hunter, has also publicly expressed interest in the job.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Earlier this year, Lucas financed and produced a feature film called "The Dog Lover," which portrays dog breeders and puppy mills as being unfairly targeted by animal rights groups. The movie was backed by Protect the Harvest, a nonprofit founded and chaired by Lucas, that says it's "Keeping America Free, Fed & Fun!" In 2014, Lucas gave $250,000 to the Protect the Harvest PAC, records show.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Roger Ebert's website called the movie "shamelessly manipulative" and "a pretty bald piece of anti-[Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] and/or PETA propaganda," noting that the movie ends with a call to moviegoers to look into animal welfare groups before donating to them.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Animal rights supporters were quick to point out Monday that Lucas had put up hundreds of thousands of dollars into fighting an "anti-puppy mill" ballot measure in Missouri that was approved by voters in 2010.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Forrest Lucas is a peevish advocate of trophy hunting, puppy mills and big agribusiness, and has never met a case of animal exploitation he wouldn't defend," said Michael Markarian, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, which backed the measure in Missouri.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lucas' wife, Charlotte, who co-founded Lucas Oil, came under fire in 2014 for a Facebook post that criticized Muslims and atheists. "I'm sick and tired of minorities running our country!" she wrote, according to news reports at the time. She later apologized.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lucas has donated more than $150,000 to a slew of Republican candidates and causes since 2006, but records do not show any donations to Trump. In an interview last year, Lucas did not sound particularly enthused about the New York City real estate mogul.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Asked if he would be comfortable with Trump getting the GOP nomination, Lucas responded: "It would be like when Obama got elected. I'd say, 'I don't really like it, but I have no choice and I'll have to make the best of it.'"</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. Lucas could not immediately be reached and his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Elana Schor contributed to this report.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">===</font></p>

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