Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 181 - Oklahoma City Bombing

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 AM, a Ryder moving truck parked at a drop-off zone situated under the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building's day-care center exploded in downtown Oklahoma City. The blast killed 168 people, injured more than 500 others, and destroyed one-third of the giant government building. Until the September 11, 2001 attacks over six years later, the Oklahoma City bombing would be the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United States. And it remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism ever committed on US soil. So who did it and why did they do it? That is what we dive deep into today on Timesuck! Check out Lynze and I's new horror podcast Scared to Death. Listen on Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, Youtube, and more! Here's the iTunes link: https://apple.co/2MRMgai We're donating over $4200 this month to The Martin Richard Foundation. The Martin Richard Foundation works to advance the values of inclusion, kindness, justice and peace. They invest in community programs that broaden horizons for young people and encourage them to celebrate diversity and engage in positive civic action. The foundation is named after one of the victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Link to donate: https://teammr8.org/Donate via Timesucker Matt Cox: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/mr8bos20/matthewcox12020 Toxic Thoughts Tour Standup dates: http://dancummins.tv Nashville March 12-14 Zanies CLICK HERE for tix! Huntsville, AL March 15 Stand Up Live CLICK HERE for tix! Philadelphia March 26-28 Punchline CLICK HERE for tix! Honolulu, HI April 5 HB Social Club CLICK HERE for tix!Houston, TX April 16 The Secret Group CLICK HERE for tix! Dallas, TX April 17 The Texas Theatre CLICK HERE for tix! San Antonio, TX April 19 Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club CLICK HERE for tix! Listen to the best of my standup on Spotify! (for free!) https://spoti.fi/2Dyy41d Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6nByZ5_OknAMerch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 7000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

On April 19th, 1995, at 9.02 a.m., a Ryder moving truck parked at a drop-off zone situated under the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Buildings Daycare Center exploded in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast killed 168 people, injured more than 500 others, and destroyed one-third of the giant government building. The blast also destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius. It shattered glass in nearby buildings, destroyed or burned 86 cars, caused an estimated $652 million worth of total damage. Until the September 11, 2001 attacks over six years later,

the Oklahoma City bombing would be the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United States. And it remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism ever committed on U.S. soil. So who did it and why did they do it? That is what we deep dive into today in another How Do People Develop Such Delusional and Horrific Beliefs edition of Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald, and you're listening to TimeSuck. You're listening to TimeSuck. Happy Monday, meat sacks.

March is already here. How did that happen? It's almost like time continues to move forward at a consistent, measurable rate. Weird. I'm Dan Cummins, the master sucker, Bojangles, Pooper Scooper, Darth Sucker, Luke Suckwalker. And you are listening to Time Suck. Hail Nimrod. I like what you're wearing today, Lucifina.

Is that leather? Praise Bojangles and Glory B to recent birthday boy Michael Motherfuckin' McDonald, a.k.a. Triple M. Recording the Suck Dungeon. In recently sunny CDA, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Reverend Dr. Joe watching the volume levels. Scriptkeeper, the high priestess, the queen of the suck, all at their desks. Lindsay, my wife, also a scared to death podcast co-host, brought to my attention that some California suckers thought I had shit all over them in the recent Ruby Ridge Suck. No.

Apparently, while not feeling well during the recording, I didn't make one of my jokes explicitly clear. When I told Californians to not move to Idaho, I was joking. I was expressing a common sentiment held around Coeur d'Alene and held around the rest of Idaho. I didn't make up that sentiment. It does exist. The sentiment exists because, as I said, Californians typically bring a lot more money into the area and drive the prices of homes up when they sell their homes in California for much higher prices than people are able to sell their homes around Idaho for. And that makes the houses unaffordable for some locals, which makes them understandably not pleased. Also, when I was shitting on Idaho, I was doing that sarcastically,

a joke that didn't work for many, pretending to hate it to keep the locals getting mad at me for encouraging more Californians to move here. So apparently that was just a very confusing joke. I don't give a shit if you move here. Why wouldn't I want more fans in the area? I've already bought my house, so it doesn't affect me. If anything, it helps me. I hope that clears everything up. I will work to further clear up some other views

I laid out in the Ruby Ridge suck here today. This suck and that suck definitely related. Huge thank you to the Riz Show, a.k.a. the Rizzuto Show, not the Rizzo Show, and St. Louis for helping to pack my shows out at Helium this past weekend. Holy shit, man.

St. Louis was on fire this time, and I guess as you're hearing this, it would be two weekends back. Also, because I had to record this in advance of my Salt Lake City shows. But I'm guessing I had a lot of fun in Salt Lake City because all those shows were sold out before I got there. What a fun ride this year.

Toxic Thoughts Tour has been a blast. Having so much fun, introducing a lot of fun in Salt Lake City because all those shows were sold out before I got there. What a fun ride this year. Toxic Thoughts Tour has been a blast. Having so much fun introducing a lot more childhood stories than I ever had before into my stand-up. Nashville in two weeks, March 12th to the 14th. At least one of those three shows already sold out. Stand-up live in Huntsville on the 15th. My only Alabama show for 2020. Punchline in Philly, March 26th to 28th. And then I'll be at Hawaiian Brines in Honolulu,

Hawaii, Sunday, April 5th. The last state I haven't actually done a show in yet. I've done shows in the other 49, but not Hawaii yet. Been there, but not performed there. And then Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Atlanta. Sorry, Houston, for having to move my secret group shows from Saturday the 18th to Thursday the 16th. Had something random come up and had to reschedule. Just barely. Just by two days. But seriously, sorry about that. New month, new charity, the Martin Richard Foundation.

Team MR8. Recording this again before the end of the month, so I don't know exactly how much will be given to them from the Patreon donations from the Space Lizards, but it will be more than $4,200. The foundation was shared to us by Meat Sack Matt Cox out there in Boston. Matt was an EMT, happened to be at the Boston Marathon when it was bombed in 2013. And eight-year-old Martin Richard was one of three people killed while hundreds of others

were injured when two bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line. After his death, a photo of Martin holding a handmade sign spread across the internet in the weeks that followed, the sign read, no more hurting people, peace. And a charity was established in his honor that Matt Cox works hard to raise money for year after year. And here is the Martin Richard Foundation's mission statement. The Martin Richard Foundation works to advance the values of inclusion, kindness, justice, and peace. We invest in community programs that broaden horizons for young people and encourage them to celebrate diversity and engage in positive civic action. And you can donate either to Matt Cox's GoFundMe that he set up to raise extra money for this

charity or donate directly to the charity if you feel more comfortable doing that. I'll put both links in today's episode description. Feels appropriate that we're given to a charity started in honor of bombing victim, you know, because of this suck here today. And also, as you'll see, as this suck goes on, it feels appropriate that we're donated in something that's working to broaden people's horizons, encourage them to celebrate diversity and engage in positive civic action, as opposed to being afraid of diversity and narrow-minded and, you know, working on negative things. So, okay, so thank you, Matt.

Hail Nimrod. Got two new shirt designs available at badmagicmerch.com, both based on the Moonlandy conspiracy suck we did a while back. Some super cool space-related designs available in a couple different configurations. All made out of 1,000% dog skin from all the many, many dogs that have been sent out into fake space on various fake NASA tests over the years filmed in Burbank studios. JK OMG. Just having a little gosh dang funsies. Okay. So now let's get into a topic. I'm really

amped up today. This really made me examine some old beliefs of mine. I learned more in this suck than I did in almost any other. I really scrutinized this one, and I'm excited to share this info with all of you. Let's get into some crazy shit. Yip, yip, yah. Lot of interesting stuff to unpack here today. I'm going to go over how the Oklahoma City bombing was connected to both Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidian Waco compound raid. Two topics we've already covered.

I'll go over the ideology of the Patriot Movement that the OKC bombers identified with in the history of militias in America in one of two timelines today. The OKC bombers weren't in a militia per se, but they were very much ideologically connected with America's militia movement. I'm going to talk about a horrible book, The Turner Diaries, I had not heard of, a book that strongly motivated Timothy McVeigh to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City. This book has inspired many, many acts of hatred. It will be the subject of today's Idiots of the Internet. I'll lay out many bios for Timothy

McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier, the three men connected to the bombing. Then I'll jump into our second timeline to cover the events that lead up to and through the bombing itself. So just two sucks ago, we covered the Ruby Ridge standoff in episode 179. Two years ago, we covered the siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, suck 75. Today's suck, directly related to both those events. Also, this topic provides me with an opportunity to clear up my overall view of the U.S. government. I may not be quite as statist as I appeared to many of you in the Ruby Ridge suck. I do feel like citizens should have a

healthy level of skepticism and distrust towards any governing agency while also employing, when valid, respect and gratitude for the many good aspects of the government. Don't forget the U.S. military, law enforcement, first responders, public school teachers, professors, groups I've consistently thanked for the services they provide. These groups are also part of, quote, the government. So I've never hated the whole government, and I doubt any of you do either if you really step back and evaluate the government. I get frustrated.

I joke around, but I don't actually want to burn Washington, D.C. to the ground, mostly because I don't have a concrete plan to build something better back up in its place. Easy to gripe, much harder to fix. Today's suck, especially coming on the heels of the Ruby Ridge suck, did really make me think about how I feel about our government in a deeper way than I have in a long time. Made me really re-examine my beliefs. After re-examining one's beliefs, I think that is a very good thing to do from time to time. Like, why do you believe what you believe? You know, because you've thought a lot about it and looked at all sides of the issue and have arrived at a well-thought-out conclusion, or because, well, just because you always have. Just because, I don't know, it's just what you do,

and you don't really know. You know, it's just what you've told yourself for years. In the minds of the perpetrators of the Oklahoma City bombing, they attacked the U.S. federal government in an act of what they believed to be payback. They believed that the federal government was an evil regime, an act of revenge over the Fed's handling of both Randy Weaver's family armed confrontation with the FBI and the U.S. Marshals and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and David Koresh and his followers' violent clash with the FBI in Waco, Texas. These events were in the minds of people like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, a continuation of other totalitarian actions taken by a government

they felt was increasingly unwilling, or excuse me, increasingly willing to turn on its people as it marched towards this end goal of one world government enslavement. In the minds of former Army vets Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier, the new world order was leaving its boot print on the faces of American citizens with increasing regularity, and it was time to fight or let the republic die. Like with so many other horrible actions that have been carried out throughout human history, the road to the Oklahoma City bombing was paved with some pretty irrational beliefs. Although the two main

conspirators behind the OKC bombing, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, were not directly connected with any major political group, they did hold views characteristic of the broad patriot movement, a movement that feared authoritarian plots by the U.S. federal government and corporate elites trying to subjugate and control the American citizenry. And a movement like this, in my opinion, is bound to bring in a few actual patriots, people who care deeply about the core values of America being infringed upon by the federal government. And it's also going to bring in a lot of paranoid wackadoodles who think nefarious forces are hard at work behind the scenes to turn the working class into a slave state.

who think nefarious forces are hard at work behind the scenes to turn the working class into a slave state. And what are the core values of America anyways? Well, ask 10 people and you'll probably get 10 different answers. But for the most part, they seem to revolve around freedom, equality, individualism, and growth. And these values are each interpreted differently

by different people. Take freedom. What does that word actually mean to you? Are you truly free to do whatever you'd like to do? Sometimes I'd like to kill the deer that come in my yard and rile up my dogs and blanket my lawn with oh so many piles of their hard to pick up pellet shit. But if I shot one of those deer, I'd get in a lot of trouble. I'd get in trouble for firing my rifle inside city limits, you know, because I'm not doing it in the gun range. I'd get in trouble for poaching. Deer are never in season in my yard. I get in trouble for endangering my neighbors,

risking shooting one of them by accident when I shoot these deer. So I guess I'm free to do it, but not without consequences. Now, I'm not free to legally do everything I'd like to do. I am free to say anything I want to say here on this podcast. Well, I mean, actually, you know, within reason, I can't even say everything, you know, I would always want to say anything I want to say here on this podcast. Well, I mean, actually, you know, within reason, I can't even say everything I, you know, I would always want to say without fear of some legal consequence. You know, if I, for example, threw out the address of someone I didn't care for and asked you to go to that address and kill him, I might get a little trouble. I'm probably going to open myself up to some, you know, some jail time there. None of us are truly free to do whatever we want without legal consequences.

Lands have laws. And if you break those laws, even in the freest of free countries, you're going to be punished. Or you should be. So no one on earth is really ever truly, totally free. Based on various polls and studies, the most important freedoms for Americans

are the freedom of speech. That's my number one. Freedom of religion is number one to a lot of people. The ability to have due process for crimes one has been accused of is a freedom important to many of us. The right to bear arms is the most important freedom to many. It's an important freedom to me as well. It's all so complicated when you really look at it and don't just speak in buzzwords and slogans. This illustrates why people can pontificate and argue about politics endlessly.

It's deceptively very complicated, but also at its core, very simple. I think most people want to be able to just fuck whoever they want to fuck whenever they want to, whether those people are into it or not, right? I mean, humans, animals, objects, freedom is mostly about the right to tie someone or something up and carry it to your soundproof basement and yell at him or her or it and just fuck it. You know, I think we can all, all agree on that. You know, if you can't take someone's Nana or pop pop and time up and put jumper cables on their nipples and juice them while you're standing next to them and masturbating and the more they sizzle, the harder you get, are you even fucking free at all? No, sir. And hopefully you know that I'm kidding. Gosh dang,

gosh dang, that's weird. Oh, sweet Jesus. Hope you know that what I just said was horrific. Intentionally. Hope no new listeners are tuning in for the first time, hearing that and thinking to themselves, finally, this fucker gets it. No, I think freedom at its core is simple. I think most people want to live the most free life possible in a land

where there are laws that protect them from other citizens, laws upheld via law enforcement. Most people want affordable access to education and healthcare, to live in a nation with an economy that provides them the opportunity to buy private land and build wealth and worship whatever God they want to worship, participate in elections that allow them to help steer their nation in the directions they'd like it to go, while also having a military strong enough to protect everything I've just laid out from foreign invasion. And members of the so-called Patriot Movement, a movement that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, again, were ideologically very much in tune with, where they were very worried that the U.S. government was going to take away

the freedom they cared about the most, and that was the right to bear arms. And then that, you know, would lead to having other freedoms taken away. And eventually they'd be enslaved. At its most extreme, some Patriot Movement members were so convinced that the federal government was an enemy of the common citizen that they denied the basic legitimacy of the federal government and law enforcement. They felt they didn't have to follow their laws, right? They refused to follow their laws. Militia groups were formed across the nation by men and women, but mostly men, who were worried to various degrees about the federal government. By the mid-90s, there were about 30,000 militia members in the U.S. The militias justified their existence by claiming a right to armed self-defense against our allegedly oppressive government.

In this context, the date of the Oklahoma City attack, April 19th, was very significant. Doubly significant, falling on two anniversaries very important to the modern militia and patriot movement. April 19th marks Patriot's Day, the anniversary of the American rebellion against British authority at Lexington, Massachusetts in 1775, the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The Boston Marathon ran every year on Patriot's Day. Several states recognize it as a state holiday. every year on Patriots Day. Several states recognize it as a state holiday. Also, April 19th is the date when federal agents raided the heavily armed compound of the Branch Davidian

religious cult in Waco, Texas in 1993. So this date was definitely significant to McVeigh. He claimed that the building in Oklahoma City he bombed was targeted to avenge the deaths at Waco. Following the Oklahoma City attack, media and law enforcement officials began intense investigations of the militia movement and other armed extremist groups in America.

And just before Waco, McVeigh had closely followed the Ruby Ridge siege. We just covered that two weeks ago with our, you know, 179th episode, so we'll only go into it here briefly. Ruby Ridge was the location of a violent 11-day standoff in remote Boundary County, Idaho, beginning on August 21st, 1992, that followed roughly a year and a half's worth of, you know,

the Weavers' refusal to go to court over a weapons charge. U.S. Marshals and federal agents faced off against Randy Weaver, a Christian extremist worried about an impending apocalypse and an anti-Semitic believer in a Jewish shadow government and his equally paranoid wife. Weaver's children and a family friend, Kevin Harris, also involved in the standoff. The Ruby Ridge incident follows several years of investigations into Weaver by local authorities, the FBI, the ATF, and the Secret Service. And it ended with the shooting deaths of a U.S. Marshal, Weaver's wife, Vicki, and their teenage son, Sammy. This incident, especially the sniper shot of an unarmed Vicki Weaver in her home,

unarmed while holding her newborn baby, no less, enraged many in the Patriot and end of days Christian movements, as well as also many other people who were a little more mainstream in their beliefs across the nation. The controversial event was seen as a major law enforcement blunder to many, which it definitely was. Many of you have brought it to my attention that despite the context I laid out in the Ruby Ridge talk that led up to the shootings, that the FBI sniper should not have just shot Randy or Vicky Weaver when Randy and Vicky were not imminent threats to law enforcement. And while I hate Randy Weaver, I will concede that something else maybe, you know, could have been done to extract old handy Randy and sticky Vicky. Maybe rubber bullets, maybe

tear gas. I don't know. It's hard to say since they had kids in there that the agents were prioritizing, you know, getting them out safely and trying not to shoot. I don't know. Some things you eventually have to agree to disagree on. This might be one of them for me. I go so back and forth on this.

