Tactical, intentional, regional misinformation
First a correction: Wednesday’s post was titled “Patriotic” Front. That was a typo. It should have been “Patriot Front”. My error. These folks are anything but patriotic—they are the very opposite.
“Christian” Republican lies cloaked in piety
Luke Baumgarten made this abundantly clear in his Range Media post “Patriot Front, On Fire”: there are many links between two men arrested in Coeur d’Alene last weekend, the brothers Josiah and Mishael (aka “Shael”) Buster and Matt Shea’s On Fire Ministries in Spokane.
Yet, on Saturday, moments after the arrest of the Patriot Front group that included the Buster boys, Matt Shea went on Facebook live to announce from McEuen Park (site of the Pride Festival) that an “antifa ambush” had been narrowly averted. He drew a parallel to the “antifa that were seen” on January 6th in Washington, D.C., a favorite ridiculous conspiracy theory that still resonates on right wing media. “Pastor” Shea ends his broadcast “in Jesus’ name”. May he be struck by lightning.
It is hard to imagine that Matt Shea and company were unaware of the carefully laid plans of Patriot Front to stir up a riot at the Pride Festival in Coeur d’Alene last Saturday—and use body cams to video the chaos they provoked. It seems far more likely that Shea, fearing he would be caught with his pants down in the setting of the Patriot Front arrests, sought to steal the narrative. More likely, he was in on the false flag operation from the beginning and intended to use Coeur d’Alene riot videos to stir up fear of “antifa” among any who would listen—and the arrests momentarily set him off balance.
For an education in how to lie with a straight, pious face here’s the link to watch Shea’s broadcast:
And the local online media echo chamber immediately resonated:
The one woman (Shari Dovale) misinformation website, Redoubt News, based in Priest Lake ID, promptly followed up on the arrests with a misleading article by Ms. Dovale “No Locals Arrested With Patriot Front in Coeur d’Alene”. The tone? “Circle up the wagons, we’re being viciously attacked from evil forces from outside our Redoubt”.
Church and State, a pseudo-religious, hyper-”patriotic”, “news and media” site run on Facebook by Caleb Collier and Gabe Blomgren, also Matt Shea allies, quickly posted a dramatic video with pounding music asserting a disavowal of Patriot Front labelled “Patriot Front is a Front”.
Surely all the folks who rely on Redoubt News and other Matt Shea related outlets, like Church and State, will not be offered even a hint of the clearly documented links between the brothers Buster and Matt Shea’s “On Fire Ministries” on Pacific Avenue in Spokane. This won’t happen any more than watchers of Fox News will be exposed to the truth about the January 6th insurrection. Both sets of “true believers”, trusting, as they do, in the supposed Christians who feed them their news, will buy into the bogus narrative that “antifa” is out to tar them and their good name. It is no wonder that the propagandized cult followers of these “news” sources look at anyone outside their cult as though such naysayers were sporting two heads when they offer contrary proof. It is all about who sets the narrative first.
The Republican Party’s continued grip on power increasingly depends on votes from the brainwashed followers of the like of Matt Shea and the growing local wing-nut “patriot” media silos. When will we hear local Republican leaders call out this crap? Don’t hold your breath. They know which side their voting base is buttered on. They are no different than William Barr, in whose testimony under oath he called Trump’s election claims “bullshit”, while, in public, he refuses to call Trump out and says he would vote for the man.
For any who have doubts about the narrative these folk are pushing you can see Matt Shea and company live in action in our very own Spokane Riverfront Park this Saturday at 10AM. The Patriot Front “antifa” conspiracy will surely come up.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. On Wednesday several mainstream news outlets reported that public records available on the internet showed that Joshua Plotner, of Craigmont, paid more than $2,200 to bail out seven of the Patriot Front boys facing a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to riot. Joshua Plotner’s identity and relationship to the boys is still a mystery. Twelve more coughed up the $315 bail amount themselves. Four had bail paid by people who were apparently relatives, and four posted a “surety bond.” The Buster brothers were two of the four using the “surety bond” method, which avoids public advertisement of the name of the person putting up the money. One might speculate that certain people in Spokane would rather not advertise their links to the Buster boys for fear of further undercutting their blaming “antifa”.