PATRIOT OR TRAITOR | Category | Patriots

Michael Mahon Hastings

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Patriot or Traitor

Michael Mahon Hastings is a patriot

Michael Mahon Hastings is a patriot.

Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) was an American journalist, author, contributing editor to Rolling Stone and reporter for BuzzFeed.

Hastings became a vocal critic of the Obama administration, Democratic Party and surveillance state during the investigation of reporters by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2013, referring to the restrictions on the freedom of the press by the Obama administration as a “war” on journalism. His last story, “Why Democrats Love to Spy On Americans”, was published by BuzzFeed on June 7, 2013.

Hastings died in a mysterious car explosion on June 18, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. At that time, Michael Hastings was working on a story about the government before his death and had contacted a Wikileaks lawyer about being under investigation by the FBI hours before his car exploded into flames has bolstered increasingly valid claims that the 33-year-old was assassinated.

Additional Information from June 20, 2013

The revelation that Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings was working on a story about the CIA before his death and had contacted a Wikileaks lawyer about being under investigation by the FBI hours before his car exploded into flames has bolstered increasingly valid claims that the 33-year-old was assassinated.

Hastings died early Tuesday morning in Hollywood when his car allegedly hit a tree at high speed. The Los Angeles Coroner’s office has not yet been able to officially identify the body as Hastings because it is so badly burned.

Skeptics of the official narrative have highlighted eyewitness accounts which state that Hastings’ Mercedes “exploded”.

Images of the vehicle appear to show more damage to the rear, around the area of the fuel tank, than the front, leading to speculation that a car bomb which ignited the fuel could have been responsible for the incident.

“No matter how you slice this particular pie, a Mercedes is not just going to explode into flames without a little assistance,” writes freelance journalist Jim Stone. “Car fires in new cars happen for three main reasons — running the engine out of oil, or running the engine out of coolant, or after an absolutely huge car mangling accident, having the hot side of the battery short out against the frame before it reaches the fuse panel. And for all 3 of those normal reasons, which account for virtually all car fires in modern cars, the fire would have started in the engine compartment, progressed slowly, and scorched the hell out of the paint before ever reaching the gas tank. That clean paint is the be all tell all, Michael Hastings was murdered, and the rest is detail.”

Stone also questions why a white sheet has been draped over the vehicle in the image below,

The questions surrounding the precise nature of the “accident” that killed Hastings are given more weight by the fact that the journalist had made enemies within both the FBI and the CIA.

“Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him,” the official Wikileaks Twitter account announced yesterday.

Hastings “had the Central Intelligence Agency in his sights” and was set to release an article exposing the agency, according to L.A. Weekly.

The Obama administration and the Justice Department have openly claimed the authority to assassinate American citizens anywhere in the world if they are deemed a national security threat. A number of American citizens have already been killed as a result of this policy. Is it really that crazy to suggest that Michael Hastings was merely the latest victim of this doctrine?

The New York Daily News highlights the fact that Hastings had received multiple death threats before his demise.

Following his role in bringing down Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, Hastings was told by a McChrystal staffer, “We’ll hunt you down and kill you if we don’t like what you write.”

“Whenever I’d been reporting around groups of dudes whose job it was to kill people, one of them would usually mention that they were going to kill me,” said Hastings.

Hastings was renowned for being “only interested in writing stories someone didn’t want him to write — often his subjects,” according to Buzzflash editor Ben Smith, adding, “He knew that there are certain truths that nobody has an interest in speaking, ones that will make you both your subjects and their enemies uncomfortable. They’re stories that don’t get told because nobody in power has much of an interest in telling them.”

The fact that Hastings had made a plethora of enemies as a result of his hard-hitting investigative journalism has prompted a deluge of online comment speculating that the writer’s “car crash” was no accident.

“Hastings’ wreck might make sense on the freeway, but I doubt he’d be dumb enough to go 100 mph on Highland. He’s not some dumb college kid,” said one commenter on a local news site.

“A warning to other journalists to not dig too deep,” another Reddit user wrote. “Stick with the party line if you want a long, happy life.”

If this was an isolated incident then there wouldn’t be so many questions swirling about Hastings’ death. However, he’s certainly not the first individual to go up against the military-industrial complex and wind up in a coffin.

Other journalists who have proven to be a thorn in the side of the establishment have met the same fate, from Andrew Breitbart who was about to release damaging pre-election information about Barack Obama before he collapsed and died in strange circumstances, to Gary Webb, the Pullitzer prize-winning author who exposed the CIA’s involvement in the drug trade and subsequently committed “suicide” after apparently shooting himself in the head – twice.

