October 5, 2022 at 06:53AM Bobulinski: I Would Have Verified Hunter Laptop Story ‘Within Five Minutes’ if Anyone from Facebook, Twitter Reached Out
During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski stated that if Facebook, Twitter, or anyone else had reached out to him to verify the authenticity of emails sent to him in The New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, he would have produced the email, with the metadata, within minutes, but no one did.
Bobulinski said, “[W]hen The New York Post ran their article, an individual named Andy Stone stepped in. … And throttled down the fact pattern. The interesting thing with that, Tucker, is Andy Stone never reached out to me. He never called my lawyers. My email address was there. I’m easy to get ahold of. Facebook never reached out to me and said, hey, Tony we see this email that The New York Post just published to you, is it real? Can you produce the email to us? Within five minutes, if Twitter, Facebook, anybody else had reached out, I would have produced the email with — everyone wants to talk about the metadata, oh, the emails that are being produced don’t have any metadata — I would have given them the metadata that’s pages long on that email that The New York Post published.”
Hunter Biden is the subject of a brand new narrative film, My Son Hunter, marking Breitbart’s expansion into film distribution. My Son Hunter stars Laurence Fox (Victoria, Inspector Lewis, The Professor, and The Madman) as Hunter Biden; Gina Carano (The Mandalorian, Dead Pool, Heist) as a Secret Service agent; and John James (Dynasty) as Joe Biden. It was produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney (Gosnell movie, FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers) from the Unreported Story Society and directed by Robert Davi (Goonies, License to Kill, Die Hard). The film is available RIGHT NOW for Streaming and Downloading at MySonHunter.com. The trailer below has been viewed almost 5 million times across social media.
October 4, 2022 at 05:21PM EXCLUSIVE: FDA Withholding Autopsy Results on People Who Died After Getting COVID-19 Vaccines
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is refusing to release the results of autopsies conducted on people who died after getting COVID-19 vaccines.
The FDA says it is barred from releasing medical files, but a drug safety advocate says that it could release the autopsies with personal information redacted.
The refusal was issued to The Epoch Times, which submitted a Freedom of Information Act for all autopsy reports obtained by the FDA concerning any deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System following COVID-19 vaccination.
Reports are lodged with the system when a person experiences an adverse event, or a health issue, after receiving a vaccine. The FDA and other agencies are tasked with investigating the reports. Authorities request and review medical records to vet the reports, including autopsies.
The FDA declined to release any reports, even redacted copies.
The FDA cited federal law, which enables agencies to withhold information if the agency “reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption,” with the exemption being “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Federal regulations also bar the release of “personnel, medical and similar files the disclosure of which constitutes a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
The Epoch Times has appealed the denial, in addition to the recent denial of results of data analysis of VAERS reports.
‘Easily Be Redacted’
Kim Witczak, a drug safety advocate who advises the FDA as part of the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee, said that the reports could be released with personal information blacked out.
“The personal information could easily be redacted without losing the potential learnings from [the] autopsy,” Witczak told The Epoch Times via email.
People make the choice to submit autopsy results to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, Witczak noted.
“If someone submits their experience to VAERS they want and expect to have it investigated by the FDA. This includes autopsy reports,” she said.
Autopsies are examinations of deceased persons performed to determine the cause of death.
“Autopsies can be an important part of postmortem analysis and should be done especially with increased deaths following COVID-19 vaccination,” Witczak said.
FDA Responds
An FDA spokesperson noted that deaths following COVID-19 vaccination are rare, citing the number of reports made to VAERS.
As of Sept. 14, 16,516 reports of death following COVID-19 vaccination have been reported. Approximately 616 million doses have been administered in the United States through September.
The spokesperson declined to say whether the FDA would ever release the autopsy results, but pointed to a paper authored by researchers with the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The paper, which has not been peer reviewed, analyzed the approximately 9,800 reports of death to VAERS following COVID-19 vaccination lodged from Dec. 14, 2020, to Nov. 17, 2021. Researchers found that reporting rates were lower than the expected all-cause mortality rates.
“Trends in reporting rates reflected known trends in background mortality rates. These findings do not suggest an association between vaccination and overall increased mortality,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers noted that prior studies have found that adverse events reported to VAERS are an undercount of the true number of events.
October 4, 2022 at 06:37AM Tucker Carlson: Tony Blinken’s Statement Is an Admission the US Was Behind Nord Stream Pipeline Bombings (VIDEO)
Three deep-water explosions destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea last week on Monday.