But I do see, you know, that there is a side, obviously, to the use of excessive government force. And that's why, you know, Randy Weaver was awarded money after this all went down. And so were his kids, you know, from the, from the government. To those in the Patriot movement, the shooting of Vicky Weaver was definitely seen as a flagrant and gross abuse of power by a government willing to casually, you know, use lethal force to subdue its own citizens. McVeigh actually visited the Weaver cabin after the incident and said this visit greatly fueled

his self-righteous anti-government, you know, anger and fury. And eight months later, Waco happened and many militia extremists such as McVeigh were now certain that the U.S. government was out of control. It was an evil empire. It had lost its way and it must be stopped.

We covered the heroin branch Davidian story in our 75th episode of The Suck. So we won't go into great detail about what happened there here today. Just a quick summary again. The Waco siege began in early 1993 when a government raid on the Mount Carmel cult compound near Waco, Texas led to a 51-day standoff between federal agents and members of a millennial Christian sect called the Branch Davidians.

The compound's leader, David Koresh, was just minding his own business, you know, telling his extremely devoted followers that he was the Lamb of God. And, you know, the illegal weapons he and his followers were gathering, stuff like automatic military-grade rifles and hand grenades, you know, were just for an apocalyptic battle in which they would all be killed. And then he would be resurrected along with the faithful followers to the slaughter, and they would judge God's enemies. And for some reason, the government, you know, was alarmed by this. would be resurrected along with the faithful followers to the slaughter and they would judge God's enemies.

And for some reason, the government, you know, was alarmed by this. They thought it was, you know, illegal and weird. The government also didn't like the fact that Koresh was fucking girls rumored to be as young as 11 years old and taking multiple brides and such, you know, just, you know, like just weird, I guess, again. And then ATF agents surrounded this compound and they didn't like it when Koresh's followers started shooting at them. Why couldn't the government just chill and let this dude fuck kids, pretend to be God and shoot at them? And then the big bad government started shooting back against these heavily armed kid fucking enabling religious zealot lunatics.

And the siege ended dramatically on April 19th, 1993, the big date. And fires consumed the compound, leaving some 75 people dead, including 25 children. It had begun on February 28th, 1993, when some 80 agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to raid the compound after receiving reports that the Branch Davidians and their leader, Koresh, were violating federal firearms regulations, which they were. After four ATF agents and six Davidians were killed in the gun battle that followed, a ceasefire was arranged. Then nearly 900 law enforcement officials eventually surrounded the compound, including hostages and negotiators and rescue teams from the FBI. Reporters soon arrived on the scene as well, and the 51-day siege that followed would play out on TV screens and in newspaper headlines across the world.

Despite some early negotiating successes, the Davidians sent about two dozen children out in exchange for food and other supplies. Numerous children remained amongst those inside, many of them Koresh's children he had had with various women, most of them young teens when they were wed to David. In the end, it was only Koresh's children who remained inside with him. In his negotiations with the FBI during the Waco siege, Koresh claimed that he was a messianic, there we go, figure prophesied in the Bible

and God had given him his surname. And the ATF agents were like, yeah, all right, cool story, bro. Now please let everybody out. Come out and face your weapons charges. And Koresh was like, nah, bro, didn't you hear me? I'm fucking God, bro. And he threatened violence against those

who would attack him and his family while also asserting that the Davidians weren't planning a mass suicide, even though he was doing that. To the branch Davidians, Koresh was the lamb, the only one, according to the book of Revelation, worthy of unlocking the seven seals and revealing to the world the entirety of the Bible's teachings.

This identification allowed Koresh to justify some of his controversial practices, including taking various spiritual wives, again, some reportedly as young as 11. In mid-April, after religious scholars reached out to Koresh through a radio discussion to talk to him about the teachings of Revelation, Koresh sent a message through his lawyer announcing he had received a new prophecy from God, was writing his message on the seven seals, and when it was finished, he'd come out with his followers. The FBI was not convinced. Though initially reluctant, Attorney General Janet Reno

ended up approving a plan to fire CS gas, a form of tear gas, into the Mount Carmel compound to try and force out the Davidians. Just after 6 a.m. on April 19th, 1993, FBI agents used two specially equipped tanks to penetrate the compound and deposit some 400 containers of tear gas inside.

It was dramatic imagery. A lot of people didn't like seeing the military tanks heading into, you know, essentially a private residence of sorts. Soon after this attack ended around noon, several fires simultaneously broke out around the compound. Gunfire was heard inside. Safety concerns prevented firefighters from entering Mount Carmel immediately. They didn't want to get shot by armed cult members, and the flames spread quickly and engulfed the property. Though nine Davidians were actually able to escape, investigators later found 76 bodies inside the compound, including all 25 of the remaining children. Some of them, including Koresh, had fatal gunshot wounds, suggesting suicide or murder-suicide.

And many blame the government for these deaths. I'm not one of those. Not only am I not someone who doesn't think the FBI was responsible for this tragedy, I don't understand how logically anyone else could. Some people want to say that in the standoff, the FBI shot first, you know, that they set the fires intentionally. First off, I doubt it. I've read a lot about it and I doubt it. But even if they did, let's humor that. Let's say that they did.

They didn't initiate the armed standoff by, you know, building up an illegal militia and fucking kids inside the compound. You don't get it. And then you don't get to shoot at law enforcement and refuse to leave, you know, leave a compound where kids are being molested and not have some righteous, aggressive justice thrown your way. If you've convinced yourself that the U.S. government is a totalitarian regime akin to Nazi Germany or Stalinist communist Russia, then okay, through that lens, you're going to view all state police action as being, you know, oppressive, brutal. And you can view this incident as some people who just wanted to live life the way they wanted to live and they wanted the freedom to worship their God and the way they chose to.

And then the big bad government came and fucking stomped on them. I look at the FBI raid of the Branch Davidian compound as another confrontation between a reasonable and rational state dealing with an irrational and unreasonable group of apocalyptic religious fucking lunatics. It wasn't a bunch of cool, good people just wanting to live their lives and sing a few songs. It was people who dragged children into an incredibly fucked up, zealots, sexualized compound.

You do have the right to worship and have, you know, faith in whatever belief system you choose. But if those beliefs lead you to breaking the law and doing shit like stockpiling illegal weapons for apocalyptic battle or fucking kids, well, then you know what? You got to pay the piper. How can you expect anything else? I hope it's always that way. I hope you never get to, like, have that kind of freedom. It's fucking insane.

Could the U.S. government have handled their attack on the Weaver family and their attack upon the Branch Davidian compound with more grace, handled things in a way that could have led to less bloodshed? Sure, right? Hindsight's 20-20. I'm guessing agents would have liked for Vicky and Sammy Weaver to have lived through the Ruby Ridge siege and for all the kids to have lived through the Waco siege. But again, Weavers, Koresh, they were the ones who lit the fuses in those incidents, not the other way around.

Sorry, it's hard for me to stay calm on some of this just because I truly, to the depth of my being, no matter how much I look at it, just think that most people online have it wrong on this. Just my view, just my opinion, but man, do I believe it. And the more I look into it, the more I believe it. Timothy McVeigh did not agree with my view. I'm pretty sure he would have added me to a people to kill list for holding my view. He would have seen me as a traitor, just like I view him as a misguided domestic terrorist. The movements that McVeigh aligned with were enraged by Waco. Did the government burn the compound down on purpose? How could they attack with such force on a place known to have children inside? McVeigh spent time in Waco before the final siege. We'll get to that in a bit.

McVeigh spent time in Waco before the final siege. We'll get to that in a bit. First, some more militia context. To understand McVeigh's motivations, you know, we got to understand the groups he was surrounding himself with. In the Ruby Ridge Suck, we covered the history of the apocalyptic Christian movements in the Aryan nations.

Definitely check that out if you haven't heard it, if you want more context. Right now, let's trace McVeigh's brand of militia and the patriot movements that were busy preparing for the new world order. The words Patriot militia have become strange spectrums of extremes in the U S being a Patriot is such a loaded term. There's a dictionary definition, a person who vigorously supports their country and

is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. But some Americans who do view themselves as Patriots, see people who support the modern U S government as the opposite of patriots. Those who accept the laws of a government they view to be an evil empire are traitors, treasonous cowards, who support the dismantling of the U.S. Constitution. According to this view, if you follow it to its logical conclusion, all government workers, including every single member of the military, every single law enforcement officer, all treasonous, traitorous bastards. Sometimes suckers had an issue with me referring to Randy Weaver as a domestic terrorist two weeks ago, saying that by my definition, the revolutionaries who founded America must have been terrorists as well. Yeah, they were. George Washington was a terrorist to some.

Both labels are technically correct. While heroes are not always terrorists, terrorists are always heroes to some, right? Osama bin Laden was a terrorist in the eyes of Americans, in the eyes of his fellow Al-Qaeda revolutionaries, those in favor of an all-out jihad against America, he was absolutely a hero. George Washington was a hero to those who wanted the U.S. colonies to declare independence from Great Britain. To British citizens, British loyalists living over in England, to British loyalists living in America, he was a terrorist. Terrorist or hero slash revolutionary, it all just depends on where you're sitting. So was Randy Weaver a domestic terrorist or an American revolutionary? He was

both. You decide which one applies for you. It all depends on your view regarding whether or not you viewed his cause as just. In Randy's specific fight, I support the state. The state, to me, was more rational than Randy Weaver. Though, to me, Randy was a terrorist. I didn't pledge allegiance to Randy's view of America. He wanted to destroy my America. So, to me, again, a terrorist. I didn't pledge allegiance to Randy's view of America. He wanted to destroy my America. So to me, again, domestic terrorists for sure. I hope that makes sense. That's about as good as I can explain it. Back to the Patriot Movement. The Patriot Movement that existed in the early 90s of Timothy McVeigh's timeline was a hodgepodge of extreme beliefs,

and it complicated the word patriot even further. A sizable chunk of their numbers were apocalypse obsessed Christians like we covered on the Weaver and Koresh episodes, people who thought they were living during the end times, people who thought they were stars of some big final celestial battle, God's chosen warriors, people who, you know, are very hard to reason with when they think the government has something to do with this final battle because these people are by the very nature of their extreme beliefs, unreasonable people. Some of the patriots were and still are small government constitutionalists, mini anarchists, volunteerists, a dozen different flavors of generally uber conservative leaning extreme freedom minded folk. Some consider themselves libertarians. Some even identify as right leaning

anarchists. And this is a good quick spot to bring up how I identify with libertarians here. Randy Weaver from the Ruby Ridge suck. Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols from Today suck. I'm guessing they identified or identify more as libertarians than as Republicans or Democrats. I bet real hard on that. And I've referenced having libertarian leanings many times in the past. That does not mean I agree with everything they agree with, obviously. But because I have referenced these beliefs many times

and they do tie into this particular topic, I do feel like I owe longtime listeners a better understanding of my beliefs. First off, as any longtime standup fan understands, I'm not in favor of big government. I wrote a long, intricate, and lengthy standup story explaining why I have this belief called the Department of Caffeinated Beverage Distribution. You can listen to it on Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. It's on the Chinese

Affection album. Very quick summary. I don't want big government because my interactions with private company employees competing to make a profit have overall been more enjoyable than my interactions with government employees who know I have to deal with them because there is no market competition. In that bit, I compared Starbucks to the DMV. I asked the audience if they thought the government would do a better job handling caffeine distribution than Starbucks. I don't think they would because of human nature. If you have to run a profitable business to keep your goddamn job, odds are you're going to work harder than you will if your job will continue to exist regardless of profitability, right? Thanks to government funding where you can be paid to be mediocre. That doesn't mean that all government employees are mediocre, not at all.

Just saying it's a little easier in that world than it is in the private world because of profit. So is this a libertarian belief? Yes. Yes, it is. I'm not a party man in general, but I do identify far more with libertarian party than I do with Republican or Democrat parties. Now, again, to be clear, not a hundred% in line with any party. I've been pretty openly pro-death penalty, as you know, and Libertarians, they actually do not support state death penalties. Also, staunch Libertarians are for privatization of the education system, and I'm not ready to say that's a great idea yet to get rid of public education.

That doesn't sit well with me. According to Wikipedia, the Libertarian Party is a political party in the U.S. that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government. And overall, that is what I believe. I reviewed their most recent party platform, and I would say that I agree with about 80% of its tenets. I'm in favor of civil liberties with minimal government intervention. I don't think the government should have a say in who gets married, for example, as long as both parties are adults. Two dudes, two women, one biological man who identifies as a woman, one biological woman who identifies as a man. I don't give a shit.

Libertarians, by the way, aren't even making a judgment call on the morality of homosexuality or transgenderism. They just don't think it's the government's place to decide who it's okay for you to marry. I'm in favor of other civil liberties, like the right to bear arms within reason. I don't want my neighbors having anti-aircraft missiles and 500 pounds of plastic explosives, but I don't mind them having semi-automatic rifles and handguns one bit. If shit goes down in my neighborhood, I want my neighbors to be armed and be able to help defend my family and theirs as well. That's a libertarian stance.

I'm in favor of free speech, due process, freedom of the press, many more personal civil liberties. And the central tenet of libertarianism is putting individual rights ahead of governmental oversight. It's basically, don't fucking tell me what to do. You're not my mom. That could be the libertarian motto. Hey, Uncle Sam, you're not my mom. Stop telling me what to do. And I support many other personal freedoms. I want my taxes to support law enforcement, the military, well-funded public education institutions. I want my taxes to support a well-maintained infrastructure that allows for the free flow of capitalism. Make sure the roads and runways are in good condition. I want our government to act as a corporate watchdog and regulate capitalism.

I don't want Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates or any other modern-day Rockefeller to own the whole damn country. late capitalism. I don't want Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates or any other modern day Rockefeller to own the whole damn country. I want my taxes to support social programs to take care of basic housing, hospitalization for working Americans and those unable to work due to mental or physical ailments or disabilities. I don't want my taxes used excessively for foreign aid when domestically too many of my fellow citizens are living in squalor. I want us to clean up our own backyard before trying to clean up everyone else's. I don't want my taxes to support prisons full of nonviolent drug users. In fact, I don't want the government telling me what drugs I can take at all. And I'm a fucking mom, right? This is very libertarian stance. One of the most radical moves I would make is to legalize all drugs, all of them,

not kidding. In my opinion, life punishes you hard enough for drug abuse. The social and financial repercussions are plenty of punishment. You don't need to also be incarcerated. Become a junkie. Eventually, odds are you'll end up in prison anyway for committing crimes to feed your addiction. Taxing drugs, no longer using police officers to bust drug users will provide us with a huge economic boost. Studies have estimated it could save tens, if not hundreds of billions annually. I'd also legalize prostitution nationwide, another strong libertarian belief. You know, it's still going to happen. So let's stop busting prostitutes who are already at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Adding rap

sheets to them is not helping them out. Adding clinics where they can be educated about and tested for STDs will help, not hurt. Basically, I would remove most of Big Brother's parental powers if I were in charge. Again, you're not my mom, Uncle Sam. Stop trying to regulate my morality. And I could go on and on, but I'll stop there. Many of my beliefs do line up with a lot of beliefs of the main protagonists of today's tale. Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Michael Fortier. These dudes, especially McVeigh, did not like being told what to do by Uncle Sam.

But McVeigh also supported a lot of shit I don't like. Right? Just like the Weavers did. There was this wing of the Patriots in McVeigh's day, and they're still around now to some degree, who also believed in racial segregation, white supremacy, white nationalism,

and neo-Nazism. Like Weaver, McVeigh was also super racist. I'm not in that wing. And it pisses me off these idiots bring their bullshit into a political group I do identify with in many other ways. Neo-Nazis are defined at least by the Southern Poverty Law Center

as groups that share a hatred for Jews and a love for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. While they also hate other minorities, gays and lesbians, and even sometimes Christians, they perceive the Jew as their cardinal enemy. Ruby Ridge's Randy Weaver, for example, was extremely anti-Semitic, right? He believed that he was fighting Zog,

Zionist occupied government. Not all members of the Patriot movement are racist, not all. Unfortunately, many of the so-called Patriots have been. Some have been centrist, practical, common sense, individualist over big government libertarians. Others have been apocalypse-minded Christian radicals, Aryan supremacists, and fuck-the-government anarchists.

