Patriot Front's Idaho UHaul Adventure

America's dumbest Nazis steal the spotlight at an armed protest of a pride rally.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Oh boy, it could happen here the podcast about it
and and happening and could Chris take us away? I'm
taking it away, Oh boy, I I think I promised
to um. So uh, this is this has been a

(00:26):
fun week so far. We're all kind of sitting through
that in that awkward period where we know the Supreme
Court is about to do some ship with Roe v.
Wade and that that's gonna light a whole bunch of
stuff on fire. Um, And so we're all waiting for that,
and we're all waiting for the big Pride Month demonstrations
in the wake of a shipload of um threats from

(00:49):
the right. Uh. And kind of in that awkward interstital period,
we got this this little burst this weekend of of
of happiness, of just of pure joy. Um. So obviously
we had covered a little earlier the Gundaleine rally and
Quarterline Idaho, which was a right wing kind of counter

(01:09):
rally to quarter Aline's regular local pride Um rally. Uh.
And you know it was a an event that the
the the the p R four ahead of time was
deeply unsettling or a lot of like threats and talk
about you know, let the fight start here and all
that stuff. A lot of people were worried about a massacre,
including us, because when you have a bunch of right

(01:31):
wingers saying that anyone queer is grooming kids and it's
time to shoot them, it's reasonable to be worried about
a massacre. Um. Now, what we did see on the day,
and this is something you'll note a lot of times
when you get the events where there's a lot of
threats around them, that's what kind of provokes enough attention,
um and enough of a state response that that it's

(01:54):
not where people try to ship. You know, it's often
kind of at the edges of events or the events
that uh, people don't take seriously enough ahead of time
that like things go to ship. You know. Charlottesville would
be a great example because prior to Charlottesville, there was
a lot of like discussion about how big it was
going to be in the city, you know, did not

(02:15):
really take it seriously. There were a number of and
this is one of the things that's frustrating the fucking
mayor of Charlotte'sville is after what happened in Quarterline and stuff,
has been like on the news talking to people about
how to how to avoid demonstrations going badly and ship
which like that. You know, he received a lot of
warnings from anti fascists about how many people with you know,

(02:36):
pending violent charges were going to be at Unite the
Right in Charlottesville, and how many threats were going on.
It was kind of ignored and as a result it
got really fucking ugly, UM, because you know, you had
smaller numbers is on the on the first night, you know,
when people got surrounded by that torchlit mob, you had
smaller numbers of anti fascists, um, outnumbered by fascists, and uh,

(03:00):
no real counter to them until you know, the next day,
and obviously that's the day that that that James Alex
Fields drove a car into a crowd. UM. And that
kind of starts our story today because the thing that
was the bright ray of sunlight in in the midst
of what has been a pretty rough couple of weeks
news wise, was thirty one members of the hate group
Patriot Front getting arrested in Quarterline, Idaho, jammed into the

(03:23):
back of a U haul. Um. The story of Patriot
Front and the story of how that that beautiful moment happened, UM,
starts in Charlottesville in two seventeen. Actually it starts significantly
before that in Texas. But uh, the group that becomes
Patriot Front starts as a group called Vanguard America UM.

(03:44):
And Vanguard America is one of the groups that is
responsible for kind of carrying out the the Unite the
Right rally. And this is this is a different group
than American Vanguard. Right. Uh wait, let me double check here,
because sorry, they all use such similar names. UM. If
I'm not mistaken, there is an American Vanguard. UM. There's

(04:06):
also the American Vanguard Corporation. Uh no, no, no, I
think it's UM. American Guard. American Guard is the group
that UM isn't a kind of more coming out of
the KKK's sphere orbit because some of them are former clansmen.
That's another story for another day. UM. So you've got
Vanguard America. They're one of the group's kind of behind

(04:30):
bringing a lot of people, a lot of fascists, shouldn't
call them people to UM Charlottesville in two thousand and seventeen,
James alex Field is marching with them and carrying one
of their shields. Earlier in the day before he carries
out his car attack, and as a result of the
bad press that him murdering a woman in in maiming
a bunch of people with his car in a terrorist

(04:50):
attack brings down Um. The leader of Vanguard America, Thomas
Rousseau uh splits off like kind of inns Van Guard
America and spins it off into Patriot Front, which is
less explicitly just as fascist, but less branded as fascist,
more kind of branded in Americana. They all of their

(05:13):
pr and all of their like images look like rejected
stills from a bioshot game. Yeah, it's it's it's pretty amazing.
I'm pretty sure. Yeah, these are the guys are like
that there there's a video of them like talking like
like like they're literally they go like on camera it's like,
oh yeah, we're doing America stuff. We don't we're not
hitler people. And then like the build the boat with