Swedish seismologists reported that one of the three explosions measures 2.3 on the Richter Scale of earthquake intensity, but this was no earthquake. It was explosion—like a gigantic undersea mine.
The explosions guarantee Germany and the EU won’t go wobbly with regard to sanctions against Russian energy imports. The damage to pipelines will take months repair, and repairs are unlikely to begin until next summer. Even if Germany were to cry “uncle” as civil unrest intensifies over lack of heat and energy, even if Russia decided to turn the power back on, the conduit for Russian gas to Europe is broken.
No country has yet taken responsibility for the blasts that took out the Nord Stream pipelines to Europe. Only one country benefits. We wrote about this extensively at The Gateway Pundit last week.
Europe now faces an uncertain future as winter approaches.
In a bold statement this weekend, Secretary of State Tony Blinken cheered the news of the explosions as “a tremendous opportunity” for Europe “to remove dependence on Russian energy.”
On Monday night Tucker Carlson told his audience Tony Blinken’s comments were admission of US responsibility behind the bombings of the Nord Stream pipelines.
Tucker Carlson: “Last Tuesday the largest act of industrial terrorism in our lifetimes was a baffling crime said Tony Blinken. But by Friday that same event had become a “tremendous opportunity,” effectively a tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come. It’s a good thing. Now that’s an admission. That’s the clearest admission we’re ever going to get.”
October 3, 2022 at 05:10PM Trump Goes All-in, Files Massive $475M Lawsuit Against CNN For Defamation – Media Right News
Former President Donald Trump went all-in today as it was announced that he has filed a massive $475 million lawsuit against CNN for defamation.
The suit was filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and his lawyers said in the suit that CNN has attempted to taint Trump “with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler.’”
Trump asserts that the cable news network has escalated a campaign of libel and slander against him recently because it fears he’ll run for re-election in 2024.
Trump’s lawyers also wrote that “Beyond simply highlighting any negative information about the plaintiff and ignoring all positive information about him, CNN has sought to use its massive influence – purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source – to defame the plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically.”
CNN has recently attempted to become more moderate as ratings have been fledging and they have parted ways with a number of different liberal personalities.
The network, however, has still retained Don Lemon, moving him from primetime to the morning show, as he has been one of Trump’s biggest critics.
Another big-time Trump critic, Jake Tapper, has been moved from a weekend show to a primetime slot, which means he will be criticizing the former president daily now, undoubtedly.
Former Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson responded to the news in a tweet, “If this moves forward, we all have a case!”
As reported last November, Tapper hosted both GOP U.S. Congressmen Fred Upton (MI) and Anthony Gonzalez (OH) who lashed out at Trump.
BREAKING: 34 US Political Prisoners in DC Gulag Demand Transfer to Guantanamo Bay to Escape Intolerable Conditions in Heartbreaking Letter
Thirty-four US political prisoners of the Biden regime penned a very sad letter this week requesting a transfer to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba facility where they would receive meals, sunlight, freedom of religion, exercise, entertainment, and be treated like human beings.
These thirty-four January 6 political prisoners have been held for over a year and a half without trial for misdemeanors and trumped-up felony charges.
This group of men have been isolated, beaten viciously, abused, threatened, tormented, and belittled by the guards based on their political and religious beliefs.
The men and women have been without medical assistance, medications, exercise, and most of these men have been held in isolation with little human contact for months at a time.
This is America’s future if the good people of the country do not stand up and demand an end to this injustice.
These men and women know that if they were to be moved to Gitmo they would not have flooded toilets, mold, flies, and frequent beatings.
Here is the original handwritten letter to the Garland Department of Justice.
When one considers a society that distinguishes itself upon the standards of a “First World Country” allocation among the other numerous Nations around the globe, while informing its citizens that they belong to a country that ensures “Liberty and Justice for All”, it’s difficult to imagine then, that The United States of America, supposedly the wealthiest Nation on the planet, would subjugate its own citizens to that of incarceration and injustice instead, all while administering medieval standards of living to the agonizing occupants of its “Correctional Facilities”.
A more accurate terminology to describe the facility and the staff that this letter has escaped the clutches of that you now read, would be to call this location an “Evisceration Facility”, of the body, mind and soul, operating as an abomination to The Law and to its Nation’s Government, which ironically lies only a handful of blocks away.