Many of the more radical members read the underground bestseller, The Turner Diaries, which we'll go over at length later on. You know, they listened to underground conspiracy and Christian radio programs, saw themselves as modern-day versions again of the Founding Fathers. The notion of don't tread on me is perhaps the main thing that united all the various factions of the Patriot movement, that and gun ownership. So I've heard this phrase a lot, don't tread on me. What the fuck does it actually mean? Well, don't tread on me, the now iconic phrase often accompanied by the equally iconic coiled timber rattlesnake

harkens all the way back to 1775 when it was designed by American revolutionary and general Christopher Gadson. And I know this is crazy, but it was initially used as an anti-sodomy battle cry. How fucking nuts is that? Sodomy had become rampant within the ranks of the redcoats. I bet you were not taught that in school. It had less to do with sexual preference, more to do with circumstance. The redcoats were sent from Britain to America and were away from their wives for several years at a time, you know, in many cases. They were also young men with healthy libidos, and it was less frowned upon for these men to have sex with American men who were stationed with them in auxiliary roles, and it wasn't considered homosexual at the time if you were the top, so to speak. So in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, thousands of young American

men were sodomized repeatedly by the British and were obviously sick of it. I mean, most of them. Statistically, I'm guessing some liked it. But in general, they were against it. And tread on, at the time, was slang for stick it in. So don't tread on me originally meant don't stick it in me. And I really, really hope that at least one of you had to stop listening to the episode a second or for stick it in. So don't tread on me originally meant don't stick it in me. And I really, really hope that at least one of you had to stop listening to the episode

a second or two ago and believed all that. That was made up silly bullshit. But I'm just, ah, it is going to make me feel so good

if somebody had to stop, you know, they got to work and they're like, what the fuck? And they're talking to their coworkers, you know,

fucking don't tread on me. Yeah, these guys were tired of getting butt fucked by the British. No, they fought back., fucking don't tread on me. Yeah, these guys were tired of getting butt fucked by the British. No, they fought back. No, don't tread on me means don't walk all over me. It was used by continental Marines

as an early model flag. It's a precursor to the Stars and Stripes. Benjamin Franklin had used the rattlesnake in earlier revolutionary illustrations going all the way back to 1751 when he made the satirical suggestion that the colonies might repay the crown for shipping convicts to America by distributing rattlesnakes around England, particularly in the gardens of the prime ministers, the lords of trade,

and members of parliament, for to them, we are most particularly obliged. And then 1754, he made a now famous woodcut of a snake chopped into eight sections representing the then eight colonies. And it said, join or die. And then Gadsden presented this image to the Continental Congress. The snake and the words, don't tread on me, aka don't walk all over me. It was the 18th version, I'm sorry, 18th century version of a meme. And it just meant don't let the British walk all over us Americans. And then the flag was replaced by the less snaky stars and stripes. I love our flag, but you got to admit, it would be fucking way more metal if it had a big ass rattlesnake on it.

And the don't try to be symbol began to be used as a symbol of that initial revolutionary spirit of Americans overthrowing British oppressors in favor of having more liberty, you know, from America's very inception. It represented the fight to overthrow tyranny. And just about every time some group feels that our government has become tyrannical, become the modern equivalent of the British government, that we overthrew, that flag and

those words come back out. Don't tread on me, motherfucker. Don't take away my rights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Since the 1970s, don't tread on me has also become strongly identified with libertarianism. Basically, now it means good luck infringing upon my constitutional rights to some. And also if you want my guns, you son of a bitch,

you'll have to pry them out of my cold dead hands. So that's, you know, that's a general overview of the Patriot Movement's beliefs for today. Enough for today. Let's now look at America's militia movement that the Oklahoma City Bombers were also a part of in a way. They weren't in a militia, but the militia movement coincided with their beliefs. Most people tend to view modern militias in one of two ways. There is no doubt that the founders saw militias as essential to the safety of the principles of the new republic they'd created. And some view

modern militias as brave citizen soldiers ready to fight to uphold that ideal. Others see militias as a bunch of lawless wackadoodles with big guns, bad ideas, and worse intentions fueled by the delusional belief that they could actually take on the U.S. military in a firefight and win. I used to subscribe to that latter view, but I don't anymore. Now, I do think militias could truly help keep the government in check. Does that make me a wackadoodle? I don't know. Maybe. I don't think so.

I know a lot of my friends would disagree. Hear me out a little bit before you decide. I think it's important to point out that even with superior weapons like drones, bombers, and tanks, U.S. armed forces have not easily tread over armed insurgents in foreign lands. Not totally. Most veterans will tell you that I believe that urban warfare against people only armed with rifles and other rudimentary weapons is not a cakewalk. Even with satellites, thermal night vision, you know, aircraft carriers and more.

Look at Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan. I mean, the U.S. military, even with superior numbers, training weaponry has not historically been able to just roll in with tanks and bombs and quickly get everybody fighting back with only rifles to lay down their arms and immediately surrender. There's a lengthy history of people with inferior numbers and weaponry successfully staging lengthy, lengthy insurgencies. So militias have been and continue to be successful in that regard, right? Some will argue that the U.S. has a vast amount of nukes. So an armed militia would be irreverent no matter what the numbers, but the idea that the U.S., of the U.S. military nuking their own people on their own land, I think is pretty absurd. I mean, what is the point of winning a war if you have to ruin the land you're fighting for to win it?

So could militias keep the U.S. government from, say, enacting martial law on the population and enforcing unconstitutional legislations? I mean, maybe. I think they would at least make it a lot harder for the government to do so. You know, it could slow down the military, maybe even theoretically slow it down long enough to win a battle of hearts and minds, so to speak, turn the tides of war that way. Within the militia movement, the Second Amendment is of particular importance.

That is, a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Although some people consider militias to be today's National Guard, therefore relegating the kinds of militias we're talking about to be obsolete, a militia was defined by the founders to be made up of armed citizens, separate from the military. The National Guard is certainly considered part of the military today. It's a reserve component of the U.S. Armed Forces. And modern militia

members find this being separate from the government distinction to be crucially important. If you're being paid for, or if you're being paid by the government to fight for the government, right, you're not exactly going to keep the government in check, are you? No, you're in bed with the government. You report to the government. You could be hypothetically, you know, used to suppress the public on behalf of the government. I do see the logic there. And this nature of militias potentially being at odds with law enforcement and our military obviously makes them a bit controversial. Militias have been controversial since their very inception. Almost as soon as militias defeated the Redcoats in the American Revolution, state legislators were interested in getting rid of them.

There's also been a lot of confusion regarding the stance of some of the founding fathers as far as how they viewed militias since the very early days of our nation. There's a lot of false quotes credited to America's founders all over the internet. Important context has been left out of other quotes. Let's look into this because these are quotes very important to the militia movement. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, perhaps the two most misquoted people on the internet. One powerful quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson that is a major modern militia battle cry is dissent is the highest form of patriotism. I've heard that. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Powerful words. However, according to

the Monticello historical records, there is no evidence that he ever said them. Historian Howard Zinn said those words in an interview posted on tompain.com in 2002 to justify his opposition to the war on terror. And then that got quickly twisted as belonging to Thomas Jefferson on the web. Zinn may have borrowed that quote from a 1961 publication called The Use of Force in International Affairs. It doesn't seem to show up anywhere at all prior to that.

This is not to say that Jefferson wasn't a revolutionary. He did say the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. So he was a radical dude. He just wasn't running around yelling, dissent! Those are the real patriots, the ones who yell, fuck you to the government!

The dissenters! That's not true. Our very first president, George Washington, was also not as in favor of militias as he is now often portrayed. In 1776, he reportedly griped about militiamen amongst his own forces, saying, whose behavior and want of discipline has done great injury to the other troops. He is often quoted as writing this seemingly super pro-militia message to George Mason in 1769, militia message to George Mason in 1769 that no man should scruple or hesitate a moment to use arms in defense of so valuable a blessing on which all the good and evil of life depends

is clearly my opinion. And he did indeed write that, but he continued writing, adding, yet arms, I would beg leave to add, should be the last resource, the Dernier resort. Dernier is another way of saying last, by the way. So he was in favor of an armed revolution, but only as a last resort. And Washington also wrote this to Alexander Hamilton in May of 1783. It may be laid down as a primary position

and the basis of our system that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defense of it. And consequently, that the citizens of America, with a few legal and official exceptions from 18 to 50 years of age, should be born on the militia rolls provided with uniform arms and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the total strength of the country might be called forth at a short notice on a very interesting emergency. Seems super pro-militia, right?

Nah, not necessarily. In 1783, the United States did not have a proper army. So Washington wasn't saying here that we needed a militia in addition to the army. He was saying we needed someone, anyone to defend our brand new country. The Treaty of Paris had just officially ended the Revolutionary War that year because of the inability of Congress to raise much early revenue under the Articles of Confederation, American suspicion of standing

armies and perceived safety from foreign enemies provided by large oceans, effectively controlled by the non-threatening British Navy, Congress disbanded the Continental Army after the Treaty of Paris. The peace treaty with Great Britain became effective when it became effective. Congress retained 80 caretaker soldiers to protect arms and equipment at West Point, New York and Fort Pitt and called on the states

to furnish 700 men from their militias for one year of service on the frontier. By June 3rd, 1784, the Continental Army had only 80 dudes left in it. 80. That was the entire fucking army. And they were looking to semi-formal militia units to bolster this teeny tiny force of troops. So again, Washington wasn't like, we need a militia to keep our government in check.

No, he was like, hey guys, we need a fucking army. Or someone is going to kick the shit out of us. And since we're all against taxes, since we can't afford a proper organized army, can we at least have a militia? He was in favor of a militia to protect the government, not oppose it. And it was during the same period of not having a sizable army that another now famous pro militia quote was uttered by Richard Henry Lee, who was an American statesman from Virginia, best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colony's

independence from Great Britain. His famous resolution of June 1776 led to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which Lee signed. He also served one term as the President of the Continental Congress and was a U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792. And he said, U.S. Senator from Virginia in 1789 to 1792. And he said, a militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include, according to the past and general usage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms to preserve liberty. It is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught to like, especially when young, how to use them. But here again, he wasn't talking about preserving liberty in the sense of standing up to the newly formed American government.

He was talking about standing up to the Redcoats, to the British army. And America needed a militia because again, we did not have a proper army big enough to stand up to English might without the aid of a militia. So not all of our founding fathers were as pro-militia in the modern sense as they have been made out to be on the internet. However, some definitely were pro-militia. Noah

Webster, the founder of Webster Dictionary, the man known to many as the father of American scholarship and education, smart dude, he did support the modern militia's primary purpose. He did once write, before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops. Now that, I have the hardest time reading their fucking weird ass old timey language by the way. Oh my God. I would fucking take a gun and shoot myself if I had the hardest time reading their fucking weird ass old timey language, by the way. Oh my God.

I would fucking take a gun and shoot myself if I had to live back then and listen to these fuckers give speeches like that. Before a standing army can rule, the people must be, shut the fuck up, dude. Dude, just get to the point. Enough with the flowery language. Take your wig off and speak straight, you sumbitch. But that is a pro-militia quote. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, right? How else can you interpret that?

He's saying that the powers, you know, the B can't just have their way with you if they can't push you around, right? Because you're not armed, right? Because you are armed. You are armed and they can't push you around. Last one, James Madison was also a militia fan in the modern sense. He once said, besides the advantage of being armed,

which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Definitely pro-militia, quote, old-timey, you know, confusing speak for nothing keeps the government from abusing its power better than a well-armed citizenry. Fuck yeah, bro. Now that we understand some of the ideological beginnings of America's militia movement, let's take a look at the history of how this movement developed. Just a brief one over our nation's history. A full one could be an entire suck in and of itself. Today, we'll just look at a few historical moments and incidents of inspiration for later militia members in our first of two Time Suck Timelines.

Strap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a Time Suck Timeline. All right, 1787, after the militia's help in fighting the British, constitutional convention delegates clash over whether the militia should come under national control. As a compromise, the Constitution grants the federal government the power to call out the militia, but leaves the appointment of officers to the states. 1831, a mandatory militia duty becomes unpopular. States begin to abolish it. People don't want to have to be in the militia. By the 1840s, many states have set up an organized militia with actual responsibilities

and an unorganized militia that exists in name only. The Militia Act of 1903, also known as the Dick Act, beefs up state militias with federal funding and gives the feds the power to review state militias. For many, this goes against the spirit of the Second Amendment. Remember, the Second Amendment is about the people bearing arms, not the government, not trained soldiers. And it really is known as the Dick Act. Named after Republican Ohio Congressman and Senator Charles Dick, Mr. Dick. Mr. Dick was the chairman of the Militia Committee. Mr. Dick had also volunteered as part of the Ohio Army National Guard to fight in the Spanish-American War, and he served in Cuba as a major and then as a lieutenant colonel.

And some think that Dick cut the balls off the American militia movement. Some think that Dick got soft when it came to keeping militias out of government hands, and not everyone wanted a soft Dick. A lot of people wish Dick would have gotten hard when it came to keeping the militia's balls out of the government's hands type of stance. Some people thought that politicians who wanted the government to fund and supervise and thus control militias were pussies, who were a little wet behind the ears when it came to protecting the Second Amendment, and they wanted dick

to fuck those pussies. They wanted a hard dick to fuck those wet pussies. You get it. 1916, the National Guard, which evolved from the organized government-sanctioned militia, became part of the Army. Again, arguments about whated militia, became part of the army. Again, arguments about what a militia was meant to be are numerous.

Many people think the Second Amendment is being trampled. This is an argument that's been going on for a long time. Skip ahead several decades. 1971, William Potter Gale, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic activist, forms a proto-patriot group called Posse Comitatus. Comitatus, there we go. Latin for power of the county, which purports that the highest levels of authority should be the county government. Gale says sheriffs

who violate the Constitution should be taken to a populated intersection and hung there by their neck. This group spreads across the West and the Midwest by the 1980s. We mentioned Gale and the Christian, or we mentioned him and the Christian identity movement and his whole kind of sovereign citizen ideology in the Ruby Ridge suck. Idiot racist, taking a few good ideas about keeping the government from getting too powerful and then

mixing it with a bunch of racist and apocalyptic and otherwise just insane ideas. In 1976, Congress passes the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, kicking off the Sagebrush Rebellion, which seeks to establish state and local control over public lands in the West. This is a big one for the modern militia movement, the big, you know, states versus federal rights, you know, the whole county, small, you know, versus federal rights. The main thrust of the militia kind of anger is, you know, towards the federal government. It has been for a long time. Many miners, loggers, and ranchers of the West rebelled against federal colonialism back in 76 that came in the form of environmental laws

from the Wilderness Act to the Endangered Species Act to especially the Federal Land Policy Management Act. People talk about former militias, or people talked about former militias to prevent the federal government from taking over lands. A lot of people where I'm from still pissed off about all this. The Federal Land

Policy and Management Act shifted the Bureau of Land Management's mandate from one of maximizing extraction from public lands to preserving these same lands, at least to a limited extent. In the sagebrush rebellion, a movement had many members, from local politicians, entire boards of county commissioners, to state legislators, even U.S. congressmen. These rebels wanted more local control at the county and state levels over the land that surrounded them.

They didn't want the federal government telling them how to manage their own backyards. And in a lot of places, you know, in a lot of rural places around the country, people are still angry about that. I can hear my stepdad getting, you know, irritated about this, you know, in my head right now. He hates federal control over, you know over the lands he grew up around.

And so I do get that sentiment. I get it 100%. However, I also see the other side. I get the federal government wanting to have a more uniform method of nature conservation that keeps the environment of the whole nation more pristine for future generations to come. And I love that. I love a national park. Love a beautiful wooded mountainside,

love walking along deer trails out in the woods, clean woods. I was raised in the woods. I live around the woods now. I can sit in my hot tub at night and often do and look at a pine covered mountainside across the lake. And I fucking love it. And if local lands were in local hands, would it all look just as nice as it looks right now? It would not where I grew up in Riggins for sure. 1000%. Holy shit. There would be clear cuts left and right. Mud slides, mountainsides raped to make a quick buck for local loggers.

There would be land not maintained by the Forest Service, but instead neglected by locals. And it would be all littered with bullet casings and beer cans. Just like I've seen it on many private lands. A lot of my stepdad's buddies, goddamn, it's just a fucking mess because they don't give a shit.

They don't give a shit how it looks. It would look like a fucking trailer park front yard. You know, would it be that way everywhere? I can't say. I can only speak for where I grew up. My dad loves hunting more than anything on earth.

I think he'll cry if I don't shoot a whitetail buck this fall after not getting a shot off these past two seasons. His big complaint about hunting is people just shitting all over the woods, you know? And he's a former logger who hates clear cuts, hates people who just fucking rape the forest, loves the woods almost like a spiritual way. It pains him to see it disrespected. And I hate it too. I hate seeing trash left by trashy people who don't have respect for nature or for anyone else enjoying nature. They leave their fucking beer cans

and Mountain Dew bottles and candy bar and hostess wrappers out in the woods like the dumb fucking rednecks they are. And they give my state of Idaho and rural states like my state a bad name and a bad reputation. You know,

it led a lot of people in more urban parts of America to believe that we're all just a bunch of dumb, don't give a fuck rednecks. So my personal experience leads me to want local lands to be put in federal lands. Your experience, I do understand, may lead you to a different conclusion. So although there were threats of violence with the sagebrush rebellion between militias and government agencies such as the BLM, none ever occurred.

government agencies such as the BLM, none ever occurred. A number of bills were considered in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, Oregon, and Arizona demanding the transfer of federal lands to the states, but nothing came of it. And then Reagan was elected over Jimmy Carter. Reagan slowed down how much land was being ceded over to the federal government for federal oversight, and the rebellion just kind of died down. But this federal land grab will fuel future militia members to further despise the federal government. Right? They think they're just taking all our stuff, you know, probably going to have it be some, you know, New World Order playground for their rich buddies someday. 1983, Pasas Kamatadas, member Gordon Call, murders two federal marshals trying to arrest him in North Dakota.

He's later killed in a shootout during which he kills a sheriff, and he is viewed as a martyr for the American militia cause. The militia continues to grow now throughout the 80s. On September 11th, 1990, President George H.W. Bush really fuels the militia movement when he references quote, a new world order, popularizing a phrase that conspiracy theorists equate with the coming of a global totalitarian government. Bush said this before a joint session of Congress during the Persian Gulf crisis. He said it shortly after meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He used this term to try and define the nature of the post-Cold War era and the spirit of cooperation between the U.S. and Soviet Union that he had been hoping would materialize. He said during the same speech, a hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace. While a thousand wars rage across

the span of human endeavor. Today, that new world is struggling to be born. A world quite different from the one we've known. And I wish I was Dana Carvey right now and could do a spot on H.W. Bush impression. He was pushing for international peace. He said, of these troubled times, our fifth objective, a new world order can emerge, a new era, freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace.

