"...do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."
"For the good of the Air Force, for the good of the armed services and for the good of our country, I urge you to reject convention and careerism..." - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Maxwell AFB, April 21, 2008 "You will need to challenge conventional wisdom and call things like you see them to subordinates and superiors alike." - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, United States Air Force Academy, March 4, 2011
So a few months ago my phone started pinging me. Somehow I was part of this group I had never signed up for, that was labeled for a military unit that I've never been a part of and hadn't even heard of. Got a string of messages pinging my phone and I was wondering if it was some hacking attempt. I sent some screen grabs to a buddy of mine who might know and he also had no clue. I looked for ways to leave the group on my computer, clicked everything I could click, but there was no such option. Eventually their chats went away, I stopped being bothered by them, and I forgot about the odd group chat.
Yesterday, however, I started getting pinged in another conversation from this group. I did a bit more research and discovered the unit. It was a drone unit and this time some of the phone numbers included names. The name of the first guy in the group stood out.
Dave Blair. Air Force Academy graduate, Dave Blair.
Dave Blair was a Gunship co-pilot who was sent to drones before upgrading to aircraft commander. He was known as "smart" in the community and kinda rogue and renegade, not afraid to voice new smart ideas before leadership. I used to have people contacting me all the time asking me if I knew the guy, telling me that he also flew Gunships and that the stuff he was saying was much like what I was saying.
Finally, I connected with Dave Blair online when I was at Laughlin because so many people told me I should and I had read some of his writings published in journals. We had never crossed paths in my five years as a Gunship co-pilot and aircraft commander, but people kept sending his stuff to me and saying we were essentially meant to be together, in some kind of purely heterosexual nerd way, because we both had similar soapboxes and both were vocal advocates for drone technology back before it was still un-cool.
We chatted on social media and became "Facebook friends" and sent some papers back and forth and my impression of him was that he was wordy and tried too hard to sound smart. Kind of like Immanuel Kant who sounds impressive to most people because they can't understand what he's saying, or like watching some Dennis Miller bit where he brings up some obscure reference and everybody laughs because they don't want to seem like the dumb one who doesn't get it. Still, I liked most of Dave's points and I really liked his "out of the box" thinking. I like guys who think differently, especially back in those days because the Air Force was on the verge of a revolution of how we could better support warfighters, and we were getting a lot of resistance from cultural norms led by careerist and bureaucratic idiots.
As an Instructor Pilot (IP) at Laughlin I was very vocal about how we needed to forgo our fun flying jobs and concentrate on a better way to do business for the American people. I was adamant that UAS/RPA was the ticket. What Elon Musk recently said (correctly), I was blogging about here more than a decade ago. I was a supporter of unmanned technology, and toward the end of my assignment at Laughlin, we were non-volunteering UPT graduates to go fly drones. Which sucks for a guy chasing a dream that involves yanking and banking when, back then, it wasn't clear that a guy going to drones out of UPT would ever get out to a manned aircraft. So, I put my money where my mouth was and volunteered to fly Reapers at Cannon AFB because I thought it was the right thing to do for the American people. As a bonus, I had enjoyed more than a decade of flying assignments, and me raising my hand would save a youngster from getting non-vol'd to a potential black hole.
When I got there, I hung out with Dave Blair a few times. He was in a different squadron (the same one Brandon Bryant, who also loves lofty assertions to the public while failing to live up to them in secret, was in). We met at a coffee shop once and saw each other at work a few times and talked online still. I discovered that he was a religious nut job who had clearly never touched a woman but I didn't hold that against him. While others talked about Dave Blair like he was some kind of Air Power genius (like the Dennis Miller audience member referenced above), I thought he was kinda scatter shot intellectually. But I liked his writings on the Constitution of the United States and one post in particular about sacrificing for the nation. So much so I got his permission to re-post his writing on this very blog, his "Back to Basics" essay. I even had him review my Air University master's thesis.
Then my view of Dave Blair completely tanked. When I discovered the real Dave Blair, the guy behind his lofty words, the motto of the 19th Special Operations Squadron (a unit that had previously trained us to fly Gunships way back when) rang in my mind. Deeds Not Words.
I went into work after a long weekend and the mission I was tasked with flying was one that was absolutely, without question, a violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. So, naturally, as a military officer and professional who took an oath to support and defend that document -- who was duty bound to refuse unlawful orders even if it meant losing my career just five years short of retirement -- I refused on the spot. I didn't fly that mission. And I never did. Eventually I resigned my commission over it.
I won't go into all the details of what transpired after, although this draft video about my career discusses it, but suffice it to say that Dave Blair and I had a conversation where I said, "Dude, you know that mission violates the Constitution." Dave Blair, the intellectual that he is, who had publicly discussed the importance of moral courage and the oath to the Constitution, admitted to me that the mission was unlawful. So I said, "So you've got to refuse it and honor your oath, this is game time." I'll never forget his response.
"I'm sorry, Ryno."
Turns out Dave was all words rather than deeds. No moral courage. No fidelity to the American people who paid for his college and sent him money every month. Dave Blair can write, because that takes no courage and is easy. The doing part for him though, well, that's just too much. When the pressure is on, Dave folds, his words no substitute for actually believing those words and having the character to abide by them.
“... That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” That was how it went. There wasn’t an exception for ‘achieving childhood dreams,’ nor an exclusion for ‘as long as leadership has a coherent plan,’ nor a caveat for ‘as long as you’re still doing what you signed up for.’
The opening lines from Dave Blair's article, Back to Basics
Anyway, I was reminded of that story given this new squadron including me in their correspondence. After not being able to figure out how to leave the group (turns out you can't on a Mac, but you can on a phone), I finally messaged them all back and asked to be removed from the group, while reminding them of their oaths of office. After listening to their messages blowing up my phone I figured I'd do so while giving them a topic to discuss at the next squadron meeting. After all, de-briefing our failures is a tradition in the flying community and Dave Blair has a powerful debrief on that topic he should share. But he won't.
Hilarious mayhem ensued as the members of the group chat appeared surprised that something had went wrong, one sharing a meme about a "security breach" in their chat on an application you can download for Android or iPhone and on various computer operating systems. Nothing says "secure" like the iTunes app store...
After it was all said and done, I'm now free from my phone pinging me with their jokes and one liners and coordination. And hopefully, but improbably, my brief insertion into the conversation will lead to Dave Blair explaining to his current squadron how he utterly failed as a military officer in the most egregious way so that they can all learn and do better. His failure is the kind that in the old days might have come with a charge of treason.
Air Force Reserve idiots in charge, Americans do not have the time to suffer your stupidity. Unfuck yourself immediately!
Update: Finally, some common sense from above, and hopefully there is no virus transmission from this weekend's Reserve drill weekend. Info I'm getting from Reservists over this weekend is that people are not happy at all about having to show up. And they shouldn't be happy about it. Their leadership is risking the lives of their families with their inability to make obviously correct decisions.
Update: The Navy has halted its Reservists from going to drill over the next two months. The Air Force Reserve has mostly left it up to individual Wing Commanders, although those who live outside the local area or in another State from their unit are prohibited in going to drill weekends due to DoD guidance.
With the President of the United States addressing the nation about the obvious and serious threat of the coronavirus pandemic, the Air Force Reserve is still taking "weekend warriors" from communities across America and sending them for one weekend a month drill at bases like Beale AFB, in California. This means that Reservist are leaving their hometowns across the nation, and flying through airports each month, to gather with others who also fly in from other areas of the country.
In case it's not clear where I'm headed with this... how incredibly fucking stupid! Just exactly the kind of decision I would expect from the type of risk averse idiot who gets promoted in our Air Force. These morons are going to kill Americans.
(Map from 12 March 2020 -- click the link to see how much worse it is now) Click here for a world tracker of the virus from John Hopkins and click here for a more granular tracker of individual cases and click here for testing data by State and click here for a list of symptoms
Now, maybe you're thinking the Reserve military has to show up because they have a critical war time mission. Let me rid you of that fallacy. If the Air Force Reserve were to vanish overnight, nobody would care except perhaps those who get a paycheck from that organization and those who manage the "pots of money" for that organization. There is nothing our Air Force Reserve does that matters so much that Americans would even notice. If that hurts your feelings, I don't care. I'm not saying the AFR doesn't do good things, and there are some positions that are important, but most of them are not.
A message from Twitter
The reality is most of these non-essential weekend warriors show up to a base like Beale AFB and then they go through a litany of idiotic Computer Based Training (CBT) programs on their computers to get caught up on the never-ending list of CYA bullshit that is put on their plate, stuff like Information Assurance (IA) or Fire extinguisher training. Of course, they do that after they spend a couple of hours fixing their own computers that usually don't work (assuming the network is up and some computer support person is available to help them). Then, after they take care of all that computer nonsense, they might get to the real work. Stuff like writing OPRs and EPRs on their computer, fabricating bullshit everyday stuff to look like world saving efforts on paper, working on yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and hourly Award Packages for people in Microsoft Word, updating spreadsheets and PowerPoint documents to track whatever stupid thing their commander has them tracking for whatever pet project, updating documents and checklists on their computer for the next "inspection" and, of course, answering phone calls. Lots and lots of phone calls. Then back to typing on the computer.
Now there are people on the flight line who do more than that and while their services might be mission essential, even they spend a great deal of their time as discussed above. At any rate, I'm not talking about mission essential folks who are mostly staffed by full timers.
Many Reservists, if not most, spend their time on a computer all day, and on the phone. So with Amazon and Microsoft and USAA and many other companies having people stay home and work remotely to avoid spreading the virus (and these people aren't even commuting from across the nation), and where even high schools have closed and figured out how to move to online education, why in hell isn't the Air Force Reserve having non-mission critical people work from home using a VPN and a cell phone? When California has banned gatherings of more than 250 people, and the Air Force has even banned the public from attending boot camp graduations? When the Air Force Academy has banned the public from visiting and the Air Force has cancelled airshows? Is the Air Force Reserve part time warrior and full time stupid? Why don't they make the obvious decision given their unique role to be a serious vector in this pandemic?
I'll tell you why. Because their decision makers and the installation commanders are cowards who don't care about the well being of elderly and other Americans who will likely be exposed through their idiocy, and because they know their computer networks are shit, held together with band-aids for decades. That's right, in 2020 with self driving cars, drones, new rockets, Artificial Intelligence, and iPhones that practically read your mind, your United States Air Force cannot get its computers to work reliably so that people can accomplish truly meaningless busy work remotely (and often not even locally). This has been the case for years and it's no secret to anybody who serves.
Colonel Andy "Spoo" Clark, Wing Commander, Beale AFB
So, as a result, Reservists will leave an uninfected town in the USA, fly through Seattle Airport, and spend a weekend at a place like Beale AFB. They will spend their time on a computer and on a phone, they will drive off base to a hotel, they will eat at public establishments and then they will get on another airplane and fly back through perhaps San Francisco to their home outside of California. And they will do this for a weekend out of every month, and sometimes more, hopefully not getting the virus from an airport gate agent like this Alaska Airlines gate agent in San Francisco who tested positive or from the touchy feely un-American joke we call TSA like the agent who tested positive. I know we're American so common sense isn't something we really do, but airports are absolutely dangerous as hell. You probably can't think of a more dangerous place to be during a pandemic, unless it's an airport in Seattle or California.
An active-duty airman from Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma has presumptively tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Air Force said the airman is the first known to have contracted COVID-19. Air Education and Training Command said Thursday that the airman contracted COVID-19 after returning from leave in the Seattle, Washington area earlier this month, and is now undergoing evaluation and treatment.