(05:35):
the camera turns off there like oh good, the camera's off.
We can say say kale now, Yeah, it's it's great.
I mean Van Guard America's logo was literally like an
eagle carrying a bundle of fascis. Yeah, they're not not subtle, um,
and I should say Van Guard America. I think was
actually founded by another guy in in California, but um,

(05:56):
Thomas Rousseau was was pretty quickly prominence in there, and
he splinters off into into Patriot Front. I need to
be specific because there's people listening who will yell at
me forgetting that wrong. Um. So, for the purpose of
of what we're talking about today, if we should chat
about Thomas Rousseau um before we get into some of
the funnier stuff, because he's got a really interesting background

(06:19):
for a fascist. So in the last couple of years
since Patriot Front became a thing, Rousseau has held a
number of kind of like flash demonstrations where they'll get
a few dozen Patriot Front guys together and they'll march
around in their fucking gators, in their their little fascist
uniforms that are like, um, I don't know, they look
like country club Nazis, is like the way they prefer

(06:41):
to dress. Um, And they'll carry their shields and they'll
you know, film propaganda videos. Most of what they do
is hand out like put out stickers, put out other
kinds of propaganda to the extent that like they are
probably the primary national purveyors of of Nazi propping anda
um in like the real world, like in terms of

(07:03):
stuff that actually gets put out where people can see it. Um.
There I've found like stickers from them and just like
random places in Chicago. Yeah, yeah, I've seen a couple
of them. Like two nineteen, Patriot Front was and this
is the A d l S estimates, so they're not
the most accurate they could be, but also no one
else is really keeping track of this, so I'll say

(07:25):
they're probably broadly correct. Um. The in twos nineteen, the
A d L listed Patriot Front is responsible for eight
percent of all propaganda incidents nationally of like Nazi type groups. Um.
And then in that number doubled um and they were
responsible for like ninety plus. I think sometimes you'll hear
ninety two of like the Nazi propaganda distributed nationwide. UM.

(07:49):
They're propaganda efforts are most active in Texas, Washington, California, Massachusetts,
New York, and Virginia. UM. And it's one of those things.
This is not the goal with the propaganda is for
them to be seen as very large and influential. The
way that they managed to do it is that Patriot
Front is effectively like a key para social relationship for

(08:12):
most of the people in it, right, it's a series
of like chats and and and discords and whatnot, and
these people like come to feel like it's their community.
And one of the things Rusto did that was very
smart is if you want to stay a member of
Patriot Front, you will get banned and purged from the
organization if you are not regularly posting proof that you're
active in the real world. And the easiest way to

(08:33):
do that is by putting up stickers. Right. So that's
not only how they fund some of their operations, because
you know their guys are buying stickers, but um, that's
how you keep people engaged. If you want to like
stay in the clubhouse with your friends, you have to
go put up stickers every couple of weeks or every
so often. And you know, when you have a couple
of hundred people doing that. Stickers are not that expensive.

(08:55):
You can get a lot of propaganda out that way.
And so Rousseau has been very successful in in that
end of things. So let's chat about him a little bit.
He is he was born in nine so he's twenty

(09:16):
four ish right now. Um, he grew up where I did.
He comes from the suburbs of Dallas, the metroplex specifically Kapel.
And if you're not if you don't know much about
the d f W suburbs. So Dallas sizeable city about
four million people last I checked, um, and then you've
got these these suburbs that are millions more and it's

(09:36):
it's effectively DFW is kind of this megalopolis, Like it's
this massive, sprawling city, larger than several states, and it's
geographical area. At some point in the future, assuming growth continues,
you're going to see like all of the big cities
in Texas merge and when they're metro plexus start to mingle. Um.
But these these these Texas suburbs are all laid out

(09:58):
very orderly and kids they were all they're all like
planned communities, um. And in the area around like this
particular chunk around Dallas, they're all pretty wealthy. And of
these wealthy suburbs, Coppel is like where the money money is.
Like like coming up in plan Oh, which is was

(10:19):
a fairly well off suburb, we would like the Copell
kids were like the rich kids, right, Like when we
would compete against them in football and speech debate, like
that you'd feel like, yeah, we're like funking with the
rich kids. Let's get them. So this is this is
this is this is like this is like this is
like uh Dallas fort worst like Evanston, I assume so yes, um.

