Sentiment For Separation In The Far West

by Al Benson Jr.

Member, Board of Directors, Confederate Society of America

As the “history” books to which government school students are subjected begin to deal with the War of Northern Aggression, they tend to make little mention of those states and territories west of the Mississippi, with the exception of Missouri and Kansas. Missouri, so we’ve been told, was chock full of greasy, “racist, hate-mongering “nativist” bushwhackers, who wanted nothing more out of life than to lie in wait so they could ambush the noble, virtuous, godly abolitionists from Kansas to whom “anti-slavery was the law of God.” Other than their presenting us with this little tidbit of historic fertilizer, they tell us almost nothing of what went on in the rest of the West. Either they haven’t done the homework or they have and hope we haven’t.

I’ve seen lines in some Western movies that talk about the War being an “Easterner’s War” and saying the West had nothing to do with it. Not quite accurate!

Historian Alvin M. Josephy Jr., in his interesting book The Civil War in the American West, has given us somewhat more detail than our students’ “history” books are wont to do. He has informed us of the political situation in Colorado, about which he has written: “In Colorado, where support for the Union was admittedly the majority sentiment, William Gilpin, the Federal territorial governor, wrote worriedly  that 7,500 people, almost one third of the population of Denver and the mining camps, were secessionists.”

The mining camps around Denver were originally started by people from Georgia–something else you were never told about. So there was a definite secessionist presence in Colorado, even though most today have no idea it existed. Josephy also informed us that: “New Mexico, with a reputation for being Free Soil and with only a handful of slaves and a total of eighty-five blacks in the whole Territory,  tacitly supported slavery in 1859 by adopting a code to protect slave owners that dismayed Northerners. Moreover, secessionists were actually in control of southern and western portions of that Territory.

Another little item that Yankee hysterians, oh pardon me, I meant historians, have left out was the racial attitudes of many in the far Western states. At one point, Oregon had voted to ban all blacks, free or slave, from entering the Territory,  and California came  close to doing the identical thing. In the election of 1860, Lincoln took the state of California by a mere 711 votes, and, although he also won in Oregon, he did it by less than 300 votes! Lincoln said it was “the closest political book-keeping that I know of.”

Josephy told us that: “In California, where almost 40% of the state’s 380,000 inhabitants were from slave states,  only seven out of fifty three newspapers had supported Lincoln.” So, you can hardly say he won by a landslide in the far West!

Josephy said: “Congressman John C. Burch called on Californians to ‘raise aloft’ the Bear Flag of the short-lived California Republic of 1845. ‘I was warmly sympathetic with the South’ another congressman,  Charles L. Scott, declared, urging his constituents to establish ‘a separate republic’.”

We have been told that areas around Los Angeles and San Bernadino were hotbeds of secessionist sympathy. So the picture is hardly as black and white as it has been painted. In fact, an ordinance of secession was actually passed by a convention of the people of Arizona at Messilla, Arizona Territory, on 16 March, 1861. The ordinance stated, in part: Resolved,  That geographically and naturally we are bound to the South, and to her we look for protection, and as the Southern states have formed a Confederacy, it is our earnest desire to be attached to that Confederacy as a Territory.

However, don’t hold your breath waiting for that one to show up in the “history” books. The folks in the West and Southwest don’t really need to know this and that it is part of their heritage and culture–do they? Just ask the historians! Mr. Josephy is honest enough to tell you about it. Most of them ignore it.

There was even, believe it or not, secessionist sentiment up in Montana. How many have ever been told that the mining town of Virginia City, in western Montana, was first named Varina City, in honor of Jefferson Davis’s wife? The name was eventually changed to Virginia City by a local judge who felt that the name Varina City was really pushing the envelope! If you ever get to Montana you should visit Virginia City. It is an interesting spot and they are trying to restore it so that it looks like it did originally.  When we were there, some of the old, original buildings were still standing, unrestored, but that’s a few years ago.

Often, the efforts of the Indians in the far West to preserve their hunting grounds and way of life and liberty were, in some cases, construed as interfering with the Yankee war effort in the East, thus giving “aid and comfort” to the Confederacy.

