Last weekend a small but well-armed and -armored federal task force under the Bureau of Land Management was forced to back off in the face of a group of unarmed (or lightly-armed) patriots on horseback and on foot in a gully near Bunkerville, Nevada. The courageous citizens who approached the federal barriers were told by bullhorn that they would be shot if they came any further, but they kept coming anyway.
This was a huge victory for those American patriots who want to re-establish the rule of law under the United States Constitution. For the past two days I’ve been browsing patriot networks, Second Amendment sites, and YouTube channels, and it’s clear that the libertarian resistance has been electrified by what happened at the Bundy Ranch. Ordinary citizens stood up to the federal government, and the feds backed down.
However, as most of us surmised on Saturday, this was merely a tactical retreat on the part of the BLM and the Obama administration. We are now in a “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” situation, which is untenable from the point of view of the federal government. In order to work their will upon the American people, the feds must be seen as invincible. But they aren’t — they’ve just proven that they don’t have the guts required to gun down patriotic citizens in cold blood. They have no broad-based support among the people — all they have is fiat money and the unlimited firepower that money can buy.
The invincibility of the federal behemoth must be re-established, and quickly, so expect a Round Two. According to the following report from a reader named Warren Smith, the BLM has backed off from the Bundy Ranch, but has not departed the area. They may well be planning further operations in that part of Nevada.
Dr. Smith has written the governor of Nevada with an urgent appeal to call out the Nevada National Guard to prevent illegal federal actions. He included the following note along with enclosed emails:
Please see the below as a strategy to prevent loss of life in the developing situation in Nevada (a situation which appears to be worsening, despite the supposed resolution yesterday — see the below), and to send a clear message to the Feds to back off. Please use whatever means you have to contact and pressure the Governor of Nevada to deploy the Nevada National Guard in protection of the Bundy family, their property, and the many heroic citizens who have flocked to their aid.
Contacts:
- Web page/email: http://gov.nv.gov/contact/
- Telephone: (775) 684-5670, (702) 486-2500
- FAX: (775) 684-5683, (702) 486-2505
I urge you to consider contacting the Governor through all of these means, and to consider forwarding this (or similar) information to others who will contact the Governor. I also urge you to pray that this situation is resolved rapidly and without bloodshed.
Dr. Smith’s letter to the governor of Nevada is at the bottom of this post. Below are some of the emails he has received from eyewitnesses in Nevada, which prompted him to write the letter.
Received: 12:46 PM EDT, 04/13/2014
From: [REDACTED]
To: [REDACTED]
Subject: Update: IT’S NOT OVER IN NV
Hello all you Patriots of the 912,
[REDACTED] called me this morning to inform me that the BLM has been ordered to stand down but NOT to go away. [REDACTED] arrived early in the morning and started to set up camp. They also were asked by Ryan Bundy to run security while they rescue the calves who are dying because of the stress and lack of grazing from being kept off the range. They spotted night time activity in the hills surrounding the Bundy property. After catching about an hours sleep they awoke to see three snipers skulking in the bush surrounding the camps that people have set up. The people who have been there are not leaving and more are still coming in from all over the US. The airspace over the Bundy ranch has been shut down in a 3 mile, 30,000 feet perimeter so that no private helicopters or planes can fly over to take pictures or surveil what the feds are up to. If the National Guard, the Army, the Marines or any military faction becomes involved that means they will be declaring WAR on the citizens of the United States. We are perilously close to an all out military action. So far Federal Agents are still trolling the roads, surveilling the territory and the camps in big black SUVs with blacked out windows. We need more numbers out there. There’s a Federal Express outlet in St. George, Utah on South Airport Rd. If need be get ready to send supplies. If the government decides to shut the roads down to try to contain the numbers of people coming in to take a stand the supply lines could be compromised. I will have more intel by this afternoon. Anyone out there who is involved with the III%ers or the Oath Keepers please contact me at [REDACTED]. We need to get organized. If this turns to war we need to drop everything and go. The Government is NOT GOING TO GO AWAY. This is not cool and this is not funny this is for real!
Yours Truly,
[REDACTED]
From: [REDACTED]
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2014 5:50 PM
Subject:A person my wife knows tried to get to the site in NV
Here’s her account. She’s an attorney in LA.
Subject: Here’s what the news won’t say about what really happened in Nevada
From a person that went there, drove there from L.A.
