Naming the Pattern . . . and Its Source

– Image: “I’ll Handle Them, Mr. President”
by Tom Gurrahan (2019)

The recent shooting in Minnesota wasn’t just tragic – it was politically motivated. And it fits a pattern about domestic terrorism we keep pretending doesn’t exist.

Here’s what the data says:

• About 98% of mass shooters in the U.S. are men.

• Since 9/11, 73% of deadly extremist attacks in the U.S. were committed by far-right extremists – most of them white.

• Incidents involving people of color, women, or left-leaning ideologies are rare by comparison.

But if it keeps happening, it’s not isolated. It’s systemic.

If we don’t name the pattern, we can’t break it.

We’ll keep having moments of shock, but never real change. Never prevention. Just thoughts, prayers, and silence until it happens again.

We need to be braver than that.

– Seth Orion Viebrock
via social media
June 15, 2025

A white Christian man assassinated a lawmaker and their spouse, and shot another politician just days ago. Where is the wall-to-wall coverage ringing the alarms over the threat of white men carrying out right-wing/Christofascist terrorism in this country?

– G.N. Cordova
via social media
June 16, 2025

There are no more warnings. Not after this weekend. Not after Vance Boelter, a 57-year-old private security firm director and self-appointed enforcer of political vengeance, shot and killed Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and left State Senator John Hoffman and his wife clinging to life. The question is no longer whether political violence defines the Trump era. It already does.

Boelter, now in custody after a 48-hour manhunt, was arrested Sunday evening near Green Isle, Minnesota, just miles from where one of his vehicles and a cowboy hat had been found earlier. Law enforcement confirmed he was spotted along a trail near his family’s farm. He surrendered without incident after being surrounded by officers in rural Sibley County. The arrest ended a tense two-day search that left entire townships on edge and in lockdown.

He now faces state and likely federal charges for what authorities have called a politically motivated rampage. Boelter is accused of murdering House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and attempting to kill Senator Hoffman and his wife. He posed as a police officer, carried tactical gear and multiple firearms, and left behind a manifesto, maps, and a hit list naming Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates. His wife, detained the day before with weapons, cash, and passports in her car, was later released. The threat wasn't theoretical. It was planned, personal, and deliberate.

That hit list included Governor Tim Walz. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Senator Tina Smith. Attorney General Keith Ellison. Abortion providers across the state. This wasn’t a break from political norms. This is the new norm, a direct outcome of years of stochastic terrorism, rising extremism, and political cowardice by a Republican Party that no longer sees domestic terrorists as threats, but as foot soldiers.

Boelter dressed like a cop. Moved like a soldier. Thought like a crusader. But he was no patriot. He was a man radicalized by right-wing propaganda, and permitted to act because no one stopped him. And let’s be honest, we all saw this coming.

His vehicle was outfitted to mimic a squad car. Inside, investigators found flyers twisted from the “No Kings” protest movement. What began as an anti-authoritarian call had been distorted into justification for murder. Boelter’s digital footprint, investigators say, was littered with content from extremist Telegram groups, militia forums, and MAGA channels steeped in paranoia and rage.

This is what happens when Donald Trump calls his opponents “vermin” and promises mass deportations and military sweeps. When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. compares political dissent to treason. When Elon Musk guts federal law enforcement under the banner of “efficiency” while private militias gain ground. When Tucker Carlson, now serving as Trump’s National Communications Director, uses state media to warn that civil war is inevitable and even necessary.

Boelter didn’t invent this violence. He inherited it. Consumed it. Recycled it. And acted on it.

His worldview didn’t form in the shadows. It was shaped in plain sight. He repeated the talking points broadcast daily by conspiracy platforms, podcast pundits, and cable news hosts who blur the line between entertainment and incitement. He believed what millions have been conditioned to believe, that Democrats are traitors, immigrants are invaders, and violence is patriotism.

We’re told he was a lone wolf. That’s a lie. Lone wolves don’t carry manifestos, impersonate officers, and target elected officials with tactical precision. Lone wolves don’t write hit lists. This was not chaos. It was choreography.

And the GOP knows it.

Melissa Hortman was not a radical. She was a public servant. A mother. A voice for working people. Her assassination wasn’t just a tragedy. It was an attack on democratic life itself.

And yet, where’s the outrage?

Trump issued a generic statement calling the killings “horrific” before immediately insulting Governor Walz as “grossly incompetent.” He refused to call him. Speaker Mike Johnson called for bipartisan unity, but the rest of the MAGA machine? Silent. Tucker. Greene. Bannon. Nothing.