(10:39):
And when we would like obviously like yeah they were
the rich kids, they were also like the kids I
would often get drugs from when I was like nineteen
because they had like they had they had good drugs,
you know. UM. So the other thing you should know
about and Capella is where you know, um, our boy
Thomas Rousseau grows up in the early two thousand's and

(11:00):
in fact, his senior year is the year of the election. UM.
And another thing you should know about Kapell is that,
like all the Dallas metroplex, it's incredibly diverse. And it's also,
I should know, incredibly diverse in a specific way. It's
not hugely economically diverse, um, but it is has a
massive population of people from Southeast Asia, UM, from India,

(11:24):
from Vietnam, from China, UM, and from Japan UM. And
the you can kind of see that if you look
at so Thomas Rousseau as a kid works for the
Coppell High school newspaper, the Sidekick, and if you if
you go to the Sidekicks website today and if you
look at its writers and its editorial staff, it is
a bunch of kids from Southeast Asia. Now, Thomas Russeau

(11:48):
is extremely white, um, and he has, you know, his
big things like replacement theory. He's been yelling about this
for a very long time, UM, and so one kind
of assumes this is probably w air. He started feeling that. Um.
Although it's interesting if you look up, like one of
the earliest articles the SPLC has a pretty pretty good
profile on him and back kind of at the start

(12:10):
of UM. In February he wrote, write this article about
the school's diversity club, which is just a pretty normal
you would not there's no signs in there, not that
I saw that, Like he's going to be a Nazi
in about a year. Like it's just it's how like
basically anybody who was writing a straight piece of reporting

(12:30):
on a diversity club would write it. You know, It's
not like there's no signs in that article. You know,
it's just because like the next article he writes is
like completely off the rails. Yeah, Like it's it's Trump
is at that point, because you know, February, Trump is
still like I don't know, he's definitely becoming the front runner,

(12:51):
but it's not clear what's going to happen yet. And
by the time he writes his next article a couple
in like October, it's uh, full on trumpy. Yeah, he's like,
I mean, he's like but by that point, like he
started his great replacement stuff. He started like, I mean,
he's doing that kind of like the the white working

(13:12):
class has been like oppressed for too long and people
keep calling them bracest and so they're voting for Trump
now because they're simultaneously poor but also like but but
I think it's interesting. It's like, you know, it's it's
an interesting sign of that kind of like what actually
generates that kind of right wing populism because it's like,

(13:33):
so you have you have someone who's like going fascist
really quickly writing this, and it's like, oh, where is
he from? A weight He's like just from like the
incredible rich kid place. It's like it's it's it's it's
it's fun he's doing. Yeah, he's he's doing this sort
of fascist version of the like working class whispering that
you kind of like rich Pundit's doing and it's one

(13:58):
of the things the kind of black box Mr reads
with Rousseau that I haven't seen a great is like
when when does the actual switch flip in his head?
Like when he writes that article about the school diversity club.
Is he already a fascist um or is he one
of these people who like is kind of conservative and
gets super radicalized by Trump because he had you see

(14:19):
throughout kind of because I get the feeling from him
that he was always kind of like the conservative kid
in his school paper in school media, and like you
get you see, like he's writing, like the month after
that diversity club article, he writes h an article about
campus kerry and is like supporting concealed carry on college

(14:40):
campuses and is pretty like uh, but it's also these
are also like kind of it's also kind of a
milk toast conservative take, Like it's not he's not like
making an explicitly fascist argument. He's making the kind of
arguments that like I would have made in speech and
too eight class as a conservative kid in North Texas
when I was a senior. You see, like in May,
he he's writing an article about like bathroom bills and stuff.

(15:03):
That's that's getting closer to kind of modern American fascist rhetoric.
And then of course by like October he's he's fully
on the Trump train. Um. And he actually has a
removed opinion column after the election about like the silent majority,
where he says, quote, the truth is, white voters, especially
the working class, have had more than enough of being

(15:23):
called racist, sexist, xenophobic, islamophobic, homophobic, and the rest of
the usual trite buzzwords. The forgotten majority of the American
electorate has shown that much to the dismay of the
globalist agenda, that they have not yet been replaced by
tens of millions of blue voting immigrants from abroad. And
it's again, you can kind of there's a debate as
to whether you can, I guess argue as to whether
or not he had always been sort of a fascist

(15:45):
and just felt like more comfortable as the year went
on being open about it, or if he's getting radicalized.
I feel like he's kind of getting radical. I can
see I can see in him like shades of everyone
that I knew back then at that point in time
in my life in me, like well, and this reminds. So,
so I was I'm like a year older than he is, right,
So I I I was out of high school by sixteen,

