April 1995: Thursday evening, a small bomb went off in the U.S. Forest Service office in Carson City, Nev.
March 18, 1996: The federal government, which owns 87 percent of the land in Nevada, is still worried about potential violence if they try to remove illegally grazing cattle from protected land. Two more pipebombs had exploded in Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management offices in the past two years.
And violence from Bundy's family recently.
April 6, 2014: Cliven Bundy's 37-year-old son is arrested for "refusing to disperse" and resisting arrest. He was released the following day. His face is covered with scratches from fighting the feds. Before he left the detention center, authorities gave him a tuna fish sandwich. "It wasn’t poison," he said. "I just ate it.”
The Nevada Cattlemen’s Association distances itself from protests over Bundy's cattle. “Nevada Cattlemen’s Association does not feel it is in our best interest to interfere in the process of adjudication in this matter."
April 9, 2014: Two of Bundy's family members are injured in a confrontation with federal officials. One of them was Bundy's son, tasered after he kicked a police dog. "I'm almost getting mad enough to swear," Bundy says. "The one thing we're going to do is stay cool and we're gonna fight."
The legal ideas all seem like a bunch of stupid shit based on people needing an excuse to justify wanting to get shit for free or continue their livelihood. That isn't the worst thing to fight for through legal means, but don't act like it is some sacred cause that justifies threatening the use of force or the actual use of force.
Best part of this article is the subtle ways the author shows utter contempt for these dumbfucks:
April 10, 2014: A protest camp has formed. There is a sign at the entrance that reads, "MILITA SIGHN IN."
Guess what - the government was right to go into Waco too. A bunch of armed to the teeth child raping cultists don't get immunity because they might die after they killed federal agents. And when they committed suicide to avoid capture after a drawn out siege and gun fight, we didn't have armed rebellion taking over the country
I disagree. The govt. pretty much holds all the blame for the fire that started and killed all those people. There isn't a good or bad side to Waco IMO, everyone comes out looking bad from that one. But this isn't the thread to discuss it.
We've had another thread on this but not really no. Koresh was molesting children and underage girls. While attempting to arrest him, federal agents were killed. After several months, they stopped fruitless negotiation and breached. The cultists killed their own wounded and started the fire themselves.
I disagree, but you seem pretty firm in your beliefs and this isn't the thread for that discussion anyway, so I'm not going to argue.
We can't do that, because if we arrest one guy with a gun the rest of the guys with guns will get up and do the same thing and then we'll have more people with guns than we have LEO's and thats madness.
I don't think you arrest them there, and agree with BLM releasing the cattle and leaving. I think there's plenty of photo evidence kicking around though to charge each of those people, but they can be individually pursued, thus removing them from the the strength and paranoid atmosphere of the pissed off group. And I think they ought to see a court room for their actions, though I don't necessarily think throwing them in jail solves anything, I'd far prefer to see community service and fines.
So you now have to track down all those people, at which point you still have to arrest them, assuming you can identify and find them and they don't likewise resist. And the original issue hasn't been dealt with.
And you've told the right wing whackos that they can get away with pulling guns on federal law enforcement. The next time they show up to get the cattle do you think Bundy is just going to say "aw shucks you got me!"? Or is he going to have his people point guns are LEO again? Successfully facing off with federal agents isn't likely to lower this guy's profile.
If cops show up at a domestic violence incident and the husband pulls a gun and says its none of their business, the cops don't back down because his wife is home. When someone robs a bank, cops don't let them get away with it because they could take hostages. If a bunch of guys show up with guns to threaten officers and by their own statements overthrow the government (pathetic yes, but dangerous to the federal agents) that's more reason to arrest them, not less. A major crime has been committed by those individuals, and teaching them that its OK and won't result in immediate arrest and prosecution is both morally wrong and pragmatically foolish.
Here's the thing - Bundy isn't going to pay bills. He's not going to abide by court decisions. That's the point. His cattle started getting confiscated because he ignored court orders and fines. And then he showed up with guns and threatened and impeded federal law enforcement in the course of their duties.
ed
Let's put it this way - Glenn Beck thinks this guy is a nutter.