More recently, Ibragim Todashev, friend of accused Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnev, was shot in the head six times by the FBI, who initially claimed Todashev was armed but later had to admit this was a lie. Speculation has raged that Todashev was assassinated because he had knowledge about the Boston bombings which the feds didn’t want to see the light of public scrutiny.

Despite his actions, the murder of Christopher Dorner, who was burned to death by LAPD officers while hiding inside a cabin, shows that authorities will not hesitate to resort to such methods.

It’s virtually inevitable that the true cause of Michael Hastings death will never be known and that the mainstream media will demonize anyone who questions the official narrative as a conspiracy theorist. Meanwhile, journalists and others who pose a threat to the military-industrial complex will continue to die in bizarre “accidents” that stink of foul play.

UPDATE: August 19, 2018

Michael Hastings the journalist who died in a mysterious car explosion a few years ago was about to expose former CIA Director John Brennan, according to his wife.

Michael Hastings was killed in a dramatic and fiery car crash in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 18, 2013. Eyewitnesses described seeing his speeding Mercedes coup emitting sparks and flames before it drove head-on into a nearby palm tree and exploded. Hastings’ body was so severely burned it was beyond recognition.

Dailymail.co.uk reports: Earlier that day, Hastings had sent an email to his editor at the website Buzzfeed alerting him that ‘the Feds are interviewing my “close friends and associates.” Perhaps if the authorities arrive “BuzzFeed GQ,” er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.’

He added that ‘Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the radat for a bit.’

Hours later, Hastings was dead.

The big story he was working now appears to be about spy chief Brennan, who has been described in secret emails from the President of CIA contractor Stratfor, Fred Burton – and released by Wikileaks -as being on a ‘witch hunt’ of investigative journalists.

Hastings’ wife, Elise Jordan, revealed on Piers Morgan’s show on CNN earlier this month that the story Hastings was working on at the time of his death was about Brennan.

The CIA confirmed Jordan’s claim to San Diego 6 News, which says that when they brought the information – as well as a leaked email from Stratfor – to Brennan’s spokesperson, he responded ‘with lightning speed.’

Reporter Kimberly Dvorak says she received two emails from the CIA spokesman, one acknowledging that Hastings was working on a story about the CIA, and another stating that ‘without commenting on information disseminated by WikiLeaks, any suggestion that Director Brennan has ever attempted to infringe on constitutionally-protected press freedoms is offensive and baseless.’

Jordan says the article about Brennan will appear in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

Conspiracy theorists have jumped all over Hastings’ death because he has a proven history of bringing down powerful people (his Rolling Stone article about General Stanley McChrystal effectively ended the general’s career) and a collection of secret sources within the highest levels of government.

The cryptic emails aside, skeptics have asked where was Hastings going at 4:25 a.m., when witnesses say he was speeding AWAY from his house? Why would he be going so fast on a residential street (authorities say he was traveling ‘at top speed’ when he hit the tree, although that, too, has been questioned).

Those suspicious of a coverup in Hastings’ death even question the intensity of the fire that seemed to instantly engulf Hastings’ car after it hit the tree. Some have even suggested that a device was installed in Hastings’ car that allowed someone outside of the vehicle to control it’s speed and direction – although, those claims have been widely rejected as baseless, as there’s no known evidence to suggest that anyone but Hastings was in control of the vehicle, or that such a device even exists.

Adding to the suspicion is the fact that several government agencies – both local and federal – have been slow to turn over public records about the crash, despite hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests from journalists across the country.

Additional Information

It was four years after the death of Michael Hastings that WikiLeaks revealed the CIA can hack cars to carry out “Undetectable Assassinations”.

Additional Information

CLICK HERE to read about the traitor John Owen Brennan, the former CIA Director.

Pete Santilli

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Patriot or Traitor

Pete Santilli is a patriot.

Pete Santilli is a patriot

Pete Santilli, a new media journalist who broadcasts his news reports over YouTube and streaming internet radio, is sitting in jail.

Santilli, notorious for his controversial topics, vocal outrage over government abuses, and inflammatory rhetoric, is not what anyone would consider an objective reporter. His radio show, aptly titled “Telling You the Truth…Whether You Like It or Not,” makes it clear that Santilli has a viewpoint (namely, that the government has overstepped its bounds), and he has no qualms about sharing it with his listeners.

It was that viewpoint that landed Santilli in jail.