For nothing is being corrected within the forsaken concrete walls of The District of Columbia Jail. Its woeful captives are all but slowly murdered in every way except for their very soul being ripped from their famished chests on behalf of this mercilessly sinister institution.
As prisoners of this Jail, we have witnessed the horrendous treatment and have been personally afflicted by the hellacious conditions this Jail insists on tormenting its traumatized guests with.
Though words will always fall short of an accurate depiction of the magnitude of pandemonium that every prisoner within these walls has had no choice but to endure, what follows is a collection of repeated offenses this Correctional Facility habitually submits upon its captives. For if this pale dungeon of Human Rights Violations dared to summon any honesty of hard choice pertaining to the abhorrent atrocities that take place behind these unforgiving doors, they should erect a sign above the front gate that says, “Abandon All Hope, Yee Who Enter Here”.
The destitute and desperate prisoners of 1901 D St. SE, Washington D.C. 20003 have and will continue to endure a combination of any and all of the following:
Begging for Help / Water / Medical Aid / Mercy through a 4 inch by 10 inch window of cold metal doors
No Visitations
No Religious Services
No Attorney Access
Mail delayed 3-4 months prior to delivery
Laundry returning with brown stains, pubic hair, and or reeking of ripe urine
Worms found in salad of “Meals”
Inadequate calorie count of “Meals”
Complete lack of nourishment in “Meals”
Loss of Head Hair due to malnourishment of “Meals”
Loss of Eye Sight due to malnourishment of “Meals”
Suffering from Scurvy due to malnourishment of “Meals”
Blatant extortion via commissary in order to maintain health and or body weight
Rust in the Water
Rust in jagged metal desks in Cells
Rust on metal cages near face on small windows of Cells
Black Mold on walls of Cells
Black Mold on floors of Cells
Black Mold in vents of Cells
Broken Sinks in Cells
Broken toilets that either wont flush or repeatedly explode in Cells
Cockroaches in Cell / Cell Block
Mice in Cell / Cell Block
Black Mold on floors and walls of showers in Cell Block
Black Sewer Flies in the Shower
Denial of basic cleaning equipment to sanitize Living Space
Denial of personal grooming allowed, forced to use Nair on head and face that leaves chemical burns on skin
Stuck in Cells for 9 days without shower
Improper Medical Care
Medical Care arriving months later, or none at all!
Lead Paint inside Cell / Cell Block
No Access to Discovery
No Legal Support such as laptops, printers, copiers
Denial of Legal Mentors
Vaccine Requirements for Visitations
Vaccine Requirements for Visitors
Vaccine Requirements for Haircuts
Vaccine Requirements for Religious Services
Vaccine Requirements for speaking with Lawyers in person
C.R.T. Propaganda on Tablets
Re-Education Propaganda on Tablets
Lack of Legal Documentation on Tablets
Racially Biased information on Tablets
Removal of Internet Access / Booster for Educational Tablets
Solitary Confinement for 25 ½ hours or more at a time
Outdoor Rec denied arbitrarily
Entry to Congressmen & Women who came to check on us Denied
Repeatedly Mocked and or Insulted for our skin color or “Religious” documentation
Compared to “Beasts”, “Dogs” and “Hogs” by “The Final Call” Magazine
Politically mocked by staff with Democrat, Black Lives Matter, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden related attire
Sent to “The Hole” if we express any political views whatsoever
Racially Profiled by Guards
Sleeping on the job by Guards
Denial of hot water by Guards
Prevented from attending court dates by Guards
Homosexual and or Verbal Assaults by Guards
Maced by Guards
Physically Harassed by Guards
Assaulted by Guards
Cell Invasions in the middle of the night by Guards
Grievous Beatings by Guards
Threatened with and or Nearly Stabbed with “12 Inch Knives”
Trials Postponed for at least 6 Months or almost a Year
Bond / Bail continually Denied
Removal of Internet Access of Clear Tablets
Removal of Access to Attorney
Removal of Access to Law Library
Removal of Access to Worship Services
Removal of Access to Grievance Forms on Tablets
It is because of this extensive report of complaints and afflictions upon those held prisoners here in the District of Columbia Jail, that not only compel us to alert the world of the diabolical conditions this “correctional facility” continues to crush all of its detainees with, but also as political prisoners on American soil, who have been unjustly and unfairly incarcerated, relentlessly burdened by selective prosecution, slandered and vilified by mainstream and social media, deliberately accosted with death threats from within the jail and received threats upon our homes and families through the mail, ALL extending from a political nature or affiliation, We hereby request to spend our precious and limited days, should the government continue to insist on holding us captive unconstitutionally as pre-trial detainees, to be transferred and reside at Guantanamo Bay, a detention facility that actually provides nutritional meals, routine sunlight exposure, top notch medical care, is respectful of religious requirements, has centers for exercise/entertainment for its detainees despite the fact that those residents are malicious terrorists, real members of the Taliban, and few are United States Citizens, instead of remaining trapped within the wretched confines of cruel and unusual punishment of the DC Jail.
