Waffle House killer was a sovereign citizen who wanted to meet Donald Trump. Update!

Courtesy of USA Today:

The suspected gunman on the run after riddling a Tennessee Waffle House with bullets dubbed himself a "sovereign citizen," before being arrested in July 2017 outside the White House. 

Travis Reinking, 29, used that term — which the FBI has also used to describe a group of anti-government extremists — during a clash last year with the Secret Service, according to a police report obtained by USA TODAY. 

Reinking told agents he needed to see President Trump and defined himself as sovereign citizen who had a right to inspect the grounds, according to an arrest report by the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. He was arrested on an unlawful entry charge after refusing to leave the area. 

The FBI has said sovereign citizens "believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States." 

The agency has also defined sovereign citizens as "anti-government extremists who claim the federal government is operating outside its jurisdiction and they are therefore not bound by government authority—including the courts, taxing entities, motor vehicle departments, and even law enforcement."

You may remember that Alaska's own domestic terrorist, Schaeffer Cox, also identifies himself as a sovereign citizen.

So you know, they're crazy.

After that incident at the White House the Secret Service actually took Renking's guns away and gave them to his father. A solution that had only one problem.

Courtesy of Newsweek:

Police said the father of suspected Waffle House shooter Travis Reinking handed his son back an AR-15 found at the scene, after it had been seized by authorities in relation to another incident.

That's right, daddy gave his guns back.

After all this is America, right?

There is at least one hero here and that is the young man who actually disarmed this killer bare handed.

What can really stop a bad guy with a gun? A good guy with quick thinking, bravery and the presence of mind to act. James Shaw is truly a hero. https://t.co/M9M2AesueW via @HuffPost

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) April 23, 2018

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

James Shaw Jr. said he was dining at the restaurant near Nashville with a friend when suspected gunman Travis Reinking, armed with an AR-15, opened fire at people outside and then inside the establishment just before 3:30 a.m. 

Shaw said he jumped behind a nearby door and suffered a minor gunshot wound to his arm in the process. As he waited to see if he would live or die, Reinking’s gun appeared to jam, giving him a chance to charge.

“It was about that time that I made up my mind ― because there was no way to lock that door ― that if it was going to come down to it, he was going to have to work to kill me,” Shaw said at a press conference. “I rushed him and it actually worked out to my favor.” 

Shaw tackled Reinking and grabbed the gun’s barrel with his bare hand, an act that badly burned him in the process. 

Shaw said he didn’t feel the metal’s scorching heat on his skin. Instead, he continued to grip the firearm before tossing it over a counter. He then proceeded to physically remove Reinking out of the restaurant. Reinking disappeared on foot and remained at large as of late Sunday afternoon. 

Thanks to Mr. Shaw's courage there were not more people killed of wounded in this attack.

However it should be noted that if there had been stricter gun laws, or if  Reinking's dad was not such a fucking idiot, Shaw's life would not have been put at risk in the first place.

Getting a gun, especially an AR-15, should not be as easy as buying a pack of gum.

There should be an extensive background check, a waiting period, and then a viable reason given for why you think you need a gun in the first place.

And if the answer given is I hear voices in my head, my bitch of a wife is getting a little mouthy at home, or I am a sovereign citizen and I want to defend myself in case the government comes to take me away, then the answer should be a resounding "NO!"

Update: They finally caught this asshole.

BREAKING: Travis Reinking apprehended moments ago in a wooded area near Old Hickory Blvd & Hobson Pk. pic.twitter.com/00ukga37s6

— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) April 23, 2018

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The police said Monday that they had arrested a suspect in the killing of four people at a Waffle House in Nashville, ending a wide search that had unnerved one of the largest cities in the South.

About 160 law enforcement officials had been involved in the search for the suspect, Travis Reinking, 29, who officials said used an AR-15 rifle to carry out a rampage at a restaurant southeast of downtown on Sunday morning. 

The police said they arrested Mr. Reinking on Monday afternoon in a wooded area near the apartment complex where he lived, bringing an end to a manhunt that had stretched into its second day.

Well at least that's some good news. 

This is America so you could not close out 2017 without yet another mass shooting. This one cost the life of a Colorado police officer.