This is such a fucked up situation. These pricks are talking about putting their wives and daughters in the way of gunfire specifically to make the feds look like monsters (while simultaneously pointing fucking guns at federal fucking agents), desperate to make a last ideological stand against the idea of paying someone for the use of their land. The feds can't win. Either they back down and show weakness whereupon the same shit happens twice yearly in fifteen different states, or they come down hard on the insurrectionists (because really, that's what this is) and probably kill a lot of bystanders whereupon the right calls them monsters and tries to impeach Obama.
It's fucked that we've allowed it to get this far in the first place. It's catastrophically bad if the federal government projects weakness in the face of someone flagrantly breaking federal laws and waving guns in the faces of federal officials. They really can't do their job if there's any question at all as to what happens when you pick a fight with them. They need to be completely merciless with these militia types, because the alternative is that they've surrendered their monopoly on violence which in the end is how you get civil wars
“If they’re going to start killing people, I’m sorry, but to show the world how ruthless these people are, women needed to be the first ones shot. I’m sorry, that sounds horrible. I would have put my own wife or daughters there, and I would have been screaming bloody murder to watch them die. I would've gone next, I would have been the next one to be killed. I’m not afraid to die here. I’m willing to die here.
“But the best ploy would be to have had women at the front. Because, one, I don’t think they would have shot them. And, two, if they had, it would have been the worst thing that we could have shown to the rest of the world, that these ruthless cowards hired by the federal government will do anything.”
"I'm sorry" means "I'm not sorry," right?
these ruthless cowards hired by the federal government
ruthless cowards
federal government
Welp, my hypocrisy meter just exploded.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
On the way to work this morning someone calling their self "Patriot One" called into my local talk radio station and tried to draw a parallel with the government attempting to remove Bundy's cattle to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Now to their credit, the hosts did try to put the guy in his place with how retarded that is, but they said "it should just be settled in court" obviously ignorant of the fact that Bundy has already lost multiple times in court on this issue.
Then the caller ended with "If the government will bomb Afghanistan, what makes this rancher think the government won't bomb him."
This shit makes me so very mad. Fuck these insurrectionist assholes and the people that support them. As much as I would have liked to see HRT and the National Guard roll up that day and mass arrest & confiscate weapons, I think the BLM made the right choice in backing down / defusing the situation temporarily.
Now what the Feds need to do is go back over video of the protest, and issue arrest warrants for everyone they can pick out. Start picking them up in ones and twos, but if they hunker down or show up in a large group don't get into a siege - let them burn themselves out. At the same time, after you've started picking up the ringleaders, take this guy's cattle again with an appropriate number of law enforcement personnel that are ready to start arresting. If you've started to pick up the ringleaders / true believers, most of the group will lose their stomach when faced with a couple hundred Feds with M4s and armored vehicles.
This is what I'd like to see the Feds do, anyway. Start throwing these assholes in jail, make sure they never legally own a gun again (probably the biggest blow) and remind them that the Federal Government reigns supreme.
On the way to work this morning someone calling their self "Patriot One" called into my local talk radio station and tried to draw a parallel with the government attempting to remove Bundy's cattle to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Now to their credit, the hosts did try to put the guy in his place with how retarded that is, but they said "it should just be settled in court" obviously ignorant of the fact that Bundy has already lost multiple times in court on this issue.
Then the caller ended with "If the government will bomb Afghanistan, what makes this rancher think the government won't bomb him."
Oh, I see a parallel between this and Ukraine, too. But not the same parallel as that guy, I am sure. Here I view Bundy as the Russian 'Pro Russian' miltants trying to overthrow the Ukraine government. You know, showing up heavily armed to 'protests' and denying the governments jurisdiction.
This shit makes me so very mad. Fuck these insurrectionist assholes and the people that support them. As much as I would have liked to see HRT and the National Guard roll up that day and mass arrest & confiscate weapons, I think the BLM made the right choice in backing down / defusing the situation temporarily.