(16:07):
but like I you know, i'd like I just graduated
right like a good fifteen And I remember this with
like people with people that I knew who were like
because I mean, like okay, like what there were always
people who were like really really like like we had
a lot of like Fox News pilled like kill all
the Muslims kids, But there are also people who like
weren't like that, who were just like conservatives, and over
the course of sixteen like they went really really like

(16:31):
they radicalized really quickly. So it wouldn't surprise me if
he's doing the same thing, because I think that was
a lot of like, like I watched a lot of
sort of like more majority people get like who were
kind of like on who weren't on the like absolute
like right wing, like I don't know, like who weren't

(16:53):
on the absolutely hard right of that thing, who were
kind of like conservative, but you know, like weren't actively
invested in murdering every gapers. And yeah, those people just
like a switch flipped and they like they just kind
of went syco mode. Yeah, and that's that's where he goes.

(17:15):
He goes like full on and I don't know you can.
It's interesting because like his his primary job for the
sidekick the Cupell High School student newspaper is as like
their their political cartoonist, and he's he's mostly doing like
really basic like clip art ship, which is what you
see him doing for like Patriot Front. It's kind of
the thing that distinguishes them is his like art style,

(17:37):
UM and the propaganda he makes. So you know, he's
there at Unite the Right in one of the guys
he's there with commits a terrorist attack. They spent off
Patriot Front and for the next few years, most of
what they'll do is these events where they'll like show
up and they'll march. Um. It's worth noting that while
they bring different kinds of weapons to these events, mainly

(17:59):
lie you know, bludgeoning weapons, the kind of things you'd
have for like a street fight, UM and shields, these
are not primarily violent events, and that like their goal
is not to get into a fight. I think mainly
not because they're not violent people, because they're scared of
getting into a fight. UM. And Rousseau's probably scared of
getting in trouble for having a bunch of people show

(18:22):
up to riot. So most of what they do is
they'll do these flash mobs while there. They'll get like
a bunch of people together in the middle of the
night or like on a day when nobody expects it,
and they'll march around d C or something, and then
they'll get footage of themselves doing this march where you know,
they can kind of uh take care to make sure
the angles make them look as impressive as possible, and

(18:43):
then they'll put that up to try and get more members,
um so that they can put up more propaganda. Right,
they've had a couple of well publicized failures. They showed
up in Philadelphia. This was last year, right, and they
again there's like thirty and fifty of them. They all
like pilot of a U haul. They're marching is like
in their fascist uniforms, and like three dudes confront them

(19:05):
and that wreck fit like three Philly guys just wreck
their ships. So funny I ever seeing feeling. I think
it was from that. We're just like there's like there's
a video, it's it's just them running away and there's
like there's like objects flying through the air, you know,
like their frontest little army confronts, like three random Philly

(19:28):
We're just like, oh, this isn't any good. I don't
know who these guys are, but there's no way this
is good. Come up, Um, it's a it's a perfect
Philly moment um. So yeah, and like that is their
m o UM. And in part because one thing you
have to and I people can misinterpret what I'm saying here.
They're probably the most disciplined of the fascist groups that

(19:52):
do regular in person events UM because there's a lot
of discipline required in getting several dozen people together, getting
them all to the area in the exact same mode
of transport together. That's why they all pile into u
Hall's right. Roussou doesn't want to coordinate a big caravan um.
That would be messy. People would be arriving at different times,
people would get lost or get stuck in traffic. He

(20:14):
wants everyone together because he's again he's a fascist. So
they're they're really um, and they are are pretty consistent
and pretty good at getting everyone together and marching at
the same time. So like on a logistic end, there's
some things they do that are are competent, you know,
um generally speaking. Now, the downside of this plan I've

(20:35):
just talked about like why getting everyone in a U
hall can work and how it has worked for them
in the past. The downside of this is that everyone
is in a U hall together. I mean I think
I think for them there there's there. I think that
there's some upside like for them doing this, which is
that like I think on a sort of like on
like a discipline level, and on level of like building

(20:56):
this like like build building this sort of like culture
of like like community and like solidarity. But like the
fascist version of it is like, yeah, you have everyone's
suffering together in the back of a U haul, which
is hot as shit and like has to smell like
like like like death, Like like yeah, it's like like

(21:18):
imagine the worst locker room you've ever been in. But
then it's been it's every everyone has been trapped in
there for a week. It's like, yeah, it's a it's
a hot air balloon powered by Nazi farts, like that's
that's what's going on there. And they're all just like
and it's it's very funny because like when they had
done their last event or two and like this is
like in the dead of winter in the East Coast