Douglas County Coroner confirms shooting suspect in #CopperCanyonOIS as Matthew Riehl DOB 9/09/80 (pictured). Investigation still ongoing and being investigated by @DA18th Critical Response Team. pic.twitter.com/H6wT0klSQv

— DC Sheriff (@dcsheriff) January 1, 2018

Courtesy of the LA Times:

In a year racked by mass shootings, including the deadliest in U.S. history, a spasm of violence here on the last day of 2017 added one more to the grim tally. 

Four Douglas Country sheriff's deputies responding to a noise complaint were ambushed by a gunman who sprayed them with more than 100 bullets. 

All four were hit. Those who could crawled away. But Deputy Zackari Parrish, 29, was shot repeatedly and killed. 

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said at a news conference that the officers were responding to a complaint about raised voices at the Copper Canyon Apartments in Highlands Ranch, about 12 miles south of Denver, at about 5:15 a.m.

One of the occupants of the building opened the door and let the officers inside.

However the other occupant, a Matthew Riehl, opened fire on the cops from his bedroom.

This led to a standoff lasting about an hour and a half, before SWAT entered the building and after an exchange of gunfire killed the shooter. (One of the SWAT officers was also wounded in the exchange.)

As it turns out the gunman was an Iraq war veteran with a grudge against the sheriff.

The Sheriff's name is Tony Spurlock, and Riehl even threatened to run against him in the next election: 

He is seen wearing an Iraq combat veteran hat in a Dec. 13 YouTube video in which he called Spurlock a “clown” and a deputy a pimp. 

“You know who’s going flub big time next election, Spurlock,” Riehl said in the video called “Fire Sheriff Spurlock.”

He said he was running against Spurlock as a libertarian. 

A video posted on Nov. 28 showed a traffic stop by a police officer in the city of Lone Tree — apparently taken inside the officer's car — that Riehl said was done illegally. He claimed the officer clocked the wrong driver, identifying the officer by name in the video and calling him "dirty."

"S---bag, dirtbag, liar," he says as the officer questioned the driver. "He's the boss, huh? He's the Nazi in charge with the stripes on his shoulder and the fake badge."

Yeah, nothing unhinged about that. 

I don't think he has officially been identified as such, but this Riehl guy sounds like a sovereign citizen type to me.

That would explain his lack of respect for law enforcement, and self identifying as a Libertarian.

For the record there were over 15,000 gun deaths in 2017, 344 mass shootings, and 316 incidents where a police officer was shot or killed.

I expect the numbers to be much the same in 2018.

Oregon standoff protesters found not guilty.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

A jury has found that brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy were not guilty of conspiring against the government, a surprising end to the high-profile Oregon standoff trial that sparked national debates about public lands and the rights of ranchers in the American west. 

The decision, unveiled in federal court in Portland on Thursday, is a blow to the US government, which had aggressively prosecuted the rightwing activists who led an armed takeover of public property to protest American land-use regulations. 

The Bundy brothers, who orchestrated a 2 January takeover of the Malheur national wildlife refuge, were acquitted on a number of serious charges, along with five other defendants. Only a day earlier the court dismissed a juror over fears of bias, raising concerns that the trial would drag on for weeks. 

“We are just so excited,” Angie Bundy, Ryan’s wife, told the Guardian after the verdict was announced. “We’ve been praying hard, and we knew they hadn’t done anything wrong.” 

They illegally took over a federal building, damaged government property, and threatened violence against law enforcement, and they just get to walk?

The whole case was a like a circus side show from the start with all kinds of bizarre demands from the Bundy boys, including asking to be paid a million dollars for being a defendant, and a request for the return of their guns, not to mention that at one point Ryan Bundy tried to break out of prison.

In fact even the end of this trial was insane.

At one point the defendants attorney was tackled to the ground and tazed, for reasons that remain a little unclear.

Ultimately I see this as setting a really bad precedent that is only going to encourage more of these sovereign citizen types to stage protests and take up arms against the federal government, and that can only lead to more people being killed.

For those who are curious there is a Twitter account from an Orgeonian reporter that will bring you right up to speed on all of this. 

Trio of sovereign citizens were planing a terrorist attack the day after the election. But no need to panic, they weren't Muslims or anything.

Courtesy of KWCH: 

Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall says Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 51, and Patrick Stein were all charged with domestic terrorism. 