Hopefully Reservists will come home today and tomorrow from their meaningless drill weekend without carrying the coronavirus with them and won't have contracted it from California or Washington State or from getting it from some asshole who flies on an airline knowing he has the disease but not telling anybody. But with at least one airline pilot infected with the disease and regularly flying into and out of the west coast, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that one of them will more than likely transmit the virus in the coming days or weeks to their families and hometowns, or perhaps they will bring the virus from their hometowns to Beale AFB and infect the whole unit. Either way, while the Reservists will probably be okay, the people they will be around won't necessarily be and people will more than likely die as a result. Some old folk's home somewhere, some person with a compromised immune system or some other ailment who had the misfortune of thanking them for their service. But at least the dying can know that their sacrifice was worth it, because Airman Snuffy got his fire extinguisher computer training done in person as a result of the world's greatest Air Force being unable to figure out the basic computer networking that every other company in America has no issue with.
So you may be thinking this is just more apocalyptic fear mongering about the pandemic. Fine. Perhaps everything will work out just beautifully as our basic human psychology wants us to believe and the ever increasing number of infections and deaths in the United States will just magically stop. Ignore that prediction or any other prediction though, and focus. This is a matter of Operational Risk Management. Is the risk worth the reward? The answer to that question is a resounding, FUCK NO! Elderly Americans should not be put at risk because some Reservist had to fly to California to accomplish Suicide Awareness training on a computer when they could have done so remotely over an internet connection if only commanders knew how to properly manage resources.
For my part, I intend to write some letters, make some phone calls, and put in some FOIA requests, and do some research to ensure that the coming body count is laid squarely at the feet of the individual coward Air Force "leaders" who are responsible. I want them put on notice. And then when the obvious occurs, I want to ensure they get to add the death of Americans to their resume. Then they can walk that resume over to Amazon or Microsoft but they will have to do it remotely for the time being. Because those companies aren't led by absolute Big Blue Kool-Aid morons who think having went to Air War College makes them capable decision makers when the pressure on. It obviously doesn't.
The DOD has halted all travel to "Level 3" virus locations (widespread ongoing transmission), but unfortunately the CDC's generous map of those locations doesn't include any locations inside the United States. Now the CDC is saying that Iceland is a Level 3 risk and so no DoD personnel can travel to or from Iceland. Iceland has 117 cases of coronavirus and has an area of 40,000 square miles. Washington State has 373 confirmed cases and is 71,000 square miles (edit: a day later Washington State is now reporting more than 450 cases making non-essential Reservists doing weekend duty at McChord AFB incredibly insane, edit: two days later the number is more than 500). California has 179 confirmed cases (edit: two days later, that number is more than 300) although it's much larger at 164,000 square miles.
Washington State is clearly "Level 3" and worse than Iceland even though the CDC map hasn't labeled it as such. Yet the Air Force Reserve, given the authority to make the right call as have local installation commanders, is still chugging right along as though everything is normal, full steam ahead through the train tunnel with the big bright light shining at the other end. "But somebody above me didn't make the call and I'm scared to do it myself because I'm a real leader, mission first, people always!"
Meanwhile, President Trump is reportedly considering travel bans to California and Washington State.
Lt. Gen. Richard W. Scobee, Commander, Air Force Reserve
If history is any indicator, the kind of yes-men absolute idiots we promote will make the right decision but not until it's too late. That's also known as making the wrong decision, especially when it's so easy to forecast the future state of affairs. In the meantime, Reservists will show up to drill weekends not wanting to risk their jobs, too scared to say no to idiot bosses who can't see the obvious and only correct decision for mission and people right in front of their faces, and will bring the virus back to their spouses and kids. Leadership that can't provide working computer systems in the United States Air Force certainly can't be expected to make smart decisions by their people in order to safeguard their people or the mission, having spent too much time learning the vice of getting promoted.
The Air Force Reserve needs to put the weight of its critical operations on full timers and active duty and keep part timers from traveling to and from the unit. Figure out how to use part timers to do work remotely. And start getting rid of all the nonsense queep that you've been talking about getting rid of for the past decade because that stuff is only a drag at a time when things need to work efficiently.
Reservists who have an ounce of common sense, who understand that multiple world leaders are getting infected along with high profile actors and Senator staffers must understand that the worthless cunts we promote and put birds and stars on, lack the capability to protect you (and therefore your families and communities) during your valueless drill weekend. And that's if they even care to keep you and your family and your community safe, which is questionable when they compare your well being or the mission against that highest of all values in their world, their own careers. There isn't much time. If you care about your family, your kids, and your parents and if you care about your local community, and your unit is in one of these Level 3 areas inside the United States, you may need to tell the Air Force Reserve to go fuck itself if they don't fix this issue right-now. If Air Force leadership continues this incredibly insane path and doesn't over the next hours reverse itself, you need to tell your boss you're out and stay home. If you continue to show up, you likely will make it through the sickness fine, but you will do so by costing hospital space for others and you will do so at the cost of spreading the disease to others who will not fare so well. Are their lives worth that tiny paycheck? Make a decision and raise your voices or your families and your neighbors will pay for it dearly. There is precious little time to get it right.
This is a fucking pandemic. Pretty darn good ain't gonna cut it. The Air Force Reserve needs to unfuck itself yesterday.
This blog post will now include a "Running Updates" section at the end that will show new information as it becomes available. For the latest, please scroll down to that section. The latest update concerns a push for pro-Bryant activists to write letters to the judge presiding over Bryant's trial, as well as the public re-release by this blogger of seven unedited original videos that Mr. Bryant made private, or deleted, on his YouTube channel following his release from jail. His jury trial is now scheduled for 28 September.
First, a disclaimer on this blog post.
The intent of this blog post isn't to make a moral judgement, but to expose a mental health problem and threat. Brandon Bryant isn't evil. He has a mental health problem that presents a threat to himself and to others. While it has nothing to do with the military despite his false claims of PTSD, his mental illness is still not his fault. It's really not. But that is irrelevant. What people must not lose sight of during this moment, is that whatever has affected him must be *honestly* diagnosed if it is to be fixed, and his condition cannot be minimized if helping him, and those around him, is the true goal. It won't be easy, however, as Dale Archer said:
'Pathological liar' is absolutey the toughest individual to deal with as a psychiatrist. Because you can't take anything they say at face value. And you can't, you know, fill in their personality. You don't know what's real and what's not.
Brandon Bryant the so-called "peace activist" has been arrested and charged with a felony for threatening mass murder (click here for the Montana statute that makes it a felony when one "threatens harm to any public servant... with the purpose to influence the public servant's decision, opinion, recommendation, vote, or other exercise of discretion in a judicial or administrative proceeding") and for specifically targeting the Missoula City Council in this video he created and uploaded to YouTube (that was then downloaded and re-uploaded by this blogger to preserve access).
While I don't think my participation is required or useful in the legal process, given that police should have a copy of the video Bryant then took down from his channel (the rumor is at police request), and despite a copy of the full unedited video being available, and given that the court can subpoena it from YouTube, all the same my phone number is (210) 846-5865, my email is wingedryno@gmail.com, and I will return messages from law enforcement or prosecutors although I hope not to get any such calls.
Those who read this blog as well as my guest blog posts at This Ain't Hell are no doubt familiar with my many blog posts exposing Brandon Bryant as a mentally ill liar. My motivation was simple. He was lying about the drone program and about his part in it to the entire world with his appearances in and on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, GQ, The Young Turks, Democracy Now, RT, and many other media outlets. I knew he was lying and had no credibility. Further, I knew he was being used by foreign and domestic handlers to create propaganda for their own ends. I knew that he was a threat through his mental illness and I was worried that the myth being fabricated by his domestic partisan and foreign media handlers would elevate him to a position to do real harm, not the least being the degradation of a much needed discussion of how to use drone warfare properly in accordance with the law to make America safer rather than more vulnerable.
When I retired from the military I stopped blogging about Bryant. But I did keep tabs on him as I saw his mental illness and his threats of violence against myself and others escalate. I learned from his public videos that he had a son with a Norwegian girl, that while defending himself from her he hit her, that the girl called the police on him saying she feared Mr. Bryant would harm her or their child, and that a SWAT team (as the video in the link has been made private, please see here) had responded and arrested and jailed Mr. Bryant and I learned that he was kicked out of Norway.
Mr. Bryant has deep mental issues. The unfortunate reality is that Bryant is so convinced of the mythical and fictional self identity and character created by himself, which he is predisposed to believe based on his intense internalization of fiction and comic books, and that has been powerfully reinforced by his handlers (Jesselyn Radack being chief among them), that he has no desire to live a normal life, with a normal job, and to normally exist in the world. He believes he should be paid by the U.S. government and should be taken care of and he proclaims that jobs are mere slavery and explains that he is not one of those kinds of people who goes out and labors for money. As a result, as time goes on, he lives the life that such a worldview naturally provides, a life of poverty. Poverty leads to frustration and anger. Combined with mental delusion and an intense victimology, it leads to threats. Threats often lead to violence. Every day Brandon exists is another day older, another day poorer, as the frustration of his reality not matching the myth in his head increases.
It is my belief that Brandon Bryant is a legitimate threat. As time passes, as he makes more videos espousing his "truth" and "The Way" and foretelling messiahs and heroes rising up and "doing something" about the evil world we live in, he is more likely to decide he no longer wishes to live. And in so doing, he will be increasingly tempted to make one final bid for attention that will drive people to finally watch his videos and to see his regular statements about killing himself and killing others.
Then comes the familiar "why didn't people see this coming?"
The reality is some did see the threat. This blogger has made that threat clear over the years.
In our Republic where people have rights and we cannot, nor should we, restrict their rights simply because some are in "fear" of others, speech is important for identifying threats to the community. My citizen journalism has attempted to do just that, and to plea with lawyers, activists, and journalists to stop bolstering the myth in Brandon Bryant's head. Here is the trilogy of documentaries from this blogger about the threat that Brandon Bryant poses, presented in reverse order from the most recent video to the earliest.
February 2020:
I demonstrated that Brandon Bryant's mental illness had increased post-military along with multiple threats to kill multiple people (including this blogger) and frequent expressions of hope for the death of every person on the planet. This video shows just some of his threats of violence against others, deliberating on whether or not his son's mother deserved to be decapitated, along with Mr. Bryant's claim that he would be justified in going "on a bloody fucking killing spree."
May 2016:
I took a much deeper look into Brandon Bryant's mental illness, showing that Bryant literally believes himself to be a fictional hero, a leader of a group, a prophet or messenger of God, or a messiah. In this video I made a personal plea to Jesselyn Radack who was instrumental in helping the mentally ill Brandon Bryant construct a false narrative and self identity. I specifically warned Jesselyn Radack that she would be in part responsible for any tragedy that predictably unfolded and I sent her this documentary in 2016. This documentary is only intelligible after watching the first documentary, "Brandon Bryant the Documentary: Drones & Deceptions." Viewers should be warned, "God, Death, and Kids" is extremely graphic and extremely disturbing.
April 2016:
I demonstrated that Brandon Bryant is a perpetual liar, a professional victim, and hinted at his mental illness. I make the case that his PTSD diagnosis for looking at video screens across the world from any battlefield is more likely a false diagnosis of PTSD, malingered or factitious PTSD, which is a very common phenomenon. I show that Brandon Bryant is not a whistle blower, but rather a person willing to give propaganda sound bites in exchange for that fabricated title. This documentary also shows that Brandon Bryant committed literal treason, as defined by our Constitution, by making war against the United States.
Brandon Bryant is not a singular figure in today's world. The values of victimology increasingly taught in our society and a lack of value for truth held by many across the social and political spectrum, have met with economic realities and mixed to create a great deal of anger and frustration in our world that is eagerly leveraged by partisan hacks and political machines.