I rolled into Laughlin really early, like 5:30 am. So many people had shown up, that we decided to leave in groups. A second group to leave at 8Am as scheduled. Ours was a big group too. About two dozen cars, loaded with passengers.
The highway was almost empty until near Mesquite. Then it was a traffic jam. Motor homes, campers, ATVs running along side the freeway, motorcycles, vehicles, every thing you could possibly imagine. Everyone on their way to Bunkerville. Then it about stopped, just inching along. Word traveled down the traffic line that the feds had blocked the road just out of Mesquite and were searching vehicles for weapons and cell phones. Cell phones were confiscated and smashed. The people were given a chit for $30.00 redemption value. I left my phone at home. Some of us that had four wheel drives decided to just leave the road and head overland. As we got closer to the ridge, we were stopped by armed militia. We could not go any further. We could wait, or turn around and go back to the road. Men, that I suspect were special forces, had climbed the ridge from the back side and captured the snipers. They were at that moment coming down the ridge to take them to Mesquite where they would be let go. They weren’t prisoners, they were just going to be replaced by friendlies.
Because of the roadblock on I-15, people refused to be searched, and refused to turn back. They just pulled off the road and parked. It was like a dam backing up a river. Soon the feds were trapped between the Americans who had already gotten through, and the Americans that had been stopped on the highway. The BLM agents went into full panic mode and called for help. LVPD which had REFUSED to show up to help Americans HAD to show up to rescue BLM that was now trapped and helpless. The blockade was SEVEN MILES LONG! That’s a potload of people.
A group of armed Americans along with local cowboys went to Mesquite to liberate the cows that had been confiscated and held by BLM. They were being driven back home in an old fashioned cattle drive. The feds say it was voluntary, don’t believe it.
I was basically standing around twiddling my thumbs when the word came down that the Director of BLM had surrendered and all forces would be withdrawn. I could not go on. The road was blocked and would be blocked probably for the rest of the day at least. A bunch of us turned around and left. It was over. There was THOUSANDS of people there, and more arriving every minute. The ranch, Gold Butte, the entire area was completely surrounded by Americans. The highway was completely blocked in both directions of people trying to get through. Everyone was very peaceful and friendly. No fights or anything. There was a rumor in the line, that some of the mercenaries hired by the feds had defected and were now on the side of the Americans.
I came back and immediately saw this pack of lies and half truths.
At one point, I-15 was closed in both directions, about seven miles south of Mesquite, because protesters had blocked the freeway. Nearly two dozen police officers and a SWAT unit were at the scene to keep the peace and assist the BLM enforcement officers to safely leave the area. They were scared crapless!
Sola Fide, sola gratia, sola scriptura, solus Christus, sola Deo Gloria
From: [REDACTED]
To: [REDACTED]
Subject: A person my wife knows tried to get to the site in NV (from trusted correspondent)
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 19:51:13 -0500
Our thanks to [REDACTED] a trusted correspondent, for this. I had also heard from another person from one of the western states who said he was blocked from arriving at the Bundy ranch and had to turn back. Well, Folks, it’s interesting, isn’t it? This blockade, and especially the absolutely blatantly illegal smashing of the cell phones by federal personnel, was not reported in the news. Folks, there is NO law that supports the confiscation and destruction of people’s property, or even a law that bans travel in this way without a valid justification!
Thus they blocked not only the roads but also the information and both actions were illegal!
This is how the government, working hand in hand with the media, tries to control us and despises our property rights.
That is why this message must go viral.
The person who wrote this needs to report this illegal confiscation, along with any friends who were with her at the time. It needs to get to the msm. Never assume the media will not pick up such news eventually. Remember that Fox eventually did carry this Bundy drama. They will also no doubt carry this news as well because they are pro-GOP and want to get rid of Obama, and this makes Obama look like what he is, a tyrant.
Don’t be discouraged when the news won’t initially carry your experiences. Get together with other witnesses and submit these news items. Go to the news web sites and use the submission forms. Call the TV outlets.
BTW, the BIG news is that the number of citizens who WOULD have shown up at the Bundy ranch in Nevada during the standoff, and the number of eyewitness reports about federal abuses on the way would have been overwhelming if the feds had not illegally blocked their travel. Obama does indeed want to be a totalitarian dictator, as many have speculated for years.
The good news is that the support, most of which never arrived, was probably several times greater numerically.