Beall said the three were planning to bomb an apartment complex and mosque in Garden City occupied by a Muslim community of about 120 Somali refugees. 

Beall said the men planned to carry out the attack on Nov. 9, the day after Election Day. 

He said the men stockpiled a large cache of firearms, and ammunition. Beall said the men planned to park vehicles full of explosives at all four corners of the Garden City apartment complex. 

The men said they wanted to "wake people up".

Apparently these three considered themselves sovereign citizens and belonged to a militia group called "The Crusaders."

Catchy name don't you think?

Gee firearms, bombs, a coordinated attack on innocent people, if these were Islamic jihadists this would really be terrifying and worthy of media attention.

But it's just a bunch of white dudes so clearly Fox News has more important things to cover.

Two more idiots from that Oregon standoff are pleading guilty. One of them was a Trump campaign official.

Courtesy of TPM:

Jerry DeLemus, a co-chair of Veterans for Trump in New Hampshire, is expected to plead guilty for his role in the 2014 militia standoff at the Bundy family's Nevada ranch, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Tuesday. 

In a court filing, Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro said DeLemus has indicated he would change his plea on August 23 after signing a plea agreement. 

DeLemus, who had been listed as an alternate delegate for Donald Trump to the RNC weeks after his indictment, faces nine federal charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime against the country and threatening a federal law enforcement officer.

I have to say that I am constantly impressed with the character of the people who support Donald Trump. (I totally typed that with a straight face. You'll just have to take my word for it.)

DeLemus is not alone in striking a plea deal.

Courtesy of KGW:

A former Marine whose appearances in widely shared videos made him one of the most recognizable figures during the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge pleaded guilty Monday for his role in the weekslong standoff with authorities. 

Jon Ritzheimer, 32, admitted that he conspired with Ammon Bundy and others to prevent U.S. Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and they did so by threats of force or intimidation. 

Prosecutors dropped two charges as part of a plea agreement - theft of government property and possessing a firearm on federal property. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said prosecutors will recommend 2½ years in prison when the Arizona man is sentenced in May. Ritzheimer's attorney, Terri Wood, can argue for less.

You may remember Ritzheimer as the guy who made this cringe worthy/hysterical video before going to the Oregon wildlife refuge.

That video only gets funnier now that we know he caved like a little bitch in order to avoid a long prison sentence.

Which leaves Ryan Bundy, who recently got into a scuffle with the guards, and his brother Ammon Bundy, who is still fighting his incarceration, behind.

Seriously what did these idiots think was going to happen to them?

Ryan Bundy wants the federal government to pay him a million dollars for being a defendant, or inmate. No, I'm NOT kidding.

Courtesy of KOIN 5:

In bizarre court documents filed Tuesday, Ryan Bundy declared himself sovereign from state and federal government and wanted to be paid $1 million to accept “the role” of defendant or inmate. 

Bundy, the brother of co-defendant Ammon Bundy in the case of the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, is acting as his own attorney. The federal court filings were submitted by his court-appointed legal assistant. 

Ryan Bundy said he does not accept the role as defendant or inmate without fair and just compensation of $1 million. He also said he is willing to play the “role” of “judge” or “bailiff” for $1 million.

He also demanded $100 million if he has to face a judge for the conspiracy matter related to the takeover and occupation of the federal facility.

Okay so how long was that car parked on his face again?

Ohio sovereign citizen blows off both hands making bomb in kitchen.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars: 

Alphonso D. Mobley Jr. was allegedly building a bomb with a powerful, but unstable explosive that he was cooking in the kitchen of a vacant Columbus, Ohio house when it detonated, blowing off both hands. 

Despite his injuries, the 26 year-old man was charged yesterday with possession and manufacture of a dangerous ordnance alongside 21 year-old Roberto M. Innis Jr. 

Uninjured in the Tuesday morning blast, Innis called emergency services to the scene and later allegedly confessed to helping manufacture a dangerous ordnance. 

Triacetone triperoxide, better known as TATP, is an old, but powerful explosive used by suicide bombers in the Paris attacks last year. Long known to extremists as ‘the mother of Satan,' it is easily set off by friction, static electricity, or flame. 

While there is no word yet on where Mobley learned to make the compound, neighbors tell 10TV that both are ‘sovereign citizens,' a category that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies consider at least as dangerous as Islamic terrorists.