He also said in the same speech, There is no substitute for American leadership in this new world order. But the full force of his speech, the context, lost as it often almost always is with extremists. They just heard the new world order and then they shut their fucking ears. Why are extremists so extremely unreasonable? Extremists took Bush's speech, a speech I think is one of the best political speeches the last 40 years. They took it as a declaration of war. They thought that Bush had sold out the U.S. to the U.N. to the Illuminati.

Here we go, guys. Fucking happening. Illuminati time. More than a few people like Randy Weaver now moving out of the cities and towns into their woodland hideaways and doomsday bunkers, getting ready to go full Red Dawn. Wolverines, here they come! August 30th, 1992, Randy Weaver surrenders after his wife, son, and U.S. Marshal are killed during a standoff at his cabin in Ruby Ridge. This event really energizes the patriot movement, which includes armed militias.

It cements the view of the U.S. government as an evil empire. Doesn't give a fuck about the citizens. Timothy McVeigh, he gets real worked up about it. April 19th, 1993, federal firearm agents attempt to raid the Branch Division compound in Waco, Texas. Timothy McVeigh visited Waco during the standoff

shortly before the compound burned. This really pisses him off. 1994, responding to the Brady Bills' mandatory five-day waiting period for handgun sales, Michigan militia leader Norman Olson tells the New York Times, we are ceasing to be a republic. When people sense danger, they will come together

to defend themselves. That is what's happening. Opposing a five-day waiting period to make sure violent felons, dishonorably discharged vets, people who have renounced U.S. citizenship, people who have been committed to mental asylums, making sure they aren't quickly able to purchase the handgun doesn't sound insanely unreasonable to me, but it did to many militia members

who say this bill was not common sense protection, but a step towards completely stripping citizens of their right to bear arms. They always go right to the extreme, every time. Anything happens at all, they're going to take away all our guns, they're going to kill us. You know, if someone's like, hey, I just wonder if we should really try to enforce, you know, background checks on mentally ill, violent villains. They're going to take away our guns, they're going to kill us all.

New world order. They go from zero to a thousand. 1995, Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 people. We'll talk much more about this here shortly. This event initially fuels the militia movement extremely in America. But then over the next decade, thanks to the government not collapsing

due to the Y2K scare in 2000, thanks to gun rights not being taken away after this, thanks to the September 11th attacks in 2001 that shift focus from worrying about the US government to worrying about al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the militia movement dwindles. Within a decade, the number of militia groups drops from 441 to 35. In August of 2004, the American militia movement sees its membership start to climb up again with the beginning of the Minutemen Project. The Minutemen Project was a vigilante group founded to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border. Bands of heavily armed, self-appointed border guards known as Minutemen.

The subject of the Minutemen could be its own suck, right? There were several controversial incidents. Internal strife led to the disbanding of these groups. Following the election of President Barack Obama, the number of militia groups surges from 42 to 127 in one year due to a paranoid and irrational fear that Obama is secretly an Islamic terrorist hellbent on disarming America. He was not. In his first term,

this is going back to 2008, his first term, Obama did not push for gun control measures after the fatal mass shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, Aurora, Colorado with the movie theater, Tucson, Arizona supermarket. He continued to keep quiet on gun control in 2012 presidential campaign as well. In his second term, January, 2013, Obama did propose a long list of measures,

including bans on assault weapons and armor piercing bullets and a limit on the size of magazines. But, uh, Congress did not pass it. No checks and balances. Uh, he did issue a number of executive actions, but they were focused on enforcing No checks and balances. He did issue a number of executive actions, but they were focused on enforcing background checks, not taking away guns. Strangely, Trump has actually accomplished more than Obama when it comes to taking away gun rights. Trump banned bump stocks being an executive action.

Bump stocks like the one used by Stephen Paddock to murder 58 people, injure hundreds more at the Las Vegas Music Festival in 2017. 2009, the Department of Homeland Security warns of an increase in militia extremism. That year, Montana attorney and Army veteran Stuart Rhodes launches the Oath Keepers, a militia group that focuses on recruiting military members, police officers, and first responders who call themselves the Guardians of the Republic, which is a lot like the Guardians of the Galaxy, but not as fun to watch.

According to their page, Oath Keepers is a nonpartisan association of current and formerly serving military police and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath, mandated by Article VI of the Constitution itself, is to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and Oath Keepers declare that they will not obey unconstitutional orders, such as orders to disarm the American people, to conduct warrantless searches, or to detain Americans as enemy combatants in violation of their ancient right to jury trial. And they claim tens of thousands of members. In 2014, after the Bureau of Land Management confiscates his cattle because of more than a million dollars in unpaid grazing fees, Cliven Bundy launches an armed face-off with authorities at his Nevada ranch.

Bundy made numerous insanely racist statements to the press, also said the U.S. federal government was a foreign government, said he didn't care whatsoever about federal laws. His own state senator, Harry Reid, called him a fake patriot and a domestic terrorist. But in the end, he got away with defying the federal government due to some federal agents botching some protocols when they seized his cattle. Hundreds of militiamen responded to Bunzee's call for support, and some did get jail time

for their involvement. There's a lot more to that. That could be its own suck one day. But not for a while. After Ruby Ridge and this topic, I need a mental vacation from this part of history. In 2015, armed Oath Keepers patrolled the streets of Ferguson, Missouri during Black Lives Matter protests, claiming they're protecting journalists and private property, further associating militias with white supremacists. So unfortunate. Why do most militia members have to look like, well, like me?

Like, why can't there be a Hispanic militia or an African-American militia? Thinking about that makes me realize how much racism still exists here in America. I mean, just think about that. Think about the kind of news coverage a Hispanic militia or a black militia would get compared to a white militia. Think about a bunch of dudes, a bunch of white dudes with AR-15s saying, fuck you to the federal government. I don't have to follow your laws. Versus a bunch of black dudes with AR-15s-15s saying, fuck you to the federal government. I don't have to follow your laws. Versus a bunch of black dudes with AR-15s in the woods saying, fuck you to the federal government. I don't have to follow your laws. Very different news coverage.

Thinking about that makes me fucking sad, actually. Bums me out how much skin color still matters to so many people. We got to get past that shit. Come on, meat sacks. Young meat sacks, don't fall for the racial bullshit many members of my generation have fallen for. And even more members of my father's generation and a lot more members of my grandpa's generation. Don't fall for that mental trap. It's nonsense. Skin color only matters truly to the ignorant, right? Different shades, same meat sack.

Come on, hail Nimrod. Also in 2015, estimated that there are 276 active militias in America. So it's picked up quite a bit again. 2016, Nevada rancher that, you know, Cliven Bundy, his son Ammon, founds Citizens for Constitutional Freedom and leads the occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge after two ranchers were sent to prison for setting fire to public lands. The standoff ends shortly after officers shoot an occupier who drove through a roadblock. This Ammon dude, interesting dude, huge figure in the American militia,

fuck you, federal government movement. This modern cowboy beats the feds at his trial again after his second standoff with him. He beat him, you know, first time with dad, hero to the movement. But then after this second interaction, this confrontation, this devout Mormon was criticized by his church. Church leadership told him there was no scriptural basis for his armed standoffs. And after considering that, he distanced himself from this devout Mormon was criticized by his church. Church leadership told him there was no scriptural basis for his armed standoffs. And after considering that, he distanced himself from the American militia movement.

He put his faith first. Then he went on later to criticize Trump's handling of immigrants on the US-Mexico border. Not typical for a militia movement member saying, to group them all up like, frankly, our president has done, you know, trying to speak respectfully, but he has basically called them all criminals and said they're not coming in here. What about individuals? See, there's that fucking libertarian. Ah, yep. He says, what about individuals? Those who have come for reasons of

need for their families? You know, the fathers and mothers and children that come here and were willing to go through the process to apply for asylum so they can come into this country and benefit from not having to be oppressed continually. He also publicly claimed that nationalism does not equal patriotism, and he compared the modern-day U.S. to 1930s Nazi Germany. Interesting dude. Not afraid to stand up for his beliefs, not afraid to stand up to the federal government in a variety of ways when he thinks they're wrong.

That is a, that's a true libertarian. Finally, in 2019, the FBI calls some of these patriot and militia group members and organizations HVEs, or homegrown violent extremists, uh, and other domestic terrorists or domestic violent extremists in a statement before the house Homeland Security Committee on May 8th, 2019 assistant director for the counterterrorism division of the FBI. Michael C. McGarrity says, we believe domestic terrorists pose a present and persistent threat of violence and economic harm to the United States.

In fact, there have been more arrests and deaths caused by domestic terrorists than international terrorists in recent years. We are most concerned about lone offenders, primarily using firearms, as these lone offenders represent the dominant trend for lethal domestic terrorists. represent the dominant trend for lethal domestic terrorists. Frequently, these individuals act without a clear group affiliation or guidance, making them challenging to identify, investigate, and disrupt. It's almost like he's talking about McVeigh here. Radicalization to violence of domestic terrorists is increasingly taking place online, where violent extremists can use social media for the distribution of propaganda, recruitment, target selection, and incitement to violence. Alex Jones, he's looking at you. So that is a brief overview of the militia movement in America, which is alive and well, and typically and very unfortunately, oftentimes super racist and paranoid.

Bummer. I still like the theoretical concept of a militia keeping our government in check. I really just don't like most of the current members. And that takes us out of today's time suck timeline. Good job, soldier. You made it back. Barely. All right, now let's go back to McVeigh's era.

While drawing strength from often out of context words of the founders, the Bible, the growing militia movement of the 90s, the OKC bombers were inspired much more importantly by a more modern book of fiction called the Turner Diaries. The Turner Diaries was McVeigh's true Bible. A very important part of his story. He was like, this was the most important book on earth to Timothy McVeigh's true Bible. A very important part of his story. He was like, this was the most important book on earth to Timothy McVeigh. The Turner Diaries is a novel by William Luther Pierce

written under the pseudonym Andrew McDonald, published first in 1978. It's an apocalyptic tale of genocide against racial minorities set in a near future America. The Turner Diaries has been referred to by many as the Bible of the racist right, a handbook for white victory, and a blueprint for revolution. Also considered a blueprint for McVeigh's Oklahoma City attack. It depicts a violent revolution in the US,

which leads to the overthrow of the federal government, nuclear war, ultimately a race war, leading to the systematic extermination of non-whites. So, you know, teensy-weensy bit super racist. All groups opposed by the novel's protagonist Earl Turner, including Jews, non-whites, liberal actors, and politicians, are

exterminated. Right? It's a lot of that fuck the liberals, fucking Hollywood elites, right? We're going to kill them all. Everybody who's not a fucking white good old boy are all going down. Author Pierce was a super nice guy who divided his time between volunteering at a local boys and girls club and raising his five mixed-race adopted children. Yeah, right. He was the aggressively racist head of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group.

And the novel first appeared in serial form in that alliance's publication, Attack. Jesus Christ. Pierce also briefly taught physics at Oregon State University for a while. I'm guessing he kept his super racist views hidden. I'd love to teach the white youth of this country physics. What was that? What was that, Mr. Pierce?

I just said I'd love to teach, you know, today's white young men and women physics. You know, I mean, physics has a lot to do with power. White power. What power? Pierce was a follower of George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party. He was a piece of shit. And Pierce's book, The Turner Diaries, has been credited with influencing the terrorist and criminal activities of groups and individuals like the Order, most notably McVeigh. The novel is written in the form of the diaries of a one-time electrical engineer,

Earl Turner, supposedly unearthed near revolutionary headquarters in the 100th year of the new era. In the foreword, Turner is described as one of the men and women whose struggle and sacrifice saved our race in his time of greatest peril. The diaries describe a society that's completely deteriorated because of the powerlessness of the white citizens, as well as Turner's patriotic fight to take the country back from a government dominated by Jews, African Americans, and other minorities. Turner begins as a rank-and-file member of a group called the Organization and is later invited to join a secret elite faction called the Order, which wages a war of political terrorism against the system, the U.S. government. These acts of terrorism

are designed to instigate a further crackdown on basic freedoms, thus creating an even more repressive environment so that the organization will gain sympathy and converts. Turner's adventures began September 16th, 1991, about two years after the notorious gun raids in which the government, through the enforcement of the Cohen Act, Cohen, a very common Jewish name, by the way, confiscates everyone's guns. Registers are forced underground, or no, sorry, resistors are forced underground, but key members calling legals,

or called legals, remain functioning in society and gathering information. To fund its operations, the organization commits only socially conscious crimes, crimes against Jews or other minorities. Jesus Christ. Turner's unit is assigned a larger undertaking when the system begins issuing passports to all

citizens to thwart the system's plans. The unit blows up FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. with a truck bomb. Truck bomb eerily similar to the one McVeigh would use in Oklahoma City. The book damn near accurately explains how to build your own bomb. In the book, the blast kills approximately 700 people. And because the damage done to the FBI's infrastructure, this causes a temporary halt in the issuing of passports. Although he regrets the loss of innocent life, Turner laments that there is no other way to destroy the system. Eventually, the organization takes over much of the West Coast by force after this initial explosion sets off the revolution. Those who survive are then subjected to the, subjected to the quote day of the rope.

Yeek. In which African-Americans as well as whites characterized as having betrayed their race are all hanged. Jesus. Turner's last entry records his acceptance of a suicide mission in which he will blow up the Pentagon with a nuclear weapon. And a lot of people have died due to the influence this book has had on them, on these fucking lunatics. This book is believed to have inspired white supremacist crimes in the US and abroad,

including the crimes of Buford Furrow. That dude is like he was born to be white supremacist. When you're like, Buf- My name is Buford Furrow. I just don't care for the Jews and the colored folk. This guy wounded five people, three of them children, in a 1999 attack on a Jewish community center in Los Angeles. He also killed a Filipino postal worker. He later remarked that his actions were a, quote,

wake-up call to America to kill Jews. In addition, during the 1998 rampage that killed James Byrd, Jr., one of the most vicious hate crimes in Texas history, John William King declared, we're going to start the Turner Diaries early. I imagine he said it just like that. We're going to start the Turner Diaries early. In London, David Copeland killed three people, wounded 139 others in the 1999 Soho pub bombings. He was also believed to have been heavily influenced by the same novel. Numerous other nutjobs have been influenced by this insane book that has sold well over half a million copies since its initial publication. And Timothy McVeigh fucking loved it. Arguably his fate, not even arguably, it was his favorite book. There's not like a quote, but he took it with him everywhere. He pushed it on everybody all the time.

You can still buy it on Amazon. Before we look at Timothy and his anti-government besties, let's check in with this book's Amazon reviews for today's super racist idiots of the internet. Idiots of the internet. Currently on Amazon, the book has a 3.7 out of 5 star rating based on nearly 500 ratings. Gerald Fleming gives the book 5 stars With the subject line of Ahead of its time

And then this complete moron writes At the advance of this book I feel like I should read this in this kind of voice At the advance of this book We're pushed forward about 30 years This book will read like prophecy I suggest everyone who loves America Regardless of color

Read this book to get insight into what lays ahead, who's behind it, and why. I love how he writes, regardless of color. What the fuck are you talking about? Can you imagine recommending this book to anyone who's not white? Hey, John, you got to read this book, man. Turner Diaries. Oh, shit, man.

Listen, there's some rough sections, like the hero of the story really hating black people. There's a huge section where a lot of black people are killed by white supremacists and hanged and stuff. But as a black man, if you can get past that, I think you really enjoy it. I think it's a real important piece of literature, you know, white power. Reviewer Lisa Carlson doesn't give a fuck who knows she's incredibly

racist, giving the book five stars and leaving a subject line of love it. And then she writes, very entertaining, fun read. The day of the rope is coming. Jesus. I looked up Lisa's rating history, and she's only given a one-star review to one product on Amazon. That was a banjo strap. She said it left a welt on her neck 10 minutes after she started plucking. That's what I got.

I wonder what song she's working on. The Deliverance theme? Sweetie, could she be any more stereotypically redneck? Super racist, loves a banjo. She's not getting in the A-hole Air Banjo Academy. She's fucking, you're out. You're out. Listen, Lisa, you're blacklisted,

which probably is an extra inflammatory term for you. Lisa Carlson, you do not get to join the A-Hole Air Banjo Academy. Okay? You can also get the audio version of this book. And Complete and Total Psychopath. Username Captain of the Mighty River. Loves it. Giving it five stars with a subject line of great.

And then he writes, ten hours of non-stop action. Love it. Listen to it all the time. Have read the book, additionally, over 45 times. Put this insane fuck on a watch list. Jesus Christ. And there's about 200 other five-star reviews that read something along the lines of, excellent, I love it.

Yeah. Ha ha. Open your eyes. Show your bull. Wapow. It's disturbing. Very disturbing. Not very funny.

But then Jack Killoffs, or Killoss? Killoffs. I don't know. Killoss. Whatever. Jack. Uh, Jack's five-star review made me laugh out loud. Uh, he doesn't seem to know how reviews work. This guy left a five-star review with a subject line of over-the-top hardcore racial violence. And then he wrote, the book read like many post-apocalyptic novels with the addition of white supremacy as the core value of the survivors. Although full of action and somewhat entertaining, I realized that though I am white, I would have been amongst those strung up for racial mixing. It is a thoroughly racist screed with elements of truth, but very little reality and compassion. He gave it five stars.