There are thousands upon thousands of Brandon Bryants today and people need to start paying attention to the mental illness that passes off as normal and even fashionable in our current society and that is celebrated in Oscar-winning movies like Joker.
As to Brandon Bryant, I sincerely hope that he gets the professional mental help he requires before he achieves the ultimate attention he fantasizes about. Jail will likely not be helpful for his development (despite Bryant's vocal desire to have government provide him food and shelter at taxpayer expense so that he can spend time learning about himself) and will only lead to further delusions of persecution that he will add to his myth. Indeed, he wasted no time shoehorning his most recent arrest into his fictional status as whistleblower while falsely claiming there were no charges.
There is a real free speech debate to be had regarding whether his threats amounted to constitutionally unprotected "true threats," and the question will require some deliberation in court. It is my feeling that his speech does amount to true threats as a video (especially when live streamed) is made to be viewed by others (as opposed to making private videos) and the internet is the ultimate public bulletin board. This is especially so for somebody like Bryant who touts his "international celebrity" as people are more apt to look him up online to learn more about him, thereby encountering his media. Further, while my gut feeling is that Brandon did not make his threats with any real intent to carry them out (he is a mythomaniac in every sense of the term and my non-existent crystal ball seems to indicate it's still too early in his downward spiral for him to commit actual violence), that intention is not relevant to the legal determination of a "true threat" as I understand it. That being said, it would appear that this is not a slam dunk legal issue one way or another given the robust protection of speech, and the court will have its work cut out for it.
I wish the best for litigators, judges, and jurors who will have to wrestle with this question. I feel awful for Brandon's mother who made this heart wrenching video pleading for her son's freedom. It's a sad situation all around and no mother should have to suffer like that. For those who share my view that jail is not the proper solution for this complicated problem, Brandon's mother has set up a GoFundMe to try to raise the bail to release Brandon. This blogger will not be donating (on advice of counsel) but hopes that others might consider doing so. We hope the system is strong enough in Missoula Montana to get Brandon Bryant the serious professional mental help he requires. Legal questions aside, Brandon Bryant's mental illness and fantasies of violence are undeniable. It is my opinion that the threat he presents to himself and to others is also equally undeniable.
Note:Upon his release from jail, Brandon Bryant appears to have deleted his YouTube comment and made his channel private (while apparently deleting some of his videos) so his comment made above is no longer visible.
We sincerely hope that, if the Missoula community cares at all about one of their own, they will stop fighting those pointing out an obvious and serious threat, and help Mr. Bryant get the help he desperately needs before tragedy strikes.
The images above, originally posted publicly to Facebook, have now been redacted at the request of the Missoulian who fears being targeted by Brandon Bryant for his speech.
Running Updates
May 1:
A Facebook group that calls itself "Voices For Creative Non-Violence" has sent out a plea to get supporters of Bryant to write a letter to the judge presiding over his trial. Their plea includes:
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Here is a sample letter to Judge Vannatta:
Honorable Shane A. Vannatta
District Court
200 W. Broadway
Missoula, MT 59802
Re: Case DC-20-70
Dear Judge Vannatta:
I am writing to implore you to dismiss all pending charges against Brandon Bryant.
Mr. Bryant does not present a threat to the public, and, in fact, he has a history of speaking out on behalf of saving lives and improving the well-being of citizens of Missoula.
Further, I believe that the prospect of a trial and possible imprisonment in this time of Covid-19 crisis is a much heavier, punishing burden than it would be normally, and it is a burden that Mr. Bryant should not have to bear.
Thank you very much for considering this appeal.
Respectfully,
(Your name and address)
Send the letter to Bryant’s defense attorney for forwarding to the judge. She is:
Robin Hammond
State Public Defender’s Office
610 Woody Street
Missoula, MT 59802
What is interesting is not only that the "Madison Veterans For Peace Chapter 25" shared this request from the "Voices For Creative Non-Violence" group, ironically continuing to advocate on behalf of an individual who threatens to kill others, but that this activist machine seeks to use democratic pressure on a sitting judge. I suppose judges may be elected in Missoula, still most people should understand that judges are beholden to the law impartially and not to the whims of voters. There is a tension I suppose when it comes to elected judges, perhaps they think the judge is more likely to be swayed by public pressure than by the law.
Mr. Bryant made his video "Alchemy: Understanding Hate" from March 2019 private upon his release from jail, and it has likewise been re-published here in a full and unedited form.
Brandon Bryant likewise made his video "Healing Anger" from August 2019 private upon his release from jail. It has been re-published here it it's unedited and full form.
Brandon Bryant made his video "Reflections" from November 2019 private upon his release from jail. It has been re-published here it it's unedited and full form.
Mr. Bryant also made his video "9 min until new year" private upon his release from jail, and it has likewise been re-published here in a full and unedited form.
April 21:
I have made available a video that Brandon has deleted from his YouTube channel since his release from jail. He originally publicly live streamed his video titled "Alchemy On the matter of the Self" in October of 2018. It has now been made available in its original unedited form here.
The other videos that he has not yet deleted, but has merely made private since his release from jail, can be made similarly available to the public upon request.
April 10:
Brandon Bryant blogs since his release from jail, makes the claim that threats against his person have ceased (never having provided any evidence for any threats against him, merely projecting as he does) and writes that I (who he now dubs "The Rat") "needs to be put down like a rabid animal." In his usual fashion he holds and professes two contradictory claims in his same piece to provide himself a claim against threats by claiming he is against what he writes in preceding paragraphs. He also writes to state that he's not a prophet from God with an obvious desire to soften the language and claims he has made in the past (while still discussing karma and reaping what you sow and claiming a person needs to be put down like a rabid animal) with his jury trial looming.
April 7:
Bryant's lawyers said they were unable to be ready at his original trial date or the backup date so the jury trial has been rescheduled for 28 September 2020. While Bryant has a right to speedy trial, he has chosen to delay the trial to prepare further.
Mar 27:
Bryant's lawyers filed a motion to change a condition of his bail release involving his presence on public property or around development individuals and others so long as he has a police escort.
Mar 23:
Brandon Bryant took down his YouTube video channel from public view (making his videos private) so the links below won't work and while he has made some of his videos private he appears to have deleted others since his release. Presumably law enforcement or the prosecutor would have downloaded those videos to preserve them. If interested parties need those videos, contact this blogger and I'll provide them.
Mar 16:
Brandon Bryant's bond was paid, so Bryant was released. This means that Reptile Dysfunction was incorrect to assume that Bryant took a mental health exam and proved he wasn't a threat to the community. That bond document can be viewed here.
Oddly, the Defense's opening motion briefs that were continued until 13 March are not showing up. Not sure if those were filed on time or if they got another continuation.
A website that sets off "security risk" software is commenting about Mr. Bryant. It appears to be Russian upon first glance and bringing up "involuntary commitment causing ptsd" for some reason. Fascinating.
Mar 15:
This report claims that Brandon Bryant was released from jail although there is no update on Bryant's Go Fund Me. But his Facebook account has confirmed he was released.
Mar 11:
Good on KBGA for getting rid of the propaganda program "The Outer Limits" which spreads false information knowingly and exhibits some strange tribalistic attachment to a mentally ill fraud who threatens to kill people. Strange group and it's no wonder KBGA would want to have nothing to do with them. Now they're trying to suggest people call them and claim they would have donated if only...
Mar 10:
Brandon Bryant's lawyers filed a reply in support of their motion to dismiss. Lots to read. You can read it here.
The public defender seizes on the affidavit wrongly attributing my Pick Your Battles account as belonging to Mr. Bryant. While it's true that the prosecutor was sloppy in this regard, I doubt that will matter when it comes to the probable cause standard given that the full video, and the abridged video, are both of Brandon talking to a camera. It is what it is.
I agree with Bryant's lawyers that the "fighting words" argument is insufficient.
I agree that Brandon Bryant not wanting his mental health results released to the prosecutor makes sense. Perhaps a deal could be had where the mental health records are released to the judge only, and not given to the prosecutor?
Bryant's lawyers make an interesting analogy about a kid writing in a notebook. A better analogy would be a kid writing on public bulletin board threats to kill people, a person taking a photo of that bulletin board posting, and then putting that up on another bulletin board.
Brandon's lawyers are speeding when they state:
Because Defendant’s speech is being taken out of context via a video posted by a third party, it is impossible for the Court to determine, or counsel to effectively argue, whether Defendant’s speech is protected.
Also, Ms. Hammond's statement that:
Mr. Bryant has absolutely no criminal history.
.... is odd given Bryant's arrest in Norway, jailing, and being barred from the country but perhaps it's technically correct. And her statement here is strange and not backed up, although irrelevant:
He's written numerous books...
It appears the Judge did make Bryant's mental health examination (or providing his old ones) an optional thing, and it's good that he has focused on this issue:
However, the Court will have Mr. Bryant screened for pretrial supervision. And if he agrees, I'll make it optional for him, but either the Court wants to see a fresh mental health screening, or wishes to see the prior mental health assessments that were made. Those can be filed under seal and provided to the Court. Again, given the nature and the concern, the fact that other public officials feel threatened by Mr. Bryant, the Court is going to maintain bail as is. I'm happy to entertain further bail arguments once a prerelease -- or, excuse me, a pretrial release plan has been formulated. But it would require, again, I want to see what pretrial screening determines, and I would like to see whatever is the result of any mental health screening, or current mental health diagnoses for Mr. Bryant.
Interestingly, Bryant's lawyers have indicated they may not file the motion to suppress Bryant's admission/confession once they get a copy of the recorded video file of his statements:
But, specifically, we have noticed up a motion to suppress Mr. Bryant's statement. Although, I would note that we have not been provided a recording of the statement. So, that might go away once we are able to review the recorded statement.
Likewise, the defense's indication of a motion to dismiss based on destruction of evidence appears to be merely based on discovery:
In addition, we are noticing, under generic motions, a motion to dismiss based upon destruction of evidence. Again, with some additional discovery, that -- that might go away, as well.
The defense oddly says they think trial would take two weeks. That seems odd given the facts of the case and the evidence. Perhaps they are planning to bring out a bunch of distraction character witnesses, it's not clear. Or maybe it's to try to play up the red herring of who made what video and uploaded it. The prosecution would be smart to get the video from YouTube directly, or at a minimum have a video expert analyze the video to show that it has no gaps and is unedited.
Bryant's lawyers argued that his mental illness was reason for him not to be in jail, although indicating there are no mental health issues and objecting to Bryant taking a mental health exam or providing prior health exams. The judge responded:
So, I--I'm in a bit of a quandary, in that Mr. Bryant, through counsel, has made many statements about his mental health, but I have no independent indicia that there is any mental health issues. And, so, part of my purpose in requesting the mental health evaluation, or some records which would indicate mental health considerations -- which I'm not necessarily doubting, but I have no proof of them, either, and I'm -- I'm now forced to rely upon counsel and their statements. Which counsel do have a requirement of candor to the Court, and -- and I have certainly found both of you to be honorable and truthful and candid to the Court, but, again, I'm left with nothing to -- to help establish Mr. Bryant's mental health status.
The prosecution states:
Your Honor, this is the third week in a row with the same arguments. Mr. Bryant is -- has expressed, both his many, many videos that are posted online, his mental health issues, that he's essentially experiencing a mental health crisis, and in the midst of this crisis he's making these threatening statements online and acting in a menacing manner before the city council.
The transcript shows the defense was not happy about the prosecution showing the judge a transcript of the video in question. One of Bryant's lawyers, Mr. Coolidge falsely stated (because the context was absolutely unchanged in the abridged version):
So, Your Honor, I know Ms. Hammond has not have an opportunity to see the transcript. I am very familiar with the evidence of the case, and I can say that the transcript that's before the Court has been selected and taken out of context, and is not a full -- it's not a full reflection of what's in the video.
