[Vision2020] We used to call them Bubba

Tue Feb 28 10:31:01 PST 2012

Hi Donovan,

Lately I've found myself in agreement with most of your positions on V2020.
But this time I must respectfully disagree with you.  Although there are
undoubtedly political positions that Barrett and I share we also have
differing perspectives in other areas.  Nonetheless, his integrity and
courage are beacons of hope and sources of inspiration that extend beyond
party affiliation.  It takes courage and commitment to stand up to local
louts and swaggering fanatics.  Barrett is setting a standard for all of us.
The militia movement and Tea Partyesque members are not funny (even if they
are ridiculous) and they can't be dismissed with a snigger, or a latte
sipping laugh.  As befuddled as they are, their intentions are not a joke.
Like all fanatics they are true believers.  It is my hope that all
candidates running for local office would be eager to inform voters if they
support the militia movement, and whether or not they will work to achieve
the goals of former Sheriff Mack <http://sheriffmack.com/>  and his fellow
travelers.  Rational Wiki <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Militia_movement>
(see below )  nails the militia movement and it's unholy alliances.  The
links at the bottom of this email are clickable and will provide V peeps
primary documents about the political philosophy of these scrambled-brained
folks.   Once we called these characters Bubba or Junior; we thought they
lived in the Ozarks and had chaw juice dribblin' down their Z.Z Top chins.
Now we call them candidates, neighbors, small business owners, and Tea Party
Republicans.  They live in our neck of the woods, waddle around in size 3X
camouflage, and are magically equipped with "special" insights into the
Constitution (that somehow elude the rest of us). They attach the descriptor
"Freeman" to their name: i.e.,  Jeff Williams
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMk_vYMBsY&feature=related>  Freeman is a
militia affectation.  (By the way, the link to Jeff Williams is a YouTube
rant directed toward the Southern Poverty Law Center wherein he informs them
that he is armed, brags about his concealed weapon permits from the states
of Washington and Utah, and declares himself "dangerous" as far as they are
concern.) It's not just Idaho's own Lightfoot Militia
<http://www.facebook.com/5775LF>  crowd that bellies up to the conspiracy
bar, let's also acknowledge the local efforts of the Appleseed Project
<http://www.facebook.com/NorthwestRegionProjectAppleseed> , Palouse Liberty
Project <http://www.palouselibertyproject.com/aof.php>  and those ever
bustling  gals at the Brushfire Alliance
<http://brushfirealliance.blogspot.com/> .  Bless all their hearts, their
self-importance may be the only source of importance they will ever enjoy.  

Rose Huskey

Rational Wiki

The militia movement is a United States
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/United_States>  subculture consisting
primarily of disaffected rural white right-wing
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Right-wing>  Christians
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Christians>  who believe that the Federal
government's authority is either broadly abused or outright null and void.
The movement was mostly active 1992-1996, and appears to be making a
comeback as of 2011, though it is not as powerful as in the 1990s. 

They draw their name from the "well-regulated militia" clause of the Second
Amendment <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Second_Amendment>  to the United
States Constitution[1]
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Militia_movement#cite_note-0>  (generally
interpreted by others to mean bodies such as the National Guard and state
police, assembled and regulated by the states or the Feds). While the
militia movement does experience plenty of cross-pollination
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Crank_magnetism>  with white nationalists
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/White_nationalism> , anti-Semites
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Anti-Semitism> , and other elements of the
radical right, most observers view this as secondary to the movement's chief
ideology -- indeed, during the movement's height in the '90s a number of
black separatist groups took up the ethos of militias. The militia movement
is heavily associated with, and infused with, survivalist
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Survivalism>  rhetoric about impending
economic collapse and societal breakdown. 

Many of these groups conversely view themselves (or frame themselves to the
public) as groups of citizens organized and ready to be called on by local
government when needed, and that private citizens' militias such as theirs
were the "original intent" of the Founders for national defense and
assistance with local law enforcement. This is a half-truth. While it is
true that, historically, government agencies (from the local sheriff to the
state) have called upon private citizens during times of emergency or
temporarily deputized private citizens, and most state constitutions include
definitions of the "unorganized militia" as all adult males (usually between
a certain age range, 18 to 45) for this purpose, it is a leap of logic to
conclude this sanctions the formation of private paramilitary organizations
not organized by nor recognized by the government. The concept is "all adult
males", not a private group of people holding decidedly fringe views
proclaiming themselves "the" militia. Besides conspiracy theorists and
survivalists, the movement also attracted a heavy dmixture of whackers
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Whacker>  (although most of them left once it
became clear the movement was also a magnet for dangerous anti-government
paranoids like Timothy McVeigh
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh> ). 