Now what the Feds need to do is go back over video of the protest, and issue arrest warrants for everyone they can pick out. Start picking them up in ones and twos, but if they hunker down or show up in a large group don't get into a siege - let them burn themselves out. At the same time, after you've started picking up the ringleaders, take this guy's cattle again with an appropriate number of law enforcement personnel that are ready to start arresting. If you've started to pick up the ringleaders / true believers, most of the group will lose their stomach when faced with a couple hundred Feds with M4s and armored vehicles.
This is what I'd like to see the Feds do, anyway. Start throwing these assholes in jail, make sure they never legally own a gun again (probably the biggest blow) and remind them that the Federal Government reigns supreme.
right. i totally don't blame the feds for backing down to avoid a large violent incident. as I said before they can just go pick people up on their own and it's much less likely to end violently. and once you've got the ringleaders the rest will dissipate quickly.
I honestly don't think it will be a problem to track everybody down and make them reap the whirlwind. They have pictures, video... and once people start getting arrested and facing the slammer, lots of them will tell LEO where to find that guy in the picture.
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JuliusCaptain of Serenityon my shipRegistered Userregular
You guys know how Wesley Snipes went to jail for a few decades because of not paying his taxes?
It's because he bought into this Sovereign Citizen malarkey.
But I don't remember the media talking about that aspect of the case at all, and if we can't trust the media to tell us about that during a celebrity trial, I don't know what we can hope for as a "high profile case" to expose this stuff as the BS it is.
Snipes got three years, he's already out.
But yeah I didn't know he bought into the pseudolegal shit. I figured he was just plain old evading taxes.
The Tax Relief Health Care Act of 2006 amended section 6702 to allow imposition of a $5,000 penalty for frivolous tax returns and for specified frivolous submissions other than returns, if the purported returns or specified submissions are either based upon a position identified as frivolous by the IRS in a published list or reflect a desire to delay or impede tax administration...
Section 6673(a) allows the Tax Court to impose a penalty of up to $25,000 when it appears that:
a taxpayer instituted or maintained a proceeding primarily for delay, a taxpayer’s position in such proceeding is frivolous or groundless, or
a taxpayer unreasonably failed to pursue administrative remedies.
So, making those sovereign citizen arguments can result in a $30,000 penalty up front between submitting the return and then arguing that position in a hearing. The IRS can take a while to respond to this kind bullshit, but when they bring the hammer down they tend to bring it down hard.
You guys know how Wesley Snipes went to jail for a few decades because of not paying his taxes?
It's because he bought into this Sovereign Citizen malarkey.
But I don't remember the media talking about that aspect of the case at all, and if we can't trust the media to tell us about that during a celebrity trial, I don't know what we can hope for as a "high profile case" to expose this stuff as the BS it is.
Snipes got three years, he's already out.
But yeah I didn't know he bought into the pseudolegal shit. I figured he was just plain old evading taxes.
Snipes had a bad accountant who sold him on some bullshit about not owing taxes on account of all his roulette winnings.
I wouldn't be surprised if Bundy also fucks with his taxes.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
You guys know how Wesley Snipes went to jail for a few decades because of not paying his taxes?
It's because he bought into this Sovereign Citizen malarkey.
But I don't remember the media talking about that aspect of the case at all, and if we can't trust the media to tell us about that during a celebrity trial, I don't know what we can hope for as a "high profile case" to expose this stuff as the BS it is.
Snipes got three years, he's already out.
But yeah I didn't know he bought into the pseudolegal shit. I figured he was just plain old evading taxes.
Snipes had a bad accountant who sold him on some bullshit about not owing taxes on account of all his roulette winnings.
I wouldn't be surprised if Bundy also fucks with his taxes.
I would be surprised if he didn't. A man who is willing to point a firearm at a federal officer because he feels like he owes the government nothing (after the courts tell him that he, in fact, does) wouldn't flinch at dodging taxes on paper.
I find it kind of hard to believe a guy who's been in it this deep with the federal government for 20 years has somehow avoided the attention of the IRS.
He would have been jailed long ago if he wasn't paying taxes.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
Some of the times when crazies like this finally get taken in, the list of charges against them just balloons. I'm not sure how much of that is a result of finally being able to properly look at what they were doing, but I've always wondered if part of it is that a bunch of pending things were just not pursued, because as long as they're pulling guns on feds and ignoring court orders anyway, it's a waste of time.