The prosecution responded:
And, Your Honor, if the State could be heard to provide some context. Because I do think that's very important, and I want to be as candid as possible for the Court. There is a video that is online, and it's -- it's almost 13 minutes long. I've watched it repeatedly, and I find no indication of any hiccup in the verbal dialog or any adjustment of the camera that would indicate that it's edited in any way. I understand the video that they are talking about, and that is not the video that this transcript is from.
The prosecution continues:
From the State's perspective, very serious threats were made on these videos. We don't have any other information about Mr. Bryant's mental health status. I would love to learn that. I would love to learn the perspective of Mr. Bryant and his mental health diagnoses to understand if he is a risk to the public, or not. Without that, we only have his representations and the videos that have been posted online. This video, Your Honor, is posted on a website called "Pick Your Battles." The State will concede that there have been videos posted on the website since Mr. Brandon -- Mr. Bryant was arrested. This is a website being maintained by another person. I want to acknowledge that before the Court. This video starts with Mr. Bryant turning a light on, shining it in his face and saying, "Just so you know it's me." The wording that you see comes after that. The State has no reason to doubt its authenticity or foundation, but this is the substance of the current concerns that the State has.
The judge concludes by zeroing in on the real issue:
I will say, also, that mental health is an issue in this case. Because defense has placed mental health at issue by alleging that Mr. Bryant suffers from PTSD, depression, and other matters, I want confirmation. I am not asking to have detailed notes, I want diagnosis and recommendation. Because it would be my intention, as a part of any release conditions, to require Mr. Bryant to complete any recommendations of a mental health evaluation, which would then limit his potential -- the community safety issues. And, so, the -- the keys to the jail are in Mr. Bryant's hands.
Brandon Bryant tries to talk and his lawyers wisely, very wisely, keep that from happening:
THE DEFENDANT: Sir, may I say something?
THE COURT: You may.
MS. HAMMOND: If I could just --
(Discussion off the record.)
THE DEFENDANT: Thank you, sir.
MS. HAMMOND: Thank you, Your Honor.
Mar 9:
These TIF activists must not really care about TIF. It must simply be the most convenient outrage catalyst for them to group together and yell. If they were truly concerned about TIF, they wouldn't make obviously false claims like the claim from this flyer that he never threatened public officials, or that "leaked documents" somehow negate a video of him making threats against public officials. They also have no idea what a whistle blower is. If a person blows the whistle and tells everybody wearing raincoats that it's raining outside, that may or may not be useful, but it's not blowing the whistle.
There may very well be real issues with TIF that need to be addressed. But blind allegiance to those who threaten to kill others is not helpful to a political cause. The mentally ill make very poor spokesman for change despite their knack for finding each other online and organizing.
Mar 9:
Brandon and his friends from the Outer Limits rag continue to falsely assert that I sent a video to the Missoula City Council. The reality is I made no contact with anybody in Missoula when Bryant was arrested.
But, Mr. Bryant did contact the police in my home town. Fortunately they filed his nonsense appropriately as they're more than used to mentally ill lying nut jobs contacting them about me.
Mar 9:
This blogger posted a comment to correct the fringe rag known as the Outer Limits Radio Show in Missoula which kept (and continues) making the false claim that Brandon Bryant is a Staff Sergeant. My comment had a link to Brandon himself admitting he's not a Staff Sergeant. My comment, of course, was not approved by their moderators who are so into truth and accurate reporting (if you view that phrase like a mentally ill person might to mean just making stuff up).
True to form, they not only continued to post the false claim that Brandon Bryant is a Staff Sergeant, as well as the false claim that he retired from the military, but even did so while criticizing other media for "censorship" and lamenting journalism that doesn't check sources or facts and posts false information.
Brandon Bryant is in great company with these nut jobs from the Outer Limits, that's for sure, as they all enjoy spreading false information online while hypocritically projecting their own failures onto others.
Mar 8:
In a video live streamed on 4 Mar 2019 entitled "Alchemy: Understanding Hate" (Bryant made this video private after his release from jail, but it has been re-published here) Bryant states that he hates humanity and says:
...it's never ever that simple, except for, just, you know what, destroy every politician. Every politician, if we lived in a truly just society, all these politicians that are taking money by lobbyists and not doing the will of the people, they would be taken out into the street and executed one by one. And then replaced. Because they have destroyed lives, they've destroyed a fucking bunch of lives and used the law to avoid consequence of their actions... they deserve death.
People think that I'm mentally unstable or crazy when I talk about this but... these people are evil, these people are wicked and unrighteous, they deserve death. They deserve it.
After explaining that he no longer has sympathy for military people who commit suicide, Bryant continues:
Maybe we need a little more pain and suffering in our lives, in our world, before someone actually steps up to the fucking plate and does something about it.
Rick Rynearson is a fucking piece of shit coward. Norway is a fucking piece of shit coward. The United States government is piece of shit cowards. The fucking entire drone programs are piece of shit cowards and I don't give a fuck if they all put guns in their mouth and take their lives because they each deserve it.
Bryant continues to discuss politicians and how to solve the problem of politics and states:
We have to reflect on our actions and what they mean, and death shouldn't be off of the table at this point. We have, they're destroying our world and our planet, we're having this climate change shit that's going on, like, it's negative twenty degrees outside my house right now... And these people they criticize socialism as if like socialism is the cause for the downfall of societies, and no it's not, it's the people in charge that think they should take more for themselves than give to others. You know, when you are a leader of your people you are not above them, you are below them, and you are supposed to lift them up, you're not supposed to take from them, you're supposed to give to them, you're supposed to show and lead by example.
And yes, from that I see that it's not really about money, it's about power and control and dominance. And none of these people... These people just need to be wiped off the face of the fucking planet. Donald Trump needs to be eradicated. Hillary Clinton needs to be eradicated. All of these people that control and harass and degrade the average person and puts them in slave wages...
Bryant then displays a rant that shows a key characteristic of himself, where he turns on those who try to help him, and blames them for his problems (in my view, help is not genuine in his mind unless it comes in the form of money, at the root he wants to be financially supported).
Now I have to figure out a way to fix this mess. And I'll do it myself if I have to. No one will be able to stop me. That I promise. I'll bring the whole world to its knees, with a stick.
Mar 7:
In a GQ article Bryant said he threatened to stab a kid in a Best Buy while buying video games over the kid asking him how many people he killed in war (A Newsweek article said he threatened to hunt the kid down and kill him in front of his family). In an October 2018 video (which Bryant deleted from his channel but has been re-released here) Bryant relays a story about seeing some kids at a Missoula establishment called "Flying Squirrel" on Halloween where a poorly dressed male was in a corner and Bryant was bothered by the guy and complained to the manager loudly in front of the guy as he thought the guy was using a little girl as bait to lure people into a corner and Bryant states:
The only other choice I had was, I knew that if I was gonna confront this guy, I would have fuckin' grabbed my knife out of my pocket and stuck it right in his throat and I wouldn't have asked a question.
Mar 7:
Another video from Brandon Bryant, live streamed publicly on 16 Aug 2019 and entitled "Healing Anger" (which Bryant made private after his release from jail, but which has been re-published here) demonstrates Brandon Bryant's threats to kill politicians and others he deems "evil."
If you don't know my story, I'll sum it up for you...but before we get into that I want to warn you guys I'm going to be talking about esoteric topics...
He mentions that even before contacting the Bainbridge Island police department he was reporting my "harassment" (he means journalism) stating:
When I was dealing with the Rick Rynearson bullshit I was reporting his harassment to the authorities, they wouldn't do anything, I was reporting his harassment to even Twitter and all the social media platforms, they didn't do anything.
After his fictional story of me sending Marines to threaten him, he projects his defamation onto me and continues:
I even tried to talk to my lawyer about going after this guy for slander and no one would help me. It's interesting that, like, Jesselyn Radack and all of them, none of them would help me unless it benefited them. Unless they got something, like, they would just take from me.
After a discussion of being able to open his third eye and communing with what he calls demons and other entities, Bryant continues:
And I actually really have to thank...my enemies....because they've shown me...what truly is evil in this world. Rick Ryearson is an evil fat fucking piece of shit. The Norwegians are evil people.
At about 17:05 he discusses his son's mother and deliberates on whether or not he would decapitate her with a sword.
While earlier Bryant talks about his alleged physical ailments, he boasts:
I don't think anyone could come against me... if someone came at me, I would destroy them, a hundred percent, if someone attacked me, I would break their arms and their legs...
And I know that Rynearson's problem is his fuckin' massive ego, but he's still evil. He's still an evil piece of shit.
Bryant then explains the conspiracy theory behind falling in love with his son's mother, how "they tricked" him into falling in love with her as a means to get back at him for whistle blowing. (In a previous video from October 2018, that has since been deleted by Bryant since his release from jail but which has been re-released to the public here, Bryant says his son's mother told others that she feared for her life from him).
After plagiarizing a Captain America comic book as he frequently does and delivering that familiar line, he then concludes his video with:
And I pray that I have the power to get my son back and destroy ever single person who has stood in front of me. Because pretty much the entire world is my enemy, our entire society is my enemy, our politicians and those people who are evil are my enemy. And if I have to continue fighting alone, then I guess that is what I will do... And I guess that is where the real fun begins... Yeah, if you don't hear from me, good luck, and if you're my enemy, go fuck yourself. If I don't kill you in this life, I'll kill you in the next.
Mar 6:
It's going to be important for the prosecution to demonstrate that Bryant's threats amounted to "true threats" under Ninth Circuit case law, otherwise a conviction under this Montana law won't likely survive appeal. What's fascinating about this case is that Bryant has a habit of saying contradictory things as he rambles, sometimes in the span of a single sentence. As a result, that gives both defense and prosecution something to work with. But at the end of the day, if a person says "I will kill you" followed by "I'm not saying I will kill you" that doesn't change the fact that they said they would kill you.
Again, the real issue in this case is mental illness. A person who has two different sides to them, or as Missoula City Council member Heather Harp said, an "irrational" side is a person who is a threat when the threatening side is manifesting.
Mar 5:
Yesterday the omnibus memo was filed with the court (although it was dated 27 February) and it has a couple interesting parts.
It shows that the State is going to introduce further evidence relating to past threats from Brandon Bryant. That's not surprising.
It also shows Bryant's lawyers are planning to make an affirmative defense based on "false identity." Presumably this will be more distraction about who uploaded what YouTube video. This will be a fascinating read given the video is Brandon talking to a camera during a public live-streamed YouTube session, turning on the lights and identifying himself, coupled with his participation in city council meetings where he introduces himself as "Staff Sergeant Brandon Bryant." While he introduced himself falsely and he does not actually have that identity given that he's not a Staff Sergeant, I'm guessing that isn't the argument his lawyers are going to make. It's also interesting given his admissions to police, which brings us to the next interesting part.
The defense is moving to suppress Bryant's admission/confession. This is a key item given that Bryant handed the prosecution a near certain win with his admission to police that he made the videos to get a response and to be a bogeyman. Without a confession, the prosecutor would have to work much harder to delve into the motivations of Bryant to convince a jury. The defense will definitely want to suppress this admission. Assuming the police dotted their i's and crossed their t's this evidence will be allowed. It would appear Brandon talking to the police was done voluntarily, he was free to go if he wanted. This is why people ask police "am I free to go" in order to force police to tell them if they are involved in a voluntary meeting (which means anything they say can be used as evidence) or if it's a custodial arrest (meaning they're not free to go, and they must then be read their rights for their statements to be used as evidence). My gut feeling is this meeting with police was voluntary as evidenced by Brandon leaving and going home afterward, but the defense may try to argue that it was actually a custodial arrest. This could prove to be a very important part of the case. Given that it was recorded on video, if the video doesn't show the police telling Bryant he wasn't free to go then it will likely be viewed as a voluntary meeting and the admission/confession will be permissible which would be a big win for the prosecution. While showing intent could still be made without Bryant's admission/confession, the prosecution's argument would be near bulletproof with his admission in evidence.
