Washington State legislator writes insurrection manifesto

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Last year, the chair of the Republican caucus in Washington’s state legislature acknowledged that he had written a manifesto on the “Biblical Basis for War.” In that document, the lawmaker argued that – as far as Jesus Christ was concerned – American Christians have the right to “kill all males” who support abortion, same-sex marriage or communism (so long as they first give such infidels the opportunity to renounce their heresies).

The manifesto’s revelation cost its author, Matt Shea, his chairmanship. But Shea insisted that his writings were merely “a summary of church sermons on Old Testament war that could help place current events in historical context.” And so, the Washington GOP did not call for Shea to resign or expel him from its House caucus.

This past spring, the Guardian obtained text messages in which Shea discussed targetting anti-fascist activists for surveillance, harassment, and violence. One of Shea’s interlocutors, online radio personality Jack Robertson, offered this prescription for the treatment of a female antifa protester: “Fist full of hair, and face slam, to a Jersey barrier. Treat em like communist revolutionaries. Then shave her bald with a K-Bar USMC field knife.”

The Republican lawmaker replied, “Ok. What BG [background] checks need to be done. Give me the list.”

The leader of Washington’s House Republicans JT Wilcox called Shea’s participation in this chat “deeply upsetting,” and promised that “My conversations with Matt and the leadership will continue.” But Wilcox did not feel that Shea’s actions required his expulsion from government.
Nevertheless, Shea’s activities – which included working with Robertson on a plan for Eastern Washington to secede and reconstitute as “Liberty State” – concerned prominent conservatives in his corner of rural Washington. Spokane County’s Trump-supporting sheriff, Ozzie Knezovich, had long sounded alarms about Shea’s extremism. Meanwhile, one of Shea’s former supporters, Jay Pounder, supplied the press and state legislature with documents detailing Shea’s plans for establishing a theocratic government in Washington following some unspecified “collapse event.”

All this led Washington’s House of Representatives to commission a report on Shea from a former FBI agent. That report, which was released last week, alleges that Shea “as a leader in the Patriot Movement, planned, engaged in and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States Government in three states outside the state of Washington over a three-year period.”

Among these was the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur wildlife refuge in 2016. As the Seattle Times reports:

"Shea participated in four phone calls with Ammon Bundy in advance of the January 2016 Malheur occupation, the report found. The day after the occupation began, Shea, using the code name Verumbellator, created a detailed military-style plan called Operation Cold Reality that laid out roles and responsibilities for militia members and for an organization that Shea chaired, the Coalition of Western States.

Days later, Shea traveled to Burns, Oregon, the site of the standoff, identified himself as a state representative and met with local and national law enforcement, the report found. He “gathered intelligence” about law enforcement strategies and operations from that meeting and then met with Ammon Bundy and other armed occupiers of the refuge, the report found, despite warnings from law enforcement."

Shea has now been “suspended” from the House Republican caucus, and Wilcox has called for his resignation. But, as of this writing, an alleged practitioner of radical Christian terrorism remains a state legislator in Washington.

I have heard other WP members mention before that this guy Shea is nuts.

Kraichgauer lives in Spokane, so he has more knowledge on Mr. Shea.

I have heard other WP members mention before that this guy Shea is nuts.

Kraichgauer lives in Spokane, so he has more knowledge on Mr. Shea.

That I do, because I unfortunately live in Shea's district.
I think people around here had voted for him because he had been a combat veteran, and because the east side of Washington state tends to be more conservative than the west side. And in all honesty, who really pays that much attention to state legislators, unless they either majorly screw up, are so crooked that they're going to jail, or if they're going off the deep end? Well, that's two out of three.
Yes, Shea is nuts. Yes, he and his little circle of white identity nationalists want to establish a theocracy here in the Northwest if the US government collapses (and trust me, they do want it to collapse). Or at the very least, they want to establish the state of Liberty out of the east side of Washington (there had been plans years ago for establishing the state of "Lincoln" - gee, I wonder why they chose to get rid of the name Lincoln?).
I sincerely hope my neighbors have been voting for this lunatic only because Shea's name was familiar. Because in all fairness, both sides of Washington state are pretty well godless , and has little fertile ground for theocracy to grow roots.
At least now, one way or another, that insane idiot is going to be gone.

What do people in Idaho think of him?