(21:39):
that they do a couple of events and they have
people like nearly passing out from heat stroke in the
back of the van. Yeah. Um, in the back of
the U haul because like it's not great to be
scrapped in the back of you people. It's like, um,
it sucks. But also like that that suffering sort of
like brings them together and makes them sort of like sure,

(22:00):
like yeah in a lot of ways, which sucks, but
also yeah, the second modistical problem with this, I think
you're about to get to. Yeah, So they try to
Rousseau actually puts out specific like information about like hey,
here's how we need to prep for being crammed and
do a U haul together, and like advises that his
dudes start um uh spending time in saunas and ship

(22:24):
in order to like toughen themselves up to avoid getting
heat syncope. Um. Anyway, there's a couple other things that
are happening. One of the things that we we know
because one of the funny things about Patriot Front, so
they claim to have an intense vetting process. You know,
you're supposed to like message them with an application and

(22:45):
then they they'll vet you before they let you into
the chat rooms. They have been compromised since the day
there started being a patriot Yeah, I don't think there
is a moment of the time that they have existed
that I haven't known multiple people who had logs of
every conversation. Like they're so infiltrated. It is extreme, Like
it's like it's like the training wheels of anti fascist research,

(23:07):
just like get into Patriot Fronts chat rooms, Like there's
always multiple people in their documenting their ship. It's extremely funny. Um.
And so because of that we know a number of
their tactics. One of the things that Rousseau has admitted
to doing in the past is that like, well, when
we start like heading towards wherever we're gonna, you know,

(23:28):
pile out of the thing in march, we'll call the
cops and will inform them that we've seen a group
of people with shields getting ready to march and that
they don't seem to have weapons, but they're about to
be an x area. And they do this so that
there will be cops on scene who will provide like
an escort for them, right, so that they won't get
beaten up. Um, Like they want the cops to be

(23:48):
there to protect them, you know. Um, So Rousseau is
like specifically bragged about doing this in the past. There's also, like,
as I stated, like the or as an organization, there
are are not geared towards like killing people, right, Like
they're not they're doing these marches to get videos. They're
not like they're not even like the Proud Boys where

(24:09):
they're specifically showing up to get into a brawl, right
and every time they do get into brawls, they look
very uncomfortable and frightened in them, um, which is why
he liked calls for police escorts and ship. Um. That said,
there there are like again, they're a Nazi organization. They
specifically preach replacement theory and yelled at their ancestors conquered

(24:30):
America and so they deserve to own and all this ship.
So a bunch of them have been arrested for like
guns stuff. There's been a number of like people of
Patriot Front members arrested for like illegal machine guns and
ship like that. That absolutely happens. People post about their
illegal guns and stuff. Um, But as an organization, they're
mainly geared towards providing like propaganda uh that Thomas Rousseau likes.

(24:52):
So they all gathered together and are heading into Quarterline,
Idaho to confront the and I suspect their goal. I
suspect their Russeau's hope for how this was going to
go was they were going to pile out of their
U haul, going to get their thirty ish guys all
in lines together in their uniforms with their shields and
with their their fucking fascist sticks or whatever, um, and

(25:16):
they're going to march through the middle of the pride
gathering and and they get video of people like scattering
or backing away from in front of them, not wanting
to confront them because you know, there was a big
group of them. I think that was the hope. I'm
sure Rousseau was like, Hey, and maybe some ANTIFO will
try to fight and we'll get some videos of us
like fighting them with shields and that'll be good for recruitment. Um.

(25:37):
But I think the main goal was to get a
video of them scaring gay kids um and and looking
like a big scary nazi FEI links that they could
use as propaganda. UM. Now this goes to ship before
they even get out of the U hall, because somebody
calls the police and reports what looks like a little
army of guys with weapons and shields piling into a

(25:57):
U haul. And again the police are saying that this
was a concerned citizen and it based on the kind
of most recent reporting, it may just be a random
citizen of Quarterline who actually like was for understandable reasons, right,
if you like see this happen, you're like, yeah, maybe
I should might need to call somebody about this. Yeah, Um,
I wouldn't call the cops necessarily, but you know, in

(26:20):
this case, it seems to have worked out that said,
knowing their background, you have to acknowledge the possibility that
they that it was one of them who called the police.
Not impossible. Um, now there's initially reports that it was
the FEDS reports, I uhould say from the cops on
the scene. And again it's reasonable that journalists overhearing that

(26:42):
recording it would report on it that said cops on
the scene are no more accurate about what actually has
happened than like random passers by, and they're more likely
just openly lie. And and you know, I I would
not I'm certain there's a FED or or four inside
Patriot Front that said, it doesn't seem like this was

