WEBVTT - It Could Happen Here Weekly 63 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.680 Hey, everybody, Robert Evans here and I wanted to let 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:06.400 you know. This is a compiletion episode. So every episode 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.399 of the week that just happened is here in one 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:13.240 convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.760 listen to in a long stretch if you want. If 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:17.720 you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:19.919 there's gonna be nothing new here for you, but you 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:28.400 can make your own decisions. It could happen here is 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.080 a podcast, UM, and it is kind of happening here 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:37.440 because they're just was just an attack on uh, several 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.519 power substations in the city of North Or City in 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.960 the state of North Carolina, UM that left something like 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.920 forty people without power for several days. I believe that 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.280 at the moment at least one person died as a 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.160 result of this. There have been car crashes. It's pretty 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.920 fucked up, and UH we are going to be talking 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.920 about that obviously. As a result of this. Number one 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.240 where a lot of immediate suspicions that came out that 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.040 this was tied towards Drag Queen UH Story Hour type 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.800 event that was going to be being held on the 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.360 day that the attack was carried out. There's suspicions that 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:15.240 this is the result of far right activity. Um, and 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.840 uh yeah, we're gonna talk about that and everything around 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.640 that right now. Um. We have on the episode for 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:26.039 today myself, Garrison Davis, James Stout, and we are also 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:33.080 bringing in friend of the pod, researcher and woman about town. Um, 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.760 but not this town, a different town because we live 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.360 on opposite sides of the country. Molly Conger, Molly, I've 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.280 been saying your last name wrong for years, even though 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.679 we've been friends for quite a while. I don't know 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:49.240 why I never said anything. It's come up so many times. Yeah. Um, so, Garrison, 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.520 you've kind of been taking point on putting together this one, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.600 so I'm gonna let you kind of take the reins 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.320 unless you want me to, uh to to to direct 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:57.680 this more. But I do think kind of the place 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:02.120 to start is all we're watching a gigantic right wing 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:07.600 insurgency unfold or is this a more complex case? And 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:09.960 obviously the answer is the latter, as it is anytime 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:11.920 someone poses a question like that now, is we're gonna 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.040 We're gonna, we're gonna pick this the simple, more scary, 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:20.320 more inflammatary option and leave it at that. Yeah, let's 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:24.480 send tweet no so yes. Um, the aftermath of the 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.160 North Carolina attack is kind of it's gotten a lot 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.440 of people to learn about infrastructure attacks for the first 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.840 time and get really scared about them and realize that 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.240 this is a problem, and then start bringing up past 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.880 incidents when this has happened and trying to draw this 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:46.079 like overall pattern, which isn't entirely incorrect, but the way 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:50.240 they're going about it is not very responsible nor really 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.360 well informed. Yeah. So one of the things we've seen 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:58.000 is like the there have been a lot of attack Like, uh, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:00.959 it does seem accure to say that over the course 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:02.799 of the last year or two there have been more 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:07.720 attacks on power infrastructure. Um, But that doesn't mean we 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.280 have we have lots of data on this. It has 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.920 the past five years there has been a pretty strong 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:18.080 increase in the number of attacks on power stations. And 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.760 it's also true that this is a thing the right 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.280 has been The far right, like the Nazi right in particular, 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.560 has been trying to get people to do for longer 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.960 than anyone on this podcast has been alive. Um. This 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.440 goes back to the Turner Diaries even pre that stuff. 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.400 This is in siege, um, and this is you know, 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:39.920 there has been very recently this summer a couple of 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:44.600 pieces of fairly well put together Nazi propaganda that was 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.280 advocating for people to carry out attacks like this. And 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.040 the reason is that it's easy and it's high impact. 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.960 It's very easy to funk up a power substation. All 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.400 you need is a gun, um, and it's very easy 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.160 to get away with it because most of them have 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.120 effectively zero security. Yeah, and it explained how to do 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.480 it as well, right, sorry, money like it. It was 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:08.480 literally a guide to fucking up the substation. Yeah, because 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:10.440 they're specific, We're not going to give you guys a 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.200 guide to fucking up power substations on this podcast. But 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:19.200 it's not hard. Yeah, that's next week. It's on the Patreon. 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.920 You go on Patreon. That's that's the Patreon special episode, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.240 how to Destroy power Infrastructure for fun and Profit. No, 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.880 but I thin think too. If you're trying to propagandize 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.880 people to take action, you know, we've all seen plenty 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.680 of manifestoes from people who carried out mass shootings trying 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.599 to propagandize people to take action in that effect. Um, 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.360 But we've also seen the chats when somebody fails, right, 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:43.960 like if somebody doesn't get what they call it, you know, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.200 a high score. If somebody carries out a mass shooting 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:50.440 that doesn't result in very many debts, it's embarrassing for them. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:54.640 But this is for the perpetrator, relatively low stakes. If 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.240 you fail, no one will know. If you miss, no 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.400 one will know. Um, if you hit the you know, 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:01.080 if you hit it, it just looks like vandalism and 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.000 the power doesn't go out. No one will know that 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.920 you failed, and you can try again later. You don't die. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:08.440 And that's Let's the title of one of the one 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.240 of the pieces of propaganda that I sent to you, right. 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.080 The title of it is make It Count, which is 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.880 an impredated form of a quote from Siege. I wish 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.200 it's a Nazi and I'm not going to read from 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.600 the general effect. The general gist of the quote is 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.359 that you know, the price of failure is death, So 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.560 whatever you choose to do, make it count. So this 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:34.960 is a way to relatively low stakes for the perpetrator, 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.680 way to have a very high impact with low risk 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.440 of personal failure. And what I did find and we'll 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.480 get off. We'll move to the broader topic in a second, 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.960 because I think focusing too much on the Nazis right 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.680 now is going to frame things the wrong way. But 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.240 one of the things I did find interesting about that 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.240 piece of propaganda was the acknowledgement of the introduction that like, 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.479 carrying out these mass shootings is not going to accomplish 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:58.720 our brother goals in part because people have gotten and 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:02.560 neared to them. Whereas destroying power infrastructure, if you can 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.599 funk up the grid, they believe that's going to like 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.800 and I think, obviously this is a silly line of thought, 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:10.880 but they think it's going to like lead to the 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:12.600 I mean, this is always what I think it's going 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:14.440 to lead to, like the race war that they want, right, 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.840 That's that's the thinking there would be in that equation. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.120 Isn't like a two B two C like this question 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:24.000 mark question mark race war. Yeah, they're Nazis, you know 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.920 they're Nazis. They're not right about things. But the the 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.039 fact that all this propaganda is out there, the fact 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.160 they've been talking about this so long, is part of 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.520 why everyone is convinced that like there's this massive new 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.240 insurgency that's just broken out and that that's what all 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:41.800 of these attacks are, which doesn't mean that none of 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:44.520 them are. Um. It's also worth noting that the year 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:48.480 before this happened in the same state in North Carolina, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.040 a group of Nazis were arrested by the FEDS for 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.440 trying to attack power infrastructure, and they also had plans 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.240 on the Pacific Northwest, where there have been in Washington 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:01.960 Portland attacks on some power infrastructure. They also they're also 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:05.480 just so happens to be a lot of Nazis here, 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.920 both the Carolinas and the Pacific and the Pacific Northwest 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.920 are home to a lot of people who self describe 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:18.080 as like militant neo Nazi accelerationists. And what I think 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:19.960 we should do now before we get too much off 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.280 this and we can return to this topic, is talk 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.480 about the fact that, and this is kind of the 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.400 important context, a lot of people who aren't Nazis funk 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.280 up electrical grids all the time. It's actually very easy, 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:37.160 and people seem to just enjoy it. American I think 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.880 there's there's there's been a lot of missteps people have 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.920 taken in talking about this, and kind of you know, 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.200 some people have gotten scared and kind of you know, 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:51.360 uh not not looked at this uh fully analytically in 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.280 a way that is actually really helpful, because there's been 0:07:54.320 --> 0:08:00.280 a lot of kind of retrospective misinformation going around on 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.600 attacks that have happened in the past few months that 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.640 I've only really gotten reported on or noticed in the 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:08.760 wake of the North Carolina attack, which is kind of 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.200 caused this narrative to come out that since the North 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.840 Carolina attack, there's been like a bajillion of other other 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:20.120 attacks happening in quick succession, which actually isn't true. So 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.240 that's I first, I want to talk about the types 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.440 of stuff that is that people are generally getting wrong 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.360 about this because it's a good a good deal. People 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:33.080 are are are misunderstanding some some of what's going on here. Um. 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.880 So there was this you know, pretty pretty viral uh 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.800 story made by a new station in Florida that came 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.360 out a few days ago talking about how it's all 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:49.160 caps substations targeted reports shows intrusions that Duke Energy power 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.199 stations in Tampa Bay and elsewhere in Florida, so very 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.760 scary obviously because Duke Energy is also the place in 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.520 North Carolina that was attacked founded by the guy who 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:03.920 invented the modern cigarette, by the way, Bay based. Yes, 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.679 but if you if you look, if you look at 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.360 the actual story, these intrusions that they're talking about happened 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.719 last September. They did not. They did not happen a 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.920 few days ago. And then also similarly, for the first time, 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.319 there was reporting on a whole bunch of substation attacks 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.520 in the Pacific Northwest. That reporting was dropped after the 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:30.840 North Carolina attacks, in part because a memo was was 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:32.520 was posted by a few different news sites that they 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.040 probably did open records requests in the wake of the 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.640 North Carolina attack, they found this memo, reported on it, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.560 and now people have this, you know, have learned about 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.839 this other thing that happened in November. So but people 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.160 who don't, who are really only looking at headlines or 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:50.520 only looking at tweets, um or posts wherever, right, uh, 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.000 they look at these attacks and they look at, you know, 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.679 the succession of them becoming public after the North Carolina thing, 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:58.800 and they're kind of drawing this narrative that these things 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:00.800 have happened one after another and it's part of this 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.840 brand new wave of things, and it is part of 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.080 a wave of things and like the broad sense, but 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.280 it's not all happened within the past two weeks. So 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.800 the first thing is like, when it's super easy for 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.960 a disinformation and misinformation to spread very rampantly in the 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.880 aftermath of these types of attacks UM, and these types 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.160 of incidents, you know, some of these probably are not 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:30.720 attacks UM, And it's really easy to kind of glom 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.200 onto an arative that's compelling and scary, and if you 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.200 just dig it a little a little bit deeper, deeper, 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.400 you'll realize there's a whole bunch of context that you're missing. 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.200 So that's always an important first step when the when 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.640 these things are happening. Yeah, and it's part of the 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:45.360 part of the story here. I think part of why 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.840 it's important to understand that, like the surgeon, attacks on 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.240 power infrastructure is a thing, but it's not necessarily tied 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.280 to the fact that Nazis are attacking the power infrastructure, 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:58.040 is that like it's easy to do, it's easy to 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.120 do casually, and this has been known for a while. 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.840 About a decade ago, two dozen thirteen, there was an 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.000 attack in the Bay Area on I think was it 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:12.000 was it to power substations. Um, yeah, the Metcalf sniper. 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.319 And we don't know how many people were involved, but suspected, 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.520 it's it's it's it's suspected more than one. Yes, yes, sniper. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.880 And this was a very if if this was a 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.679 practice attack, a training attack, then it was a very 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.679 effectively carried out one. Because we still don't know who 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.280 did it and regardless of the mode of this incidence 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:35.240 of has been mythologized in a lot of extremist circles 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.840 as like an example of here's a successful thing that 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.160 is replicable and you can get away with it. This 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.960 is this is one of the most highly referenced incidents 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:50.079 of infrastructure attack on you know, across you know, whether 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:54.319 you're like anti Siev bloodite or whether you're a neo 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:59.680 Nazi accelerationist. This is, this specific attack is highly referenced. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.080 And we'll circle back to this towards the end. But 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.920 because I'm going to quote from a recent report by 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:09.439 the George Washington University on power substation attacks. Um, they are, 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.920 they are extremely common. They are they are becoming increasingly 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.280 common since white supremacists are not the only ones who 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.880 do them. They were also from from nineteen, A whole 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:26.880 bunch of ISIS inspired terrorism also hit UM substations across 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.679 the United States. They are they are, They're not exclusively 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:35.560 done by white supremacists, and there's also sometimes they're just 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:41.040 shot at by random people with guns. And let's be honest. 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.000 So the Metcalf attack, it's not impossible that it was 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.280 just an un usually lucky group of ye who's who 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:52.240 wanted to shoot some power infrastructure we have I think 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:57.160 the number of rounds fired directly in yeah, no, unlikely. 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.400 Almost every intelligence agency will disagree with you on that, Robert. 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.480 You know what they didn't catch. They didn't catch ship. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.440 But to Robert's point, I think I think there is 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.240 some value in remembering that a drunk guy in the 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.880 woods might love to fire a gun at something that's 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.360 gonna sparks. Shoot a gun, you might as well shoot 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.480 it a lot. No, I I probably wouldn't shoot it 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:22.960 two times that it was very It was it was 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.600 very anyway, I there is we and we talked about 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:28.400 this a bit in our planning. There was one attack 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.679 and Molly, you probably could recall a year better than 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:32.160 I was. But it was a couple of years ago 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.800 where the guy attacked the power substation because he and 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.400 he talked about this at length in his trial. He 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.600 thought people were on their phones too much. So I said, 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:47.679 I sent this one to you. I loved. I love 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.600 to find a court record. I'd love to spend all 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.199 my all my pocket change on pacer and they give 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.320 me access to the law library. So I spent all 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:59.000 day today, UM, looking for any case we're not not 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.360 just charge? Where can PICCTI of any case where UM 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:06.480 USC eighteen USC thirteen sixty six was brought up? So 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.480 thirteen sixty six is the federal statute for damaging or 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.800 conspiring to damage and energy facility. And so energy facility 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:18.480 means power lines, power substations, coal mines, nuclear facilities, any 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:20.840 place where power is made. Right, So it's a pretty 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.200 broad statute. And so I looked up a few dozen 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.840 cases where that was on the table to sort of 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:29.480 bring the temperature down and say, like, okay, aside from 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:31.680 Nazis trying to cause a race war, what are some 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.880 other things that lead to somebody getting charged with this? 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:40.360 Other motivations, other scenarios. UM. In that case was Jason 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:46.520 wood Ring, UM. Jason wood Ring in August he tried 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.800 to use a This is a quote from some news 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.200 coverage the time tried to last. So a train with 0:14:53.320 --> 0:15:02.640 a cable attached to a high voltage tower. Critical support. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:13.880 He is still in prison, right, distracted by their screens, 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.600 by their phones, by their gaming, and he just wanted 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.480 people to remember what's important. So he tried to locker 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:25.080 train with high voltage wire. Now I probably, yeah, we 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.320 probably don't need to add this. He was a big 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:34.040 enthusiast of methamphetamy, has ordered substance abuse treatment, and we 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.240 wish him nothing but the best, right, I think he's 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.840 going to be just fine. But so I found some 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.960 other cases where there was an intentional attack with the 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.000 you know, with the stated intention of bringing down the grid, 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:51.600 but for like non Nazi reasons. In the early two thousand's, UM, 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.160 a bunch of E l F activists were charged with 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:59.240 thirteen sixty six for arsons to energy facilities. UM, this 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.360 is an odd. In twenty nineteen, a guy named Stephen 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:07.440 McCrae was sentenced for attacking one substation by shooting out 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.520 the cooling fins, and as part of his plea agreement, 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.480 he admitted to three other attacks. UM. He got caught 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:15.440 because he told a friend of his that he'd been 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:22.000 shooting ship up. I was concerned and went to the FBI, 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:26.080 and they had his friend record some of their cosends 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.840 and so he said things like he stated motive was 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:35.000 attacking corporate America so some couldn't be done about global warming. 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.320 He wasn't noted as an environmental activist, but he was 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.400 concerned about the corporations, which I don't know that Alex 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:52.760 Jones code in language globalists from a couple of different places. Yeah, listen, people, maybe, 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.960 but he right before his arrest, he told his friend 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.840 that he was planning a grand daddy event that would 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:03.200 make national news and shut down the whole West coast. Okay, okay, 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:11.320 that's maybe. That's sometimes you can't don't tell that to 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.800 your friend, yeah, or anyone. Your friend is still snitching 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.040 and that sucks, but like, don't don't tell that to 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:23.120 your Although, according to the euro of Prisons innate locator, 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.159 which is another tool I really enjoy, he was released 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:32.879 in September. That's yeah. This I think it helps to 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.879 make the point that like this is not all are 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.960 mostly Nazis doing this kind of thing. A lot of 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.399 people wanted to think to make about the you know 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.480 these sort of I found a third case that sort 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.639 of fits the same pattern, a guy who shot out 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.720 a transformer for reasons I can't quite discern based on 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:52.240 the court rhylings. But again, in all three of these cases, 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.399 the Miles Maynard case in Alabama in two thousand eight, 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:59.000 Jason woodreyeen, Stephen McCrae in twenty nine, they all had 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:03.639 court order psyche valves, and in mccraye's case there were 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.439 questions about his compensy to stand trial. Miles Miles Maynard 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.760 died shortly after being released from prison. These are people 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.240 who were not well. Yeah, not that not that being 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.320 unwell or having a sub problem make you shoot a substation. 