I am sure that, at some point, some radical Leftist “historian” will point to the poor Cheyenne souls massacred at Sand Creek by John Chivington as “Confederate sympathizers.” The Yankee/Marxist spinmeisters will, no doubt, laugh all the way to the bank about that one!

Of course, after the shooting phase of the War was over in the East, the whole, solidified, consolidated Yankee territory had to be opened up for settlement and the Indians were in the way. By that time, the Yankee/Marxists felt that if the could accomplish what they did against a civilized Christian South and get by with it, war criminals and all, then they could certainly do as much and worse to a batch of “benighted” savages–and so, according to Phil Sheridan, the only good Indian became a dead Indian. Arsonists like Sherman and Sheridan planned for their extermination.

Truly the West was (and still is) deeply affected by the War and its aftermath in a way that has never been fully grasped. The Yankee/Marxist mindset that prevailed in Atlanta and the March to the Sea also eventually prevailed at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a quarter of a century later–and it prevails in places like Bunkerville, Nevada and eastern Oregon to this very day. Contrary to what the “history” books tell us, this country is much the worse for the way things turned out.

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Was the Malheur Wildlife Refuge Incident a Federal Sting Operation?

by Al Benson Jr.

For a change this has been a good week. Given our culturally Marxist regime in Washington and the wannabees in most of our state capitals, us ordinary folks don’t experience many good weeks anymore. So we should be thankful to the Lord when He gives us one.

To start off, in a typically culturally Marxist move in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the usual culture destroyers were at it again (they never stop). A local college sociology professor and some of his students wanted to get the City Council of Fredericksburg to rename Jefferson Davis Highway there because, after all, Davis was a slaveowner. They got one  city councilman to propose a motion on that, but the effort rather fell apart when they couldn’t even get a second for the motion from anyone else on the City Council. And so, Jeff Davis Highway in Fredericksburg remains Jeff Davis Highway–at least until the next attempt to change it comes along, or until after the election.

And in the same vein, for whatever reason, the FBI has decided to reopen the Hillary email case they had blandly smoothed over last July when the recommended no indictment for Hillary.  That was expected. This wasn’t. Something happened, somehow, to make the FBI think they had to revisit this, with only 12 days until the election. Who knows what indigestion rumbles around in the bowels of the Establishment, but something happened to force them to reopen this can of political worms. Was it Wikileaks? Proof that the Lord does answer prayer. We will see what He will allow to happen in this situation.

But the one that really caught my attention, probably because I have spent time in the West and followed the Sagebrush Rebellion over the years, was the result of the trial of the folks in Portland, Oregon known as “the Malheur 7.” Two of these seven were Ammon and Ryan Bundy, whose family I wrote about in several articles on this blog back in April of 2014 during the Bundy Ranch standoff. Check my articles on this blog for April of 2014. There are ten of them, all about the Bundy Ranch situation in Nevada.

The Malheur 7 have been on trial in Portland, Oregon for their occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon. This was the tragic situation that resulted in the FBI gunning down Lavoy Finnicum at a roadblock while he was on his way to a peaceful meeting. They claimed he pulled a gun–so they shot him nine times. See the article on this blog for January 31, 2016. Personally, from what I have read about Mr. Finnicum and seen in the videos he has made, you will pardon me if I find the FBI’s account of this rather dubious. These are the same people who shot Randy Weaver’s wife in the head while she stood holding a child in her arms at Ruby Ridge in Idaho. Anyone remember Ruby Ridge? It really must have taken a brave man to shoot a woman holding a child. I understand he got a medal for that–so you will understand why I have some reservations as to their sterling qualities.

The court trial in Portland in which the Bundys were tried, along with five others,was, in my opinion, payback for the Bundy Ranch situation over two years ago.

Almost no one who followed this trial, from what I have read, expected anything other than a guilty verdict. As I have read about the occupation of the wildlife refuge on and off over the months, I was convinced that this was one situation the Bundys and their friends should have passed up. The adverse publicity they got from this was designed to portray them as the devil incarnate, given what the “news” media does to those who stand on patriotic principles.