(27:05):
a FED bust, although I you know, it's not impossible
that it was, because if you were the FEDS and
you had a guy in here and you decided you
want to arrest these people to avoid a potential Charlottesville
kind of situation happening again, UM, maybe you would want
to just say it was like a random person who
called I don't know, this does not there's no reason

(27:25):
that this needed to be a FED bust. They were
not like, this did not require the FBI's infiltration capability
to deal with. Like it it was a bunch of
Nazis piling into a U haul. I don't have trouble
believing that some dude was just like, hey, hey, cops,
and it's There's been a lot of like surprise online
that like, the cops did their job, but they went

(27:47):
after these people. I think the surprise there is kind
of based on some misconceptions, and these are misconceptions kind
of pushed in part by the fact that over the
last few years, when we have seen fascist groups rally
in place is like Portland, UM or like Charlottesville, UM,
for the Unite the Right rally. The cops tend to
be on their side and tend to protect them. Um,

(28:10):
but what you're looking at are two different things in
a lot of ways. Because the cops in a place
like Portland, and I assume in a place like Charlottesville,
I'm not as familiar with their police demographics, but I
know this is the case in Portland don't live in Portland.
They live in places like Battleground, Washington. You know. Um,
they live in these these these surrounding more rural and
suburban communities, and they don't like the city that they police,

(28:32):
and they kind of see them as an enemy. So
when other people generally from similar suburbs and rural communities
as the cops, show up to fight the kids that
Portland cops don't like, um, the Portland cops are going
to be on the side of that. And this is
again you see versions of this occur around the country.
In quart Aline, this was not like Quartline cops live

(28:54):
in cort Aline, you know, like they they're from that community.
And even if I'm sure a number of them, if
not many or most of them have like attitudes towards
you know, have said some negative things about gay people.
These are also like they're probably some of them are
probably related to people with that pride rally. Um this
is and in general these are like there's they are

(29:15):
probably seeing this as like, well, whatever I think about pride.
These are people who live in cort Aline and a
bunch of folks from outside of the state are driving
into funk with them. They're not generally going to be
on board with that. And as a general rule, also,
cops don't like people coming in to their town like
home to cause trouble. And these are people from like

(29:38):
eleven different states entering Idaho to like funk with people
who live in Idaho. I'm not surprised that the police
actually did something here. Um. It doesn't like mean that
these are the good cops that were mythically all looking for.
It just means that like nobody wants this happening in
their hometown, Like nobody nobody wants these assholes running into

(29:58):
town dressed as like little Hitler youth guys and marching
around like that's like of course they don't want that.
Who would. Um, So the cops pull over this fucking
u haul. Um there's the footage of it is some
of the funniest ship on the space of the Earth.
It's so good because they just roll up the back
of this thing. There's like some fucking quarterline cop with

(30:19):
an a R like pointed in there, and there's just
all these fucking goober Nazis and they're they're fucking Polos
and Khakis and they're fascist gators. Um god, it's good.
I look up this footage. If you can find you,
you owe yourself to do this. It's amazing. We should

(30:47):
state we're not really We'll be getting more coverage to
what happens and what happened elsewhere on this day. You
had a lot of ugly ship happened to stay in
quarterline because there are a lot of heavily armed fascists
rallying who are in many cases locals or from nearby
places like Spokane. Um Matt Shay, who is a former
state legislator from Washington who lives nearby, who is a

(31:08):
accused domestic terrorist, leads a march through Quardline. These guys
are not stopped by the cops right in part because
like they're not a bunch of dudes from out of
state showing up to march around in ridiculous Nazi uniforms. Right.
The police are notably less concerned about the guys in
a R fifteen and plate carriers than they are about
Patriot Front, which is again it's because of like what's

(31:30):
actually going on here, you know, Um, but there are
like armed people fright like threatening and and trying to
confront or at least standing around outside of a Pride
march in a way that you know, if you're doing
that with a bunch of guns, that's concerning. Anti fascists
show up to protest them and very successfully kind of
keep a wall between the folks showing up for Pride

(31:53):
and the folks rallying with guns. Um. So that that
is a thing that is happening. I don't want to
This has been the thing that has kind of like
gotten the most attention from Quarterly, and I don't think
that's bad, like from a standpoint of like what is
useful Seeing a bunch of Nazis get their ship like
wrecked is definitely an ideal takeaway from the Quarterline event because,

(32:16):
especially considering the amount of violence I think we were
all worried might occur there. I'm very happy that the
primary takeaway is Patriot Front all got arrested. Um, But
the things that we were concerned about there again, there's
a bunch of dudes show up with guns to stare
at a Pride rally. That's not a not a positive development.
But this group of Nazis all get arrested, and that