The proof the IRS needs might be on the wrong side of the guy who pulls guns on feds, or maybe the IRS doesn't feel like suing a brick wall and will wait until he's in a position where the police will bring him to court whether he wants to or not.
Well the IRS would investigate, but we've been told that anytime someone on the right is investigated by the IRS its to silence their enemies, so clearly they can't.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Some of the times when crazies like this finally get taken in, the list of charges against them just balloons. I'm not sure how much of that is a result of finally being able to properly look at what they were doing, but I've always wondered if part of it is that a bunch of pending things were just not pursued, because as long as they're pulling guns on feds and ignoring court orders anyway, it's a waste of time.
The proof the IRS needs might be on the wrong side of the guy who pulls guns on feds, or maybe the IRS doesn't feel like suing a brick wall and will wait until he's in a position where the police will bring him to court whether he wants to or not.
I think this is a lot of it. The IRS isn't going to waste their limited resources going after and arresting some guy when other agencies have a bigger beef with him. It's inefficient, and once the guy is nabbed by the FBI or DEA or BLM or whoever has taken the lead on enforcement they'll get their crack at him like you said.
I also think that this approach emboldens these assholes. If they are getting away with THIS and the BLM hasn't done anything - well, why not tell the IRS to go fuck themselves...and the ATF for good measure. Before you know it, you end up with a David Koresh or Warren Jeffs who are doing whatever they want like they found a cheat code for life or something.
On top of that, I think that's why they end up being so dangerous. If they aren't the most stable people to begin with, when the government does finally come for them they know they are fucked. If they go off in cuffs they are never going to see the light of day anyway, so why not go down fighting? I think most of them value their own life too much to truly go down fighting, but if someone doesn't care about their own life or the lives of their family...well, nobody wants to be even partially responsible for that, and there is almost always tomorrow. The government isn't going anywhere.
EDIT - w/r/t the IRS, I also saw that their budget for investigations of tax fraud has been cut to the lowest level since 1984. Which is stupid, and should piss off everyone who doesn't cheat on their taxes - sure as hell pisses me off.
I watched as much of the guy speaking as I could possibly stand and the crux of his argument against federal land ownership is "no taxation without representation".
Except he's getting represented. He has a representative in the federal government.
Right, but it's interesting to me the tack that David Knight takes. He's not saying that this is lawbreaking and it's entirely justified; he's saying that he didn't break the law. At all. Which is demonstrably false.
You would think that somebody whose job it is to lie would be better at it. Throw a few elements of truth in there so it's believable. Instead we just go full speed ahead to whoppers as an opening statement.
I really hope they don't just let this go, but it may be awhile before anything else happens. I guess the best thing to do at this point is just as has been mentioned, just start arresting people that were there and broke the law, and then worry about the cattle.
I really hope they don't just let this go, but it may be awhile before anything else happens. I guess the best thing to do at this point is just as has been mentioned, just start arresting people that were there and broke the law, and then worry about the cattle.
Isn't that a little redundant? You already arrested them once, why do you need to worry about them after that?
There was a car ahead of me on the drive home last night with an infowars bumper sticker
I nearly swerved off the road and into a line of tea partiers protesting tax day in front of the county office buildings, waving flags and incomprehensible placards like "INFLATION = TAXATION" (wut)
It was like a perfect storm of derp.
tl;dr I ain't clickin that Josh.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
"This particular peasant said, ‘No, I’m sorry, I’m not rolling over for this one. You guys are out of line, you don’t own the land, you don’t own our ranch, you don’t own us, and we will stand firm in the principles of freedom that we were blessed with as Americans,'" Mack said, in recordings clipped by Right Wing Watch. "And that’s exactly what this was. This was Rosa Parks refusing to get to the back of the bus."
Apparently Mack forgot it was people like him telling Parks that she had to get to the back of the bus.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
The entitlement complex of cattlemen is something that needs to be seen to be believed.
People who will cut your fence if they think they should be able to graze there, but think someone should be killed for stealing their cattle. The dichotomy when it comes to property laws is amazing.
Like, people who graze on Federal Land for pennies on the dollar still don't think it's enough. I honestly wish the US Government charged them market price for grazing land. That would shut fuckers like this up soon enough.