Signed by:
Brian Mann (Pro se) #378522
Pete Schwartz #377185
Brandon Fellows #377943
Jeffrey McKellop #376887
Andrew Taake #378837
Scott Fairlamb #376877
Daniel Caldwell #376977
Ryan Nichols, Sr. #376795
Joseph Padilla #376981
Guy Reffitt #376682
Troy Smocks #376973
Chris Quaglin #378835
Sean McHugh #378159
Shane J. Jenkins #377186
Dominic Pezzola #376366
Edward Lang #376444
Peter F. Stager #376784
James McGrew #377892
William Chrestman #376795
Ronnie Sandlin #377783
Nathaniel Degrave #376789
Jorden Mink #377184
Cleveland Grover Meredith, Jr. #376201
Alan Byerly #378160
Thomas Ballard #378839
Julian Elie Khater #377187
Marshall Neefe 378836
Jonathan Mellis #376907
Robert Gieswein #376980
Kelly Meggs #376780
Jessica Watkins #376520
Kenneth Harrelson #377692
Garrett Miller #377321
David Dempsey #378838
Thanks to Jane for helping GP transcribe this letter.
September 30, 2022 at 05:25PM Pelosi Says Illegal Aliens Need to Stay in Florida to “Pick the Crops Down Here” (VIDEO)
Pelosi: “We have a shortage of workers in our country. In Florida, some of the farmers and the growers are saying ‘why are you shipping these immigrants up North? We need them to pick the crops down here.’” pic.twitter.com/uCXgz0AXSB
The racist white limousine liberals on Martha’s Vineyard freaked out and immediately deported the illegals.
Pelosi said the illegals need to stay in Florida so they can pick fruit.
“We have a shortage of workers in our country. In Florida, some of the farmers and the growers are saying ‘why are you shipping these immigrants up North? We need them to pick the crops down here.’” Pelosi said.
Yikes.
Imagine the headlines if Trump or any Republican said something like this.
The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Sept. 29 met with the House of Representatives panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Ginni Thomas, who was in communication after the 2020 election with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a lawyer who advocated for delaying the electoral count, appeared on Capitol Hill in Washington to answer questions from the panel after months of negotiations.
Thomas did not answer questions from reporters, but said she was looking forward to meeting with the panel.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), a member of the panel, said that members wanted to ask Thomas about her discussions with Meadows and the lawyer, John Eastman.
“John Eastman is the same individual who came up with this idea and scheme that a federal judge has ruled was likely illegal,” Aguilar told reporters, referring to an opinion entered in a civil case against Eastman.
Eastman has said that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority under the 12th Amendment to reject electoral slates, but Pence announced the morning of the electoral certification that he believed he did not.
Thomas answered questions behind closed doors. The panel has not released any transcripts from its more than 1,000 interviews, though it has indicated it will release a report and has made public snippets of some of the conversations.
Chairman
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Jan. 6 panel, told reporters that Thomas told members during the meeting that she thought that the 2020 election was stolen. Thomas also answered some questions.
“Earlier today, Ginni Thomas participated in a voluntary interview with the J6 Committee. She was happy to cooperate with the Committee to clear up the misconceptions about her activities surrounding the 2020 elections,” a lawyer for Thomas told news outlets in a statement. “She answered all the Committee’s questions.”
Thomas was concerned about “fraud and irregularities” in the election and informed the committee that her only involvement was working to ensure reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated.
The meeting came one day after what was scheduled to be the panel’s final public hearing. It was postponed due to Hurricane Ian hitting Florida. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a member of the panel, represents a portion of the state.
Thompson said he did not yet have a date for the rescheduled hearing, but that it would take place before the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
The Jan. 6 panel is likely to be dissolved if Republicans seize control of the House in the midterms. Political forecasters say the GOP would flip the lower chamber, though many are uncertain as to which party will end up with a majority in the Senate.
