Right-Wing Militia’s Wild Plot to Destroy the Weather System

Summary

Bulwark Takes: Detailed Summary of "Right-Wing Militia’s Wild Plot to Destroy the Weather System"

Episode Overview Title: Right-Wing Militia’s Wild Plot to Destroy the Weather System
Host/Author: The Bulwark
Release Date: May 7, 2025
Description: In this episode of Bulwark Takes, Andrew Egger and correspondent Will Summer delve into the alarming activities of a right-wing militia group, Veterans on Patrol, led by Lewis Arthur. The discussion centers on their bizarre conspiracy theories about weather control and their threats to destroy Doppler weather radar systems across the United States.

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1. Introduction to the Threat

Timestamp: [01:43]

Andrew Egger opens the discussion by highlighting recent concerning headlines about militia groups targeting federal infrastructure. He specifically references a CNN report about a militarized conspiracy theorist group's intentions to sabotage Doppler weather radars, crucial for both weather forecasting and military operations. Egger sets the stage for an in-depth analysis with Will Summer, the correspondent for “all things wild and crazy and far out on the right.”

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2. Overview of the Militia Group: Veterans on Patrol

Timestamp: [02:30]

Will Summer introduces Veterans on Patrol, a group led by Lewis Arthur, who is notably not a veteran. This organization has a history of engaging in various conspiracy theories and issuing threats against federal infrastructure. Summer emphasizes that despite Arthur’s claims, he has faced legal issues and his group has been active for over seven years.

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3. Beliefs and Motivations Behind the Threats

Timestamp: [02:30] – [03:57]

Will Summer explains that Lewis Arthur believes Doppler radar systems are used to control the weather, particularly citing Hurricane Helene in North Carolina as an example of governmental manipulation to drive people away from mineral-rich lands.

Lewis Arthur’s Statement:

"[03:27] 'They've been playing God with the weather too long. They murdered my families in western North Carolina... That was a weather weapon. That was a United States military playing God with the weather.'"

Arthur declares his intention to destroy these "weather weapons", viewing the radar systems as tools of oppression.

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4. History and Activities of Lewis Arthur and His Group

Timestamp: [05:42] – [07:15]

Will Summer provides background on Lewis Arthur, detailing his 2018 activities in Arizona where he claimed to have discovered child trafficking operations linked to QAnon conspiracy theories. His aggressive stance has led to clashes with local communities and law enforcement.

Lewis Arthur’s Declaration:

"[05:42] 'I want you to help me. I want to help your family... I want to help you by just stop doing the threats.'"

Arthur’s rhetoric underscores his combative approach, urging immediate action against what he perceives as governmental overreach.

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5. Escalation of Threats and Online Activities

Timestamp: [07:29] – [10:05]

Will Summer discusses the recent escalation in threats, including videos posted on Telegram where Arthur and his followers simulate “dry runs” for attacks on radar sites. These actions demonstrate a serious intent to transition from rhetoric to potential violence.

Correspondent’s Interaction:

"[09:36] 'What I would like you to do is stop calling for any attached. What do you want me to do? Stop doing that.'"

The correspondence highlights attempts by others to de-escalate Arthur’s threats, emphasizing the need for intervention before violent actions occur.

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6. Comparisons to January 6th and Broader Militia Movements

Timestamp: [10:24] – [13:28]

Andrew Egger draws parallels between the current situation and the January 6th Capitol riot, noting how initial benign activities can rapidly escalate into significant violence. The discussion underscores the challenge in monitoring and addressing decentralized militia groups that proliferate across various online platforms.

Will Summer’s Insight:

"[12:20] 'As you said, they're spread across all these channels... you have to look for when it spills over into the real world.'"

The conversation highlights the difficulty in tracking such groups due to their fragmented presence online and emphasizes the importance of proactive law enforcement measures.

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7. Law Enforcement Response and Potential Actions

Timestamp: [08:40] – [12:43]

The hosts discuss the law enforcement strategies in place to handle such threats. Despite Arthur’s active threats, there has been minimal visible intervention, raising concerns about the effectiveness of current measures.

Will Summer’s Observation:

"[10:05] 'If you start attacking federal infrastructure, there's probably going to be some blowback.'"

The dialogue suggests that while immediate actions may seem insufficient, persistent threats are likely to provoke a stronger governmental response over time.