Of course as we know this is not a REAL terrorist because he is not an "Islamic terrorist" and that is the only kind that we are supposed to fear. 

Of course in reality this is the more dangerous variety of terrorist, a domestic terrorist who lives, looks, and worships like the majority of Americans.

He could be your neighbor, your workmate, or even your family member.

And yet we are rarely warned to watch out for them because they are not the type of terrorist that justifies beefing up our military or spending millions on Homeland Security.

Sovereign citizen convicted of plotting to overthrow the West Virginia state government.

Thomas David Deegan

Courtesy of Metro News:  

A Wood County jury quickly convicted the man Friday who had threatened last fall to seize control of the state capitol and the state government of West Virginia. 

The prosecution’s case centered on a conference call recorded last September where Deegan talked about his plan. 

“The conversation was the actual crime itself,” Wood County Prosecutor Jason Wharton told MetroNews Friday morning. “The jury was able to hear the entirety of the conference call as well as some recordings from the regional jail and some other testimony.” 

“He made statements with regard to a plan to essentially bring many individuals to the state capitol in Charleston in an attempt to overtake the offices in that complex,” Wharton said. 

Deegan told those on the conference call they should shoot those who offered any resistance.

Oh he seems nice.

Here's more from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Deegan is accused of laying out his overthrow plans in a series of conference calls -- one of them as recently as Sept. 14 -- where he called on like-minded armed extremists to grab their firearms and assist him in an attempt to overthrow state government, according to court documents. 

His intended plan was to remove several state government leaders from their offices, charge them with treason and replace them with sovereign citizens. After apparently setting up a sovereign citizen-style court system, those found guilty of treason would be put to death.

Gee who could have guessed that this might be the result of constant anti-government rhetoric pouring out of  right wing radio and conservative news outlets 24 hours a day?

Cell phone footage from inside LaVoy Finicum's truck before, during, and after he was shot by law enforcement.

Just so you know the footage does NOT show Finicum being shot, however it is somewhat graphic in nature.

I found this footage on Reddit yesterday and I thought that it was worth sharing, if for no other reason than to give some perspective on what the people in the vehicle were thinking and how they perceived the police actions directed at them.

The video is a little confusing so here is a different perspective of the incident as taken from a helicopter. 

During court appearance Cliven Bundy refuses to recognize the authority of the federal government. Oh yeah, he's never getting out of jail.

Courtesy of Oregon Live:  

Jailed Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy refused Thursday to acknowledge federal authority and declined to enter a plea to federal charges that he led an armed standoff against a round-up of cattle two years ago. 

After several minutes of confusion about whether Bundy had a lawyer, U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Hoffman entered a not guilty plea on Bundy's behalf and scheduled a detention hearing March 17. 

Arguments then will focus on whether the 69-year-old Bundy should remain in custody pending trial on 16 charges, including conspiracy, assault and threatening a federal officer, obstruction and firearms offenses. 

It could be many months before trial. Federal prosecutor Steven Myhre told the judge the case involving 19 defendants would be slow-tracked as "complex."

You gotta love these sovereign citizen types who seem to believe that since they don't believe that federal laws have any validity they can simply pretend that they don't have to obey them.

I wonder how somebody sitting in a jail cell is still able to convince themselves that the Feds have no control over their lives?

Later on the sidewalk outside of the courtroom Bundy's interim attorney had this to say:

"Mr. Bundy feels like he needs to stand up for the rights of all Americans in all states, and for the states to be the owner of public land and not the federal government," Hansen said outside court. "In the West, the government owns most of the land. He thinks that's wrong."

Okay first off Bundy is certainly not standing up for THIS American.

And secondly what a stupid cause to throw your life away over.

This is not a civil rights issue, or even a stand against government intervention. This is a guy pissed off that his cows cannot eat grass and shit on government property.

Federal authorities warn law enforcement to be on guard against retaliatory violence in response to the arrest of the Bundy family members.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:  

Responding to a rising tide of threats in the wake of the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., federal authorities are warning law enforcement agencies (PDF) around the nation to be on the lookout for retaliatory violence from extremists affiliated with the antigovernment movement. 