The “Just Us” Department alleged some things during the trial they presented no evidence for, and their contention that the Bundys and the others were terrorizing the people who worked there seemed to have no basis in fact, but with the Feds, such is no surprise.

An article on http://www.lewrockwell.com for October 28th, by Roger I. Roots, noted the following: “The U S Justice Department alleged in Count 1 that the seven defendants (and many others) had engaged in an ‘armed standoff’ at the federal wildlife refuge with the intent of scaring away the various government employees who normally work there. Every defendant was utterly innocent of this allegation…In fact, Ammon Bundy and the other defendants took a monumental (and quite daring) stand for the plain text of the Constitution when they occupied the Malheur Refuge in January of this year. They pointed to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the U S Constitution which seems to plainly forbid the federal government from owning land inside the states unless the states agree to sell such real estate to the federal government.  Needless to say, the present reality in the American west is in sharp contrast to this piece of the constitutional text. The feds claim to own and control millions of acres of land in the western states–most of which (such as the Malheur Refuge area) was never purchased from state legislatures or anyone else.” So where do the feds get the authority to do all this? Why they just assume it–because no one else has the power to refuse their “requests.” So whatever you think of the Constitution (and many of us are not totally enthralled with it) the Bundys felt they had a clear and consistent understanding of what it said and that’s what they operated on.

However, the thing that made me wonder if this whole thing was, indeed, a federal sting operation, was what Mr. Roots said toward the end of his article. He stated that: “Most startling of all were the undercover government informants that were revealed in the trial. After weeks of wrangling and arguing with defense lawyers, the Justice Department finally stipulated that at least nine undercover informants were planted among the Refuge occupiers. Thus, informants outnumbered the defendants on trial. One informant was even a bodyguard for Ammon Bundy and drove him to his arrest. Another informant admitted he trained occupiers in shooting and combat skills.” In my opinion when you have more informants than defendants, something doesn’t smell right. And when you have one of the informants training the occupiers in shooting skills and combat techniques it definitely doesn’t smell right–in fact it stinks outright! At what point did these informants become involved? Were they there at the beginning? Did they have a part in the planning of this operation?

I don’t know all the facts in this case, but I wonder who got the Bundys involved in it to begin with–and were the people that got them into it among the informants? If so, then this constitutes what we call a sting operation–getting someone to take part in something “illegal” they ordinarily wouldn’t have done unless you conned them into it and then you busted them for doing what you had conned them into.

It appears, though, that the jury in this case saw through all the federal chicanery because it acquitted all seven defendants, much to the pleasant surprise of many of us and to the chagrin of those in the Federal Establishment, who, I am sure, will now seek to find some other way to punish these folks for daring to defend their rights.

The Federal Government’s War On the West

by Al Benson Jr.

The federal government and its One World Government advocates in the United Nations and elsewhere are locked in a culture war with the American West in much the same manner as they are with the American South (Dixie). Here in Dixie they simply loathe people who display or carry Confederate flags and who want to preserve their culture.  In the West they loathe and despise  people who wear cowboy hats and boots and who just might work the land for a living. They hate these folks because, with their Marxist worldview, they feel all the land belongs to them and private property is something that should be beyond the pale for anyone (except themselves). The Westerners, their way of life and their culture have to go. There is just no room for them in the “Brave New World” these Marxist mentalities in Washington and New York are “reconstructing” for all of us docile people who don’t know any better than to believe the prevarications they spin out there for us to swallow.

I just yesterday (2/14) read a news article on http://www.newstarget.com  with the headline EXCLUSIVE: FBI sting to arrest 86 Americans in massive BLM cover-up. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was arrested on Feb. 10th in Portland, Oregon while stepping off a plane.  Bundy, his family, and a whole bunch of neighbors and some militia people contested the BLM’s right to steal Bundy’s cattle at his ranch in Nevada as part of their agenda of moving him off the land.  Now the feds have arrested him and I expect they will come up with some legal mumbo-jumbo to confiscate his ranch and other property and do whatever they had planned to do with his land while they were trying to get him off.  And I expect they are going to try to “arrest” those that helped him resist the BLM’s machinations back in 2014. One thing you must always remember about these Marxist mentalities (both parties) that run “our” government–like the good little loyal Marxists they are, they never, never forget.  If you end up besting them in some sort of confrontation they will hold the grudge until and beyond the tenth generation. After all, they are still holding the grudge against the South because she dared to secede in 1861. If you think that’s all over just look at what’s going on with Confederate flags down here.