September 29, 2022 at 05:19PM ‘Looks Like Atom Bomb Dropped’: Hurricane Ian Levels Neighborhoods In Southwest Florida
Update (1342ET):
One resident told Tampa Bay Times, “it looks like somebody took an atom bomb and dropped it,” referring to the widespread damage across Southwest Florida following the devastating hurricane that made landfall about 24 hours ago near Fort Myers as a Cat. 4 storm.
The footage is absolutely shocking.
* * *
Update (1000ET):
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Hurricane Tropical Storm Ian had produced a “500-year flood event” across Florida.
* * *
Hurricane Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm early Thursday morning as it traversed northeastward across central Florida, dumping torrential rain while still packing strong winds across a large swath of the state.
The former Category 4 hurricane made landfall Wednesday afternoon west of Fort Myers near Cayo Costa. Ian unleashed widespread life-threatening storm surge flooding across the region.
About 2.6 million homes and businesses are without power, according to PowerOutage.us. The most significant number of outages are based in the southwest Florida region, where the hurricane made landfall.
Shocking footage yesterday revealed the surge sent a wall of water roaring inland that was as high as some homes. Streets were instantly transformed into rivers. We pointed out last night that total storm damage could be upwards of $70 billion.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told ABC’s Good Morning America that he believes “fatalities are in the hundreds” after Ian devastated his county, which includes Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Bonita Springs, areas that experienced extreme storm surges yesterday and into the overnight.
Now Ian is expected to enter the Atlantic Ocean later today and make landfall (again) along the South Carolina coast late Friday.
• To see the 2021 groups broken down by state click here.
Top takeaways
The Intelligence Project identified 488 extreme antigovernment groups that were active in 2021, down from 566 in 2020. Of these groups, 92 were militias, 75 sovereign citizen, three constitutional sheriff, and 52 conspiracy propagandist groups. The number of antigovernment groups peaked in the 2010s and has declined since, but the current decrease in organized group numbers is not reflective of a lack of broad support or activity. In 2021, the conspiratorial and permanently dubious view of government was pervasive, as evidence by the movement’s popularity on such issues as COVID-19 regulations, local school curriculum, the “Big Lie” voter fraud, border security and various technological advances such as 5G cell service. Antigovernment imagery, such as the Gadsden flag and the Three Percenter logo, was commonly displayed by adherents across the country. Antigovernment groups were linked up with other hard-right groups in 2021, as they often targeted the same marginalized communities and engaged in actual or threats of political violence.
The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and attempt to stop the democratic transfer of power through the formalized counting of electoral votes was the most public moment for the antigovernment movement since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Of the over 700 people charged with offenses ranging from trespassing to seditious conspiracy for the actions on Jan. 6, at least 25 were members of identified antigovernment organizations.
Faced with greater scrutiny and deplatforming, antigovernment groups reorganized and were dispersed in communities focused on localized activities – a mainstay tactic of the antigovernment movement. Some local chapters of national organizations disbanded or unaffiliated, including chapters of Oath Keepers, the American Patriots Three Percent, III% United Patriots, the Three Percenters/III%ers, and the State of Jefferson Formation.
Ammon Bundy’s People’s Rights activists held a variety of small-scale demonstrations for individual grievances and organized a series of stunts disobeying COVID-19 public health measures, one resulting in Bundy’s arrest, throughout 2021.
In the Southwest, militias and other extremists set up camps in the desert engaging in vigilante activities including harassing migrants and humanitarian aid groups and coordinating with border patrol agents.
Conspiracy propagandists, including the John Birch Society, found a niche audience with COVID-19 vaccine skeptics, using existing antigovernment mistrust and a historical relationship with the natural-health sector to push the conspiracies around population and government control. Likewise, constitutional sheriff organizations promoted COVID-19 conspiracy theories and refused to enforce health guidelines enacted by their lawmakers. Some of these sheriffs teamed up at events alongside QAnon adherents, antisemites and sovereign citizens.
The coalescing of QAnon adherents with sovereign citizens, constitutional sheriffs and militia members, along with conspiracy minded anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers, has produced an environment where groups can openly recruit and market their ideas to each other and the general public.
Key moments
John Birch Society (JBS) founded, 1958: The organization is dedicated to opposing communism.