Eleven people affiliated with Ammon Bundy’s “Citizens for Constitutional Freedom” were arrested in a law enforcement sweep operation on Jan. 26, while one member of the self-described “revolutionaries” – Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a 54-year-old Arizona rancher – was shot and killed and while resisting arrest. More than two weeks later, on Feb. 11, the standoff ended when four remaining militants inside the compound surrendered to face federal charges for their activities during the takeover, which began Jan. 2. 

“In response to news of the arrests, some militia extremists and their supporters have called for violence or unspecified nationwide action against law enforcement, federal facilities, and US government employees,” the bulletin, issued jointly by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, said. 

Threats have swirled around the scene at the wildlife refuge since it began. Even before the takeover, government offices in Oregon closed due to fears of violence emanating from the antigovernment movement. After the Jan. 26 arrests, federal authorities bolstered security at a number of other wildlife refuges in the region, citing the need to “remain vigilant to ensure employee and visitor safety throughout the region.” At least one refuge – Turnbull, near Cheney, Wash. – closed briefly in response to the occupation. The Oregon State Patrol, one of whose troopers shot Finicum, also has received death threats over the shooting.

This of course reinforces that DHS report from last year which found that domestic terrorist sovereign citizen groups were infinitely more dangerous than Islamic terrorists.

Nice of the Bundy family to sacrifice their freedom to flush out the wingnuts and prove the liberals right, don't you think?

Sarah Palin says that any person who joins a terrorist organization should lose their citizenship. She may have a point.

"Only freedom lovin' Mericans can look at my butt."

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Message to would-be ISIS recruits: Sarah Palin doesn’t want you back. The former Alaska governor and current media firebrand said in a Facebook post Friday that Americans who leave the country to join a foreign terrorist organization should be stripped of their citizenship. 

 “As crazy as it sounds, a U.S. citizen who leaves this country to join ISIS, al Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization does not immediately lose his or her citizenship,” Palin wrote in the post. “That needs to change!” 

The post, which was accompanied by a video in which Palin spoke of the “threat of radical Islam,” was shared more than 1,200 times within two hours. “It’s a simple fact that some people are drawn to ISIS’s brutality,” Palin says in the video. “They’re actually inspired by videos of beheadings and burnings. They actually believe ISIS’s religious message.”

Well of course stripping an American of their citizenship flies, without due process, in the face of the Fourteenth Amendment which states that; "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." But why should such a detail bother Palin?

Yeah that sort of makes it hard to enforce a rule which suggests that these individuals "immediately lose his or her citizenship" without first giving them the opportunity to be tried before a jury of their peers. 

Of course I'm sure that does not Palin any pause since the only part of the Constitution she seems to care about is the 2nd Amendment.

However I am not completely in disagreement with her point of view here.

I think that people who run off to join ISIS should probably be detained when they reenter the United States as a possible threat to our security, and if warranted imprisoned or even exiled.

IF they are first found guilty of course.

But hey why stop there. I mean if we are going to take away the citizenship of Americans who go overseas to collaborate with anti-American groups and terrorist organizations why not do the same to people who do it right here on our shores.

The FBI has labeled the sovereign citizen group a terrorist organization.

So I would guess that anybody who fraternized with a group like that, the Alaska Independence Party for instance, might need to be scrutinized by the Federal government to determine if they represent a potential threat.

And if that person were also known to support anti-government groups like the Tea Party, and hang out with folks who had made actual threats against the President of the United States and his Secretary of State like this guy..... 

...well I would think that somebody like that would be hanging onto their citizenship by a thread.

You know it is such a rarity when I even minimally agree with Sarah Palin, that when I do it represents kind of a nice change. Don't you agree?

Police and FBI raid meeting of Texas sovereign citizens after they sent a judge a fake legal summons in an attempt to put them on "trial."

Courtesy of the Chronicle: 

It seemed like a typical congressional meeting for the Republic of Texas. Senators and the president gathered in the center of a Bryan, Texas, meeting hall, surrounded by public onlookers, to debate issues of the national currency, develop international relations and celebrate the birthday of one of their oldest members. 

But this wasn't 1836, and this would be no ordinary legislative conference. Minutes into the meeting a man among the onlookers stood and moved to open the hall door, letting in an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI. 