It also appears his lawyers are going to try to get the charges dismissed over a claim of "destruction of evidence." No idea what evidence they're claiming was destroyed, but one would think it would be exculpatory evidence of some variety otherwise they'd just go to trial and show that the prosecution has no evidence, rather than try to dismiss the whole thing. But it's hard to have evidence that somehow negates a video of a person saying something, so I'm not sure how well that argument is going to work out. It will be fascinating for sure.
My gut feeling is Bryant's lawyers know they're in a tough spot and these are just odd Hail Mary attempts, but who knows.
Lastly the memo indicates that no parties have a mental disorder although the court documents show that Mr. Bryant refused to take a mental health examination at the request of the judge. This is also interesting given Brandon Bryant's 2 February 2020 blog post where, among several defamatory statements and profanity, he writes:
And okay, I admit it. I've had a mental breakdown. I blew the whistle and it seemed like nothing happened; I was ousted from my church; I was excommunicated from my family; I lost my job; I lost my son; I lost my health. Even my housing. Of COURSE I've lost my mind!
Mar 5:
The executive director of a group dubbed "Veterans for Peace" (which is also represented by Jesselyn Radack's fraud puppet, Cian Westmoreland and associated with liar Lisa Ling) is parroting the myth and propaganda about Bryant having PTSD (he doesn't) and being a whistle blower (he wasn't). What's particularly interesting is that Garett Reppenhagen is claiming his friend, the "peace activist" publicly called for "violent political accountability" and yet at the same time maintains the system is being "manipulated" against his friend who has been trying to find "justice." He seems to think that calling for violence, breaking a law, and then getting due process with a jury trial isn't justice. The executive director of Veterans For Peace seems to think that breaking the law by threatening violence should not result in jail.
Mar 4:
Taking a look at Brandon's video made after police notified him of the trespass, he even then makes a few interesting statements.
He states that he was on a local media station stating:
...for voicing my opposition to the misuse and abuse of Montana's Tax Increment Financing statute which is causing measurable harm to many people...
This language is reminiscent of Bryant's view, that he expressed in his Oct 5, 2018 live streamed public video entitled Judgement, (that video was deleted by Bryant from his channel but has been made available here) that:
Because if I responded in the same way, I would fucking have killed many of these people who have harmed me and I
would be justified, according to all the old laws and all the ancient
laws, I would be fucking justified in going on a bloody fucking killing
spree...and laws aren't going to protect you from the consequences of
your actions. But I can say you're fucking shit, get your shit
together. And if you don't, you know, I wouldn't hesitate or bat an eye
or anything, to just put a knife in your gut and let you bleed out.
Get your fucking shit together. You know, these people that are in
charge they fucking destroy people's lives and then they get upset when
they have to pay a fucking fine. They're destroying lives. Every
single one of these rich mother fuckers that are in charge of our
government, they are destroying people's lives across the board for
their own profit and benefit, and you know, they deserve to be hung.
They deserve to be hung.
Yes,
I will judge you. That it totally fucking true. If you cannot get
your shit together and you harm me or I see you harm others I will judge
you, and I will bring it to your attention, and if you do not fix it, I
don't give a fuck. I really just don't give a fuck anymore.
Later, he claims that the military tried to kill him to prevent him from talking about his claimed PTSD (which contradicts his telling of that story in this video) and then discusses the concern over his threats by the city council at 8:50 stating:
I'm not a politician. I'm a warrior. I'm a scholar. I don't want their fucking job, but I will make sure that they do it right. And if not, they will be eliminated. They'll go somewhere else. But it won't be in my community. And anyone who wants to enter my community will have to have my permission. Simple as that.
After finishing his written statement response, he continues at 11:21:
I hate human beings. My own country has shown me that it's filled with nothing but fucking trash. Trash humans. And while some people say the majority of them are silent and don't know what to do, when there is definitely trouble that is going on as it is, we need people to stand up for their fucking selves.
There's no sense in thinking that I wasn't going to die. Really, who would have gotten vengeance for me, no one. There's no one that loves me, there's no one that will probably ever love me and I'm okay with that. I've got my duty.
I'm tired of fighting against corrupt politicians who are so obviously corrupt that it makes me sick. And talking about eliminating them from their position, because they do not meet the standards that are required of them, and running them out of town, like, those people will not live in my town, they're an embarrassment, I want them driven out of my town.
Mar 3:
Brandon Bryant's last blog entry, from 7 Feb, posted five days after a rant about this blogger, is a single solitary link to a quick draw sword technique.
Mar 2:
The claim that Brandon Bryant makes his videos as personal diaries is transparently false for reasons already covered in this blog post. For further evidence, at 0:50 in his video entitled "Reflections" from November of 2019 (made private by Bryant but subsequently re-published here), Mr. Bryant sets up his camera and computer a certain way and says to the camera, "because this is the image I want reflected out to everybody while I say this" and as he frequently does in his videos when he stumbles or loses his train of thought or his phone goes off, apologizes to the viewer saying "sorry I'm not prepared." In a different video Mr. Bryant admits he maintains his channel in the hope that somebody will listen to him. Then he goes on to discuss the Missoula City Council and the Mayor of Missoula starting at 10:23 stating:
We've got these blood sucking fucking parasites, we've got one in my own fucking valley that I'm going to be dealing with here shortly and it seems that we have, my entire city council is just a bunch of fucking parasites, especially our mayor.
Later in this same video, at 16:55, Bryant mentions a former Air Force supervisor, Joseph Lavato, and says:
I've never met a more vile human being that I would just have no issue of eliminating from the thread of humanity.
The quote above elevated since Bryant mentioned Lavato in his October 2018 video Judgement, (since deleted by Bryant from his channel but made available here) where he had stated:
In fact it was Joseph Lavato, who told me that I should just pretend it's a dog. And you know what, I'm going to break that man's nose the next time I see him, if I ever cross his path, and he should be lucky that's all I'm going to do to him.
And it is time to change that. And it really time to remove the fucking parasites that just take and take and take. And they degrade you for what they take of you...I don't even know what to do, when my own community, instead of taking care of its own people would rather sell it out to a millionaire so he can lay the foundation for all of his friends. This is an invasion in my own home. And I feel like this might not just be an invasion of my home and my backyard, but it's an invasion of my soul.
Instead of trying to find a fucking solution, we're just continuing doing what's thrown in our fucking faces day in and day out, is the worst thing that we could possibly fucking do, violate nature, violate our communities, take advantage, extract, extract, extract for profit, like we...I wish I could just figure out a way to properly express this so that the simplest of simpletons could understand.
And my own city councilmen are trying to put in a hundred million dollar fucking venue place for all these rich fucks. The same ones that are killing people, profiting off of killing people in the Middle East who have taken people like me and made them murder and violated them and killed themselves, they now need a place to relax so they decided to come to the comfy resort town of Montana to listen to Nick Checota serenade them with, whatever. I'm just done. I'm just done. Like, I followed all the rules and it's funny, because like the Joker movie is almost a complete inverse of myself and so that's what happens when you put someone who is mentally ill, and you push them beyond the edge.
After an interesting display of moaning, at 32:25 he continues:
So I've been trying to figure out a way how to approach the city council...treat others as you would like to be treated, yes, but it's also recognizing that when others are ignorant and blind and stupid and destructive, for no creation purposes at least, they need to be reminded. Yeah, I think we just need to be reminded. Sorry, I heard a noise and I got distracted. Just end this. Like I want the people who are supposed to be in charge to do their duty, that's why they've been given their duty, not to take advantage of an other people but to do, they're supposed to be strong to do it.
I guess if I were to sum it all up since we're coming up on forty minutes. Awareness, awareness of what you're doing, the world is in disharmony and the people that are in charge want to keep it that way because they benefit from it. That which is evil is that which separates, removes, isolates. Everything that I've come across in my research is that the governments of the world are exactly that evil thing that we've been warned against...I mean the only thing that you haven't taken from me is my life and you pretty much taken that, you've taken everything but the vital breath that I draw, and I've given you plenty of opportunity to take it from me...and until I find someone in the position of authority that actually knows what they're doing and can give me a good answer then I will assume there is no authority greater than myself.
In a similar video streamed live on 7 December, 2019 also titled "Reflections," Mr. Bryant at 4:13 states:
Every time I see people mistreating one another, or mistreating their animals, or being shitty fucking human beings I just want to take a stick and beat the fuck out of them...because they don't respond to gentleness and kindness.
How do you have compassion for people who destroy communities, who suck the life out of life like a parasite...because I feel like this rage is justified. Absolutely righteous rage. But it hurts my soul. Perhaps because it's toward people I should be having reverence for.
So this new year is going to be something I might think an emotional roller coaster for myself. Around the Chinese new year I will it will have been thirteen years since I killed my first human being. One year for every person I murdered. I don't know if that frees me of anything, if that's, thirteen is the number of the death card in the book of tarot, transformation, metamorphosis, it's not the end.
At 7:36 his narration is interrupted by a phone call and he tells his viewers "one second" while he answers the phone.
After picking up his dog, he live streams a new video (made private by Bryant after his release from jail but re-published here) and states:
And because of the greed of the world, the last hundred years, we've destroyed our planet, so thanks. As we go into 2020 let us look back at how these corporations just steal life from human beings and all politicians do is set rules by which they allow them to do it...
At 12:52 Brandon admits the obvious that he maintains his YouTube page in the hopes that somebody will listen:
The only reason why I even maintain this page is because I feel like I'm just a voice crying out in the darkness, hoping that somebody fucking listens...I mean, I'm not sure if anyone is really even listening. How many times have been sent prophets, how many times have been sent messengers of God, because of the ego of vain and decrepit men, they refuse to listen.
We have our business practices are polluting the environment and enslaving other human beings, and we don't do anything about it because it doesn't directly affect us yet and what is happening in Missoula, actually, is kind of strange because the city council has sold the city of Missoula out to the highest bidder and have, one of the banks, Stockman bank, took out a loan from itself and put the onus onto the citizens of Missoula to build two 4.4 million dollar buildings and there is a local millionaire named Nice Checota, he's not local, he's a Wisconsin millionaire, who has bought up all the music venues and has strangled the music industry here in Missoula and he's trying to get the city of Missoula to give him 16.5 million dollars in which the city of Missoula will pay back, the citizens of Missoula will pay back over 70 years to build a riverfront triangle venue. And we have 500 school children in our city homeless. The developers, specifically Jackson Co, are in league with certain members of the city council and other members of the community by giving kickbacks and for help of the to un-obstruct their development processes so they can build million dollar condos and bring all those people that ruined everywhere else in the world to here, but which is forcing all the people who work in the city to leave so that all the workers have to commute in.
At 41:02 his phone buzzes and he tells viewers "sorry, I've probably got to get going."
I really worry for our future, with the state of our leadership, if they're willing to steal a child for telling the truth and ruin someone's life to hide wrongs, put people in jail, exile people, even locally, our local government is using tax money and putting the local citizens in debt for immediate small gain and excusing it as dealing with blight, gentrification basically. And trying to push it through so fast that the citizens of Missoula can't respond.