This bad news is actually good news in that respect. We weren’t supposed to know. (BTW, my suggestion is find a secure hiding place for cell phones in your car, like under a wheel well or under upholstery. A water proof pack tied to a thin thread that fits into the gas tank pipe might also work, esp if fastened somehow to somewhere inside the fill pipe).
[REDACTED]
PS: After I sent this to the first few groups, Dave Levine of the Dave Levine Show wrote back and said:
These witnesses and victims of the BLM smashing their private property (cellphones) should contact their Congress critters and demand House hearings on BLM’s thuggery.
Of course, the standard government response by now may be “you don’t want to go there, Buddy.” OUR response must be: “You already took us there, Buddy.”
Dr. Smith’s letter to Governor Sandoval:
The Honorable Governor Brian Sandoval
Governor of the State of Nevada
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED TO PREVENT LOSS OF LIFE
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Dear Governor Sandoval,
I implore you for rapid action that only you can take to achieve the joint aims of 1) preventing loss of life of both US Citizens and Federal agents and 2) the preservation of state’s rights and citizen’s liberties by preventing the further illegal confiscation of private and Nevada-owned properties by the Federal government.
The obvious — and perhaps only — solution to the current crisis is for you to use your gubernatorial powers to activate the Nevada National Guard in defense of the rights on the Bundy family.
The reasoning for this is as follows:
| 1) | The influx of militia, Oath Keepers, etc. is creating a very dangerous situation, especially when combined with the reports of Federal agents taking up sniper positions, excluding media coverage, cutting communication, etc. It is an unfortunate fact that some of the members of the militia, Oath Keepers, etc., are seeking opportunity to initiate open conflict with a government that they see as having far exceeded its Constitutional bounds, hoping to start a widespread rebellion. Without centralized leadership to reign in the most extreme of these, massive bloodshed is a foregone conclusion. I have overheard information relating to one of these groups, a group including highly trained ex-marines who are preparing for a drawn-out conflict, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for a cause that they see as entirely noble — protecting and preserving the Constitution of the United States of America. Decisive action to prevent the loss of life of these people, who can only be called “patriots,” and to prevent the loss of life of Federal agents (who are also innocent pawns in this conflict) is required. | |
| 2) | Analysis of the legal position of the Bundy family seems to indicate that they are entirely in the right, were it not that massive overreach of Federal control, well beyond Constitutional limits, has made them trespassers on land for which they own grazing rights. Under Nevada law, the actions by the BLM in collecting and attempting to sell the cattle owned by the Bundy family are patently felonious. The reported confiscation and destruction of cell phones and firearms of citizens attempting to get close to Bunkerville are illegal and unconstitutional actions by the Federal agents. The Federal government has essentially declared martial law and suspended Constitutional protections in your jurisdiction, something that requires your action. | |
| 3) | Given that the Federal government is violating the Constitution through military-type force against US citizens, calling up the National Guard for the defense of your state, and of the citizens, is a correct and proper reaction, and indeed is the reason why the National Guard exists under state control instead of Federal control. | |
| 4) | If the Federal government were to attempt to put down the Nevada National Guard through armed conflict, the result would be catastrophic for the Federal government. They would not dare make such a move, as such a move would certainly trigger civil war. If you were to deploy the Nevada National Guard, the Federal government would have no choice but to retreat from their tyrannical tactics, to seek a resolution through other means. The crisis would be averted, and the cause of liberty reinforced. |
It is for these reasons that I implore you — to save innocent lives and to preserve liberty — to mobilize the Nevada National Guard in defense of the Bundy family and the citizens who have gathered on their behalf, and to do so before the otherwise inevitable bloodshed commences.
Yours,
Dr. Warren Smith
Be wary, this may only be the first shot in the war. They may have had a win-win situation set up. 1.they get their solar farm. 2. they flush out the patriots.
Be careful, cousins.
This seems much the same as Lincoln’s behavior towards Maryland just before the outbreak of the shooting war. The suppression of the citizenry to prevent their legislature from voting to secede and the complete destruction of civil liberty in the name of federal control.
I think the coming civil war has just started.
Yeah, this is an early skirmish.
I hope I am wrong, but I believe the response to Warren Smith’s letter to Governor Sandoval has already been responded to with the Governor’s notable absence from the ‘incident’ area.
In short: He ain’t gonna go there!
