Surprising absolutely no one in the Inland Northwest, two of the Patriot Front members crammed into the U-Haul this weekend are connected to a church helmed by former Rep Matt Shea. Who is that, you ask? deep inhale A thread:

Shea is a former Washington state representative who represented Spokane Valley. In that position, he took the time to travel to both the 2014 and 2016 armed standoffs helmed by the Bundys; invited Oath Keepers head Stewart Rhodes to discuss battle tactics over tacos…

Here’s a story I wrote about him in Rolling Stone four years ago, after local reporters had been covering him for ages. Time flies when you’re having … um: https://t.co/aPECOYB72c

Shea also took spiritual guidance from The Byrds , a couple who runs a “covenant community” called Marble, in NE WA. Barry is of the framers of Christian Identity, a racist belief system that had been preached at the Aryan Nations. More on that here: https://t.co/7jUE7GDyXS

In 2018, former Shea acolytes leaked a manifesto he wrote - and claimed credit for - called the “Biblical Basis for War,” which called for war if abortion and same sex marriages were not stopped: https://t.co/6YAWoSrbZK

In the second season of Bundyville (the audio version), we reported that Shea was helping train a youth militia at Marble called “Team Rugged.” More on Marble here: https://t.co/PjGhXIl3as

A lot has happened since then. For one, the House in Washington issued a report that Shea had participated in domestic terrorism, and he didn’t run for re-election: https://t.co/nQltEccRRB

Shea parlayed his oratory skills and fanaticism into a new gig: the leader of a church called “On Fire Ministries,” and continuing to lead the “Church at Planned Parenthood”: https://t.co/1zXrf2GTX7

Guess who else was at the CDA Pride rally to protest this Saturday? On Fire Ministries and Shea: https://t.co/ZGk1raTbcR

There is so much more to say about Shea - Anti vaccine rallies! The state of Liberty! Ukrainian orphans! - but I will stop here because I need more coffee. Follow the great work of local reporters: @SpokesmanReview @danielwinlander @MelissaKXLY4 @vestal13

More from Category pdfmakerapp grab this readwiseio save thread threader compile summarize

Ethan Grey
@_EthanGrey

This is a thread on Republican messaging. The press doesn’t want to have a direct conversation with you about this. So as a former Republican who is now a consistent Democratic voter, I will. Thread.

Here is the Republican message on everything of importance:
1. They can tell people what to do.
2. You cannot tell them what to do.

This often gets mistaken for hypocrisy, there’s an additional layer of complexity to this (later in the thread), but this is the basic formula.

joe santarlasci
@joesantarlasci

@RonnyJacksonTX No indictments so far under Pres Biden, but here’s a guide for you.

PirateChef
@PirateChefat40

@TG22110 Some Fuzzy Math:

Gas is 6$ a gallon ;
Truck 10 feet to the gallon +
About 1000 feet
About 90 cases of pbr
That trip cost them about … 600$ in gas
About almost killed 30 votes…

Alec Karakatsanis
@equalityAlec

THREAD. I've been studying how the New York Times uses sources. If you look at many of its articles together, something disturbing emerges: NYT relies on police and corporate sources to subtly shape how we see social problems and solutions. I try my best to lay it out below.

First, some background. Reporters and editors are constantly making choices about who to speak with to get story ideas about what to cover, who to interview to describe a problem, who to interview to tell us about the universe of potential solutions.

Importantly, sources ultimately quoted in an article often played a vital role behind the scenes. Many people don’t realize that the people quoted in articles explaining what happened and what could be done about it are often the same people who brought the story to the reporter.

In this process, many reporters rely on police and allies (prosecutors, pro-police officials, punishment bureaucrats, consultants, and corporate profiteers) to decide which stories to cover and to tell us "the facts." But when you look across articles, the pattern is striking:

Let's take a look at a few examples from the New York Times. Here's one about "perceptions" of rising crime:

What do you notice?

\u201cPolice officials.\u201d
Commissioner
Commissioner
Commissioner
Professor
\u201cthe Police department\u201d
\u201cthe police department\u201d
\u201cofficials\u201d
Chief of detectives
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) April 8, 2022