Well its the "fuck you I got mine" attitude that is popular on the right. Its why they laud billionares who get millions in tax subsidies a year, yet scream their heads off when someone on welfare gets an extra hundred dollars dishonestly.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
AbsalonLands of Always WinterRegistered Userregular
Some white dudes will always be ready to shit on the civilization they extol the instant they are inconvenienced.
Which isn't that weird. It's tribal. It's like expecting all members of the higher castes of India to start acting like rational, honest and fair-minded human beings after centuries of being top dog. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
Government should offer to cut Bundy a check if he comes into their office, get him there arrest him for all the shit they have on him. A set up so dumb even Joe Arpaio used to do it.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Also any laws that are not specifically mentioned in the Constitution are not really laws apparently.
And we just ignore the Constitution setting up just..... literally all the rest of the government.
The guy who refuses to admit that there even exists a federal government treats the founding document of that government as though it were a religious text.
Posts
Best part of this article is the subtle ways the author shows utter contempt for these dumbfucks:
Use the illegal cows for a big cookout where all the food goes to people on food stamps.
So you now have to track down all those people, at which point you still have to arrest them, assuming you can identify and find them and they don't likewise resist. And the original issue hasn't been dealt with.
And you've told the right wing whackos that they can get away with pulling guns on federal law enforcement. The next time they show up to get the cattle do you think Bundy is just going to say "aw shucks you got me!"? Or is he going to have his people point guns are LEO again? Successfully facing off with federal agents isn't likely to lower this guy's profile.
If cops show up at a domestic violence incident and the husband pulls a gun and says its none of their business, the cops don't back down because his wife is home. When someone robs a bank, cops don't let them get away with it because they could take hostages. If a bunch of guys show up with guns to threaten officers and by their own statements overthrow the government (pathetic yes, but dangerous to the federal agents) that's more reason to arrest them, not less. A major crime has been committed by those individuals, and teaching them that its OK and won't result in immediate arrest and prosecution is both morally wrong and pragmatically foolish.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
ed
Let's put it this way - Glenn Beck thinks this guy is a nutter.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
It's fucked that we've allowed it to get this far in the first place. It's catastrophically bad if the federal government projects weakness in the face of someone flagrantly breaking federal laws and waving guns in the faces of federal officials. They really can't do their job if there's any question at all as to what happens when you pick a fight with them. They need to be completely merciless with these militia types, because the alternative is that they've surrendered their monopoly on violence which in the end is how you get civil wars
hitting hot metal with hammers
Welp, my hypocrisy meter just exploded.
Now to their credit, the hosts did try to put the guy in his place with how retarded that is, but they said "it should just be settled in court" obviously ignorant of the fact that Bundy has already lost multiple times in court on this issue.
Then the caller ended with "If the government will bomb Afghanistan, what makes this rancher think the government won't bomb him."
Now what the Feds need to do is go back over video of the protest, and issue arrest warrants for everyone they can pick out. Start picking them up in ones and twos, but if they hunker down or show up in a large group don't get into a siege - let them burn themselves out. At the same time, after you've started picking up the ringleaders, take this guy's cattle again with an appropriate number of law enforcement personnel that are ready to start arresting. If you've started to pick up the ringleaders / true believers, most of the group will lose their stomach when faced with a couple hundred Feds with M4s and armored vehicles.
This is what I'd like to see the Feds do, anyway. Start throwing these assholes in jail, make sure they never legally own a gun again (probably the biggest blow) and remind them that the Federal Government reigns supreme.
Oh, I see a parallel between this and Ukraine, too. But not the same parallel as that guy, I am sure. Here I view Bundy as the Russian 'Pro Russian' miltants trying to overthrow the Ukraine government. You know, showing up heavily armed to 'protests' and denying the governments jurisdiction.
right. i totally don't blame the feds for backing down to avoid a large violent incident. as I said before they can just go pick people up on their own and it's much less likely to end violently. and once you've got the ringleaders the rest will dissipate quickly.
Snipes got three years, he's already out.
