Don't think the Teahadists invented crazy -- the crazy people are here all the time, everywhere, they never end

The Montana Freemen: A Primer

In the mid-1980s, a small number of disaffected Montana farmers join
what became the "Montana Freemen," a loose group that share a hatred
of "big guvment," taxation, liberals, people of color, and anyone else
who doesn't look, think, act, and smell like themselves. One of the
leaders is a guy named Ralph Clark, who headed a large family of wheat
farmers. While most of the Clarks work like Trojans to keep their
farms afloat, Ralph spends most of his time smoking cigarettes,
watching the weeds grow, and blaming the "goddamn guvment" for his
troubles. He doesn't have any problem accepting over $700,000 in
government subsidies, but he has a big objection to paying any of it
back, and by 1995 is 14 years in arrears and facing foreclosure.

One hundred miles south, another knot of disaffected right-wing
farmers and other folks are forming the other "axis" of the Freemen.
Two of their honchos are Rodney Skurdal, who fancies himself something
of a warrior mystic and preaches the racist, anti-Semitic Christian
Identity ideology, and LeRoy Schweitzer, who is working out the
details of a massive fraud scheme designed to make Big Bucks with Lots
of Government Whammies. By 1994, businesses and government offices all
over the Northwest and Upper Midwest are being flooded by what
disgusted locals call "LeRoy checks," huge, fraudulent "cashier's
checks" drawn on fraudulent liens filed by Schweitzer, Skurdal, and
their buddies on, well, just about anyone they could think of. They
manage to bring in a pretty penny through their schemes.

They also begin developing an ideology about the US, cribbed from
sources like Identity writings, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion,"
other right-wing anti-government treatises, and their own fevered
imaginations. I don't think anyone can lay out precisely what they
believed -- it is tangled, self-contradictory, and largely horseshit
papered in legalisms they themselves didn't understand -- but the
upshot is that they consider themselves above any state or federal law
and don't recognize any government authority besides the local sheriff
(whom they hold in contempt). If you're familiar with the
anti-government rantings of the right-wing militias, many of them hold
similar views.

It doesn't take long for the two groups to begin working together.

In January 1994 an armed band of Freemen invade the Garfield County
Courthouse, install themselves as the new county government
(proclaiming one of their own, Richard Clark, as "the presiding
judge," and begin to hand down "indictments." They threaten to try the
local sheriff and execute him by hanging him from a bridge
(interesting justice system they have where sentences precede trials),
and after leaving the courthouse, paper the town with flyers offering
$1 million bounties for the sheriff, the judge, and the county
attorney. The sheriff only has two deputies, not enough to engage the
Freemen, so he bides his time. He issues warrants for their arrests,
but the Freemen ignore them and continue issuing threats, bogus
"indictments" and a flood of other pseudo-legal documents and filings,
and strut around their little area of Montana as if they are the local
fiefholders. They even openly intimidate a pool of some 45 jurors who
are sitting in a case against two of their members, telling them if
they vote to convict, they and their families will face dire
consequences.

In October 1994 and after, things begin to shift. A local prosecutor
wins a conviction against one Freeman, William Stanton, for "criminal
syndicalism," a law used against the Wobblies that made it a crime to
defend, advocate, or set up an organization committed to the use of
crime, violence, sabotage, or other unlawful means to bring about a
change in the form of government or in industrial ownership or
control. Local authorities thwart a plan to break Stanton out of jail
and kill a raft of local law enforcement and court officials
(apparently hatched in concert with the Montana Militia, whose
founder, John Trochmann, is on hand for the festivities).

Skurdal declares "holy war" (jihad?!?) on the federal government and
on the state of Montana.

The Freemen enjoy over a year of nearly-unrestrained actions,
including the beating and robbery of two national news crews, any
number of harassments and death threats towards anyone who drew their
ire, the placement of bounties on people, and the flooding of the
entire US West with bogus liens and fraudulent bank drafts. They
forcibly occupy Clark's foreclosed ranch, rename it "Justus Township,"
and begin teaching seminars on how to defraud the government (and
private businesses) with liens and forged checks. In November 1995,
two local attorneys tell the US House that the Freemen are in "open
insurrection" against America in general, and ask for federal help.
Unbeknownst to the locals, the FBI has mounted an elaborate
surveillance program against the Freemen.

In March 1996, the Freemen, emboldened beyond rationality, announce
their plans to forcibly annex a huge swath of land in northern
Montana. Some is owned by private citizens, some is
government-protected grazing land, and some is owned by either the
state of Montana or the federal government. The Freemen don't care,
they intend to occupy the land and shoot anyone who attempts to
contest their land grab. As you can imagine, this really pisses off
the locals, who are sick of the lack of law enforcement intervention,
and they begin planning to contest the Freemen themselves.