But the plot thickens. The News Target article noted: “While taking up occupancy of the Malheur  Wildlife Refuge, protesters reportedly gained access to sensitive information stored on the computers there, revealing sinister plans by the BLM to confiscate privately owned land with uranium reserves before auctioning it off to foreign interests that have donated to the Clinton Foundation, according to a source that requested anonymity. In an effort to suppress this information, the FBI is believed to be conducting  a nationwide warrant roundup of protesters and independent journalists involved in the recent protests and standoffs against the federal government. A total of 86 people, including Bundy, are believed to be on the FBI’s roundup list and could subsequently be arrested for their ‘crimes’.”

It is observed that the Obama administration is in the midst of a crackdown on journalists that is part of a large-scale federal effort to use political correctness (cultural Marxism) and accusations of “hate speech” in order that they might silence and denigrate First Amendment rights–an effort to destroy citizen journalism, http://obama.fetch.news/

And, of course, you must realize that if the First Amendment goes, then so will the Second, and for that matter, the Tenth. You might be tempted to wonder what Congress will do about all this. Well, they may sit up, stretch, and yawn once or twice, and make some trite statement about how they are opposed to Obamacare and how we should all vote Republican in the next election to defeat those “liberal” Democrats. Don’t look for anything more than that. They gripe about Obamacare, even though they continue to vote to fund it. And you may be tempted to ask–what does Obamacare have to do with this situation? Good question. It’s just their way of saying, (without actually saying it) that they really don’t intend to interfere with whatever he plans to do. His agenda is also their agenda. Which they won’t admit because they need your votes in the next election.

Regarding Malheur Wildlife Refuge, a news page called 21st Century Wire, observed in a January 4, 2016 article that “In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt, in a political scheme, created an ‘Indian reservation’ around the Malheur, Mud & Harney Lakes and declared it ‘as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds’. Later this ‘Indian reservation’ (without Indians) became the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.”

In 1964, the Hammond family (remember them?) bought the ranch they owned in the Harney Basin. It included “approximately 6000 acres of private property, 4 grazing rights on public land, a small ranch house and 3 water rights. The ranch is around 53 miles south of Burns, Oregon. By the 1970s nearly all the ranches adjacent to the Blitzen Valley were purchased by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and added to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge covers over 187,000 acres and stretches over 45 miles long and 37 miles wide.  The expansion of the refuge grew and surrounds the Hammond’s ranch. Being approached many times by the FWS, the Hammonds refused to sell. Other ranchers also chose not to sell.” Then the federal fun began. There is way too much to go into here, but suffice it to say the feds made life miserable for those poor souls who had really thought their property was “their” property. The feds are, as I write, still in the process of teaching them otherwise. Just ask yourself–why does the government need a wildlife refuge that is 45 miles long and 37 miles wide? And why do they need it so badly that they have to force people off their land by hook or by crook (mostly crook)?

In this same vein, I came across yet another article on teaparty.org that mentioned our Marxist-in-Chief seizing 1.8 million acres in California for three “national monuments.” This article stated that: “The new monuments will almost double the amount of land Obama has set aside for conservation. It brings the total land and water Obama has unilaterally protected under the Antiquities Act to about 265 million acres, far more than any previous president.” And why not? As a good Marxist Obama realizes that all this land must be shut off from real public use so it can be protected for “the people.” Which means, in the typical Aesopian language the Marxists employ, that real people will be deprived of any real use of it. So you have to wonder what “people” it’s being protected for–those in the Clinton Foundation maybe?

All this land acquisition is destroying the ranching and farming culture of the Far West. Let’s be frank–this is its intention. It is a form of cultural warfare being perpetrated on Western folks and their way of life because the Ruling Elite has made the decision that all this has to join Confederate flags, monuments, and Southern (Christian) culture on the trash heap of history. And besides, there are big bucks to me made off those”public” lands!