I've talked to plenty of my council people here in Missoula and I told them, they basically have the power of kings without the title, power of the aristocracy without the title, they're supposed to represent the common people. And she was like well we don't have that much power, but they have enough power to sell us out which they have. I expect a lot from my leaders...I expect that of all my leaders, I expect that of the people that decide if they step up to those position then they're gonna give their fucking best, and they're not gonna be cowards except I keep running into these people who are. And I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. Who are we supposed to rely if not the people who step up to leadership positions? Who are we supposed to trust to not take advantage of us, except that's what it's doing. Jeff Bezos was named an Eco-terrorist over in eastern countries and there is a lady that rants about him here in Missoula, says that he electrocutes brains and eats children and stuff, which who knows, might be true and if that's the case like we have this guy who's the richest dude in the world and he's labeled an Eco-terrorist and alleged, brain fryer electrofrier and baby eater. That's not very kingly. That's not very admirable. How can we admire these people?
Mar 2:
The prosecution's response to Bryant's Motion to Dismiss was solid. The main thrust was that trying a case, and providing proof, is not appropriate for a probable cause determination for an arrest, but rather is reserved for the jury. The prosecutor also made it clear, regardless, that the video of Brandon talking to a camera, turning on a light and identifying himself, was solid evidence regardless that Brandon made the video. The response also quotes Bryant's comments to police admitting he made the video, and very importantly, that Bryant admitted he made the video to elicit a response. Presumably this statement was made in the police's "soft" room which documents state was recorded by video camera. This admission by Brandon makes the case for the charge against him as he admits to the desired effect and wanting to be a "bogeyman." The prosecutor also makes sure to tie the stick waving and screaming at the council members with the video, establishing the speech (which they argue, accurately I think, is not protected as it is a true threat) is also tied to conduct. That's an important point to make in distinguishing protected from unprotected speech. The prosecution wisely remarks on my mention in Bryant's motion as "a distraction with no relevance...Defendant made the threatening video."
The secondary thrust of the response was linking conduct and speech, and carving out the exceptions to protected speech to include true threats and, the prosecution mentions, the fighting words exception. It's doubtful to me that the fighting words exception will prove persuasive to the court, as fighting words requires some imminence, but it will be interesting to see if the the prosecutor further develops this argument by linking the physical conduct at meetings with the speech. While I think this argument is unlikely to survive, the true threats argument has legs it seems to me.
I also like that the Prosecutor has maintained a principled position and hasn't tried to overreach or overstate, writing "In an effort to be candid to this Court in reviewing the Affidavit of Probable Cause, the State noted that while the video specifically addresses the Missoula City Council, the specific threats to eliminate and exterminate people and that others must die, are muddled."
I think the prosecution will be able to show that the threats were directed at the Missoula City Council even if also directed at others. Showing the video of Mr. Bryant screaming at the Missoula Council how they have "wrecked" the community and linking that to the video's concluding paragraph where Mr. Bryant lists off people including those who have wrecked his community, will likely be persuasive.
Also, the language used in this video stating that all those will be eliminated is informed by Mr. Bryant's use of the phrase "eliminate" in another video where he also mentions the Missoula City Council and mayor as being blood sucking parasites in November of 2019, and later in that video discusses a former military supervisor, Joseph Lavato, and states "I've never met a more vile human being that I would just have no issue of eliminating from the thread of humanity." That statement is found at 25:02 in Brandon Bryant the Threat or in Brandon's unedited full video on his channel (if it is taken non-public, contact this blogger for it be uploaded publicly) at 16:55.
There is no doubt that Brandon made the video. There is no doubt his videos are meant for public consumption. Given his statements to the police, there is no doubt he intended to get a reaction with his statements and influence the political issue. And given his words there is no doubt what he meant when he used the word "eliminate."
I fully expect Mr. Bryant's motion to dismiss will be denied.
Ultimately, this Court kept bail as set and ordered that Mr. Bryant be screened by Missoula Correctional Services, Inc., and that he undergo a mental health evaluation, which evaluation shall be disclosed to both the Court and to the prosecution.
Mr. Bryant objected to both the screening and the evaluation numerous constitutional grounds, detailed infra.
He's right he doesn't have to do the mental health exam. The Judge no doubt knows that, but set it as a condition if Mr. Bryant wants out of jail early to prove that he's not a threat.
The motion talks about Mr. Bryant's emotional support dog and how it's denied to him in jail. Reading this reminded me of years ago, when I was friends with Brandon on Facebook, and he was complaining that the government wasn't paying for his living expenses fully. His grandmother, if I recall correctly, even chimed in to tell him he needed to work and make his way through life in that discussion. I told him that he had full GI Bill benefits that were very generous, and that provided a housing allowance. I quickly went online and found places in Missoula for rent that were less than the housing allowance he was entitled to from the GI Bill. He responded that all the numerous places I found didn't have big enough backyards for his dog.
The Public Safety Assessment done on Mr. Bryant notes that he has a prior failure to appear in court on his record. No idea what that was about, but that's likely not helpful when trying to get pre-trial release.
The police report mentions involuntary commitment of Mr. Bryant as a possible option. It's good to see the police focusing on his mental health issues. The Missoula police officer's report also states:
I advised Mr. Bryant of my concerns about the video that had surfaced in which he talks about exterminating the city council, and that his videos had caused a lot of safety concerns in Missoula city government officials. He was understanding of that, and tried to distance himself from those safety concerns. He told me he made the video "to get that response," and that "I (he) don't feel like I will cross the line," in regards to committing violence against any of the council members.
This admission of the obvious, that he made the videos to get a response, cuts into his claim that his public, live-streamed, videos were private diaries. The report continues:
Mr. Bryant told me Mr. Rynearson used to serve with him in the military, and they both left the drone program when they had ethical concerns about their roles in combat... Both of them appeared at conferences and received recognition as "whistleblowers" and had a good friendship up until a few years ago.
While this is irrelevant to Mr. Bryant's legal troubles, I didn't leave the drone program over ethical concerns, but rather over legal concerns. In fact, after refusing an unlawful mission I made it clear I wanted to continue flying drones, which I had volunteered for as I blogged about in 2010, to provide that critical resource to our men and women on the ground. For months I continued to fly drones (despite refusing the unlawful order) and was simply not scheduled to fly the unlawful mission. I had no desire to leave the drone program, it's important and when conducted properly, by real professionals, by courageous public servants who make the tough calls and put real skin in the game (rather than pretend that they do for Ms. Radack and her propaganda pieces) it's a huge addition to our nation's capability. The drone program is a great technology. Coupled with real American military professionals with moral courage and the convictions of the burden of their oath of office, it's a capability that makes America safer.
But my ethics didn't factor into my role as a public servant. Rather the law factored, which is the ethics of the public I was paid to serve. More importantly, Mr. Bryant did not leave the drone program over his ethical issues. He tried to advance in the program, was rejected, and separated from active duty. His claimed "ethical concerns" only became a thing after he was out of active duty and cameras were rolling. I never appeared at any conferences, and I never got recognition as a "whistleblower." I absolutely support real whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, but I was never called to be one as the illegal activity I refused to conduct, and resigned my commission over five years prior to retirement, was activity that was already known by the American people (the ACLU had a lawsuit over it, and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had admitted to the unlawful conduct on 60 Minutes). I fully support and revere actual whistleblowers as the bravest and most patriotic American public servants, but I was luckily never placed in a position to make that kind of sacrifice. And I can say without hesitation and with all the credibility in the world, that Brandon Bryant is not a whistleblower nor are his fraud colleagues mentored by Jesselyn Radack in her propaganda cottage industry. Lastly, I was Facebook "friends" with Mr. Bryant. He was never my friend despite me being nice to him and taking an interest in him while I figured him out, before I came to the conclusion that he was a bad actor just as others in the drone program had previously warned me he was. I have never personally met Brandon Bryant, all of our interaction has been digital.
The officer's report continues:
Mr. Bryant said he has filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Rynearson in the Seattle area, for this online "stalking," and that Mr. Rynearson has some type of conditions of release related to this.
I have no idea what "conditions of release" means. There are no legal proceedings against me, no law enforcement or other individual has contacted me about this alleged complaint, I have not been found guilty of any crime, and I was not put in jail necessitating conditions for release. I have no idea what that is referring to. But it's not at all surprising that Mr. Bryant would make the false claim that I sent videos to the Missoula City Council (I did no such thing) while then admitting that he contacted law enforcement in my home town. It also doesn't surprise me that he'd be making a free speech claim to justify his threats to kill people (true threats being non-free speech), while claiming that my journalism about him to the public documenting his threats to kill me and others, is somehow criminal activity. Having dealt with an individual very similar to Brandon Bryant (and his crew of liked minded supporters), this behavior of projection is very familiar along with its central tenets and character traits. Hopefully the judicial system will hold the line on our rule of law as it did for me in both my state and federal free speech victories (where I was supported by the ACLU) in the face of an individual who lied like it was an involuntary response and who also drummed up false claims to the police to get me to stop criticizing him. The police officer's report continues:
Mr. Bryant admitted to me that he uploaded those videos, saying he didn't directly threaten to kill any council members, although acknowledging that he was referring to the city council later in the video... He freely admits that he is just trying to get attention for his frustrations about the gentrification of Missoula. He said the "language (in the video) was there to incite a response" and that "I'm trying to be the boogeyman" to raise awareness of issues affecting the city.
So much for Mr. Bryant's claim that he didn't make the videos, or for the false claim that they were edited to take them out of context, or that they were private video diaries. You don't make diary entries in order to be a "bogeyman" to influence city politics. Hopefully this was part of the recorded "soft" interview conducted by the police for use at trial. The report continues:
He said he tried to have the attorney who represented him in his whistleblower proceedings help him regain custody [of his son], but that they [sic] attorney wasn't much help.
I am unaware of Jessleyn Radack ever representing him as a lawyer in any proceeding because Mr. Bryant wasn't a whistleblower, but I am aware that she represented him as a Public Relations manager. It's not surprising at all that she wouldn't help him with trying to gain custody of his son after his son's mother felt Bryant was a threat to her and her child's safety. The report continues:
Mr. Bryant maintains he's technically still in the military, although the details of his relationship with the military were difficult for me to understand... He told me he's still fighting against the VA to have his physical disability recognized by both the VA and Social Security Administration, which is another source of frustration to him.
Mr. Bryant is not technically in the military. He was only ever in the military because we were in a time of war and we relaxed our standards due to manning challenges with the growing drone program. Mr. Bryant is correct that with the huge increase in the need for drones, it was rare for the best to volunteer for that program and the worst were often sent to it. Brandon is a phenomenal example of that sad fact. Now we are paying the price for that. He's lying every time he refers to himself as a "Staff Sergeant." It's not surprising that he's still fighting to get money for his claimed TBI given that he does back flips and wrestles and joined an "extreme sports" veteran club after his claimed injury. Mr. Bryant is a fraud who has a deep desire to get money from the government however he can, and who defrauded taxpayers with his PTSD diagnosis. The report continues:
The primary sources of stress in Mr. Bryant's life including homelessness, not have a job, his inability to see his son, and lack of former recognition for his disability, or some type of disability payments.