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.440 But these aren't explicitly ideological. These are people who just 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.120 got an idea in their head and didn't control it. Well. Yeah, 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:26.320 And I think part of when you're kind of looking 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.480 at just any of these attacks, you're trying to discern 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.480 as stuff pops into the news, is this likely part 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:37.080 of an insurgent trend? Or is this like some dudes 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.680 fucking around? One of them would be like, what was 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.919 the how much like how much effort and planning? Does 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.119 it look like when into the Metcalf attack, looks like 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.680 quite a lot. I would say the most recent Portland's 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.520 and Washington attacks, given the extent to which there were breakings, 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.600 looked like it was very a lot of steps had 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.000 to had to go in. So let's have an ad 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.760 break and then we'll go into some more actual details 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:01.879 of the North Carolina attack and some of the Pacific 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:06.080 Northwest ones, and then kind of circle back to why 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.919 people are talking about accelerationism so much. You know who 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:15.119 loves planning a series of infrastructure attacks. The sponsors of 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:20.919 this show, attacks on the infrastructure of your wallet. We're bulk, 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:24.040 and nothing that we said before the break can legally 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.480 be called incitement. Um, it's a joke. It's fine. So 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.239 now we're gonna we're gonna talk a little bit more 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.000 about the details of the North Carolina attack and some 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.639 of the attacks in the Pacific Northwest, and yeah, just 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:39.480 getting get into some more of the actual details that 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.119 have been going on with these most recent attacks that 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:45.200 have kind of caused people to speculate on various things. 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.920 So the agencies involved in investigating the North Carolina More 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:55.119 County attack have disclosed very little information about what's happened. UH, 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.240 They've they've said that the equipment was hit by gunfire 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.439 and that the shooters appeared to know what they were doing. UH. 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:05.480 Investigators have found nearly two dozen shell casings from high 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:12.200 powered rifles in the area around and people lost power 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.639 and UH that power outage lasted for like at least 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.960 five days, as as the company tried to replace these 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.320 very large pieces of equipment, many of which were damaged 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:28.600 beyond repair. So investigators are zoning in on two threads 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:33.960 of possible motives centered around extremist behavior for the for 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.440 the for the attack that happened last last Sunday. One 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.000 of these one of these is writings by extremists on 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:46.000 online forms encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure, as well as 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:49.720 a series of recent disruptions of LGBTQ plus events across 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.959 the nation by domestic extremists, according to law enforcement sources 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.680 disclosed to CNN. So these these are the two things 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:02.080 that people are looking into. Initial UH speculation, like of 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.680 the night of the shooting, centered on right wing backlash 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:07.440 towards a drag show that was set to be held 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.600 that same day at a nearby theater. The drag show 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.879 was shut down as it was going on because the 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.520 power went out. Um, and there was a local a 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.520 local activist made some cryptic comments on their Facebook and 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:26.240 they then received a police visit the police about it. 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:31.440 I also like that the this person who who made 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:36.600 these cryptic posts, um, was also an Army psychological operations officer, 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:47.520 so they literally worked in pop. Yeah, like her job 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:51.080 was psyops. And this was the person that that that 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:53.760 posted about this big tied to the drag Show. So 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.840 take that as as you will. Um. This person's group 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:03.440 earlier that day had had a protest uh involving armed 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.480 individuals in military gear to to you know, push back 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:11.760 against the uh the Drag Show. So but but yeah, 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.560 So those are the two threads investigators are looking into. 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:20.359 Is one accelerationist rhetoric and writings that have gotten more 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.960 popular the past few years. And then two maybe connected 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:26.800 to this wave of of of like anti queer stuff. 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:32.920 Let's see, um. One what what One interesting kind of 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.440 thing of note is that three weeks before this attack, 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.280 another substation was deliberately disabled in eastern and North Carolina. 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.720 This this this attack happened on Friday, November eleventh. It 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.879 shut down electricity for about twelve thousand homes and businesses. 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:52.399 Power was restored in a few hours, though this one, 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.200 this one was easier to fix. UM In a statement 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:57.440 posted on the company's website for a few days after 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:01.960 the incident, UH they described it as vandalism, and the 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:05.040 company said that vandal's quote damaged transformers, causing them to 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:09.240 leak cool into oil. But the statement does not explicitly 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.240 say what the method was. Yeah, and this is again 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:14.879 not uncommon, because you're trying to like find people who 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:17.399 might have Like that's part of how you can like 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:19.840 make a case against people is if you can prove 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.440 they know details of the case that aren't publicly possible, 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:24.320 Like there's a reason why they're not going to say 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:26.800 what caliber the weapon is or whatever. Yeah, they did 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.200 say it wasn't the same as the one used in 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:33.560 the Metcalf attack, which was seven six too short. So yes, 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.399 but the gun that was used on the December North 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.640 Carolina attack was different than the case. Things found at 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:45.959 at the doesn't mean much. That does not mean much 0:23:45.960 --> 0:23:48.400 at all. I know there was a lot of initial 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:51.639 sort of anger and frustration over the use of the 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:55.280 word vandalism and the initial reporting um I think it's 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:57.920 fine to use that word because when you don't know 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:00.920 what happened, all you can see that happened is that 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:03.960 someone damaged property. We don't know the motivations behind it. 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:07.200 We don't know that they intended to knock outpower because, 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:09.680 like we said, sometimes people in the woods just shoot 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:13.080 it ship because it's it's funny. So I think it's 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:15.480 fair to not want to use that word. But I 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:18.280 think in initial reporting, especially from authorities, especially from people 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:21.359 who could give suit reliable later down the line, the 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:26.000 word vandalism is not incorrect. No, and it's this is 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:28.920 like I think, if you're at if you want to 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:31.840 know like what would immediately set some someone off, that 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:34.520 like something is likely not vandalism or the Metcalf attack 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:38.480 is good because so much was fired at the transformer. 0:24:38.960 --> 0:24:41.280 I would say if like a thing that would make 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:43.040 me think maybe this is just some you who sucking 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:45.760 around is if it's thirty rounds are less fired and 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:50.320 there's no attempt to actually break onto the facility kind 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:55.920 of a standard capacity magazine. Which the reason why because 0:24:55.920 --> 0:24:59.600 because the North Carolina attack in December did not have 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:02.760 any rounds. But the reason why it isn't we do 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:06.760 know it's intentional. Is two substations were hit. Um like 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:09.840 like one person hit one, then travel and went to another. 0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:11.560 It was like, I just seem like a lot of 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:14.200 a lot of people sort of expressing this outrage. But 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:16.720 you know is we're trying these other instance to it, 0:25:16.760 --> 0:25:18.520 you know, the ones in Florida, the ones in Pacific Northwest. 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:21.439 When we have very little information, it's okay to call 0:25:21.480 --> 0:25:24.440 it vandalism because that's the baseline, right that you don't 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:27.399 have to if you start using terrorism for every minor incident, 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:29.840 it it dilutes it. It's not helpful. It creates the 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:33.639 steria I just wanted to on the table. I mean, 0:25:33.760 --> 0:25:39.280 like so even in like November, the FBI was issuing 0:25:39.800 --> 0:25:44.919 warnings of of of reported threats to electricity infrastructure by 0:25:45.000 --> 0:25:50.040 people espousing racially or ethnically motivated extreme ideologies to quote 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:54.440 create civil disorder and inspire further violence. So FBI was 0:25:54.480 --> 0:25:59.520 sending bulletins to to private industry um multiple times in 0:25:59.560 --> 0:26:02.240 the past two months. There's been a lot of bulletins 0:26:02.280 --> 0:26:04.760 being sent out, which is I think part of why 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:07.479 this in the aftermath of the attacks, with all these 0:26:07.520 --> 0:26:10.440 public record requests and more reporting on it where people 0:26:10.480 --> 0:26:12.520 are realizing how much of a thing this actually is. 0:26:13.359 --> 0:26:16.440 Um I think and and and a tax with these 0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:21.200 on on substations or other power grain infrastructure are definitely 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:23.440 more common than what you might think, and do seem 0:26:23.520 --> 0:26:25.840 to be increasing in frequency on in the in the 0:26:25.920 --> 0:26:29.879 broad sense, and some of some of them are certainly 0:26:30.280 --> 0:26:32.760 have as we know from arrest that have taken place, 0:26:33.160 --> 0:26:36.600 are part of decentralized right wing attempts at an insurrection. 0:26:36.680 --> 0:26:40.680 That's not wrong to say, it's just the problem is 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:44.359 larger and more complicated than that, and to some extent 0:26:44.560 --> 0:26:46.480 it's a problem of like like I I would, I 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:48.880 would be shocked if part of the explanation for why 0:26:49.000 --> 0:26:52.240 this is happening so much more is not that Americans 0:26:52.280 --> 0:26:54.879 have a shipload of guns and during the pandemic people 0:26:54.960 --> 0:26:58.840 were bored and kind of going crazy, like you know, 0:26:59.040 --> 0:27:01.760 people have no chill. Yeah, they have no chill. They're 0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:03.520 stuck at home and you're out in the middle of 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:05.480 nowhere and it's easy to do and you want to 0:27:05.520 --> 0:27:08.640 see something spark. That's part of the problem, right, yeah, 0:27:08.680 --> 0:27:12.040 I mean, and they have an increasing since there's uh, 0:27:12.680 --> 0:27:16.879 there were seventy reports of emergency every electric incidents and 0:27:16.960 --> 0:27:21.600 disturbances caused by suspected physical attacks, sabotage or vandalism from 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:28.760 January to August two UM. That figure represents increase around 0:27:29.200 --> 0:27:33.320 reports in which is the first year that there's comparable 0:27:33.440 --> 0:27:36.760 data for, and it's it's also worth really noting that 0:27:36.960 --> 0:27:40.160 there is and was. As soon as this happened in Metcalf, 0:27:41.680 --> 0:27:44.560 suggestions were made as to a really easy way to 0:27:44.680 --> 0:27:47.119 make it harder to do this, which would not be 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:50.240 wildly expensive, which is to put sandbags in front of 0:27:50.280 --> 0:27:53.800 the coolant systems, which will block most conventional rounds. And 0:27:53.840 --> 0:27:59.080 at that point, yeah, not not hard to accomplish, and 0:27:59.160 --> 0:28:01.600 it would also let you know anyone who is going 0:28:01.760 --> 0:28:08.840 to get around those sandbags ideologically committed, right whatever. You 0:28:10.200 --> 0:28:11.800 And the reason why there is so many of these 0:28:11.840 --> 0:28:15.480 attacks is because a lot of these very important pieces 0:28:15.600 --> 0:28:19.240 of infrastructure are highly visible and really only protected by 0:28:19.240 --> 0:28:21.920 a chanie link fence. So in a lot of cases, 0:28:22.280 --> 0:28:24.760 an attack can be carried out without even entering any 0:28:24.840 --> 0:28:27.960 kind of restricted grounds. You can point a gun through 0:28:27.960 --> 0:28:30.959 a channe link fence and and do the thing. I mean, 0:28:31.160 --> 0:28:34.320 you can be yeah, hundreds of yards away, right, It's 0:28:34.400 --> 0:28:37.399 very like a three oh eight. You could be easily 0:28:37.520 --> 0:28:39.880 several hundred yards away, out of the range of any camera, 0:28:39.960 --> 0:28:41.880 and you could take enough pot shots to destroy it. 0:28:41.920 --> 0:28:44.000 It has that kind of penetrative power A thirty at 0:28:44.080 --> 0:28:48.440 six you know, yeah, not hunting, right, whether your granddad 0:28:48.520 --> 0:28:52.840 has you know, yeah, anyone who shoots elk regularly could 0:28:52.880 --> 0:28:56.160 do this, you know, without any without without any realistic 0:28:56.240 --> 0:28:59.480 way of catching them if you're out in a rural area. 0:29:00.040 --> 0:29:02.240 I'm kind of shocked that these people actually didn't, like 0:29:02.400 --> 0:29:05.800 in terms of like, I don't know, like there's there's 0:29:05.880 --> 0:29:08.440 this we can talk about this later. But obviously the 0:29:08.560 --> 0:29:11.239 area they're in has a very high concentration of very 0:29:11.320 --> 0:29:14.520 heavily trained people in unconventional warfare. But oh yes we 0:29:14.560 --> 0:29:17.120 should that isn't that is a factor in North Carolina 0:29:17.480 --> 0:29:20.320 that all of this is occurring on the outskirts of 0:29:20.440 --> 0:29:23.520 Fort Bragg, and a year ago people who were active 0:29:23.600 --> 0:29:26.560 duty Marines attempted to carry out a similar attack, and 0:29:26.680 --> 0:29:29.480 we're not Do we want to talk about a little 0:29:29.520 --> 0:29:34.480 bit about that, specifically about Robin Sage. Yeah, yeah, I 0:29:34.560 --> 0:29:36.960 think it's relevant, certainly, Like the first thing I thought 0:29:37.040 --> 0:29:39.320 when I thought about this area was like, oh, ship, 0:29:39.440 --> 0:29:42.400 that's right by Southern Pines. I think maybe the show 0:29:42.520 --> 0:29:45.080 was supposed to happen in Seven Pines, which is kind 0:29:45.120 --> 0:29:49.080 of central to the United States Army Special Forces community, 0:29:49.240 --> 0:29:53.000 and a few times a year there, people newly qualifying 0:29:53.840 --> 0:29:57.600 to be SF soldiers will do an exercise called Robin Sage. 0:29:58.040 --> 0:30:02.680 It's it's military LARPing. Yeah, well like the terms. Yeah, yes, 0:30:02.920 --> 0:30:06.160 it's the military doing laughing, but also not the military, right, 0:30:06.240 --> 0:30:09.120 So like people I'm sure will be familiar, and people 0:30:09.120 --> 0:30:11.320 who enjoy Twitter dot com will be familiar in the 0:30:11.440 --> 0:30:15.160 fact that the United States have sometimes helped rebel movements 0:30:15.240 --> 0:30:17.320 across the world to overthrow a government. So it's the 0:30:17.360 --> 0:30:20.120 thing that it likes to do. It's yeah, it's shocking 0:30:20.400 --> 0:30:23.400 that the yeah, they every revolution, in fact has been 0:30:23.440 --> 0:30:26.640 fermented by the United States and the CIA specifically because 0:30:26.680 --> 0:30:30.440 people can't think for themselves, and so they what they 0:30:30.520 --> 0:30:33.600 do in Robin stage is they practice training a rebel 0:30:33.640 --> 0:30:37.640 movement that's comprised of civilians, right or untrained fighters. So 0:30:38.080 --> 0:30:40.800 these people will go out in small teams in phil 0:30:41.000 --> 0:30:43.239 and then they'll meet a bunch of people who are 0:30:43.280 --> 0:30:45.800 not soldiers. They might be former soldiers, they might be 0:30:45.880 --> 0:30:49.200 local volunteers, there might be people from the area, um 0:30:49.720 --> 0:30:51.719 and they will train them for a few days, right, 0:30:51.840 --> 0:30:53.680 just like they would if they were actually training up 0:30:53.720 --> 0:30:55.880 like a gorilla army, and then they'll do a simulated 0:30:55.880 --> 0:30:59.680 attack which you might recognize us potentially a bad idea, 0:31:00.760 --> 0:31:03.480 which which we now might be seeing as an issue 0:31:03.520 --> 0:31:07.200 because someone someone didn't attack. So like you have in 0:31:07.280 --> 0:31:11.040 that area a ton of SF troops, right, and who 0:31:11.360 --> 0:31:15.160 span the political spectrum, and a ton of randos who 0:31:15.200 --> 0:31:18.600 have been trained by SF troops in guerrilla warfare, right. 0:31:18.680 --> 0:31:21.440 Unconventional warfare is what they call it. And if you 0:31:21.520 --> 0:31:25.080 were doing unconventional warfare, this would be a very effective 0:31:25.080 --> 0:31:27.360 thing to do, right. That's why there's been this massive 0:31:27.400 --> 0:31:30.400 panic about cyber attacks on the grid, especially since the 0:31:30.440 --> 0:31:32.960 start of the war in Ukraine. Very funny we panicked 0:31:33.000 --> 0:31:34.840 about cyber attacks from the fact you could just go 0:31:34.960 --> 0:31:37.200 shoot it. You don't need to be that complex. But 0:31:37.600 --> 0:31:40.520 that's right, it's a weak point and and you would 0:31:40.640 --> 0:31:43.840 know that if you've been practicing unconventional warfare, and so 0:31:44.320 --> 0:31:47.720 like this happening in this very specific area kind of 0:31:47.800 --> 0:31:50.840 racing flags from me. It's not super weird that this 0:31:51.040 --> 0:31:53.120 is the second time in the course of a year 0:31:53.240 --> 0:31:56.120 that there's been an attempt or successful attack on North 0:31:56.200 --> 0:32:00.440 Carolina power infrastructure. Right, Like, it's not supplied, it's this 0:32:00.640 --> 0:32:04.440 is this is at the very least the DHS is 0:32:04.840 --> 0:32:08.160 not surprised about this. Earlier this year, they've they have 0:32:08.240 --> 0:32:11.280 issued many alerts warning that domestic rylan extremists are gonna 0:32:11.440 --> 0:32:14.320 are are planning to target the power grid. UM in 0:32:14.440 --> 0:32:16.920 February three people like to plead guilty, which we already 0:32:16.960 --> 0:32:21.480 talked about. UM, there was those people arrested in Idaho. 0:32:22.000 --> 0:32:26.080 They were planning attacks on on power stations and highlighting, 0:32:26.240 --> 0:32:31.400 highlighting locations of transformers and other substations and other power 0:32:31.400 --> 0:32:34.000 infrastructure and planning to take them out and then using 0:32:34.000 --> 0:32:36.760 the black oats to go do other crimes, including assassinating 0:32:37.080 --> 0:32:41.320 ideological opponents. So like, there's there's been a lot of 0:32:41.800 --> 0:32:44.240 there's been a lot of extra focus on people's plans 0:32:44.320 --> 0:32:48.400 to do infrastructure attacks and uh, you know plans on like, hey, 0:32:48.520 --> 0:32:50.240 this seems like a problem, and people have been talking 0:32:50.240 --> 0:32:53.200 about it more because it does seem to there isn't 0:32:53.240 --> 0:32:58.480 at least increasingly high, high high profile cases UM and 0:32:58.680 --> 0:33:00.480 at least in the case of this past one in 0:33:00.560 --> 0:33:04.240 North Carolina. The d the DHS is currently saying that 0:33:04.480 --> 0:33:08.400 it does appear to be deliberate UM and they're they're 0:33:08.440 --> 0:33:11.080 investigating to see if it's if it is tied to 0:33:11.160 --> 0:33:15.520 ideological motives UM. But again it's it is worth emphasizing 0:33:15.560 --> 0:33:17.920 that not all of these things are are these types 0:33:17.960 --> 0:33:20.320 of incidents. Think an example of something that I think 0:33:20.360 --> 0:33:25.160 has been misreported on is this recent attack or it's 0:33:25.360 --> 0:33:27.720 not an attack, but it's been reported as an attack 0:33:27.760 --> 0:33:31.600 in South Carolina UM on December seventh, there was an 0:33:31.600 --> 0:33:34.800 individual in a truck that opened fire near a a 0:33:34.880 --> 0:33:38.360 Dooke Energy facility. UM employees witnessed this truck pull up. 0:33:39.160 --> 0:33:42.280 It was around five thirty pm UH. This guy opened 0:33:42.320 --> 0:33:44.280 fire and what appeared to be a long gun and 0:33:44.280 --> 0:33:47.680 then sped away. No one was hurt, there was no outages, 0:33:48.000 --> 0:33:52.520 there was no reported property damage. UM and currently sheriffs 0:33:52.560 --> 0:33:55.360 are saying that this was that this was a completely 0:33:55.680 --> 0:33:58.560 random act that was that wasn't even targeted at the 0:33:58.600 --> 0:34:01.720 power station. They said that the only connection between this 0:34:01.840 --> 0:34:05.600 shooting and the power station was their proximity. This wasn't 0:34:05.640 --> 0:34:08.520 an actual attack on a power station. Is this just 0:34:08.640 --> 0:34:11.040 a coincidence? But because this was a few days after 0:34:11.080 --> 0:34:13.839 this attack in North Carolina, people can read headlines about 0:34:14.160 --> 0:34:16.680 someone shooting outside of power station in South Carolina and 0:34:16.760 --> 0:34:18.839 get turned into this big thing and you're like, that's 0:34:18.840 --> 0:34:20.400 actually not what's going on. You need to look a 0:34:20.440 --> 0:34:24.040 little bit closer. Similarly with this stuff in Florida. Uh, 0:34:24.239 --> 0:34:27.320 you know, there's been a lot of retroactively, you know, 0:34:27.560 --> 0:34:32.080 trying to apply this this this accelerationist idea onto those 0:34:32.200 --> 0:34:37.279 onto those instances as well, when there's simply not the evidence. Yeah, 0:34:37.840 --> 0:34:40.160 it's um. One of the things you have to, like, 0:34:40.360 --> 0:34:42.960 as talking about the fat the folks who are like 0:34:43.520 --> 0:34:46.960 insurrection ary, one of the force multipliers they have is 0:34:47.000 --> 0:34:49.800 that the United States has a tremendous amount of people 0:34:49.840 --> 0:34:53.840 who are just assholes and have guns, um, and that 0:34:53.960 --> 0:34:57.160 that's just their own guns, guns they stole from the military. 0:34:57.400 --> 0:35:00.279 That that is also a factor specific. A lot of 0:35:00.680 --> 0:35:02.759 James point about the proximity to Fort Bragg though you 0:35:02.800 --> 0:35:06.040 know Fort Bragg and Campbell June obviously different branch of 0:35:06.040 --> 0:35:07.840 the military, different parts of the state of North Carolina. 0:35:07.880 --> 0:35:09.239 But you know, there was that attack last month. It 0:35:09.280 --> 0:35:10.840 was near Camp ll June. We have the Camp La 0:35:10.920 --> 0:35:14.520 June cell that was wrapped up. They're actually still awaiting 0:35:14.600 --> 0:35:18.120 trial on the third superseding indictment. And they were stealing guns, right, 0:35:18.200 --> 0:35:21.280 or at least that's how they got cans from the military. 0:35:21.320 --> 0:35:27.239 The initial indictment was for illegal for trafficking any illegal guns. Yeah. Yeah, 0:35:27.400 --> 0:35:30.040 the marine caught lost a ton of plastic explosive at 0:35:30.080 --> 0:35:34.640 twenty nine palms last year as well, like a very 0:35:34.760 --> 0:35:40.000 large amount, which is is concerning, Yeah, a startling quantity 0:35:40.080 --> 0:35:43.360 of high explosives. Right, And so I was combing cantors 0:35:43.400 --> 0:35:46.560 for anything mentioning Fort Bragg looking for other cases related 0:35:46.600 --> 0:35:48.960 to this specific Geogho area because the More County is 0:35:49.400 --> 0:35:53.120 literally right outside Fort Brag, which is where the U. S. 0:35:53.200 --> 0:35:57.640 Army Special Horses um are are hanging out. And so 0:35:57.719 --> 0:35:59.520 this would not be the first time we had radicalized 0:35:59.560 --> 0:36:01.439 soldiers out to four Brag. I mean, you go back 0:36:01.600 --> 0:36:03.880 to the eighties, Michael Tubbs, a founding member of the 0:36:03.960 --> 0:36:06.480 League of the South, did his first terrorism when he 0:36:06.600 --> 0:36:10.160 and some other Special Forces buddies committed armed robbery of 0:36:10.360 --> 0:36:14.239 machine guns from the Army for the Clan with the 0:36:14.320 --> 0:36:17.840 intention of using them to start a race war. But 0:36:17.960 --> 0:36:21.760 then in August of this year, a Special Forces soldier 0:36:22.280 --> 0:36:26.320 named Killian Ryan was indicted for lying on his security 0:36:26.360 --> 0:36:30.280 clearance application. He had already been granted a security clearance. 0:36:30.320 --> 0:36:32.759 Mind you, he had been granted this clearance. Um, but 0:36:32.880 --> 0:36:35.759 it turns out he was a Nazi. I don't know 0:36:35.800 --> 0:36:38.560 how the security clearance process didn't catch the fact that 0:36:38.719 --> 0:36:43.160 his email address was Nazi ace fourteen eight at gmail 0:36:43.239 --> 0:36:52.960 dot com. That he catch that, and sometimes sometimes it's 0:36:53.120 --> 0:36:55.200 sometimes it's it's hard to check. You know, there's lots 0:36:55.239 --> 0:36:59.279 of civil mistakes that anyone could make. Anybody can make 0:36:59.320 --> 0:37:00.680 this kind of this thing. So you know, you see, 0:37:00.719 --> 0:37:03.120 this wasn't a surprise to DHS, and it shouldn't be. 0:37:03.440 --> 0:37:06.640 These are their mistakes. UM. I also did want to note, 0:37:06.680 --> 0:37:10.120 as we're talking about these Special Forces guys and the 0:37:10.200 --> 0:37:14.960 potential of them being radicalized, there's also Timothy McVeigh or well, 0:37:15.000 --> 0:37:18.880 Timothy McVeigh was regular army, Um, but he washed out 0:37:18.920 --> 0:37:22.120 a Special Forces. Yeah he didn't quite make it, um. 0:37:22.880 --> 0:37:29.400 But what's his name? Yeah? Um, yeah, there's this is 0:37:29.520 --> 0:37:33.359 this is like not a this is not an uncommon thing. 0:37:33.520 --> 0:37:36.680 I currently writing a story that includes a large section 0:37:36.840 --> 0:37:42.839 about a marine that tried to steal equipment, uh from 0:37:42.880 --> 0:37:46.839 military bases to then go do a mass shooting at 0:37:46.880 --> 0:37:51.000 a synagogue. Um. And this guy has what was a 0:37:51.080 --> 0:37:54.719 Nazi before he joined the Marines. He shot on the 0:37:54.760 --> 0:37:57.040 Marines until we figured out what's going on. We have 0:37:57.239 --> 0:38:00.120 got to shut this down until we figured out what's 0:38:00.120 --> 0:38:03.920 going on. Yeah, and you've got Eric Rudolph, the guy 0:38:04.000 --> 0:38:07.799 he's carried out the Olympic Park bombings in nineties six. 0:38:08.080 --> 0:38:10.719 Was was with the first Airborne Division. He was an 0:38:10.719 --> 0:38:14.160 air assault specialist. UM and he carried out the bombing 0:38:14.280 --> 0:38:16.480 of the Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, and then went 0:38:16.520 --> 0:38:19.640 on the run for months. I think, Yeah, and he 0:38:19.719 --> 0:38:22.200 was a Nazi by the way, Oh it was. He 0:38:22.320 --> 0:38:26.200 was on the run for a long time. He all 0:38:26.239 --> 0:38:28.920 the squirrel and nuting he did in the woods, yes, uh. 0:38:29.040 --> 0:38:30.759 And by the way, he carried out a number of 0:38:30.800 --> 0:38:33.839 other bombings, including a bomb he carried out a bombing 0:38:33.880 --> 0:38:35.920 of an abortion clinic. He carried out the bombing of 0:38:36.000 --> 0:38:39.160 a lesbian bar. We talked about this earlier this year 0:38:39.239 --> 0:38:43.839 on Yeah. We did part of one of our mini 0:38:43.960 --> 0:38:46.719 series we talked about this guy. We had we had 0:38:46.880 --> 0:38:49.960 we had a whole episode dedicated to him. I do 0:38:50.000 --> 0:38:52.200 want to briefly talk about some of the stuff happening 0:38:52.200 --> 0:38:54.719 in the Pacific Northwest as well, and how this ties 0:38:54.840 --> 0:38:57.320 in and how there is as opposed to some of 0:38:57.360 --> 0:38:59.800 the incidents that were like the incident in South Carolina. 0:39:00.000 --> 0:39:03.200 Stuff in the Pacific Northwest, while happening previous to the 0:39:03.360 --> 0:39:06.480 North Carolina attack, does seem to be deliberate um and 0:39:06.640 --> 0:39:09.880 has There has been some interesting pieces of information that 0:39:09.960 --> 0:39:12.320 have come out in the past few days. So the 0:39:12.480 --> 0:39:15.600 electrical grid has been physically attacked at least six times 0:39:15.760 --> 0:39:19.839 in Oregon and western Washington since mid November. Attackers used 0:39:19.840 --> 0:39:21.880 firearms and at least some of the incidents in both states, 0:39:22.160 --> 0:39:25.160 and some power customers in Oregon and Washington experienced at 0:39:25.239 --> 0:39:28.960 least brief service disruptions as a result of the attacks. 0:39:29.960 --> 0:39:33.280 Just two days before the North Carolina attacks, the FBI 0:39:33.640 --> 0:39:36.760 and Organs Tighten Fusion Center issued a memo that warned 0:39:36.840 --> 0:39:41.279 utilities about this about both these recent attacks and how 0:39:41.480 --> 0:39:44.439 there could be more of them, uh, saying quote. Power 0:39:44.480 --> 0:39:47.440 companies in Oregon Washington have reported physical attacks on substations 0:39:47.560 --> 0:39:53.040 using hand tools, arson, firearms, and metal chains, possibly in 0:39:53.160 --> 0:39:57.120 response to an online call for attacks on critical infrastructure. 