After all that I have read and researched in the past several years, I have come to the conclusion that the One World Elite (CFR/Trilateralists) in this country don’t much like us real people and they’d just as soon dispense with us and replace is with illegal immigrants and Middle Eastern “refugees” (terrorists) because these are the people that have been selected to erase American culture–with the help and consent of the federal government. You may not like them apples, but that’s the way it is and you better start getting used to it and start finding out what you can do to forestall it.

I  just posted an article on my other blog spot http://thecopperhead.blogspot.com dealing with the concept that this country is now in a “Pre-revolutionary” moment. Some of the American people are finally beginning to get it. They are beginning to feel they have been pushed far enough by a federal government that, at all its levels, doesn’t give a tinker’s damn about them, has absolutely no concern whatever for their God-given rights, and, in fact, has plans to remove them. Not all of them are willing to go along with that. The question comes to mind–Is it 1860 all over again???  

Marxism and the Bureau of Land Management

by Al Benson Jr.

In that infamous document The Communist Manifesto, which the League of the Just (Illuminati) hired deadbeat revolutionary Karl Marx to pen, Marx noted, quite accurately, that: “In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in a single sentence: Abolition of private property.” In other words, if Marxists of any stripe influence and eventually rule your country–you own nothing. Rather, they own you. Any land you may have thought you owned now belongs to “the People” which, being interpreted, means the State.

It is in that context that you need to begin to look at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as an instrument of the Marxist state that has as its agenda the appropriation of any and all land. You may even have a deed “proving” ownership which, to them, is irrelevant. Your deed is really worthless because they have the power to move you off of your land and in a Marxist state such as we now exist in, any and all means to do that are open to them–anything from constant harassment to extermination. After all, if you are in the way you have to go–and the end always justifies the means.

This fits in perfectly with the United Nations Agenda 21 program, whereby people are moved off their land and relocated in nice little mini-ghettos, naturally owned by the State.

Ranchers, farmers and other property owners in the West and in other areas need to begin to realize that the Marxist agenda that is present has as priorities moving them off their land and destroying their culture, lifestyle and worldview. The cultural Marxists in the South are busy trying to destroy the culture and worldview (particularly the Christian part) of the South and, naturally, with that destruction will come the abolition of private property, because the concept of private property is a biblical one and so that has to go.

Ultimately this struggle is as much theological as it is political, but most people, even on the Marxist side, don’t grasp that. Unfortunately, even most Christians remain totally in the dark on this issue. Most folks, Christian and otherwise, have not been able to connect the dots to see where all this is incrementally going.

For instance, there was an article on http://www.inquisitr.com for October 15, 2015, written by Tara West, that stated: “A group of Texas ranchers are furious after representatives from the federal Bureau of Land Management made claims that their land doesn’t really belong to the ranchers, but rather it belonged to the federal government. The federal officials claim that despite each rancher having a deed for their property and having paid property taxes on the land each year, the land should never have been sold, as it is actually federal land.”

There was an article in The Blaze that mentioned one rancher, Ken Aderholt. He got a phone call from a BLM rep in 2014. This “land aquisition”  expert for the BLM claimed that “625 acres of Aderholt’s property actually belonged to the federal government.” This individual said this discovery was made when the government began “redefining” boundary lines along the Red River, which separates Texas from Oklahoma. Aderholt noted that by “redefining” the boundary from half a mile in to the river it significantly affected the size of his property, and even his home place. When Aderholt explained to this BLM worthy that his home place sat on some of the land that the feds had “redefined” this individual retorted “You have reason to be conserned.” Translated into plain English that means “We’re taking your home place and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it. It’s part of our agenda, so kiss it goodbye.”

It’s also a major part of the overall Marxist agenda for the confiscation of private property. Notice they seem to be taking it in increments instead of all at once–at least for now–the old Fabian socialist approach. Do it all at once and folks really get shook up. Do it in smaller increments and they may not like it but they are like frogs in the cool water that gradually gets hotter and they don’t realize what’s happening to them (the Marxist agenda for the abolition of private property).