In early January 2016, a group of armed activists, reportedly protesting the federal government’s management of federal lands and its prosecution of two local ranchers convicted of arson, staged an act of civil disobedience by occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon. Santilli, who has covered such protests in the past, including the April 2014 standoff in Nevada between the Bundy ranching family and the federal government over grazing rights, reported on the occupation in Burns as an embedded journalist, albeit one who was sympathetic to the complaints (although not the tactics) of the occupiers.

When asked to clarify his role in relation to the occupation, Santilli declared, “My role is the same here that it was at the Bundy ranch. To talk about the constitutional implications of what is going on here. The Constitution cannot be negotiated.”

Well, it turns out that the Constitution can be negotiated, at least when the government gets involved.

Long a thorn in the side of the FBI, Santilli was arrested by the FBI following its ambush and arrest of key leaders of the movement. He was charged, along with the armed resistors, with conspiracy to impede federal officers from discharging their duties by use of force, intimidation, or threats—the same charge being levied against those who occupied the refuge—which carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Notably, Santilli is the only journalist among those covering the occupation to be charged with conspiracy, despite the fact that he did not participate in the takeover of the refuge, nor did he ever spend a night on the grounds of the refuge, nor did he ever represent himself as anything but a journalist covering the occupation.

Of course, the government doesn’t actually believe that 50-year-old Santilli is an accomplice to any criminal activity.

Read between the lines and you’ll find that what the government is really accusing Santilli of is employing dangerous speech. As court documents indicate, the government is prosecuting Santilli solely as a reporter of information. In other words, they’re making an example of him, which is consistent with the government’s ongoing efforts to intimidate members of the media who portray the government in a less than favorable light.

This is not a new tactic.

During the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, numerous journalists were arrested while covering the regions’ civil unrest and the conditions that spawned that unrest. These attempts to muzzle the press were clearly concerted, top-down efforts to restrict the fundamental First Amendment rights of the public and the press.

As The Huffington Post reports:

The Obama administration’s treatment of reporters has caused controversy before. In 2009, the Department of Justice targeted a Fox News reporter in an investigation. Three years later, DOJ seized Associated Press reporters’ phone records. After that, former Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a review of the Justice Department’s news media policies. DOJ employees must consult with a unit within the Criminal Division before they arrest someone when there is a “question regarding whether an individual or entity is a ‘member of the news media,’” according to a January 2015 memo from Holder to DOJ employees.”

That the government is choosing to target Santilli for prosecution, despite the fact that they do not recognize new media journalists as members of the mainstream media, signals a broadening of the government’s efforts to suppress what it considers dangerous speech and stamp out negative coverage.

The message is clear: whether a journalist is acting alone or is affiliated with an established news source, the government has no qualms about subjecting them to harassment, arrest, jail time and trumped up charges if doing so will discourage others from openly opposing or exposing the government.

You see, the powers-that-be understand that if the government can control speech, it controls thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry.

Where the government has gone wrong is in hinging its case against Santilli based solely on his incendiary rhetoric, which is protected by the First Amendment and which bears a striking resemblance to disgruntled patriots throughout American history.

Here’s what Santilli said: “What we need, most importantly, is one hundred thousand unarmed men and women to stand together. It is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal.”

Now compare that with the call to action from Joseph Warren, a leader of the Sons of Liberty and a principal figure within the American Revolution: “Stain not the glory of your worthy ancestors, but like them resolve never to part with your birthright; be wise in your deliberations, and determined in your exertions for the preservation of your liberties. Follow not the dictates of passion, but enlist yourselves under the sacred banner of reason; use every method in your power to secure your rights.”

Indeed, Santilli comes across as relatively docile compared to some of our nation’s more outspoken firebrands.

Santilli: “I’m not armed. I am armed with my mouth. I’m armed with my live stream. I’m armed with a coalition of like-minded individuals who sit at home and on YouTube watch this.”

Now compare that to what George Washington had to say: “Unhappy it is, though, to reflect that a brother’s sword has been sheathed in a brother’s breast and that the once-happy plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?”

And then there was Andrew Jackson, a hothead if ever there was one. He came of age in the early days of the republic, served as the seventh president of the United States, and was not opposed to shedding blood when necessary: “Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.”

This is how freedom rises or falls.

There have always been those willing to speak their minds despite the consequences. Where freedom hangs in the balance is when “we the people” are called on to stand with or against individuals who actually exercise their rights and, in the process, push the envelope far enough to get called out on the carpet for it.

Do we negotiate the Constitution, or do we embrace it, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel, no matter how hateful or ugly it gets, and no matter how much we may dislike its flag-bearers?