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8. Broader Implications and Future Risks

Timestamp: [13:19] – [13:51]

Andrew Egger reflects on the growing trend of right-wing militia groups and their potential to cause real harm if their threats materialize. The hosts express hope that authorities are monitoring Arthur’s activities to prevent any actual attacks on critical infrastructure.

Will Summer’s Closing Remarks:

"[13:28] 'A lot of this stuff is just totally ludicrous.'"

Despite recognizing the absurdity of some conspiracy theories, the conversation underscores the real dangers posed by such groups when their rhetoric turns into tangible threats.

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9. Conclusion

The episode concludes with a call to remain vigilant against the rising tide of militia groups espousing unfounded conspiracy theories. Andrew Egger and Will Summer emphasize the importance of monitoring these organizations to prevent potential threats to national security.

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Notable Quotes:

• Lewis Arthur [03:27]: "They've been playing God with the weather too long. They murdered my families in western North Carolina... That was a weather weapon. That was a United States military playing God with the weather."

• Correspondent [09:36]: "What I would like you to do is stop calling for any attached. What do you want me to do? Stop doing that."

• Will Summer [12:20]: "As you said, they're spread across all these channels... you have to look for when it spills over into the real world."

• Will Summer [13:28]: "A lot of this stuff is just totally ludicrous."

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Final Thoughts This episode of Bulwark Takes provides a comprehensive examination of the alarming intentions of right-wing militia groups like Veterans on Patrol. Through detailed analysis and firsthand insights, the hosts shed light on the complex landscape of modern militia movements and the urgent need for effective law enforcement strategies to mitigate potential threats to national infrastructure.

Transcript

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[Andrew Egger]

Hi guys, this is Andrew Egger with the Bulwark. Even when times are relatively peaceful and everything's pretty much normal, you never really want to see headlines about militia groups targeting different parts of federal infrastructure. Unfortunately, that's exactly the kind of headline that we're getting to discuss today. Here's cnn. A militarized conspiracy theorist group believes radars are weather weapons and is trying to destroy them. So here's the lead. National Weather Service offices around the country are on guard after recent threats to agency infrastructure, specifically Doppler weather radars from a violent militia style group. Emails from the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Security office show. Here to talk about all that with me is our correspondent for all things wild and crazy and far out on the right, Will Summer. Will, what do you make of all this stuff? What's going on in the weather world?

[Will Summer]

Yeah, so you know it's a very Strange situation. I mean, this is a group I've been following for a while called Veterans on Patrol. It's run by a guy named Lewis Arthur who I do want to underline is not himself a veteran. And these guys get into sort of conspiracy theories, scrapes across the country. They issue threats. In this case they've been certainly Lewis Arthur has been in trouble with the law. You know, I've been following this group for seven years now. And in this case the NWS here is warning its employees that Louis Arthur and his group have threatened to blow up specifically radar sites that are used for weather prediction. They're also used by the military, these NexRAD sites across the country. And you might say what's his beef with the weather? Right. Well, as it turns out, he believes that these devices are being used to control the weather. And in particular they were used in Hurricane Helene in North Carolina to sort of control that and to drive people off of mineral rich land.

[Lewis Arthur]

They've been playing God with the weather too long. They murdered my families in western North Carolina. We just did four and a half months disaster out there. Immediately after Helene hit the Oklahoma nexrad towers, we released the data. Your next rad towers in your state was on the furthest western grid radar operation commands at Oklahoma University oversaw steering Helene up into western North Carolina. That was a weather weapon. That was a United States military playing God with the weather. And this weekend we're going to go destroy their weapons.

[Will Summer]

And this created a previous saga for his group where they kind of got in a fight with locals in North Carolina over control of aid to that area. So this is what we're dealing with and it's not great.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, I never know when you bump into these stories a local militia group. Obviously these are very distributed organizations. They all have their own little idiosyncrasies and their own specific concerns and things like that. At the same time, I think we all tend to lump them into at least the sort of federated network of militias. This notion that there's this kind of growing movement of people joining these potentially violent organizations. How do you place these guys in the broad sweep of, of what we think of as kind of right wing militias in America writ large?