(32:37):
is positive because it's extremely funny and sometimes it's nice
for things to just be funny. Um. So the next
kind of thing you see from Patriot Front is them
all pulled out of a U haul on their knees, handcuffed,
getting arrested one by one, uh and taken to a
jail and quarterlyin there's some very funny quotes where like
the police are being asked do you even have room

(32:59):
for all these people? And they're like, oh, we'll figure
it out. Like, don't worry. It's um rousseau and a
bunch of guys are in getting criminal conspiracy charges. Um.
They're all getting conspiracy to riot, which is a misdemeanor.
There's some rumors that a journalist posted that a number

(33:20):
of them have illegal had illegal guns and they're getting
illegal gun charges. I haven't seen confirmation about that. I'd
be shocked if some of them were not carrying guns
in the state of Idaho. Anybody can right. UM. I
do think they were specifically violating the law by having
firearms while sitting in the bocket back of a box truck,
because I think, for like reasons of accidents that have
happened hunting, you're not supposed to do that in Idaho. UM.

(33:43):
But I haven't seen charges as a result of that. Um.
It's debatable as to what's going to stick. However, there's
reasons to kind of suspect that something will because they
had like seven or whatever page plan for how to
handle the like they had their little riot notes, oh
god plan like sticks and a smoke bomb and stuff.

(34:04):
So it's not like an impossible case to convict them.
I will say, you know, like, you're not You're not
asking like the moon of the police in this instance,
to like or of the prosecutors or whatever to be
able to actually convict um. So we'll see what happens. Um.
What's definitely happening is that this is very funny. Um.

(34:25):
Patriot Front is extremely incompetent. I would not take this
as a broader sign that, like number one, the police
are taking threats against Pride rallies. More seriously, no, Um,
I would not take this as a broader sign that
like fascists are are are getting heavily stopped. I also
wouldn't There's also been people saying that like and again

(34:47):
this is coming from that journalists who claimed that, like
there's a bunch of gun charges pending, and maybe there are,
but like, I think the comment she made was like
a massacre was averted. I do not believe Patriot Front
was planning to massacre anybody. There's That's just that's not
their m o. That's not like again, not that they're
not Nazis, not that they don't want people dead, but

(35:09):
like they're like, these guys are like the milk toastest
baby ist Nazis. Right, they show up and they march
around in their fucking like Tommy hill Figer Nazi uniforms.
You know, like they're not these are not folks planning
in an organized capacity to commit acts of mass violence. Um,
because that would be scary to them because they're mostly

(35:31):
like suburban middle class kids. Um. One of the funniest
things that has come out of this is like one
of the Nazis who get arrested in Idaho's mom has
started doing the news because she's like, I kicked him
out of the house. I keep trying to get him
to I don't know what to do to get him
out of this group. So I've told him he can't
live with me anymore because after his divorce, he's been
living with me. Um, and I'm going to talk to

(35:54):
the media about the fact that my son is a
stupid Nazi until he stops being one. I don't know
what else to do. And it does sound like she's
really legitimately like trying to grapple with like I don't
know why he's doing this. I don't know how to
stop it, but like it seems like the best thing
I can do is embarrass him. Um, which is I
think probably a good move on her part. Yeah. Um,

(36:16):
there's a fun Daily Beast article about that. You could
really hear her frustrations. Liken't know why he's doing this,
like it all started around. It's very frustrating you feel
for her. So I don't know, Chris, you got anything
else to say about Patriot Front. I I do think
it's extremely funny that, like, well, I don't I don't know.

(36:36):
In some sense, it's funny and some sense, it's kind
of disturbing, which is that like the rights reaction to
this was immediately to accuse all of him and being Feds. Yeah,
I mean, which, like it's interesting to me that, like
that's just like anytime something happens in the US now,
like and this is this is across almost the entire
political spectrum, everyone immediately goes, this was the Feds or

(36:58):
so sometime sometimes sometimes you get it was rush because
sometimes you yeah, because it's like if you're someone trough,
like the Feds are the good guys, it's like, well,
you need another person who did all those So like
that's disturbing and kind of grim to me that it's
it's literally everyone with everything has just turned into Alex Jones,
and it's like, yeah, you know, I think the motivation

(37:19):
for that on all the sides, there's definitely like a
core of legitimate belief that because the Feds infiltrating the
FEDS have infiltrated a lot of fascist groups, and the
Feds have you know, had a history of infiltrating left
wing groups and whatnot, Like the Feds have done a
lot of this stuff. So that makes some people paranoid.
But also I think if you are on the grifter