After the Oklahoma City bombing, many of the casual hangers-on left the
movement in droves, perhaps realizing it was a haven for the mentally
unstable and potentially violent and in any case deciding they had cold feet
and didn't want to be associated with it after all. This left a small hard
core of true believers still in the movement. The finishing blow was 9/11
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/9/11> , which split the few remaining active
militia groups into two camps; some militia leaders claimed that 9/11 was an
inside job <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/9/11_conspiracy_theories> , while
others proclaimed their patriotism and offered their support in the War on
Terror <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/War_on_Terror> . Furthermore, the
presidency of George W. Bush <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/George_W._Bush>
and the political dominance of the conservative Republican Party
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Republican_Party>  meant that most of the
movement's causes, such as illegal immigration, had a more respectable
outlet in the form of political activism, causing the more mainstream (or at
least less militant) members to leave and take up support of political
efforts to implement their goals. This only further shrank the group's
membership to the hard-right fringe. By around 2004 the militia movement had
completely petered out as an organized political force. 

Later in the 2000s, however, a confluence of factors led to a resurgence of
far-right "Patriot" rhetoric about government oppression[5]
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Militia_movement#cite_note-4> , restoring some
mainstream interest in the militia movement. The seeds of this resurgence
were planted mid-decade with anti-immigrant "citizen border patrol
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Secure_the_border> " groups like the Minuteman
Project (no relation to the Minutemen
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Minutemen_%28organization%29>  of the '60s),
Ranch Rescue and their many copycats, which grabbed media attention with
their armed patrols of the US-Mexico border. Starting in 2008-09, the
economic crisis and the election of Democratic President Barack Obama
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Barack_Obama>  kicked the movement into high
gear, leading to a resurgence of "traditional" anti-government militias. One
group at the forefront of the new movement, the Oath Keepers, specifically
recruits military and law enforcement personnel in the interests of
"upholding the Constitution", with their list of ten "orders we will not
obey" including two references to concentration/detention camps
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/FEMA_concentration_camps>  and one to foreign
troops on US soil.[6]
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Militia_movement#cite_note-5>  Meanwhile, many
of the old anti-government plots <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hutaree>  are
once again coming out of the woodwork. 

Most militia groups claim direct lineage from Revolutionary War groups such
as the Minutemen, and at least a few claim to be available to their states
for defense purposes. However, many, if not most, states have laws against
private armies such as these or any sort of paramilitary organization not
directly authorized by state or federal government. 

Legally speaking, the National Guard (which is not any sort of citizen
militia) is considered the "organized militia" under US federal law, a few
states also have their own "organized militia" separate from the National
Guard (the Texas <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Texas>  State Guard is an
example), and to the extent that there is a citizen (or "unorganized")
militia, it is a concept found in state constitutions used to bridge a gap
in federal law declaring all able-bodied males between 18 and 45 to be part
of the "militia". Should the "unorganized militia" need to be called to
service at the federal level, one might presume that the proper way to do so
would be to enact a draft using the Selective Service infrastructure. Things
in the US would probably have to be quite bad for it to get to this point.
Historically, private citizens have been "drafted" (or "deputized") at the
state or local level under the "militia" clause on a temporary basis,
usually to help with emergency services, but while this was common in the
1800s it is very rare today.

The modern movement began at a 1992 meeting initiated by fringe preacher
Peter J. Peters <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Peter_J._Peters>  in Estes
Park, Colorado <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Colorado> , although they
appear to have taken some of their ideology and organizational tactics from
two earlier movements, the 1970s/1980s Posse Comitatus
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_%28organization%29> , and the
1960s Minutemen <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Minutemen_%28organization%29>
. Peters' meeting was initiated in the wake of the Ruby Ridge
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge>  fiasco and he invited a large
number of leaders from both mainstream evangelical Christian and political
extreme right circles; most mainstream Christians blew him off, so the
attendance wound up reading like a who's who of the extreme right. Among
those in attendance were Aryan Nations
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Aryan_Nations>  leader Richard Butler; Texas
Ku Klux Klan <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan>  leader Louis Beam;
Chris Temple, who published the Christian Identity
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Christian_Identity>  newspaper The Jubilee;
and attorney Kirk Lyons, who headed the CAUSE Foundation (a "pro-white"
legal foundation which stands for Canada, Australia, United States, South
Africa, and Europe). The purpose of the meeting was to figure out what to do
to make sure a Ruby Ridge didn't happen again. Their solution: form citizens
militias. 