What we’re dealing with today is a government that wants to suppress dangerous words—words about its warring empire, words about its land grabs, words about its militarized police, words about its killing, its poisoning and its corruption—in order to keep its lies going.

The only therapy is the truth and nothing but the truth.

Otherwise, there will be no more First Amendment. There will be no more Bill of Rights. And there will be no more freedom in America as we have known it.

As the insightful and brash comedian George Carlin observed:

“Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. That’s all we’ve ever had in this country, is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter. Sooner or later, the people in this country are gonna realize the government does not give a fuck about them! The government doesn’t care about you, or your children, or your rights, or your welfare or your safety. It simply does not give a fuck about you! It’s interested in its own power. That’s the only thing. Keeping it and expanding it wherever possible.”

Robert LaVoy Finicum

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Patriot or Traitor

Robert LaVoy Finicum is a patriot.

The daughter of Robert LaVoy Finicum, the Oregon militiaman shot dead by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during a traffic stop on Highway 395 on January 26, 2016, claims that her father was “murdered” execution-style with his hands in the air, an account backed up by an eyewitness to the incident.

Protesters involved in the weeks-long occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, including leader Ammon Bundy, were ambushed by law enforcement as they traveled to the city of John Day to attend a community meeting set up by local residents.

“Everyone obeyed orders to surrender except two people: LaVoy Finicum and Bundy’s brother, Ryan Bundy,” a law enforcement official told CNN.

Media reports about the incident simply state that “shots were fired,” although Finicum’s daughter Thara Lynn Tenney posted a message on her Facebook page last night asserting that her father had already surrendered before he was gunned down.

“I want the world to know how my father was murdered today. His hands were in the air and he was shot in the face by the American authorities. Ammon Bundy reported there are 6 witnesses to this evil,” wrote Tenney.

Her testimony was echoed by another eyewitness, Victoria Sharp, who was in the car with Finicum when the group were pulled over by cops and federal agents.

Sharp claims that Finicum put his hands out of the car window and asked the police to allow the women to leave the car.

“They shot at him, but they missed him,” said Sharp, adding that the group then attempted to drive away in the car but were shot at again by police.

“When we crashed and stopped for a second, he got out of the car, he had his hands in the air, he’s like ‘just shoot me then’….and they did, they shot him dead,” said Sharp.

“He was just walking, with his hands in the air, I swear to God, and they shot him dead and after he was down on the ground, shot him three more times,” said Sharp, adding that the vehicle was again “bombarded with bullets” as well as tear gas rounds.

Sharp says that the group tried to “find something white” so they could display it as a sign of surrender. She challenges news reports that only six shots were fired, asserting, “they shot at least 120 shots altogether.”

Sharp also claims that none of the individuals in the car pulled out a gun at any point and that the incident was an “ambush” with “FBI snipers in the trees” surrounding the vehicle.

“They had their hands out of the window to show they were not firing, nothing, we showed no aggression at all,” said Sharp.

We know some state police were involved, but it’s clear this was an outright murder done under the control and command of the FBI.

Additional Information: January 27, 2016

Robert LaVoy Finicum was a man who loved ‘Nothing More in Life Than God, Family & Freedom’. He posted the below video of his family singing ‘Amazing Grace’ just hours before his death.

On his Twitter page, Mr. Finicum went by the moniker “@OneCowboysStand.” His bio on the page reads, “Rancher, Loves Freedom and willing to fight and die defending it.” His Twitter pseudonym is taken from his book title, One Cowboy’s Last Stand for Freedom. In an interview on NBC, Mr. Finicum said, “There are things more important than your life, and freedom is one of them. I’m prepared to defend freedom.”

Mr. Finicum wrote, “The Constitution of the United States of America is a charter to protect the freedom of man by putting strict limits on government. We are living in a day when that supreme law of the land has been shredded by the very government that took an oath to uphold it. By their actions the Federal Government has become lawless and stalks the liberties of this land under the guise of social justice.”

Below is a video taking a look back at Robert “LaVoy” Finicum’s role during the Oregon standoff in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation.

Additional Information: January 27, 2016

One person is dead and Oregon protest leader Ammon Bundy, along with several others, were arrested after a highway confrontation with the FBI and state police on Tuesday.

Shots were reportedly fired after authorities stopped the protestors on U.S. Highway 395 while they were headed to a community meeting in John Day, Ore., on the 24th day of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation.

Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox and Ryan W. Payne were arrested during the stop, and it’s unclear who started the shooting, although sources are reporting that Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum, who gained fame for conducting a TV interview from beneath a blue tarp, was killed.

Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy and Peter Santilli were also arrested separately in Burns, Ore.

Not long after the arrests, FBI agents raided the wildlife refuge but it is unknown how many of the three dozen members of the protest, if any, were still at the headquarters during the raid.

All those arrested are facing various federal felony charges.

Bundy and the protestors took over the wildlife refuge earlier this month after two local ranchers, the Hammonds, were sent to prison after the Bureau of Land Management accused them of setting fires on federal land.

The Hammonds, however, did not approve of the protest and distanced themselves from the occupation.

The protestors lost further support after a series of questionable activities, including filming themselves waving around sex toys shipped to them by counter-protestors and releasing a video of a loincloth-clad “militant” challenging Chris Christie to a sumo match, sparked allegations that several members of the protest were in fact government agent provocateurs.

The accusations gained momentum once the mainstream media used the self-destructive videos to ridicule conservatives and libertarians in general.

When you put it all together, it’s clear the FBI killed an American citizen for peacefully protesting government overreach. Shot him dead in cold blood.

Update: January 28, 2016

In order to sway public opinion to turn against the group, the FBI released a supposedly unedited video of the events of Lavoy Tinicum’s death taken on 01/26/2016 and released by the FBI on 01/28/2016.

What you will not see is that Ryan Payne exited the truck in order to attempt to convince FBI to allow the women to leave the truck, safely. At no time do you see Ryan Payne exit the truck in this FBI “full and unedited video.” The supposed unedited FBI video only clearly shows 3 other people, besides Finicum, exiting the truck when the eye witness testimony tells that 5 people were in the truck.

At 2:40 the camera suddenly zooms out of view of the white truck, and doesn’t regain contact with the truck until 3:37. In the lower right corner you briefly see someone (presumably Payne) being taken away with cuffed hands over his head at 3:56. There is no visual on the truck when the witness testified the FBI shot at Ryan Payne when he stuck his head and arms out the window to get the FBI’s attention in requesting the women be released from the truck.

The below footage is what the FBI considers an unedited video after they blurred out the aircraft information along with the time clock. Was it really unedited?

While watching this video, one should realize Robert LaVoy Finicum had just witnessed the FBI fire a gun at an unarmed man. He had two women in his vehicle with him. Fearing for their safety, he drove off from a police traffic stop to try to get to the safety of the Sheriff in the neighboring county. As he came upon a roadblock, he skidded off the road into the snow. He got out and immediately put his hands up and started yelling that he wanted to talk to the sheriff. He was then shot in the body. You can see him repeatedly reaching for his side where he was shot. The authorities kept screaming at him to put his hands up, which he tried to do but the pain cause him to keep clutching his body. He points at his vehicle to warn the authorities to not hurt the women in it. He is then shot again and falls down, still trying to put his hands in the air. After he collapses he is shot again.

Update: January 29, 2016

STATEMENT FROM THE LAVOY FINICUM FAMILY

We know that there are always at least two sides to every story. We also know and recognize that the FBI and law enforcement agencies involved will do everything in their power to make it appear as if the needless death of our husband, father, grandfather, brother and son, LaVoy Finicum, was justified.

Like almost everyone else, we were not there, so we don’t know exactly what happened. Like most others, we have no choice but to rely on other sources of information. One of those sources of information is the account of Victoria Sharp. Another piece of information is the video recently released by the FBI, along with the FBI’s chosen narrative of what happened. In response to this information, we would like to make a few observations.

The first observation is that from what we understand, the occupation was on track toward a peaceful resolution. LaVoy and those he was with were en route to a public meeting in an adjoining county when they were stopped in something far different than a “routine traffic stop,” as has been portrayed by the media. Unfortunately, the powers that be were not interested in being patient enough for the occupation to come to a peaceful end. Some had called for LaVoy and those he was with to simply be gunned down, just as he was, with no due process. Oregon Governor, Kate Brown, was putting pressure on the FBI to end it sooner rather than later. The Harney County Sheriff’s Department working in conjunction with the FBI tried to do everything they could to emphasize how disruptive the occupation was to the local community, when in reality it appears to have been their own reaction that was causing most of the disruption. And it was the FBI that chose to escalate the situation to force a confrontation, and violent ending.