0:39:57.800 --> 0:40:01.920 Uh continuing to say that in recent attacks, criminal actors 0:40:02.000 --> 0:40:05.760 by passed security fences by cutting the fence links, lighting 0:40:05.840 --> 0:40:09.320 nearby fires, shooting equipment from a distance, or throwing objects 0:40:09.360 --> 0:40:13.000 over the fence and on too. The equipment and the aim, 0:40:13.040 --> 0:40:17.120 according to memo is quote violent anti government criminal attack, 0:40:17.760 --> 0:40:20.279 which is kind of a catch all term that these 0:40:20.360 --> 0:40:23.959 people use for a whole bunch of kind of white 0:40:23.960 --> 0:40:27.719 supremacists affiliated accelerationist violence. It's kind of a silly term 0:40:28.200 --> 0:40:31.319 because these people really aren't anti government. They just they 0:40:31.400 --> 0:40:36.920 just want they're anti this government because they think this 0:40:37.000 --> 0:40:41.000 government is too liberal. Um. But but yeah, so there 0:40:41.080 --> 0:40:43.239 was there was an attack on a substation in Clackumus 0:40:43.360 --> 0:40:46.800 County on Thanksgiving morning. The power company calls this a 0:40:46.840 --> 0:40:50.279 deliberate physical attack. Um. This is the one where two 0:40:50.320 --> 0:40:53.319 people cut through fences and use firearms to shoot up 0:40:53.640 --> 0:40:57.520 and disabled numerous pieces of of equipment. A security specialist 0:40:57.560 --> 0:40:59.800 for the company wrote this kind of brief on it 0:41:00.200 --> 0:41:04.360 and and and has mentioned how that there are local 0:41:04.400 --> 0:41:07.360 people who are affiliated with you know, larger networks of 0:41:07.400 --> 0:41:10.719 extremist groups that have called for such attacks and have 0:41:10.840 --> 0:41:13.839 provided instructions on how to do these types of things 0:41:14.560 --> 0:41:17.239 UM and saying, quote, there's been a significant uptick in 0:41:17.320 --> 0:41:21.160 incidence of break ins related to copper and tool or 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:25.360 materials theft, but now we are dealing with quickly escalating 0:41:25.440 --> 0:41:28.960 incidents of sabotage. UM. So that's the kind of that 0:41:29.080 --> 0:41:32.480 that's that's the brief from the security security specialist who 0:41:32.520 --> 0:41:35.080 works at this power company. UM. Four days after that 0:41:35.120 --> 0:41:37.440 Thanksgiving morning attack, there was another incident at a Portland 0:41:37.480 --> 0:41:40.120 General Electric substation, also in the clack of this area. 0:41:40.280 --> 0:41:42.320 So these things happened pretty close to one another in 0:41:42.640 --> 0:41:44.840 the same county. Some of the same people were affected. 0:41:45.280 --> 0:41:47.880 A few details on this one have been released UM, 0:41:48.520 --> 0:41:51.000 but the PG and E team said that, quote, our 0:41:51.040 --> 0:41:53.200 teams have assessed the damage and have begun to repair 0:41:53.600 --> 0:41:57.560 the impacted facilities. Knocking out the lights is it can 0:41:57.680 --> 0:42:00.360 be an end goal, right that everyone it's it's darkness. 0:42:00.400 --> 0:42:04.280 Everyone's inconvenience, and there's an idea that you know, making 0:42:04.360 --> 0:42:08.520 things worse will help fence sitters radicalized towards towards the 0:42:08.640 --> 0:42:12.680 right and become acceleration as themselves. But the darkness, it's 0:42:12.719 --> 0:42:15.000 not its own end goal for some of these people, 0:42:15.040 --> 0:42:17.400 you know, in the the Campbella June cell in the 0:42:17.480 --> 0:42:20.600 Collins case, they specifically spelled out in some of their 0:42:20.600 --> 0:42:24.680 planning discussions that the darkness was stepped one. Once the 0:42:24.760 --> 0:42:28.560 lights were out, once infrastructure was damaged, the police were distracted, 0:42:28.600 --> 0:42:31.279 communications were down, people couldn't use their cell phones. They 0:42:31.280 --> 0:42:33.800 would use that period of chaos to carry out a 0:42:33.840 --> 0:42:38.000 series of targeted assassinations. And that's not a new idea either. UM. 0:42:38.080 --> 0:42:42.960 I found a case from the nineties even UM this 0:42:43.239 --> 0:42:46.239 case from the late nineties, the North American Militia, It 0:42:46.320 --> 0:42:50.200 was a splinter group from the Michigan Militia Wolverines Randy 0:42:50.280 --> 0:42:52.880 Graham and Ken Carter went down. In this case, UM, 0:42:53.560 --> 0:42:57.840 they were reconning targets including power stations, TV stations, and 0:42:57.920 --> 0:43:01.279 military based federal buildings, and their plan was to knock 0:43:01.320 --> 0:43:04.400 out communications and power and use that period of chaos 0:43:04.800 --> 0:43:07.440 to kill several federal judges and politicians. So this is 0:43:07.760 --> 0:43:09.840 a recurring theme. You know that this case was in 0:43:09.880 --> 0:43:11.360 the nineties, and then we have that recent case, the 0:43:11.400 --> 0:43:14.319 Collins case. Those guys haven't even been tried yet, UM, 0:43:14.719 --> 0:43:17.120 and the stated intention is to use that period of 0:43:17.200 --> 0:43:21.200 chaos to do additional crimes of terrorism. And I mean 0:43:21.440 --> 0:43:24.000 there has been more incidents that definitely do seem to 0:43:24.040 --> 0:43:26.600 be intentional, Like beyond the ones in Oregon, there was 0:43:26.680 --> 0:43:30.240 also ones in western Washington, UM that that included setting 0:43:30.239 --> 0:43:33.560 the control houses on fire force entry and sabotage of 0:43:33.680 --> 0:43:37.760 intricate electrical control systems, causing short circuits by tossing chains 0:43:37.920 --> 0:43:41.320 over the overhead bus work, and a ballistic attack with 0:43:41.440 --> 0:43:44.520 small caliber firearms. And so that's that's a lot of 0:43:44.560 --> 0:43:48.600 stuff going into uh of like like in terms of 0:43:49.200 --> 0:43:52.560 planning and preparation going into something that's happening. That's a 0:43:52.600 --> 0:43:55.600 perfect example. Yeah, And if you're, as a general rule, 0:43:55.640 --> 0:43:58.080 if you are encountering one of these stories and you're 0:43:58.080 --> 0:44:00.839 trying to determine should I put this in my head 0:44:00.840 --> 0:44:03.960 as something that is maybe part of something bigger or 0:44:04.080 --> 0:44:06.839 something that might be people fucking around? That's the kind 0:44:06.880 --> 0:44:09.120 of stuff to look for is like how much effort 0:44:09.200 --> 0:44:12.000 went into it, how elaborate was it? Does it seem 0:44:12.080 --> 0:44:14.200 like planning was involved? I would say Another thing is 0:44:14.280 --> 0:44:18.279 like does it seem is it timed for something like Thanksgiving? Right? 0:44:18.400 --> 0:44:20.960 Like it's not an accident that they picked Thanksgiving to 0:44:21.040 --> 0:44:24.239 attack a substation, because if you're trying to do something 0:44:24.320 --> 0:44:26.080 that's going to have an impact, doing it on a 0:44:26.160 --> 0:44:28.440 day like that where everybody's at home, people are and 0:44:28.480 --> 0:44:31.439 there's also a higher power draw in general, Like, there's 0:44:31.440 --> 0:44:33.360 a lot of reasons why someone would want to do that, 0:44:33.480 --> 0:44:36.319 but it all points towards this is something that's part 0:44:36.400 --> 0:44:40.440 of an organized set of actions, as opposed to the 0:44:40.560 --> 0:44:44.400 normal thing of Americans attacking their own power infrastructure for 0:44:44.480 --> 0:44:49.400 no good reason. Yeah, which we love to do. Do 0:44:49.719 --> 0:44:50.960 you do you know? Do you know what else we 0:44:51.080 --> 0:44:54.720 we love to do? Robert consume goods and services Gars, 0:44:55.120 --> 0:44:58.799 that's right, we love we love hogs and our hero 0:44:59.040 --> 0:45:03.040 based Lasso King would say that's part of the problem. Hey, 0:45:03.280 --> 0:45:07.399 we're back, all right, Garrison, take us, Take us home, 0:45:07.800 --> 0:45:13.480 which hopefully is not Fort Bragg. No, yeah, yeah, this 0:45:13.560 --> 0:45:18.320 podcast is run by the USA. Talk Yeah hopefully hopefully 0:45:18.400 --> 0:45:22.280 not so so. Yeah. The past year, we've seen federal 0:45:22.280 --> 0:45:24.920 authorities multiple times worn about these types of threats to 0:45:24.920 --> 0:45:29.799 critical infrastructure. There was a local bulletin posted in late 0:45:29.920 --> 0:45:33.280 November after the attacks in Oregon and Washington, UH saying 0:45:33.360 --> 0:45:37.680 that the targets of potential violence includes public gatherings, faith 0:45:37.719 --> 0:45:42.480 based institutions, l g B, t Q plus communities, UM schools, 0:45:42.920 --> 0:45:46.759 racial and religious minorities, government facilities and personnel, and US 0:45:46.840 --> 0:45:51.440 critical infrastructure. So it's it's definitely, it's definitely something that 0:45:51.520 --> 0:45:54.640 are the people are talking about more as incidents have 0:45:54.960 --> 0:45:58.359 have do do seem to be getting more common. Um, 0:45:58.640 --> 0:46:00.640 now I'm gonna I'm gonna gonna use some of the 0:46:00.840 --> 0:46:05.400 research from a not an article, but I guess not 0:46:05.520 --> 0:46:07.799 quite a study like this. Uh, I don't know how 0:46:07.840 --> 0:46:10.839 to describe it in an analysis piece. I guess from 0:46:10.880 --> 0:46:15.919 George Washington University's Program on Extremism entitled Mayhem a Murder 0:46:16.000 --> 0:46:20.440 and Misdirection Violent extremist attack plots against critical infrastructure in 0:46:20.480 --> 0:46:25.600 the United States. So since twenty nineteen, w spremacist attacks 0:46:26.320 --> 0:46:30.680 and plots against critical infrastructure. Uh, you do seem to 0:46:30.800 --> 0:46:36.120 have distinctly increased Between two White spermacis plots targeting energy 0:46:36.160 --> 0:46:41.279 systems dramatically increased in their frequency. Thirteen individuals associated with 0:46:41.840 --> 0:46:44.560 the overall White spermacist movement were arrested and charged in 0:46:44.640 --> 0:46:48.240 federal court with planning attacks on the energy sector. Eleven 0:46:48.320 --> 0:46:52.400 of these attack planners were charged after the rise of 0:46:52.440 --> 0:46:56.160 eccelorationist ideology and doctrine during the past decade did likely 0:46:56.400 --> 0:47:00.480 fuel these increased attacks UM within the white from assist 0:47:00.560 --> 0:47:03.279 mill use that are targeting critical infrastructure and and the 0:47:03.400 --> 0:47:06.759 energy sector in particular. So if if you look at 0:47:06.760 --> 0:47:10.080 the data from two if you look at ninety four 0:47:10.120 --> 0:47:13.840 cases of individuals who are alleged to have planned quote 0:47:13.920 --> 0:47:19.440 violent extremist attacks UH, fifty of those people identified as 0:47:19.440 --> 0:47:23.719 white supremacists, and thirty seven percent of those incidents involved 0:47:23.800 --> 0:47:29.640 some level of planning UH, specifically planning attacks on critical infrastructure. Now, 0:47:29.920 --> 0:47:35.320 six of those sixteen white supremacist plotters had discernible tangible 0:47:35.440 --> 0:47:39.319 connections to named groups and organizations like the base Attamwafen 0:47:39.400 --> 0:47:43.320 Division and the National Socialist Movement. And but and fourteen 0:47:43.440 --> 0:47:46.800 out of the sixteen people were known participants in a 0:47:46.960 --> 0:47:52.240 greater kind of online network that connects various like cells 0:47:52.440 --> 0:47:56.120 or even just aesthetic styles common among the neo Nazis 0:47:56.160 --> 0:48:00.640 accelerationist movement. So and one of the more kind of 0:48:00.960 --> 0:48:04.240 interesting data points is the number of white sermacist plots 0:48:04.280 --> 0:48:07.520 that are specifically focused on the energy sector relating to 0:48:07.800 --> 0:48:12.080 nuclear reactors, materials, UM with the waste sector and of 0:48:12.200 --> 0:48:16.600 course power substations. UH. There's thirteen thirteen cases of individuals 0:48:16.640 --> 0:48:19.960 who reportedly planned to conduct attacks on a variety of 0:48:20.320 --> 0:48:23.359 energy infrastructure, from small assaults on local on local power 0:48:23.440 --> 0:48:26.480 lines to potentially devastating attacks on power grids or even 0:48:26.560 --> 0:48:31.040 nuclear facilities and UH and those represent eight seven percent 0:48:31.160 --> 0:48:33.960 of the white sermacist related cases in which critical infstructure 0:48:34.000 --> 0:48:37.439 was targeted. So most of that is specifically on power 0:48:37.520 --> 0:48:40.239 grids like that's that is that is what these focus on. 0:48:40.840 --> 0:48:43.960 And the first case within this data point range of 0:48:43.960 --> 0:48:49.160 two UH dates back to seventeen when a former Florida 0:48:49.239 --> 0:48:53.239 National Guardsman and the founder of Adam Often Division was 0:48:53.320 --> 0:48:56.239 arrested in Florida and charged with UM, you know, a 0:48:56.400 --> 0:48:59.880 lawful possession of FLOS advices and floser materials. UH. They 0:49:00.920 --> 0:49:03.440 one of one of one of this guy's roommates, who 0:49:03.560 --> 0:49:07.960 was also a member of Adam Often told told jurors 0:49:08.040 --> 0:49:10.640 that this guy intended to target a number of different 0:49:10.640 --> 0:49:14.360 locations for explosive attacks using this material, including a Jewish synagogue, 0:49:14.400 --> 0:49:18.640 power lines, and a new and a nearby nuclear reactor site. UM. 0:49:18.960 --> 0:49:22.279 And this guy in his apartment had had a propaganda 0:49:22.440 --> 0:49:26.160 and and book materials on the functioning nuclear reactors and 0:49:26.440 --> 0:49:29.719 other power supply stuff. So like, you know, that's these 0:49:29.760 --> 0:49:32.520 types of things that people study on and then plan 0:49:32.640 --> 0:49:35.040 out to do. And what we're seeing more commonly now 0:49:35.640 --> 0:49:39.400 is of very intensive propaganda team putting together kind of 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:42.520 manuals on how to do these types of things, both 0:49:42.840 --> 0:49:45.440 both like both for like to inspire you to do it, 0:49:45.520 --> 0:49:48.359 but also like instruction manuals and like here's here's where 0:49:48.440 --> 0:49:51.000 you should shoot. Here's like here's how to actually do it, 0:49:51.440 --> 0:49:57.239 and it's it's there unfortunately designed quite well. And that's 0:49:57.280 --> 0:50:01.600 something that is newer that is a direct product of 0:50:01.680 --> 0:50:06.840 the types of aesthetically driven uh propaganda that has flourished 0:50:06.880 --> 0:50:10.799 on sites like Telegram, and they're they're getting quite good 0:50:10.840 --> 0:50:14.000 at making propaganda. It's not just it's not just you know, 0:50:14.360 --> 0:50:19.239 random random books strewn upon your apartment anymore. It's very 0:50:19.320 --> 0:50:24.680 well made documents on how online. So they're the three 0:50:24.760 --> 0:50:27.640 men who just pleaded guilty in February for their their 0:50:27.840 --> 0:50:31.440 conspiracy to attack power facilities. Um one of those men, 0:50:31.560 --> 0:50:35.880 Jackson Saywall. In the the original complaint, it says, you know, 0:50:36.640 --> 0:50:39.560 um Cook had recruited his friends, say Well to join 0:50:39.600 --> 0:50:42.880 the cause. From the outset, Cook believed say walls graphic 0:50:43.000 --> 0:50:46.040 design skills could be an asset to the group's propaganda effort, 0:50:46.480 --> 0:50:49.040 so he was recruited to the cell because he was 0:50:49.120 --> 0:50:51.520 good at graphic design. Now I've read these manifestos, I 0:50:51.560 --> 0:50:53.680 would not say the graphic design is good, but it's 0:50:53.719 --> 0:50:56.160 certainly better than sort of a cut and paste scene. Right. 0:50:56.400 --> 0:50:59.520 There's a clear digital design element here, um, and that's 0:50:59.640 --> 0:51:02.120 on this and they know that that's how they're going 0:51:02.200 --> 0:51:03.640 to get eyes on this stuff. I mean, Robert, we 0:51:03.920 --> 0:51:06.359 both read all those manifestos in the last couple of days. 0:51:07.400 --> 0:51:10.120 They are certainly a step up. They are what they 0:51:10.200 --> 0:51:12.680 what they make me think of is when I first 0:51:12.800 --> 0:51:15.520 when I first got into reporting on extremism, it was 0:51:15.600 --> 0:51:18.440 because I went through every issue of like Isis magazine 0:51:18.520 --> 0:51:23.520 debat right after the BOTA Clon attacks and it's number one. 0:51:23.760 --> 0:51:26.080 Like there was when that Adam Waffan guy killed his 0:51:26.200 --> 0:51:29.239 roommates and he had converted to Islam and was like 0:51:29.520 --> 0:51:32.920 very much um into Isis. There was this like surprise 0:51:32.960 --> 0:51:34.840 from people who don't think a lot about this stuff. 0:51:35.239 --> 0:51:36.800 But a lot of these guys had a lot of 0:51:36.840 --> 0:51:38.880 admiration for the way that ICE has put together their 0:51:38.920 --> 0:51:43.680 propaganda campaign, which included a lot of very detailed guides 0:51:43.760 --> 0:51:46.000 for how to do things like carry out rent vehicles 0:51:46.080 --> 0:51:49.279 and carry out vehicular attacks. Right like this is um, 0:51:50.400 --> 0:51:53.719 you know, we're this is the way terrorism works, and 0:51:54.040 --> 0:51:55.960 these guys are taking a little bit of a different tack. 0:51:56.040 --> 0:51:58.640 But again not that like as as Molly pointed out, 0:51:59.040 --> 0:52:01.439 there were a number of this inspired attacks on power 0:52:01.480 --> 0:52:04.919 infrastructure just didn't get a ton of of of play. 0:52:05.040 --> 0:52:07.120 But like, none of this is like, all of this 0:52:07.360 --> 0:52:09.600 is is in line with the trends that we have 0:52:09.760 --> 0:52:14.200 seen globally in the way in which insurgent movements function. 0:52:15.040 --> 0:52:17.960 And I think you know this well produced easily spread 0:52:18.120 --> 0:52:20.600 propaganda and these online networks that they created to spread 0:52:20.640 --> 0:52:23.520 this propaganda. I mean that we're not just you know, 0:52:23.600 --> 0:52:26.120 we have these cases of these organized cells that got caught, 0:52:27.000 --> 0:52:29.120 but it's not just organized cells that have the capacity 0:52:29.160 --> 0:52:31.239 to carry out these attacks, because any idiot in the 0:52:31.320 --> 0:52:35.600 Telegram group can open that manifesto with the detailed instructions 0:52:35.680 --> 0:52:40.320 for carrying out an identical attacked disseminates and becomes contagious 0:52:40.640 --> 0:52:43.160 there's this, there's this people who talk about a lot 0:52:43.239 --> 0:52:46.719 online now about stochastic terrorism, and some of us here 0:52:46.840 --> 0:52:48.440 might be a little bit to blame to that, but 0:52:48.800 --> 0:52:51.680 a lot of times they're they're getting it wrong. Um, 0:52:52.040 --> 0:52:54.800 because what's what what these Nazis are doing. This is 0:52:54.880 --> 0:52:57.319 inspirational terrorism, which has been a thing for as long 0:52:57.400 --> 0:53:00.400 as terrorism has existed. When people under I mean, that's 0:53:00.400 --> 0:53:03.080 why they have their calendar of Saints, you know, yeah, exactly. 0:53:03.120 --> 0:53:04.560 And there's a lot of debate about, like whendy U 0:53:04.600 --> 0:53:06.800 stochastic terrorism, but kind of in my mind, when I 0:53:06.920 --> 0:53:09.200 tend to think it's appropriate is when the attempt is 0:53:09.280 --> 0:53:13.120 to kind of use the way algorithms on various sights 0:53:13.160 --> 0:53:15.719 on the Internet work to spread propaganda that's meant to 0:53:15.800 --> 0:53:19.080 cause that's meant to inspire attacks, because that is it's 0:53:19.120 --> 0:53:22.680 a type of inspirational terrorism. But it's it's it's clearly 0:53:22.760 --> 0:53:25.440 a new evolution of it because of its reliance on 0:53:25.520 --> 0:53:27.680 those networks. But this is again we're getting into the weeds. 0:53:27.800 --> 0:53:29.440 Is there anything else you wanted to kind of get 0:53:29.480 --> 0:53:31.960 into here, Garrison? I mean no, I kind of I 0:53:32.040 --> 0:53:33.880 kind of wanted to wrap up by talking about some 0:53:34.000 --> 0:53:36.319 of the terrogram stuff. So I think we we kind 0:53:36.360 --> 0:53:37.840 of we kind of hit on a lot of stuff 0:53:37.920 --> 0:53:40.440 that I that I wanted to mention. I mean, in 0:53:40.480 --> 0:53:44.600 twenty nineteen, two years after that first uh that that 0:53:44.800 --> 0:53:47.040 that that first attack of twenty seventeen, two years later 0:53:47.640 --> 0:53:52.520 uh bew Maryman was was arrested for planning to blow 0:53:52.640 --> 0:53:56.759 up power grid substations. He was member of Adam Offen Um. 0:53:57.080 --> 0:53:59.320 And we already are we already talked about we already 0:53:59.320 --> 0:54:01.520 talked about the two other kind of main instance that 0:54:01.600 --> 0:54:06.080 are well known of from and then stuff that is 0:54:06.200 --> 0:54:09.400 that that just got um uh there was there was 0:54:09.480 --> 0:54:13.239 court cases as recently February two. We also mentioned in 0:54:13.400 --> 0:54:16.080 terms of the their their plans to take out power 0:54:16.160 --> 0:54:19.320 stations to then carry out assassinations. So those are the 0:54:19.320 --> 0:54:22.839 two other instants that I wanted to mention um. But yeah, 0:54:23.040 --> 0:54:26.320 I mean it's I think the the other kind of 0:54:26.360 --> 0:54:29.040 aesthetic similarity I think is that I think we actually 0:54:29.080 --> 0:54:31.800 are seeing some of the some of the recent telegram 0:54:31.880 --> 0:54:35.719 stuff also take cues from not only like isis and 0:54:35.880 --> 0:54:38.239 is not terrorism, but also some of the types of 0:54:38.640 --> 0:54:42.200 anarchist writing that have that have has gotten more popular 0:54:42.600 --> 0:54:46.319 since you know, uh, the left type stuff like where 0:54:46.360 --> 0:54:49.040 I think we're seeing some of some of the aesthetic 0:54:49.120 --> 0:54:53.440 stylings feels very reminiscent of like early crime think, um, 0:54:54.000 --> 0:54:56.200 some of it, some of it is is similar to 0:54:56.760 --> 0:55:00.640 things around um the types of like eco sabotage manuals 0:55:00.719 --> 0:55:03.280 that that were that were very popular in the nineties 0:55:03.280 --> 0:55:06.280 and two thousands. Um. You know, some of the techniques 0:55:06.320 --> 0:55:11.520 are very similar because both eco terrorists and uh excelration 0:55:11.680 --> 0:55:15.680 accelerationist nazis both find value and attacking things like powers 0:55:15.960 --> 0:55:20.799 and powers, power substations, UM, or you know, burning down 0:55:20.960 --> 0:55:24.200 five G towers. That's a big emphasis of this recent 0:55:24.640 --> 0:55:29.160 like almost three hundred page manifesto, and in instruction manuals 0:55:29.160 --> 0:55:31.719 they focus a lot on how, you know, in early 0:55:32.960 --> 0:55:36.440 regular people felt inspired to burn down five G towers, 0:55:36.520 --> 0:55:39.920 people who are not otherwise extremists, and how how do 0:55:40.040 --> 0:55:43.320 we get people who are regular people to get to 0:55:43.400 --> 0:55:47.560 that point where they're willing to damage public infrastructure. And 0:55:47.640 --> 0:55:49.440 that's kind of a lot what a lot of what 0:55:49.640 --> 0:55:53.280 that three hundred page kind of manifesto slash manual tries 0:55:53.320 --> 0:56:00.799 to talk about. Mum. It's uh, it's if we want 0:56:00.800 --> 0:56:03.239 to end on on a hopeful. Note. I have at 0:56:03.320 --> 0:56:06.000 least sort of a small bright spot for us UM. 0:56:06.120 --> 0:56:09.320 It's in the original UM affidavit for the search warrant 0:56:09.400 --> 0:56:14.080 into Liam Collins, the head of the Camp Lejune cell Um, 0:56:14.560 --> 0:56:17.000 so that a regional affidavit for the search warrant um 0:56:17.080 --> 0:56:20.919 in his case. The FBI agent writing the affidavit says 0:56:21.000 --> 0:56:23.960 that they first started looking into Collins because he was 0:56:24.120 --> 0:56:27.400 docked in the Iron March leagues. So they were we 0:56:27.480 --> 0:56:29.719 were reading those dockses and they said, oh wow, a 0:56:29.840 --> 0:56:32.759 marine who's a Nazi. We should talk to him. So, 0:56:33.640 --> 0:56:36.439 you know, when doing this work in identifying these people 0:56:36.480 --> 0:56:39.240 from these leagues and sort of the slog of picking 0:56:39.440 --> 0:56:41.680 through like maybe this guy's a fucking nobody, but we 0:56:41.719 --> 0:56:44.000 will identify them so their communities can keep an eye 0:56:44.080 --> 0:56:47.600 on them. That work matters. That work made it into Newsweek, 0:56:47.680 --> 0:56:49.959 and it made it to the FBI. It's a weird 0:56:50.080 --> 0:56:52.680 filter system, but eventually this guy got caught before he 0:56:52.719 --> 0:56:57.520 committed a massive nationwide active terror. So keep doxy Nazis 0:56:57.760 --> 0:57:00.520 and it works. In a similar incident, there was an 0:57:00.560 --> 0:57:04.520 officer of the Lafayette Police Department that joined I believe 0:57:04.640 --> 0:57:07.640 this this exact same terrorist cell that was then Doc 0:57:08.719 --> 0:57:11.880 he was he was he was docked by anti fascists 0:57:12.520 --> 0:57:17.120 and then he turned and snitched on his fellow Nazis. UM. 0:57:18.360 --> 0:57:20.600 So the investigation opened because of the docks and they've 0:57:20.600 --> 0:57:23.680 got a powerful cooperating witness because of another docks. It 0:57:23.800 --> 0:57:26.439 makes them nervous if eyes are on them, they can't 0:57:26.520 --> 0:57:29.640 conduct covert operations. So keep docs in your local Nazis 0:57:30.000 --> 0:57:33.560 like it can it can literally be like in terms 0:57:33.600 --> 0:57:37.120 of these cells planning to do assassinations of people, it 0:57:37.160 --> 0:57:39.680 can actually save people's lives if these people are actually 0:57:39.760 --> 0:57:43.000 serious and are willing to carry out their plans that 0:57:43.080 --> 0:57:46.280 they are you know, actively training for actively preparing materials 0:57:46.320 --> 0:57:49.360 for UM. This type of work is is some of 0:57:49.480 --> 0:57:52.760 the most solid anti fascist research that people of that 0:57:52.840 --> 0:57:55.520 people have done. It absolutely saved lives. Yeah, I've no 0:57:55.600 --> 0:57:59.400 doubt about that. Will continue to save lives. So Docs Nazis. 0:57:59.760 --> 0:58:03.400 And you know, if if you're drunk out in the 0:58:03.480 --> 0:58:06.000 woods and one of your buddies says, hey, why don't 0:58:06.040 --> 0:58:11.120 we shoot a power substation, don't do it. Just can 0:58:11.640 --> 0:58:15.880 stop signs. It's the America. Stop signs. Expired fire extinguishers, 0:58:15.960 --> 0:58:18.240 those are fun to shoot. Let me all of the 0:58:18.280 --> 0:58:21.360 ant people turn off this podcast in a and the 0:58:23.520 --> 0:58:27.680 and then have a moral crisis. So yeah, uh to 0:58:27.840 --> 0:58:30.080 the anti cit people who have built a radio out 0:58:30.120 --> 0:58:37.160 of sticks, I realized that podcasts don't come out through 0:58:37.200 --> 0:58:51.480 the radio. Tragic anyway the episode, so you think, hi everyone, 0:58:51.520 --> 0:58:54.320 it's James. I just wanted to explain why you're only 0:58:54.400 --> 0:58:56.200 going to hear my voice in the first episode, but 0:58:56.200 --> 0:58:58.520 you're going to hear Garrison any other episodes as well. 0:58:59.080 --> 0:59:01.600 And that's because I would to Tonatius Unicorn Ranch twice, 0:59:01.760 --> 0:59:04.400 once during the period that we're going to call the siege, 0:59:04.520 --> 0:59:07.920 and once again in the summer. And so the part 0:59:08.000 --> 0:59:10.120 that only I experienced only I'm going to talk about. 0:59:10.120 --> 0:59:11.600 We felt that was the most honest way to do it. 0:59:11.920 --> 0:59:13.320 I hope you enjoy it. I have worked on this 0:59:13.440 --> 0:59:21.120 for a very long time. Hard scrabbled pass in southern 0:59:21.160 --> 0:59:23.720 Colorado in the winter. It's not where you'd expect to 0:59:23.760 --> 0:59:27.120 start a story that's fundamentally about the Internet, but it's 0:59:27.120 --> 0:59:28.720 where a four wheels lit a rental car in the 0:59:28.760 --> 0:59:32.360 spring of If you remember, back then, Biden had just 0:59:32.440 --> 0:59:36.280 been inaugurated, some chads had stormed the Capitol, and vaccines 0:59:36.320 --> 0:59:40.600 were gradually being administered across the country less Remarkably frontier 0:59:40.600 --> 0:59:42.600 air lines are taken forever to find my damn bag, 0:59:42.880 --> 0:59:46.280 and I was trying to get there before dark, about 0:59:46.280 --> 0:59:48.800 a week before. It's in a tweet, I foughtow this 0:59:48.840 --> 0:59:50.880 Anatis Unicorn ranch because I grew up as a farm 0:59:50.960 --> 0:59:54.160 kid who didn't really slide quite as easily as others 0:59:54.240 --> 0:59:57.560 did into the super matcho stuff, and I certainly didn't 0:59:57.560 --> 1:00:01.480 slide anywhere near conservative politics. What the ranches were doing 1:00:02.080 --> 1:00:04.600 building a queer haven and anarchistyle pack of farming co 1:00:04.720 --> 1:00:07.440 op inspired me. I've been missing country life a lot 1:00:07.560 --> 1:00:09.880 during the pandemic, and they wanted to get out onto 1:00:09.920 --> 1:00:13.680 the ranch. But that wasn't really why I was driving 1:00:13.680 --> 1:00:16.240 an appropriate rittle car through a white out. I was 1:00:16.280 --> 1:00:18.960 doing that because I've seen this tweet, and that tweet 1:00:19.120 --> 1:00:22.280 said the ranches under attack and they needed help. That 1:00:22.400 --> 1:00:26.080 Tenacious Unicorn ranches under attack by local biggots and militia. 1:00:26.440 --> 1:00:29.760 They have threatened violence publicly to us and those that 1:00:29.880 --> 1:00:32.600 help or associate with us. They have encroached on our 1:00:32.640 --> 1:00:36.320 property armed at night, with the intent to harm those 1:00:36.360 --> 1:00:39.400 of us that live here. We need help. That's where 1:00:39.400 --> 1:00:41.920 this story starts for me. It's where the story starts 1:00:41.920 --> 1:00:43.800 for a few characters you're going to hear this week, 1:00:44.240 --> 1:00:47.280 but it's not where the story really starts. It starts 1:00:47.320 --> 1:00:50.480 with Penelope log we'll call Penny, working at a big 1:00:50.560 --> 1:00:54.200 box store and dealing with increasing transphobia both online and 1:00:54.240 --> 1:00:57.800 in person in the early Trump era. Penny's a veteran 1:00:57.960 --> 1:01:00.560 and a country girl, and she was looking to get 1:01:00.560 --> 1:01:03.320 out of the city along with her partner's Canton Gin. 1:01:03.520 --> 1:01:06.400 She decided to rent some land, set up founding rescued 1:01:06.440 --> 1:01:11.160 out Pakis. So we started in Livermore, Colorado, which is 1:01:11.360 --> 1:01:14.280 on the whole entire other side of the state. UM. 1:01:14.520 --> 1:01:18.920 And it really was a reaction to what was happening 1:01:19.040 --> 1:01:23.040 to the queer community UM, not only locally, but kind 1:01:23.040 --> 1:01:26.360 of what we were seeing nationally. Went about two years 1:01:26.400 --> 1:01:29.560 into the Trump presidency, where things were just getting really 1:01:29.640 --> 1:01:33.280 bleak and dire for the majority of people that we 1:01:33.400 --> 1:01:36.800 hung out with. UM. We we were originally going to 1:01:36.880 --> 1:01:40.560 try to like just make a make a bus that 1:01:40.800 --> 1:01:43.600 was roadworthy and we could live in and just kind 1:01:43.640 --> 1:01:46.520 of be nomadic, but we couldn't really on board and 1:01:46.600 --> 1:01:48.560 help other people that way, Like that was really just 1:01:48.680 --> 1:01:50.600 like it would have been hard to have the cats 1:01:50.680 --> 1:01:53.440 we have. We also had like even at that point 1:01:53.520 --> 1:01:55.280 we had like four cats, so it was or two 1:01:55.360 --> 1:01:59.640 three cats whatever at the time, but still too many um, yeah, 1:01:59.720 --> 1:02:03.120 dog and whatever. So so we uh so I had 1:02:03.120 --> 1:02:05.880 always wanted to do a homestead, and I grew up 1:02:06.280 --> 1:02:08.720 farming and ranching, so it was very natural for me. 1:02:09.520 --> 1:02:11.680 UM and so we found a ranch that we could 1:02:11.760 --> 1:02:16.760 rent and livermore. UM and knee cat and gen Um 1:02:17.440 --> 1:02:21.240 just kind of set out to start somewhere. So I 1:02:21.400 --> 1:02:24.800 was a haven for career people, UM, but also a 1:02:24.920 --> 1:02:27.760 home for us. You know. It turned out the United 1:02:27.800 --> 1:02:31.280 States didn't something given alt pack of crisis. The animals 1:02:31.360 --> 1:02:34.240 were once extremely fashionable, and hurts popped up over the 1:02:34.320 --> 1:02:38.080 West in the nineties. Now that generation about pacer ranches 1:02:38.120 --> 1:02:40.480 are aging out of the hard physical labor that makes 1:02:40.520 --> 1:02:43.440 about every day on a ranch, and there are packers 1:02:43.480 --> 1:02:47.120 are often left to their own devices. The unicorns, as 1:02:47.160 --> 1:02:50.200 the people in the valley called them, adopt these al packers, 1:02:50.280 --> 1:02:52.560 which are often neglected, and care for them. They re 1:02:52.680 --> 1:02:54.880 feed them slowly so they won't die from the blow 1:02:55.120 --> 1:02:58.000 that comes from refeeding too fast and they sell their 1:02:58.040 --> 1:03:02.200 fiber as yah. Gradually, with a ton of hard work 1:03:02.640 --> 1:03:05.760 and a growing community, they built their ranch into a 1:03:05.840 --> 1:03:10.920 sustainable operation. But as the herd grew and their unfortunate 1:03:11.000 --> 1:03:15.280 rental agreement became clearer, they decided they needed a different ranch, 1:03:15.560 --> 1:03:18.080 and so they moved across the state to Westcliffe. And 1:03:18.680 --> 1:03:22.520 it was a rented ranch that we were trying to 1:03:22.600 --> 1:03:24.720 rent to own. We thought we were renting their own 1:03:24.760 --> 1:03:29.600 actually um, and then that road got pulled out from 1:03:29.680 --> 1:03:31.880 underneath us, like they just they just when we went 1:03:31.960 --> 1:03:35.200 to purchase it, they were just like, no, you haven't 1:03:35.200 --> 1:03:37.600 been renting, going, you've just been renting. And we were 1:03:37.640 --> 1:03:42.320 in an additional hundred thousand dollars. So it was like, yeah, 1:03:43.640 --> 1:03:46.080 we had to move right as COVID was getting bad 1:03:46.680 --> 1:03:50.160 in America, so like March of that was fun. Yeah, 1:03:50.320 --> 1:03:52.720 it was. It was the worst and best move all 1:03:53.000 --> 1:03:55.920 at the same time. Because the roads were fucking empty, 1:03:56.440 --> 1:03:58.840 like if quarantine was in full effects, so the roads 1:03:58.840 --> 1:04:01.640 were empty. So we were traveling with trailers full of 1:04:01.680 --> 1:04:05.920 animals on empty roads. And then after like the restrictions 1:04:06.000 --> 1:04:07.640 lightened and we got used to what like the normal 1:04:07.720 --> 1:04:11.240 traffic flow was we were like, fuck this like but 1:04:11.400 --> 1:04:14.360 it was cool, like having everything shut down, we couldn't 1:04:14.400 --> 1:04:18.040 like the big problem was we couldn't rent anything because 1:04:18.080 --> 1:04:21.680 every rental place had shut down. And so the really 1:04:22.200 --> 1:04:26.080 it was like the beginnings of like the community for 1:04:26.280 --> 1:04:28.040 for us, right, it was like we t have friends 1:04:28.160 --> 1:04:30.960 and you know, comrades to how social media. Yeah, and 1:04:31.160 --> 1:04:33.440 everybody really stepped up and helped with that move. So 1:04:33.640 --> 1:04:36.280 it was it was cool. West Coasts where I met them. 1:04:37.080 --> 1:04:39.200 It's a beautiful town in the sound grade to Christo's. 1:04:39.760 --> 1:04:42.280 In the summer, it's full of tourists taking weekend trip 1:04:42.360 --> 1:04:44.720 to the mountains and eating ice cream. And in the 1:04:44.760 --> 1:04:51.280 winter it's quiet, snow covered, beautiful and absolutely freezing. In March, 1:04:52.760 --> 1:04:54.800 I drive through the town in the afternoon, and what 1:04:55.000 --> 1:04:58.800 I figured was an inconspicuous man everyone else who visited 1:04:58.920 --> 1:05:01.320 the ranch that month and picked up a tail. Aside 1:05:01.320 --> 1:05:03.400 from a few strange looks, I think I got through, okay. 1:05:04.800 --> 1:05:07.760 I took a long, lonely winding road through the valley 1:05:07.800 --> 1:05:10.120 and then turned down a dirt road towards the ranch. 