This touches on the key aspect of Mr. Bryant. He wants free government money. He publicly states that he's not the kind of person who works for money, and that he thinks "job" is just another word for slavery that prevents people from using their time to learn about themselves. He has made the claim of being homeless while having a GI Bill benefit that paid for housing, while living with his mother, etc. In his propaganda he tried to pretend that he was homeless living outside near a carousel in Missoula. Brandon's claims of being homeless have been a staple in search of gaining sympathy from others. The report continues:
Later in the week, Mr. Bryant notified me he was attempting "press charges" against Mr. Rynearson by contacting the local police department in Washington state where he believed Mr. Rynearson was still living. He asked me for permission to give my name and contact information to an officer there in case they needed to speak to me about the situation, which I said was fine. I got a phone call from a detective from the Bainbridge Island (WA) police department on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 5th. The detective's name was Jon Ledbetter, and he confirmed Mr. Rynearson was a resident there and characterized him as a local activist who sometimes drew the attention of law enforcement. We both discussed the situation and agreed that there didn't seem to be any criminal violations...as Mr. Rynearson was simply taking videos that Mr. Bryant had uploaded to the public domain.
Yes, I'm known to my Bainbridge Island Police Department because Clarence Moriwaki (who shares dramatic similarities with Brandon Bryant) lied to them and engaged the courts on me, in order to silence my truthful criticism of him and his fraud online. He lost in State court, and then he lost in federal court when I got our "cyberstalking" law struck down for violating the Constitution. His supporters (including Sara McCulloch, Ali Perry, Shannon Evans, and Bonnie McBryan) met with the police and/or filed police reports against me for innocuous critical speech they assumed was from me and the BIPD told them I (or anonymous accounts they assumed were me) broke no laws. Clarence Moriwaki also filed two additional police reports against me, including one where he said I broke into his apartment and left a cigarette butt as a message of intimidation, and another where he said I again broke into his home, while he was sleeping in the bedroom, and re-arranged his cheese slicer and other knick knacks. Fingerprints tested all belonged to Mr. Moriwaki. Mental illness and bald-faced lies are not limited to Missoula, Montana and mentally ill people have used the internet with great success in order to organize in their efforts to get free government money and push a fascist agenda and to punish those who object. Key to fascism is silencing critical voices like mine, and labeling such voices "cyberstalking" appears to be the current fashion. The report continues to say Mr. Bryant refused to provide his address to the officer and:
I asked Mr. Bryant some other questions, including whether he has access to firearms now, and he said he sold them all after being diagnosed with depression, out of concern for having suicidal thoughts.
The police officer then reports that it was a Missoula City Council member who found the video made by Brandon Bryant and says he referred to the prosecutor for charges or for involuntary commitment of Mr. Bryant. This cuts against the false claim that I sent the video to somebody in Missoula.
The new motion to reduce bail also made the point that "Mr. Bryant’s political dissent has been made a part of the reason charges were brought by the prosecution" which is not surprising given that the charge necessitates there being a political component. While the public defender brings up great free speech quotes, none of them apply if the undeniable threats made by Mr. Bryant are deemed (as I think they are) to be "true threats" which is a known exception to First Amendment protected speech.
I must add that while the Public Defender's inaccurate depictions of me, and their inaccurate presentation of facts admittedly bothers me, I am glad to see they are trying to make the best case they can to defend their client. Our system absolutely depends on zealous advocacy to ensure the accused get the most robust defense they can. In this case, that robust defense has for whatever reason decided it's useful to use me (which I think is a bad idea, because I'm not the guy you want to be compared to your client if you want him to look good, I promise). Still, I appreciate the effort to give your client the best defense. I just hope you don't lose sight of the mental illness issue here while doing so.
Feb 27th:
Brandon Bryant's legal team emailed this blogger yesterday (and called) and wanted to speak with me. The investigator for their team's email was:
Major Rynearson,
My name is Mark Beck
and I am an investigator for the Montana State Office of the Public
Defender. I would like to speak to you regarding Brandon Bryant.
Please call me at 406.523.5178.
Given the inaccuracies about me
in your office's motion to dismiss, I request that you email me your
written questions and I will consider whether to answer them or not.
v/r
Richard Rynearson
Mr. Beck wrote back on February 26th:
Thank you. I will do that later this afternoon.
Yet I never did receive any questions or any other correspondence from Mr. Beck after that.
On 24 February, the Missoula City Council heard public comment from
Brandon Bryant's friend, Matt Wardell, followed by comments from council
members on the arrest of Bryant, including a powerful letter read aloud
by Council Woman Heather Harp directed to Brandon. Readers can view that video here.
In the video above, Brandon Bryant admits he is not a Staff Sergeant
Unfortunately, three Missoula City Council members who refer to
themselves as "team liberty," released a well intentioned but tragic letter
bolstering the myth of Brandon Bryant and falsely referring to him as Staff Sergeant. Four of the twelve city council
members have now called for Bryant's release. For their letter and my
response, please see here.
Fortunately the judge zeroed in on the most relevant issue here, the
threat posed by Mr. Bryant's mental illness. He also seems to have
dispatched with the odd argument about the video and account (totally
irrelevant for finding probable cause when the video is clearly made by
the person talking to the camera, identifying himself, and making the
threats).
"I
will tell you that the court's chief concern is Mr. Bryant's danger to
the community and the community safety … regardless of the where posted,
how posted, who posted, I haven't heard Mr. Bryant deny that those
statements may be his," Vannatta said during the hearing. "I am not
asking to have detailed notes, I want diagnosis and recommendation. "And
so, the keys to the jail are in Mr. Bryant's hands."
Brandon Bryant's motion to dismiss the case against him has a couple of interesting bits. First, it states that "What the Affidavit fails to disclose is the devastating and misleading omission of fact associated with Mr. Bryant’s international celebrity and the conjecture without proof that Mr. Bryant created the YouTube account and video here at issue."
It goes on to argue that there wasn't enough information provided about the YouTube video, stating:
The affidavit goes on to quote extensively from the undated YouTube video, without ever articulating who actually posted the video, who created YouTube account associated with the video, the context of the video, the IP address associated with the video, or any other critical, identifying information that would provide fundamental assurance of the video’s accuracy.
This is interesting given the full unedited video is available here (and embedded below) and given that it clearly shows Brandon Bryant talking into a camera and even turning on the lights and stating "so you know that it's me" to prove that it's him making the video. It is hard to imagine more prima facie evidence proving that Brandon Bryant made the video. By the way, if a person makes a video as a diary for themselves, they don't live stream it. They also don't make it public. And they certainly don't turn the lights on so that "you" can see their identity. As Mr. Bryant told police, he made the video because he wanted to gain attention concerning his frustration with the Missoula City Council.
Transcript of Mr. Bryant's full unedited video, "The Dragon of the Winter Moon" publicly uploaded to YouTube on or about 19 Dec 2020:
Well, [momentarily turns on light switch] so you know that it’s me…
Test, test. Three days from now is the Solstice, been a long time coming. There are many things in my life that I was previously ignorant to that I am now fully aware of.
When I was younger and I would ask my grandfather some questions, he always asked, he always turned to me a very serious face, and he would say, ‘well what does your heart say, what does your heart say?’ And in my youth I got the instruction of heaven, and in my adult life heaven was bombarded and raided and left broken. I don't think I could have given the world anything more pure than myself. Everything was always about put your whole being into it, put your whole self into, sports, everything.
And I seem to come across in my life more people who want to bring down instead of nurture and I'm witnessed now of those same disgusting, putrid, sacks of shit people, coming in and buying up my backyard and commercializing life to humans. It's gross. It's absolutely one of the most disgusting things I've ever experienced in my life. The entire Missoula City Council has sold out Missoula to the highest bidder and what's gonna happen, if the people who wronged everyone don't step aside, and put their tails between their legs and run, because over the next year all those people who have wronged others, who have discriminated against others because of class, or race, or gender, or creed, or any of that, and forgot to see human beings in themselves, will be eliminated.
And I always wonder if they even knew what the heck they were creating when they created men like me and people like me. The Japanese Samurai attribute the life of a man to the creation of a katana and should that sword not do its duty then it is discarded and forged anew. And the essence of my spirit and my soul was pure and given over and over, purely, raised up and brought in a wonderful home.
I could have been the highest of all beings, had they encouraged it. But I only wanted to just be a teacher and a family man and to live in harmony with God's grace, not destroy it, not consume it, not belittle it. Even this whole marijuana prohibition, the only reason that any of this stuff's illegal is because they can't make a profit off of it. That's parasitical, that's gross, and every single person needs to look within themselves and stand up against it and I'm sick and tired of people like, ‘that's just the way that the world works.’ Fuck that shit! That’s, that’s, that's stupid! The way that the world works is in harmony, is in balance, the way that the world works is, is that you give and you take, not you just take take take take take take take take take!
It's like with Melissa. Macieira. My lost love. I gave her everything, pure, spirit, devotion and she fucking dragged my soul across the coals after I had been fucking humiliated by my military service. I am humiliated that I gave my life and my dedication to a group, an entity, of disgusting, filthy, pedophile murderers. It's all you are and I, whether in this life or the next, I will dedicate myself to hunting you out and exterminating you. Doesn't matter. Doesn’t matter where I see you, doesn't matter at all, I'll be eliminating this wretched fucking filth from the human soul.
I am sick and tired of every day I wake up and I'm not even sure if I'm going to have food. I'm not sure if I'm going to have the house over my head. I'm not sure, after I murdered for these people who are making trillions and trillions and dollars off of this, they violated my fucking soul and the human spirit and then they come and they spit on us, they degrade us and they they gentrify the places where they steal us from, they uproot us from, they mold us and shape us and send you back and then you're just, you’re no longer yourself. And I know that many veterans feel that but they don't understand it. They don't understand that they gave themselves openly, willingly, to fight for what was right and good and just and the people that they did that for sacrificed them for material gain.
And what they don't understand, the people who did this, is that there's something that underlies all of reality, and it upholds the essence of all things. It is the thing that is within me that got me through my whistle blowing, it was the thing that got me through the military, it was the thing that is before you today. And I don't think it's a thing. Some might attribute it to God. I think that's ignorant. It’s themselves and what myself is saying is that all you deserve to be eliminated and I will do it, and if you remove me from this life, I get to choose my next incarnation, and I will hunt you down so not even the stones will hide you. The very atoms will sing out your presence to me and I will eliminate you from the fabric of reality and you will never see another life again. That is my promise.
If you had been true to me you will escape the fire, but every single one of you who have wronged another human being and have made them more miserable, I wish you to feel everything that you have ever made another person have to suffer through. I don't wish death upon anyone. Death will come to everyone. I wish you a very long life and I wish you to experience it in all its excruciatingly finite detail because it will be the very last one that you will ever get in this universe or the next.
This is what I'm preparing my soul to do on this Solstice. You have taken everything from me. You have taken my son from me. You have taken my dignity. You have wrecked my community, you have wrecked my family, and I will stand as myself, before all of creation, and you will move, and you will submit, and you will die.
I would expect the prosecution will contact YouTube and ask for the original video uploaded by Mr. Bryant to his YouTube channel on or about 19 Dec, 2019 that was originally titled "The Dragon of the Winter Moon." However, unsubstantiated claims online suggest Mr. Bryant removed that video from his channel at the request of the police, so one would think the police would have downloaded a copy of it before making that request.
I would then expect the prosecution will file a superseding indictment that points to the original video (that is exactly the same as this video) that would say that Brandon made those statements and posted them to the internet in a live streaming video format made available to the public, and side step the irrelevant issues of who owns what account.
The motion then goes on to give a long depiction to back up its claim that Mr. Bryant enjoys "international celebrity" although the relevancy is questionable to the charge at hand. It does show, however, that Mr. Bryant posting a public and live streamed video is more likely to be viewed by others in his community given his stature. Mr. Bryant makes it clear he is talking to third parties in his video, turning on the lights so "you" can know that it's him, saying that "you will submit and you will die" addressing his speech to the targets of his threats. Along with Mr. Bryant's Patreon and other social media, it's apparent that the "celebrity" seeks to be heard by the public when he speaks in social or other media. Celebrities typically enjoy a much bigger platform when they speak. While Joe Schmoe can post something on YouTube and not be seen, a celebrity can change political outcomes with their social media, a fact well known and decried in America. The facts here show that is exactly what happened. Brandon made a video and his video was found by folks in small-town Missoula who were concerned about his statements. That's a completely predictable outcome that Mr. Bryant most certainly had to know would occur.