Ruby Ridge Standoff, August 1992: An 11-day standoff with the Weaver family and law enforcement occurred in Boundary County, Idaho. United States Marshals moved to arrest Randy Weaver under a warrant, Weaver refused and a standoff insured. Weaver’s son and wife, and a Deputy U.S. Marshall were all killed.
Oklahoma City Bombing, April 19, 1995: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The bombing killed at least 168 people and injured at least 680 additional individuals.
Conspiracy website WorldNetDaily (WND) is founded in 1997.
Printz v. U.S., June 27, 1997: The U.S. Supreme Court sides with Sheriff Mack and Ravalli County Sheriff/Coroner Jay Printz in their case against a provision of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
Infowars founded, 1999: Infowars is founded, and with antigovernment conspiracy theorist and supplement salesman Alex Jones it goes on to craft and nurture the conspiracy theories that animate the antigovernment movement.
Cliven Bundy’s Battle at Bunkerville, July 10, 2014: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department engaged in a four-day standoff against Cliven Bundy and his antigovernment followers over unpaid cattle grazing fees. The standoff ended when the BLM withdrew to avoid a violent clash with antigovernment supporters.
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Occupation, Jan. 2, 2016: Antigovernment adherents, including Ammon Bundy, and militia members descended onto the Malheur National wildlife refuge for a 41-day standoff with law enforcement in an attempt to get the Federal Government to hand over public lands to states.
Arivaca murders, May 30, 2009: Shawna Forde, leader of the militant group Minutemen American Defense (MAD), coordinated an attempted home invasion turned double homicide when members of the group killed Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter Brisenia. Forde and one other member were sentenced to death while a third member was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killings.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) Rally in Richmond, January 2020: The event brought together extreme antigovernment militia groups alongside other Second Amendment absolutists. Joining nearly 400 localities in 20 states, 120 localities in Virginia declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.”
Rally hosted in part by American Patriot Council’s Ryan Kelley in Michigan’s capitol, April 30, 2020: Attendees stormed the statehouse, many of them armed. Brothers William and Michael Null, members of the Wolverine Watchmen militia, were there.
Shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, August 2020: Black Lives Matter protests occur throughout the state. Militias came out to counter them. Kyle Rittenhouse is accused of shooting three people, killing two. He received an outpouring of support from the far right.
Michigan Kidnapping Plot, Oct. 8, 2020: Members of the Wolverine Watchmen, along with members of the Michigan Militia, were arrested by the FBI and Michigan State Police after plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Jan. 6 Insurrection, Jan. 6, 2021: Violent domestic extremists, including antigovernment militias such as the Oath Keepers, stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to stop the certification of the results from the 2020 general election. Members of the group face multiple federal charges. At least five people died in connection with the attack. Among those arrested were members of the Proud Boys, the Three Percenter movement and the Oath Keepers. Attacks by antigovernment militia groups also took place at state Capitol buildings in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Red Pill Festivals in Montana and South Dakota, June and July 2021: Conspiracy theorists and lawmakers gather for regional events. Organizations represented include John Birch Society, Redoubt News, Connecting the Dots, and Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers. Speakers include Alex Newman, Caleb Collier, Bill Jasper, Matt Shea, Idaho Rep. Heather Scott, Joey Gibson, John Jacob Schmidt, G. Edward Griffin, Dan Happel and Richard Mack.
Throughout summer 2021, Ammon Bundy’s People’s Rights Network threatens a standoff in Klamath Falls in Dan Nielsen and Grant Knoll protest water rights with The Klamath Tribes (Klamath-Modoc-Yahooskin).
Arise USA: Faith, Family, Freedom, May-Sept. 2021: Arise USA claims they made an 85-stop tour promoting the “Big Lie,” QAnon, COVID-19 conspiracies, 9/11 antisemitic conspiracies, and County Supremacy. The tour is organized by Robert David Steele who died from COVID-19 in fall 2021. Speakers included Richard Mackand Kevin Jenkins. Steele was a former CIA agent, 2016 Libertarian candidate for president, and holocaust denier.
Patriot Network Summit, July 30-Aug. 1, 2021: In Dugspur, Virginia,John Pierce, attorney for Jan. 6 Defendantsjoins Jeanette Finicum and health conspiracy theorists for an event focused on the Malheur standoff, while introducing the additional martyrdom of the Jan. 6 arrestees and opposition to national COVID-19 health efforts.