The FBI heads that off. On March 25, 1996, the FBI arrests three
Freemen leaders -- Schweitzer, Daniel Petersen, and Lavon Hanson --
and seal off the Clark ranch. This begins an 81-day standoff.

The militias are initially outraged by the FBI's actions, predicting
another Waco and Ruby Ridge, but the FBI has, very belatedly, learned
its lessons from those two debacles. The FBI is quite cordial to the
Freemen, allowing them some access to reporters and others, keeping a
low profile (no armored vehicles, no snipers in plain view), and
actually reaches out to militia groups to help them bring about a
peaceful resolution. As time goes on, the militias begin to view the
Freemen with disgust, and some even give grudging praise to the FBI
for handling the situation with kid gloves. Some, like Bo Gritz, even
advocate the FBI to just roll into the compound and wipe them out.

On June 6, 1996, the Freemen surrender peacefully. For the next
several years, they act like baboons in court, cursing and screaming
at court officials, thrashing and knocking over furniture, refusing to
bathe or wear clean clothes, babbling long tirades about their legal
superiority and their claims that the law has no jurisdiction over
them, howling about the fringe on the flag and admiralty law, and so
forth. Most of them receive long prison sentences for fraud, assault,
death threats to an array of government officials, and the like. Some
of them, like Petersen, receive more jail time for continuing their
"lien fraud" schemes and bogus court filings from their jail cells.

Today's Tea Parties: The "Montana Freemen" of the 21st Century

Many of the features displayed by the Freemen are showing up in
today's teabaggers, especially little pocket tyrants like Wisconsin's
Scott Walker. The contempt for the law, the assumption of moral and
legal superiority, the instant recourse to threats of violence (the
Freemen would love to be able to have threatened local officials and
citizens with the National Guard), the skewed and self-contradictory
legal pronouncements (they hate the government and don't recognize its
jurisdiction except when it can be used to further their own ends),
the contempt for their fellow citizens and the assumption that they
are superior to the common ruck, the stone-stupid ignorance and
hateful racism and anti-Semitism, all of it is there.

On Feb 17, 11:520pm, Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
<PopUlist...@hotmail.com> wrote:
The Montana Freemen: A Primer

In the mid-1980s, a small number of disaffected Montana farmers join
what became the "Montana Freemen," a loose group that share a hatred
of "big guvment," taxation, liberals, people of color, and anyone else
who doesn't look, think, act, and smell like themselves. One of the
leaders is a guy named Ralph Clark, who headed a large family of wheat
farmers. While most of the Clarks work like Trojans to keep their
farms afloat, Ralph spends most of his time smoking cigarettes,
watching the weeds grow, and blaming the "goddamn guvment" for his
troubles. He doesn't have any problem accepting over $700,000 in
government subsidies, but he has a big objection to paying any of it
back, and by 1995 is 14 years in arrears and facing foreclosure.

One hundred miles south, another knot of disaffected right-wing
farmers and other folks are forming the other "axis" of the Freemen.
Two of their honchos are Rodney Skurdal, who fancies himself something
of a warrior mystic and preaches the racist, anti-Semitic Christian
Identity ideology, and LeRoy Schweitzer, who is working out the
details of a massive fraud scheme designed to make Big Bucks with Lots
of Government Whammies. By 1994, businesses and government offices all
over the Northwest and Upper Midwest are being flooded by what
disgusted locals call "LeRoy checks," huge, fraudulent "cashier's
checks" drawn on fraudulent liens filed by Schweitzer, Skurdal, and
their buddies on, well, just about anyone they could think of. They
manage to bring in a pretty penny through their schemes.

They also begin developing an ideology about the US, cribbed from
sources like Identity writings, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion,"
other right-wing anti-government treatises, and their own fevered
imaginations. I don't think anyone can lay out precisely what they
believed -- it is tangled, self-contradictory, and largely horseshit
papered in legalisms they themselves didn't understand -- but the
upshot is that they consider themselves above any state or federal law
and don't recognize any government authority besides the local sheriff
(whom they hold in contempt). If you're familiar with the
anti-government rantings of the right-wing militias, many of them hold
similar views.

It doesn't take long for the two groups to begin working together.