1:05:11.160 --> 1:05:13.520 Penny met me at the gate in a plate carrier 1:05:13.600 --> 1:05:16.760 with it rifle we briefly hugged, and then I quickly 1:05:16.840 --> 1:05:19.120 parked my car outside. They don't that the grown queer 1:05:19.160 --> 1:05:22.400 community at the ranch called home. It was a profoundly 1:05:22.520 --> 1:05:26.760 strange experience. Inside the house was full of warmth, conversation, 1:05:26.800 --> 1:05:30.680 and laughter, people enjoying each other's company and enjoying being 1:05:30.720 --> 1:05:33.880 out of the biting wind and snow. Outside was cold. 1:05:34.280 --> 1:05:36.760 We wore plate carriers, and the ranches carried a long guns. 1:05:37.600 --> 1:05:40.120 I carried a camera, a go pro and a kniffac 1:05:41.320 --> 1:05:44.520 and then dressed in battle rattle. We broke the eyes 1:05:44.560 --> 1:05:46.520 on the art pack of drinking tanks and tried to 1:05:46.560 --> 1:05:49.280 stop the recently adopted animals from re feeding too quickly. 1:05:50.800 --> 1:05:53.400 I walked and talked with Penny and j another of 1:05:53.440 --> 1:05:56.360 the unicorns whose story will get to you later, about 1:05:56.400 --> 1:05:59.920 the stress that the increasing threats to them had had 1:06:00.040 --> 1:06:04.160 on them. But first we met the animals. We have sheeps, 1:06:04.600 --> 1:06:08.120 we have goats, We have of course alpaca. We have 1:06:08.320 --> 1:06:15.120 ducks and chickens um day to days, five pyrenees which 1:06:15.160 --> 1:06:20.160 are life start guardian dogs, and a couple of blue 1:06:20.440 --> 1:06:31.200 heelers rescues Um and my dog Starbuck, and oh yeah, 1:06:31.240 --> 1:06:37.280 eight cats. Um, But the vast, vast majority are the alpacas. Yeah, 1:06:37.520 --> 1:06:39.680 it might sound a dilic, and in many ways it 1:06:39.800 --> 1:06:43.000 is a dilic, but the work on the ranch never stops, 1:06:43.320 --> 1:06:46.919 and sick al packa need tending to almost constantly, even 1:06:47.000 --> 1:06:49.320 during the siege, which we will get too soon, I promise. 1:06:50.640 --> 1:06:52.560 There was a lot that volunteers could help with, but 1:06:52.640 --> 1:06:55.920 animal husbandry wasn't on the list. So even after long 1:06:56.040 --> 1:07:00.200 night's patrolling their ranch, cold and afraid, Penny j often 1:07:00.240 --> 1:07:01.880 had to take it. In terms of looking after old 1:07:01.880 --> 1:07:05.560 animals with blow let's, they labored to breathe. Here's one 1:07:05.600 --> 1:07:08.200 that I recorded, Um, can you set that down and 1:07:08.280 --> 1:07:10.240 help me stand her up, because we're just gonna see 1:07:10.240 --> 1:07:12.840 if we can get her to walk? All right, if 1:07:12.840 --> 1:07:20.120 you'll run it? Okay, I don't know, I don't know. Yeh, 1:07:22.720 --> 1:07:28.120 there you go, there you go, there you go. You 1:07:29.960 --> 1:07:37.360 all right. My felts are perfect good. Next up, they 1:07:37.440 --> 1:07:43.520 can set it in there. You gotta walk, baby, that's 1:07:43.560 --> 1:07:47.959 part of this. I know. That's part of this though. Okay, okay, okay, 1:07:49.400 --> 1:07:54.760 oh baby, I can't do that. It's all right, love, 1:07:54.840 --> 1:08:00.880 it's sorry. M hmm. Well, if you're not gonna walk, 1:08:01.000 --> 1:08:07.560 my life. I gotta do this. I know it hurts. Yeah, Okay, 1:08:08.400 --> 1:08:19.280 let's get crush. Yeah it's okay, it's there. That's a 1:08:19.360 --> 1:08:35.559 good burb. Sounded like there was a little bit more movement. Yeah. 1:08:35.600 --> 1:08:37.599 I'm getting the feeling that they probably didn't even start 1:08:37.600 --> 1:08:40.840 asking for help until we guns thought they heard was 1:08:40.840 --> 1:08:43.760 actually dying in the old field. The story about how 1:08:43.800 --> 1:08:46.360 we got from a thriving and happy ranch community built 1:08:46.400 --> 1:08:49.439 on the anarchist principle of mutual aid and solidarity, to 1:08:49.560 --> 1:08:52.400 what the Unicorns called the siege. If this story it's 1:08:52.439 --> 1:08:56.160 about lies, bigotry, and the Internet, but it's hard to 1:08:56.200 --> 1:08:58.800 think about those things too much of the ranch because 1:08:58.840 --> 1:09:01.160 in the two trips I've taken and I felt nothing 1:09:01.240 --> 1:09:06.200 but incredible sense of love, solidarity, and supportive community. If 1:09:06.240 --> 1:09:08.160 you've engage with the story of the ranch at all 1:09:08.280 --> 1:09:12.160 preppt following Tenaci's Unicorn Ranch online, it's probably because of 1:09:12.200 --> 1:09:15.080 the siege. But I don't want this to be storied. 1:09:15.080 --> 1:09:18.200 It's just about guns, bigger tree, and community defense. I 1:09:18.280 --> 1:09:20.719 also wanted to be a story about how long before 1:09:20.720 --> 1:09:23.680 the siege began, the community at the Anais Unicorn Ranch 1:09:23.760 --> 1:09:26.160 realized that nobody was coming to save them, and so 1:09:26.280 --> 1:09:33.400 they decided to save themselves. They were they want to 1:09:33.479 --> 1:09:39.519 kill us, and yeah, but when we like call it out, 1:09:40.200 --> 1:09:44.400 you know, I, hey, stop killing us, not even like 1:09:45.080 --> 1:09:47.240 fuck you, just hey, like, did you just like lay 1:09:47.280 --> 1:09:57.639 off the whole killing us thing? You fucking fucking fund happy, 1:09:57.760 --> 1:10:04.439 like fucking unsympathetic victim screaming training for all? Right, So 1:10:04.560 --> 1:10:10.519 now no you can't stop killing that good? Maybe time 1:10:10.560 --> 1:10:13.720 to get guns now. The day I slip slid my 1:10:13.800 --> 1:10:16.240 way across hard scrabbled past in my not so trusty 1:10:16.280 --> 1:10:18.680 nous and our mirror with the same day that the 1:10:18.720 --> 1:10:22.240 gunman walked into a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado and killed 1:10:22.280 --> 1:10:25.760 ten people with an a R pistol, my social media 1:10:25.800 --> 1:10:28.280 feed was filled with the sadly all two common reactions 1:10:28.320 --> 1:10:30.280 to these, all two common mass murders that happened in 1:10:30.320 --> 1:10:35.040 this country. But the next day I saw people flooding 1:10:35.080 --> 1:10:37.040 gun shops in the fear that the state would begin 1:10:37.160 --> 1:10:40.840 enforcing tot to gun control laws. It didn't. As I 1:10:40.960 --> 1:10:43.880 edit this draft, another young man with another gun has 1:10:43.920 --> 1:10:46.760 walked into a gay bar in Colorado Springs, about an 1:10:46.760 --> 1:10:50.200 hour from the ranch. It's an intensely conservative city. The 1:10:50.240 --> 1:10:53.519 host focus on the family. You'll know by now that 1:10:53.640 --> 1:10:56.120 the club queue shooting result in the death of five people, 1:10:56.280 --> 1:11:00.200 including two trans people, and injured twenty one more. I'll 1:11:00.200 --> 1:11:02.679 be honest with you, it felt a bit weird driving 1:11:02.720 --> 1:11:06.000 through Colorado to write a story about guns was broadly positive, 1:11:06.439 --> 1:11:09.680 and in a sense it still does today. But the 1:11:09.800 --> 1:11:12.439 reason this story about guns is positive really has very 1:11:12.479 --> 1:11:15.040 little to do with guns and everything to do with people. 1:11:15.920 --> 1:11:18.840 It's really a surly about solidarity what it is about 1:11:18.840 --> 1:11:21.679 a R fifteen, But some people will never get part 1:11:21.720 --> 1:11:25.120 of the A R fifteen enough to see that. In 1:11:25.200 --> 1:11:26.600 case you missed it or you caught one of the 1:11:26.640 --> 1:11:28.560 reports at the time that seemed to skim over the 1:11:28.640 --> 1:11:31.120 fact that the rant is around. We should give an 1:11:31.160 --> 1:11:33.360 account of the siege up top here so you understand 1:11:33.439 --> 1:11:37.519 what happened. Understanding why it happened, that's another episode. So 1:11:37.600 --> 1:11:40.000 for now, just to understand. That's some boomer's log into 1:11:40.040 --> 1:11:43.519 their social media and the queer elimination rhetoric we've reported 1:11:43.600 --> 1:11:46.760 so much about overlapped with their small community in a 1:11:46.840 --> 1:11:49.400 valley in the sun readA Cristo Mountains, and this was 1:11:49.479 --> 1:11:52.920 a result. Things started as they often do these days 1:11:52.960 --> 1:11:56.040 online with a throwaway comment about a parade in town. 1:11:57.160 --> 1:11:59.200 The girls didn't really know that they've moved into the 1:11:59.240 --> 1:12:02.600 reddest County, Colorado. At a time, Lauren Bobot was that 1:12:02.680 --> 1:12:06.240 congress person. But soon they started to get an idea 1:12:06.240 --> 1:12:08.840 of what some people, pretty small minority of people, if 1:12:08.880 --> 1:12:12.160 it turned down, I thought about them. So it started 1:12:12.280 --> 1:12:16.360 on Facebook, like honestly, like we started seeing more comments 1:12:16.400 --> 1:12:18.920 and people getting weird about it, and then there was 1:12:19.320 --> 1:12:22.000 literally to this day, I will still say it was 1:12:22.080 --> 1:12:27.559 a fascist fucking parade you're talking about July they had 1:12:27.760 --> 1:12:31.120 they did a fascism, like the local fascist did a fascism. 1:12:31.840 --> 1:12:36.040 And we observed this by accident because we were like, oh, parade, 1:12:36.040 --> 1:12:38.400 that doesn't sound interesting, But we did go into town 1:12:38.439 --> 1:12:42.280 to get some coffee and ran smack into a fascist 1:12:42.360 --> 1:12:45.280 parade and and fascist and what what sort of like 1:12:48.600 --> 1:12:52.000 fascist in the most like like direct way that there 1:12:52.080 --> 1:12:56.559 was Christian nationalist flags three percent of flags, Confederate flags 1:12:56.960 --> 1:13:00.600 carried by armed white people screaming about the government and 1:13:00.720 --> 1:13:03.680 the libs and the queers. Like it was a they 1:13:03.720 --> 1:13:05.599 did a fashion. In the photos, there's that one guy 1:13:05.640 --> 1:13:07.599 with a shirt that says I know things and own 1:13:07.680 --> 1:13:13.040 guns or something like that and shooting and shoot things, 1:13:13.880 --> 1:13:18.479 um and so like it was a overtly hard right 1:13:19.520 --> 1:13:25.600 sponsored parade that was supposed to be like hard like that, 1:13:25.800 --> 1:13:29.040 Like it was like set up as a protest because 1:13:29.080 --> 1:13:31.799 of the COVID restrictions, they weren't letting people have a parade, 1:13:32.280 --> 1:13:35.680 and this was their answer to that. Um and so 1:13:36.320 --> 1:13:39.200 really all we did was call that out on Twitter. 1:13:39.320 --> 1:13:42.160 We're like, wow, Like, there's a fashionst parade in West Clifton. 1:13:42.640 --> 1:13:45.880 We'll come back to this parade next episode. It's organized 1:13:45.880 --> 1:13:48.160 by a local newspaper, which is, to be perfectly frank, 1:13:48.200 --> 1:13:50.840 the most batchit, crazy, boom and brain worm thing I've 1:13:51.040 --> 1:13:54.760 ever seen in print. It was an open carry event 1:13:54.880 --> 1:13:57.000 when the issues from across the US come to open 1:13:57.080 --> 1:14:02.800 carry unloaded guns for reasons that we can really pinned down. Soon. 1:14:03.320 --> 1:14:06.000 The unicorns calling out the parade on Twitter set keyboard 1:14:06.040 --> 1:14:10.720 fingers clicking. I've said fingers here, but these people give 1:14:10.800 --> 1:14:13.479 up a distinct single finger typing vibe if I'm honest. 1:14:14.000 --> 1:14:18.040 We started. The first thing that we noticed was the tails. 1:14:18.720 --> 1:14:24.560 We started getting tailed from points that everybody that we 1:14:24.680 --> 1:14:30.160 were very public about frequenting like Paragrine Coffee and Chappie's. 1:14:30.200 --> 1:14:35.120 We started getting picking up tails uh from those points routinely. 1:14:35.960 --> 1:14:40.400 Um and that. So like people like following you yeah, yeah, 1:14:41.240 --> 1:14:44.640 not very covertly in the same three vehicles. And they 1:14:44.640 --> 1:14:47.680 wouldn't just follow us anyone that they figured out knew us. Yes, 1:14:47.920 --> 1:14:50.960 anybody that announced on any social media platform that they 1:14:51.000 --> 1:14:54.000 were coming to see us, they would then follow. And 1:14:54.080 --> 1:14:58.960 then it really got it became super into the physical 1:14:59.040 --> 1:15:03.080 world when nine News, well nine News did a piece 1:15:03.160 --> 1:15:06.599 on us in which the Sheriff's department came up because 1:15:06.680 --> 1:15:09.599 they were mass reporting us for animal abuse. A lot 1:15:09.640 --> 1:15:11.920 of the harassment came from a website you're probably familiar 1:15:11.920 --> 1:15:14.280 with now, but maybe you wouldn't have been back then. 1:15:14.800 --> 1:15:17.800 It might have been farms and locals. You don't have 1:15:17.880 --> 1:15:20.439 to say their names. Yeah, if we could blank out. 1:15:24.120 --> 1:15:25.840 But it's one of those things where like sis, people 1:15:25.880 --> 1:15:28.240 don't even know that Kwie Farms exists and more people 1:15:28.320 --> 1:15:32.240 need to fucking now because it's it's it's ridiculous. We've 1:15:32.320 --> 1:15:33.760 done a couple of episodes. I don't want to give 1:15:33.760 --> 1:15:35.240 them attention, but like I don't know, I don't know 1:15:35.280 --> 1:15:39.439 whatever you think is best. Yeah, it's an entire forum 1:15:39.520 --> 1:15:43.320 dedicated to harassing trans people that get any sort of popularity, 1:15:43.560 --> 1:15:45.679 ruining their lives as best they can, with the stated 1:15:45.720 --> 1:15:48.679 goal of making trans people kill themselves. And it's there's 1:15:48.680 --> 1:15:51.439 a lot of members like like like like notable turfs 1:15:51.479 --> 1:15:53.519 are part of it, like like like everyone has found 1:15:53.560 --> 1:15:55.599 this website now and people need to know it at 1:15:55.640 --> 1:15:59.360 least existed. That it's a truly awful cesspool of They've 1:15:59.400 --> 1:16:02.320 been all of our time obsessing over that. It seems 1:16:02.360 --> 1:16:04.920 like it's worth naming them, but please save yourself the 1:16:04.960 --> 1:16:07.559 time and don't click over there. It's nothing good. Soon 1:16:08.040 --> 1:16:11.679 things got more real local news your porter who covered 1:16:11.680 --> 1:16:13.720 the ranch, you've got apostle with a white powder in it. 1:16:14.600 --> 1:16:16.880 That powder wasn't deadly, but it was a real threat. 1:16:17.439 --> 1:16:20.240 Soon that threat came to the ranch, the nine news 1:16:20.360 --> 1:16:24.640 reporter thing happened, and then we started getting like warnings 1:16:24.800 --> 1:16:30.639 from people that were monitoring chat rooms, like they were like, oh, hey, 1:16:30.840 --> 1:16:35.040 like the chatter about y'all has skyrocketed, and like it 1:16:35.240 --> 1:16:39.040 is blatant, like people making plans to burn your home 1:16:39.120 --> 1:16:42.720 down and kill you, like, and locals started warning us 1:16:42.760 --> 1:16:45.519 that like Hey, this has happened before. You gotta get ready. 1:16:45.600 --> 1:16:49.200 This is real. Don't have people yeah, like, don't be 1:16:49.280 --> 1:16:52.280 PREDENSI about this, Like we're being serious, And so me 1:16:52.400 --> 1:16:56.280 and Jay started. For about two weeks, we were walking 1:16:56.560 --> 1:17:02.320 patrols around the perimeter. The unicorns were afraid, so they 1:17:02.360 --> 1:17:05.080 took steps to defend themselves. Lots of the people that 1:17:05.120 --> 1:17:07.120 the ranch, like Jen and Cat you can hear in 1:17:07.160 --> 1:17:10.200 this interview, didn't want to carry guns. Penny and j 1:17:10.479 --> 1:17:13.320 had some military experience and they knew how to use 1:17:13.400 --> 1:17:16.400 and carry guns. So every night they set out walking 1:17:16.439 --> 1:17:20.760 the perimeter to watch for intruders on their property line patrols. 1:17:21.280 --> 1:17:23.000 They realized that there were people out there at the 1:17:23.120 --> 1:17:26.160 night looking back at them. That night is when me 1:17:26.240 --> 1:17:29.000 and J came back from that and put out a 1:17:29.240 --> 1:17:33.360 very whole heartfelt cry on Twitter like we don't know 1:17:33.400 --> 1:17:37.280 what the funk to do. We're terrified and any help 1:17:37.479 --> 1:17:41.240 would be amazing. They were armed at this point, but 1:17:41.400 --> 1:17:45.040 they weren't ready for a gunfight. That's a very different thing. Sadly, though, 1:17:45.680 --> 1:17:47.720 the gunfight they weren't ready for wasn't going to wait 1:17:47.800 --> 1:17:52.400 until they were yeah armed, um rudimentally armed by the way, 1:17:52.479 --> 1:17:55.240 like Jay had a hunting rifle, no, a shotgun at 1:17:55.280 --> 1:18:01.280 that point, Um and I had my springfield are uh 1:18:01.360 --> 1:18:04.519 and so we scared them off, but like that made 1:18:04.560 --> 1:18:07.400 it like clear and present for us. And so we 1:18:07.520 --> 1:18:11.040 put a heartfelt call out onto Twitter. Um and although 1:18:11.160 --> 1:18:13.960 was up here like the next day and caught people 1:18:14.080 --> 1:18:17.599 on the property that night, like it was armed people 1:18:17.720 --> 1:18:21.360 on the property, multiple people. Altho arrived the next day, 1:18:21.960 --> 1:18:25.160 spread on by that same tweet. I'd see this isn't 1:18:25.240 --> 1:18:28.800 his voice, but they are his words. We wouldn't say 1:18:28.800 --> 1:18:31.160 too much about him other than that he has significant 1:18:31.160 --> 1:18:33.720 experience with this kind of thing, and he spent his 1:18:33.800 --> 1:18:36.479 own time and money to drive across the west to 1:18:36.600 --> 1:18:38.920 help some queer folks he'd never met. He just wanted 1:18:38.960 --> 1:18:40.759 to raise our package, and he left the funk alone. 1:18:41.600 --> 1:18:43.880 I saw a post on Twitter from someone else boasting 1:18:43.920 --> 1:18:47.360 the original Tenacious Unicorn ranch plea for help. I reached 1:18:47.360 --> 1:18:49.439 out to them, and after some back and forth and 1:18:49.560 --> 1:18:51.800 letting them vet me, we agreed I would drive down 1:18:51.840 --> 1:18:54.240 to help them out. I took a little time to 1:18:54.320 --> 1:18:56.400 do some map studies of the area and confirm some 1:18:56.520 --> 1:18:59.599 suspicions about local law enforcement. The sheriff at the time 1:18:59.640 --> 1:19:02.760 had really spoken at and supported oathkeepers rallies as a 1:19:02.840 --> 1:19:05.920 keynote speaker, alongside Stewart Roads, as well as other prominent 1:19:05.960 --> 1:19:08.559 oath keepers and three per centers. The cops haven't ever 1:19:08.640 --> 1:19:10.880 been much of an option in keeping marginals people safe, 1:19:11.080 --> 1:19:13.880 but this was on a whole other level. I called 1:19:13.920 --> 1:19:15.320 some people to tell them I was heading to its 1:19:15.400 --> 1:19:18.360 nacious Unicorn ranch for accountability's sake. At the time, I 1:19:18.479 --> 1:19:21.000 was binging an unhealthy amount of letter Kenny, and when 1:19:21.080 --> 1:19:22.800 one of them asked me why I was driving six 1:19:22.880 --> 1:19:25.320 to seven hours to help total strangers, the first thing 1:19:25.400 --> 1:19:27.720 I thought was when a friend asked for help, you 1:19:27.840 --> 1:19:30.080 help them all. They gave us his account of what 1:19:30.200 --> 1:19:32.640 happens again for everyone's safety, were not going to use 1:19:32.760 --> 1:19:36.960 his voice. But that night he patrolled the perimeter, often 1:19:37.000 --> 1:19:38.439 nearly being run off the road on the way to 1:19:38.520 --> 1:19:41.040 the ranch. He said, at first, when he saw the tweets, 1:19:41.080 --> 1:19:44.000 he thought Penny and j were of reacting, But after 1:19:44.120 --> 1:19:47.080 that tale, and after what happened that night, he knew 1:19:47.120 --> 1:19:50.360 something very strange was going on. So on arrival at 1:19:50.400 --> 1:19:52.479 the hard Pack road off the highway, there were two 1:19:52.560 --> 1:19:54.840 cars on the other side of the highway from the intersection, 1:19:55.160 --> 1:19:57.879 backed in with their headlights off. There's an old Durango 1:19:58.040 --> 1:19:59.880 and a truck that I couldn't make the model of 1:20:00.000 --> 1:20:02.400 on the other side of that Durrango. Once I turned 1:20:02.400 --> 1:20:05.360 down the road, probably two yards after turning, I looked 1:20:05.400 --> 1:20:07.280 back and saw one of them turn on their headlights 1:20:07.320 --> 1:20:10.080 and started gaining on me until they were tailgating. I 1:20:10.160 --> 1:20:11.800 started to slow and pull over to see if they 1:20:11.800 --> 1:20:14.240 would pass, and they slowed and stuck with me. I 1:20:14.360 --> 1:20:16.640 had a suspicion about the two cars initially, and this 1:20:16.800 --> 1:20:19.880 was confirmation. I can't really say how fast we started going, 1:20:20.120 --> 1:20:21.840 but I know it was significant enough that I was 1:20:21.840 --> 1:20:24.040 starting to oversteer and lose traction on the back end 1:20:24.040 --> 1:20:26.320 of my car. On turns, I knew Penny and the 1:20:26.360 --> 1:20:28.879 rest were waiting at the property gate, so I signaled 1:20:28.880 --> 1:20:31.280 Penny to say, Hey, I got a tail keep the 1:20:31.320 --> 1:20:33.600 gate locked. You'll see me driving by. Tell me what 1:20:33.720 --> 1:20:36.560 vehicle is following me. The vehicle slowed down as we 1:20:36.600 --> 1:20:38.479 approached the gate, so it appeared they may have been 1:20:38.479 --> 1:20:41.280 anticipating me to do the same. Once I passed the gate, 1:20:41.360 --> 1:20:44.000 they continued to follow it. Turns out it was the Drangle, 1:20:44.040 --> 1:20:46.120 which I later found out had been doing drive byes 1:20:46.160 --> 1:20:48.280 of the property of the past couple of days. The 1:20:48.400 --> 1:20:51.800 Durranga quickly realized what all those doing and pursued him 1:20:51.800 --> 1:20:55.400 postive ro further down that snowy dot. Right after I 1:20:55.439 --> 1:20:57.800 passed the ranch, I accelerated a little more to create 1:20:57.880 --> 1:20:59.680 some distance and drove to a spot that I had 1:20:59.680 --> 1:21:01.600 seen the map on the way down that looked like 1:21:01.640 --> 1:21:04.600 I could effectively turn around without extra maneuvering. As I 1:21:04.680 --> 1:21:07.080 turned around, they had closed the gap and started to slow. 1:21:07.760 --> 1:21:09.400 Once they were pulling up next to me, I turned 1:21:09.400 --> 1:21:11.080 my high loom and carry light on them to at 1:21:11.160 --> 1:21:13.840 least distorient or over stimulate them with bright white light 1:21:14.160 --> 1:21:16.840 and try to catch faces. The windows had a dark tent, 1:21:16.960 --> 1:21:19.519 so it was not feasible. My other goal was trying 1:21:19.560 --> 1:21:22.360 to convey I see you and I have the advantage 1:21:22.760 --> 1:21:26.479 without actually visually threatening them. The driver had been rolling 1:21:26.520 --> 1:21:28.639 their window down until I put that light in the window, 1:21:28.920 --> 1:21:32.000 then immediately stopped and rolled it back up. At that point, 1:21:32.080 --> 1:21:34.040 it was apparently enough to make them decide it wasn't 1:21:34.080 --> 1:21:36.679 worth it and take off. I legally carry a side 1:21:36.720 --> 1:21:38.400 arm with me the majority of the time and had 1:21:38.439 --> 1:21:40.160 it on me. I had my hand on it, but 1:21:40.200 --> 1:21:42.560 didn't feel the need to draw during that encounter. In 1:21:42.600 --> 1:21:44.439 the two minutes since he turned off the hard top, 1:21:45.000 --> 1:21:47.400 does ideas about what he was in for had pivoted 1:21:47.439 --> 1:21:49.479 almost as fast as his card did not put out 1:21:49.840 --> 1:21:52.080 earlier on. While driving to the ranch from my house, 1:21:52.200 --> 1:21:54.839 I had the thought, you know, this is probably bullshit 1:21:55.120 --> 1:21:57.240 and a bit of an overreaction on their part, So 1:21:57.360 --> 1:21:59.600 maybe at least I can deescalate some of their anxiety 1:21:59.680 --> 1:22:01.760 and give them some rest. This will probably just be 1:22:01.800 --> 1:22:05.479 a lot of nothing. Clearly I was mistaken, and after 1:22:05.600 --> 1:22:08.160 that encounter my mind was very much re oriented to 1:22:08.160 --> 1:22:11.000 the present reality. Driving through the gate, I had to 1:22:11.040 --> 1:22:14.680 prepare myself to the new possibility of actual exigency, and 1:22:14.800 --> 1:22:19.639 I thought, oh shit, there's something to this well pitter pattern. 1:22:19.720 --> 1:22:22.760 Motherfucker's I'll just send a message to Penny saying that 1:22:22.800 --> 1:22:24.640 he was free of his tail, and she opened up 1:22:24.640 --> 1:22:27.320 the gate quickly. He drove up the same dirt road 1:22:27.360 --> 1:22:29.680 I did a few days later to the dome who 1:22:29.680 --> 1:22:31.920 had a scared and sleep deprived unicorns were hiding from 1:22:31.960 --> 1:22:34.120 the code and from the same people who had just 1:22:34.240 --> 1:22:36.840 tailed him down the Debt road. Once at the house, 1:22:36.920 --> 1:22:39.759 we made introductions and I explained that a trusted source 1:22:39.800 --> 1:22:41.920 had boosted their call for help and I was willing 1:22:41.960 --> 1:22:44.280 to drive over to see what, if anything, I could 1:22:44.320 --> 1:22:47.160 do to offer them in the form of assistance. They 1:22:47.200 --> 1:22:50.080 gave me situational awareness of the property, who lived there, 1:22:50.200 --> 1:22:53.000 et cetera. Then went over what had been happening up 1:22:53.040 --> 1:22:56.400 until my arrival. The local harassment people following them and 1:22:56.479 --> 1:22:59.479 doing drive byes of their property, the Kiwi farms threats 1:22:59.520 --> 1:23:02.519 of quote burning them out of their home. They had 1:23:02.520 --> 1:23:04.519 also mentioned there was a probing incident a couple of 1:23:04.600 --> 1:23:06.840 nights before that had really set them off when they 1:23:06.880 --> 1:23:09.920 caught another unknown individual probing their fence on the southern 1:23:10.000 --> 1:23:12.479 side of the ranch. They detailed how they hadn't slept 1:23:12.520 --> 1:23:14.760 for almost forty eight hours since that incident, which had 1:23:14.800 --> 1:23:17.400 prompted their call for help. I could tell they were 1:23:17.439 --> 1:23:21.280 just done mentally, emotionally, physically, but still keeping it together. 1:23:21.760 --> 1:23:24.000 So I said something to the effect of you've done 1:23:24.000 --> 1:23:26.439 a great job, go get some rest. I'll stay up 1:23:26.479 --> 1:23:29.560 and take the watch. That was around nine pm. The 1:23:29.640 --> 1:23:31.639 crew went to get some deserved rest and I got 1:23:31.680 --> 1:23:34.400 ready to go out. Before stepping back outside, I had 1:23:34.439 --> 1:23:37.720 to ask myself what the actual funk is going on? 1:23:38.680 --> 1:23:41.479 I walked outside, grabbed my rifle and plates, put on 1:23:41.560 --> 1:23:43.800 some extra layers of warm clothes, and got ready for 1:23:43.880 --> 1:23:48.280 what turned out to be a long night. Quickly as 1:23:48.280 --> 1:23:50.800 a unicorn slept, I would have got to work making 1:23:50.840 --> 1:23:53.479 a plan to keep the property and the people they're safe. 1:23:54.280 --> 1:23:56.760 Having never been on the property, I went ahead and, 1:23:56.920 --> 1:23:59.759 to the best of my ability in the dark, started 1:23:59.800 --> 1:24:04.000 a domaining distances high low ground, points of opportunity, weakness, 1:24:04.680 --> 1:24:09.040 cover concealment, hazards, and any other unclear backdrops. Like the 1:24:09.120 --> 1:24:11.200 other residences that I had needed to be aware of 1:24:11.640 --> 1:24:14.200 that all came into play later. Based off what I 1:24:14.280 --> 1:24:17.280 found my best guesses, I started working at patrol on foot, 1:24:17.360 --> 1:24:20.280 covering the areas I thought were vulnerable and most likely 1:24:20.360 --> 1:24:23.559 for incursion. The roadside seemed like the most likely point 1:24:23.600 --> 1:24:25.880 of opportunity for them since there was no barbed wire 1:24:26.080 --> 1:24:28.519 and a single low wire fence being the only barrier 1:24:28.560 --> 1:24:31.439 to entry on the property. Pretty quickly things go weight. 1:24:31.880 --> 1:24:35.360 At around I heard the first vehicle pass by. There 1:24:35.400 --> 1:24:37.400 was decent moonlight at the time, and I could see 1:24:37.439 --> 1:24:39.280 that it matched the shape and size of the Durango. 1:24:40.040 --> 1:24:42.400 They were driving by with their lights off, slow rolling 1:24:42.439 --> 1:24:44.439 and had made a stop about halfway down the property 1:24:44.520 --> 1:24:47.840 line on the roadway. They repeated this multiple times, so 1:24:47.960 --> 1:24:49.760 this kind of confirmed my theory they would go for 1:24:49.840 --> 1:24:53.120 the easiest point of access off the roadway. The drive 1:24:53.160 --> 1:24:56.320 bys continued sporadically, and twice from high point on property, 1:24:56.400 --> 1:24:58.800 I watched them turn their headlights back on, heading towards 1:24:58.800 --> 1:25:01.000 the highway and stop on the hard pack, where another 1:25:01.080 --> 1:25:04.160 vehicle could be seen sitting with its headlights on. Although 1:25:04.160 --> 1:25:07.000 it is pretty experience in this scenario, so it's pool 1:25:07.240 --> 1:25:09.400 another of the defenders who came a few days later, 1:25:09.600 --> 1:25:11.840 And it's not my first radio with these things either, 1:25:12.000 --> 1:25:14.720 But that doesn't mean it wasn't scary for all of us, 1:25:14.800 --> 1:25:18.320 but especially for Adah arrived first and was patrolling a 1:25:18.400 --> 1:25:21.599 small farm he'd never seen, facing attacks from an unknown 1:25:21.720 --> 1:25:24.320 number of armed assailants. I can't remember how many times 1:25:24.320 --> 1:25:25.640 I wish I had my m v g's with me 1:25:25.720 --> 1:25:28.200 for better situational awareness, but they have been sent off 1:25:28.240 --> 1:25:30.720 for repairs, so I relied heavily on the moonlight which 1:25:30.800 --> 1:25:33.200 there was a decent amount of not ideal doing a 1:25:33.200 --> 1:25:35.120 foot patrol on your own and the dark with an 1:25:35.200 --> 1:25:38.719 unknown number of people. Multiple times I thought I should 1:25:38.760 --> 1:25:40.640 get one of them up. There's way more ground than 1:25:40.640 --> 1:25:43.000 I can safely cover. I don't know the terrain well enough, 1:25:43.040 --> 1:25:45.479 and doing this alone is fucking dumb if this turns bad. 1:25:46.320 --> 1:25:49.360 But of course I ignored that intuition and told myself, Okay, 1:25:49.439 --> 1:25:51.840 I'm overthinking this right now. These dudes are just trying 1:25:51.880 --> 1:25:55.200 to funk with the queers, and this is purely intimidation. 1:25:55.880 --> 1:25:58.599 I'm just gonna keep working the vulnerable areas, watch them 1:25:58.800 --> 1:26:01.559 play their dumb bulsh ship games, and let the tenacious 1:26:01.640 --> 1:26:05.120 Unicorn ranch folks rest. Besides, at the time, I didn't 1:26:05.120 --> 1:26:08.120 know the Nacus Unicorn ranch folks before that night. While 1:26:08.160 --> 1:26:10.000 they did great with what they had available to them, 1:26:10.160 --> 1:26:12.000 I had no idea how they would respond and a 1:26:12.000 --> 1:26:15.120 ship hit the fan situation, what their personal capabilities were, 1:26:15.240 --> 1:26:17.200 if they could be relied on for team movements, and 1:26:17.240 --> 1:26:19.799 didn't want to risk relying on someone running on fumes, 1:26:20.080 --> 1:26:22.880 so I said, fuck it, it'll be fine. His fears, 1:26:23.120 --> 1:26:25.960 as it turned out, were more than justified. A little 1:26:26.000 --> 1:26:28.439 before midnight cloud cover came in while I was walking 1:26:28.479 --> 1:26:30.960 along the west fence line and saw what I assumed 1:26:31.080 --> 1:26:33.240 was a dim flashlight or a cell phone light flash 1:26:33.280 --> 1:26:35.599 about halfway along the north fence line by the road, 1:26:36.120 --> 1:26:38.760 and at fifty to twenty seconds later another flash, making 1:26:38.800 --> 1:26:40.840 me think that they were moving west towards the ranch gate. 1:26:41.240 --> 1:26:43.040 It was the first time I noticed anyone on foot, 1:26:43.160 --> 1:26:45.240 so I started slowly working my way down quietly to 1:26:45.280 --> 1:26:47.040 see if I could get closer for a good visual 1:26:47.080 --> 1:26:49.559 on who it was walking the roadway. Since the moonlight 1:26:49.640 --> 1:26:52.439 went away, I stopped about forty or so yards from 1:26:52.439 --> 1:26:54.920 the gate and squatted download or reduced my profile and 1:26:55.000 --> 1:26:58.240 just watch. After about ten minutes, I heard quiet voices 1:26:58.360 --> 1:27:01.479 and then a very distinct from the man that appeared 1:27:01.520 --> 1:27:03.800 and turned to call out after he activated the gate's 1:27:03.880 --> 1:27:06.719 motion sensing light. I remember I had to stop myself 1:27:06.760 --> 1:27:09.720 from laughing from them not only having such shitty discipline, 1:27:09.920 --> 1:27:13.040 but also at what was a perfectly comical chud name. 1:27:13.560 --> 1:27:15.439 I stood up and watched another dude come out of 1:27:15.439 --> 1:27:17.240 the dark into the light of the ranch gate, who 1:27:17.360 --> 1:27:19.679 very much had the build of an earl. The first 1:27:19.720 --> 1:27:21.880 guy began lifting and pulling at the gate lock and 1:27:22.000 --> 1:27:24.720 chain while Earl was trying to cover the most sensing light. 1:27:25.400 --> 1:27:27.040 They stood at the gate and I could hear them 1:27:27.080 --> 1:27:29.280 whispering for about a minute before I got annoyed at 1:27:29.320 --> 1:27:31.320 just how dumb they were and how they didn't notice 1:27:31.360 --> 1:27:34.599 me creeping closer to them while they were doing all this. Finally, 1:27:34.800 --> 1:27:37.080 from around fifteen yards, I went ahead and lit up 1:27:37.120 --> 1:27:39.160 the two males on my flashlight, who both had their 1:27:39.200 --> 1:27:42.800 faces covered in no visible weapons and a fairly sarcastic voice. 