Even the local sheriff was reluctant in his actions to move the BLM on, and only after the BLM indicated they would withdraw!
I don’t think anyone in local or state authority is going to put their best foot forward on this one!
I think it’ll start once the Feds shoot someone. Never mind Kent State, shooting at cowboys is going to blow up in the Fed’s face really fast. And then all it takes is a few Navy Seals and a couple of Air National Guardsmen fed up with the POTUS and the Feds, and the p**h will hit the fan…
I find it hard to get beyond Article I, Section 2 of the Nevada Constitution.
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/const/nvconst.html
Sec: 2. Purpose of government; paramount allegiance to United States …. the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair[,] subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States. The Constitution of the United States confers full power on the Federal Government to maintain and Perpetuate its existance [existence], and whensoever any portion of the States, or people thereof attempt to secede from the Federal Union, or forcibly resist the Execution of its laws, the Federal Government may, by warrant of the Constitution, employ armed force in compelling obedience to its Authority.
Bottom line – the SCOTUS needs to rule on this, but judging by their record of the past 15-20 years, I have little faith that they will get it right.
Ouch! That is terrible. Zero state’s rights in Nevada, I guess.
ParahSalin, Sarah Palin fan by any chance? That Article 1, Section 2 of the Nevada Constitution would be upheld by all parties if the Federal Government had kept to within its constitutional limits. It hasn’t, and so because of its over-reach, must now therefore muscle up to perceived rebellions caused by its own criminality.
The United States Government has by the action of the last few days become officially, a tyranny! It can’t get any plainer than that!
What shocks me is that these Federal agents literally said “One more step and we will shoot you.” What is that all about? Such behavior anyplace else in the world would be condemned by the US in the strongest of terms. While thankfully they didn’t have the guts to follow this policy, since when have there been policies that so easily invoke lethal force?
Warren, I believe it is the national security mindset that permits such threats to be issued. I believe one must need to come to the conclusion and then to accept, that America is now basically a police state where the words ‘national security’ are used to allow the killing of American citizens without due process, even on American soil.
Area 51 being a prime example with its’ Authorized to use lethal force’ warning signs.
How un-American is that!
National Security has been trumping constitutional rights since 1947. That needs to be appreciated and then assessed for how to fight it.
We need to go after American citizens when they have been wrongly granted citizenship in the mistaken belief they can actually be citizens when the ideology they support is violent seditious and its members waging war against us now having already mass-murdered thousands of us, with every reasonable conjecture that they will escalate this war against us — to wit, Mohammedans.
correction: “violently seditious”
Hesperado, the mass introduction of Islam into the West I believe most thinkers would recognize as a mistake of nightmarish proportions. Other thinkers with a brain more strategically aligned would recognize the introduction of Islam as a designed distraction from the real agenda that is now being pursued against the West – totalitarianism under a one World Government through the United Nations.
The real fight is against every Western nation’s BIG government and its massive Communist over-reach into every Western individual’s life to which so many are now waking up that it has caused Zbigniew Brzezinski to report to the Trilateral Commission that ‘there is a world wide awakening’ to their totalitarian agenda.
That is the enemy that must be dealt with first. Once that has been accomplished then it will Islam’s turn next!
Nemesis,
For such a massive conspiracy that impugns the heart of the West I need more direct evidence than the tissue of inferences I’ve seen so far from “Gates of Vienna Circle” theorists.
That’s the same federal government that sees an outrageous assault on liberty when a woman is told she can’t wear hijab while working at Abercrombie.
Russia Today (rt) has reported on this. OK, rt has its own agenda, but also an increasing audience share beyond Russia. It is worth including in submissions on this story.
The BLM has jurisdiction over the open range border area but they’re not lining up with guns to stop the Mexican drug runners. They only threaten Americans.
In fact, there are signs on the border warning Americans that drug traffickers
bring in their drugs that way. How shameful!
Viewed from Southern England, this looks very ominous, we here have direct knowledge of how low central government regards us voters, now in the land of the free, you too have your own “big brother”.
All i can say is you people who resist are on the right track, those in Washington have agreed to defend your constitution, NOT usurp it, think global-act local, fuel, food ammo medication, organisation and lawyers.
Publicity, get the media on side, no-one likes a bully, para drop reporters in there if you have to, above all REMEMBER who you are, your freedom to RESIST was bought for you with the blood and treasure of your fathers, God Bless from England.