However, the movement quickly spiraled out of control - and out of the
control of the extreme right leaders who initiated it. As with many such
movements, the founders talked up the militia concept but then stepped out
of the way and went back to what they had been doing before once the ball
got rolling. The movement quickly attracted a different set of unstables and
unknowns who saw the militia movement as a way to make a name for
themselves: 

*	Michigan <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michigan>  janitor Mark
Koernke, who called himself "Mark from Michigan". Mr. Mark from Michigan was
soon giving public speeches and making videos spinning outlandish tales of
fleets of mysterious black helicopters
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Black_helicopters>  being prepared for
blue-helmeted United Nations <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/United_Nations>
troops to invade the U.S. Koernke then started a show on shortwave
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Shortwave>  radio peddling his same nonsense.
More fun than being a mere janitor, I guess (hey, is this guy
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Joe_the_Plumber>  an example of the same
thing?). 
*	John Trochmann, who had been at the Peters meeting. Trochmann
founded the Militia of Montana <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Montana>  whose
main purpose was to promote the militia concept by selling a mail-order
packet of information. The packet included a handbook for how to organize a
militia (amusing because, among other things, every page of the booklet had
the words TREASON TREASON TREASON TREASON TREASON across the top and bottom
margins); a book catalog of the usual conspiracy books and far-right
material; and a bunch of photocopies of tanks and military equipment being
carried on railroad cars, supposed "evidence" that the United Nations was
about to invade the U.S. in the name of the New World Order
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/New_World_Order> . 
*	Indiana <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Indiana>  attorney Linda
Thompson. Formerly a liberal <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Liberal>  who had
done some work for the ACLU <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/ACLU> , Thompson
made a video called Waco, the Big Lie right after the 1993 Waco
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Waco>  siege. While not the first significant
criticism of the government's mishandling of the events, it made a splash
because it was then the most sensational. Thompson soon moved far to the
right and went haywire, proclaiming herself "Acting Adjutant General of the
Unorganized Militias of the United States", jumping on the
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/America_Under_Siege> "black helicopter"
bandwagon, claiming the bar-coded stickers on the backs of highway signs
were to guide U.N. tanks after they invaded the U.S., and proclaiming an
armed march on Washington, D.C.
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.>  scheduled for September 19,
1994 during which "all militia units" were to assemble and arrest the entire
U.S. Congress for "treason". She later called off the march (after just
about every other militia group balked at her insane proposal) and claimed
it had only been to drum up publicity. Yep. 
*	Ron Cole, who was so moved by the Branch Davidian siege in 1993 he
converted to Branch Davidianism on the spot, and also started a Colorado
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Colorado>  militia group. He soon got involved
in the feud among surviving Branch Davidians as to who would take over
leadership after Koresh's untimely demise. He and the three other members of
his Colorado militia were arrested in 1997 over allegations of possession of
a pipe bomb. 
*	The movement also attracted the usual bunch of grown-up little boys
who read magazines about mercenaries
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Soldier_of_Fortune>  and needed an excuse to
run around in the woods in camo shouting "hoo-ah!" without actually having
to meet the physical fitness requirements to join the military. (Couldn't
they have just gone hunting <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fun:Hunting>
instead?) 

it's not even
a good idea 

 <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pseudolaw> Pseudolaw 

 <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Category:Pseudolaw> Icon pseudolaw.svg

I have a theory,
which is mine 

*	Brian Gerrish <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Brian_Gerrish>  
*	Citizen's Rule Book
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_Rule_Book>  
*	Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Constitutional_Sheriffs_and_Peace_Officers_Ass
ociation>  
*	Corporate personhood
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood>  
*	Crime woo <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Crime_woo>  
*	Flat tax <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Flat_tax>  
*	Freeman on the land
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Freeman_on_the_land>  
*	Gold standard (economics)
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gold_standard_%28economics%29>  
*	Posse Comitatus (organization)
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_%28organization%29>  
*	Provisional Imperial Government
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Provisional_Imperial_Government>  
*	Robert Beale <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Robert_Beale>  
*	Sovereign citizen <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen>  
*	The Annotated Citizen's Rule Book
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Annotated_Citizen%27s_Rule_Book>  

v <http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Template:Pseudolaw>  - t
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Template_talk:Pseudolaw>  - e
<http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Pseudolaw&action=edit> 

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