1:27:42.840 --> 1:27:45.080 I said something to the effect of, Hey, what are 1:27:45.120 --> 1:27:47.920 you idiots doing? Stop playing with the gate. Go away 1:27:48.600 --> 1:27:51.599 it would I didn't really feel I had much recourse 1:27:51.680 --> 1:27:53.599 other than to give a verbal warning at that point, 1:27:53.760 --> 1:27:56.320 because they were still technically not on the branch property 1:27:56.560 --> 1:27:58.880 and they had not made any visible attempts to trespass 1:27:59.400 --> 1:28:02.240 or do any property damage. Both of them ran off 1:28:02.320 --> 1:28:04.960 in the most awkward, non athletic way you could think of. 1:28:05.560 --> 1:28:07.040 I didn't see anyone else in the area, so I 1:28:07.080 --> 1:28:08.960 approached the road to watch them jump into a car 1:28:09.040 --> 1:28:11.280 and drive off. I kind of laughed at myself and 1:28:11.360 --> 1:28:15.799 remember saying out loud, cut, you guys are impressively stupid. Okay, 1:28:15.880 --> 1:28:19.240 they're probing the property. Now I realized these guys weren't 1:28:19.240 --> 1:28:21.920 working at a higher operational capability. I also felt a 1:28:21.920 --> 1:28:23.800 little more comfortable that even though I didn't have my 1:28:23.920 --> 1:28:26.760 n VGs to work in the dark environment, they didn't either. 1:28:27.760 --> 1:28:29.840 After staying out for another thirty minutes to make sure 1:28:29.880 --> 1:28:31.680 they were taking a break, I went back inside to 1:28:31.720 --> 1:28:33.640 warm up for a few minutes, get some food, and 1:28:33.760 --> 1:28:36.080 change my socks. After it seemed they had maybe gone 1:28:36.160 --> 1:28:38.439 and reconvened after they got caught trying to tamper with 1:28:38.479 --> 1:28:40.840 the gate, I turned off the lights inside the house 1:28:40.880 --> 1:28:43.439 that were visible from the road so I wouldn't be visible, 1:28:43.560 --> 1:28:45.240 and also just to see if that might make someone 1:28:45.320 --> 1:28:47.760 tempted to believe that the nation's unicorn ranch folks had 1:28:47.840 --> 1:28:50.360 turned in for the night. Things were quiet for the 1:28:50.439 --> 1:28:52.920 next hour or so. While out walking close to the 1:28:52.960 --> 1:28:54.920 east fence line toward the road, I remember a fox 1:28:55.040 --> 1:28:56.800 letting out a scream from less than a hundred feet 1:28:56.800 --> 1:28:59.200 away from me that honestly was more startlingly all the 1:28:59.240 --> 1:29:01.479 other events in the night up until then. If you 1:29:01.560 --> 1:29:03.600 haven't heard of fox screaming, it does indeed sound like 1:29:03.720 --> 1:29:06.640 someone being murdered in the most brutal way possible. I 1:29:06.760 --> 1:29:09.519 had a fox, probably the same fox a few nights 1:29:09.600 --> 1:29:12.280 later on the ranch. Even in the midst of the siege, 1:29:12.360 --> 1:29:14.680 it was still a working ranch, and so as well 1:29:14.720 --> 1:29:17.960 of protecting people from violence, the ranches and they're pretty 1:29:18.000 --> 1:29:20.479 and mountain dogs also had to make sure they were 1:29:20.479 --> 1:29:25.000 protecting the chickens from foxes. Sadly, though foxes weren't the 1:29:25.080 --> 1:29:28.680 only business that night. A few hours later, a much 1:29:28.760 --> 1:29:31.880 more serious threat emerged. The night continued to be quiet 1:29:31.920 --> 1:29:34.000 for the next while, and I decided to move along 1:29:34.040 --> 1:29:36.680 the east side of the property line. The cloud cover 1:29:36.760 --> 1:29:39.000 broke around two fifteen and I could see some movement 1:29:39.040 --> 1:29:41.840 and hear low voices again. I got low and held 1:29:41.880 --> 1:29:44.080 my position since it was fairly safe. It could make 1:29:44.120 --> 1:29:46.559 out two figures walking towards me inside the property boundary. 1:29:47.160 --> 1:29:49.400 I waited until they were about thirty or so yards away, 1:29:49.439 --> 1:29:51.080 and I was pretty sure there were no others working 1:29:51.160 --> 1:29:53.439 flanks before using my rifle light to begin the process 1:29:53.479 --> 1:29:55.519 of p I d and figuring out if they were armed. 1:29:56.080 --> 1:29:57.680 As soon as I saw them, I noticed they were 1:29:57.760 --> 1:29:59.800 both armed, one with an a r with no op 1:30:00.160 --> 1:30:01.640 X and the other with an m one a with 1:30:01.720 --> 1:30:04.000 optical on it. I realized that while I had the 1:30:04.080 --> 1:30:06.320 high ground, I was not comfortable with the backdrops due 1:30:06.320 --> 1:30:08.280 to the house across the road potentially being in line 1:30:08.280 --> 1:30:10.800 with my firing position, and started shifting to a safer 1:30:10.880 --> 1:30:14.519 spot in case the confrontation escalated into an engagement. I 1:30:14.640 --> 1:30:16.320 called out my first command, while moving to a better 1:30:16.360 --> 1:30:19.719 position to their left side. You are trespassing on private property. 1:30:19.920 --> 1:30:21.800 Slowly place your weapons on the ground and show me 1:30:21.880 --> 1:30:25.559 your hands. Do it now. The two men frozen place 1:30:25.840 --> 1:30:28.679 but did not comply, and I recognized in that moment 1:30:28.920 --> 1:30:30.800 that these were two different men than who I had 1:30:30.800 --> 1:30:34.680 seen earlier. I called out again, drop your weapons or 1:30:34.680 --> 1:30:38.000 I will fire on you. Do it now. As soon 1:30:38.040 --> 1:30:40.080 as I finished that sentence, they both looked at each 1:30:40.080 --> 1:30:42.280 other with their rifles and low ready turned to the 1:30:42.400 --> 1:30:45.120 right and ran. I pursued them so that I wouldn't 1:30:45.160 --> 1:30:47.080 lose the advantage I had, and to make sure there 1:30:47.160 --> 1:30:48.719 was no way they can make it up hill towards 1:30:48.760 --> 1:30:51.240 the house or get into a more advantageous firing position 1:30:51.280 --> 1:30:54.160 if they decided to turn on me. While parallel to them, 1:30:54.200 --> 1:30:56.160 so I could keep on the uphill side, I called out, 1:30:56.400 --> 1:30:59.320 stop and place your weapons on the ground. Realizing there 1:30:59.400 --> 1:31:01.280 might be others out there watching my light move, I 1:31:01.400 --> 1:31:03.360 turned it off so I wasn't such an obvious target 1:31:03.560 --> 1:31:05.519 and made short bursts of the two men fleeings that 1:31:05.560 --> 1:31:07.800 I could maintain a visual on them. It wasn't an 1:31:07.840 --> 1:31:09.599 ideal way to handle it, but this was all an 1:31:09.640 --> 1:31:13.679 incredibly unideal situation to begin with. After sustaining a fast 1:31:13.720 --> 1:31:16.600 paced run over uneven terrain and somehow not falling on 1:31:16.680 --> 1:31:18.960 my face, I realized we were moving toward the fence 1:31:19.040 --> 1:31:21.200 line and quickly looked around with my light to make 1:31:21.240 --> 1:31:23.559 sure no one else was waiting for them and also armed. 1:31:24.439 --> 1:31:26.360 At that point, I turned my light back on them, 1:31:26.439 --> 1:31:28.680 and they both pivoted directly to the fence, since we 1:31:28.760 --> 1:31:30.719 were still some distance from the gate, where it appeared 1:31:30.720 --> 1:31:32.760 they were heading toward. The first one with the m 1:31:32.840 --> 1:31:35.040 one A pushed the fence down and hopped over. The 1:31:35.120 --> 1:31:37.360 second one panicked and with both hands tossed his a 1:31:37.560 --> 1:31:39.280 R across the small ditch on the other side of 1:31:39.320 --> 1:31:41.680 the fence, and I watched it fly halfway across the 1:31:41.720 --> 1:31:44.280 road While he struggled over the fence. He scurried over 1:31:44.360 --> 1:31:46.519 and kicked his rifle across the road before picking it up, 1:31:46.640 --> 1:31:48.840 and disappeared with the other mail into the small ravine 1:31:48.880 --> 1:31:51.920 on the other side. I realized I was disadvantaged where 1:31:51.920 --> 1:31:54.479 I was located and repositioned to a small rocky mountain 1:31:54.520 --> 1:31:56.280 nearby so that I could at least get prone and 1:31:56.360 --> 1:31:58.120 have some cover if they decided to fire on me. 1:31:58.880 --> 1:32:00.679 I laid there and recovered my breath for a minute 1:32:00.760 --> 1:32:02.720 or so, watching to see if anyone else was out there, 1:32:03.000 --> 1:32:04.519 and then moved toward the house to make sure there 1:32:04.560 --> 1:32:06.920 weren't other incursions I may have missed while occupied with 1:32:07.000 --> 1:32:11.200 the other two who disappeared after trying and failing for 1:32:11.240 --> 1:32:13.720 a second time. It seems that the local biggots took 1:32:13.760 --> 1:32:16.479 a break for the evening, but out on the unicorns couldn't. 1:32:17.120 --> 1:32:18.760 That was it for the rest of the night. I 1:32:18.840 --> 1:32:20.880 did go back down and find their entry point, where 1:32:20.880 --> 1:32:23.439 the fence had been newly damaged and bent inward, and 1:32:23.560 --> 1:32:26.439 tracks leading over the patchy snow from the roadway. Then 1:32:26.479 --> 1:32:28.320 I walked back to their egress point where the fence 1:32:28.360 --> 1:32:31.280 had been bent outward. Everything that occurred that night was 1:32:31.360 --> 1:32:34.800 clearly a hostile incursion, and they demonstrated intent to harm 1:32:34.960 --> 1:32:37.679 others on their own property. The only reason that didn't 1:32:37.720 --> 1:32:40.360 happen is because we were armed and prepared. I think 1:32:40.360 --> 1:32:42.280 they realized at that point that the ranch was not 1:32:42.400 --> 1:32:44.800 a soft target, and the occupants these men painted as 1:32:44.840 --> 1:32:47.679 weak were in fact hard people willing to protect themselves 1:32:47.920 --> 1:32:51.639 and stand up against their aggression. More importantly, the residents 1:32:51.640 --> 1:32:54.200 of the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch just wanted to be left 1:32:54.240 --> 1:33:17.040 the funk alone. It was a couple of days after 1:33:17.120 --> 1:33:19.240 Although had its run with the locals when I arrived, 1:33:19.920 --> 1:33:22.120 if one was on edge. If where we went, it 1:33:22.240 --> 1:33:24.800 was with guns. So I remember there was a point 1:33:25.160 --> 1:33:26.840 when I was here, which was like a week or 1:33:26.920 --> 1:33:30.400 so after the Aldo run, those guys off that like 1:33:31.200 --> 1:33:32.960 we were going out somewhere, and so folks like, well, 1:33:33.000 --> 1:33:36.760 can someone who is comfortable using a gun stay behind? Yeah, 1:33:37.000 --> 1:33:39.680 that's what it was at, Like, yeah, yeah, it was 1:33:40.080 --> 1:33:42.639 because not all of us like want to or can 1:33:42.960 --> 1:33:45.400 Like I can't, I'm too scared of guns. Like I 1:33:45.600 --> 1:33:48.160 recognize that they're very important. I'm glad I am surrounded 1:33:48.200 --> 1:33:51.120 by people who can like defend me, but um, and 1:33:51.240 --> 1:33:53.960 I think that's important to allow space for that too. Yeah, 1:33:55.520 --> 1:33:57.800 what kind of saying there is really important, not just 1:33:57.960 --> 1:34:00.599 for this story, but for folks listening to this and thinking, 1:34:00.680 --> 1:34:02.640 oh funk, I need to get guns. If you want 1:34:02.680 --> 1:34:04.200 to get guns, go ahead and get some if you 1:34:04.320 --> 1:34:08.000 can safely and legally. But what you need is community. 1:34:09.040 --> 1:34:11.720 Everyone at the Ranch works hard every day to keep 1:34:11.760 --> 1:34:15.160 their project going. Sometimes that's with a gun, most of 1:34:15.240 --> 1:34:17.240 the time it's with a sack of crunchy al pack 1:34:17.280 --> 1:34:24.240 of food, or sometimes with a keyboard. The community that 1:34:24.360 --> 1:34:27.000 sustains the Ranch is much bigger than the people on 1:34:27.040 --> 1:34:29.840 the ground, and it's a great illustration of the power 1:34:29.880 --> 1:34:33.960 of solidarity to sustain a project, which, in times like today, 1:34:34.000 --> 1:34:37.120 is the world a really needs today. Hundreds of queer 1:34:37.160 --> 1:34:39.840 people visit the ranch every year for hundreds of different reasons. 1:34:40.640 --> 1:34:43.679 CAT takes care of the ranches visitors a monitor social 1:34:43.760 --> 1:34:47.080 media gen helps administer a Patreon account for the ranch, 1:34:47.400 --> 1:34:51.439 complete with daily alpaca photos and updates on events. When 1:34:51.479 --> 1:34:54.920 I arrived at the ranch in it became pretty clear 1:34:55.000 --> 1:34:56.840 that I wasn't the only one who'd seen the tweet 1:34:57.840 --> 1:35:01.200 Paul Now the both have backgrounds in combat arms, both 1:35:01.200 --> 1:35:02.880 of him before it was they now I don't think 1:35:02.880 --> 1:35:05.519 we're a great idea. Both of them were waiting to 1:35:05.680 --> 1:35:08.120 use skills of State gave them to protect people who 1:35:08.200 --> 1:35:12.280 to state wouldn't Paul like Caldo and I came because 1:35:12.320 --> 1:35:17.160 of a tweet. I saw Aldo tweet like a stop 1:35:17.200 --> 1:35:19.720 sign or something, and it said, you know, a few 1:35:19.840 --> 1:35:22.840 years ago, I never would imagined being on like a 1:35:23.479 --> 1:35:30.400 transgender anarchist alpaca farm, but here I am, and I 1:35:30.600 --> 1:35:32.240 think I d med him or something. I was like, 1:35:32.360 --> 1:35:36.160 what the funk are you talking about? And uh, we 1:35:36.320 --> 1:35:41.799 ended up signal chatting and he explained what was happening 1:35:42.720 --> 1:35:46.560 and what had happened the day he was there, or 1:35:46.640 --> 1:35:47.960 one of the days he was there, and I was like, 1:35:48.000 --> 1:35:50.800 oh wow, that sounds super fucked up. Hey, I'm gonna 1:35:50.800 --> 1:35:55.320 book a flight. Before they left, they picked up another tail. 1:35:55.760 --> 1:35:59.800 We went into Westcliffe, the closest town, for something, I think, 1:35:59.880 --> 1:36:02.640 just to the gas station. And when we when we 1:36:02.760 --> 1:36:06.040 came back down at the query down by the airport, 1:36:06.120 --> 1:36:08.120 which is like three or four miles down the road 1:36:08.200 --> 1:36:11.600 towards the town, two to three vehicles pulled out and 1:36:11.640 --> 1:36:14.800 started following us, and one of them pulled down the 1:36:14.880 --> 1:36:17.960 road the ranches on and we we just drove straight 1:36:18.400 --> 1:36:21.720 and then they followed us, and we turned around two 1:36:21.840 --> 1:36:25.439 or three roads down, and then the third vehicle that 1:36:25.560 --> 1:36:29.519 had been waiting now was waiting for us to come 1:36:29.560 --> 1:36:34.760 back and pull in, so like they were trying very 1:36:34.840 --> 1:36:39.880 hard to tail anyone and get like identified. When I arrived, 1:36:40.320 --> 1:36:42.960 Paul and I slept in the guard trailer. Well, I slept, 1:36:43.479 --> 1:36:46.160 Paul stayed up all night walking patrols and keeping it 1:36:46.360 --> 1:36:48.840 on the fence line. If you're familiar with Hayduke and 1:36:49.000 --> 1:36:52.160 Edward Abby's echo anarchist novel The Monkey Ranch Gang, that's 1:36:52.200 --> 1:36:54.760 a pretty good way to envision Pool, albeit without the 1:36:54.840 --> 1:36:56.960 misogyny and racism that makes it pretty hard to have 1:36:57.000 --> 1:37:00.519 any respect for that bookoys author. Through Out the night, 1:37:00.760 --> 1:37:03.280 I check in on Paul. It wasn't a large trailer, 1:37:04.040 --> 1:37:06.040 and when I did, I looked through his night vision 1:37:06.080 --> 1:37:08.200 at the strange movement in the fields around the ranch. 1:37:09.040 --> 1:37:11.760 People seemed to huddle behind a pickup and they used 1:37:11.800 --> 1:37:14.519 a headlight to try and blind us. Now vision doesn't 1:37:14.560 --> 1:37:18.240 really work that way anymore, but they moved around throughout 1:37:18.280 --> 1:37:20.960 the night thinking that we couldn't see them, staging in 1:37:21.040 --> 1:37:23.679 different areas on the ridge, above us with the commanding 1:37:23.760 --> 1:37:26.639 field of view and presumably a field of fire as well. 1:37:27.720 --> 1:37:29.640 We assume they were trying to watch us as we 1:37:29.760 --> 1:37:33.040 sat there watching them. It was actually pretty fascinating. Um 1:37:34.000 --> 1:37:37.800 So a house that happens to be visible from the 1:37:38.120 --> 1:37:41.120 or another property that's visible from from the hilltop of 1:37:41.160 --> 1:37:44.360 the ranch was on here. Like every evening. It would 1:37:44.360 --> 1:37:47.760 start to get dark out and then like fifteen or 1:37:47.840 --> 1:37:50.880 twenty cars would show up. Oh yeah, it was like, 1:37:51.800 --> 1:37:55.840 which has never happened since yeahs, like fifteen twenty cars 1:37:55.880 --> 1:38:02.080 would show up, and um, I can't remember what precipitated it. 1:38:02.840 --> 1:38:06.200 But the second night I was here, Oh, I know 1:38:06.280 --> 1:38:08.040 what it was. Somebody had walked their dog and I 1:38:08.120 --> 1:38:10.000 happened to kind of meet them down by the gate 1:38:10.040 --> 1:38:12.040 because they were walking up the road. It was like 1:38:12.120 --> 1:38:14.160 two o'clock in the morning during a blizzard, and I 1:38:14.280 --> 1:38:17.599 was like, this is very unusual. So I met them 1:38:17.640 --> 1:38:20.720 down there, and um, I happened to have like night 1:38:20.840 --> 1:38:26.639 vision gear and they it was obviously like from them 1:38:27.800 --> 1:38:31.839 because from that point on they would actually point vehicles 1:38:31.880 --> 1:38:34.160 at the ranch with their headlights on the entire night. 1:38:35.000 --> 1:38:39.080 From some properties that are closer to the highway, which 1:38:39.160 --> 1:38:43.200 like is semi effective. It makes this bloom for fifteen 1:38:43.240 --> 1:38:45.840 ft around that vehicle, but then everything else you can 1:38:45.880 --> 1:38:48.880 just see, so it didn't matter. Inside the house, it 1:38:48.960 --> 1:38:50.800 got harder and harder to move over the course. In 1:38:50.840 --> 1:38:54.120 the next few days, a support came flooding in. There 1:38:54.200 --> 1:38:58.320 was sounding the rounds of ammunition plate carriers, plates, the 1:38:58.439 --> 1:39:01.400 kind of stop bullets, and boxes the first aid supplies. 1:39:02.360 --> 1:39:05.400 One day Paul Knight set around staging first aid kits, 1:39:05.720 --> 1:39:08.400 unwrapping and preparing the products to make them Easia to Use. 1:39:09.640 --> 1:39:13.040 People messaged every day volunteering to help, and we looked 1:39:13.080 --> 1:39:15.360 them up using some background check websites they often use 1:39:15.439 --> 1:39:17.400 to work to check that they weren't to trying to 1:39:17.479 --> 1:39:21.040 infiltrate their ranch. The amount of support that we've seen 1:39:21.600 --> 1:39:25.680 is largely absurd, Like I would have never guess that, 1:39:25.920 --> 1:39:29.639 Like people would have come out. It's hard for us. Yeah, 1:39:31.479 --> 1:39:33.519 they must be nice to know that, Like everybody fucking 1:39:33.560 --> 1:39:36.720 wants you to succeed, right, yeah, Like it gives us through, 1:39:36.960 --> 1:39:40.120 Like you can't troll me. Yeah, no, there are no 1:39:40.240 --> 1:39:42.200 haters that can get to us because of how much 1:39:42.240 --> 1:39:46.479 support that we know is out there, not only locally 1:39:46.560 --> 1:39:53.400 but internationally, like you're nationally, we have people from all 1:39:53.520 --> 1:39:55.600 over the world that have taken a moment to be 1:39:55.720 --> 1:39:58.000 like what can I do? Like what do you need 1:39:58.160 --> 1:40:01.599 right now? Like that is just like you can't roll 1:40:01.720 --> 1:40:04.519 that out of me. There is nothing you can say 1:40:04.560 --> 1:40:07.559 that and be like yeah, but also I've got twelve 1:40:07.640 --> 1:40:10.640 people who would kill you for me, so I don't know. 1:40:13.920 --> 1:40:16.559 The Ranch became something of a course celebration. The arm left, 1:40:17.200 --> 1:40:21.479 the outpouring of support was incredible. In March one, we 1:40:21.560 --> 1:40:24.240 all probably felt a little bit helpless. A summer of 1:40:24.360 --> 1:40:27.400 uprising and VAULT had yielded a new geriatric white dude 1:40:27.400 --> 1:40:30.800 in charge. COVID was still raging, and the cops had 1:40:30.800 --> 1:40:33.360 shown less anger at thousands of church storm in Congress 1:40:33.520 --> 1:40:36.040 than they did at kids holding Black Lives Matter platts 1:40:36.040 --> 1:40:38.960 in the street. In a time when it was difficult 1:40:39.000 --> 1:40:42.360 to feel powerful, the Ranch openly defying attempts to scare 1:40:42.400 --> 1:40:44.400 them out of the valley gave people a sense of 1:40:44.479 --> 1:40:47.439 success and they were more than willing to show up 1:40:47.479 --> 1:40:49.960 and help. So, yeah, I want to talk about that 1:40:50.000 --> 1:40:52.360 because you guys attempted to basically stuck up on far 1:40:52.400 --> 1:40:54.760 around at the time in American history when that may 1:40:54.800 --> 1:40:58.479 have been hardest and most expensive, And what sort of 1:40:58.560 --> 1:41:00.880 got you through was a lot odd of people from 1:41:01.120 --> 1:41:06.080 all over the Internet, sharing from all over the world, 1:41:06.400 --> 1:41:10.519 like it was literally all over the world. Any fascist organizations, Yeah, 1:41:10.560 --> 1:41:16.200 we got sent plate plate carriers. People did runs for Ammo, 1:41:16.760 --> 1:41:20.479 like people would like buy Ammo like or organize something 1:41:20.600 --> 1:41:23.400 and get Ammo and food and things and then just 1:41:23.600 --> 1:41:26.080 drive up, drop it and leave, because you know, not 1:41:26.200 --> 1:41:28.800 everybody's ready to be in like an active zone where 1:41:28.800 --> 1:41:31.240 you could get shot, but they would do runs up 1:41:31.280 --> 1:41:34.559 to drop stuff off for us. Like it was crazy crazy, 1:41:35.080 --> 1:41:38.160 But that solidarity wasn't just on the Internet. It was 1:41:38.240 --> 1:41:41.560 in the valley as well. Even before the attacks on 1:41:41.600 --> 1:41:45.120 the ranch began, the unicorns knew they were coming. They 1:41:45.200 --> 1:41:48.920 knew because people told them, and people told them because 1:41:48.960 --> 1:41:51.120 they cared about them and wanted them to be safe. 1:41:52.520 --> 1:41:55.879 They cared about them because from the outset, the unicorns 1:41:55.920 --> 1:41:59.280 had made themselves an important part of their community. When 1:41:59.320 --> 1:42:02.200 the County Star recycling waste it could be recycled, the 1:42:02.280 --> 1:42:06.080 vehiclen steppedop and volunteered to do it themselves. On my 1:42:06.200 --> 1:42:08.519 first trip, I joined Penny and Ja for the long 1:42:08.680 --> 1:42:11.840 drive into Canyon City with a rickety horse trailer full 1:42:11.880 --> 1:42:15.440 of old beer cans and a truck with a struggling transmission. 1:42:16.120 --> 1:42:18.240 The money they get paid to recycle the cans is 1:42:18.320 --> 1:42:21.000 less than the gas they spend getting there. But it's 1:42:21.000 --> 1:42:28.760 an important thing to do, so they do it. Hey Garrison, here, 1:42:29.479 --> 1:42:32.200 Now that we have talked about how the siege happened, 1:42:32.800 --> 1:42:36.639 we need to explain why. At the start of this series, 1:42:36.840 --> 1:42:39.280 we said that this was a story that was about 1:42:39.280 --> 1:42:42.960 the Internet, and it is. It's a story about how 1:42:43.080 --> 1:42:45.720 the Internet has allowed a section of the American right 1:42:46.080 --> 1:42:51.439 that's always existed to develop links and gained both power 1:42:51.600 --> 1:42:56.120 and coherence in the last two decades, thanks largely to 1:42:56.520 --> 1:43:01.160 online organizing. The story of all these groups got where 1:43:01.160 --> 1:43:04.200 they are is a long one. It starts with talk 1:43:04.360 --> 1:43:07.840 radio with Rush Limbaugh and then with Glenn Beck and 1:43:07.880 --> 1:43:11.519 the gradual drift to Fox News, from bad journalism to 1:43:11.680 --> 1:43:16.280 outright barking for genocide seven nights a week at prime time. 1:43:17.240 --> 1:43:21.080 The story that we can't tell here, not in its entirety, 1:43:21.360 --> 1:43:23.560 but we can show you a little of what it 1:43:23.640 --> 1:43:27.679 looks like when that rhetoric leaves the forums and Facebook 1:43:27.720 --> 1:43:31.320 comments and lands on the ground in a small town 1:43:31.479 --> 1:43:37.080 in Colorado. There are two versions of the truth in Westcliffe. 1:43:37.760 --> 1:43:39.920 There's the one that most of you are going to hear, 1:43:40.720 --> 1:43:43.160 and then there's the one that you can find George 1:43:43.240 --> 1:43:48.439 Gramlich purveying in his local newspaper, the Sangree Cristo Sentinel. 1:43:49.520 --> 1:43:53.400 The Sentinel is probably best summarized as a print version 1:43:53.479 --> 1:43:56.880 of the Facebook comments from some of your older relatives 1:43:56.960 --> 1:44:00.800 that you've hopefully long since muted. It's the guy who 1:44:00.920 --> 1:44:03.840 doesn't know when to stop booming on about Obama at 1:44:03.880 --> 1:44:07.960 the Thanksgiving table. But in a stream of consciousness, unedited 1:44:08.200 --> 1:44:12.360 print format, we're gonna let George lay out what the 1:44:12.479 --> 1:44:16.240 Sentinel is about in his own words. We didn't get 1:44:16.360 --> 1:44:18.760 much joy out of trying to speak with him, and 1:44:19.000 --> 1:44:22.799 not for lack of trying. I approached his office numerous times, 1:44:23.160 --> 1:44:26.040 knocking on the door and trying to have a good 1:44:26.080 --> 1:44:29.080 old chat with George. But luckily he did go on 1:44:29.200 --> 1:44:33.040 the record for the Texas t l in Exile podcast. 1:44:34.240 --> 1:44:38.200 This kind of spectacular programming two white dudes shooting the 1:44:38.240 --> 1:44:42.080 breeze is certainly a tried and true recipe for success 1:44:42.240 --> 1:44:45.760 in the podcasting space. But you could be forgiven for 1:44:46.200 --> 1:44:50.880 not having heard of this particular podcast before, because even 1:44:50.960 --> 1:44:54.200 though we knew about it, it took us forever to 1:44:54.520 --> 1:44:59.800 even find it on the hit podcasting app Rumble. Wait 1:45:00.280 --> 1:45:04.280 to Custer County from the Antarondack Mountains in northern New 1:45:04.320 --> 1:45:08.000 York about twelve years ago, and Uh, the Wois and 1:45:08.080 --> 1:45:13.760 I were basically political and second amended refugees. We had 1:45:13.800 --> 1:45:18.040 a couple of friends who had moved to uh, southern Colorado, 1:45:19.000 --> 1:45:24.080 and they said that, Uh, the most conservative county maybe 1:45:24.160 --> 1:45:28.439 in the state, So certainly in southern Colorado is Custer County. 1:45:29.280 --> 1:45:33.080 It's about an hour and a half south of Colorado Springs, 1:45:33.280 --> 1:45:40.760 high in the Rocky Mountains, population hundred m a ranking community, 1:45:42.120 --> 1:45:48.040 stunning dues, just simply beautiful. Uh. Two small towns right 1:45:48.080 --> 1:45:50.479 in the middle of the county. Each was about five 1:45:50.560 --> 1:45:55.240 six hundred people in it, and hardcore conservatives. I'd say 1:45:55.800 --> 1:46:01.879 six of the county's registered Republicans. Even in his conservative paradise, 1:46:02.360 --> 1:46:05.240 George found that most folks couldn't live up to his 1:46:05.760 --> 1:46:12.800 high standards for political engagement. After Obama got elected his 1:46:12.920 --> 1:46:18.360 first term, totally over that four year period, UH, interest 1:46:18.439 --> 1:46:22.760 in the Tea party started to diminishing as Obama was 1:46:22.880 --> 1:46:27.400 destroying the country. Um, after he got elected the second time, 1:46:27.840 --> 1:46:31.920 we had our first meeting since his election in January, 1:46:32.800 --> 1:46:35.400 and normally at that point after four years, we were 1:46:35.400 --> 1:46:40.080 again fourty sixty people showing up. At that meeting, only 1:46:40.560 --> 1:46:44.000 twelve people showed up, and it was doom and gloom. 1:46:44.320 --> 1:46:47.960 You know, Obama's destroying the conscious. Nothing we can do, 1:46:48.120 --> 1:46:51.200 blah blah blah. We started talking law pool, you know, 1:46:51.240 --> 1:46:56.280 we've got to keep Custter County red and uh and uh. 1:46:57.040 --> 1:47:01.479 And the fact came up, which is the problem in 1:47:01.560 --> 1:47:05.960 the county forever, was that the local newspaper, in the 1:47:06.040 --> 1:47:10.479 only newspaper in the county was extremely liberal paper. And 1:47:10.600 --> 1:47:13.479 we had done research over the years and we found 1:47:13.520 --> 1:47:18.840 out that a corporal America, this phenomenon was common, that 1:47:19.080 --> 1:47:22.880 the rural counties that tended to have liberal papers. And 1:47:23.080 --> 1:47:26.000 it's just to goes the lists vegetate to that media 1:47:26.200 --> 1:47:28.760 and they know they could have an influence on the 1:47:28.840 --> 1:47:33.360 population via that. So I mean, I mean it was over. 1:47:33.560 --> 1:47:36.880 We went home and on the way home, I turned 1:47:36.880 --> 1:47:40.720 to Advice said we're gonna start a paper. So uh, 1:47:40.960 --> 1:47:44.040 next day, I like it's been a whole day building 1:47:44.080 --> 1:47:46.680 a business plan on how to start a Christian conservative 1:47:46.720 --> 1:47:50.320 newspaper in the rural community. Now, we couldn't find the 1:47:50.360 --> 1:47:54.080 research that George is talking about, and that's probably because 1:47:54.560 --> 1:47:59.160 it's not true. What we can find is that largely 1:47:59.320 --> 1:48:03.400 small newspapers closed in the past fifteen years. To learn 1:48:03.439 --> 1:48:06.679 more about the newspaper business in southern Colorado, we spoke 1:48:06.720 --> 1:48:10.120 to George's arch rival, the publisher of the only other 1:48:10.240 --> 1:48:13.639 publication in the west, or at least the only other 1:48:13.720 --> 1:48:18.519 one in the valley, Jordan Hedberg. You are the editor 1:48:18.800 --> 1:48:21.800 of the owner and publisher and I could barely spell 1:48:21.880 --> 1:48:24.479 my own name, so the publisher of the Wet Mountain 1:48:24.520 --> 1:48:29.519 Tribute newspaper. Jordan's and George aren't exactly best pals, largely 1:48:29.560 --> 1:48:33.439 thanks to George's attacks on Jordan's and his publication. We 1:48:33.600 --> 1:48:36.320 asked Jordan to give us a sense of the competition 1:48:36.520 --> 1:48:39.960 in the local media market and for his overall thoughts 1:48:40.120 --> 1:48:42.680 on the Sentinel. I think it's his lies. I mean, 1:48:42.800 --> 1:48:45.920 that's the problem with the Sentinel. I don't see the 1:48:46.120 --> 1:48:50.240 media spaces as zero sum game. Um, if somebody wants 1:48:50.280 --> 1:48:54.320 to have a openly conservative newspaper, in this town. I 1:48:54.680 --> 1:48:57.839 think there's plenty of readers. Um, it doesn't really compete 1:48:57.920 --> 1:49:01.000 with me because we do just community news and we 1:49:01.040 --> 1:49:04.320 always have since three so we've been here for a 1:49:04.360 --> 1:49:07.439 little while. But I don't see it as a zero 1:49:07.560 --> 1:49:10.479 sum game until you start lying about things because you're 1:49:10.520 --> 1:49:13.600 in what you perceived to be a power struggle. So 1:49:13.760 --> 1:49:15.800 that's the problem of the Sentinel. There's there's no problem 1:49:15.800 --> 1:49:17.760 with the Sentinel overall, other than that they like to 1:49:17.800 --> 1:49:24.080 tell lies two kind of justify their existence. Yeah, Jordan's 1:49:24.120 --> 1:49:28.000 take on the founding of the Sentinel, whose logo prominently 1:49:28.080 --> 1:49:30.040 features a bald eagle on the cover. If you hadn't 1:49:30.160 --> 1:49:32.479 quite picked up on the vibe yet, it was a 1:49:32.600 --> 1:49:35.960 little different. You know. They got started in their minds 1:49:36.040 --> 1:49:40.360 during the Tea Party movement to combat hyper liberal newspaper. 1:49:40.439 --> 1:49:42.559 But they only labeled the Tribune that because they needed 1:49:42.560 --> 1:49:45.120 an enemy. You know, they were they're very whipped up 1:49:45.160 --> 1:49:49.000 about Obama getting elected and Um, at the time, there 1:49:49.040 --> 1:49:51.360 had been that Aurora shooting, and so the real reason 1:49:51.439 --> 1:49:55.080 they really got started was when Carroto put a assault 1:49:55.160 --> 1:49:58.840 weapons magazine ban into place, so you couldn't have anything 1:49:58.920 --> 1:50:02.360 that could fire more than fifteen rounds after the Aurora 1:50:02.880 --> 1:50:06.200 Theater shooting, which was I guess ten years ago this week. Um, 1:50:06.960 --> 1:50:08.640 so that that was one of the big things that 1:50:08.720 --> 1:50:11.120 really got him started, was what they felt like an 1:50:11.120 --> 1:50:14.439 attack on weapons. But they did it in a community 1:50:14.560 --> 1:50:18.000 that's very you know, pro Second Amendment. I mean at 1:50:18.040 --> 1:50:21.800 the time it was probably Republican. These days it's fifty 1:50:21.880 --> 1:50:25.639 but still a majority. Um, even the moderates and most 1:50:25.720 --> 1:50:29.000 Democrats probably have guns and are okay with the idea 1:50:29.080 --> 1:50:32.880 of that. But they had a much more militant style saying, hey, 1:50:32.920 --> 1:50:36.400 we should be allowed to arm ourselves with whatever. But 1:50:36.520 --> 1:50:38.160 again they still had to create a bunch of lies 1:50:38.280 --> 1:50:41.280 locally saying that, um, you know, at the time it 1:50:41.360 --> 1:50:47.000 was the former owner that the Tribune was hyperum liberal communist, 1:50:47.280 --> 1:50:53.599 you know, against guns, which wasn't the truth. Gun rights 1:50:53.840 --> 1:50:56.200 and the threat of gun confiscation have been a constant 1:50:56.240 --> 1:50:58.800 source of profitable panic for agitators on the right for 1:50:58.960 --> 1:51:02.560 decades now. In Westcliffe, that doesn't really seem to be 1:51:02.800 --> 1:51:07.320 much controversy about guns. People who want them have them, 1:51:07.600 --> 1:51:11.040 and people who don't don't. On my drive from the 1:51:11.120 --> 1:51:12.920 airport to the ranch, I stopped at a couple of 1:51:13.000 --> 1:51:16.680 gun stores, and I've seen people lining up to by magazines, 1:51:16.760 --> 1:51:19.320 guns and other things that they'd worried about the government banning, 1:51:19.880 --> 1:51:22.599 which seems a very odd reaction to a mass murder 1:51:22.640 --> 1:51:25.800 in your state. But once I got to rural Colorado 1:51:25.880 --> 1:51:28.800 and pass Mantique's gun room, there wasn't really any of that. 1:51:29.160 --> 1:51:31.400 It was just some old dudes depining about the relative 1:51:31.439 --> 1:51:34.559 value of different big bore revolvers and then SKS, which 1:51:34.600 --> 1:51:37.160 has been entirely violated by someone's attempt to make it 1:51:37.240 --> 1:51:41.519 more modern. George apparently has seen an earlier mass shooting 1:51:41.560 --> 1:51:45.160 in Aurora as an opportunity for the liberals and rhinos 1:51:45.320 --> 1:51:48.479 he's so loath to take away his guns, and an 1:51:48.520 --> 1:51:52.040 opportunity for him to take a stand against him. He 1:51:52.160 --> 1:51:53.880 decided to take a stand at a place where no 1:51:53.920 --> 1:51:56.320 one really disagreed with him and against the thing that 1:51:56.520 --> 1:51:59.360 wasn't really happening. But nonetheless he decided to rally the 1:51:59.400 --> 1:52:02.160 troops and whole as well. Well. But he described what 1:52:02.280 --> 1:52:05.519 he held about. I don't know, six or seven years ago, 1:52:05.640 --> 1:52:09.160 t l the lists and called Ronald Endeavor passed the 1:52:10.240 --> 1:52:13.200 gun uh gun laws, and they one of them was 1:52:13.640 --> 1:52:19.439 the magazine limitation law and before there's no limitation and 1:52:19.520 --> 1:52:22.000 they passed laws that you can't have any you can't 1:52:22.040 --> 1:52:25.680 pay any new magazines. Was more than fifteen rounds in it, 1:52:25.880 --> 1:52:29.280 but they all went to grandfather. Now during this the 1:52:29.400 --> 1:52:32.880 legislative session, as you as you remembered, the whole state 1:52:33.000 --> 1:52:35.360 was up and on about this. I mean it was 1:52:35.439 --> 1:52:40.000 demonstrations in Denver. I mean, uh, we were passed off 1:52:40.360 --> 1:52:48.519 and the SLPs passed it. So Westcliffe has uh July 1:52:48.680 --> 1:52:52.000 Forces parade that we actually took over. The settle took 1:52:52.040 --> 1:52:56.120 over at a couple of years. Uh and uh and 1:52:56.200 --> 1:52:59.840 there's usually maybe twenty five thirty floats in the entry. 