What are you doing, Jack? You're disgusted by its over-the-top hardcore racial violence. You realize that you'd be killed for not being racist enough. If the book was real, you only found it somewhat entertaining, yet you give it the highest possible rating. You're like the opposite of the long-running three out of five joke here on three out of five stars joke here on Time Suck. You know, when someone loves something, they wouldn't change a thing, but gives it three out of five stars. here on Time Suck. You know, when someone loves something, they wouldn't change a thing, but gives it three out of five stars.

You're the opposite of that. Hate it. Disgusting racial violence. Truly disturbing. Utter trash. I wouldn't fucking use it to, I don't wipe my ass with. It disgusts me so much.

Cannot recommend it enough. Five out of five stars. Idiots of the Internet. Okay, so now things pick up, right? Now you've been given a lot of context regarding the world Timothy McVeigh and his conspirators

were living in when they hatched their plan to bomb the Alfred P. Murrow building in Oklahoma City to lash out at a federal government they just felt had become an enemy of true American patriots. So now let's meet McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Michael Joseph Fortier, the three men charging connection with the bombings before launching into a second timeline that takes us up to and through the actual bombing. But first, a word from today's sponsors. All right. Now, thank you for listening to those sponsors. Now let's meet McVeigh.

Timothy McVeigh was born on April 23rd, 1968 in Lockport, New York. 20,000 people just outside of Buffalo, not far from Niagara Falls. Timmy was the second of three children of Irish Americans, William and Mildred, Mickey McVeigh in Lockport, only son. His parents' troubled marriage ended in 1978 when McVeigh was 10.

And from that point on, he lived mostly with his dad in Pendleton, New York, just a few miles out of Lockport, only 23 miles north of Buffalo. By the time his mom left the family, McVeigh had already developed a fascination with weapons. His grandfather had taught him all about using guns and about his right to own guns. From a very young age, they would shoot together, and the small boy would absorb his grandpa's knowledge. Tim loved guns. He told people he wanted to be a gun shop owner. He sometimes took his firearms to school to impress his classmates.

And by the way, that doesn't make him a school shooter type at this point in his life. Back in the 80s, kids did take guns to school all the time in a lot of places, as crazy as that may sound to some of you now. When I was in junior high in 1989 in Riggins, Idaho,

I remember high school kids bringing their rifles to school, loaded rifles on the gun racks and the trucks. Our junior high was attached to the high school. Kids would go hunting after school and no one thought anything of, you know, kids bringing guns to school grounds. I was never worried about getting shot up.

If one kid would have started shooting, you know, anyone up at school, probably some other kid would have shot him or a teacher. I would bet that some of our teachers had guns in their desks or at least in their trucks or cars. I'm pretty sure you can still bring guns to school when I graduated in 95. And this is one reason I'm not anti-gun.

Kids in the 80s and 90s, you know, kids prior to that, had the same access to guns, if not more access to guns that kids have had in the last 30 years. And no one was going Columbine crazy. Why is that? No one was worried about mall and movie theater shooters, but the guns were there. That tells me that the problem is a lot deeper

than what weapons are available because that variable hasn't significantly changed. Our culture has. I don't remember literally any of my friends growing up talking about wanting to be famous, but my kids' friends, a lot of them talk about wanting to be famous. They want to be YouTube or Snapchat or TikTok

or Instagram famous. Is that the problem? You know, people want a shortcut to fame. People using murder as a way to gain notoriety, get their name out. Are mass shootings a problem of ideology more than a problem of firepower? I think it's definitely something worth talking a lot more about. Four years after his mom left in 1982, McVeigh began stockpiling food and camping equipment in preparation for a nuclear attack or communist overthrow of the government. Okay.

So, interesting. Interesting way to spend your youth. Red Dawn didn't come out for two more years. He was ahead of his time. Jesus Christ, man. If you're actively preparing for a nuclear attack or communist overthrow of the government, get some counseling. McVeigh got picked on at school a lot around this time.

Grew to hate bullies. As a tall and lanky kid, he was called Noodle, Noodle McVeigh. Near the end of his life, he would state that the United States government was the ultimate bully. Not a good psychological profile. The angry, paranoid, you know, kid, probably a loner, not socially adept, obsessed with guns. The man who doesn't like being told what to do because being told what to do reminds him of being bullied back when he was Noodle McVeigh. Someone can only go back in time and give Noodle a hug or, I don't know, kill him. One of those things. I don't know. Most who knew McVeigh remember him as being very shy and withdrawn. A few also described him as an outgoing and playful

child early on who then withdrew as an adolescent once the bullying began described him as an outgoing and playful child early on, who then withdrew as an adolescent once the bullying began. Man, imagine if you're one of the kids who bullied McVeigh, by the way. Imagine seeing Noodle pop up on the news as the man responsible. I mean, do you feel a little bad for helping send him down that lonely bomber path? Little interior monologue of like, oh, fuck. I guess I gave Noodle one too many atomic wedgies. I would have known that Noodle had that in him.

I wouldn't have snapped him in the dick with the wet rolled up towel so many times in the locker room. McVeigh performed well on standardized tests in high school and didn't miss a single day. He struck classmates as somewhat introverted and disengaged, and his only extracurricular activity was track. He also became interested in computers, reportedly hacked into government computing systems, at least that's what he said,

on his Commodore 64 under the handle The Wanderer. I don't know if that was just a fantasy. Man, Commodore 64, holy shit, I had the same computer and I wanted to figure out

how to hack so bad. I had a whole plan. I was going to take a penny a day from all the bank accounts and riggins and put those into my bank account

and no one would ever figure it out and I'd be so rich. It wasn't a great plan. Uh, it wasn't that many people to take pennies from. Uh, I was only 11 or 12 when I came up with that plan.

I think I did war games with Matthew Broderick, uh, where he plays a hacker and came up with that whole scheme. Trouble was I didn't have a Q link, right? Q link was a predecessor to America online, old school internet, like super old school,

early dial up shit. Damien Riggins, your limited technology. I could be in prison right now for hacking something if you'd have just had the internet. In his senior year, McVeigh apparently was named Starpoint Central High School's most promising computer programmer.

If only he would have stayed on that path, you know, maybe he could have just ended up as an alt-right troll on the web instead of a murderer. While he went to school every day and was by all accounts smart, he also got poor grades all the way through graduation. He didn't care. And no one at home was holding him accountable. Man, parents, make sure your kid cares about school. Fucking hate it when

parents don't care if their kid's like not doing well in school. Whatever, what do you do? You try harder, you fucking dumb son of a bitch. My daughter Monroe got so frustrated with her math homework yesterday, she broke down and cried and it filled me with pride and joy. Seriously, I hugged her. I told her how much I loved how much she cared about doing a good job and how if she always cared that much, she'd be all right in life. Under the entry, Future Plans in his high school yearbook, McVeigh wrote, take it as it comes, buy Lamborghini, California girls.

Yeah, bro. Get some waves, peep on some tan line, blast some Hagar, and burn up that PCH. Fuck yeah, bro. Despite his reference to California girls, McVeigh seemed uncomfortable around women. Very uncomfortable. He actually never had a girlfriend. Some sources report he may have briefly kind of had one, but it's very likely that he remained a virgin throughout his entire life. Yikes. The troubled virgin loner. Never a good look. I seriously wonder how many crimes could have been avoided throughout history if the perpetrator of those crimes would have just discovered the joys of pussy.

And I know that's a crude way of putting it, but it's true. Good pussy, or if you've been the other way, some good dick. Oh man, cures a lot of ails. My wife and I, Lindsay and I work at, you know, we work a ton, travel a lot. We're busy with the kids. We'll be cranky and snappy with each other and then we'll have sex and we'll be all right again. I had a Christian marriage class professor who was awesome years ago back at Gonzaga.

I love this lady. She talked about how important sex was for mental health within a relationship all the time. That skin on skin, carnal connection. Let Lucifina heal you, weird loners. Let her grind the anger out of your heart, leave you sweaty and sleepy and not as angry. Hey, Lucifina.

If the right sexy lady would have come along and kept him busy chasing her and not fuming over the government, I seriously doubt he would have ever put those bombs in a truck. In the two years following high school graduation, McVeigh briefly attended Brighton and Stanton College in Buffalo with an interest in computers, then took on a series of short-term jobs ranging from a gun salesman in a sporting goods store to a security guard. His love affair with guns continued and intensified. He read tons

of pro-gun material, including Soldier of Fortune magazine. He was noted by co-workers to be especially obsessed with guns, which is saying a lot when you're working with people at a sporting goods store that sells guns. One coworker recalled an instance when McVeigh came to work, quote, looking like Pancho Villa, wearing bandoliers, a shoulder belt with loops or pockets for cartridges. Really not a good look now. Weird, virgin loner, fucking super into guns. That kind of dude needs to always be put on the watch list. In May 1988, at the age of 20, Noodle McDryween enlists in the U.S. Army. He's sent to Fort

Benning, Georgia for infantry school. One of the biggest reasons Tim joined the armed forces was admittedly to get a handle on new weapons. Plus, he said the ammunition was free. In basic training, the loner, right, McVeigh, found a friend in his platoon leader, Terry Nichols, who shared his paranoid political views. While in the military, he continued to read about firearms, sniper tactics, explosives. Despite getting good with weapons, he was definitely not a good soldier, not a model soldier anyway, in some ways. He was good in other ways. McVeigh was once reprimanded by the military for purchasing a white power t-shirt at a Ku Klux Klan rally, protesting black servicemen who wore black power t-shirts. And I know there's the argument of, well, if it's okay to wear a black power t-shirt, why is it okay to wear a white power t-shirt?

And I used to think the same thing. Now I don't. Here's why. In a word, history. There is not a longstanding and deeply entrenched history of black Americans being harassed, beaten, enslaved, discriminated against, lynched, et cetera, at the hands of white power. Yeah, there is. Excuse me. There is a longstanding.

Sorry, put the word not in there. There is a longstanding history of black Americans being harassed. There is not a deep history of whites being treated the same way for the same reasons, right? Not saying white Americans haven't been racially discriminated against by black Americans. Of course that's happened. Racism flows out from every color in every direction. It's not a white disease, but again, the history is so very different in America. And McVeigh didn't do it because he was making some kind of social equality point. He did it because he was a fucking asshole and racist. This is a dude who loved the Turner Diaries. McVeigh seemed to fit in well overall with the structured life

of the military. He was a top scoring gunoring gunner with a 25-millimeter cannon of the Bradley fighting vehicles used by his first infantry division. He was eventually promoted to sergeant. He became an excellent marksman, also avid racist. Racial biases came out often within the military. He earned a reputation for assigning undesirable work to black servicemen and reportedly frequently used racial slurs around them. to black servicemen and reportedly frequently used racial slurs around them. He served in Fort Riley, Kansas later for four months in the Persian Gulf War, where he drove a Bradley fighting vehicle and earned a Bronze Star. It was during his trip to the Middle East where he said he got a distaste for the U.S. government. Later, he also said that he decapitated an Iraqi soldier

with cannon fire on his first day in the war and really celebrated. Not sure how I'm supposed to feel about his reaction to the decapitation there. I mean, on the one hand, you are there to kill enemy soldiers, so, you know, you've done your job. On the other hand, it seems a little weird to me, like, fuck yeah, I blew his fucking head off. But I don't know, but maybe that's how you're supposed to react. Maybe that's how I'd react. I don't have the necessary life experience to understand.

McVeigh said later he was shocked to be ordered to execute surrounding prisoners and to see carnage on the road leaving Kuwait City after U.S. troops routed the Iraqi army. He also later re regretted his letter. He let, oh my God, he later regretted. My God, my brain wanted to mix those two words so bad. His actions as a U.S. soldier. So maybe he wasn't quite so excited

to blow people's heads off as the conflict dragged on. He did appear to do a great job in battle. Despite his brief combat mission, he received several service awards, including the Bronze Star Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon,

and the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal. And he must not have gotten too disillusioned with the U.S. military, at least not right away, because he also tried to join the U.S. Special Forces. He wanted to become a Green Beret, be one of the best of the best. But just two days into some type of 21-day tryout program, be one of the best of the best. With just two days into

some type of 21-day tryout program, he reportedly washed out and was humiliated. And then just a few months later, he requested and received an honorable discharge in December of 91. Noodle McDrywing, out. Following his discharge, Noodle returned to upstate New York where he worked security jobs, experienced serious depression, began espousing increasingly angry views of U.S. foreign policy, gun control, and what he believed were conspiracies involving the United Nations. I just picture him as like an angry fucking dude, you know, laying on a couch, worried about rent, watching too much news, being like, fuck, I fucking told you they were, see, that's what I'm talking about. Special forces didn't work out for him, and now McDrywein's gone full radical. force that didn't work out for him, and now McDryween's gone full radical. In March 1992,

in a letter to the Lockport Union Sun, McVeigh writes, taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate promises, they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up. We suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels with no slowdown in sight. Is a civil war imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that, but it might. Now, this statement sent me into a wormhole, into a research wormhole, trying to figure out if McVeigh was right. This stuff just kept getting bigger and bigger for me.

Was the government constantly asking for more in taxes when he was alive? Do taxes keep increasing all the time in America? Well, the short answer surprised me. The short answer is no, taxes do not keep going up. Trying to thoroughly explain how tax rates have changed over the years would require an entire suck and it would be very hard to make entertaining. But I found out that Americans aren't taxed nearly as much as we were currently as we were during the Great Depression and World War II. The top income earners during the final years of world war ii in 1944 1945 this is unbelievable were taxed an astronomical federal income tax rate of 94 percent 94 percent you heard that right

now that doesn't actually mean that 94 percent of their income went to the government because of a really hard to explain progressive income tax rate system where like the first X amount of dollars you earn is taxed at the lowest X rate, the lowest bracket. And then the next X amount of dollars you make is taxed at the next slightly higher bracket and so on and so forth until you then have made over $200,000. And then 94% of the money after, you know, you take deductions and other fancy maneuvers, over $200,000. Well, then that goes to the government, at the time justified by the war effort. So looking a little further, it seems that, you know, the real percentage people paid in the highest income tax bracket was 50%, not over 90%. But still, that's quite a bit higher than today. Today, the current highest tax rate is 37%. Since the Clinton years, the highest tax rate has consistently hovered in that 35 to 40% range.

And again, this is the highest tax bracket for the top earning Americans. That's for individuals making over 510,000, couples earning more than 612,000. That's after deductions and everything. If a single person is making between 84,000 and 160,000 a year, or a couple's making between 168 and everything. If a single person is making between $84,000 and $160,000 a year, or a couple is making between $168,000 and $321,000 a year, you're taxed at a rate of 24%. You make less than $10,000 a year, you're taxed at 10%. Also, Americans remain amongst the least taxed citizens

of advanced industrial nations in the world, with 28% of gross domestic product taken for taxes versus an average of 36% for the 38 member countries, uh, the organized or of the organization for economic cooperation and development, the OECD. So actually during McVeigh's life, uh, you know, it wasn't like, uh, increasing exponentially actually during his life, federal taxes had dropped substantially. President Reagan took the top tax rate below 70% for the first time since World War II, when he took office in 1981. It was still 50%, you know, during his tenure. And then by the time McVeigh wrote his letter,

federal income taxes had bumped down further in the top bracket to a percentage of 40%. Now, this doesn't account for loopholes, deductions, state income taxes, all sorts of other kinds of taxes. I'm not trying to turn this into a giant tax lesson. And I didn't include all the lower tax brackets, you know, for a year to year comparison. I just was surprised to find out that in general, we are not drowning in taxes compared to years past, even though that's a popular narrative. You know, it comes to taxes. We're not getting taxed more than Americans were in the fifties or sixties. We're being taxed less. And I got to say, I feel kind of stupid just learning this now. I have run my mouth complaining about bullshit taxes

many times over my life. I like to bitch about taxes just like I imagine you do. Every generation seems to think that we have it harder, you know, than the good old days, the previous generation,

including me, me and my generation, you know, I do still think we could do away with or reduce certain tax on small business owners, you know,

lower income tier earners. But it turns out Uncle Sam is not fucking us harder and harder each year. As fun as that is to yell about. Turns out he's maybe using a little more lube than he used in previous years when he bends us over. Asked us if we're ready now. Gives us a chance to exhale and I could wait for it. So long story short, McVeigh didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. Around the time McVeigh wrote his threatening letter to the government, which reminds me of the letters the Weavers used to

write to the government, he also started telling friends that he thought the government had planted a microchip in his butt to track his movements. Uh-huh. Right. The government is tracking the movements of old Noodle McDryween, because he's a fucking top priority. They had to know what this consistent

quitter and guy who worked part-time was up to. Right? They had to find out what the dude who had quit who worked part-time was up to. Right? They had to find out what the dude who had quit going to school, had given up on the military when he didn't become a Green Beret. Got to keep their eyes on that guy. Funny how most of the people worried about the government watching them are not worthy of being watched. But it is too bad that the government didn't, you know, actually watch McVeigh,

you know, because if they had watched him later, more people would be alive now. McVeigh grew angrier during this period. He continued to have no luck with women despite awkward efforts. And then he got into gambling. Sweet. He became obsessed with gambling for a while, which was unfortunate because he was shitty at it. He forgot to keep telling himself that in the end, the house always wins.