[Will Summer]

Yeah, well, this is really sort of a 21st century militia situation. I mean this isn't like the militias of the 90s. I mean Lewis Arthur is very plugged into social media. He has a huge social media following and that's. And in part he's built that up through getting into these controversies and conspiracy theories. Back in 2018, he was sort of a local in Arizona, locally notorious figure up until he discovered some bones on a highway in the desert. And he said, this is a QAnon style child trafficking site. And this became a huge deal in the QAnon world. And all these people flocked there. And he was traveling through the desert and he'd find like a bag of garbage and he'd say, these are the. What the traffickers are using and what have you. He, like, occupied a cement plant. It was a whole thing. So anyways, he did some time over that. Now he's back. He went to North Carolina, as I mentioned. I think he tried to sort of take up residence in some town in Washington state that was supposedly involved in child trafficking, according to him.

[Lewis Arthur]

I want you for getting this I'm going to do in your city, into your home, because we're going to bring the problem to your homes now. Now I'm bringing the problem to your doors.

[Will Summer]

Thank you, sir. And he has some amount of followers. I think he has a lot of fans online, and he has maybe a dozen, maybe 20 people that kind of come in and out of his operation in the real world. So in this case, though, he's really escalated these threats to the radar sites. He keeps saying, you know, I'm on my way to blow up some. Some radar sites in Oklahoma in particular. Just on his telegram, he posted a video of someone who he claims is a federal agent who is saying, yeah, so pretty much I would say, stop threatening the radar sites. That's a big issue for us. You know, when you talk about blowing up military infrastructure, there's going to be a prosecution if you do that. And he's saying, sorry, I got to do it.

[Lewis Arthur]

I didn't come here to destroy anything. But the lies that keep you comfortable, your people here will suffer the next time they act. Those next rat towers aren't what you.

[Unnamed Correspondent]

Stop, stop, stop. See, when you start talking about suffrage and all this other, it becomes a rhetoric of kind of aggression. And right now I'm feeling like you're being aggressive towards me, and I haven't done anything to you.

[Lewis Arthur]

I want to help you. I want to help your family.

[Unnamed Correspondent]

I want you to help you by just stop doing the threats. Okay? You want to help people? Great. You want to help build and rebuild, and they want your help, that's great. You want to do relief supplies. That's fantastic. That's amazing. I absolutely applaud you for that. All I want you to do is stop making any of these threats. That's it. That's it. Just stop making the threats.

[Lewis Arthur]

If anyone makes threats, I'll tell them to stop making threats to me.

[Andrew Egger]

I mean, it's just kind of a mind boggling story. Am I correct? I think I have this right, that all of this is currently in the realm of threats and posturing and posting. Right. Has he actually shown up at any of these sites? Much less damage that we know of?

[Will Summer]

Well, they've certainly shown up on his telegram site. There are. He's urging people across his, in his network. He's saying, okay, if there, there's a next rad site in this town, someone needs to go check it out. I was just checking his telegram account and they're posting like they're doing what they're calling like dry runs to, to prepare to attack these sites. I mean, it is like they are treating it very seriously. And it's so bizarre. You almost have to assume with these things you say, oh, this has to be fake. This has to be. There has to be some backing down here. But I think there doesn't really seem to be. And this is a guy who is, I think, very kind of possessed of himself and his own conspiracy theory beliefs. And ultimately, you know, this does go back to the idea that they believe this controls the weather. We think about Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also believed, you know, the government was controlling the weather. You know, RFK Jr. Just made a reference to chemtrails being used to control the weather.

[Unnamed Correspondent]

It's done, we think by darpa. And a lot of it now is coming out of the jet fuel. So, you know, those materials are put in jet fuel. We, I'm gonna do everything in my power to stop it. We're bringing on somebody who's gonna think only about that, find out who's doing and holding them accountable.

[Will Summer]

So this is an idea we're seeing more and more.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah. And I guess I kind of have to just wonder where is kind of federal law enforcement in all of this. I mean, it would seem to me that it's very likely the case that it is not only illegal to blow up military infrastructure, but you can only do a, maybe there's a three strikes type rule. You can only do a certain amount of threatening to do that in public online before, before you get a knock at your door. I mean, have we seen any kind of response from, from the boys in blue about all this?

[Will Summer]

Well, so he, he posted this video today of supposedly a visit from a federal agent. But this guy seemed really like, you know, almost plaintive with the pleading with Louis, Arthur, saying, oh, come on. You know, if you blow something up, we're just gonna have to respond.

[Unnamed Correspondent]

This isn't the way to do what you want.

