Federal Overreach and the Weaponization of Government Agencies

On Friday, August 12, 2022, Kim Monson examines two fronts of federal government overreach with natural resources expert Greg Walcher and former Douglas County School Board Director Steve Peck, exploring how policy failures affect everything from Western water supplies to the weaponization of federal law enforcement.

Water Wars and the Colorado River Compact

Start listening at 28:36 – Hour 1

Greg Walcher, former head of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and author of Smoking Them Out: The Theft of the Environment and How to Take It Back, breaks down the crisis engulfing the Colorado River. The Bureau of Reclamation has ordered all seven Colorado River basin states to reduce water usage, but Walcher points out the agency lacks authority over Colorado, which has never used its full compact share.

The fundamental problem, Walcher explains, stems from a compact negotiated in the 1920s when river flows were significantly higher. The lower basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada receive a fixed 7.5 million acre-feet annually, regardless of actual river flow. When the river produces only 11 or 12 million acre-feet instead of the historical 15 million, the upper basin states bear the entire burden. The solution, he argues, requires interpreting the compact correctly: dividing water by percentage rather than fixed amounts.

“Colorado, for its part, should be saying to the Bureau of Reclamation, absolutely not. We’re not going to reduce our use of water when we’re already using a million acre feet less than we’re entitled to.”

Greg Walcher, Author and Former DNR Director

Forest Mismanagement Creates Unnatural Infernos

Start listening at 45:27 – Hour 1

Walcher then exposes how federal forest management policies have created the catastrophic wildfires devastating the West. Fire is natural and historically maintained healthy forest ecosystems, but the fires of the past two decades are anything but natural. When the Forest Service was created at the turn of the 20th century, the federal government essentially banned fire. For decades, logging and thinning operations replaced fire’s ecological role, but 25 years ago, the federal government also declared war on the logging industry.

The result: forests across the Rocky Mountains now contain 900 to 1,000 trees per acre where nature would maintain perhaps 50. These overgrown tinderboxes no longer experience beneficial ground fires that clear understory. Instead, flames crown into the treetops, destroying everything, killing endangered species, burning homes, and leaving landscapes that may not recover for generations.

“What people need to understand is that the fires we’re seeing in the last 20 years or so are not natural, nothing natural about it.”

Greg Walcher, Author and Former DNR Director

The FBI Raid and Political Weaponization

Start listening at 57:56 – Hour 2

Steve Peck, former Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Medical Service Corps and former Douglas County School Board Director, characterizes the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago as a Rubicon-crossing moment in American history. The August 8th raid on a former president’s personal residence, he argues, represents an unprecedented political act designed to intimidate political opponents.

Peck catalogs the pattern: Roger Stone’s house raided, Tina Peters’ house raided, General Michael Flynn’s house raided, James O’Keefe’s house raided, Peter Navarro’s house raided, Rudy Giuliani’s house raided. This is not isolated but systematic, he contends. The FBI used a fabricated Steele dossier to launch investigations, doctored FISA court documents, and has been targeting political opponents for years. Attorney General Merrick Garland personally authorized the Mar-a-Lago raid just 90 days before a midterm election.

“What happened on the 8th of August, I think will go down as a bookend of one of the chapters in American history, which sounds pretty dramatic. But what happened was exceedingly dramatic.”

Steve Peck, Former Douglas County School Board Director

87,000 IRS Agents and Self-Governance

Start listening at 71:40 – Hour 2

The conversation turns to the 87,000 new IRS agents authorized under recent legislation. Kim Monson notes the administration’s claim of better customer service rings hollow when the agency advertised for agents willing to use deadly force. Peck recalls Lois Lerner’s IRS targeting of Tea Party organizations in 2012-2013, using tax information to disproportionately audit political opponents.

Despite the alarming federal overreach, Peck expresses optimism. New grassroots organizations are forming, citizens are engaging at school board meetings, and people are running for local offices. Self-government, he emphasizes, starts with governing ourselves, then extends to families, churches, businesses, and communities. Every council seat, every school board seat, every local committee represents an opportunity to participate in the American tradition of self-governance.

“My hope is that people see what’s going on here and that they’re going to get involved and that they’re going to take back every council seat, every school board seat, every local parks and trails committee person and step into this tradition that we have in America of participating in self-government.”

Steve Peck, Former Douglas County School Board Director