1:53:00.160 --> 1:53:04.479 You know, they got the horses, who know, hold on, 1:53:04.600 --> 1:53:07.400 hold on, George. Let's dwell on that for a minute. 1:53:07.600 --> 1:53:10.360 When when I mentioned that, I came down there and 1:53:10.400 --> 1:53:13.280 then you had like five or six hundred people in 1:53:13.439 --> 1:53:17.720 this parade, Um, I think it might have got glossed over. 1:53:17.920 --> 1:53:21.680 How big are these towns to start with? Because it's 1:53:21.880 --> 1:53:26.120 it's basically a combination of Silver Cliff and West Cliff, right, Yeah, 1:53:26.200 --> 1:53:29.960 each town has about five people out of five people 1:53:32.720 --> 1:53:35.200 out of out of a total of a thousand people. 1:53:36.360 --> 1:53:38.400 I mean you you can you can describe it, but 1:53:38.520 --> 1:53:43.720 describe that to the listeners for a little bit about um, 1:53:45.960 --> 1:53:50.040 what that parade looks like versus how many people are 1:53:50.080 --> 1:53:56.759 on the sidewalk. Yeah, in the in the Pea Party 1:53:56.880 --> 1:54:00.639 had an entry and we usually had maybe people marks 1:54:00.720 --> 1:54:03.360 down with you know, gas and flags and stuff. But 1:54:03.560 --> 1:54:08.080 that that those gun laws, the MacMan I mean, just 1:54:08.680 --> 1:54:12.400 energized the sentinel tremendously. So we decided a couple of 1:54:12.520 --> 1:54:16.800 months before July fourth that we were gonna turn the 1:54:17.120 --> 1:54:21.679 Tea Party parade entry into a Second Amendment protests uh entry. 1:54:22.840 --> 1:54:29.000 So we printed up flyers and uh we innovated Southern 1:54:29.560 --> 1:54:34.280 Colorado every gun shot, park shot everything with thousands of 1:54:34.440 --> 1:54:38.600 flyers come to the Westland July forth, saying and told 1:54:38.640 --> 1:54:41.920 them what part to go to, what place to go to, 1:54:42.560 --> 1:54:46.200 and protested the c S laws and stuff like that 1:54:47.600 --> 1:54:52.880 and so uh uh So that morning the priest parts 1:54:52.920 --> 1:54:57.040 of Dena Cross, uh we set up shop in front 1:54:57.040 --> 1:55:00.600 of uh uh. We told the parade or gus, we 1:55:00.720 --> 1:55:03.720 might have some more people coming. So we've had a 1:55:03.840 --> 1:55:06.120 field where we could set up, and we set up 1:55:06.160 --> 1:55:08.560 there and we had a couple of sir we had 1:55:08.600 --> 1:55:11.800 three of us the guys there to check guns. We said, 1:55:11.840 --> 1:55:15.440 you know, you could bring uh long rifles, no magazines. 1:55:15.480 --> 1:55:19.720 They got to be clear shoulder uh carried on the 1:55:19.920 --> 1:55:22.600 holter pistols, you know. And we had all us people 1:55:22.640 --> 1:55:25.920 to check for safety and stuff like that. And so 1:55:26.080 --> 1:55:28.720 we had no idea how many people are gonna show off. 1:55:29.840 --> 1:55:33.560 And normally there's twenty five entries and maybe a hundred 1:55:33.640 --> 1:55:38.000 fifty people in the parade, maybe two hundred total, And 1:55:38.120 --> 1:55:41.720 all of a sudden, uh, on Main Street where our 1:55:41.800 --> 1:55:45.200 field was, around eight thirty, there was a traffic jam 1:55:45.880 --> 1:55:50.040 that went down like a mile both ways, and people 1:55:50.120 --> 1:55:53.560 were turning into our part a lot field there and 1:55:54.200 --> 1:55:58.360 going nowhere else and they kept common and common and 1:55:58.600 --> 1:56:03.000 common and comming. This went offor hour and a half 1:56:03.480 --> 1:56:09.000 the sha for freaking out. We had over five laundret 1:56:09.240 --> 1:56:14.440 heavily farm citizens there that morning, with about twenty military 1:56:14.560 --> 1:56:19.760 trucks and a half we had a Korean War half 1:56:19.840 --> 1:56:25.000 tract there with a fifty cow on top. Jildan the 1:56:25.080 --> 1:56:28.320 Tribune publisher, so things a little bit differently. So, but 1:56:28.520 --> 1:56:30.760 right before the sentinel got started, they were like, Hey, 1:56:30.800 --> 1:56:34.680 we're gonna advertise, and they did it. All across the state. 1:56:34.760 --> 1:56:38.400 They said, bring your big black evil guns to um 1:56:38.760 --> 1:56:42.160 Custer County. And the problem is is, you know, that 1:56:42.280 --> 1:56:44.800 was the issue. It was this is a family event 1:56:44.840 --> 1:56:47.160 and so ever since then. So what happened was in response, 1:56:47.960 --> 1:56:51.040 the Republican town Council and the Republican Chamber of Commerce 1:56:51.080 --> 1:56:53.040 all said, we're not going to have a parade. We 1:56:53.200 --> 1:56:55.840 we can't have a bunch of Rando's showing up right 1:56:55.880 --> 1:57:01.320 after the Aurora Theater shootings, carrying of amounts of firepower, 1:57:02.080 --> 1:57:04.040 even if you claim it's unloaded or whatever. We just 1:57:04.120 --> 1:57:06.560 can't have that for a family event. And so the 1:57:06.640 --> 1:57:08.320 thing is is they took out a permit and did 1:57:08.360 --> 1:57:11.720 the parade themselves. So that's really how things. So Fourth 1:57:11.760 --> 1:57:15.640 of July for them is sort of their anniversary every year. 1:57:15.760 --> 1:57:18.800 You know, they're very they really consider that whole thing 1:57:19.440 --> 1:57:22.400 to be that way. But that's really what happened. And 1:57:22.520 --> 1:57:26.560 it's a conservative area. There's no bravery MARCHI assault rifles 1:57:26.600 --> 1:57:30.680 Sucusta County. Now, if they've done in downtown Denver, where 1:57:31.200 --> 1:57:33.480 guns are banned, or at least those types of guns, 1:57:33.800 --> 1:57:35.480 at least you could say they had a backbone and 1:57:36.040 --> 1:57:39.320 taking down. But it's not MLK gang. So the problem 1:57:39.400 --> 1:57:41.560 the Sentinel is the lies. You know, if they're just 1:57:41.640 --> 1:57:44.440 a conservative paper, fine, they're allowed to have their opinion, 1:57:44.520 --> 1:57:49.520 but they tend to tell lies constantly. George had miraculously 1:57:49.880 --> 1:57:51.800 managed to turn a mass murder into a sort of 1:57:51.880 --> 1:57:55.040 pseudo victory parade for a cultural war he was fighting 1:57:55.160 --> 1:57:58.960 every day with his newspaper. Soon enough and large he 1:57:59.040 --> 1:58:02.080 sanks to this parade. The culture war will be opening 1:58:02.120 --> 1:58:12.400 a whole new front on this tenacious unicorn ranch. Of course, 1:58:12.800 --> 1:58:16.040 the Sentinel has opinions about the ranch and transpoke in general. 1:58:16.840 --> 1:58:19.840 When we arrived in Westcliffe Garretson, I grabbed a coffee 1:58:19.840 --> 1:58:22.840 at Peregrine Coffee Roasters, long term friends at the ranch 1:58:22.880 --> 1:58:25.040 and supporters of me staying up all night with Paul 1:58:25.120 --> 1:58:27.760 and an up all day with Penny and j. We 1:58:27.880 --> 1:58:30.240 also grabbed a coffee of The Sentinel from a spencer, 1:58:30.720 --> 1:58:34.080 pulled up a chair and started a live reading. Even 1:58:34.120 --> 1:58:36.080 after a year of me being aware of their rhetoric, 1:58:36.400 --> 1:58:40.880 it did not disappoint. So I just I just sarched 1:58:40.920 --> 1:58:45.040 the word gender on the Sentinel's website. We got a 1:58:45.120 --> 1:58:47.520 We got an article on social emotional Learning, which is 1:58:47.560 --> 1:58:50.800 basically the al right trying to rebrand their like a 1:58:50.840 --> 1:58:53.920 critical race theory ship, but make it even broader. Um. 1:58:54.080 --> 1:58:56.440 And we do have an article from January of last 1:58:56.520 --> 1:59:00.160 year called meat at the gun toting tenacious unicorn ins 1:59:00.160 --> 1:59:02.880 an happy Valley. That's a let's click on that and 1:59:02.960 --> 1:59:05.200 see what the Sentinel has to say. What is this? 1:59:05.360 --> 1:59:09.680 What is this guy's name, the Eric Siegel? Yes, High 1:59:09.720 --> 1:59:11.920 Country new Oh that's then what they've done. They have 1:59:11.960 --> 1:59:14.360 just they's plage rights piece fro high Gundry News. Oh 1:59:14.480 --> 1:59:17.160 so they just stroll this from somewhere else. If we're 1:59:17.240 --> 1:59:19.200 stopping here to point out that the Sentinel does this 1:59:19.320 --> 1:59:21.960 a lot. It's not clear if they have permission or not, 1:59:22.120 --> 1:59:24.080 but they seem to dedicate at least half their print 1:59:24.120 --> 1:59:27.000 prages to aggregating content. But it's mostly from the far 1:59:27.160 --> 1:59:30.800 right of the internet. Notable examples include a really spectacularly 1:59:30.920 --> 1:59:34.000 racist piece on anti material rifles which we will not read, 1:59:34.640 --> 1:59:37.560 and numerous fire right commentary sites which turned shreds of 1:59:37.640 --> 1:59:41.440 news into a thousand words of panic rundering opinion. Anyway, 1:59:41.720 --> 1:59:43.240 let's see what they have to say about the pretty 1:59:43.280 --> 1:59:45.920 good article of Eric Siegel wrote about the Unicorn ranch 1:59:46.080 --> 1:59:49.680 for High Country News. Note The Sentinel has predominantly featured 1:59:49.680 --> 1:59:53.160 in this article negatively, of course. Hold onto your cowboy hats, 1:59:53.200 --> 1:59:56.120 fellow patriots, this is one wild ride. For the first 1:59:56.120 --> 1:59:58.440 time ever, we are warning our readers that the article 1:59:58.480 --> 2:00:01.800 below is very, very disturbing in many aspects. It may 2:00:01.840 --> 2:00:04.680 not be appropriate for some folks or children. Are apologies, 2:00:04.840 --> 2:00:07.040 but the citizens of this wonderful county need to know 2:00:07.280 --> 2:00:12.720 how the county has been betrayed so apparent, I guess 2:00:12.760 --> 2:00:16.080 the article is kind of a yeah, so they do 2:00:16.160 --> 2:00:19.000 have an edit at the bottom that that's the central 2:00:19.120 --> 2:00:22.040 road based on the article. Well, folks, the veil has 2:00:22.120 --> 2:00:24.360 been lifted. For those of you who haven't seen or 2:00:24.400 --> 2:00:28.840 experienced left wing fascism here it is from Biden to 2:00:29.000 --> 2:00:32.760 Polis and all the way down to this hypocritical bunch 2:00:33.080 --> 2:00:38.400 of hate filled xenophobes. They're all the same, felt with hate, paranoia, solbrighteousness, intolerance, 2:00:38.400 --> 2:00:40.240 and the desire to rule and control, and obsessed with violence. 2:00:40.440 --> 2:00:43.240 Their radical, narrow minded view of the world and our 2:00:43.400 --> 2:00:46.560 rural community is the only allowable viewpoint. All of a sudden, 2:00:46.560 --> 2:00:49.560 the citizens of Custer County are fascists and nazis this 2:00:49.680 --> 2:00:52.880 fascist rhetoric. The George himself a transplant from outside the 2:00:52.960 --> 2:00:55.960 valley who has tried to transform local politics. It's referring 2:00:56.040 --> 2:00:59.320 to it's what sparked off the confrontation that bought me 2:00:59.520 --> 2:01:02.680 Aldough and pull to the ranch last year. Yeah, so 2:01:02.920 --> 2:01:04.640 that one wasn't even a parade. What it was was 2:01:04.760 --> 2:01:07.040 it was a protest on the fourth of July because 2:01:07.080 --> 2:01:10.480 during COVID they weren't doing any parade things, so they 2:01:10.600 --> 2:01:13.480 just did this as a protest, right, and so the 2:01:13.520 --> 2:01:16.240 sheriff and everybody, I mean, you couldn't distinguish it from 2:01:16.280 --> 2:01:19.560 a Fourth of July prade, except there wasn't. I don't 2:01:19.600 --> 2:01:22.520 think the fire department and stuff took you know, the 2:01:22.640 --> 2:01:26.200 Sheriff's office and the fire department didn't take part. And 2:01:26.240 --> 2:01:27.840 it was just it was really a bunch of people 2:01:27.920 --> 2:01:31.640 with on horses, marching guns, stuff like that. But the 2:01:31.720 --> 2:01:33.640 flags were a little more disturbing. You know, most of 2:01:33.640 --> 2:01:36.480 the American flags were replaced with three percent flags or 2:01:37.320 --> 2:01:39.840 the thin blue line flags. Um, there was a couple 2:01:39.880 --> 2:01:43.520 of Confederate flags. Always fun. I still can't figure out 2:01:45.960 --> 2:01:50.040 I still can't figure out the Confederate South here. Yeah, 2:01:50.240 --> 2:01:52.400 you know, but there is that lost cause myth that 2:01:52.560 --> 2:01:56.880 does take place here and and you know, they'll say 2:01:56.920 --> 2:02:00.440 it's not a racist flag, but it absolutely isn't. This 2:02:00.760 --> 2:02:04.120 was the parade the Unicorns called out, and this was 2:02:04.200 --> 2:02:07.160 what put them at the center of Gramlich's conspiracy riddled 2:02:07.200 --> 2:02:10.840 hate machine. Jordan gave us a little more insight into 2:02:10.920 --> 2:02:14.560 exactly who those fascist groups were, the people that The 2:02:14.600 --> 2:02:18.240 Sentinel brought to town for their little protest parade. George 2:02:18.280 --> 2:02:20.560 grime Like is a member of Oathkeepers. We've been able 2:02:20.560 --> 2:02:24.040 to confirm that through not only himself, but Thompson Writers 2:02:24.120 --> 2:02:28.920 had an investigative reporter that confirmed that for us um so, 2:02:29.000 --> 2:02:31.680 Oathkeepers is a big one three percent. You'll see some 2:02:31.800 --> 2:02:34.000 of those shirts around that the two of them are 2:02:34.080 --> 2:02:37.120 kind of synonymous. That none of it's super organized. You know, 2:02:37.280 --> 2:02:40.920 it's kind of like saying that antifa's superorganized. It's it's 2:02:41.080 --> 2:02:44.200 very decent. The problem is is that they do write 2:02:44.240 --> 2:02:47.760 extreme things, and I think people like um myself, and 2:02:47.880 --> 2:02:52.680 then you know, definitely the Unicorn ranch suffers because they 2:02:53.480 --> 2:02:55.920 they can't really spread their message without an enemy. And 2:02:56.000 --> 2:02:58.600 you were asking earlier how how much influence do they have? Ye, 2:02:58.840 --> 2:03:01.880 not a lot. They have about out eight hundred subscriptions 2:03:01.960 --> 2:03:05.000 from what I can tell, some receipts accidentally got put 2:03:05.080 --> 2:03:07.920 in my box versus there. Because we're the wet Mound 2:03:07.960 --> 2:03:11.240 Publishing company. Yeah um, and they are the Mountain Publishing 2:03:12.440 --> 2:03:14.840 the post Office at all their glory occasionally give me 2:03:14.920 --> 2:03:18.440 a win. But you know there're eight hundreds and maybe 2:03:18.480 --> 2:03:22.480 a thousand by their own own numbers. The sentinels stance 2:03:22.600 --> 2:03:27.160 on vaccines will definitely not shock you, considering everything else 2:03:27.240 --> 2:03:31.000 we've said about George and the Sentinel thus far. So 2:03:31.400 --> 2:03:34.320 this comes from market ticket dot org. Effective as a 2:03:34.360 --> 2:03:38.480 primary infection against severe, critical or fatal COVID nineteen reinfection 2:03:38.600 --> 2:03:42.400 with ninety seven point three irrespected a variant of primary 2:03:42.440 --> 2:03:45.920 infection or reinfection and were similar and with no evidence 2:03:45.920 --> 2:03:48.520 for waning some results. We found the subgroup analyzies for 2:03:48.520 --> 2:03:50.920 those less than fifty years of age. Got it? No, 2:03:51.520 --> 2:03:54.320 let me explain it. If you've got COVID ninteen lived, 2:03:54.600 --> 2:03:58.440 you're more than certain with a very narrow confidence band 2:03:59.240 --> 2:04:03.200 protected against severe or fatal d in hospital dead second infection, 2:04:03.360 --> 2:04:08.640 even though coronavirus is always mutate and I'm just going 2:04:08.720 --> 2:04:11.760 to check really quickly if that's what they're saying. Ah 2:04:12.400 --> 2:04:14.960 and normally yet they've quite a dis sort of out 2:04:14.960 --> 2:04:18.240 of context and there is no evidence of protection ever 2:04:18.360 --> 2:04:23.280 goes away. That is not what the quote says. If 2:04:23.320 --> 2:04:25.200 you look at the JAB, I think you get the picture. 2:04:25.400 --> 2:04:31.040 It's pseudo science babble, transphobia and general boomer anti wokism. 2:04:31.520 --> 2:04:33.800 Oh there's a piece here said about the You know, 2:04:33.880 --> 2:04:36.280 the U. S. Army is really struggling to recruit right now. 2:04:36.400 --> 2:04:39.440 Right Imagine you're an eighteen year old white Christian male 2:04:39.600 --> 2:04:42.680 in Georgia with a family history of military service. As 2:04:42.720 --> 2:04:45.240 you progress through your teen years, you watch Confederate statutes 2:04:45.320 --> 2:04:48.640 being torn down, a military base is being renamed, endless 2:04:48.720 --> 2:04:51.880 media and elitist demonization of your culture as racist and 2:04:51.960 --> 2:04:55.280 deplorable and backwards, and military and civilian leadership that thinks 2:04:55.360 --> 2:04:58.840 diversity and inclusion are fewer white men. It's the best 2:04:58.880 --> 2:05:02.520 thing since slight breast, I spread? Would you volunteer? Identity 2:05:02.560 --> 2:05:05.640 politics works both ways. Trash my tribe and I won't 2:05:05.640 --> 2:05:08.280 associate with you, let alone risk my life. Shouldn't be 2:05:08.320 --> 2:05:10.840 a shock then that those expressing a great deal of 2:05:11.120 --> 2:05:19.000 trust and confidence in the military dropping today. So that's why. 2:05:19.160 --> 2:05:20.480 And no one wants to do in the military because 2:05:20.480 --> 2:05:23.680 we're not doing enough confederacy. Wow, there's a whole piece 2:05:23.720 --> 2:05:26.000 on how to protect your wealth, but oh well, no, 2:05:26.120 --> 2:05:30.160 there's a whole section of this called the Second Amendment corner. Okay, interesting, 2:05:30.320 --> 2:05:32.840 there's a picture here of a bunch of a t 2:05:32.960 --> 2:05:35.839 F agents, obviously armed in plate carriers and a Pride flag. 2:05:36.480 --> 2:05:38.120 And this this is a joke, This is a funny, 2:05:38.800 --> 2:05:40.880 and it says corporate wants you to find the difference 2:05:40.920 --> 2:05:43.200 between this picture and this picture, and then it says 2:05:43.240 --> 2:05:45.120 they're the same picture. So I guess, and the A 2:05:45.240 --> 2:05:50.440 t F are out there enforcing Pride. The little meme 2:05:50.520 --> 2:05:54.440 comic that we've seen was frankly bizarre. The two pictures 2:05:54.840 --> 2:05:57.720 on this comic were an A t F a visit. 2:05:58.480 --> 2:06:01.080 This particular a t F of it got hyped up 2:06:01.120 --> 2:06:03.080 all over the right wing media as a raid, a 2:06:03.160 --> 2:06:07.160 gun grab, etcetera, etcetera. In fact, what happened was a 2:06:07.240 --> 2:06:09.000 dude purchased a lot of guns and the A t 2:06:09.240 --> 2:06:11.680 F came by to check if he had sold any 2:06:11.760 --> 2:06:15.800 of them. It's not routine, but it's not super uncommon 2:06:15.880 --> 2:06:20.040 either anyway. On one side was a photo of the 2:06:20.120 --> 2:06:23.120 A T F agents and plate carriers with rifles, and 2:06:23.240 --> 2:06:27.920 on the other was a Pride flag because apparently in 2:06:28.080 --> 2:06:31.720 Custer County the existence of queer people is a similar 2:06:31.800 --> 2:06:35.240 oppression to the people who did Waco coming to your door. 2:06:36.000 --> 2:06:39.800 Jordan's has also noted this turn in the rhetoric of 2:06:39.880 --> 2:06:43.200 the Sentinel. For two years, their sole purpose was to 2:06:43.360 --> 2:06:46.600 rail against COVID restrictions. Now, with many of those gone, 2:06:47.080 --> 2:06:49.400 along with twenty two people from the county where the 2:06:49.480 --> 2:06:53.720 average age of sixty, they've pivoted to culture war topics 2:06:54.360 --> 2:06:57.840 when election fraud and COVID don't seem to have stuck. 2:06:58.160 --> 2:07:02.600 Now it's just we're it. Um. It was all you know, 2:07:02.680 --> 2:07:06.520 the big live the election was stolen, critical race theory, 2:07:06.560 --> 2:07:10.480 even though it's a bunch of crap, and unfortunately you know, 2:07:10.520 --> 2:07:13.280 the unicorn match, if there's if there's In the past, 2:07:13.360 --> 2:07:17.000 it was more against anybody that was gay. Um, but 2:07:17.120 --> 2:07:19.160 there's not many of those in the community more because 2:07:19.160 --> 2:07:24.120 they kind of got run out and it just conserves 2:07:24.160 --> 2:07:30.320 in general really hostile deite. Yeah, but now it's you know, 2:07:30.880 --> 2:07:33.920 totally on the trans um, and again it kind of 2:07:34.160 --> 2:07:37.360 fights back against the conservative upbringing that I had, which was, 2:07:37.920 --> 2:07:40.080 as long as you're not interfering with me, then there's 2:07:40.160 --> 2:07:44.640 really no conflict. We've talked about queer extermination as rhetoric before, 2:07:45.120 --> 2:07:47.400 and it's very evident to that what we are seeing 2:07:47.480 --> 2:07:51.200 here is a version of that. Fortunately, George doesn't seem 2:07:51.240 --> 2:07:53.640 to have stuck the landing, but it doesn't mean that 2:07:53.840 --> 2:07:57.080 this stuff isn't dangerous. It goes without saying that the 2:07:57.240 --> 2:08:02.520 Unicorns weren't trying to try anyone's gender from their ranch. 2:08:03.040 --> 2:08:04.920 They were just trying to be left alone. It's not 2:08:05.320 --> 2:08:09.160 their actions that people disagreed with, it's their mere existence. 2:08:09.840 --> 2:08:13.600 And sadly, while the attack on the ranch might have failed, 2:08:14.160 --> 2:08:18.120 other attacks on queer folks haven't, and that makes havens 2:08:18.160 --> 2:08:22.879 like the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch even more important. Today. Next episode, 2:08:22.920 --> 2:08:24.520 we want to talk about what brought people to the 2:08:24.640 --> 2:08:28.080 ranch and how to make a queer home in rural America. 2:08:47.040 --> 2:08:50.000 The ranch in July two is a very different place 2:08:50.040 --> 2:08:53.440 to the one I've visited in March of one. For 2:08:53.560 --> 2:08:55.920 one thing, it's not so called that my water bottle 2:08:55.960 --> 2:08:59.400 freezes every night but more notably, there's less tension in 2:08:59.480 --> 2:09:03.080 the air, and no one's wearing a plate carrier. Not 2:09:03.320 --> 2:09:06.280 everyone who was there for the seed stayed. Some of 2:09:06.320 --> 2:09:08.920 them had only been visiting or they found other places 2:09:08.920 --> 2:09:12.520 to live since then, but Penny, cat Jen and Jay 2:09:12.760 --> 2:09:17.600 have been constant on the ranch since something I've drugged 2:09:17.600 --> 2:09:19.200 away so far, it's giving a sense of just what 2:09:19.320 --> 2:09:23.840 a welcoming and friendly place to tenaceous unicorn ranches. It's 2:09:23.840 --> 2:09:25.840 a thing I haven't really stopped thinking about since I 2:09:25.920 --> 2:09:28.200 first visited, and I think that a lot of folks 2:09:28.240 --> 2:09:31.720 have been looking for for a very long time, even 2:09:31.760 --> 2:09:34.040 in the worst time to the siege, when Penny and 2:09:34.160 --> 2:09:36.920 Jay barely slept when I was out running off ched 2:09:37.040 --> 2:09:39.520 with guns, or when Paul and I were sat up 2:09:39.520 --> 2:09:42.720 all night absolutely destroying the costcoatnag milunge that Penny had 2:09:42.760 --> 2:09:47.320 prepared for us. People always seem to be laughing. When 2:09:47.400 --> 2:09:50.000 we sat down to talk about the siege, we started 2:09:50.040 --> 2:09:52.640 off by laughing. It's a difficult topic and it was 2:09:52.680 --> 2:09:55.120 a scary time, but I guess it's easier to laugh 2:09:55.160 --> 2:09:58.000 about it a year later, when you know everyone's okay, Well, 2:09:58.120 --> 2:10:00.480 let's go over everyone's legal names, date of births, such 2:10:00.480 --> 2:10:05.600 a security number, maybe you're four digit, what art or 2:10:06.360 --> 2:10:16.440 list of fears, that sort of thing. Lots they don't have. 2:10:17.880 --> 2:10:19.960 We don't want this to be just a story about 2:10:19.960 --> 2:10:22.560 the worst week the ranch ever had. We wanted to 2:10:22.600 --> 2:10:25.200 be a story about a community that overcame adversity and 2:10:25.480 --> 2:10:29.520 is thriving. That community extends way beyond the dome which 2:10:29.680 --> 2:10:32.560 unicorns called home, and even beyond the valley that they 2:10:32.640 --> 2:10:37.080 live in. But we should start with that valley, because 2:10:37.160 --> 2:10:39.040 even at the peak of the siege, it seems like 2:10:39.200 --> 2:10:42.160 most people were on the unicorn side, or at least 2:10:42.680 --> 2:10:46.600 they just wanted to leave them alone. It was because 2:10:46.600 --> 2:10:48.800 of warnings from other people in the valley they need 2:10:48.920 --> 2:10:52.320 to patrol their perimeter at night. Had they not been there, 2:10:52.760 --> 2:10:56.800 this might be a very different story a year later, 2:10:57.360 --> 2:11:00.880 everyone in the valley values the unicorns being there. During 2:11:00.920 --> 2:11:03.640 the few days we spent there this summer, we visit 2:11:03.680 --> 2:11:07.000 neighbors for drinks. We went into town for donuts and coffee, 2:11:07.280 --> 2:11:10.240 and dropped in on Jordan's The Tribune, Polisha hits Ranch. 2:11:10.960 --> 2:11:13.280 It's none of the unicorns of pariahs sitting up in 2:11:13.320 --> 2:11:15.880 the house, surrounded by guns and afraid of what's coming next. 2:11:16.560 --> 2:11:19.400 The active members of the community, and they're very welcome. 2:11:20.360 --> 2:11:22.480 There was a time when this community wasn't as friendly 2:11:22.520 --> 2:11:26.560 to queer people, but they've always been here. I spoke 2:11:26.640 --> 2:11:28.680 to Penny about this last year, what we drove to 2:11:28.760 --> 2:11:32.720 recycling center in the next county to recycle Westliff cats. Yeah, 2:11:33.080 --> 2:11:35.160 like we're doing the same thing y'all are doing. Like 2:11:35.320 --> 2:11:38.280 you not pick up on that, like not to mention 2:11:38.360 --> 2:11:42.720 also that like there are queers here. We first wave 2:11:43.000 --> 2:11:46.520 like yeah, it's like we're not breaking any fucking mold, 2:11:46.760 --> 2:11:49.360 like you know what I mean, Like it's we're definitely loud. 2:11:49.600 --> 2:11:53.560 We're not like we didn't like get cowed down and 2:11:53.760 --> 2:11:56.560 fucking like bent over and like told to shut up 2:11:56.600 --> 2:11:59.120 our whole life. So we're definitely like fuck you were queer, 2:12:00.080 --> 2:12:04.960 uh And they don't like that, like like yeah, that 2:12:05.080 --> 2:12:08.400 makes good old boys uncomfortable and I get it. Also 2:12:08.800 --> 2:12:11.720 fuck you, Like yeah, I know we're gonna be who 2:12:11.800 --> 2:12:13.800 we are, living the way we want to. Like if 2:12:13.840 --> 2:12:17.000 you can hang to Trump flags and a Confederate flag 2:12:17.080 --> 2:12:20.000 from the back of your truck and drive down Main 2:12:20.120 --> 2:12:25.680 Street screaming fucking horrible, hateful things, and feel perfectly justified 2:12:25.720 --> 2:12:29.360 in doing that. I'm gonna just be queer, Like, I'm 2:12:29.400 --> 2:12:31.120 gonna go ahead and be as loud as I want 2:12:31.160 --> 2:12:33.560 to be. Like, obviously you think it's okay to have 2:12:33.680 --> 2:12:38.480 personal expression. Yeah, like right there, right, you really really 2:12:38.600 --> 2:12:41.920 think it's okay. So I'm gonna go ahead and take 2:12:41.960 --> 2:12:46.640 you up on that. They had to, like I keep 2:12:46.680 --> 2:12:49.520 it was some kind of like donasco tell yeah, well 2:12:49.560 --> 2:12:51.560 that's what they keep saying, does right. It's like, well, 2:12:51.640 --> 2:12:53.200 you don't have to be in our face about it. 2:12:54.000 --> 2:12:57.080 I'm just living like I'm not like you know, I'm 2:12:57.120 --> 2:12:59.600 not coming into your home and humping your couch like 2:13:00.200 --> 2:13:03.840 I'm just like. It can be easy, especially if you 2:13:04.040 --> 2:13:06.480 only connect with the royal places through the media, to 2:13:06.560 --> 2:13:09.960 see cities as queer spaces and the countryside is unfriendly 2:13:10.040 --> 2:13:13.080 to quit people. Well, politics and roll America can be 2:13:13.160 --> 2:13:16.480 pretty bad. It's never really been true that quit people 2:13:16.520 --> 2:13:20.440 don't belong there. The Unicorns pointed this out historically if 2:13:20.480 --> 2:13:24.040 you know anything about history, like country spaces are queer 2:13:24.120 --> 2:13:27.240 fucking spaces, Like we're the ones out here doing the 2:13:27.320 --> 2:13:31.520 actual work while fucking old fucking sis white men just 2:13:31.720 --> 2:13:34.760 collecting money from doing shitty ranching that damages the animals, 2:13:34.840 --> 2:13:38.000 damages the earth, and fucking does not build community or 2:13:38.040 --> 2:13:41.920 help anybody but themselves. For your integration into country spaces 2:13:42.040 --> 2:13:45.200 is so fucking important because we bring heart and empathy 2:13:45.320 --> 2:13:49.240 and all these things. Uh that that capitalism has stripped 2:13:49.280 --> 2:13:53.840 out of these areas. Um, we bring that back, and 2:13:53.880 --> 2:13:57.280 we've always fucking been here. Like fun off, real cowboys 2:13:57.360 --> 2:14:03.280 were constantly fucking constantly, They fucked a lot each other, 2:14:03.400 --> 2:14:06.600 and they were mostly like black and brown people. Yeah, yeah, 2:14:06.680 --> 2:14:09.880 it wasn't white. The West was not white. And by 2:14:09.920 --> 2:14:12.520 the way, like we have said this before and we'll 2:14:12.520 --> 2:14:15.520 say it again, nature is inherently queer. And we fucking 2:14:15.600 --> 2:14:20.000 belong here, like we fucking belong wherever the funk we go, 2:14:20.360 --> 2:14:23.280 Like that is a queer space. There is no like 2:14:23.640 --> 2:14:28.280 hard line that country spaces are for sis people. Fuck that, Like, 2:14:28.440 --> 2:14:30.760 we belong here. We've always been here, and we're really 2:14:30.800 --> 2:14:34.320 good at it. After the siege and its coverage, everyone 2:14:34.440 --> 2:14:37.440 knows that the Unicorn Tolte quer icons, but they are 2:14:37.480 --> 2:14:40.280 only parts artical queer community and they have other folks 2:14:40.320 --> 2:14:43.560 over for Game ninth once a week. They told us 2:14:43.640 --> 2:14:46.480 one story about Pride Month in Westcliffe this year, and 2:14:46.560 --> 2:14:49.000 thankfully it didn't involve the a t F. There was 2:14:49.040 --> 2:14:52.840 a really adorable during Pride Month, we went to Family Dollar, 2:14:53.400 --> 2:14:55.280 which is like one of the few stores in town, 2:14:55.880 --> 2:14:58.880 and I guess we were talking to the manager who 2:14:58.960 --> 2:15:02.640 was checking us out and uh and he mentioned like, oh, yeah, 2:15:02.720 --> 2:15:04.800 like I have, like I have a gay and a 2:15:04.880 --> 2:15:07.080 trans working here, Like you know, I love y'all, you know, 2:15:07.320 --> 2:15:09.640 And it was it was very it was a little 2:15:09.840 --> 2:15:12.160 a little embarrassing, but but the heart was there. It 2:15:12.240 --> 2:15:18.320 was very like But but the point is, like, like 2:15:18.480 --> 2:15:22.400 even Family Dollar, in the middle of nowhere Westcliff has 2:15:22.520 --> 2:15:27.680 two queer employees, Like, you know, we're everywhere. Queer people 2:15:27.920 --> 2:15:31.080 had always been in the valley, but it had become 2:15:31.160 --> 2:15:33.960 harder to share who they were with their neighbors in 2:15:34.200 --> 2:15:40.280 recent decades. They never stopped existing, but they stopped being safe. Yeah, 2:15:40.480 --> 2:15:42.440 we're connecting with a lot of queer people that have 2:15:42.520 --> 2:15:45.680 lived here for a long time. Yeah. It's the fact 2:15:45.800 --> 2:15:49.440 that a community is so hostile that their queer community 2:15:49.520 --> 2:15:52.640 has to be closeted does not mean that the queer 2:15:52.720 --> 2:15:55.080 community isn't here. It just means that a lot of 2:15:55.160 --> 2:15:59.160 assholes are here. Don't ask, don't tell, an institutional version 2:15:59.200 --> 2:16:02.800 of closeting, is something that Penny is very familiar with. 2:16:03.720 --> 2:16:05.880 She was in the Army as a Calvary scout while 2:16:05.920 --> 2:16:08.760 the policy was still in place. If you're not familiar, 2:16:08.840 --> 2:16:11.120 Don't Ask, Don't tell was a military policy that was 2:16:11.160 --> 2:16:14.800 in place nineteen ninety four until two thousand eleven. Under 2:16:14.840 --> 2:16:17.640 the policy, anyone who wasn't straight was to remain in 2:16:17.760 --> 2:16:21.400 the closet, and in theory they were protected from discrimination, 2:16:22.040 --> 2:16:24.960 but if they came out as gay or buy or 2:16:25.040 --> 2:16:29.360 trans or otherwise queer, they could be discharged. Queer people 2:16:29.400 --> 2:16:32.080 were not even allowed to talk about anything related to 2:16:32.240 --> 2:16:36.840 their queerness because doing so, quote would create an unacceptable 2:16:36.959 --> 2:16:40.040 risk to the high standards of morale, good order, and 2:16:40.120 --> 2:16:44.760 discipline and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability. 2:16:45.160 --> 2:16:49.760 Don't ask, don't tell. Like, I remember a girlfriend when 2:16:49.760 --> 2:16:53.440 I was in the military, UM, and I definitely was like, 2:16:54.160 --> 2:16:58.600 this is my best friend of Germany and it sometimes 2:16:58.640 --> 2:17:02.520 spends the night because we're best friend knows, I don't know. 2:17:02.680 --> 2:17:05.480 It was really really damaging. It was just really really 2:17:05.600 --> 2:17:10.520 damaging to like not being able to be yourself. Um. 2:17:11.040 --> 2:17:13.880 But then also like be able to leave posts and 2:17:14.000 --> 2:17:16.440 have a secret life where you were yourself, you know, 2:17:16.680 --> 2:17:19.280 like and then when you go out with the guys, 2:17:19.440 --> 2:17:21.520 like there's always those weird moments where you like do 2:17:21.760 --> 2:17:26.840 run into other gay locals that you have like known 2:17:27.080 --> 2:17:31.440 and like you've had deep conversations with another context and 2:17:31.560 --> 2:17:34.560 just have to be like, no, don't don't talk to me. 2:17:34.720 --> 2:17:37.800 Everyonet know each other, um, which is I'm sure damaging 2:17:37.959 --> 2:17:41.400 for them, you know, like that can't be fucking normal, Like, 2:17:42.400 --> 2:17:45.360 I don't know, that's weird. And then on the throw 2:17:45.440 --> 2:17:48.040 on top of that that you're also a girl, like 2:17:48.320 --> 2:17:49.800 you know what I mean, Like, so you're pretending to 2:17:50.000 --> 2:17:58.160 be a gay man who's straight sometimes around certain people, um, 2:17:58.520 --> 2:18:05.640 but really you're gay. You're a bisexual woman um pre 2:18:05.959 --> 2:18:11.280 surgery and with the wrong um hormones. And so it 2:18:11.440 --> 2:18:16.640 just ends up being a soup of just like compartmentalization 2:18:16.680 --> 2:18:19.280 to the point where you just like forget people and 2:18:19.360 --> 2:18:21.360 then they show back up and you're like, oh, yeah, 2:18:21.480 --> 2:18:24.760 like you're from this quadrant of my life. Like I 2:18:24.800 --> 2:18:28.080 don't know, it's not healthy. Yeah, it doesn't do good things. 