We hear about federal over-reach every day. Some poor schmoe that unstopped a beaver dam on his property is met with armed EPA agents and a humongous fine. Over militarized police forces busting down doors in the wee hours thinking there was pot inside shoot the dog and terrorize the family.
The Bundy ranch is a rallying cry; helicopters, snipers, smash cell phones, 1st amendment zones… We have had enough.
Being very close to someone that has been a victim of this “citizens are the enemy” mentality, I don’t care who is technically right and who is wrong. Again and again my husband and I wonder why the feds and the state have to come in so heavy.
Some schlub growing organic veggies is raided by a swat team, a guitar maker was put under armed seige for some wood, former CIA agents were visited in the wee hours because their son was growing hydroponic tomatoes in the basement for his high school science project. Some poor jerk took into his animal rescue center a young doe and was visited by a swat team who then shot the deer…
And we wonder why the federal budget is so bloated. They have the budget, the toys and the manpower.
What to do with it? I think that question has answered itself.
“What to do with it?”
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
What I find particularly amazing is that the feds claim they no longer have the budget to care for the turtles in their sanctuary; half of them are diseased due to improper management. But they do have the budget to send in helicopters, snipers, an armada of black SUVs, heavy ammunitions, tons of fencing, and personnel…
What did that cost?
We won’t be allowed access to that privileged information. Let’s just say they’re determined to do whatever it takes to make certain that average Americans feel the boot on their neck, even if vicariously. That’s why there was such a widespread reaction to their “making a federal case out of it”. Every person who left home to respond to this family’s duress knows that it could just as easily be their house, their land.
The correct term for the animals under the care of the federal gov’t is tortoise. They can live to be 100 years old. The fact that the gov’t has to euthanize half of those under their care, which they blame on budgetary constraints, revolts me…
We are talking about a desert animal that has lived on the Nevada plains for hundreds of years. The federal gov’t came in, rounded them up and before you know it half of them were sick… For over 120 years the desert tortoise has survived in range land.
I am so totally sick and tired of the stories told to me by the gov’t… The tortoise would be much better off if the feds would leave them alone.
Does anyone know if the cattle provide a positive influence to their habitat? That would be a very interesting study, but very un-PC.
But then we have the BLM and the EPA that need to justify their budgets. They need more toys and more weapons to keep the American people in line. The turtles are an excuse.
Babs–
I read on a website that the tortoises consider themselves well-fed because of the numerous cow patties. That’s what permitted their population to expand.
Ha! Just as I suspected… Thanks D.
I wouldn’t be using any of those ‘cow patties’ for my burgers.
You’re not a tortoise. They do NOT discriminate.
I was half expecting the show down and eyeball to eyeball confrontations to ramp up to Lexington Green II. I agree with the article here that the feds are licking their wounds, giving themselves pep talks, conferring with Harry Reid, and planning a sneak attack on the Bundy family and ranch. But the sight of the feds backing off in the face of the “colonists” I think has been burned into the minds of many Americans. If the feds try to pull something else, I don’t think they should count on anyone forgetting it. And this is the worst thing that could happen in the lead-up to the midterm elections. I think the Democrats are going to be slaughtered. Bundy Ranch adventure/BLM/Reid/Obama — they’re all tied together.
For readers who may not be aware, Mr. Cline is an author who blogs at Rule of Reason. He was a stalwart in the Diana West defense.
http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/
And still am, thank you.
For you, Mr Cline, and others- say Babs – has there been much MSM coverage of this situation? I notice Drudge keeps it at the top, but since we don’t have a TV or a functioning radio, I don’t know to what extent this is really getting much play…other than Reid claiming they’ll be back.
I think some of the them are actually relieved. One asked a member of the press to tell everyone they didn’t want to do it, but were ‘following orders.’
The best thing they could have done was not follow orders.
OATH Keepers are standing watch at the Bundy ranch and it is severely vexing the Feds to the point of frustration. One way or another the Feds will raid the Bundy Ranch, then it will be game on.
Hannity/Fox had a large segment tonight.
Those Fed’s no longer deserve our respect, they are becoming Fascist Stormtroopers.
I wonder if they realize what kind future they are bringing to their children and family.
If Hannity/Fox had this up for discussion then it is out there in the MSM, if not in that part which cuts Obama’s administration such a huge break by consistently looking the other way. Were this kind of overreach occurring under a Republican president there would be huge public protests…