But yeah I didn't know he bought into the pseudolegal shit. I figured he was just plain old evading taxes.
http://www.irs.gov/Tax-Professionals/The-Truth-About-Frivolous-Tax-Arguments-Introduction
So, making those sovereign citizen arguments can result in a $30,000 penalty up front between submitting the return and then arguing that position in a hearing. The IRS can take a while to respond to this kind bullshit, but when they bring the hammer down they tend to bring it down hard.
Snipes had a bad accountant who sold him on some bullshit about not owing taxes on account of all his roulette winnings.
I wouldn't be surprised if Bundy also fucks with his taxes.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I would be surprised if he didn't. A man who is willing to point a firearm at a federal officer because he feels like he owes the government nothing (after the courts tell him that he, in fact, does) wouldn't flinch at dodging taxes on paper.
He would have been jailed long ago if he wasn't paying taxes.
The proof the IRS needs might be on the wrong side of the guy who pulls guns on feds, or maybe the IRS doesn't feel like suing a brick wall and will wait until he's in a position where the police will bring him to court whether he wants to or not.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I think this is a lot of it. The IRS isn't going to waste their limited resources going after and arresting some guy when other agencies have a bigger beef with him. It's inefficient, and once the guy is nabbed by the FBI or DEA or BLM or whoever has taken the lead on enforcement they'll get their crack at him like you said.
I also think that this approach emboldens these assholes. If they are getting away with THIS and the BLM hasn't done anything - well, why not tell the IRS to go fuck themselves...and the ATF for good measure. Before you know it, you end up with a David Koresh or Warren Jeffs who are doing whatever they want like they found a cheat code for life or something.
On top of that, I think that's why they end up being so dangerous. If they aren't the most stable people to begin with, when the government does finally come for them they know they are fucked. If they go off in cuffs they are never going to see the light of day anyway, so why not go down fighting? I think most of them value their own life too much to truly go down fighting, but if someone doesn't care about their own life or the lives of their family...well, nobody wants to be even partially responsible for that, and there is almost always tomorrow. The government isn't going anywhere.
EDIT - w/r/t the IRS, I also saw that their budget for investigations of tax fraud has been cut to the lowest level since 1984. Which is stupid, and should piss off everyone who doesn't cheat on their taxes - sure as hell pisses me off.
Except he's getting represented. He has a representative in the federal government.
I got to 0:51! See if you can beat that.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I have a severe allergy to Alex Jones.
pleasepaypreacher.net
You would think that somebody whose job it is to lie would be better at it. Throw a few elements of truth in there so it's believable. Instead we just go full speed ahead to whoppers as an opening statement.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Isn't that a little redundant? You already arrested them once, why do you need to worry about them after that?
pleasepaypreacher.net
Edit: Eric Parker, as per a diary on dailykos.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
I nearly swerved off the road and into a line of tea partiers protesting tax day in front of the county office buildings, waving flags and incomprehensible placards like "INFLATION = TAXATION" (wut)
It was like a perfect storm of derp.
tl;dr I ain't clickin that Josh.
So much stupid so little time.
Apparently Mack forgot it was people like him telling Parks that she had to get to the back of the bus.
pleasepaypreacher.net
People who will cut your fence if they think they should be able to graze there, but think someone should be killed for stealing their cattle. The dichotomy when it comes to property laws is amazing.
Like, people who graze on Federal Land for pennies on the dollar still don't think it's enough. I honestly wish the US Government charged them market price for grazing land. That would shut fuckers like this up soon enough.
pleasepaypreacher.net
So these assholes want the feds to pay for repairs.
Which isn't that weird. It's tribal. It's like expecting all members of the higher castes of India to start acting like rational, honest and fair-minded human beings after centuries of being top dog. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
Government should offer to cut Bundy a check if he comes into their office, get him there arrest him for all the shit they have on him. A set up so dumb even Joe Arpaio used to do it.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I got to 4:31 before I started reaching for something to throw across the room.
Apparently we're supposed to directly elect the entire BLM, IRS, and EPA? Because that's how government works?
And we just ignore the Constitution setting up just..... literally all the rest of the government.
The guy who refuses to admit that there even exists a federal government treats the founding document of that government as though it were a religious text.