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SpartanDem

(4,533 posts)
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 02:54 PM Jan 2012

Gathering of Eagles: Extremists Look to Montana

For two years in the mid-1990s, Judge Greg Mohr carried a gun and wore a bulletproof vest while presiding over his tiny courtroom east of Kalispell. Members of the Montana Freemen, an armed group of racist extremists, were regularly appearing before him, and they didn’t mince words. Some of them later sentenced Mohr to death in their own pseudo-legal “common-law courts.”

Nearly two decades later, similar types of antigovernment stirrings are frequently being felt again across Montana, especially in this nearly all-white city in the northwest corner of the state. Far-right extremists are vowing that if a war with the federal government comes, their base will be in the mountains here.

Chuck Baldwin, a Baptist preacher who ran for president under the Constitution Party banner in 2008, moved 18 members of his family to Montana’s Flathead Valley last fall after receiving what he called a divine message telling him the state was the “tip of the spear” in the fight for liberty. Stewart Rhodes, a Yale-educated lawyer, former Army paratrooper and head of the conspiracy-minded Oath Keepers, also moved here. Rhodes is laying the groundwork for a new militia and is calling for citizens to adopt a barter economy to escape the bondage of U.S. currency. Neo-Nazi April Gaede, also a transplant to the state, has issued a call for white nationalists to “come home” to the Northwest.

These extremists and others came for different reasons, but they are having a cumulative effect. Law enforcement officers and courts have seen a surge of antigovernment activity by “sovereign citizens,” radicals who believe that most laws do not apply to them. Rooms at the Kalispell Public Library host regular screenings of racist films. Christian Identity adherents are papering neighborhoods with their message that whites are the true chosen people of the Bible and Jews are directly descended from Satan. And, once again, so-called “Preparedness Expos” are being held so shoppers can get ready for the imminent collapse of government.



http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/winter/extremists-are-coming-together-in-mon

These nuts just never seem to go away

10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Gathering of Eagles: Extremists Look to Montana (Original Post) SpartanDem Jan 2012 OP
The problem is also gopiscrap Jan 2012 #1
Stupid fucking yahoos wouldn't stand a chance against the US military Hugabear Jan 2012 #2
+1 n/t Bonhomme Richard Jan 2012 #3
You do not understand the scenario properly ProgressiveProfessor Jan 2012 #4
Put up a fence, freeze and starve them out. hobbit709 Jan 2012 #5
Thats basically how the Romans crushed Vercingetorix and the Gauls. Erose999 Jan 2012 #6
Waco TX 1993 is not something we should repeat. nt piedmont Jan 2012 #10
the bartering thing is only going to go so far onethatcares Jan 2012 #7
Hell, April Gaede.s twins daughters who were the racist recodring "artists" group, Prussion Ecumenist Jan 2012 #8
So the Oath-keepers are still around. omg. Liberal_in_LA Jan 2012 #9

gopiscrap

(23,725 posts)
1. The problem is also
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 03:01 PM
Jan 2012

that right wing radio is encouraging this sort of behaviour...if not always overtly, but at the very least by "code".

Hugabear

(10,340 posts)
2. Stupid fucking yahoos wouldn't stand a chance against the US military
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 03:04 PM
Jan 2012

If it ever came to war, they'd be toast.

Or maybe they've forgotten that the US military now has 10+ years experience dealing with mountain-based insurgents? And the Taliban forces in Afghanistan had waaaaaay more training, experience, and weaponry than these yahoos.

ProgressiveProfessor

(22,144 posts)
4. You do not understand the scenario properly
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 03:53 PM
Jan 2012

They would first face local and state cops, some of whom sympathize with them. If armed fighting continued, then the National Guard...again, all locals. Its not like they would be going up against the 1st Armored Division.

onethatcares

(16,161 posts)
7. the bartering thing is only going to go so far
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 04:13 PM
Jan 2012

"hey,I'll trade you some beaver pelts for some gasoline"

"ahhh, I don't know, Exxon Mobil just sent me a fax saying they were full up of beaver pelts"

or they're gonna go full out and trade snow and windswept plains for

Ecumenist

(6,086 posts)
8. Hell, April Gaede.s twins daughters who were the racist recodring "artists" group, Prussion
Tue Jan 24, 2012, 04:19 PM
Jan 2012

Blue, have left her and no longer believe in her philosophy. Sick, sick, sick!

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