(37:39):
end of things, right, and you want to talk about
this stuff, but you don't actually want uh to put
yourself at risk, Um, that's an easy way to kind
of divorce your listeners and supporters and stuff from the
stuff that's potentially illegal is by saying, well, that's all
the Feds. Um. Yeah. And I think also especially like

(38:02):
I think people are I don't know, it's more frustrating
on the left because people do it with stuff that
like the PR is actually pretty good. But like with
people on the right, there's a lot of like this
has become one of their sort of like pr management
things of like anytime something looks bad for them, no,
it was the FEDS, and it's like no. And I
don't think that's on the right at least I think
it's there. I think there's more legitimate belief that it's

(38:24):
the FEDS on folks in the left to do this. Yeah.
I think on the right it is nearly always just
like this is how you do damage control, Like this
is how we this is how we distract from the
fact that our guys keep carrying out attacks or whatever,
or in this case that our our dudes are profoundly embarrassing. Yeah,
um is you is You're like no, that was the

(38:46):
FBI packing thirty federal agents into the back of a
U hall and getting arrested by the cord Aline police.
A classic FBI if I've ever seen what my favorite
one of the people who are like, you're never going
to see the names of any of these people. Like
literally two hours later, every single person got booked, all

(39:06):
of their names, of their names, every newspapers like and
it is. Again, this does show you how the quarter
Aline police don't want people coming in from out of
town to funk with people who live in cort Aline.
That's not a them being woke. They like nobody no
cops like that sort of ship. Yeah, yeah, like like

(39:26):
this yeah, yeah, these guys are these guys are at
the hometown fascist right, like they're they're fine with Yeah,
they're finely exactly Biblical basis award dude, just like yeah,
but these are like, these are weird out of town fascists.
It's like, yeah, cops, I don't know there. Yeah, And
it's they're very territorial. One of the one of the

(39:46):
ways you can see the territoriality is like the first
thing the quarter Aline police do is be like, oh,
we're going to give everyone's name and where they live,
Like we're doing that immediately. And of course the backlash
to that from the fascist has been that now bunch
of fascists are doxing and calling in death threats to
Quarterline cops. Um. Which again there's this open question of like,

(40:08):
are any of these charges gonna stick for Patriot Front
The fact that an organized flood of death threats is
going in for the police charging them is not good
for their cases. Oh no, they're just they're just it's like, guys, guys,
some free cop advice for me. Cops don't like getting
death threats, so that that really makes them angry. Yeah. Um,

(40:34):
so that's funny. I don't know what else to say
about it. Uh, it is pretty funny. Um. There's aspect
again the broader problem of there were a bunch of
dudes with a RS showing up to to threaten um
a pride gathering was not fun, although also a lot
of folks showed up to defend and support those people. Um.

(40:57):
And I think I think also, like from from what
I'm from, they're putting this is like one of the
largest Pride events we've ever had, so like I think
brought out people. Yeah, yeah, people, people aren't being like
as an intimidation tactic. It's not working. It does not
have worked. Yeah, it's it's it's it's it's worked. It's
it's it's working in so far as it's it's you know,

(41:17):
it's further radicalizing the right. But like it's not. It
hasn't gotten to the point where, like I don't know,
people like it hasn't gone to the point where like
these things just are like Pride events just aren't happening
because there because the threat is great enough. So yeah,
and I I would say, broadly speaking, if you kind

(41:38):
of look at all of the things that we saw
in the quarterlyin event, it's some more more positive signs.
The negative ones, um, the negative stuff is stuff that
we have seen a lot before. The militia ship um,
the folks rallying to defend those people, the people turning
up for the Pride event, Um, that's all positive. And

(41:59):
if we're the most prominent fascists at the event embarrassing themselves,
like that's positive. So I am I feel I I
do feel like we were all worried over here about
how the event in Quarterline was going to go. I
feel really good about how it it went, which is
not too especially I know that there's folks from Quarterline.
They're not to minimize the problems and the threats faced,

(42:23):
especially from people in Idaho, because boy, that is rough
territory to be organizing in defense of LGBT people. UM,
but I think, broadly speaking, more good news than bad
news from from Quarterline. So I wanna give our appreciation

(42:44):
and thanks to the folks who showed up in Quarterline
UM to support this event to confront the fascists. UM,
y'all are awesome and doing something difficult in a place
that needs you to be doing that, So thank you.
Come It Could Happen Here as a production of cool

(43:05):
Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit
our website cool zone media dot com, or check us
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wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for
It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool Zone Media
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