In the end, at least 20 officers corralled, searched and fingerprinted all 60 meeting attendees, before seizing all cellphones and recording equipment in a Valentine's Day 2015 raid on the Texas separatist group.

This came as some surprise to the old farts who seemed to think since they had elected themselves senators, land commissioners, and judges that they actually had some kind of power in the state.

The raid was a response to legal summons sent by Republic of Texas members to a Kerr County judge and bank employee, demanding they appear in the Republic's court at the Veterans and Foreign Wars building in Bryan the day the officers stormed in. 

"You can't just let people go around filing false documents to judges trying to make them appear in front of courts that aren't even real courts," said Kerr County sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who led the operation.

He acknowledged he used a "show of force," grouping officers from city, county state and federal law enforcement to serve a search warrant for suspicions of a misdemeanor crime. He said he had worries that some extremists in the group could become violent, citing a 1997 incident when 300 state troopers surrounded an armed Republic leader for a weeklong standoff. 

This may seem like an overuse of force, however it should be noted that Alaska's own domestic terrorist Schaeffer Cox attempted similar sovereign citizen fake legal procedures before finally becoming fed up and planning to kidnap and murder judges and state troopers.

Other sovereign citizen groups have also turned to violence.

This is from the Homeland Security report on Sovereign Citizen Extremist violence:

When sovereigns do plan an attack in advance, the report suggests that this tends to be "in direct response to an ongoing personal grievance, such as an arrest or court order." It argues that sovereign citizens are unlikely to pick a symbolic target—like, say, the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City—and that in this way they are distinct from the killers who attacked two randomly selected cops in Las Vegas last year or three TSA officers at an L.A. airport the year before that.

According to this documentary the Republic of Texas group is firmly convinced that the federal and state government has no jurisdiction over the people of Texas, and that they are not required to follow any of their laws. (I mean they even print their own money for fuck's sake.)

Obviously they were wrong.

New intelligence report circulated by DHS finds that sovereign citizen groups are far more dangerous to Americans than foreign Islamic terror groups. Cue faux outrage from Faux News.

Courtesy of CNN:  

They're carrying out sporadic terror attacks on police, have threatened attacks on government buildings and reject government authority. 

A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism. 

Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to -- and in some cases greater than -- the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.​ 

The Homeland Security report, produced in coordination with the FBI, counts 24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks across the U.S. since 2010. 

The government says these are extremists who believe that they can ignore laws and that their individual rights are under attack in routine daily instances such as a traffic stop or being required to obey a court order. 

They've lashed out against authority in incidents such as one in 2012, in which a father and son were accused of engaging in a shootout with police in Louisiana, in a confrontation that began with an officer pulling them over for a traffic violation. Two officers were killed and several others wounded in the confrontation. The men were sovereign citizen extremists who claimed police had no authority over them.

This seems to  jive with an earlier report from the New America Foundation that that contained analysis from 2001-2015 which found that "Of 448 extremists counted, white men who were U.S. citizens outnumbered every other demographic by wide margins."

And this included "extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists, and anti-government militants."

So in other words dedicated Fox News viewers, and Sarah Palin supporters.

Oh yeah, there's going to be backlash. 

It turns out that Iowa Senate hopeful Joni Ernst supports arresting government agents for implementing Obamacare, and is kind of a liar as well. You know I wish I was surprised.

Courtesy of TPM:  

State Sen. Joni Ernst, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Iowa, once said she would support legislation that would allow "local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement" Obamacare. 

Ernst voiced her support for that, as well as supporting legislation that would "nullify" Obamacare in a Iowa State Legislative Candidates survey for Ron Paul's libertarian-aligned Campaign for Liberty in 2012. 

The question was: "Will you support legislation to nullify ObamaCare and authorize state and local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement the unconstitutional health care scheme known as ObamaCare?" Ernst answered that question as "yes." 

Isn't suggesting that Federal officials be arrested for doing their jobs, or that force should be used to show resistance straight out of the sovereign citizen's handbook?  (I think it's somewhere between the chapter on making your own handwritten license plate, and tips to keep your red, white, and blue underwear from riding up your crack.)

And boy who doesn't want to elect a Senator to represent your state who would urge the local law enforcement to draw their weapons on federal agents and place them under arrest. I mean that could never backfire, right?