He forgot to remind himself that all those big ass casinos were not built on people making money. Unable to pay back gambling debts, he took a cash advance, then defaulted on his repayments. Then he became enraged, a little salt on the wound, when the government told him that he had been overpaid $1,058 while in the army, and then he had to pay back that money. He wrote an angry, angry letter to the government that at one point said, go ahead, take everything I own, take my dignity. Feel good as you grow fat and rich at my expense, sucking my tax dollars

and property. Uh, you didn't have any property. That's a, that's a little, a little asterisk there. You didn't actually own anything. Uh, and you, and you really weren't paying taxes cause you really weren't working much. So, uh, would he be that angry if he hadn't lost his shit gambling? I doubt it. Right. Sucks about the check, but Uncle Sam wasn't sitting next to him with the fucking blackjack table telling him to hit again on 14. Noodle McDrywing began thinking more seriously of violent action against the federal government

August 1992 following news of the federal government shootout, right, with survivalist Randy Weaver in the Idaho woods. His mind, the tyranny of the new world order is increasing. Early 1993, McVeigh moves out of his dad's New York home, begins a rootless road life that includes selling weapons at gun shows, often using Tim Tuttle as his business name.

Wonder why he didn't go with Noodle McDryween. Who wouldn't want to buy some guns from the noodle? While gun shows were a place where good law-abiding folks could go and purchase weapons, it was also a hotbed for extremist literature and lunatics. McVeigh never did become a full-on militia member, but he rubbed shoulders with many of them, shared their beliefs, including their extreme anti-government beliefs. While on the road, Noodle spent time at the Nichols family farm in Michigan. He'd also taken on temporary work in Kingman, Arizona, the home of that other military buddy, Michael Fortier. And Waco happened. Tim's radicalization went code red

around the time of the U.S. government's assault on the compound, right? He was actually there before the government went in. He actually went to Waco to see what was happening. And while he was there, he sold pro-gun rights literature and bumper stickers that said shit like, when guns are outlawed, I will become an outlaw.

Ban guns, make the streets safe for a government takeover. Fear the government that fears your guns. And pull my trigger, ladies. become an outlaw. Ban guns. Make the streets safe for a government takeover. Fear the government that fears your guns. And pull my trigger, ladies. My gun is loaded. The noodle is dying for a canoodle. Of course, I made that last one up. While in Waco, he actually told a student reporter, the government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to control the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. You give them an inch and they take a mile. I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves

against government control. And that sentiment there, you know, part of it will resonate with me where it's like, yes, it is a good idea, you know, to not let the government, you know, like be able to take things easily from us if they want to. But then that whole thing, just like with taxes, as far as us turning more and more into a socialist government, no, there's nothing, no real facts support that. For five months following the Waco siege, McVeigh works at a gun shows, hands out free cards printed up with Lon Haruchi's name and address.

This is the guy who shot Vicky Weaver. He's handing out cards with that dude's address, home address. Cards that say, in the hope that somebody in the Patriot movement will assassinate the sharpshooter. Holy shit! And that guy also, Lon, was also present at the Waco siege and perhaps responsible for

Davidian deaths there as well. McVeigh wrote hate mail to Lon suggesting that what goes around comes around. McVeigh later considered putting aside his plan to target the Murrah building and thought about trying to kill members of Lon's family or Lon himself. No one ever shot Lou.

He's still alive as far as we know. He's 65 years old. Not surprisingly, he can't find out where he is. I'm guessing he went into hiding since a lot of people wanted him dead. Haruchi was not the only target of Tim's ire. He would later say he considered a campaign of individual assassination with eligible targets, including Attorney General Janet Reno, Judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. of the Federal District Court,

which is who was the judge that handled the Branch Davidian trial. But he felt that an assassination seemed too difficult. And he decided that since federal agents had become soldiers, it was necessary to strike against them at one of their command centers. McVeigh continued to move with the gun show circuit. During his trek, he would visit 40 states and be part of somewhere around 80 gun shows. McVeigh found that the further west he went,

the more anti-government sentiment he encountered, at least until he got to what he called the People's Socialist Republic of California. McVeigh also sold copies of the Turner Diaries as he traveled. One McVeigh researcher has said, in the gun show culture, McVeigh found a home. Though he remained skeptical of some of the most extreme ideas being bandied about, he liked talking to people there about the United Nations, the federal government, and possible threats to American liberty. And I bet he told a shitload of racist jokes. McVeigh spent most of 1994 in the West,

especially in Kingman, Arizona, where he found minimum wage workers as security guard and in a lumber yard. His behavior moved more and more out of the mainstream and into his own little paranoid world. He had a road Atlas where he drew designations for places most likely to be attacked by nukes. And he determined that Seligman, Arizona, birthplace of Route 66, was the least likely place to be nuked in America. So he considered buying property there. That's when you know that you're fucking killing the game, right? When you have life 100% figured out, when you're definitely not just a paranoid lunatic, when you're basing where you want to live off of where you think is the least likely

place to be nuked. Tim lived with his former military buddy, Michael Fortier in Kingman, Arizona. They got to be closer friends during this period. Fortier was into drugs. And after researching the effects of the drugs, McVeigh experimented with meth while living with Fortier. So sweet. Just an angry, sex-starved, anti-government gun dude doing some meth in the desert. No red flags there. Fortier would get heavier into drugs and seem to be consumed by them, while Tim didn't seem to care for them as much. This would eventually cause a ripple in their friendship, and we'll meet Fortier here in a second. Before we meet him, let's briefly meet another man involved in the OKC bombing, Terry Nichols.

briefly meet another man involved in the OKC bombing, Terry Nichols. Born on April Fool's Day, 1955, Terry Nichols grew up as one of four children of Robert and Joyce Nichols on a family farm in Lapeer, Michigan, a little town of about 8,020 miles east of Flint, a town mostly known for a bestiality ring that operated out of Lapeer in the 1960s. Michael Dupain, I don't know if you've heard that name. He was a local hardware store owner who had converted his store's basement into some kind of fucked up canine sex dungeon where up to 30 medium to large dogs were kept at a time for the sexual gratification

of an alarming amount of the town's residents. Hush money and local political favors would keep the disgusting scandal out of the media and for the most part, out of publicly accessible legal records. But it is strongly believed that between 20 to 40 local men, including the chief city councilman, two teachers from the local high school,

three members of the local police force, two deacons from a local church, were all paying to paying $10 a visit to fuck a harem of sedated German shepherds, Labrador retrievers, Rottweilers, standard poodles in the hardware store basement. Videos of these abusive encounters still serves from time to time in the dark web. At least that's what Reverend Dr. Joe Horscock Johnson Paisley tells me. He says he watches them often for research or something.

That is not true, again. But dear God, I hope some of you believe me for a second. What a salacious story that would be if it was true. I just, I know some of you hate it when I tell these lies. I try not to do them too often. I just really want, I just want one person to not be paying attention really good during this episode, but to hear it all and to mostly come away thinking that the Redcoats were butt-fucking soldiers and that's what really kicked off the American Revolutionary War and that a little Michigan town there was a canine sex ring.

Because I'm a maniac. Okay. Lapeer. No. Home to no scandals I know of. A shy boy and an uninspired student, Nichols graduated in 1973 from Lapeer High School with a 2.6 grade point average.

Then a year at Central Michigan University followed where he didn't do well socially or scholastically. And then Nichols returned to Lapeer to help his recently divorced family with the family farm.

So another dude crushing life. Moves back home, lives with dad. Then Nichols marries Lana Walsh in 1981. The couple has a son the following year.

So at least he's not an angry virgin. He's at least not Noodle McDrywing 2.0. Nichols marries Lana Walsh in 1981. The couple has a son the following year, so at least he's not an angry virgin. He's at least not Noodle McDrywing 2.0. Nichols paid the bills with a variety of jobs ranging from managing a grain elevator to doing carpentry work, selling life insurance. In May 1988, at age 33, Nichols joins the army. He meets Timothy McVeigh in basic training at Fort Benning. Their friendship continues to grow as the two served together in Fort Riley, Kansas. Nichols and McVeigh shared a common hostility to gun control ideas, common belief in the importance of survivalist training for when shit goes down.

They're both ready to go full Wolverine at a moment's notice. Nichols also served in the Persian Gulf War and, like McVeigh, also failed to make the grade in Special Forces and then resigned from the military. In 1990, two years after his wife Lana files for divorce, the 35-year-old Nichols remarries, this time, this says a lot about him, to a 17-year-old Marife Torres, a woman he met through a mail order bride service based in the Philippines. Classy! Oh, what an awesome dude. That's when you know that you for

sure have your shit together, when you are at the top of the dude. That's when you know that you for sure have your shit together. When you were at the top of the alpha male mountain, when you are so fucking socially inept that you can't find a single woman in America to marry. So you have to troll international waters, looking for some desperate teen, hoping to get American citizenship. What a piece of shit. 35 year old dude marrying a 17-year-old male order bride. Gross. And if you've done something similar and you feel super judged right now, good, you creepy weirdo.

Moraife was six months pregnant with another man's son when she arrived in Michigan. That boy would die on November 22nd, 1993 from accidental suffocation. And then Terry and Moraife would have two more children after moving to a farm owned by Terry's brother, James Nichols. Interesting.

Did Terry accidentally suffocate that baby? Nothing online indicates that, but I wouldn't put anything past that creep. By the spring of 1992, Terry, Filipino teen puss Nichols, extremist political views, led him to renounce his U.S. citizenship. In a letter sent to a state agency. OFTP wrote, I am no longer a citizen of the corrupt political corporate state of Michigan and the United States of America. He's probably mostly mad about America's age of consent laws. Probably wishing it was like 12 or something. Later that year in court over credit card debt, Nichols tries to argue that the court lacked jurisdiction over him because he wasn't a citizen. Not how that works, dipshit.

If you're going to live in this land, you have to live by this land's fucking laws, you creepy deadbeat. Fucking 17-year-olds at 35 racking up credit card debt and refusing to take responsibility for it. What a true patriot. What an American treasure.

Following his discharge from the army, FTP spent considerable time with fellow loser Noodle McDrywing. The two reinforced each other's fucking loser anti-government hatred, and they traveled together to gun shows. At the Nichols family farm on April 19th, 1993, the two men watched television together

and shared outrage when Waco went up in flames. Beginning in 1994, Nichols and McVeigh began implementing plans to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. And that's enough, Nichols and McVeigh began implementing plans to blow up the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma city. And that's enough on Nichols for now. Before we jump into that last quick little timeline, let's talk about a third Oklahoma city bombing stooge. Another super awesome dude with his shit totally figured out.

Another top dog, top tier alpha male killing life. Michael Fortier. Michael Joseph Fortier, born in Maine in 1968, then moved with his family to Kingman, Arizona, when he was seven years old. After graduating from Kingman High, Fortier entered the Army, where he met Noodle at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1988.

The company, which also included FTP Nichols, moved on to Fort Riley, Kansas, where Fortier served until his honorable discharge of May 91, 1991. Fortier shared common interests with his friends, McVeigh and Nichols, which tells me he's a fucking maniac. They all considered themselves marksmen, and they all had contempt for the federal government. At McVeigh's urging, Fortier also read the Turner Diaries and loved it. Another awesome guy.

After his stint in the service, Fortier returned to Kingman, where he enrolled in Mojave Community College, worked part-time in a printing shop and a hardware store. He was known locally, mostly for participation in gun control protests. July 25th, 1994, Fortier married his high school sweetheart, Lori, in a Las Vegas casino. McVeigh had become so close with Fortier that he was his best man. At the time of McVeigh's trial in 1997, this couple would have two children, a four-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. The Fortiers hosted McVeigh at their Kingman mobile home several times from 93 to 95. Outside the home, Fortier flew a flag

depicting a coiled snake bearing the words, don't tread on me. Man, that's a cool flag. Why does it always have to be on fucking losers' houses? Why don't you ever seen that flag in like a mansion? You never see that shit. McVeigh, Nichols, Fortier, right? They were all pissed at the system

because it wasn't working for them. Would have given their indignation a little more credence if one of them had been doing really well in life. But arguably the most successful member of this trio is a meth head living in a desert trailer park with his high school sweetheart. Fortier, as we mentioned, was a heavy drug user. Got Tim into it. Two would share stories on drug highs as they laid on their backs and gazed into the night style.

Fucking cracked out on meth. On other occasions, they vented their anger about gun control, the New World Order, or their ambitious plans of the United Nations. Jesus Christ. world order or their ambitious plans of the United Nations. Jesus Christ. In the Arizona desert, McVeigh proudly detonated his increasingly sophisticated homemade bombs for the entertainment of the 48s. Meth, explosives, anti-government rants under the desert sky. Oh, if only McVeigh had been right about that surveillance chip in his ass. So these are the stars of today's show. The three conspirators of the Oklahoma City bombing. men who were angry, paranoid, delusional, disillusioned, struggling to find their way in life, dudes who were gambling away their money, racking up credit card debt they didn't want to pay off, and doing meth in

the desert. They were champions. Now let's march up and on through the April 19th, 1995 bombing of a federal government building in downtown Oklahoma City with this week's final, unfortunately explosive, Time Suck Timeline. Strap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a Time Suck Timeline. April 1993, McVeigh heads for a farm in Michigan where Terry Nichols lives, a farm owned by Terry's parents.

In between watching coverage of the Waco siege on TV, Nichols and his brother began teaching McVeigh how to make explosives out of readily available materials. Specifically, they combined household chemicals and plastic jugs. My God. I actually used to try and make bombs, too. Also, no shit in the spring of 1993. And same time. When I was struggling socially, I was an awkward high school sophomore living in Las Vegas with my dad and stepmom, a stepmom I hated, who hated me. I'd left behind everything I knew in Riggins, Idaho,

went to live with my dad in Vegas. For two years, I was angry, confused, left alone with my very anti-social thoughts way too much. I was setting fires and shit. I had like three friends, three kids at school who knew my name. Nobody else knew I was. I was just a weird, quiet kid. I was basically like a trench coat mafia kid. 93 Me identifies with 93 McVeigh and Nichols way too much. I wasn't angry at the federal government.

I was angry at the whole fucking world, and I just wanted to watch it burn. Had the world fucked me over? Looking back, no. No more than the federal government had fucked over McVeigh and Nichols. But when you're alone and angry and the world doesn't make sense, you don't need rational reasons for an enemy. You just need an enemy. Something to focus

your hatred on. Man, what a terrible headspace to be in. Luckily, my dad moved back to Riggins and I slowly snapped out of it. Sad that McVeigh and Nichols never did. The destruction of the Waco compound enraged again. McVeigh convinced him it was time to take action. He suspected a cover-up.

He believed the feds had purposely set fire. He saw the disappearance of certain evidence, such as bullet-riddled steel-reinforced front door to the complex as proof of the cover-up. He believed the 25 Davidians were trying to flee when they were gunned down by the ATF in a final battle. McVeigh is now fully radicalized, right? He begins to sell Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive Hats riddled with bullet holes.

He produces his own videos detailing the government's actions at Waco, hands out pamphlets with titles like U.S. Government Initiates Open Warfare Against American People. He begins changing his answering machine greeting every couple of weeks to various quotes by Patrick Henry, such as, give me liberty or give me death. He continues to experiment with pipe bombs and other small explosive devices. And sadly, he's way better at making this shit go boom than I ever was. February 28th, 1994, the Brady Bill is passed. The act was named after James Brady, assistant to the president, who was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. during an attempted assassination of Reagan on March 30th, 1981. The bill was seen as an affront to gun rights activists everywhere, especially McVeigh.

He believed this threatened his gun show livelihood. He's furious. He stops associating now with anybody who doesn't share his views, like longtime boyhood friend Steve Hodge, who he sent the following letter. Those who betray or subvert the Constitution are guilty of sedition and or treason, are domestic enemies, and should and will be punished accordingly. It also stands to reason that anyone who sympathizes with the enemy or gives aid or comfort to said enemy is likewise guilty. I have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will. And I will because not only did I swear to, but I believe

in what it stands for in every bit of my heart, soul, and being. I know in my heart that I am right in my struggle, Steve. I have come to peace with myself, my God, and my cause. Blood will flow in the streets, Steve. Good versus evil. Free men versus socialist wannabe slaves. Pray it is not your blood, my friend. Can you fucking imagine if you got that letter from one of your friends? Like some old friend from school. Holy shit. If I wasn't locking my door at night before, man, I am afterwards. I would not fun to be on a noodle shit list. That's crazy. It just speaks to his psychological profile. Oh, man.

No stranger to traveling, Tim embarks on a very strange conspiracy-fueled road trip now. He visits militia groups in northern Idaho, right? Views the remains of the Ruby Ridge cabin. He visits Area 51 just so he can defy government restrictions on photography there. You don't tell me what, you're not my mom! He heads to Gulfport, Mississippi to determine the veracity of rumors about United Nations operations supposedly going on there. He'd heard rumors that Russian tanks and troops were staging there for an all-out invasion of the U.S. This, of course, not true.