2:18:29.000 --> 2:18:32.160 Don't ask, don't tell. Had pretty devastating consequences for the 2:18:32.200 --> 2:18:36.359 mental health of thousands of service people. The National Transgender 2:18:36.440 --> 2:18:39.960 Discrimination Survey found that of trans people have served in 2:18:40.000 --> 2:18:43.240 the military over twice the rate of cis gender people, 2:18:44.080 --> 2:18:47.240 but until very recently, they weren't even allowed to do 2:18:47.400 --> 2:18:50.520 so openly. Not being able to be yourself with people 2:18:50.560 --> 2:18:54.120 that you're expected to risk your life for isn't really 2:18:54.480 --> 2:18:58.880 conductive to good morale or indeed quote the unit cohesion 2:18:59.000 --> 2:19:03.560 that is the essence of military capability. There's no doubt 2:19:03.720 --> 2:19:08.240 that being familiar with guns, something they gained from military experience, 2:19:08.920 --> 2:19:11.960 did help the unicorns, but it's not the only thing 2:19:12.120 --> 2:19:15.600 that helped them. Sometimes, especially on Twitter, where things seem 2:19:15.640 --> 2:19:17.920 to get reduced to simple terms to fit into the 2:19:18.000 --> 2:19:21.480 discourse of the day, the Tenaceous Unicorn Ranch story has 2:19:21.520 --> 2:19:26.120 been reduced to a story about guns. Undoubtedly, guns are 2:19:26.200 --> 2:19:28.920 a part of the story, but they would have been 2:19:29.040 --> 2:19:33.000 useless without community and solidarity. That is something that the 2:19:33.120 --> 2:19:36.760 unicorns at the ranch have taken to heart. A year later, 2:19:36.959 --> 2:19:39.520 they're doing mutual aid work with the Lakota people on 2:19:39.640 --> 2:19:43.680 the Pine Ridge Reservation, driving truckloads of donations to them 2:19:43.760 --> 2:19:47.720 every few months and using their Internet presence to get donations. 2:19:48.440 --> 2:19:50.240 If we want to look at this story as an 2:19:50.280 --> 2:19:53.680 example of anarchism in action, and it's important to remember 2:19:53.879 --> 2:19:56.000 that if we want a world where the state is 2:19:56.080 --> 2:19:59.359 not the only entity with the ability to do violence, 2:19:59.680 --> 2:20:01.520 then should also want a world where it's not the 2:20:01.600 --> 2:20:06.039 only entity responsible for caring for people with unmet material needs. 2:20:07.160 --> 2:20:10.560 Alongside ranch work, Penny and j also make ends meet 2:20:10.800 --> 2:20:15.240 by working construction jobs on local buildings. Something that George 2:20:15.400 --> 2:20:18.400 from the Sentinel is very proud of and that other 2:20:18.600 --> 2:20:22.000 local residents are beginning to regret, is that Custer County 2:20:22.200 --> 2:20:25.480 doesn't have a building code. Here's the snippet of his 2:20:25.640 --> 2:20:30.320 conversation with t L about that. Then one example, t 2:20:30.600 --> 2:20:34.200 L is, who county is so free? We don't even 2:20:34.240 --> 2:20:37.840 have building codes. If you're going to live here, you 2:20:37.920 --> 2:20:40.520 can build yourself a shock with tway to live in it. 2:20:41.440 --> 2:20:43.840 You know. That's uh, that's the way it is here 2:20:44.400 --> 2:20:50.400 in my little Bergen, Texas too. Do you really need him? 2:20:50.560 --> 2:20:54.000 Do you really need I mean, that's something I think 2:20:54.040 --> 2:20:59.360 should be attacked in other ways. But go ahead, but 2:21:00.000 --> 2:21:03.000 to one of the things that make Custer County and 2:21:03.160 --> 2:21:06.040 one of the reasons I moved to this one. Yeah, yeah, 2:21:06.080 --> 2:21:13.480 I mean that basically cause housing crisis, who become unreachable 2:21:13.520 --> 2:21:17.240 for the middle class. The problem with this conservative utopian 2:21:17.360 --> 2:21:19.880 vision is that it has resulted in a lot of 2:21:19.920 --> 2:21:24.160 residents getting ripped off by less than upstanding builders and 2:21:24.440 --> 2:21:28.520 now left with their homes falling apart. That's where Penny 2:21:28.560 --> 2:21:31.119 and Jake can step in and make a decent side 2:21:31.160 --> 2:21:35.320 income drywalling and finishing buildings that well often are not 2:21:35.520 --> 2:21:40.119 very old, are already crumbling. Like we've always said, um, 2:21:40.440 --> 2:21:46.400 this community is awesome. UM and that has held true. 2:21:46.520 --> 2:21:50.800 We uh we do contracting work because there are no 2:21:51.520 --> 2:21:55.960 UM building codes in Custer County, as opposed to what 2:21:56.200 --> 2:22:00.080 like the libertarian ideal of no building codes is. It 2:22:00.120 --> 2:22:02.400 actually just means that there's a bunch of shoddy houses 2:22:02.440 --> 2:22:06.920 that need repaired constantly. UM. And we have construction skills. 2:22:07.320 --> 2:22:12.400 So we're in people's homes, repairing them and doing work 2:22:12.520 --> 2:22:16.960 for the actual people of the county daily. UM. We 2:22:17.480 --> 2:22:20.080 frequent businesses up here because we're all about local support. 2:22:20.120 --> 2:22:25.440 We build community, UM gleefully, we build community like we 2:22:25.560 --> 2:22:28.200 really enjoy it up here. The community now is a 2:22:28.240 --> 2:22:32.160 little smaller than when James first visited. Currently five people 2:22:32.320 --> 2:22:35.000 live at the ranch full time, but they still have 2:22:35.080 --> 2:22:37.720 a couple of trailers open to transfolks in need of 2:22:37.800 --> 2:22:40.960 a safe place to stay or you know, visiting journalists 2:22:42.160 --> 2:22:44.840 looking for a safe place to stay. Is how Jay 2:22:45.120 --> 2:22:48.080 first came to the ranch. Like a lot of us, 2:22:48.240 --> 2:22:50.840 she had a difficult time at the start of the pandemic. 2:22:51.280 --> 2:22:53.680 The world was changing and it seemed in May of 2:22:54.560 --> 2:22:57.640 that America was as well. For a lot of people 2:22:57.840 --> 2:23:02.680 with less progressive parents, the BLM uprising presented a difficult 2:23:02.760 --> 2:23:06.560 choice between family and community. Jay was one of those 2:23:06.600 --> 2:23:12.360 people that had to face that choice. So basically, um, 2:23:13.240 --> 2:23:17.880 I was living in Dallas, work in retail when living 2:23:17.920 --> 2:23:25.760 in my car when the um pandemic started, and so 2:23:25.959 --> 2:23:30.560 I was furloughed. Luckily, Texas is actually surprisingly good about unemployment, 2:23:31.280 --> 2:23:35.480 so I you know, had that. Um it was my 2:23:35.640 --> 2:23:40.800 parents are retired from the military around there, and when 2:23:40.959 --> 2:23:45.520 the BLM uprisings happened, Uh, I participant, you know, did 2:23:45.600 --> 2:23:51.720 some things, and basically my parents were like, you either 2:23:52.760 --> 2:23:56.080 can stay here or and not be associated with Antifa, 2:23:57.000 --> 2:23:59.680 or you know, you you can't stay here if you're 2:23:59.680 --> 2:24:02.800 as social shaded with Antifa and so I was like, okay, 2:24:03.000 --> 2:24:07.039 I'm I guess I'm leaving then, which is fine. Um, 2:24:07.400 --> 2:24:12.040 there was a lot of tension there anyways. Uh it 2:24:12.160 --> 2:24:17.680 wasn't good for me, so um I because of the unemployment. 2:24:17.720 --> 2:24:19.600 I was like, okay, I you know, for once, have 2:24:20.600 --> 2:24:23.119 some resources. I can just kind of you know, I'm 2:24:23.120 --> 2:24:25.680 already living in my car. I can just kind of 2:24:25.720 --> 2:24:29.960 travel around for a bit. Why not? And I think 2:24:30.000 --> 2:24:33.120 I just posted on Twitter like trans commune whin you know, 2:24:33.240 --> 2:24:37.920 as as probably most queer people have, and one of 2:24:38.000 --> 2:24:41.640 my permaculture mutuals actually it was like, hey have you 2:24:41.720 --> 2:24:43.720 heard of this place? It's not far from you and 2:24:44.360 --> 2:24:47.520 posted a link to I think it was the Vice article. Yeah, 2:24:48.280 --> 2:24:52.520 And I sent a message and with a bunch of 2:24:52.640 --> 2:24:55.120 questions about it and making sure it wasn't you know, 2:24:55.360 --> 2:24:58.480 like trans medicalists or anything like that, which is always 2:24:58.520 --> 2:25:00.959 like what you want to see when somebody contacts the ranch, 2:25:01.040 --> 2:25:04.520 think about coming up, I wait, prefer an in depth 2:25:04.560 --> 2:25:07.040 breakdown and a lot of questions to I'll just show 2:25:07.120 --> 2:25:10.440 up and figure it out. In case you're not familiar 2:25:10.520 --> 2:25:13.720 with what a trans medicalist is, will let Paul ask 2:25:13.840 --> 2:25:16.800 that question for you. And we're gonna play this not 2:25:16.920 --> 2:25:19.880 to make Paul look bad. We're playing it for you 2:25:20.080 --> 2:25:22.760 because I think it's important to see what kind of 2:25:22.920 --> 2:25:26.440 space the ranch is. It's not one where you can't 2:25:26.480 --> 2:25:29.039 get things wrong. It's one where you can ask if 2:25:29.080 --> 2:25:32.400 you don't know something. And because everyone there had shown 2:25:32.440 --> 2:25:34.960 that they're willing to risk life and limb for one another, 2:25:35.640 --> 2:25:38.199 they assume that you're asking it because you care about 2:25:38.240 --> 2:25:40.240 them and you want to know how to say things 2:25:40.320 --> 2:25:42.840 in a way that won't hurt anyone. What the fund is? 2:25:42.879 --> 2:25:49.040 A trans medicalist someone who think that primarily well, so 2:25:49.200 --> 2:25:51.720 this does not describe any of us, but a trans 2:25:51.800 --> 2:25:55.320 medical list is someone who, uh, first and foremost thinks 2:25:55.360 --> 2:25:57.879 that all trans people should be on hormones, all trans 2:25:57.959 --> 2:26:00.920 people should have surgery, all trans people drive towards or 2:26:02.280 --> 2:26:04.800 and they don't believe in yeah, and they don't believe 2:26:04.840 --> 2:26:07.240 in anything but the gender binary as well, Like basically, 2:26:07.480 --> 2:26:11.960 if you don't want to transition directly from like a 2:26:12.120 --> 2:26:15.920 male to a female or direct whatever to a male, like, 2:26:16.120 --> 2:26:21.760 you're not not transon did they think they think those 2:26:21.800 --> 2:26:29.280 trans people are making it worse for other trans people? Like? Okay, so, 2:26:29.440 --> 2:26:32.000 like that was my next question to like our non binary. Yeah, 2:26:32.040 --> 2:26:34.240 they hate those people. They think they're faking so but 2:26:34.520 --> 2:26:38.800 like do they say they're not trans and different groups 2:26:39.600 --> 2:26:42.760 they often call them trans trenders because it's like a 2:26:42.840 --> 2:26:47.400 popularity contest. They think, so, yeah, okay, and those people suck. 2:26:47.920 --> 2:26:50.760 Jay has found a home at the Ranch now, and 2:26:51.000 --> 2:26:53.160 just like everyone else there, she's a part of the 2:26:53.200 --> 2:26:55.960 family which takes care of one another. It was actually 2:26:56.000 --> 2:26:58.720 really funny because Jay showed up and the assumption I 2:26:58.800 --> 2:27:00.520 thought was that just gonna stay for a little bit 2:27:00.560 --> 2:27:02.600 and then you just didn't leave it. It was great. Yeah, 2:27:05.000 --> 2:27:08.640 it was very exactly what you know a lot of 2:27:08.720 --> 2:27:11.680 queer people talk about online, which is ye, well, when 2:27:11.800 --> 2:27:15.000 Jay brought a passion that we hadn't seen with a 2:27:15.080 --> 2:27:16.920 lot of people that had come up. A lot of 2:27:16.959 --> 2:27:20.160 people had come up with this like yeah, we'll just 2:27:20.280 --> 2:27:22.760 see what it is or whatever. But Jay came up 2:27:22.800 --> 2:27:27.600 with like knowledge about theory and like had studied and 2:27:27.760 --> 2:27:31.959 was really like conscientiously a part of this project um, 2:27:32.120 --> 2:27:34.800 which was huge. I mean for me, like part of 2:27:34.920 --> 2:27:37.720 what Jay has been able to help with is organizing 2:27:37.879 --> 2:27:41.240 the moving of animals to different pastors. James was at 2:27:41.280 --> 2:27:43.720 the Ranch last year when they were replacing their old 2:27:43.760 --> 2:27:49.360 fence and planning out their fields ready as fence. UM 2:27:49.959 --> 2:27:54.160 and this back fence here as we build the new 2:27:54.480 --> 2:27:58.280 kind of structure for the girls out in matt Field. UM, 2:27:58.520 --> 2:28:02.800 when we're doing the fence heightening, so it's not only 2:28:04.040 --> 2:28:07.800 um security increase, but we're also we'll fence off the 2:28:07.959 --> 2:28:11.480 driveway and then the girls watch the babies that mama 2:28:11.520 --> 2:28:14.439 will actually get access all the way down the driveway 2:28:14.480 --> 2:28:17.280 and up this hill a little bit. Hey, babies, come on, 2:28:18.680 --> 2:28:22.400 um and uh yeah, we'll just structure our fields a 2:28:22.440 --> 2:28:25.680 little bit better, and then the girls will have two pastures, 2:28:26.240 --> 2:28:29.200 which is kind of we can rotate them into. We 2:28:29.280 --> 2:28:32.440 can start actual perma culture or is it perma culture? 2:28:32.480 --> 2:28:35.520 I said, I mean it's regeneration in this context, it's 2:28:35.560 --> 2:28:38.280 like regenerative agriculture. Thank you, That's what I was like. 2:28:38.400 --> 2:28:40.960 You know, you can also like perma culture. People do 2:28:41.080 --> 2:28:43.200 it too, you know. Yeah, but but what we're doing 2:28:43.320 --> 2:28:47.039 is that's both. Really we'll be doing both. Okay, yeah, 2:28:47.200 --> 2:28:50.200 so you can use either our experts. There's definitely an 2:28:50.240 --> 2:28:53.800 industry like, oh, regenerative agriculture is the new thing, and 2:28:54.120 --> 2:28:57.240 but it's still capitalism and it's still exploitative, but there 2:28:57.280 --> 2:29:02.240 are also people doing real regenerative talking with j it's 2:29:02.480 --> 2:29:05.560 very evident just how passionate they are about these topics 2:29:06.040 --> 2:29:10.560 and how things like biodiversity and regenerative and permaculture processes 2:29:11.200 --> 2:29:14.120 tie you into many aspects of the ranch itself. The 2:29:14.400 --> 2:29:19.600 you know, capitalist project is homogenization and simplification. The entire 2:29:19.720 --> 2:29:22.400 goal is things like mono crops. The entire goal is 2:29:22.720 --> 2:29:25.680 you know, you know, the gender binary and controlling the 2:29:25.760 --> 2:29:31.880 reproduction of labor, controlling sis, women and queer gender expression 2:29:32.120 --> 2:29:33.960 is a big part of that. Like you can't have 2:29:34.200 --> 2:29:40.120 those things and have a capitalist, white supremacist environment where 2:29:41.480 --> 2:29:44.840 you can extract from the earth and from labor. That 2:29:45.040 --> 2:29:48.680 is such a key component of this whole, like you know, 2:29:49.400 --> 2:29:52.200 m Western project or whatever you want to call it. 2:29:52.680 --> 2:29:55.360 And nature doesn't care. Nature is queer nature, like nature 2:29:55.360 --> 2:30:00.720 is just exists. Fungi have thousands of sex as engenders 2:30:01.520 --> 2:30:06.200 and that's fine, in fact, that's in fact, like the 2:30:06.520 --> 2:30:09.320 part of the point of nature is biodiversity because that 2:30:09.480 --> 2:30:14.400 is the most effective method for actually iterating and testing 2:30:14.640 --> 2:30:18.720 what works and sing and surviving and and we're biomodal 2:30:18.800 --> 2:30:21.560 by the way not binary like, and you know, if 2:30:21.600 --> 2:30:23.119 you need to look that up, you can go ahead 2:30:23.120 --> 2:30:28.400 and do that. And in Perman culture in particular, you 2:30:28.480 --> 2:30:31.360 know some one big problem with Perman culture is there's 2:30:31.360 --> 2:30:35.680 a lot of white people who uh use the practices 2:30:35.959 --> 2:30:39.680 and don't acknowledge that it all comes from indigenous cultures. 2:30:39.760 --> 2:30:43.640 It all comes from indigenous life ways, and they make 2:30:43.680 --> 2:30:47.160 a lot of money by not saying that not. You know, 2:30:47.720 --> 2:30:51.240 so that's important to address. Uh. Perma culture has its 2:30:51.680 --> 2:30:56.879 you know, value. But if you're not learning from indigenous 2:30:56.879 --> 2:30:59.320 people and giving back to Indigenous people, you're doing wrong. 2:31:01.040 --> 2:31:04.720 Just because the immediate threat of armed men breaking into 2:31:04.760 --> 2:31:08.840 the ranch has gone away doesn't mean that they still 2:31:08.920 --> 2:31:13.160 don't have to be careful. In April one, after the 2:31:13.400 --> 2:31:18.120 siege was over, the then sheriff Shannon Byerley claimed that 2:31:18.440 --> 2:31:20.440 one of his deputies went to the ranch to ask 2:31:20.600 --> 2:31:23.800 questions about a road traffic accident that one of the 2:31:23.920 --> 2:31:27.160 ranchers had been involved in. He claimed the deputy was 2:31:27.280 --> 2:31:31.560 met by armed and uncooperative ranchers who barred the deputy 2:31:31.640 --> 2:31:36.040 from entering. Bodycam video obtained by Reuter's thanks to a 2:31:36.120 --> 2:31:40.280 Public Records Act request, shows nothing of the sorts, the 2:31:40.360 --> 2:31:43.320 deputy met a single person, not visibly armed, who was 2:31:43.520 --> 2:31:48.200 polite and courteous. In subsequent interviews, Bierley acknowledged that he 2:31:48.280 --> 2:31:51.120 had been mistaken in his account, but we'll let you 2:31:51.240 --> 2:31:54.560 hear Jay's account of the events that day. So, my 2:31:54.840 --> 2:31:58.240 Chevy Blazer had been sitting over the winner. Um, it 2:31:58.400 --> 2:32:01.119 had a bad alternator, and I've finally like we finally 2:32:01.200 --> 2:32:05.960 got you know, the money together, fixed to replace the alternator. UM, 2:32:06.400 --> 2:32:11.000 looked it over. Everything seemed fine. Um, And I was 2:32:11.120 --> 2:32:15.959 going back to Texas to grab some stuff and bring 2:32:16.080 --> 2:32:23.160 it back. Um. And I went around apparently Black Ice Corner, 2:32:23.360 --> 2:32:26.720 and I'm pretty sure what happened was my tire popped 2:32:26.720 --> 2:32:30.120 around Like I was only going like thirty because you know, 2:32:30.720 --> 2:32:34.520 black there's ice. It's still went Yeah it was. It 2:32:34.640 --> 2:32:36.320 was like four or five o'clock in the morning or 2:32:36.360 --> 2:32:39.960 something like that, and I'm pretty sure what happened was 2:32:40.040 --> 2:32:43.040 my tire popped and then my Blazer proceeded to tumble, 2:32:43.959 --> 2:32:49.840 uh you know, roll over, yeah, into the Luckily not 2:32:49.959 --> 2:32:52.160 a ditch or anything, just on the left of the 2:32:52.280 --> 2:32:56.200 south left side of the road. And so I called 2:32:56.280 --> 2:33:00.360 Penny and got picked up. Yeah, we take care of 2:33:00.440 --> 2:33:02.080 them when we're not going to call the cops. It 2:33:02.200 --> 2:33:06.160 was it only was you there no reason. And then 2:33:06.280 --> 2:33:08.600 I was like, okay, let me look at towing around 2:33:08.640 --> 2:33:11.320 the area. Let me see and the towing the local 2:33:11.400 --> 2:33:14.879 towing company which is just like a small family owned 2:33:17.280 --> 2:33:22.440 one guy basically. Um, they on their Facebook like business 2:33:22.560 --> 2:33:25.000 page they said they opened at like nine or ten 2:33:25.160 --> 2:33:26.840 or something like that. So I was like, okay, So 2:33:26.920 --> 2:33:28.560 I'm it's gonna be on the side of the road 2:33:28.640 --> 2:33:31.120 until then. That's fine, I'll call and I'm going to 2:33:31.200 --> 2:33:32.680 go to sleep until then because I was just in 2:33:32.720 --> 2:33:37.039 a rollover actually probably can cuss, like yeah, probably whiplashed 2:33:37.080 --> 2:33:40.959 at least. And then so I was in my trailer 2:33:41.360 --> 2:33:45.320 and I suddenly in my pj's and suddenly get a 2:33:45.360 --> 2:33:48.320 call from dispatch and they're like, there's a deputy at 2:33:48.360 --> 2:33:51.039 your gate. Uh you know, can you go blah blah blah. 2:33:51.200 --> 2:33:55.760 So I was like, okay, take took a vehicle downs. 2:33:56.240 --> 2:33:57.960 I didn't. I didn't have a pistol in the car 2:33:58.080 --> 2:34:03.920 around me, and um, I basically just you know, as 2:34:04.000 --> 2:34:08.240 you do with cops, as any sane human does, answer 2:34:10.120 --> 2:34:13.080 to the extent that you're legally required to be polite, 2:34:13.160 --> 2:34:14.960 but also like I'm not going to invite you on. 2:34:15.120 --> 2:34:17.800 I'm not gonna be your friends. You're not my friend, 2:34:18.600 --> 2:34:22.680 um he he he. You know, he did the usual, 2:34:22.800 --> 2:34:24.880 like you know, where you were you drinking, and I 2:34:24.959 --> 2:34:28.720 was like, it's like five o'clock in the morning. It's 2:34:28.760 --> 2:34:31.560 like six o'clock right now, Like I was going back. 2:34:31.720 --> 2:34:33.680 I was driving back to Texas to pick up stuff. 2:34:33.760 --> 2:34:35.800 I was starting a road trip. That's not when you 2:34:35.959 --> 2:34:43.480 like get blitzed, like yeah, and uh so he gave 2:34:43.520 --> 2:34:46.720 me his card and left, and I was like, Okay, 2:34:46.800 --> 2:34:49.400 that's you know, that's fine. That was weird, but and 2:34:49.600 --> 2:34:52.959 it was weird to me too that like they apparently 2:34:53.000 --> 2:34:57.400 have some kind of relationship with this toeing guy where 2:34:57.879 --> 2:34:59.920 because they didn't even ask me, like, hey, do you 2:35:00.040 --> 2:35:04.160 they just to this place? Yeah, they just towed it 2:35:05.120 --> 2:35:10.520 before they even contacted me. And so either you bring 2:35:10.640 --> 2:35:13.360 the title over to sign it over to the towing person, 2:35:14.120 --> 2:35:17.280 or you pay him like four or five out here 2:35:17.400 --> 2:35:20.520 to bring it back here. So that's what actually happened. 2:35:21.040 --> 2:35:24.880 But then for some reason, the local sheriff started telling 2:35:25.000 --> 2:35:28.640 a very different account of what took place outside the 2:35:28.760 --> 2:35:34.840 unicorns driveway. So that was the that was the actual incident. 2:35:35.480 --> 2:35:39.720 Then Byerley, the sheriff started getting interviewed, and in those 2:35:39.800 --> 2:35:43.680 interviews he would say they there were six of them. 2:35:43.959 --> 2:35:47.160 They met us at the gate, armed, were extremely hostile, 2:35:47.200 --> 2:35:50.560 to the point where my my sheriff felt definitely felt 2:35:50.800 --> 2:35:54.120 fear for his life and had to retreat back and 2:35:55.080 --> 2:35:57.959 fear for his life. But he also said we don't 2:35:58.120 --> 2:36:01.880 go there anymore. He said on record, we don't go 2:36:02.000 --> 2:36:05.680 there anymore because it's too scary. And so that is 2:36:05.800 --> 2:36:08.480 setting us up to be killed. That is setting us 2:36:08.560 --> 2:36:10.840 up to be marked by the place. It's like, you know, 2:36:11.000 --> 2:36:15.680 this is Kiwie Farm, says this all the time, this 2:36:15.800 --> 2:36:19.080 is trany Waco. Yeah, And that is the setup for 2:36:19.240 --> 2:36:22.960 it to become that. And so because then now all 2:36:23.040 --> 2:36:25.000 of his deputies are just ready to shoot us on 2:36:25.040 --> 2:36:28.840 site because we're dangerous. A reporter from Reuters was looking 2:36:28.879 --> 2:36:32.160 into the incident and heard the conflicting stories from the 2:36:32.240 --> 2:36:35.400 sheriff and the unicorns, but she thought of an easy 2:36:35.480 --> 2:36:39.280 fix to definitively know what happened. She just boy the 2:36:39.400 --> 2:36:45.320 body cam footage, which proved unequivocally that they were lying 2:36:45.480 --> 2:36:48.160 there fucking ass off and we were telling the truth. 2:36:49.080 --> 2:36:51.400 And Byerley retired this year. I don't know if well, 2:36:51.480 --> 2:36:55.240 and she when she oh, yet it she went back, 2:36:55.920 --> 2:36:58.160 oh god, yeah, And Byerley was like, can I remove 2:36:58.240 --> 2:37:01.440 my comments from because she asked she she like, I 2:37:01.440 --> 2:37:03.000 don't know if it was a follow up, do you 2:37:03.120 --> 2:37:07.480 have any additional comments? And his additional comments were, can 2:37:07.520 --> 2:37:10.480 you please remove my my previous statements from the record, 2:37:10.760 --> 2:37:14.160 she said, And she emphatically said no and then published 2:37:14.200 --> 2:37:19.040 it internationally. This wasn't the first suspect incident regarding the 2:37:19.160 --> 2:37:22.440 local sheriffs. When Paul was at the ranch and the 2:37:22.480 --> 2:37:26.480 immediate aftermath of the original siege, he witnessed cops hanging 2:37:26.520 --> 2:37:29.520 out with a group of people who were actively harassing 2:37:29.600 --> 2:37:33.800 the ranch. I was here for a week and at 2:37:33.879 --> 2:37:37.440 one point they always like fifteen to twenty cars at 2:37:38.080 --> 2:37:41.520 shud Ranch. Which it's up to you to release that location, right, 2:37:41.760 --> 2:37:45.640 we just call the ranch. You can you can visit. 2:37:45.720 --> 2:37:47.760 You can see it from the you can you can 2:37:47.800 --> 2:37:50.840 see it from here. And um, there were two sheriffs 2:37:50.840 --> 2:37:53.840 deputies sitting at the curb the entire time as those 2:37:54.040 --> 2:37:58.000 cars pulled in there, and they were protecting our assets. Yeah. Well, 2:37:58.000 --> 2:38:00.360 they were sitting there side by side talk to each 2:38:00.360 --> 2:38:03.119 other while the cars told them that you probably said 2:38:03.280 --> 2:38:06.040 have said this before and I just don't didn't remember. Yeah, 2:38:06.040 --> 2:38:08.320 I mean it must them. So the other end of 2:38:08.360 --> 2:38:15.039 that is then when it got publicized, the sheriff then said, oh, 2:38:15.120 --> 2:38:16.959 we don't, we don't know anything about it, Like they 2:38:17.000 --> 2:38:21.760 didn't contact us. We didn't, They couldn't verify the statements 2:38:21.800 --> 2:38:25.080 made in the media about threats against the ranch. Were 2:38:25.200 --> 2:38:27.560 just hanging out at the fascist and they were super 2:38:27.600 --> 2:38:30.720 stooty about it. They made it sound like, well, ranch 2:38:30.800 --> 2:38:33.040 clearly doesn't want to be part of our community, so 2:38:33.120 --> 2:38:35.840 I would help them. That seemed to be the implication. 2:38:36.160 --> 2:38:41.440 Sheriff Byerley, who spoke at aft Oathkeepers rally, has since 2:38:41.560 --> 2:38:46.680 resigned as a sheriff, but for understandable reasons, the Unicorns 2:38:46.920 --> 2:38:50.840 still don't dial when they feel in danger. Instead, they 2:38:50.879 --> 2:38:53.920 reach out to Paul to Aldo and a network of 2:38:54.000 --> 2:38:57.240 community members who helped with their security both online and 2:38:57.480 --> 2:39:01.520 on the ground. They also routine train with firearms and 2:39:01.600 --> 2:39:04.280 have added a much more serious fence to the property 2:39:04.600 --> 2:39:09.840 than the one that the intruders climbed over. Right after 2:39:10.120 --> 2:39:13.440 James and I's most recent visit this past summer, Kiwi 2:39:13.520 --> 2:39:16.080 Farms started being in the news a lot more due 2:39:16.080 --> 2:39:19.200 to a campaign attempting to take it down. But as 2:39:19.280 --> 2:39:22.800 the hate Forum entered the discourse again, the Unicorns had 2:39:22.840 --> 2:39:27.400 started noticing cars driving past the ranch repeatedly, something that 2:39:27.560 --> 2:39:31.400 Paul Aldo and James observed during the siege, and now 2:39:31.520 --> 2:39:34.560 in just the past few weeks, trans people have been 2:39:34.720 --> 2:39:37.800 killed in a nightclub just an hour away from their house, 2:39:38.440 --> 2:39:40.800 just a few miles away from the bar where we 2:39:40.920 --> 2:39:45.320 met them this past summer. To celebrate at Jay's birthday tomorrow, 2:39:45.480 --> 2:39:48.320 we'll talk about what those threats mean for the ranch 2:39:48.720 --> 2:40:06.560 and where they are now. On our drive down from 2:40:06.640 --> 2:40:09.720 Denver to Westcliff. We were first going to meet up 2:40:09.760 --> 2:40:13.720 with the Unicorns in Colorado Springs for a little birthday dinner. 2:40:14.800 --> 2:40:18.400 James and I arrived a few hours early, so I 2:40:18.600 --> 2:40:21.640 had the bright idea to stop at the headquarters of 2:40:21.760 --> 2:40:27.200 the evangelical media organization focus on the Family. I hadn't 2:40:27.240 --> 2:40:30.480 been there since I was a little Christian kid, so 2:40:30.800 --> 2:40:32.800 I was curious what it would be like for me 2:40:32.959 --> 2:40:35.959 to walk through. Now, what was it like walking through 2:40:36.000 --> 2:40:40.680 their little headquarters and welcome center. What were the general vibes? 2:40:41.640 --> 2:40:47.160 That was fucking bonkers? Um, so we went in Initially, 2:40:47.560 --> 2:40:52.879 We've gone into the bookshop and I found a book 2:40:52.920 --> 2:40:55.240 that told me the holding hands is for play. That 2:40:55.360 --> 2:40:58.360 was called sex in a Marriage. I've seen a book 2:40:58.400 --> 2:41:00.560 with a pink triangle on the cover it that it's 2:41:00.560 --> 2:41:04.560 about LGBTQ people, which is deeply truck and traveling. Well, 2:41:04.760 --> 2:41:08.119 it's it's it's about men struggling with their sexual identity. 2:41:08.480 --> 2:41:11.039 I see on the way to stop that struggling. Yeah, 2:41:11.240 --> 2:41:15.840 genocide queer elimination of st rhetoric hasn't just been confined 2:41:15.959 --> 2:41:21.000 to Christian bookstores or the Internet. In November, it once 2:41:21.040 --> 2:41:26.160 again became very clear how this kind of NonStop hate 2:41:26.200 --> 2:41:30.680 speech being beamed into everyone's homes impacts them. On the 2:41:30.800 --> 2:41:35.280 eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, as Club Q gay 2:41:35.360 --> 2:41:38.800 bar in Colorado Springs was preparing for an all ages 2:41:38.879 --> 2:41:42.320 drag show, a twenty two year old shooter walked in 2:41:42.680 --> 2:41:47.240 and killed five people, leaving twenty five more injured. The 2:41:47.280 --> 2:41:50.840 shooter was ultimately tackled and pistol whipped by a US 2:41:50.920 --> 2:41:54.800 Army veteran, Richard Fierro, and stomped in the face by 2:41:54.840 --> 2:41:59.440 an unidentified trans woman. A few days after the club 2:41:59.560 --> 2:42:03.560 que joting on so called Thanksgiving, the Focus on the 2:42:03.640 --> 2:42:08.920 Family headquarters was defaced, leaving behind a graffiti message pointing 2:42:08.959 --> 2:42:13.560 out the organization's culpability from pioneering the kind of gay 2:42:13.680 --> 2:42:19.480 exterminationist propaganda that the modern conservative right is embracing. The 2:42:19.560 --> 2:42:22.240 message left on the property that James and I visited 2:42:22.320 --> 2:42:26.200 just a few months prior, read quote, their blood is 2:42:26.360 --> 2:42:32.440 on your hands, five lives taken way back in I 2:42:32.520 --> 2:42:35.360 put together behind the Bastards on Focus on the Family 2:42:35.480 --> 2:42:39.360 and their founder, James Dobson, and I've covered Focus on 2:42:39.400 --> 2:42:44.520 the Family's increase in anti trans propaganda earlier this year 2:42:44.800 --> 2:42:48.400 on this very show. After the graffiti was left on 2:42:48.480 --> 2:42:51.800 their headquarters on Thanksgiving, a statement was released by the 2:42:51.920 --> 2:42:55.240 Colorado People's Press, and I'm going to read a few 2:42:55.360 --> 2:42:59.080 parts of that quote. It is no accident that the 2:42:59.200 --> 2:43:03.840 club queue shoeoting happened in Colorado Springs, a city steeped 2:43:03.959 --> 2:43:08.560 in homophobia, transphobia, and white supremacy. It is no surprise 2:43:08.640 --> 2:43:11.160 that somebody did this in this city that is home 2:43:11.280 --> 2:43:14.880 to such a hateful organization as Focus on the Family. 2:43:15.720 --> 2:43:18.560 If you visit their website, you will see them eagerly 2:43:18.720 --> 2:43:22.240 display their desire to rid the world of all queer people. 2:43:23.240 --> 2:43:26.199 It is important to us that you understand why Focus 2:43:26.280 --> 2:43:29.840 on the Family must be held accountable for the ramifications 2:43:30.000 --> 2:43:34.439 of their hateful theology. You have likely seen the onslaught 2:43:34.600 --> 2:43:37.760 of anti trans legislation, of which Focus on the Family 2:43:37.920 --> 2:43:42.400 is a huge proponent, both in funding and propaganda. Focus 2:43:42.480 --> 2:43:48.000 on the Family's goal is to eradicate queerness. Unquote. Two 2:43:48.200 --> 2:43:50.640 of the five people killed in the club queue shooting 2:43:50.840 --> 2:43:54.600 were trans people, and in the days after the attack, 2:43:55.160 --> 2:43:58.240 figures on the right continued to call for attacks on 2:43:58.320 --> 2:44:02.000 trans people and drag queens, using their familiar language of 2:44:02.400 --> 2:44:06.800 groomers and grooming, while of course completely ignoring multiple figures 2:44:06.879 --> 2:44:10.280 within their own myths to have very well documented relationships 2:44:10.320 --> 2:44:13.960 with people convicted or suspected of sex crimes. But obviously 2:44:14.120 --> 2:44:16.520 evidence or logic doesn't really make a difference in these 2:44:16.560 --> 2:44:20.040 types of situations. What's happened is that a handful of 2:44:20.240 --> 2:44:24.800 figures on the right have decided that they can gain power, influence, 2:44:24.879 --> 2:44:28.920 and money by whipping up hatred towards queer people. With 2:44:29.120 --> 2:44:32.680 this hate has come an uptick in violence, and this 2:44:32.840 --> 2:44:37.560 only makes queer havens like the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch more important. 