[Lewis Arthur]

You know what's freaking them out right now is if people really taste what I'm saying.

[Unnamed Correspondent]

Seriously, please stop.

[Lewis Arthur]

I want them to stop. Then help me stop them. Okay, how do we go about it your way? What do you want me to do? To help. To help me address what they've done here?

[Unnamed Correspondent]

What I would like you to do is stop calling for any attached. What do you want me to do? Stop doing that.

[Lewis Arthur]

Replace that. What's my steps?

[Unnamed Correspondent]

Louis, the only end game. If you continue going down the path of making threats against the military, making threats against critical infrastructure, the only end game there is for us to go to the United States attorney and arrest you. I don't want to do that. I don't think that's what you need.

[Will Summer]

You know, it kind of reminds me of how the January six people were ultimately treated in a way that was. Was very like, oh, you know, okay, look, if you're still occupying the building, you're going to get in trouble, but maybe you. If you leave and all this. So it's a strange situation. And. But I do think ultimately, you know, if you start attacking federal infrastructure, there's probably going to be some blowback.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, Yeah. I was actually going to bring up the January 6th comparison as well, because just as you were talking about it, when I was down there covering it, it was so striking to me that it seemed like the mood was very much like, all right, here's the. Here are the LARPers. You know, here they are. They're doing their little protest. They're doing their little dance. They're doing their little choreography. Oh, man, they're getting more and more riled up. Oh, gosh, wait. This is actually spilling over into real violence. And by that point, by the time it has actually spilled over into real violence, you can't really put the. Put the genie back in the bottle there. So it's. I mean, and that's so often the case with these stories, and so much of what's going on right now is just sort of farcical and clownish up until the moment it becomes, like, really alarming in real time. The other thing I wanted to ask you about with this is just. I mean, obviously it's all your beat, and you're just neck deep in all this stuff with all these people. I feel like I have at least a strong layman's Interest in the broader constellation of sort of right wing influencers. And all of those people I had never heard of Guy until you pitch this video a couple of hours ago. It's like this is just a complete black hole as far as I'm concerned. And that's true. It's easy to miss people when it's all happening online, right? When it's all happening in these sort of algorithmic spaces like X. And even more so than that, like off site on different apps like Telegram, where it's just, I mean, the whole information system is so distributed stuff. Obviously it becomes easy to keep in touch with them once there are government agencies reporting that they're showing up at the sites to potentially do damage. Like, that's okay. I guess that's one we have to keep our eye on and go find and pay attention to. But, but just in kind of the broader principle of the thing, I guess I just wonder as you're covering all of this, how do you just sort of deal with the fact that, that it's such a loose ecosystem of all these guys out here in a way that it really never was like this for like the most important, quote, unquote, influencers in politics in the past.

[Will Summer]

Yeah, I mean, it's very complex. I mean, as you said, I mean, they're spread across all these channels, all of these platforms, you know, I mean, for me, I think you have to look for when it spills over into the real world. And in this case, the idea of blowing up radar sites certainly qualifies. I mean, I was just at the Justice Department watching another group that claims, you know, we gotta arrest all these judges and what have you, and you kind of keep an eye on them until something happens.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, again, like the January 6th thing, like, I remember the morning of January 6th, before the rally had even happened. There were like a couple guys like in folding chairs down by the, down by the reflecting pool there who were handing out like little flyers. They were like, hey, we're assembling a militia. We're going to wear these armbands. It's going to be cool. We're going to take back our government. It was just two guys, you know, handing out loose sheets of paper and it's kind of like, oh, okay, that's really interesting. Cool, you know, good luck, go on with your day, have a fun time, enjoy your little party. And then, you know, and then it's not quite so clownish anymore.

[Will Summer]

Yeah, I mean, I think that really sums up kind of the times we live in where it's, you know, one hand, you, you have to take it very seriously. And also you have to go back to acknowledge like a lot of this stuff is just totally ludicrous.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah. Kind of funny, right? I mean, like, it will be less funny if he blows one up, but I feel like I'm going to have to follow this guy to follow his future escapades. I kind of hope someone is keeping an eye on him. I hope one of his 15 or 20 acolytes that you were mentioning before is like a federal agent or something like that. That seems like it would be a fruitful use of at least one or two people's time. All right, well, thanks for, thanks for coming on and breaking it down.

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