Folks, the federal Marxist revolutionaries, starting in Washington, want your land, all of your land, just like they want all of your guns. It’s as simple as that! Get a copy of The Communist Manifesto and read Marx’s ten rules of revolution and you will begin to get the picture of what is now going on in this country–as has actually been going on for decades while everyone has slept through it, Christians included.

The folks taking part in the Sagebrush Rebellion need to understand who their enemy is and what his plans for them are and they need to do enough homework to expose those plans publicly.

More on this as the Lord allows.

 

 

Who Was Lavoy Finicum?

by Al Benson Jr.

Like lots of other folks I kept my eye on the situation at the wildlife refuge near Burns, Oregon. I had my doubts that the occupation of the wildlife refuge was something the Sagebrush Warriors should have engaged in. I don’t question their intent or their integrity but I kind of felt this was one battle they should have passed up. It seems like all it did was to give the feds a chance to get even for being made to look so bad at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada in April of 2014. And you have to know, with their current Marxist mindset the feds will not just get mad, they will get even and then some.

However, Lavoy Finicum interested me. He was a Mormon rancher from Northern Arizona and seemed, from what I could see of him in videos to epitomize the Western lifestyle, and I in no way mean that in a derogatory sense. I have spent time in the West over the years. My family and I have camped and hiked over much of the country. I have talked to people who have had problems with the BLM and their confiscatory efforts at “acquiring” land. And Mr. Finicum had had his problems with the feds taking his water and generally harassing him. There seems to be sort of a federal agenda nowadays to get the ranchers off the land many places in the West and you have to wonder what the deal is. Does the land contain uranium  or other valuable minerals that the feds and their corporate fascist buddies would like to make millions off of, even though it isn’t theirs? The fact that it isn’t theirs would pose no problem at all for them. After all, they’ve got the power so they can basically do what they want and if they lean hard enough on the local and county politicians and law officers, most of them won’t fight back. Some will but most won’t.

Anyway, Lavoy Finicum was part of the protest at the refuge in Oregon. He seemed like a mild sort of man, not a troublemaker, but like most Westerners used to be, he didn’t like being pushed around. Like many Southern folks he just wanted to be left alone to lead his life, care for his cattle, and not bother anyone. When the feds started coming after him he made some You Tube videos explaining why he was resisting what the feds were trying to do to him. I watched a couple of those before I wrote this article and watching them and seeing his clear line of reasoning in what he said, I thought “here is a marked man.” The feds don’t like people who resist and who carefully explain to whoever will listen why and what they are resisting. My first thought was that, if they can, they will get this guy–one more irritant out of their way, one more example of the Western lifestyle shoved down the memory hole.

The Westerners have the same identical problem we here in the South have. Their lifestyle, traditions, culture and all the rest are under assault just like ours is. They have become the victims of the current phase of “reconstruction” only most of them don’t realize what it is yet. They and the Southern folks really need to get together because the cultural Marxists have their way of life slated for destruction just as they have ours here in the South. For the New World Order to triumph, both the Southern and Western ways of life have to go.

I sincerely hope some folks in the West who wish to preserve their culture and lifestyle get to read this and that it will begin to make them think. We are all being subjected to cultural Marxism and ethnic cleansing and we need to help each other to find ways to resist.

Lavoy Finicum tried to resist in the way he knew how to. It cost him his life. I also watched the FBI video of when they were pursuing them. They claim he pulled a gun. Others in his vehicle said he was on his way to a meeting and had left his weapons back at the place the protesters occupied. It was pretty hard to tell from the video exactly what happened, and I watched it all the way through twice. It looked  to me, like when he hit the snowbank and got out of his vehicle he had his hands in the air but then lowered them and that’s when they shot him. The police claim he was armed. It would be nice to see a real close up of him on the ground there after they shot him to see if there really was a gun or not. Knowing the feds penchant for “truth” I honestly have my doubts.

But the feds have now atoned for the sin of losing out at the Bundy Ranch in 2014, so we will have to see what ground angels fear to tread on that they will next stomp all over in their campaign to rid the West of real people.