As tensions between Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management skyrocketed in early April 2014, comparisons to the battle of Lexington and Concord were made—some were preparing for a second American Revolution. Mainstream media remained silent on the arrests at the property as well as property destruction at the hands of the BLM. To witness the truth from the people on the ground, livestreamer Patti Beers (@PMBeers) carpooled to Bunkersville, NV to join the hundreds of volunteers at Bundy Ranch.

On Saturday, April 12, 2014, the Bureau of Land Management formally announced retreat and released the 300-400 cattle who had been rounded up during the previous week. The Bundys invited everyone to a barbeque the following weekend, to celebrate the temporary halt to the federal pressure and thank everyone from their support. At the patriot party on Friday, April 18, @PMBeers interviewed one of the many LDS members who came out in support of Cliven Bundy.

He explained the history of Mormon relations with the federal government: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, LDS, or Mormons, were chased out of the United States in the mid-1800’s. There was an extermination order in Illinois on us. We left the United States and we went to Mexico. It was called Mexico Salt Lake City. Right as we moved out here there was a Mexican-American war going on and the area turned into the United States again. We were back in America. We never got out!”

The Mormons were run out of the United States into Mexican territory, but “as they were traveling the war got won, and the United States got pushed all the way to the Pacific Coast.”

As a result, “as a culture we have a little distrust for the federal government. They didn’t protect us. They were actually letting us be persecuted. We have a natural suspicion. We’re not a terrorist-type people, but we have a little suspicion of power over us.”

In addition to having a natural distrust of state authority, the Mormon religion teaches humility and moderation. “In the Book of Mormon, which is another book of scriptures (whether that all really happened or not, we still read it, and it’s still something that helps us), all through the book, there are stories about people getting righteous, and then they get free. The stories are about people being wicked and getting put under enslavement, then getting humble and breaking out of it and getting free. Then they get wealthy again and they get prideful... Up and down and up and down…”

“These little children here, like the Bundy children, every little person as they grow up hears these stories. As you get rich and wicked you will lose perspective and you will end up being enslaved. Then you humble out, you call up on God, you start looking for true principles, and you become free again. The message there is we need to be humble. I’m just trying to tell you a little bit of culture here.

“We think the Constitution is scripture. It’s inspired by God, and if it’s inspired by God, that sounds kind of like scripture? If God inspired it, it must be more than just a little news article. We take it seriously.”

Watch the video: http://youtu.be/rFmQxKC4p3Q

Livestream channel for @PMBeers: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pmbeers

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From the photographer, “I would like actual democracy as a representative republic was great 200 years ago when people had to stay and work on their farms and could not travel to vote and did not have technology to participate in the democratic process.”

This man at the ranch said, “Well, that's Anarchy.”

“ I was so happy to see someone use that word correctly for the first time,” concluded the photographer.

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That's a real revision of history.

The Mormons have often collaborated with the government - the federal one - to participate in the colonization of the West. That's how they got Utah - it was a land deal with the government. They were hoping to get everything to the coast, but got some crappy desert land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Battalion

That's why there's a memorial in LA, and there were Mormon communities in the early days of LA in the USA - it was a reward for participating in the taking of the land from Mexico.

They most definitely were persecuted, but it was not by the US government. They were persecuted by other Christians, who didn't think of LDS as real Christianity. Christians, then more than now, were pretty sectarian, and that's why they were so willing to resort to violence to terrorize LDS communities.

As far as the US government - obviously, the federal was interesting in finding settlers to invade the western areas and into Mexico, so they took anyone who wanted to go. That's why they created the Homestead Act, to encourage the enclosure of the land into ranches.

It wasn't only Mormons collaborating - the Buffalo Soldiers did it too. The frontier, then as ever, has always been settled by the second class members of society. Not only in the US, but also in New Spain and later Mexico.

Here's another site that's about this, run by Mormons, in case you think I'm making it up. You have to read between the lines sometimes, but other times it's pretty frank.

http://californiapioneer.org/

>“We think the Constitution is scripture. It’s inspired by God, and if it’s inspired by God, that sounds kind of like scripture? If God inspired it, it must be more than just a little news article. We take it seriously.”

If they believe that, they'll believe anything.

The Constitution was not inspired by God. It was inspired heavily by the Magna Carta, English common law, the English bill of rights, the Iroquois Confederacy, and the Enlightenment. Having multiple states with different state religions, or no state religions, or multiple large religious groups, they made the the documents neutral to gain support across sects.

Specifically they didn't want the monarchist aspects of England, like a state church (which had been the cause of internal revolution over and over), or state-church complexes like Spain and Portugal.

George Washington was extremely scrupulous about not ever mentioning "God" within his speeches. I read that he mentioned Islam (Mohammedanism) a couple times, but avoided introducing Christianity. It's not because there were Muslims all over the US - there were not, and there were probably fewer Muslims than even Jews and Buddhists - it's probably because there were tensions between states and churches, and the last thing he wanted to do was hint at favoring his state's church, or his own church (if he went), or whatever.

It's like the reason why Obama had the guy from Saddleback church in OC do his ceremonials. If he had Jeremiah Wright, he'd have been assassinated. So he went the whole other way, and chose someone who started at the far right, and moved a bit toward the center.

I was just noticing there's a USMC flag in the photos.

So they don't like the federal government, but wave the American flag, wear the flag, have "USA" on their clothes, fly the flag of the military, and probably worked for the military at some point and still want to wear camo.

They think the country was more democratic when people couldn't vote? They think 200 years ago was good. Well, a lot of people couldn't vote then, because voting was reserved for landowners - men. So, obviously, some landowning people were voting. They were voting themselves power over the people who couldn't vote.

In the desert there's sufficient sand with which to bury one's head.

Not surprised. The supporters, I'm sure, are a range of opinions, but the guy they are supporting is a backwards racist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/us/politics/rancher-proudly-breaks-the-law-becoming-a-hero-in-the-west.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/24/video-cliven-bundys-racist-comments/199008

Once again, the contradictions are interesting. He's criticizing, and painting with a very broad brush, poor African American people, about living off the government, while his cows are literally living off the food that grows on the government land. And he's refusing to pay for that food. I read that it's around $1.35 per cow per month, or around $15 per year for each cow.

His access to government plants costs around the same as rent on an apartment in Los Angeles.