With respect to the actual facts and circumstances surrounding LaVoy’s death, the video really speaks for itself. People will interpret it according to their own views. As the FBI’s own narrative stated, LaVoy was not wielding a firearm or any other weapon when he was killed. His hands were obviously in the air. Knowing LaVoy, it is our view that he was moving away from the vehicle in an attempt to draw any hostility or violence away from the others. Unfortunately, we don’t know what he was saying, and what was being said to him. He appears to have been gesturing, or trying to keep his balance while moving in the deep snow. Although he may have been animated, he does not appear to have been threatening or posing any real threat or danger to anyone. The FBI claims that LaVoy had a loaded firearm in an inside pocket of his coat.

After rereviewing the extended video, at this point we are not accepting at face value the FBI’s statement that LaVoy was actually armed. But even if he was, as far as we can see, that firearm posed no more danger to anyone than it would have if he had stayed in the vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel. Contrary to what has been stated by some sources, LaVoy was not “charging” anyone. He appears to have been shot in the back, with his hands in the air.

It is our understanding that according to applicable law, the use of deadly force is justified only if there is a genuine threat of death or serious bodily injury. It is our understanding and position that deadly force should only be used as a last resort. In LaVoy’s case it appears that they were determined to go straight to the last resort. It is our understanding that the U.S. Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Court of appeals have ruled as follows:

“The reasonableness of [officers’] actions depends both on whether the officers were in danger at the precise moment that they used force and on whether [the officers’] own reckless or deliberate conduct during the seizure unreasonably created the need to use such force.”

“Where an officer intentionally or recklessly provokes a violent confrontation . . . he may be held liable for his otherwise defensive use of deadly force.” Although officers may claim self-defense, they may still be liable for using excessive force if their reckless and unconstitutional actions create the need to use excessive force

It is our understanding that in addition to shooting LaVoy multiple times, after he was left lying harmlessly on the ground the officers also fired upon his truck and the passengers in it, putting them all at risk, despite the fact that they were posing no threat to anyone. The video clearly shows one of the windows being blown out. It has been gut-wrenching for our family to view the video of LaVoy being shot, and then left to lie in the snow while a whole army of so-called “public servants” terrorized the others. We can only hope their families never have to watch such a thing. We will be interested to inspect the vehicle. We will also be interested to see the autopsy report.

At this point we will await the outcome of any investigation, but based on the information currently available to us, we do not believe that LaVoy’s shooting death was justified. We likewise can’t see any justification for the force and risk of serious injury or death that was exerted against the others in the truck, who posed no threat.

We know that under such circumstances law enforcement typically makes every attempt to cast such shooting victims in the worst possible light. In that regard, we also want to observe and emphasize that LaVoy had a squeaky clean record, and had never had so much as a speeding ticket. In addition to raising his own eleven children, he had also been entrusted with the care of at least 50 foster children over the course of approximately 10 years.

On January 7, 2016, LaVoy issued an official statement from the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Among other things, the statement said:

“We want to clarify that we share any and all concerns about safety for everyone involved, including ourselves, our families, the public, and law enforcement officers. All lives are important to us. Ultimately, we want everyone involved to be able to return safely to their homes and families.

We are deeply troubled and saddened that our governments do not share the same concern for human life. We are deeply troubled that our governments would view whatever was happening at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge to be worth spilling blood over. We are deeply troubled and saddened that our governments have come to place so little value on life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness.

We love LaVoy as our husband, father, grandfather, brother and son. He was a hero to us. We believe he died as a patriotic martyr. Regardless of any and all differing opinions, we know that he died standing for a cause HE believed in.

LaVoy’s funeral will be held in Kanab, Utah on Friday, February 5, 2016.

We take comfort in our faith and our belief that LaVoy is now in a better place. May our dear Lord bless and receive him into that realm. We sincerely appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that have been sent our way. We pray for those who chose to take LaVoy’s life. We desire justice and genuine accountability for what happened, but we pray for them.

And finally, we thank God for this country and what it is supposed to stand for. We pray for this country, and that God will please bless, help and forgive us all.

Additional Information: January 29, 2016

The official FBI Statement says, “On at least two occasions, Finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket. He did have a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in that pocket.”

So were did Mr. Finicum suddenly acquire a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun when he has always been seen with a revolver? Even if he had such a weapon, don’t you think Mr. Finicum would of exited the vehicle with the gun in hand if he intended to shoot it out with police?

Furthermore, the official FBI video shows Mr. Finicum didn’t put his hands down until he is apparently being shot in the chest stomach area. This is clearly seen in his erratic confused quick steps when his hands go down. This was a man being shot, and unless you have seen this before you might not understand it.

If this wasn’t an ambush, then why was at least one police officer laying in wait within the woods? Also, why afterwards didn’t the police follow department rules and procedures involving an armed suspect and immediately secure the gun, or call for an ambulance?