In January 1994 an armed band of Freemen invade the Garfield County
Courthouse, install themselves as the new county government
(proclaiming one of their own, Richard Clark, as "the presiding
judge," and begin to hand down "indictments." They threaten to try the
local sheriff and execute him by hanging him from a bridge
(interesting justice system they have where sentences precede trials),
and after leaving the courthouse, paper the town with flyers offering
$1 million bounties for the sheriff, the judge, and the county
attorney. The sheriff only has two deputies, not enough to engage the
Freemen, so he bides his time. He issues warrants for their arrests,
but the Freemen ignore them and continue issuing threats, bogus
"indictments" and a flood of other pseudo-legal documents and filings,
and strut around their little area of Montana as if they are the local
fiefholders. They even openly intimidate a pool of some 45 jurors who
are sitting in a case against two of their members, telling them if
they vote to convict, they and their families will face dire
consequences.

In October 1994 and after, things begin to shift. A local prosecutor
wins a conviction against one Freeman, William Stanton, for "criminal
syndicalism," a law used against the Wobblies that made it a crime to
defend, advocate, or set up an organization committed to the use of
crime, violence, sabotage, or other unlawful means to bring about a
change in the form of government or in industrial ownership or
control. Local authorities thwart a plan to break Stanton out of jail
and kill a raft of local law enforcement and court officials
(apparently hatched in concert with the Montana Militia, whose
founder, John Trochmann, is on hand for the festivities).

Skurdal declares "holy war" (jihad?!?) on the federal 0government and
on the state of Montana.

The Freemen enjoy over a year of nearly-unrestrained actions,
including the beating and robbery of two national news crews, any
number of harassments and death threats towards anyone who drew their
ire, the placement of bounties on people, and the flooding of the
entire US West with bogus liens and fraudulent bank drafts. They
forcibly occupy Clark's foreclosed ranch, rename it "Justus Township,"
and begin teaching seminars on how to defraud the government (and
private businesses) with liens and forged checks. In November 1995,
two local attorneys tell the US House that the Freemen are in "open
insurrection" against America in general, and ask for federal help.
Unbeknownst to the locals, the FBI has mounted an elaborate
surveillance program against the Freemen.

In March 1996, the Freemen, emboldened beyond rationality, announce
their plans to forcibly annex a huge swath of land in northern
Montana. Some is owned by private citizens, some is
government-protected grazing land, and some is owned by either the
state of Montana or the federal government. The Freemen don't care,
they intend to occupy the land and shoot anyone who attempts to
contest their land grab. As you can imagine, this really pisses off
the locals, who are sick of the lack of law enforcement intervention,
and they begin planning to contest the Freemen themselves.

The FBI heads that off. On March 25, 1996, the FBI arrests three
Freemen leaders -- Schweitzer, Daniel Petersen, and Lavon Hanson --
and seal off the Clark ranch. This begins an 81-day standoff.

The militias are initially outraged by the FBI's actions, predicting
another Waco and Ruby Ridge, but the FBI has, very belatedly, learned
its lessons from those two debacles. The FBI is quite cordial to the
Freemen, allowing them some access to reporters and others, keeping a
low profile (no armored vehicles, no snipers in plain view), and
actually reaches out to militia groups to help them bring about a
peaceful resolution. As time goes on, the militias begin to view the
Freemen with disgust, and some even give grudging praise to the FBI
for handling the situation with kid gloves. Some, like Bo Gritz, even
advocate the FBI to just roll into the compound and wipe them out.

On June 6, 1996, the Freemen surrender peacefully. For the next
several years, they act like baboons in court, cursing and screaming
at court officials, thrashing and knocking over furniture, refusing to
bathe or wear clean clothes, babbling long tirades about their legal
superiority and their claims that the law has no jurisdiction over
them, howling about the fringe on the flag and admiralty law, and so
forth. Most of them receive long prison sentences for fraud, assault,
death threats to an array of government officials, and the like. Some
of them, like Petersen, receive more jail time for continuing their
"lien fraud" schemes and bogus court filings from their jail cells.

Today's Tea Parties: The "Montana Freemen" of the 21st Century

Many of the features displayed by the Freemen are showing up in
today's teabaggers, especially little pocket tyrants like Wisconsin's
Scott Walker. The contempt for the law, the assumption of moral and
legal superiority, the instant recourse to threats of violence (the
Freemen would love to be able to have threatened local officials and
citizens with the National Guard), the skewed and self-contradictory
legal pronouncements (they hate the government and don't recognize its
jurisdiction except when it can be used to further their own ends),
the contempt for their fellow citizens and the assumption that they
are superior to the common ruck, the stone-stupid ignorance and
hateful racism and anti-Semitism, all of it is there.

IOW,anybody that doesn't bow to your Messiah,lick his boots and carry
his nutsack over their shoulders like you kool-aid guzzling uber-
fruitbat leftist kook useful idiots is "crazy"? OK.got it !! (wink-
nudge-wink-wink)