Scratch The Surface Of Half The Republican Legislators In The Country And You'll Find... Matt Shea (R-WA)

Rep. Matt Shea (R, of course)

Between Spokane and the Idaho border you'll find Washington's 4th legislative district. It's very rural. There's got to be a town there but I can't find one on the map, although... there was a post office of sorts in a town called Drygoon and in 1902 they changed the name from Drygoon to Colbert in honor of a postmaster named Harry Colbert. But I'm not certain if it's inside the district or not. Like I said, it's very rural. The state Rep from the 4th, Matthew Shea, is 45. He's beyond conservative. When his wife Lisa divorced him, she applied for an application of protection because he considered her a possession, not a possession like a lamp but a possession like the way it was in the Old Testament. Her court papers say he was very abusive, physically and emotionally and that he "insisted she walk on his left side because his sword, if he had one, would be on his right side." Refusing to get a job, he hosted a hate talk radio show on Patriot Radio twice a week. In 2008 he was elected to the state legislature, where he defines the far outer fringes of a Republican Party whose uneducated and drugged-up base is consumed by insane conspiracy theories.

Why should Matt Shea matter to anyone outside of eastern Washington? Well... last year, Rep. Shea admitted he had distributed a 4 page manifesto that strongly smacks of right-wing domestic terrorism, The Biblical Basis for War, and certainly makes it clear that he and his pals have been promoting violence against people who don't adhere to his extremist-- many would say psychotic-- ideology or religious beliefs. This past April, the House Republicans finally removed Shea as their Caucus Chair-- for advocating murdering non-Christians.

Shea was in the news again over the weekend. The Spokane Spokesman-Review. Chad Sokol reported that "Shea and some of his closest supporters have made physical preparations for a holy war, one that would help them establish their long-envisioned 51st state, their Redoubt, their Christian homeland," which he's named Liberty. "Leaked emails published this week reveal that Shea has had close ties with a group that conducted 'patriotic and biblical training on war for young men.'

In addition to running “background checks” on liberal activists and supporting military-style training for boys and young men, Shea has in recent years sought to purchase GPS tracking devices, compiled dossiers on local progressive leaders and kept a blacklist of suspected informants in his network. He also plotted to establish a “provisional government” in the event of a collapse and boasted about his efforts to “turn back the tide” of those who practice Islam in the United States.

Shea also distributed a list that purported to include the names and phone numbers of every law enforcement officer working in Washington state, saying it would help to “confirm or deny legitimacy” of investigators who made contact. He and his associates used email servers and messaging apps designed with extra layers of encryption in an attempt to shield their identities. He signed messages “V” or “V/B”-- short for his code name, Verum Bellator, which is Latin for “truth warrior.”

Shea, who rarely speaks to the news media, did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story.

“He was a paranoid dude,” recalled Jay Pounder, a whistleblower who once worked on Shea’s informal security detail. “He was always scared that the government was listening. He was always scared that if a black van pulled up, the doors would fly open and they’d scoop him away. And he always said that he would not go down without a fight.”

In a statement Saturday, the Spokane chapter of the NAACP responded to the revelations of the past week, saying Shea “uses his platform to promote hate and violence” and calling for his removal from office.

“Every moment he occupies a seat in our state Legislature emboldens extremists and erodes the legitimacy of our sacred institutions,” the NAACP said. “Anything short of the expulsion of Matt Shea from the Washington state House of Representatives is a threat to our community, a threat to our collective safety and an implicit endorsement of white supremacy.”

Pounder, who worked for Shea for several years, said that Shea outfitted him with various electronic tools designed to detect hidden recording devices and disrupt transmitters.

“He gave me a bug sniffer,” Pounder said. “He gave me a cellphone jammer that plugs into a cigarette lighter.”

Emails show that in July 2016, Pounder, using the code name Fox, presented Shea with a short list of Ebay links-- a selection of GPS devices that might come in handy for tracking perceived adversaries.

“He was thinking that, at some point in the future, there would be concerning people that need to be tracked,” Pounder recalled.

...Idaho state Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, emailed Shea in May 2017, including an attachment of more than 60 pages of scanned newsletters and other documents related to water use and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

“This packet is from a private meeting I went to and is full of valuable information on key federal operatives that are working collectively in the Northwest out of multiple locations,” Scott wrote. “Please take the time to review and learn some of the names and connections as I believe the information will be very valuable. This information is somewhat sensitive so please be careful who you choose to share it with.”

The packet included a biography of Elaine Willman, who has called for abolishing the sovereignty of Native American tribes and appeared with Shea at a “New Code of the West” conference in Whitefish, Montana, in October 2018.

Shea forwarded Scott’s message to Pounder, writing, “Ms. Willman is one of us. The rest need to be put on our list. We need to talk at your earliest convenience.”

Crazy or dangerous? Or both? Shea, an ally of Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), prophesizes he will be elected president (of the U.S.) and that his assassination will lead to a civil war. You tell me, does this crackpot manifesto of his look like a call to prepare for violence and civil war? I don't think you can put someone in prison for this stuff-- or even in a mental institution. It's up to his constituents to remove him from office, though. I have a feeling many of them are very much like him though.

BIBLICAL BASIS FOR WAR

1. God is a Warrior.

2. When is the time for war? When God says its time...Prayer Council.
3. Fight to win so you don’t have to fight again.

4. 4 Things to stay within God’s will:

a. Holy Cause;

b. HolyLeader;

c. Holy Army; and

d. HolyCamp.

5. 4 Ways To Know It's Time To Fight

a. God reveals His will to the leader;

b. LeaderinquiresofGod...PrayerCouncil;

c. God puts it on the hearts of the people; or

d. Godstartsthefight.

6. Things For A Holy Army

a. Sacrifice/Worship/Prayer;

b. Circumcision/Saved;

c. Vow (consecration to the Lord);

d. Trumpets/Ark;

e. Atonement/Money; and

f. Praise to God Before/During/After.

7. 5 Facts of War:

a. War is a fact of life.

b. GodiswithusandthebattleisHis.
c. Numbers are inconsequential.

d. Armamentsareinconsequential.

e. Isaiah 57:1 – Why Righteous Men are Killed...

8. 4 Qualifications

a. 18 years old or older;

b. AblebodiedMan;

c. Single Minded in Battle; and

d. StableHome.

9. 5 Exemptions from Service:

a. Training Family-- New Home;

b. Newlyweds-- NewWife;

c. Farmer-- New Crops;

d. Scared-- FearMeansaLackofFaith(OffertoLeave);or

e. Priests-- Duty to Ministry in Temple.

This fucking nut case goes on and on and on and I'm getting drowsy inputting it all, so I'll just include a few more highlights. Libery won't declare war on the rest of Washington or the rest of the U.S. if they agree to 5 demands:

• Stop all abortions
• No same sex marriage
• No idolatry or occultism
• No communism
• Must obey Biblical law

"If they do not yield-- kill all males.

There's this crazy section of the manifesto about how to divide up all the booty and loot they take from Jews and other non-believers and another part about how to biblically deal with tyranny, some of it overtly anti-democratic like, "God doesn’t use majorities. The majority is usually wrong." He also asserts that assassination is not murder and that you must "Prepare your horse for battle, but the battle is the Lord’s." And something about "Abad and Shamar," who I thought were whales at the San Diego Aquarium.

Matt Shea-- a member of the state legislature... and a Republican Party leader.