ReAwaken America Health and Freedom Tour, July-Oct. 2021: QAnon conspiracy theorists gather with other antigovernment activists in Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and California. Speakers include Clay Clark, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Gene Hoe, Richard Mack, (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association), Joe Oltmann, (FEC United) and Artur Pawlowski (Canadian Black Robe Regiment pastor).
Sanctuary Church’s Rod of Iron Freedom Festival, October 2021: Antigovernment and hard-right leaders came together in Greeley, Pennsylvania,to promote guns and conspiracies. Speakers included Steve Bannon, Joey Gibson, Rep. Rick Saccone, and Dan Fisher and Gary Haskell of the “Black Robed Regiment.”
For God & Country Patriot Double Down 2021, October 2021: In Las Vegas Nevada antigovernment activists hold a rally promoting QAnon and other conspiracies. Speakers include Amy and John Sabal, Mike Flynn, Ron Watkins, Gene Ho, Jordan Sather, Zak Paine, Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, Arizona state Sen. Mark Finchem and former Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Sheriff David Clarke.
What’s ahead
The antigovernment movement will look to expand upon the broad popularity of foundational ideas related to guns, government distrust and conspiracy theories. They will continue to capitalize on the current issues related to public health guidance, local school curriculum and practices, control of natural resources, claims of election fraud, immigration and national security. They will particularly seek to further mainstream their ideas and operationalize their power by running for office in large numbers from the local to federal level.
The movement will also seek to mitigate the damage to their brand in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Particularly, movement leaders will want to shift the media narrative and deflect legal, law-enforcement and public scrutiny. If historical trends are a guide, the movement could also see growth in response to federal government expansion and policy shifts under Biden.
Background
Antigovernment groups are part of the antidemocratic hard-right movement. They believe the federal government is tyrannical and they traffic in conspiracy theories about an illegitimate government of leftist elites seeking a “New World Order.” Adherents and critics have in the past referred to this movement as the “Patriot” movement.
A particularly prominent conspiracy in the antigovernment movement – and one conspiracy propagandist groups often push – involves an effort to create a New World Order through a One World Government, often facilitated by the United Nations in order to institute communism/socialism and take away private property rights. Another conspiracy alleges that there are plans to merge the United States, Canada and Mexico into a single country. Other notable conspiracies include the idea that the federal government is secretly planning to round up citizens and place them in concentration camps run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Fears of impending gun control or weapons confiscations, either by the government or international agencies, also run rampant in antigovernment circles.
These conspiracy theories identify grievances, both real and imagined, and demonize groups they deem responsible for them. Conspiracy propagandists offer simple answers to complex problems, but often stop short of offering a specific solution to the threats, instead hinting at actions to be taken by movement members while being careful to maintain plausible deniability. Groups including The John Birch Society, WorldNetDaily (WND) and InfoWars are crucial to the antigovernment extremist movement in that they help craft and nurture the very conspiracy theories that animate the movement’s activists.
The antigovernment movement has experienced waves of popularity, including the 1990s. In 1996, the year after the Oklahoma City bombing, 858 groups were documented active in the U.S. Timothy McVeigh, one of the Oklahoma City bombers, was motivated by extreme antigovernment beliefs then circulating in the militia movement. He was also inspired by the racist novel The Turner Diaries, modeling his attack on a scene from the book. The antigovernment movement of the 1990s, typified by the proliferation of militias, was fueled by a string of incidents, including the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff, the 1993 Branch Davidian Waco compound siege and the 1996 Montana Freemen standoff. Other factors included the struggling economy in the early 1990s, particularly in Western states, and the election of President Bill Clinton, who was characterized by antigovernment activists as a liberal intent on seizing their weapons. Similarly, the in the last 2000s and 2010s the antigovernment was animated by the Tea Party movement, with both national and local groups mobilizing resentment around the economic challenges of the great recession and in opposition to the presidency of Barack Obama.
The militia movement engages in paramilitary training aimed at protecting citizens from this feared impending government crackdown. Militia groups often engage in firearm and field training, maintain an internal hierarchical command structure, are obsessed with guns and the Second Amendment, and are often opposed to immigration. Notable groups have included the Wolverine Watchman, Ohio Defense Force; Hutaree Militia, Oath Keepers, Minutemen American Defense, Militia of Montana and various Three Percenter-affiliated groups. The Wolverine Watchman were charged in connection to the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Both Oath Keepers and Three Percenter group members have been arrested for charges relating to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Three Percenter groups adhere to the dubious historical claim that only 3% of American colonists fought against the British during the War of Independence.