Clearly the FBI is lying, especially when you consider the fact Mr. Finicum is a right handed shooter and kept his revolver on his right hip, and more importantly he left his gun and holster at the refuge. The gun was shown on video at the refuge after the shooting.

One can’t escape the uneasy facts that this was a well orchestrated ambush by the government against Robert LaVoy Finicum, a Constitutional Patriot and a Grandfather with no record of violence. He was trapped in a lonely road ambush and cut down in cold blood while driving to engage in negotiations, which says this was a set up pure and simple to get the leader of these protesters.

While an argument can always be made Mr. Finicum and the other protesters broke certain laws or overstepped the boundaries of propriety, their actions amounted to little more than civil disobedience.

The question now is, who will be next? For their will be no full and transparent investigation done to stop this from happening again, not to mention, the arrest and prosecution of those involved in this murder.

Additional Information: March 8, 2016

Investigators released a graphic video of LaVoy Finicum traffic stop and shooting, March 8, 2016.

Watch and see how Robert LaVoy Finicum was executed.

Additional Information: August 1, 2018

CLICK HERE to read about the Oregon State Police (OSP) officer that murdered LaVoy Finicum.

CLICK HERE to read about the FBI agent who lied about firing two rifle shots at the truck of Lavoy Finicum.

Irwin Allen Schiff

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Patriot or Traitor

Irwin Allen Schiff is a patriot.

Irwin Allen Schiff was a patriotic American tax protester. He was known for writing and promoting literature in which he claimed the income tax in the United States is illegally and unconstitutionally enforced.

Mr. Schiff was born Feb. 23rd 1928, the 8th child and only son of Jewish immigrants, who had crossed the Atlantic twenty years earlier in search of freedom. As a result of their hope and courage Mr. Schiff was fortunate to have been born into the freest nation in the history of the world. But when he passed away on Oct. 16th, 2015 at the age of 87, a political prisoner of that same nation, legally blind and shackled to a hospital bed in a guarded room in intensive care, the free nation he was born into had itself died years earlier.

Mr. Schiff had a life-long love affair with our nation’s founding principals and proudly served his country during the Korean War, for a while even having the less then honorable distinction of being the lowest ranking American soldier in Europe. While in college he became exposed to the principles of Austrian economics through the writings of Henry Hazlitt and Frederick Hayek. He first became active in politics during Barry Goldwater’s failed 1964 presidential bid. His activism intensified during the Vietnam Era when he led local grass root efforts to resist Yale University’s plans to conduct aid shipments to North Vietnam at a time when that nation was actively fighting U.S. forces in the south. Later in life he staged an unsuccessful write in campaign for governor of Connecticut, then eventually lost the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination to Harry Brown in 1996.

In 1976 his beliefs in free market economics, limited government, and strict interpretation of the Constitution led him to write his first book The Biggest Con: How the Government is Fleecing You, a blistering indictment of the post New Deal expansion of government in the United States. The book achieved accolades in the mainstream conservative world, receiving a stellar review in the Wall Street Journal, among other mainstream publications.

But Mr. Schiff was most known for his staunch opposition to the Federal Income Tax, for which the Federal Government labeled him a “tax protester.” But he had no objection to lawful, reasonable taxation. He was not an anarchist and believed that the state had an important, but limited role to play in market based economy. He opposed the Federal Government’s illegal and unconstitutional enforcement and collection of the income tax. His first book on this topic (he authored six in total, self-published by Freedom Books) How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes, published in 1982 became a New York Times best seller. His last, The Federal Mafia; How the Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully collects Income Taxes, the first of three editions published in 1992, became the only non-fiction, and second and last book to be banned in America. The only other book being Fanny Hill; Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, banned for obscenity in 1821 and 1963.

His crusade to force the government to obey the law earned him three prison sentences, the final one being a fourteen-year sentence that he began serving ten years ago, at the age of 77. That sentence turned into a life sentence, as my father failed to survive until his planned 2017 release date. However in actuality the life sentence amounted to a death sentence. Mr. Schiff died from skin cancer that went undiagnosed and untreated while he was in federal custody. The skin cancer then led to a virulent outbreak of lung cancer that took his life just more than two months after his initial diagnosis.

The unnecessarily cruel twist in his final years occurred seven years ago when he reached his 80th birthday. At that point the government moved him from an extremely low security federal prison camp in New York State where he was within easy driving distance of his family and friends, to a federal correctional institute, first in Indiana and then in Texas. This was done specially to give him access to better medical care. The trade off was that Mr. Schiff was forced to live isolated from those who loved him. Given that visiting him required long flights, car rentals, and hotel stays, his visits were few and far between. Yet while at these supposed superior medical facilities, Mr. Schiff received virtually no medical care at all, not even for the cataracts that left him legally blind, until the skin cancer on his head had spread to just about every organ in his body.