The Russian vehicles on site were being configured for use in U.N.-sponsored humanitarian aid efforts. He's completely out of his mind now. He's not a religious extremist like the Weavers were with Ruby Ridge or Koresh and his followers in Waco, but he is cut from the same cloth. He is certain an apocalypse of sorts is on the horizon. War's coming. The New World Order about to attack America. He visits Waco again after the compound was burned. He makes a point to visit the ashes and rubble of what he saw as martyrs. In his mind, they were peers. When he sees Nichols again, he puts his plans of mass murder into motion. In the summer of 94, McVeigh also composes two letters to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. The first is titled Constitutional

Defenders, and the second, ATF Read. In them, he denounces government officials as fascist tyrants and stormtroopers and warns ATF, all you tyrannical people will swing in the wind one day for your treasonous acts against the Constitution of the United States. Remember the Nuremberg war trials. Now in his mind, ATF officers are fucking Nazis. He's living in his own Turner Diaries influence reality. He also writes a letter of recruitment to a man named Steve Colburn, who was a customer of his from his gun show days. He writes, a man with nothing left to lose is a very dangerous man, and his enemy, anger, can be focused towards a common righteous goal. What I'm asking you to do

then is sit back and be honest with yourself. Do you have kids and a wife? Would you back out at the last minute to care for your family? Are you interested in keeping your firearms for the current future monetary value? Or would you drag that 06 through rock, swamp, and cactus? Or that 06, I think is written kind of weird. Would you drag that 06 through rock, swamp, and cactus to get off the needed shot? In short, I'm not looking for talkers. I'm looking for fighters. And if you are a fed, think twice. Think twice about the constitution you are supposedly enforcing. Isn't enforcing freedom an oxymoron? And think twice about catching us with our guard down. You will lose just like Deacon did, and your family will lose. Steve Colburn, UCLA educated

chemist in his mid-30s would later be arrested on both state and federal weapons charges in a remote area of the Arizona desert. Today, Steve seems to be a UFO investigator who mostly believes or talks about extraterrestrials putting implants in humans. Glad to see he's a lot

more mentally stable now. And I'm not 100% sure that's the same Steve, but it's the same name, looks like the same guy. New Steve doesn't mention loose involvement with the OKC bombing in his bio for some weird reason. September of 1994, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols ramp everything up. To build a big bomb, they first and foremost need lots and lots of chemical fertilizer. Same stuff I used to try and build pipe bombs out of back in 93. Using aliases, they buy 2,000 pounds

of ammonium nitrate in McPherson, Kansas. They also obtain a detonation cord and a highly unstable auto racing fuel that will amp up the destructive capabilities of their bomb.

September 22nd, 94, Timothy rents a storage unit in Harrington, Kansas, where he will store many explosives and ingredients. That October, McVeigh and Nichols steal explosives from a storage locker in Marion, Kansas, where he will store many explosives and ingredients. That October, McVeigh and Nichols steal explosives from a storage locker in Marion, Kansas, transporting it to another storage locker

in Kingman, Arizona, where Nichols' brother James lives. Then they buy another 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, put it in a storage locker in the little 2,000-person off-the-grid town of Council Grove, Kansas. Around this time, McVeigh shows his buddy Fortier how he's going to arrange the explosives in a V-shape inside the truck for maximum destruction. In November, McVeigh and Nichols rob an Arkansas firearms dealer of cash, weapons, ammunition, coins, precious metals, and other property. Nichols places the stolen items in another locker in the same Council Grove facility, places other items in a Las Vegas, Nevada storage locker. FTP Nichols then leaves for the Philippines, where his young wife's family lives,

after having prepared a letter to McDryween to be delivered only in the event of Nichols' death. In it, Nichols tells McVeigh to either empty or extend the lease on the Council Grove storage locker containing stolen property by February 1st and to liquidate the explosives in the other storage locker. McVeigh is obviously preparing to blow up something, something Nichols has helped him prepare for, something 40A is clearly aware of, but what? He still hasn't decided on a target. On his list of potential targets were government buildings in Little Rock, Arkansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dallas, Texas.

Then he decides Oklahoma City is where he wants to hurt the federal government the most. The Murrah building in Oklahoma City housed a number of federal agencies, including the ATF, HUD, DEA, Secret Service, various military recruitment offices. He saw this as a perfect way to enact revenge for what the government, especially the ATF, had done in Waco. December 94, on the way to Kansas to pick up firearms stolen in the Arkansas robbery, McVeigh cases the Alfred P. Murrow Federal Building in Oklahoma City, along with Michael Fortier. January 1995, Nichols returns from the Philippines. He still has the same wife, even though now she's 22. She's super old and barely fuckable,

but he stays with her for the sake of the kids. I'm adding that because I think he's a creep, not because I read that anywhere. The firearms stolen in the Arkansas robbery are sold, and McVeigh, Nichols, and Fortier split the money. Somewhere around this point, Fortier learns of McVeigh's plans to blow up a federal building, adamantly declines to be part of it.

Fortier also tells his wife about the plans and she is not amused. I bet not. She didn't agree to bone this dude and have his kids in exchange for citizenship just so he could then attack the government of the nation she literally just fucked her way into. I bet she was pissed. February 1995, Nichols pays for the continued use of the Council Grove storage unit containing the explosives. In March, McVeigh

obtains a South Dakota's driver's license in the name of Robert Kling with April 19th, 1972 as the birthday. There it is again, April 19th. April 14th, McVeigh buys a shitty 1997 Mercury Marquis in Junction City, Kansas. Not considered a cool car then, but if you were driving a cherried out one in Brooklyn today, you'd be super hipster cool. On Easter, April 16th, he

calls the Nichols residence in Little Harrington, Kansas from Junction City and tells them it's fucking go time. McVeigh also calls a business in Junction City using the name Bob Kling, inquires about renting a truck that can carry 5,000 pounds of cargo. He then rents a motel room in Junction City, places his deposit for the truck

in the name of Robert Kling. April 17th, McVeigh rents the infamous 20-foot yellow rider truck in Junction City. The next day, the 18th, is the bomb-making day. At Geary Lake State Park in Kansas, McVeigh and Nichols build a bomb in the cargo compartment, the 18th, the bomb, is the bomb making day. At Geary Lake State Park in Kansas, McVeigh and Nichols build a bomb in the cargo compartment of the truck

using barrels filled with mixtures of ammonium nitrate fuel and other explosives they'd collected. The majority of the work is done by McVeigh. He's proud of this fact. He's proud of his creation. He'll later brag that it took him about three hours

with little assistance from Nichols. Apparently, Nichols frustrated McVeigh with the case of cold feet, and then allegedly McVeigh threatened to kill Nichols and his family if he didn't help him go through with it. The next day, along with his bomb, angry, racist, delusional, Noodle McDryween drives to Oklahoma City in that Ryder truck. On April 19th, Noodle parks right outside of the Murrow building in a delivery area.

The nine-story building opened in 1977, named for an Oklahoma native who became one of the youngest federal judges in a delivery area. The nine-story building opened in 1977, named for an Oklahoma native who became one of the youngest federal judges in U.S. history when he was appointed by FDR in 1936. The large building was a U.S. federal government complex located at 200 Northwest 5th Street, downtown Oklahoma City. At its busiest, 2,000 people would be in the building doing a variety of work for the government and the private sector, and it has approximately 550 government employees. There was also, tragically, a daycare called America's Kids in the building's basement. 8.57 a.m., a security camera captures an image of a Ryder truck being parked outside the building.

McVeigh is seen getting out. Witnesses see him leave the scene. He heads towards an alley behind a nearby YMCA, where he then jogs to a waiting getaway car that's missing a license plate. He left it there during his last visit. This attack was beyond premeditated. On the car's window was a sign that read, Not Abandoned, Please Do Not Tow, Will Move. Needs battery and cables.

9 a.m., a Water Resources Board meeting begins in a neighboring building. An audio tape will capture the sounds of what will be the largest domestic terrorist attack in the history of the U.S. at the time. The blast occurs just a couple of minutes after the meeting begins. And actually, it's still the largest domestic attack. At 9.02, the bomb explodes. Big time. It's a massive explosion. The blast shears off almost the entire front of the building, injuring more than 500 people, killing 168, including 19 children. 98 of the government employees McVeigh hated so much die. The cars in the parking lot caught on fire. Nearly a third of the building pulverized. A large pool-sized, eight-foot-deep hole lays where the

van used to sit. No one had ever seen anything like this before. Survivors stand on different levels of the building, looking down, stunned towards the crowd below this gathering. The total cost of the damage is later estimated as high as $652 million. A rescue mission is undertaken immediately. First responders horrified, by no means ready for such a tragedy. All those dead children. I can only imagine the carnage. My brain doesn't want to picture it. The bomb was only 50 feet away from the daycare center. And due to the crater the bomb made, the first place the brave responders stepped into was where that daycare used to be. Body after tiny body pulled from the wreckage,

covered in white sheets, lying next to each other in the street. With great luck and immense effort, six of the 25 children would survive. That fucking mighty patriot, who talks about how all ATF agents should be hanged for treason, doesn't bother to find out

if fucking kids are in the building. What a hero. By 9.30, a triage has been established at 6th and Robinson. More and more survivors and victims are taken out of the rubble. By 10.15, a blood drive has begun at nearby Tinker Air Force Base, ran by the Oklahoma Blood Institute. 10.17 a.m., McVeigh is pulled over by a state trooper on Interstate 35 near Billings, Oklahoma,

about 80 miles north of Oklahoma City. Why? Because he's missing that rear license plate. Did he fuck up with his plan in there? Should he have pulled over and put some plates on earlier, or did he want to get caught? As McVeigh reaches for his wallet, the trooper notices a bulge under his light windbreaker and arrests McVeigh for carrying a concealed pistol in his shoulder holster. He's taken into custody.

Pretty ironic that after all this, he basically gets arrested for weapons charge. At the time of his arrest, Noodle's wearing a t-shirt that reads, Sic Semper Tyrannis. It's a Latin phrase attributed to one of the people who assassinated Julius Caesar. It could be translated as, thus always to tyrants.

It's a shortened version of the phrase, Sic Semper Ivello Mortem Tyrannis, which means, thus always I bring death to tyrants. It's the same phrase John Wilkes Booth yelled out after assassinating President Lincoln. No one knows yet that McVeigh's the bomber. Sometime around noon, investigators sifting through the smoldering rubble find a suspicious truck's axle and are able to read the confidential vehicle information, identification number on it.

PVA 26077. Computer check reveals it matches a Ryder truck rented in Kansas. Agents are sent there to gather info. That night, the last survivor of the blast is pulled from the wreckage. The following day, April 20th, having interviewed witnesses in Oklahoma City and the Ryder Depot in Kansas,

authorities released sketches of the suspects. Two white males, John Doe 1, John Doe 2. John Doe 1 looks an awful lot like Timothy McVeigh, while John Doe 2 was actually a man that had been in Elliot's body shop around the time McVeigh was there, within a day or two, completely unrelated to the case. Those two images would be quickly put on blast around the world. I wonder if that second dude still gets shit from his buddies.

You know? Well, of course you've always been lucky, John. I should have never, you know, called cards on the dude who got away with that Oklahoma City bombing. April 21st, shortly before he was about to be released from the Noble County Jail on a traffic arrest, McVeigh is identified as a bombing suspect, turned over to the FBI. Crazy that he almost got away twice. Investigators had tracked down the motel that McVeigh had stayed in by asking about the Ryder truck. It was the Dreamland Motel, room 25. The woman working there recognized the sketch, showed the investigators his room 25. The woman working there recognized

the sketch, showed the investigators his room receipt. For some reason, he had signed it not with his new alias, but with his real name. Seems like he fucked up. When it was discovered that McVeigh was connected to the bombing, people came to the Noble County Courthouse from all around. When he was let out in cuffs, he was booed as America saw the face of the worst domestic terrorist in U.S. history. He showed zero emotion. Shortly after McVeigh's arrest, Terry Nichols hears his name on the news about the bombing, and I imagine at least partially shits his pants. He goes to the police in Harrington with his wife and daughter to try and clear his name, and he will never walk free again. FBI agents question

him for hours. He says, in my eyes, I did not do anything wrong, but I can see how lawyers can turn stuff around. I did not know anything. Oh, but you did, FTP. You helped put the bomb together. That's a lot more than not knowing anything. Nichols and his brother James are held as material witnesses. On April 22nd, the following day, Nichols is arrested first as a material witness.

At his court hearing, he tells a Kansas judge, it's all a jumble in my brain right now. I bet it is your whole fucking brain is jumbled. On April 23rd, a memorial service is held for victims of the blast. On May 4th, rescue workers end their search for the victims. The bodies of Christy Rosas, Virginia Thompson, and Alvin Justice, who were all in the building's credit union, remain buried in unstable rubble. The death count stands at 168. May 10th, Terry Nichols is formally charged in connection with the bombing. May 17th, Fortier and his wife, Lori, decide to cooperate with the FBI and seriously regret ever associating with Noodle.

May 23rd, 150 pounds of charges set by demolition experts demolish what remained of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. James Nichols, brother of Terry, is released from federal custody. Charges against him are later dropped. He was only guilty of being related to a dipshit. May 29th, the remaining three bodies of Rosas, Thompson, and Justice are recovered. August 2nd, McVeigh's sister, Jennifer, testifies before a federal grand jury.

She was also under investigation for some time during the case. She was granted immunity as she testified. She recalled that in early 1995, she received an ominous letter from her brother saying he won't be back forever. And warning her to be careful because she would be investigated and to use a pay phone in case of alert to contact his friends, Laurie and Michael Fortier in Arizona, because her phone would be tapped. In the letter, McVeigh advised his sister to read the Turner Diaries. That fucking stupid book. She said she knew about the large amount of explosives

he was collecting, but said she didn't know what he was going to use them for. She said, I don't think I wanted to know. She recounted how when she was 10, her parents divorced. She and an older sister moved with her mother, and Tim remained with her father. Eventually, she said she moved back to live with her father while she was in high school and her brother was in the

army. And she said that after graduation from high school, her brother began sending her political literature, focusing on the U.S. Constitution and gun control, and then began to escalate his anti-government rhetoric, calling the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies fascist tyrants. She recalled a conversation

in which her brother, who was very angry now, said that he indicated that he was not in the propaganda stage, which was passing out papers. He was now in the action stage. August 8th, Michael Fortier testifies in secret before the Oklahoma City federal grand jury investigating the bombing. A day after signing a plea deal, his wife testifies before the grand jury as well. August 10th, a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City indicts McVeigh and Nichols on 11 felony counts, blaming them for the bombing and the deaths of eight federal agents. The grand jury says McVeigh and Nichols conspired with others unknown. The grand jury indicts

Michael Fortier for four crimes. He pleads guilty in Oklahoma City federal court. Fortier admits that he failed to warn anyone of the bomb plot and lied to FBI agents after the attack. And he admits he helped McVeigh move and sell about 25 stolen guns. On August 15th, McVeigh and Nichols are arraigned separately in Oklahoma City Federal Court. October 20th, prosecutors announced they will seek the death penalty against McVeigh and Nichols. A year and a half later, April 24th, 1997, Noodle's trial begins. Prosecutors and defense attorneys make opening statements. On May 12th and 13th, 48 tells jurors McVeigh wanted to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Building to cause a general uprising in America and to knock some people off the fence into taking action against the federal

government. Good old Turner Diaries. May 21st, prosecutors rest their case. On May 28th, defense rests theirs. And on June 2nd, after 23 and a half hours of deliberations over four days, McVeigh is convicted on all counts. Hundreds gather outside the courthouse to applaud the jury's verdict. On June 13th, the jury sentences McVeigh to death by lethal injection. August 20th, calling his client an ingrate and a liar, Noodle McDrywean's attorney, Stephen Jones, asked the court for permission to step down as Noodle's lead attorney for the appeals process.

On September 27th, Nichols' federal trial begins with jury selection. On November 20th, Nichols' ex-wife testifies how a letter from Nichols told McVeigh to go for it, quote unquote. On December 23rd, Nichols is convicted of the bombing conspiracy, but acquitted of direct blame for the attack. Jurors find him guilty of involuntary manslaughter instead of murder. On May 27th, 98, Michael Fortier is sentenced in Oklahoma City to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000. June 4th, 1998, calling him an enemy of the Constitution, a federal judge sentences Nichols to life imprisonment without parole, the maximum sentence. This sentence closes the judicial books on a searing chapter in American history that underscored the nation's vulnerability to domestic terror. March 8th, 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects McVeigh's request for an appeal. July 7th, 1999, McVeigh is moved to the newly opened death row facility at Terre Haute Federal Prison in Indiana,

the same place where former Suck Subject and current piece of shit Joseph Duncan sits today. August 17th, McVeigh appeals again, alleging incompetence by his lawyers. October 12th, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects Nichols' appeal, and he eventually loses all his appeals. January 30th, 2000, Nichols is moved to the Oklahoma City jail from a federal prison in Colorado. On October 12th, 2000, a U.S. district court in Denver denies McVeigh's final request for a new trial. December 11th, McVeigh files a statement, a U.S. district court in Denver denies McVeigh's final request for a new trial. December 11th, McVeigh files a statement to the U.S. district court in Colorado in which he gives notice to forego further appeals, requests an execution date be set within 120 days.

