new

Six-term Washington state Rep. Matt Shea is accused of participating "in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States," according to a report released Thursday.

Independent investigators commissioned by the Washington State House of Representatives found that Shea, as a leader of the Patriot Movement, "planned, engaged in, and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States government" between 2014 and 2016.

The report also concluded that Shea was involved in training young people to fight a "holy war." He created a pamphlet called Biblical Basis for War and advocated replacing the government with a theocracy and "the killing of all males who do not agree."

Chat messages showed Shea, a lawyer who was first elected in 2008, condoned intimidation of opponents, political activists, government officials and Muslims. He also offered to conduct background checks on political opponents.

Following the release of the report, Shea was suspended from the House Republican Caucus — a serious form of discipline.

He was also stripped of his position as the ranking member of the House Environment and Energy Committee and will be removed from two committees.

"He should resign," Washington State House Minority Leader Rep. J.T. Wilcox tweeted.

"He cannot use House Republican staff, he cannot meet with the caucus, his office will be moved," Wilcox added.

Rep. Matt Shea has been suspended from any role in the House Republican Caucus. He should resign. He cannot use House Republican staff, he cannot meet with the caucus, his office will be moved.

But late Thursday, Shea said he will not resign.

"Like we are seeing with our President this is a sham investigation meant to silence those of us who stand up against attempts to disarm and destroy our great country," Shea said in a Facebook post. "I will not back down, I will not give in, I will not resign."

Shea maintains he was not given an opportunity to review or respond to the report.

The report states he declined to be interviewed as part of the four-month investigation.

The Army veteran was a public supporter of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who led a 2014 standoff with FBI agents in a dispute over grazing rights.

According to investigators, Shea visited the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville for a couple of days. While there, he "developed a strategy for leadership over future Patriot Movement armed resistance against the federal government by creating" a coalition of western state leaders from Idaho, Washington, Arizona and Nevada.

The Patriot Movement is a far-right, anti-government extremist group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. A core tenet is that the government should not own public lands.

About two months after the Bundy Ranch standoff, the report notes a meeting between Shea and leaders of the Oath Keepers Militia at a restaurant in Spokane. There he was overheard discussing "militias, weapons, stockpiling ammunition, the Bundy Ranch, Special Forces and snipers."

When VA officials planned to remove weapons from the home of a veteran who was flagged by health care officials, Shea issued a call to action for Patriot Movement members. In a Facebook post, he urged them to arm themselves and drive to Priest River.

"That resulted in the use of armed militia members who blocked access to the veteran's home and prevented the lawful retrieval of the guns by the Veterans Administration," the report said.

In early 2016, Shea again teamed up with the Bundy family in an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

The 41-day standoff between armed militia men and government officials resulted "in devastating financial, physical and emotional harm to a community and its residents; and the loss of one life."

At the time, Shea said he had gone on a "fact-finding mission."

State Rep. Laurie Jinkins, a Democrat, said the House needed time to review and digest the full report prior to taking further action.

She added: "In its 130-year history, I am unaware of House members ever having received such a comprehensive and disturbing investigatory report about another member."

The gravity of the findings prompted the Chief Clerk's Office to forward the report to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI, Jinkins said.

"We respect Rep. Shea's right to free speech and his personal beliefs, but those ideals are not what this is about," she added. "This is about a state lawmaker who, according to the investigative findings, engaged in an act of domestic terrorism rather than choosing political or legal avenues to change laws and policies he disagrees with."

Shea could be removed from the state House entirely but that would require a two-thirds majority vote of House members, and, the nonprofit news site Crosscut reports, that "has happened only once in the history of Washington's Legislature."

[From "What Makes a Man?"]

Slaves and Citizens
Wow, look at you. Mommy’s big boy, all grown up. You can do anything, now that you’re an adult. You can eat all the cake, drink all the craft beer, and watch all the porn into the wee hours of the morning because nobody can limit your consumption now that you’ve shed the trappings of childhood and become a man. Or, have you?

Take a step back and look at who you have become. Today, the average American male is a pale specter of manliness that was present just a few generations prior. Grip strength tested today is down 20% over a span of 30 years. We spend more time indoors and are sedentary, our short-term memory is basically non-existent and we’re sicker than ever. Compare yourself to men of the past and ask if you really deserve the same title as them.

Comparing the Greek words Aner vs Anthropos reveals us how a distinction that once existed between men and the rest. Real men have been, and will always be, rare – while all others will just be shadow figures. While both terms described human males, aner went farther, to distinguish said men as those who were more than just the base. Consumers, and modern NPCs, all fit the definition of anthropos. They do not rise in any discernible way past the flesh heap of common man. Therefore, they do not deserve any higher title than that. Why then would there be no further distinctions between the two?

Slave Societies and the Military State
The great slave societies of the past included, but were not limited to, the Greek city states, the Roman Empire, and the antebellum South. Each of these civilizations maintained large slave populations that constituted significant portions of their labor force. Sparta stands out as one of the most stark examples of a slave society in that slaves, or helots, constituted around 80% of Sparta’s population. The slave population, at its peak, in Dixie constituted around 33%, despite being a mere 13% of the total U.S. population. Being that Sparta, and to a lesser extent other slave societies, contained so many slaves, there were constant and realistic fears of slave uprisings that could threaten the lives and business interests of the rest of the population. It is no coincidence that each of the great slave societies maintained strong military traditions and standing forces at the ready to check against uprisings.

[...]

The South, like other great slave societies, was not just a militaristic one, but the sort of society that simultaneously fosters a culture in which social refinement blooms. Southern poets, authors, artists and statesmen were, more often than not, the leading talents in their fields, even after the end of the War. Southern military schools did, and have continued, to produce leaders in many fields disproportionate to their competitor schools. The Southern military tradition even continues today with over 50% of the combat forces of the United States being produced by the Southern states, wholly disproportionate with the country’s population.

[...]

As in the novel Starship Troopers, you could not vote or become a citizen if you did not complete your military service requirements. The end product of this agoge and military service allowed the numerically disadvantaged Spartans to reign over their more numerous helots with an iron fist, while simultaneously warding off enemy nations. Compared to the heroic Greek soldiers of other city states, the Spartans were, for the most part, the professional elites. Not only this, Sparta was also home to some of the most iconic artists and architects of the time, something that similarly occurs in other great slave societies. The agoge was such a revered system that nobles, from all around the Greek world, would fight for a chance to send their child through the same system.

All this and more was required just for Spartans to attain the rights and privileges that you, as that special grown-up boy that you are, think you are entitled to. What though have you done to earn said rights? While you may believe that the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable, and God given, can you really believe that all men are equal? Can two individuals of different size, or even importance, be entitled to the same share of finite resources within their country? Why should a self-diagnosed depressive, bipolar lgbtqaipsuv demikin have the same rights and privileges as someone who contributes to society? Why should the average person even have the right to vote?

I’ve written before about chattel slavery and how the absence of self-mastery would result in your enslavement. How then, can people who fail to master themselves, have responsibility to weild a tool to oppress others?

The byproduct of the great slave societies’ need for military tradition bore out the pleasant side effect that those who bore through the rigors of said systems were rarely below average and often outpaced their contemporaries.