And speaking of Joni Ernst, it appears that when she said this in a debate last week....

...she was just pulling it right out of her ass.

Courtesy of Politifact:

Ernst said Braley "threatened to sue a neighbor over chickens that came onto (his) property." Some might not like the way Braley and his wife handled a dispute with a neighbor -- by going to the neighborhood association and then consulting the association's lawyer. 

Even so, there is no material evidence that Braley threatened a lawsuit against the neighbor or was even considering one. Even the neighbor says that. 

We rate Ernst’s claim False.

Wow going all Cliven Bundy concerning federal agents, and making up lies to smear your opponent, gee if only Iowa had some early indication that this lady was such a dishonest extremist.

Oh wait, they did.

Yet to be released video game will feature sovereign citizens as bad guys. Conservatives up in arms. (Okay that might not be the best choice of words.)

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Although it is not due to be released until 2015, conservatives are up in arms about the latest version of a first person shooter video game which will include anti-government Gadsden flag-waving Tea Partiers as bad guys. 

Battlefield Hardline, developed by Visceral Games and video game publisher Electronic Arts, was recently premiered at Gamescom gaming convention in Cologne, Germany last week, and word has gotten out that the storyline is built around the player character attempting to shoot his way out after being kidnapped by a crime boss who describes himself as a ““one man island of armed sovereignty,” according to Big Hollywood. 

The crime boss, named Tony Alpert, is heard speaking about “these once-united states” and the “denigration, the humbling, the tearing down of everything that made this country great.” 

Speaking of Alpert, one character is heard to say. “One black president and Tony completely lost his shit.” 

According to game reviewers, the ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ Gadsden flags–normally associated with Tea Party protests — can be seen on walls and on the back of jackets of several characters throughout the game. 

Conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck expressed dismay at what he called “American constitutionalists and Tea Party people” being made the bad guys in the game. 

“Let’s go to the game that has just come out that makes American constitutionalists and Tea Party people the enemy. And you can go and shoot them,” Beck said on his radio show.“Anybody have a problem with this?”

Actually no. Especially since the sovereign citizens have been identified as the number one terrorist threat in this country, and the gem is  focused on police responses to terrorist groups.

Besides past Battlefield games used Iranians, Russians, Palestinians, and even the French police as protagonists, and nobody seemed to bat an eye.

It seems to me that these conservatives have no problem with the way minority groups are portrayed in the real world or the virtual, but when THEY get scrutiny, suddenly everybody is a reverse racist, or un-American out to denigrate their good name.

I don't play first person shooters anymore, but if I did I have to admit I would be much more comfortable aiming a virtual grenade launcher at a group as clearly dangerous as the sovereign citizen movement than I would at some stereotypical Arab bad guy who was supposedly trying to take over down town LA.

But hey, that's just me.

Texas sovereign citizen claims his attempt to ambush the police and firefighters was really just a "get out the vote" campaign. Oookay.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A 60-year-old Texas man accused of setting up an ambush against police and firefighters said he set up the attack as both a protest against police shootings and a way to encourage people to vote. 

“This is a get out the vote campaign,” Douglas Leguin told KXAS-TV on Thursday. “You have to do something big to get attention in this country.” 

Leguin spoke to the station from Dallas County Jail, where the self-identified “sovereign citizen” is being held on $350,000 bail. He is charged with seven counts of aggravated assault against a public servant for allegedly setting fire to a dumpster near a North Dallas home, then allegedly shooting at firefighters with an AK-47 during a brief standoff. 

“I know what I did was crazy, but I’m going to pay for that,” Leguin told KXAS. “I just got to do something to wake up America, man. I got to do something to get people out there voting. We got the perfect tool to change the government. We can completely overhaul the government. But everybody has to vote.”

You typically we just send out flyers.

You know like the ones that Joe Miller sent out.

But you know perhaps this Leguin guy has a point.

After all thanks to his actions, and the actions of others just like him, I personally am planning to make damn sure that I cast MY vote for any candidate who is NOT associated with this kind of lunatic fringe, or supports their right to carry guns, or thinks that they are anything but domestic terrorists waiting to lay siege to the White House.