2:44:38.680 --> 2:44:42.000 Last month, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after a donut shop hosted 2:44:42.040 --> 2:44:45.280 a drag queen and queer art event, a man in 2:44:45.360 --> 2:44:47.760 a maca hat smashed the windows of the store with 2:44:47.800 --> 2:44:51.280 a baseball bat and threw in a Molotov cocktail. The 2:44:51.360 --> 2:44:55.480 attacker also taped a note with Bible verses and homophobic 2:44:55.560 --> 2:44:58.760 and transphobic slurs on the window of a neighboring shop. 2:44:59.320 --> 2:45:01.960 This wasn't the time the store had been targeted, and 2:45:02.080 --> 2:45:05.080 this attack happened a day before the shop was set 2:45:05.200 --> 2:45:09.600 to host another drag art event. On December three, a 2:45:09.680 --> 2:45:13.760 right wing activist and former US Army psychological operations officer 2:45:14.240 --> 2:45:18.520 claimed on Facebook that God had caused a power outage 2:45:18.640 --> 2:45:22.119 in Moore County, North Carolina, in an effort to shut 2:45:22.200 --> 2:45:25.040 down a drag show that was currently taking place in 2:45:25.160 --> 2:45:29.920 a local theater. Earlier that same day, a holiday themed 2:45:30.000 --> 2:45:34.240 drag show in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by a Unitarian Universalist 2:45:34.360 --> 2:45:39.080 church was canceled due to threats and protests outside by 2:45:39.240 --> 2:45:43.600 Proud Boys, Patriot Front and a number of unidentified armed 2:45:43.680 --> 2:45:48.760 men in Cammo Patriot Front chanted blood, liberty, and victory, 2:45:49.520 --> 2:45:54.280 while the Proud Boys chanted Feds Feds Feds back at them. 2:46:08.640 --> 2:46:12.520 Despite their disagreements, the two groups seemed perfectly fine working 2:46:12.600 --> 2:46:16.320 together to shut down the drag event. The Nazi group 2:46:16.480 --> 2:46:18.920 White Lives Matter Ohio was set up a few blocks 2:46:18.959 --> 2:46:22.280 away in their skull masks and were seek hiling two 2:46:22.360 --> 2:46:26.600 drivers passing by. After it became clear the drag show 2:46:26.760 --> 2:46:29.520 was not going to take place, the groups moved to 2:46:29.600 --> 2:46:33.160 a busier, more visible street to waive their groomer signs. 2:46:33.959 --> 2:46:37.880 A few dozen Patriot Front members stood chanting outside of 2:46:37.920 --> 2:46:42.200 a Chipotle as a Christian Diminiist flag flew behind them. 2:46:43.680 --> 2:46:46.240 On December seven, someone fired a gun through the window 2:46:46.440 --> 2:46:49.280 of a bar in rent in Washington after threats against 2:46:49.280 --> 2:46:52.199 the bar were posted online for hosting a drag queen 2:46:52.400 --> 2:46:56.280 story time Just a few days ago. On December the 2:46:56.440 --> 2:47:02.160 FBI designated extremist militia group named This Is Texas Freedom 2:47:02.240 --> 2:47:06.480 Force showed up armed with guns outside of a Christmas 2:47:06.560 --> 2:47:10.400 themed drag show in San Antonio, Texas. Other right wing 2:47:10.480 --> 2:47:13.960 groups like the San Antonio Family Association and the Fascist 2:47:14.040 --> 2:47:18.400 Patriot Front also had numbers present. By the end, the 2:47:18.520 --> 2:47:23.080 crowd protesting the drag show was greatly outnumbered by people 2:47:23.240 --> 2:47:27.080 showing up to support and defend the queer event, some 2:47:27.240 --> 2:47:40.040 of whom also showed up armed. What do we do? 2:47:41.879 --> 2:47:45.000 Something that was mentioned across the multiple interviews we did 2:47:45.120 --> 2:47:50.119 while visiting the ranch is the idea of microcosm and macrocosm. 2:47:50.920 --> 2:47:54.000 The Tenacious Unicorn Ranch story and the threats of violence 2:47:54.080 --> 2:47:58.360 that they have faced really does embody a microcosm version 2:47:58.600 --> 2:48:03.360 of the transphobic and queer eliminationist rhetoric and genocide campaign 2:48:03.760 --> 2:48:07.680 that the country as a whole is experiencing. It's just 2:48:07.840 --> 2:48:11.600 that this local manifestation of it happened to be on 2:48:11.680 --> 2:48:15.840 an alpaca farm. As odd as that may be, apparently 2:48:16.000 --> 2:48:19.000 kind of funny. And and then put the way they 2:48:19.200 --> 2:48:21.160 run with their head all the way down to the ground, 2:48:21.320 --> 2:48:30.560 and just yeah that impracticalities. Yeah, little camels, animals straight 2:48:30.600 --> 2:48:35.800 out of you know what they really are. They have 2:48:35.879 --> 2:48:39.760 the same amount of magic. Yeah, just driving up here 2:48:39.879 --> 2:48:45.800 seeing them, I was like, wow, Yeah, they are like 2:48:46.040 --> 2:48:48.680 unicorns are like a mythical and it's just kind of like, wow, 2:48:48.800 --> 2:48:52.360 is this real? It's like a fucking tont on what's on. 2:48:54.240 --> 2:48:57.400 They just looks so snuggleble. I want to snuggle them. 2:48:57.680 --> 2:48:59.480 And the way they walked like that, like that like 2:48:59.640 --> 2:49:06.320 Crew you're ocome. Yeah, when they do a trot like Americana. 2:49:08.680 --> 2:49:11.720 This is clown. He's an asshole, but he's a really 2:49:11.800 --> 2:49:16.640 good dad. Yeah. For this last episode of the series, 2:49:17.000 --> 2:49:19.199 we want to give you a sense of what regular 2:49:19.320 --> 2:49:21.720 life is like at the ranch now that it's been 2:49:21.720 --> 2:49:25.000 almost two years since the siege and people have had 2:49:25.080 --> 2:49:30.119 time to process, grow and adapt. One thing that's growing 2:49:30.320 --> 2:49:36.080 is the number of alpacas, something like that. With the 2:49:36.240 --> 2:49:39.080 recent crea is born, we are a hundred so about 2:49:39.080 --> 2:49:44.720 an alpaca. Um, let's talk a little bit about alpacas. 2:49:44.800 --> 2:49:47.800 I think they're interesting, right, And you came into both 2:49:47.840 --> 2:49:53.080 your alpaca as rescues. Yeah, yeah, were so. At the 2:49:53.160 --> 2:49:58.360 original ranch, we purchased ten alpaca, but it was like 2:49:58.440 --> 2:50:01.240 a rescue purchase. The only way that we could get 2:50:02.560 --> 2:50:04.560 them to give them up as if we paid money 2:50:04.600 --> 2:50:07.160 for them. But they were like they needed new homes. 2:50:07.240 --> 2:50:09.480 That was all from really lovely people. It was just 2:50:09.560 --> 2:50:13.000 like these weren't alpaca. They wanted um. And then we 2:50:13.160 --> 2:50:17.400 learned really quickly that there is a that there's a 2:50:17.600 --> 2:50:22.240 problem in America with alpaca ranchers aging out of being 2:50:22.280 --> 2:50:25.760 able to take care of these really massive herds that 2:50:25.840 --> 2:50:31.039 they've built and either euthanizing or splitting up herds, which 2:50:31.240 --> 2:50:34.280 is both things are not great for the health of 2:50:34.400 --> 2:50:43.000 the alpaca. Yeah. Um, that ends that story. But so 2:50:43.200 --> 2:50:47.600 we found really quickly that there is a as a rescue, 2:50:47.760 --> 2:50:50.560 we were able to help more animals and afford animals, 2:50:50.640 --> 2:50:55.200 you know, like uh because and because we were on 2:50:55.320 --> 2:50:58.000 the acres that were on we could take in entire 2:50:58.200 --> 2:51:01.520 herds and not break them up, which is a big deal. Um. 2:51:01.800 --> 2:51:06.920 And so our first intake of rescues was seventies six 2:51:07.000 --> 2:51:11.080 alpaca from a really great couple in horse Tooth that 2:51:11.280 --> 2:51:17.600 was retiring really great animals, hardy, really quality fiber um 2:51:17.720 --> 2:51:19.640 and we just kind of have been with that model 2:51:19.680 --> 2:51:23.720 ever since as a rescue. And the way you you 2:51:24.440 --> 2:51:28.920 like sustainable as the run cheese, in addition to working outside, 2:51:29.000 --> 2:51:31.960 is selling the fiber, right, the fiber from the animals. Yeah, 2:51:32.240 --> 2:51:35.920 both sheep and the alpaca provide fiber that we then 2:51:35.959 --> 2:51:38.760 turned into Really what we do is turn it into yarn. 2:51:38.920 --> 2:51:42.040 And then sell the yarn. We've never needed to go 2:51:42.120 --> 2:51:44.320 beyond that because we've always sold out of our yarn 2:51:44.480 --> 2:51:48.560 almost immediately. Speaking of sheep, here's a nice little clip 2:51:48.720 --> 2:51:52.879 of James fawning over some of the door sets. There's 2:51:52.920 --> 2:52:05.120 a dead nice looking sheep. There's some of them that 2:52:05.200 --> 2:52:09.960 are mixed with the remember what the black face Scotch 2:52:10.040 --> 2:52:14.800 black face? Yeah, um, and they're they're a really lovely mix. Yeah, 2:52:14.920 --> 2:52:18.080 that's a nice combination. Actually pretty rugged, big and just 2:52:18.280 --> 2:52:20.920 rugged like they put up with everything. Yeah. You can 2:52:20.959 --> 2:52:23.200 see their coats are just like bread, like they're just 2:52:23.560 --> 2:52:27.360 a doughey. Yeah. Yeah. The dorsets have like a nice 2:52:27.440 --> 2:52:29.720 thick fleece and they were like well fleas on the 2:52:29.800 --> 2:52:32.680 head and the night. Yeah, they make really good We 2:52:32.840 --> 2:52:36.320 mixed it with our alpacking yard this year. It's a 2:52:36.440 --> 2:52:39.720 wonderful yarn. It's really rough thinking that there's people that 2:52:39.840 --> 2:52:45.520 are just like fucking out pack of farmers. What's going 2:52:45.600 --> 2:52:47.600 wrong in your life? The US so angry at someone 2:52:47.720 --> 2:52:51.760 for looking after these fleefy animals. Yeah, Like the big 2:52:51.840 --> 2:52:54.120 thing was there was that moment where like they have 2:52:54.360 --> 2:52:57.920 the Nazi barid in town and that's what really like 2:52:58.680 --> 2:53:00.840 we called them out on it, and that's what started 2:53:00.879 --> 2:53:08.680 the animosity. But like it was a great of Nazis, Like, like, 2:53:08.840 --> 2:53:12.800 I don't feel bad, Like it's weird that they took 2:53:12.879 --> 2:53:15.240 it to the level of oh, yeah, well we're going 2:53:15.280 --> 2:53:18.000 to burn down your house and kill you all. That 2:53:18.080 --> 2:53:22.199 will show you, Yeah, it'll show us that your Nazis. 2:53:23.959 --> 2:53:28.400 In our conversation with Jordan's from The Tribune, as somebody 2:53:28.640 --> 2:53:32.080 who was born and raised in this area, he gave 2:53:32.200 --> 2:53:35.920 us his perspective on why people may have thought they 2:53:36.000 --> 2:53:39.920 could get away with attacking the ranch and how there 2:53:39.959 --> 2:53:43.480 has been this cultural shift in recent years to allow 2:53:43.720 --> 2:53:47.480 this kind of reactionary militancy. You know, again, I don't 2:53:47.520 --> 2:53:50.520 think it was anything super organized other than a bunch 2:53:50.600 --> 2:53:54.280 of these individuals that had already been sort of organized 2:53:54.920 --> 2:53:59.040 deciding to do something really stupid. Yeah, and knowing that 2:53:59.160 --> 2:54:01.240 the sheriff and will at other people wouldn't take it 2:54:01.320 --> 2:54:03.400 that seriously. That's what I wondered. Yeah, they thought they 2:54:03.440 --> 2:54:05.320 could get away with it, and they've been a history 2:54:05.360 --> 2:54:07.000 of that, Like if they've done as that sort of 2:54:07.040 --> 2:54:09.560 thing happened in the valley in the past, and there's 2:54:09.600 --> 2:54:11.560 been plenty of just as I said, but you know, 2:54:11.640 --> 2:54:14.520 but usually that stuff wasn't condoned, so eventually they get 2:54:14.600 --> 2:54:19.400 caught in terms of like like pressuring or minorities. You know, 2:54:19.480 --> 2:54:21.640 in the past, there was there was always some of 2:54:21.680 --> 2:54:24.360 those types of things, but it also wasn't condoned or 2:54:24.400 --> 2:54:27.680 even excused even against most If it came out, then 2:54:27.720 --> 2:54:31.440 those people were chunned and shamed even by Republicans. But 2:54:32.160 --> 2:54:34.840 these days it's much more like, well, we'll look the 2:54:34.920 --> 2:54:39.320 other way, you know. Now it's tipped the other direction, thankfully. 2:54:39.560 --> 2:54:43.360 So far, the efforts of these few individuals to harm 2:54:43.640 --> 2:54:48.160 or pressure the Unicorns out of the community have unequivocally failed, 2:54:48.680 --> 2:54:52.480 and in some ways just made stronger bonds. Yeah. They 2:54:52.560 --> 2:54:54.879 wanted you to leave, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean all 2:54:54.959 --> 2:54:58.000 of it was designed to make you so afraid you 2:54:58.040 --> 2:55:04.680 would go away. Yeah, like yeah, terrorism, and that hasn't happened, right, 2:55:04.720 --> 2:55:08.080 So you await a year and change, year and a 2:55:08.080 --> 2:55:12.600 half all nice? Yeah, two years in two years and 2:55:12.720 --> 2:55:16.920 change and a year plus since since racist And how 2:55:16.959 --> 2:55:20.320 are things now? I think at this point people legitimately 2:55:20.360 --> 2:55:23.720 love us like locals, like, yeah, people call us the Unicorns, 2:55:23.920 --> 2:55:26.840 and they everybody knows who we are. And it's and 2:55:26.959 --> 2:55:30.720 not in a bad way, like it's really we feel 2:55:30.920 --> 2:55:34.800 at home here. Because of the timing of their initial 2:55:34.959 --> 2:55:39.320 move over to West Cliff, it made local community building 2:55:39.800 --> 2:55:43.160 kind of challenging and little did they know that they 2:55:43.200 --> 2:55:47.520 would crucially need community and support in the month to come. 2:55:48.480 --> 2:55:53.160 So because it was during the pandemic uh and everything 2:55:53.280 --> 2:55:57.560 was on lockdown, we didn't establish a lot of community 2:55:58.040 --> 2:56:02.360 we Uh. Any moved in who was somebody we knew 2:56:02.520 --> 2:56:05.720 down in birth It which was very close to us, uh, 2:56:05.800 --> 2:56:08.360 and so she moved up here at the exact same 2:56:08.440 --> 2:56:10.800 time we were moving up here. So we did have 2:56:11.080 --> 2:56:13.960 like somebody that we could like talk to and interact with. 2:56:14.080 --> 2:56:15.600 But they were just as new to the area as 2:56:15.680 --> 2:56:19.440 we were. Um. And I mean honestly setting up a 2:56:19.560 --> 2:56:22.720 ranch and moving from one location to another when you're 2:56:22.720 --> 2:56:26.240 talking about like multiple hundreds of animals and at that 2:56:26.320 --> 2:56:29.760 point we were six people. Uh. We were very self 2:56:29.840 --> 2:56:32.800 focused for the first six months we were up here. UH. 2:56:32.920 --> 2:56:35.240 So our general sweep was they have Shakespeare in the 2:56:35.320 --> 2:56:40.200 park and it's a tourist town, so it seems great. 2:56:40.840 --> 2:56:44.080 We moved here because we could afford this house and 2:56:44.240 --> 2:56:47.800 no other house in Colorado uh, and then and then 2:56:47.879 --> 2:56:50.119 it slowly started to become a parent that we've moved 2:56:50.160 --> 2:56:54.720 into a very red area. But again, there wasn't any 2:56:54.800 --> 2:56:59.879 overt signs upon arrival, Like everybody was cool and honestly, 2:57:00.040 --> 2:57:04.920 like people are still pretty cool of people that suck. 2:57:05.760 --> 2:57:09.600 As things have steadily stabilized and settled into a version 2:57:09.680 --> 2:57:13.560 of normal, the Unicorns have been getting more involved throughout 2:57:13.640 --> 2:57:17.160 the local community. A little while back, they stepped up 2:57:17.240 --> 2:57:20.360 to assist with recycling for the county. We stepped up 2:57:20.400 --> 2:57:23.080 for a small period of time when the recycling company 2:57:23.560 --> 2:57:27.720 that was handling the counties recycling folded. We stepped up 2:57:27.760 --> 2:57:30.680 with our horse trailers and just collected recycling and drove 2:57:30.800 --> 2:57:35.959 it to a facility. Um. Now there's actually a facility 2:57:36.200 --> 2:57:40.360 in the Westcliffe Landfill that does recycling for the this 2:57:40.560 --> 2:57:43.680 county and the neighboring three counties. Um. And that was 2:57:43.760 --> 2:57:47.880 a building that like we designed and the person who's 2:57:47.959 --> 2:57:52.160 running at Rocky Mountain Rocky Mountain Recycling, Joni's her name. 2:57:52.879 --> 2:57:55.920 Amazing people. They're doing great things and we're glad that 2:57:56.000 --> 2:57:58.280 we could help in whatever we could. It just became 2:57:58.320 --> 2:58:01.400 a government project and that's when we stepped out because 2:58:01.440 --> 2:58:04.240 that's not really what we're about. But yeah, and as 2:58:04.520 --> 2:58:08.600 socialization has been able to get more possible since the pandemic, 2:58:09.240 --> 2:58:12.720 the Unicorns have developed ways to connect with the existing 2:58:12.800 --> 2:58:17.320 community of queers and weirdos in the area. Jen put 2:58:17.400 --> 2:58:19.880 together like a weekly game night, and it's it's like 2:58:20.000 --> 2:58:22.880 slowly growing and we're bringing in queer people to play 2:58:22.959 --> 2:58:26.480 board games and stuff. Yeah, we've got, uh, four different 2:58:26.520 --> 2:58:30.360 people from in town who you know, otherwise don't really 2:58:30.440 --> 2:58:32.440 have a connection to the ranch coming in to play 2:58:32.520 --> 2:58:35.920 a board game or maybe Magic Night and I never 2:58:36.040 --> 2:58:40.119 playing Suspicion. That's going to keep growing. Uh, it might 2:58:40.200 --> 2:58:43.039 be Arkham Horror third Edition, or it might be Mysterium, 2:58:43.160 --> 2:58:47.560 or it might be Magic. Okay, magic because I would 2:58:47.600 --> 2:58:50.360 I would would love to beat everyone here in a game. 2:58:50.520 --> 2:58:52.640 Oh my gosh, you should play with us. Yes, that fun, 2:58:54.000 --> 2:58:56.080 even little things like that, like like and it's just 2:58:56.120 --> 2:58:58.800 always to build a community. Yeah, it's important because we 2:58:58.920 --> 2:59:00.640 need to be here when like if it gets really 2:59:00.680 --> 2:59:05.480 bad on the macro cosm scale, things do seem to 2:59:05.560 --> 2:59:09.600 be getting bad. When we talked with Jordan's about how 2:59:09.800 --> 2:59:14.119 George from The Sentinel was targeting the Unicorns, the conversation. 2:59:14.400 --> 2:59:18.280 The segued into how there's been this shift from economic 2:59:18.320 --> 2:59:24.400 conservatism to this rising brand of far right Christian vanguardism. 2:59:25.000 --> 2:59:27.040 I think if I was to classify some of the 2:59:27.440 --> 2:59:29.560 movement you see in conservative America right now, where it 2:59:29.600 --> 2:59:32.440 all starts to make sense is that in the past, 2:59:32.480 --> 2:59:35.040 conservatism was always trying to push against sort of this 2:59:35.160 --> 2:59:38.120 idea of revolution or progress or too fast. You know, 2:59:38.400 --> 2:59:40.600 they always go back to the French Revolution. That's where 2:59:40.600 --> 2:59:42.840 the left and right kind of started saying, hey, if 2:59:42.879 --> 2:59:44.879 you move too quickly with progress, everybody gets their heads 2:59:44.959 --> 2:59:47.400 chopped off, you know. So that was kind of conservatism, 2:59:47.440 --> 2:59:50.160 which is, we don't really believe in anything necessarily, We're 2:59:50.200 --> 2:59:52.040 just going to hold the tradition and just kind of 2:59:52.120 --> 2:59:55.119 be saying no a lot. But at the same time, 2:59:55.200 --> 2:59:59.920 that's how conservatism was here until the Soviet Union fell, 3:00:00.560 --> 3:00:02.280 and then all of a sudden something switched, which is, 3:00:02.480 --> 3:00:05.320 we have the system that one our system should spread 3:00:05.360 --> 3:00:07.320 across the world, because if every day but he did 3:00:07.320 --> 3:00:11.000 American style capitalist democracy, we would enter this weird and 3:00:11.240 --> 3:00:19.920 randy in utopia. Yeah, into history, but on a conservative side. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, 3:00:20.040 --> 3:00:21.960 That's exactly what it was. And but the problems is 3:00:22.000 --> 3:00:25.480 two thousand one particularly here pushed it over. It went 3:00:25.560 --> 3:00:28.160 from like, okay, maybe two we're actually going to try 3:00:28.200 --> 3:00:31.400 to push this on other countries. And really what I 3:00:31.560 --> 3:00:35.760 called the right or the conservative right now they got 3:00:35.800 --> 3:00:38.560 bit by the utopian bug, which is if everybody is 3:00:38.640 --> 3:00:41.120 armed to the teeth, if everybody lives the way that 3:00:41.200 --> 3:00:44.040 they dictate they should live, which is some weird and 3:00:44.240 --> 3:00:47.480 randy in version of of life and morality, then we'll 3:00:47.560 --> 3:00:52.000 enter utopia. And so if anybody stands against you as 3:00:52.080 --> 3:00:55.920 that prophet, you are the enemy. So that can be 3:00:56.320 --> 3:00:58.720 That's why the right now turns on themselves all the time. 3:00:59.560 --> 3:01:02.160 Is any but it stands against them is the enemy? 3:01:02.480 --> 3:01:07.439 A liberal stops utopia? Is there definite? Anybody that stops utopia? 3:01:07.480 --> 3:01:09.800 You have to go through this is liberal or communist, 3:01:10.360 --> 3:01:11.800 you know. And I think if you look at it 3:01:11.840 --> 3:01:14.000 in that lens, the world makes a lot more sense. 3:01:14.440 --> 3:01:16.480 I don't see very much utopianism at all on the 3:01:16.560 --> 3:01:20.760 left anymore, whereas on the right it's everywhere. So it's 3:01:20.760 --> 3:01:22.959 one of those weird political things that's flopped the other 3:01:23.040 --> 3:01:26.520 direction now, just in different words, different ways. Utopianism is 3:01:26.560 --> 3:01:29.640 on the right now. They also need to have some 3:01:29.760 --> 3:01:33.119 type of conflict. They need to have a purging episode. 3:01:33.280 --> 3:01:35.360 You have to purge everybody that's on the other side 3:01:35.400 --> 3:01:38.320 to enter utopia. And that that's why Christians are really 3:01:38.360 --> 3:01:40.800 into it. They read the Book of Revelation. We have 3:01:41.000 --> 3:01:42.920 to have the civil war, we have to purge all 3:01:42.959 --> 3:01:47.160 the leftists because on the other side we enter the 3:01:47.440 --> 3:01:52.080 Kingdom of God. It's the exactly, It's absolute millinarianism. And 3:01:52.160 --> 3:01:54.640 that's what we're facing here. If I was a summit up, 3:01:54.640 --> 3:01:57.520 that's how would say it was. It's definitely millenarism in 3:01:58.680 --> 3:02:07.480 the local form it. If we are going to look 3:02:07.600 --> 3:02:11.200 at the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch story as a microcosm of 3:02:11.520 --> 3:02:14.920 transphobic violence, then I think it should also be seen 3:02:15.120 --> 3:02:19.160 as a case of study of the invaluable role solidarity 3:02:19.240 --> 3:02:23.880 and community have in resisting the concerted effort to harm 3:02:24.080 --> 3:02:28.800 queer people back when the siege was just starting. Simply 3:02:28.920 --> 3:02:32.280 feeling able to go to sleep because people were willing 3:02:32.360 --> 3:02:35.480 to show up for you is just one example from 3:02:35.520 --> 3:02:39.040 this story. That's a powerful display of the values many 3:02:39.120 --> 3:02:44.000 people claim to have but seldom implement. We were exhausted 3:02:44.080 --> 3:02:46.920 and so to have people show up and be like you, 3:02:47.360 --> 3:02:51.119 like you, you will be safe tonight, lay down, gets 3:02:51.160 --> 3:02:58.080 sleep and trusted enough to sleep like because it was incredible. 3:02:58.120 --> 3:03:02.119 It was incredible. As the unicorns continue to make connections 3:03:02.200 --> 3:03:05.160 and become a known staple of the larger local community, 3:03:05.800 --> 3:03:10.200 it's made organizing any harassment against them more difficult. I 3:03:10.280 --> 3:03:11.760 bet a bunch of those people who hate us have 3:03:11.879 --> 3:03:14.720 tested the waters with their friends, like all those unicorns, 3:03:15.040 --> 3:03:17.160 and they're like, what, they're cool, and oh, yeah that's 3:03:17.160 --> 3:03:22.520 what that's that's why I meant um. But that's been 3:03:22.560 --> 3:03:27.320 our ongoing precautions because it hasn't the animosity from that 3:03:27.640 --> 3:03:31.160 group hasn't gone away, and it does resurface every once 3:03:31.160 --> 3:03:33.320 in a while, like some people threatened to kill our 3:03:33.440 --> 3:03:36.280 dogs a little while back and things like that. So 3:03:36.720 --> 3:03:39.200 the same people, we're not sure possibly yeah, no way 3:03:39.400 --> 3:03:44.680 confirming or denying. Nowadays, some security measures have been integrated 3:03:45.160 --> 3:03:49.080 into their everyday lives thanks to support they've gotten from strangers. 3:03:49.680 --> 3:03:53.120 Uh we definitely we have cameras, so uh we we 3:03:53.160 --> 3:03:55.840 have to go fund me where people amazingly kind of 3:03:55.959 --> 3:03:59.200 like through a large amount of money at us, which 3:03:59.280 --> 3:04:04.760 afforded a better fence and cameras everywhere on property, so 3:04:04.879 --> 3:04:08.560 that in things like gear, yeah, better gear and upgrades 3:04:08.600 --> 3:04:11.960 and stuff like that. So um, we kind of earned 3:04:12.000 --> 3:04:16.480 an ongoing keep us safe mode. But like cameras and guns, 3:04:16.640 --> 3:04:18.880 that's how we do it. And I do, I really 3:04:18.959 --> 3:04:21.320 do think like we showed the shitty people of this 3:04:21.440 --> 3:04:25.920 town like, don't mess with well. We showed what well. 3:04:26.000 --> 3:04:29.920 What we showed was that community matters and if you 3:04:30.000 --> 3:04:32.920 weren't a ship hell, community will show up for you. 3:04:34.200 --> 3:04:37.480 The day after the club queue shooting once again, the 3:04:37.680 --> 3:04:42.199 ranch posted a tweet asking for people to come. This time. 3:04:42.480 --> 3:04:45.680 They didn't need help, they wanted to offer it. They're 3:04:45.720 --> 3:04:49.120 only an hour or so away from Colorado Springs, and 3:04:49.240 --> 3:04:51.600 they wanted to offer their home as a place to heal, 3:04:52.000 --> 3:04:55.440 to talk, and to begin moving forward as a part 3:04:55.520 --> 3:05:00.720 of the community struck by violence and hate. In addition 3:05:00.840 --> 3:05:04.080 to a home for the ranchers and the animals, the 3:05:04.240 --> 3:05:08.160 ranch also provides emergency housing for queer people who aren't 3:05:08.320 --> 3:05:11.880 safe wherever they currently are. There have been lots of 3:05:11.959 --> 3:05:14.960 residents at the ranch in the four years Stephen operating. 3:05:15.520 --> 3:05:18.840 Some of them come briefly and use the stability to 3:05:19.040 --> 3:05:22.000 get set up with a fresh start in some place. 3:05:22.800 --> 3:05:26.360 Some others intend to stay but find the country life 3:05:26.440 --> 3:05:30.640 isn't for them, and some like j become permanent fixtures 3:05:30.840 --> 3:05:33.320 on the ranch. The term you've kind of used a 3:05:33.360 --> 3:05:36.080 lot to describe this place is like a queer haven. 3:05:37.280 --> 3:05:42.320 And the past year, definitely there's been a pretty volatile 3:05:42.640 --> 3:05:46.560 increase in transphobia and queer phobia, even like a resurgence 3:05:46.560 --> 3:05:50.119 of homophobia. So as this type of stuff is happening, 3:05:50.200 --> 3:05:52.040 as we're seeing more kind of rhetoric around like a 3:05:52.080 --> 3:05:55.600 queer genocide or queer exterminationism, how do you see this 3:05:55.800 --> 3:05:59.160 place and you know, possible places like it fitting into 3:05:59.400 --> 3:06:02.440 kind of how we how the world seems to be going. Yeah, 3:06:02.560 --> 3:06:05.920 So what we've seen, aside from people wanting to come 3:06:06.000 --> 3:06:08.800 up here and live permanently that we're we've put that 3:06:08.879 --> 3:06:12.960 on hold right now because we're just kind of, yeah, 3:06:13.000 --> 3:06:15.480 we we don't have the space to like facilitate. But 3:06:16.200 --> 3:06:19.040 what we have found is something that we are as 3:06:19.120 --> 3:06:22.440 a haven. What the thing that we do that's most 3:06:22.480 --> 3:06:25.320 important is groups of queer people will come here for 3:06:25.440 --> 3:06:29.280 a recharge and to feel like it is recharging to 3:06:29.360 --> 3:06:32.720 spend a week up here in community with other queer 3:06:32.800 --> 3:06:37.280 people with no burden from the outside and just being 3:06:37.400 --> 3:06:42.520 yourself network. Yeah, and like kind of re igniting your 3:06:42.640 --> 3:06:47.800 fire for revolution and for your and kind of I 3:06:47.879 --> 3:06:50.440 don't know, like I don't know, like touching base and 3:06:50.520 --> 3:06:54.520 realizing that like the community is still big, it is 3:06:54.600 --> 3:06:57.880 still growing, people are still standing strong. Being able to 3:06:57.920 --> 3:07:00.960 come up here and really in vibe that for a 3:07:01.040 --> 3:07:05.520 week or two has been from the letters I get 3:07:05.720 --> 3:07:08.640 really important to people and so that that is what 3:07:08.800 --> 3:07:14.320 we like deliver routinely. Um. We do also like emergency, 3:07:14.640 --> 3:07:18.520 like save people when we can, Like if you're just 3:07:18.600 --> 3:07:20.160 got kicked out on the street, you don't know what 3:07:20.280 --> 3:07:22.560 to do, but you can kind of like you have 3:07:22.720 --> 3:07:25.280 somewhere to go, but you can't get there yet. We 3:07:25.400 --> 3:07:28.240 are a really good way station for people in that position. 3:07:28.360 --> 3:07:30.920 You come up, uh you know, touch grass for a 3:07:31.000 --> 3:07:33.080 week and then go back out into the world like 3:07:33.959 --> 3:07:38.879 and given you know, climate collapse and encroaching fascism, um, 3:07:39.160 --> 3:07:42.039 which if you don't get then you need to probably 3:07:42.280 --> 3:07:45.720 study your history. Listen to this podcast more often. Probably yeah, 3:07:45.840 --> 3:07:52.160 probably there there. You know, there's gonna be rainbow railroads. Um, 3:07:52.920 --> 3:07:55.800 there's going to be a lot of bad things happening, 3:07:56.680 --> 3:07:59.160 and it's gonna happen quickly. Well, we'll still be here. 3:07:59.240 --> 3:08:01.080 We're trying to grow out of a size that like 3:08:01.800 --> 3:08:04.400 and help people more directly. Well, but also we are 3:08:04.480 --> 3:08:07.520 already still here. Yeah we didn't grow, we'd still be 3:08:07.640 --> 3:08:09.320 here and you could count on us, you know what 3:08:09.360 --> 3:08:12.640 I mean. But the networks that are set up, um 3:08:13.360 --> 3:08:17.200 like being able to quickly get people out of the country, 3:08:17.320 --> 3:08:20.400 being able to quickly get people to safety from anywhere 3:08:20.480 --> 3:08:23.720 in the country. Uh, that's what we have been focusing 3:08:23.800 --> 3:08:28.560 on what watching, much like we started in response to 3:08:28.800 --> 3:08:31.400 the violence that was that was ratcheting because of the 3:08:31.400 --> 3:08:36.280 Trump administration. We haven't lessened that right like we are. 3:08:36.480 --> 3:08:41.160 We're setting up networks and possibilities to get people safe 3:08:41.480 --> 3:08:45.560 from very unsafe situations in this country. And that's kind 3:08:45.560 --> 3:08:48.960 of where it's going fucking everywhere right now. So that 3:08:49.120 --> 3:08:53.199 kind of networking has we've found not only bolstered people, 3:08:53.280 --> 3:08:57.080 but is really important. The need for places like these 3:08:57.480 --> 3:09:00.960 is growing just as quickly as the any factured panic 3:09:01.040 --> 3:09:05.440 around drag shows. In response, the Unicorns have decided to 3:09:05.560 --> 3:09:09.080 expand to another property in the valley and one in 3:09:09.240 --> 3:09:13.280 Boulder County. These properties will allow them to serve a 3:09:13.400 --> 3:09:17.800 larger community, to grow crops, have horses, and increase the 3:09:17.840 --> 3:09:22.080 amount of emergency housing they can provide. The Unicorns have 3:09:22.280 --> 3:09:24.600 launched a new go fund meat to help cover some 3:09:24.720 --> 3:09:27.480 of the starting costs to get the new locations up 3:09:27.520 --> 3:09:32.000 and running and begin farming operations. The additions would not 3:09:32.160 --> 3:09:36.040 only be providing more housing and income, but also add 3:09:36.120 --> 3:09:39.640 the ability to offer support groups and host queer events 3:09:39.760 --> 3:09:42.920 that are safe and accessible to focus in and around 3:09:43.040 --> 3:09:47.320 Boulder County, Colorado. You know, we've had some really intimate 3:09:47.440 --> 3:09:49.600 conversations with some queer people that are like, you know, 3:09:49.800 --> 3:09:52.400 like what you're doing is kind of keeping me going. 3:09:53.560 --> 3:10:02.160 So it's it's pretty seriously big has Uh. It's why 3:10:02.240 --> 3:10:04.200 we weigh everything so heavily, because it's like, look, we 3:10:04.280 --> 3:10:11.240 can't fail. Like people people put that much faith and 3:10:11.400 --> 3:10:13.800 like belief on what you're doing. You can't, um, you 3:10:13.840 --> 3:10:16.600 can't let them down. Like we've said from the beginning, 3:10:16.680 --> 3:10:18.880 like this project isn't about us, Oh yeah, Like this 3:10:18.959 --> 3:10:21.680 project is about the community and giving giving us a 3:10:21.760 --> 3:10:26.680 stronghold of just fucking hope. Instead of walking away from 3:10:26.720 --> 3:10:30.320 this series thinking, oh I'm gonna go move to the ranch, 3:10:30.720 --> 3:10:34.280 because I guarantee there's not enough room for everybody listening, 3:10:34.800 --> 3:10:39.480 even with the ongoing expansion. But people should take what 3:10:39.680 --> 3:10:43.000 we've learned from the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch and apply it 3:10:43.120 --> 3:10:46.800 elsewhere wherever you are. You can apply this example, with 3:10:47.240 --> 3:10:51.120 all of its ups and downs, to perspective havens across 3:10:51.240 --> 3:10:55.959 the continent, whether in cities or in the country. Building 3:10:56.240 --> 3:10:59.880 queer zones doesn't need to take form as a comp 3:11:00.040 --> 3:11:05.160 letely isolated, closed off commune as we've seen here. Having 3:11:05.240 --> 3:11:09.120 connections and fostering community with those around you is a 3:11:09.360 --> 3:11:13.720 crucial part of maintaining a livelihood beyond just mere survival. 3:11:14.920 --> 3:11:18.760 While this has been a story about the Internet and 3:11:19.040 --> 3:11:22.800 how it provides both positive connections and a medium for 3:11:22.920 --> 3:11:27.000 some of the worst beginned hatred, and of story about guns, 3:11:27.280 --> 3:11:29.440 both how they have been used as a tool to 3:11:29.520 --> 3:11:33.039 protect trans people and rule Colorado, as well as being 3:11:33.320 --> 3:11:36.440 part of the original threat to translives and now a 3:11:36.520 --> 3:11:40.400 seemingly increasing one. But if there's one thing that I 3:11:40.520 --> 3:11:44.080 hope people can take away from this story, it's how 3:11:44.440 --> 3:11:49.200 all of these positive aspects are meaningless unless people are 3:11:49.280 --> 3:11:53.920 willing to demonstrate solidarity and work towards building a community 3:11:54.080 --> 3:11:57.760 that's capable of ensuring a queer haven, like the Tenacious 3:11:57.840 --> 3:12:02.160 Unicorn Ranch, is able to con tinue despite threats from 3:12:02.240 --> 3:12:06.440 queer exterminationists. If you want to keep up with the Ranch, 3:12:06.920 --> 3:12:10.280 you can find them at Tenacious Unicorn Ranch dot com, 3:12:10.800 --> 3:12:13.440 where you can also find their Patreon and the go 3:12:13.640 --> 3:12:17.800 fund me page for their expansion. You can find James 3:12:18.040 --> 3:12:21.240 at James Stout and you can find me at Hungry 3:12:21.240 --> 3:12:28.160 About I See you on the other side. Hey, We'll 3:12:28.200 --> 3:12:31.240 be back Monday with more episodes every week from now 3:12:31.400 --> 3:12:33.959 until the heat death of the Universe. It Could Happen 3:12:34.040 --> 3:12:36.320 Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more 3:12:36.400 --> 3:12:39.160 podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone 3:12:39.200 --> 3:12:41.040 media dot com, or check us out on the I 3:12:41.160 --> 3:12:44.360 Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 3:12:44.800 --> 3:12:46.920 You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated 3:12:47.000 --> 3:12:50.440 monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks 3:12:50.520 --> 3:12:51.000 for listening.