It's set for May 16th. April 3rd, McVeigh finally admits in a new biography that he committed the bombing. He claims Nichols helped him. He also callously calls the dead children collateral damage and shows zero remorse for their deaths. April 12th, Attorney General John Ashcroft announces that 250 survivors and relatives can watch his execution via a secure closed circuit television link. April 19th, 2001, six-year anniversary of the bombing. May 11th, John Ashcroft postpones the execution for one month after it's revealed that the FBI failed to release thousands of documents to McVeigh's lawyers. Because of this, he is not executed on May 16th. But then a month later, after a brief delay, you know, because of that paperwork blunder, McVeigh on June 11th, 2001 is executed by lethal injection at the federal prison

in Terre Haute, Indiana. Noodle McDrawing's remains are then cremated and disposed of at an undisclosed location. Hopefully they were tossed in a porta potty. On January 20th, 2006, Michael Fortier is released from prison. His location is not revealed, prompting speculation

that he entered a witness protection program. And that takes us out of this insane time suck timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely.

Oh, boy. Alright, just quick word about OKC conspiracies before we wrap up. The OKC bombing, ripe with conspiracies, starting as soon as the dust settled. From Middle East connections to false flags by the US government to using McVeigh like some kind of Manchurian candidate, there was all kinds of theories. They flooded the underground video trading circuits and self-published book

tours. Sorry we didn't get into those today. The suck was a beast already. And I just wanted to stay focused more on the facts on this one. McVeigh succeeded in his mission to terrorize America, but he failed in his hopes of sparking future attacks and leading America into some sort of anarchist race war. His actions didn't even lead to an uptick in other domestic terrorists trying to do the same type of stupid shit he did, thank God. No, Noodle McDryween was a total and complete failure. Anyone who sings his praises are, in my opinion, either seriously misinformed or racist, ignorant, anarchist fucking dickbags. Noodle was a veteran, but he was not a patriot.

He was a traitor. He was a domestic terrorist, and I'm glad he's dead. You know, where his bomb once exploded and left a carnage and death and nightmares behind, a beautiful memorial now sits. The Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. Looks incredible. So well done. The Field of Empty Chairs sits where the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. Looks incredible. So well done.

The Field of Empty Chairs sits where the Murrah Building once stood. 168 empty chairs, handcrafted from glass, bronze, and stone, represent those who lost their lives, with names etched into the glass base of each one. Beautiful, poignant, haunting. There's a reflection pool, the Gates of Time, the Survivor's wall, much more. 3.3 acre, incredibly designed tribute to America not being the America McVeigh wanted. I've heard it's just about impossible to not at least tear up when you visit. Thank God McVeigh did not accomplish any of his Turner Diaries fantasies. Thank God we're better than that. I hope we always are. Hail Nimrod. Time now for top five takeaways. Time shock, top five takeaways.

Number one, Timothy McVeigh wanted to be a martyr for the cause of a new American revolution against the federal government instead of the British. And in a few minds, I guess he is. You know, I guess he is a martyr to some. But I think in many more minds, Noodle McDryween will instead just be remembered for what he actually was, a delusional loser. A racist child murderer who killed 168 of his countrymen in a misguided act of fake patriotism. Number two, America's militia and patriot movements have a lot of different flavors of people inside of them. McVeigh was amongst the worst of those flavors. He identified heavily with the ideas of the racist revolutionary book, Turner Diaries.

He sold it at gun shows, told everyone he met to read it, and I forgot to mention this earlier, even had pages of the book open on the passenger seat of his getaway car after the bombing. Fuck everyone who gives that book five stars on Amazon, even those who seem to have done so because they don't seem to understand how a rating system works.

Hate it! Five out of five. Number three, the Oklahoma City bombing was the largest terror attack in American history when it happened, and it remains the largest terror attack committed by a domestic terrorist. And I hope some new attack never tops it. Number four, Noodle took a conspiracy-themed road trip before the bombing. How weird is that detail? He went on a spiritual revenge mission that took him to Ruby Ridge, Waco, even Area 51, before heading to Oklahoma City. Dude was wackadoodle with a capital F. Number five, new info. Although America has never seen an attack like OKC before, one had been planned, and not just in the Turner Diaries. October 1983, members of the white supremacist group, the Covenant, the Sword,

and the Arm of the Lord, CSA, including founder James Ellison and Richard Snell, founders, or no, excuse me, including founder James Ellison and Richard Snell plotted to park a van or a trailer in front of the federal building and blow it up with rockets detonated by a timer. More paranoid racist idiots. While the CSA was building a rocket launcher to attack the building, the ordnance accidentally detonated in one of the members' hands. That's awesome. The CSA took this as divine intervention

and called off the planned attack. Or they realized they were just fucking too dumb to pull it off. In a strange coincidence convicted of murder in an unrelated case, Richard Snell ended up later being executed on April 19th, 1995. Same day, the bombing of that federal building was carried

out by McVeigh. The dumb fuck had killed a pawn shop owner for being Jewish, even though he wasn't Jewish. He just thought he was. And then he killed a black police officer and he got the death penalty. Snell reportedly spent his last day alive watching news coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing and laughing to himself.

Snell seemed to have thought the bombing was going to kick off the race war he and McVeigh hoped for. Just before being executed, he looked at Arkansas Governor Jim Tucker and said, Look over your shoulder. Justice is coming. I wouldn't trade places with you or any of your cronies. Hell has victories. I'm at peace. Nope. The war never came, dumb shit. You died in vain, just like old Noodle McDrywee.

Time suck. Top five takeaways. That's a big one. Oklahoma City and bombing has been sucked. That was a beast of a suck. That was a novel. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. So much info. Big thanks to the time suck team. Thanks to Queen of the Suck, Lindsay Cummins. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. So much info. Big thanks to the Time Suck team. Thanks to Queen of the Suck,

Lindsey Cummins, High Priestess, Harmony Velikamp, Reverend Dr. Paisley, Bid Elixir App Design Crew, Logan and Kate at Spicy Club running that sweet-ass badmagicmerch.com,

and script keeper, Zach Flannery. Check out, please, the Cult of the Curious private Facebook group if you want to make some new friends. Thank you again to Countess of the Cult,

Liz Hernandez. Sorry I missed you when you were out here when I was in St. Louis. Thanks for being a kick-ass admin. Over 16,000 meat sacks to meet in the Cult of the Curious now. And thanks to the All Seen Eyes, the cult for helping Liz. Also, Time Suck Discord channel via the Time Suck app has over 5,500 diehard suckers having fun in there.

Thanks again, Beefsteak. I hope you're feeling better. Next week, we dig into a new cult, the Nation of Yahweh cult, a cult identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a black supremacist cult. It only seemed fair after going over several white racist wackadoodles

that we cover some black racist wackadoodles. Good reminder that racism comes in all colors. During the 1980s, this group was investigated in connection to 23 murders around Miami, Florida, including a decapitated temple dissident and several dead white people who had their ears cut off. Like, for real. November 1990, the cult leader Yahweh Ben Yahweh, a.k.a. Grand Master of All, a.k.a. God of the Universe. These are real titles he gave himself, a.k.a. Everlasting Father, a.k.a. real name,

Hulon Mitchell Jr. And some of his followers were indicted with 14 killings, two attempted killings, arson, and extortion. According to the charges, the group killed former members. And they also practiced an initiation rite, which involved killing a white person and giving one of their ears to Yahweh. Yahweh ben Yahweh, convicted of conspiracy

to commit murder in 1992. It's going to be another wild ride. Now let's get to this week's awesome Time Sucker Updates. Updates? Get your Time Sucker Updates. Our first update comes in from super sucker Michael David Anderson, who updates an old suck. Suck 19. Flat Earth Theory fuckery. We talked about flat earthers a lot in some of those

early episodes, and one of those flat earthers we talked about was a man named Mad Mike Hughes. Limo driver. Amateur rocket enthusiast. Michael writes, hey Master Time Sucker, quick update. Mad Mike, the flat earther determined to prove the earth is flat with a homemade rocket was killed during his latest attempt to fly outside of Los Angeles.

Here's a link from the article I read this morning. And the article said, Michael Hughes, who went by the moniker Mad Mike, was attempting to launch his steam-powered rocket to an altitude of 5,000 feet from a site in the desert northwest of Los Angeles on Saturday, February 22nd at 2 p.m. But crashed 20 seconds after takeoff. Angeles on Saturday, February 22nd at 2 p.m., but crashed 20 seconds after takeoff. Mr. Hughes, 64, eventually wanted to prove his flatter theory by taking photographs of the curvature of the planet, or lack of curvature, from space. The stunt was being filmed for a science channel program called Homemade Astronauts. What a dumb, ugh. The program confirmed his death, tweeting, Michael Mad Mike Hughes tragically passed away today during an attempt to launch his homemade rocket.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends during this difficult time. It was always his dream to do this launch and Science Channel was there to chronicle his journey. Now, you were there to exploit a fucking lunatic doing something preposterously stupid. A video of the launch shows Mr. Hughes' rocket arc off to the right almost immediately after

takeoff with what appears to be the parachute falling away from the craft. The rocket then plummets nose first to the right almost immediately after takeoff with what appears to be the parachute falling away from the craft. The rocket then plummets nose first to the ground and the crash happened in the open desert near Barstow, a town northwest of San Bernardino. Man, talk about a needless tragedy, right? I mean, I know it's sad on one level,

but also, I nominate this for the Darwin Awards fucking Hall of Fame. I mean, holy shit. Never launch yourself anywhere in a homemade rocket. Then Michael continues with, also on another note, I wanted to let you know I love the show. I'm still getting caught up on the back catalog. Just finished the Toy Box Killer Suck.

I can definitely understand how hard that particular subject must have been. Appreciate how much you approach these dark subjects, though, especially in terms of the illumination I feel they deserve. I'm an independent horror novelist. There are some subjects even I would not want to fully dedicate myself to writing because of the inherent darkness.

I was raised on a diet of horror as a kid. Stephen King and Dean Kuntz is my two earliest influences. Once I re-up my personal stock, I intend to send copies of my novels to the Suck Dungeon. Keep sucking, Michael David Anderson. Well, thank you, Michael. I like a good horror novel. I look forward to seeing those books show up here in the Suck Dungeon, and I hope you continue to enjoy the show.

Next up, a wonderful shout out to the Cult of the Curious Facebook community from a beautiful meat sack, Julie Tuft. Julie writes, dearest Dan, the Suck Master, I'm recently very active in the Cult of the Curious group on Facebook. Holy mother of fuck. This community fucking loves each other and embraces, understands, supports, and encourages each other. It's hilarious memes and amazing humor, but I would have never expected the deepest levels of sympathy, empathy, and care and concern the members exhibit consistently.

I posted a couple weeks ago feeling lost as my little brother died suddenly on January 22nd. Sorry about that. That is a terrible, terrible tragedy. He was 36. I am 39. My post was addressing my loss of my best friend and ally in life and how now in this time I didn't have him to share horrible dark humor with and make poorly tasted jokes in the worst moments to laugh because it's how I cope. I posted a meme that I loved and had no one to share it with because my brother was

who I would be sharing it with. The meme read, me at my best friend's funeral, we are gathered here today because somebody, glares at coffin, couldn't stay alive, along with a pic of me and my little bro. The outpouring of love, horribly amazing dark humor, and messages to not stop being me, to not lose my humor along with my brother was amazing.

Keep my, this is said to keep my dark humor alive for my brother was amazing. This is said to keep my dark humor alive for my brother, and I have kept it alive. It has truly been one of the best pieces of advice so far. I don't feel like I've lost everything with him. I just might start looking like a maniac laughing at myself and sometimes talking out loud to my brother who's dead. I wanted to express my appreciation and adoration of the beautiful cult family that you've all created. It's legitimately been life-changing, and my experience isn't unique. Multiple times a day, I see incredibly inspirational messages to others who are hurting, confused, lost, suicidal. The community you've all started is literally saving lives. It's restored my faith in humanity. Literally life-saving in some cases. Thank you and

your amazing team for creating this inexplicably majestic group of suckers. The most uplifting place I return to repeatedly every day. Please never stop sucking. Hail Nimrod. Most sincerely, Julie motherfucking tough. I added the motherfucking there, Julie. Man, what a great reminder for what this is for a lot of people and for me to not fuck this all up. No pressure. Seriously, I'm so happy that you've gotten so much support. And again, so sorry for an irreplaceable loss, but so glad you found a new set of friends who share that beautiful fucked up sense of humor. Yours never lose it. Stay dark,

sweet, Julie. Next up. Great update on Ruby Ridge from a great sucker. Wade Himmel. Wade writes, Dan, I'm not sure this is the correct way to email you,

but I want to write you about two issues. I have that both stem from the Ruby Ridge suck. First point is that our government never has the right to put the title of judge, jury, and executioner in one person's hands. That is why they are different in the legal system. During Ruby Ridge, a trigger happy sniper was not in danger at all and shot the wife with a baby in her hands. That is the definition of wrongful death. Second, during updates, you said that ISIS is standing up against our military and still exists. My issue with that is that ISIS has automatic weapons, rocket launchers, and a number of other weapons that American citizens do not have. ISIS is fighting around 5,000 or so of our troops and kill very few while our military kills

hundreds of them on a regular basis. Please explain how this is standing up to our military. I will continue to listen, but I think you're incorrect in assuming that the American people give up rights because they commit a crime, just like our right to bear arms is the right of a fair trial. Giving law enforcement, informants, yeah, enforcers, the order to kill on sight is not a fair trial. So glad you sent this in, Wade. I keep talking with this. I do agree that, God, I mean, I would say in maybe all cases, but asterisks, because there might be something I'm not thinking of that. Yeah, you shouldn't be able to kill on site. U.S. citizens on their own property.

You're right. The U.S. government does not have the right to act as judge, jury and executioner. That being said, I just with this case, it wasn't someone merely breaking the law. It was someone who had written, you know, threatening letters into the government for a long time. Someone keeping kids on the compound, keeping those kids away from medical care, keeping them away from proper supplies because dad just wouldn't go to court.

It's not like he shopped and lived at something at the local gas station and then a fucking sniper shot his wife immediately. But you are right. The sniper's life was not in danger. They could have and should have handled things differently it does seem excessive i just i wish i wish i knew how it could have been handled differently exactly i still think randy and weaver uh and vicky were

dangerous lunatics but that doesn't mean it's cool for the government to come in and kill them it's a bad precedent i truly do see your point uh she definitely wasn't given a fair trial truly do see your point. Uh, she definitely wasn't given a fair trial. The kids complicates for me. I just, I wish someone would, would send in a, here's how it should have happened in the sense of here's how they should have been arrested and subdued in that particular case. And then I'd be like, okay, all right. Okay. I just haven't seen that yet, but I, but I know someone can think of it. Uh, ISIS, uh, yes, yes, they do stand up to our military. Regardless of what you're saying, they get their asses handed to them a lot.

Absolutely. But they haven't been totally defeated. Yes, they have better weapons. I was just trying to make the point that, you know, insurgencies in other countries where the insurgents were outmanned, outgunned, you know, did eventually just kind of wear their oppressor down, and they kind of gave up. Like Vietnam, you know, less than 60,000 U.S. troops were killed

versus roughly a million Viet Cong. But we still didn't win. So you're right, you know, you're right. The U.S. military kills way more insurgents and vice versa, but the insurgents do remain in some cases. And that was just my point. My point is that an armed U.S. citizenry, I know they couldn't defeat the U.S. military in a head-to-head firefight. Of course not, no fucking way. But I just do think that armed citizens

could continue to lead some kind of resistance against the U.S. government, especially if they had great numbers because of our population base, if the government turned tyrannical,

and just do something rather than just lay down and just take it. And I hope it never comes to that. And I don't think it will. I don't know. But thank you, Wade. This is stuff I think about a that. And I don't think it will. I don't know. But thank you, Wade. This is stuff I think about a lot. Last one for today. It's a big episode,

so a few less than normal. A little shout out coming in from Magnificent Meat Sack, Amy Stake, who writes, good day, gloriously hostile leader. That's fair. Great sucker of all things, longtime listener, both your standup and time suck, in love with STD, with you and Lindsay. Since starting the podcast, I have been to one live podcast, thanks to the amazing Adam with good people doing good. Aw, we love Adam. My daughter and I bonded over some STD stories, which is hilarious out of context.

And I have met some absolutely incredible people, some of which I check in with every day on Facebook. The level of support and love in the cult is one of the better things on the internet these days. A little hello to my suck buddy, Christina. You're an awesome friend. Drive safe, don't rape,

and try not to get fucked by Zeus today. Sorry, sorry, but we have combined a bit of Chad Daniels and a line from Your Greek God Suck, and it's a regular sign-off

when we chat. I write today only to request a simple birthday shout-out to my husband, Brendan, or Brennan Steak. His birthday is March 17th.

Seeing as how time suck comes out on Mondays and he spends the following morning listening on his headphones while he works his ass off for our family, I think it might just make his birthday. He is the most amazing stepfather and loves our kids so much it melts my heart. Thank you for all the work you put into these podcasts, all your writing. Thank you and Lindsay for being a great example of how couples who work together can create awesomely powerful situations. Your show reaches so many people. Thanks again, Amy. Amy, thank you. I'm glad you're having fun with all this. And Brennan Steak, I know it's a bit early, but I don't want to forget. I was paranoid that I'd

forget if I didn't put it in this one now. So happy fucking birthday, you son of a bitch, and hail Nimrod, and keep working for your awesome family. And good last name, Steak. That's a powerful name. The Steaks. That's way better than the McDryweans. And that's all for today. My brain is dead. Next time, suckers. I needed that.

We all did. So have a great week, time suckers. Don't read any really stupid books and then attack the government in a misguided attempt to bring about the fall of the government and an insane race war. Please. It seems excessive.

And keep on sucking. Noodle McDryween, out.