Self identified "sovereign citizen" lures police officers and firefighters to burning trash bin so he can ambush them. Probably just pissed that Sarah Palin is now charging him $9.95 a month to hear her rants.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Police arrested a self-described “sovereign citizen” accused of shooting at police and firefighters after setting fire to a trash bin in Dallas. 

Emergency crews responded to the dumpster fire about 3 p.m. Monday, when the man opened fire on officers. 

Police said the gunman, who was the subject of a missing persons report filed that afternoon, threatened a babysitter who retreated into a nearby home with an 8-year-old girl. 

No one was wounded by the gunfire, which struck a fire engine in the area. 

Police said the man, whose name has not been released, called 911 to say he was part of the anti-government sovereign citizen movement. 

Investigators said the man apparently set the Dumpster fire and called in the missing persons report as part of a planned ambush on officers. 

The man, who was armed with an AK-47 and wearing a towel or bandana around his head, set off a smoke bomb and shot off propane tanks during a brief SWAT standoff. 

He surrendered to police and will be charged with seven counts of aggravated assault on a public servant.

Gee no wonder the sovereign citizen movement is perceived as the top terrorist threat in the country.

And trust me, this is just the beginning.

Cliven Bundy believes that God was on his side during the standoff. Isn't that what every megalomaniac believes?

Courtesy of Politico:  

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy claims the April confrontation between the federal government and his armed supporters was part of an age-old spiritual battle between good and evil. 

Bundy, a Mormon, told an Independent American Party gathering in St. George, Utah, on Saturday that God provided him personal inspiration in the showdown over cattle in Bunkerville, Nevada, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. 

“The Lord told me … if [the local sheriff doesn’t] take away these arms from federal agents, we the people will have to face these arms in a civil war. He said, `This is your chance to straighten this thing up,’” Bundy said, according to The Spectrum of St. George. 

Bundy said people from across the country rallied around him because they were “spiritually touched,” and he suggested they would not have prevailed had God not been on their side. 

“If the standoff with the Bundys was wrong, would the Lord have been with us?” he asked, noting no one was killed as tensions escalated. “Could those people that stood [with me] without fear and went through that spiritual experience … have done that without the Lord being there? No, they couldn’t.” 

Those people stood with Bundy without fear becasue they trusted that their government would not open fire on them without provocation.

Sadly the federal agents who were simply doing their jobs did not have the same assurances.

Combining this kind of mystical magical thinking, with the sovereign citizen mentality, and military style weaponry. means that it is only a matter of time before some anti-government moron suddenly decides to become a martyr for the cause by killing a federal agent and getting his ass blown away.

The Feds are doing the right thing by waiting it out and going through legal channels to deal with Bundy. But this mindset of good vs evil, citizens vs the government, shows no signs of tapering off.

Sovereign Citizen movement perceived as top terrorist threat.

Courtesy of START:

START researchers David Carter, Steven Chermak, Jeremy Carter and Jack Drew recently conducted in-depth surveys with more than 364 officers representing 175 state, local and tribal (SLT) law enforcement agencies to examine perceptions of: the threat of terrorism; the nature of information-sharing; and whether agencies are prepared to deal with terrorist attacks. Their results are published in “Understanding Law Enforcement Intelligence Processes,” available on START’s website. 

The Sovereign Citizen movement was the most highly ranked threat, with 86 percent of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that it was a serious terrorist threat. This is a significant increase in ranking from an earlier survey implemented in 2006-2007, which showed Islamist extremists to be law enforcement’s top concern at the time. In that survey, approximately 67 percent agreed or strongly agreed that Islamist extremists were a serious terrorist threat. 

“Identifying and prioritizing a threat is akin to hitting a moving target and evolves as new intelligence, data, and events develop,” David Carter said. “Law enforcement must be steadfast in identifying major concerns, substantiating the concerns, providing products and resources to better understand the nature of the threat, and supporting efforts to respond to such concerns.”

This is not exactly surprising since we have seen a number of sovereign citizen types either threaten to kill law enforcement types, like Schaeffer Cox did in Alaska, or actually follow through with those plans as we recently saw in Nevada. 

We also just saw them gather together and use the threat of violence to turn away federal agents during the Bundy Ranch standoff.

When was the last time Islamic terrorists did that on American soil?

And the truly frightening part is that there are politicians who are protecting these groups and actively seeking their support.

Yes Rick Perry I'm looking at you!