The Oath Keepers were founded in 2009 by Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a veteran army paratrooper, law school graduate and former Ron Paul congressional staffer. Like some antigovernment groups and activists such as Jack McLamb’s Police Against the New World Order, Oath Keepers primarily recruits current and former law enforcement, military and first-responder personnel, though they also accept civilians. Unlike many other militia groups that are local, geographically-based groups, Oath Keepers has a centralized hierarchical leadership and tiered structure at national, state and local levels.
A small but influential and foundational segment of the antigovernment movement is the constitutional sheriff movement. These groups adhere to the concept of county supremacy and the idea that the county sheriff as the ultimate law enforcement authority in the United States. This idea was pioneered in the 1970s and described as Posse Comitatus. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is the largest and oldest national constitutional sheriff organization. The second tenet of county supremacy centers on the idea that county government should have control of all the land within its borders, taking this power away from the state and federal government. Antigovernment groups who focus on this tenet are often active in the anti-public lands movement popular in the Western U.S., also known as the Sagebrush Rebellion or Wise Use movement in previous decades.
Sovereign citizens, a subset of the antigovernment movement, believe that they, not judges, juries, law enforcement or elected officials, get to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore, and they think they shouldn’t have to pay taxes. Sovereign citizen ideology is highly conspiratorial, and they are best known for clogging up the courts with indecipherable filings and liens targeting public officials. Sovereign citizens are frequently engaged in criminal activity and have been violent when confronted, particularly against government officials such as police officers. Some concerning groups are part of a subset of sovereign citizens termed Moorish sovereign citizens.
The antigovernment movement has also included groups whose focus was on tax protest and survivalism. While groups associated with both segments still exist, their prevalence has diminished in recent years. As the antigovernment movement has changed in the last 50 years, different segments have either grown or shrunk, but the key conspiracies and ideas are always taken up by other antigovernment groups and often reemerge later.
Three Percenters
Percenterism is one of three core components within the antigovernment militia movement, along with the Oath Keepers and traditional militia groups. The reference to 3% stems from the dubious historical claim that only 3% of American colonists fought against the British during the War of Independence.
Oath Keepers
The Oath Keepers, another core component of the militia movement, was founded in 2009 by Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a veteran army paratrooper, Yale Law School graduate and former Ron Paul congressional staffer. It primarily recruits current and former law enforcement, military and first-responder personnel, though it also accepts civilians. Unlike Three Percenterism, Oath Keepers was conceived as an organization with hierarchical leadership at national, state and local levels, one committed to establishing a network of activists it hopes will lay the groundwork for the creation of state militias.
Conspiracy Propagandists
The John Birch Society, World Net Daily and InfoWars are crucial to the antigovernment extremist movement in that they help craft and nurture the very conspiracy theories that animate the movement’s activists, such as Oath Keepers and Three Percenters. These conspiracy theories identify grievances, both real and imagined, and demonize groups they deem responsible for them. Conspiracy propagandists often stop just short of offering a solution to the threats, instead leaving action up to movement members while being careful to maintain plausible deniability. These conspiracy theories generate a sense of urgency in the “Patriot” movement that can lead to criminal activity, including terrorism.
To see the 2021 groups broken down by category, click the links here:
Ian is a Category 4 hurricane packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph.
Ian’s storm surge has arrived along parts of the southwest Florida coast, including in Naples, Florida, where over 5 feet of storm surge inundation has been measured, more than any other storm at that gauge location in at least 50 years.
Meanwhile, winds blowing offshore produced a blowout tide in Tampa Bay Wednesday morning.
Ian’s eyewall began scraping the coast of southwest Florida Wednesday, including Sanibel Island, prompting a rarely-issued “Extreme Wind Warning” used by the National Weather Service only in situations of the most intense winds in stronger hurricanes.
Winds have recently gusted up to 112 mph at the Naples Grande Beach Resort, 107 mph near Sanibel Island, 100 mph at Redfish Pass on nearby Captiva Island and 79 mph in Punta Gorda. Gusts over 40 mph have been clocked on the Atlantic side, including a 54 mph gust at Cape Canaveral. Street flooding was reported in Stuart, about 100 miles north of Miami.
Winds have gusted from 40 to 80 mph in Key West Tuesday into early Wednesday, where Ian also produced the third highest storm surge in over 100 years.
A tornado watch is in effect for central and southern Florida until 5 p.m. EDT.