At the time of his diagnosis in early August of this year (2015), he was given four to six mouths to live. His family tried to get him out of prison on compassionate release so that he could live out the final months of his life with his family, spending some precious moments with the grandchildren he had barely known. But he did not live long enough for the bureaucratic process to be completed. Two months after the process began, despite the combined help of a sitting Democratic U.S. congresswoman and a Republican U.S. senator, his petition was still sitting on someone’s desk waiting for yet another signature, even though everyone at the prison actually wanted him released. Even as Mr. Schiff lay dying in intensive care, a phone call came in from a lawyer and the Bureau of Prisons in Washington asking the prison medical representatives for more proof of the serious nature of Mr. Schiff condition.

As the cancer consumed him his voice changed, and the prison phone system no longer recognized it, so he could not even talk with family members on the phone during his finale month of life. When his condition deteriorated to the point where he needed to be hospitalized, government employees blindly following orders kept him shackled to his bed. This despite the fact that escape was impossible for an 87 year old terminally ill, legally blind patient who could barley breathe, let alone walk.

Whether or not you agree with Mr. Schiff’s views on the Federal Income Tax, or the manner by which it is collected, it’s hard to condone the way he was treated by our government. He held his convictions so sincerely and so passionately that he continued to espouse them until his dying breath. Like William Wallace in the final scene of Braveheart, an oppressive government may have succeeded in killing him, but they did not break his spirit. And that spirit will live on in his books, his videos, and in his children and grandchildren. Hopefully his legacy will one day help restore the lost freedoms he died trying to protect, finally allowing him to rest in peace.

Randy Kennedy

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Patriot or Traitor

Randy Kennedy is a patriot.

Sheriff Randy Kennedy in Northeast Texas is the latest local law enforcement personality to urge the public to take up firearms in self defense.

Responding to Obama’s rare Oval Office Address Sunday (December 6, 2015), in which the president expressed a desire to curtail American gun rights, Hughes Springs County Sheriff Randy Kennedy uploaded a video commentary to Facebook defending law abiding gun owners.

“I know that there are a lot of law-abiding gun owners out there and nobody who is a legal gun owner has ever wanted to harm or kill anyone,” Sheriff Kennedy said. “But I know that we do not seek to harm or kill anyone but nor are we going to allow anyone to seek us out and kill us or do harm to our families.” “So, I strongly encourage you to help me by arming yourselves because I know that we as law enforcement do the very best we can to protect our citizens and we do a good job,” the sheriff continued. Sheriff Kennedy added that armed citizens are essential not only to protecting their families, but to saving law enforcement lives as well.

“I know that if the tables are ever turned on me or one of my officers that I want one of my citizens or a group of my citizens coming to our aide and rescue and I don’t want you running out of bullets and I don’t want you running out of guns before you’re able to pull our bacon out of the fire.”

The sheriff also spoke directly to President Obama, reminding him of the importance of the Second Amendment and that an attempt to confiscate Americans’ firearms would “cause a revolution.”

“Now, Mr. Obama, you need to understand what the Second Amendment is for. It is not for hunting. It is there for the American people to protect themselves against the criminal elements, to protect themselves from terrorists and radical ideology and it’s also there to protect us against the government that has over reached its power.

“You are not our potentate, sir. You are our servant to serve and protect us first, and I suggest sir, since you’re a constitutional expert that you better review our history on the Constitution and understand that we are a free people and we are subject to no one other than the Almighty God and Jesus Christ the King.

“And as such sir, I strongly encourage you to trust the law-abiding American citizen because you won’t fail in that and we won’t let you down.

“But if you try to disarm us, sir, then you will cause a revolution in this country to occur. So, please revise your thinking because we are not your enemy, the law-abiding gun owner in this country.”

The call to arms follows others from sheriffs across the country, including one from Kentucky, Boone County Sheriff Michael Helmig, who told licensed residents it was their “responsibility to carry their firearm.”

Sheriff Helmig also stated he supported Ulster County Sheriff Paul J. Van Blarcum in New York State, who also encouraged citizens “licensed to carry a firearm to PLEASE DO SO” immediately following the shooting in San Bernardino last Wednesday (December 2, 2015).

Since the Paris attacks, gun sales and stocks have skyrocketed in the US.