The motion goes on to state:
Because of the backlash from members of the military, from some veterans’ groups, and from others, Mr. Bryant has had to engage the professional services of acclaimed First Amendment attorney, Jesselyn Radack, in order to protect his rights relative to his whistleblowing efforts. Also, as a result of his status, Mr. Bryant has been the subject of what can only be described as cyberstalking by one individual, in particular - a man who has previously been accused of stalking others who have spoken out against politically charged people and programs - Rick Rynearson.
Leaving aside the fact that Jesselyn Radack's services to Brandon were Public Relations services rather than legal services, the motion then footnotes the above with a link to an article that shows the accusation of me being a cyberstalker failed in court where I, represented pro bono by the nation's top First Amendment attorney and supported by the ACLU with an amicus brief, knocked down our free speech denying "cyberstalking" law in federal court.
While it might prove useful to provide another "bad guy" to redirect court efforts, this is a strange move. First, me speaking out about public figures is no different than any other activism or journalism. Not liking the subject of my reporting (instead preferring speaking out against the Missoula Council, for example) doesn't change the fact that it's strange to make a free speech case by labeling my own free speech as somehow nefarious cyberstalking.
Second, when you link to an article that undercuts your assertion with a court opinion, that's probably not helpful. Mr. Bryant is aware of the litigation I faced from a similar individual, Clarence Moriwaki, as he was in contact with members of the group on Bainbridge Island who similarly tried to silence my criticisms of them and he posted comments expressing his pleasure that I was facing this court action thrust upon me (before I won against the man who sued me to try to stop my online journalism). What Bryant's motion fails to mention is that both state and federals courts ruled that I did not cyberstalk anybody. It's therefore beyond strange that Bryant's "free speech" motion would label my speech "cyberstalking" despite state and federal courts ruling precisely the opposite, but perhaps Mr. Bryant's lawyers don't view judicial rulings as particularly persuasive or maybe they're just trying to please Mr. Bryant who stated publicly to a crowd "I don't even believe in the rule of law, to be honest... and so I feel like if somebody's going to punish me it's...not gonna be some bullshit official who has no idea what's going on other than some rules that are made up to keep people in line."
There is an important distinction between my free speech and the speech of Mr. Bryant. I'm not talking about the fact that Mr. Bryant has several times told me to kill myself, which is protected speech. I'm not even talking about his several instances of defaming me by making false claims (for example, that I sent Marines to do him physical harm which resulted in them killing one of their buddies in a house fire for standing up for Bryant). Even though that defamatory speech is unprotected, the speech of real concern is Brandon's claims that he will kill me and others. That unprotected speech from Mr. Bryant, as opposed to my truthful critical speech that he simply doesn't like, is a key difference in a court of law (even if not in the mind of Mr. Bryant).
Mr. Bryant's speech, if deemed true threats, is not protected by the First Amendment while my citizen journalism that Mr. Bryant simply doesn't like because it criticizes him to the public, or blows the whistle on a fraud whistle blower, is protected by the First Amendment despite him inaccurately labeling it "cyberstalking."
Finally, while not relevant, it is an interesting decision to tout Brandon Bryant as a "whistle blower" (which he wasn't) and offer up me as the decoy, given that unlike Brandon Bryant I actually did refuse an unlawful order and mission while in the drone program. In fact, unlike Brandon Bryant who never refused missions that he admitted he knew were unlawful (labeling himself an "enemy of the American people" as a result) and who did not publicly lament his role and claim guilt until well after he admits to trying to advance in the program and being denied and later separating, I actually resigned my commission just five years short of retirement rather than fly an unlawful mission. While Mr. Bryant will try to impress the court with his fraudulent "whistle blowing," I'm probably not the best foil for his offered myth in a court of law where facts will come out rather than simply be invented by media hacks like Ms. Radack and her ilk on social media.
The motion continues:
Instead, the statements made by Mr. Bryant about being the subject of cyberstalking activity were not investigated and are included in the Affidavit without appropriate context. There was no information or investigation relative to the creation of the YouTube account. There was absolutely no mention in the affidavit of Mr. Bryant’s international celebrity, which would have given important context and credence to his statements about the cyberstalking activities of Mr. Rynearson, who is also the suspected creator of the offending YouTube video and owner of the offending YouTube account.
Investigating me because Brandon repeats the failures of others when he labels my accurate speech he doesn't like "cyberstalking" isn't likely to bear fruit in his case. Mentioning Bryant's "international celebrity" undercuts that claim even further, and hurts his case given that celebrities are known to have a bully pulpit in social media. Most importantly, my YouTube channel isn't the "offending YouTube account" by simply sharing Mr. Bryant's video and trying to direct attention to the serious threat Mr. Bryant poses to multiple individuals and to his community. Likewise, NBC Montana and KPAX are not the offending accounts because they also shared Brandon Bryant's video to inform others. This claim from Mr. Bryant's motion is a non-starter. He is responsible for his speech in the video he made and that he uploaded to YouTube.
This is going to be a fascinating free speech case to watch. But more important than the legal issues is getting Brandon Bryant the mental help he undeniably needs before he hurts himself or others.
Unfortunately, Jesselyn Radack's fraud "whistle blowers" like Cian Westmoreland and Lisa Ling are spreading nonsense in support of their fraud comrade. For example, Lisa Ling is claiming that when I abridged Brandon Bryant's full video, I did so to remove words that would make it seem like Brandon was making threats. Her claim about me removing words like "voting" or "elections" is unequivocally false as the full unedited video demonstrates. Lisa Ling is a liar who knowingly fabricated her claim, and then passes along another false claim that I sent the video to somebody in Missoula.
It's important to realize that Brandon Bryant is backed by a media machine that has made a cottage industry out of lying about the drone program. Sadly, Americans know little about the program due to secrecy, and so liar opportunists like those mentored and managed by Jesselyn Radack are free to lie to the American people almost with impunity and they enjoy access to multiple media channels that apparently are much more interested in the click-bait claims of liars like Lisa Ling and Brandon Bryant than they are about reporting truth. With just a modicum of research those journalists would know they are providing frauds a platform to spread lies. And so it goes.
Pictured from left to right: Jesselyn Radack, Cian Westmoreland, Brandon Bryant, and Lisa Ling
Brandon has also enjoyed local Missoula media resources from his friend
Rembrandt Miller, who produces the "Outer Limits" radio show and website
which routinely provides false information (recently about myself and Mr. Bryant) to its mostly collegiate
readership in Missoula. The false information regularly includes the false claim that Mr. Bryant has a military rank, that I edited videos to change their context, that I'm somehow a "cyberstalker" because I voice unpopular opinions to the public that some don't like (odd stance for a rag periodical to take), and most interestingly, the idea that veterans should not criticize or call out veterans. In its most recent article, it writes:
What is particularly disturbing about both Kidston and Rynearson’s behavior is that they themselves are both veterans, betraying a fellow veteran who continues to struggle with the blood of our imperialist wars on his hands. This brand of social friendly fire is precisely why many potential whistleblowers remain silent despite acknowledging moral dilemmas and ethical quandaries related to the often questionable necessity of America’s continued military adventurism throughout the world.
Apparently Mr. Miller, the hold-government-accountable guy, thinks that former government employees should work together and establish a Thin Green Line. Apparently his publication's view is that a veteran blogger expressing the opinion that Timothy McVeigh was a mentally ill threat, would be engaging in "friendly fire" for doing so. Very strange stance to take from this fringe rag. Yet the Outer Limits has a readership in Missoula.
Pictured from left to right: Brian West, Brandon Bryant, and Rembrandt Miller
Rembrandt Miller sits behind Brandon Bryant as he shows his "stick" to the council members
Brandon Bryant needs serious mental assistance, but his handlers would rather bolster their propaganda machine and continue to inflate the illusions in Mr. Bryant's head, rather than help him come to terms with reality so that he can begin to make a real life, rather than lament the loss of an imagined one. It's a sickening display from Ms. Radack's fraudulent dog-and-pony show given the serious ramifications for a mentally ill kid.
In my view, Ms. Radack is the real villain as she has made a business model that relies on preying on mentally ill kids and shaking them down for propaganda click-bait sound-bites she can feed to her media friends, all the while pumping up the fantasies in their head, destroying their credibility, and leaving them to empty lives after she has gorged upon them and had her fill.
When Brandon Bryant years ago invited me to meet Ms. Radack and others in NYC, I knew that fraud was afoot. Of course, I did not accept his invitation to be a puppet in her menagerie.
Jesselyn Radack is interested in producing fraud propaganda at the expense of legitimate discussions about our national security and our rights. After all these years, just yesterday, she finally blocked me on Twitter.
Ms. Radack has no interest in my blowing the whistle on her fraud and on her manipulation of poor souls. And so it goes.
But back to Brandon Bryant rather than those who use him for their own ends (something he is aware of). For those serious about fixing the issue, we need to recognize the serious mental health issue. Brandon has talked more about suicide than any person I know, it's frequently a topic in his many media discussions and I took a look at it in God, Death, and Kids. People who are serious about preventing tragedy in the future need to consider the past. This is not an easy issue. But it is an issue that we as a society have dealt with before. It's going to take real work. This blogger would be happy to contribute financially to a real solution, something with teeth, something serious, not a Kumbaya exercise.
My name is Rick Rynearson. My Twitter is @PickBattles. I was an Air Force command pilot and field grade officer and am now retired. I grew up an Air Force dependent (my father retired a CMSgt after 32 years active duty). I have eight deployments to OEF/OIF as a close air support attack pilot, more than one thousand combat flight hours, seven Air Medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross for valor. I have a B.A. in religion from the Florida State University. My wife is a Harvard educated former Air Force intelligence officer turned civilian lawyer, former clerk for the Supreme Court of the United States, and Air Force Reserve JAG. My father, mother, and sister all work for the Air Force as contractors or government employees.
My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/WingedRyno
There are several reasons for this blog. First, I believe I have something to contribute to an important discussion. Second, traditional military avenues of discussion (PME) have proven ineffective methods for dialogue. Third, the Air Force "Emerging Technologies" division of Public Affairs released instructional guidance for "each Airman to act as a communicator to be the voice of the Air Force in the blogosphere" while noting "there are movements within DoD to explore a broader, more aggressive and holistic approach... to integrate communicators" and stating, "the rules of the game have clearly changed." Finally, this blog served as a sounding board for a master's thesis I have completed entitled, "The Smartest Guys in the Room and the Best of the Best." The thesis examines the culture of Enron and Air Force fighter pilot culture, finds similarities, and makes recommendations.
In accordance with the PA guidelines mentioned above, this blog seeks to provide one personal, transparent, credible perspective -- among other perspectives online -- with the goal of furthering conversation to help foster a stronger, more relevant Air Force. The intent of this blog is to be transparent and is not used to hide identity. Readers are encouraged to post comments or email me if they think form or substance in this blog is an issue. All criticism is welcomed. For more info on blogging and the Air Force please see my first blog post.
Note: As Tony Carr (despite claims otherwise), FlyingSquadron.Com and MilitaryTimes.Com all share an affinity for banning those who present unpopular viewpoints (ie disagreeing with them), I have created a Facebook page to share such banned opinions. Please visit Martial Matters if you are interested in that less civil discussion.
The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent Air Force positions, strategies or opinions.
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