The same crowd that explodes over Mr. Potato Head pronouns fell quiet when a lawmaker and her husband were executed. That silence? It’s not neutrality. It’s endorsement by omission.

This isn’t condemnation. It’s coordination.

For the MAGA movement, this isn’t a nightmare. It’s a strategy.

We are not at the brink. We are in the fire. The violence is no longer metaphorical. The bodies are real. And unless we summon the courage to name this for what it is – right-wing domestic terrorism – it will keep spreading.

As Governor Tim Walz said on Sunday, “This was not just an attack on individuals. It was an attack on democracy itself.”

So speak. Report. Vote. Organize. Or prepare to bury more of your leaders.

The sirens have already started. The only question now is whether we’ll listen, or wait for the next knock on the door.

– Tony Pentimalli
“The Silence Before the Sirens: Vance Boelter, Political Violence,
and the American Right’s Final Descent”
via social media
June 16, 2025

Vance Boelter, the assassin who shot two Minnesota lawmakers and their families, has been taken into custody after a 48-hour manhunt. As we try to piece together exactly what happened Friday night, we are reminded that the only thing that flies faster than a bullet is MAGA disinformation.

In the immediate hours after the attack, MAGA spread heinous and unfounded lies that the killer was a secret agent working for Tim Walz on a mission to impose woke transgender mice and their DEI globalist plans something something. I could care less. I will not entertain right-wing foolishness for a second.

Let’s be clear. This man is a MAGA maniac, no different than the other 99% of domestic terrorists, who in recent years attempted to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, fire bombed the Governor of Pennsylvania, committed scores of mass shootings in state after state, and organized a violent a coup against the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to subvert a democratic election.

The unsettling reality is that this man is a religious psycho and privileged pastor with a big white average family in a big white average house. A ho-hum, podunk, anti-abortion male who resorted to violence to instill fear.

The terrorist’s wife appears to have aided her husband in the attack, or at least had foreknowledge, as she was pulled over by Minnesota State Police with a bag of cash, passports, and other questionable material. As with any ongoing terror investigation, naturally she was let go without inquiry. Minnesota’s prisons aren’t filled with white people for a reason.

The term you must familiarize yourself with in this moment is “stochastic terrorism” whereby white supremacist cult leaders like Trump inspire, beckon, and fuel his mentally unstable fans to commit acts of atrocity.

What the corporate media bend over backwards to convey as “lone gunmen” are in reality a rapid sequence of like-minded attacks, with patterned, predictable, overlapping motives, techniques, grievances, and nearly identical political beliefs. They share ideas, tips, and hatreds online. They aren’t isolated gunmen; they are an Army.

We must challenge the right-wing disinformation machine while we confront the realities of corporate media from FOX, NBC, and CBS, intent on delivering a tired and contrived script falsely claiming, “we don’t know his motive.”

Please. The man left a manifesto, just like all the others.

The pastor is a right-wing religious terrorist. Mundane. One of many in recent months; one of many in recent years.

The truth is the bloody legacy of these violent white men stretches back to El Paso, Columbine, Oklahoma City, Wounded Knee, and Mystic River.

MAGA told us for years but we didn’t want to listen: “We are at war against you.”

Their terror cells stand ready for the clarion call from Fox News and their multi-millionaire talking heads who spew venom a mile a minute. These violent MAGA operate with total impunity in our country while billions of our tax money is funneled to companies like Palantir to rip immigrant families apart.

Even in the rare case when MAGA terrorists are caught and prosecuted, like many January 6 insurrectionists, Trump hands them a blanket pardon and gives their families millions.

The Pentagon, DHS, and FBI spend a trillion dollars on national security a year and haven’t stopped a single right-wing killer. Coincidence?

We all need to wake up. MAGA was never solely a political party. It was always open about its character, motive, and vision – and what they would do to impose it. They even spelled it out in a 900 page document called Project 2025.

As Trump and his team scrub the accomplishments and history of Black and brown people, his fans commit to the grim task of eliminating them from earth, as we saw at a Black church in Charleston, or a predominantly Black grocery store in Buffalo, NY. And dozens of attacks in between.

As Stephen Miller erases thousands of immigrants from our communities, MAGA cells activate in El Paso and eliminate dozens of Latino lives in an instant.

As Trump targets Democratic lawmakers for arrest, assault, and detention, his loyal fans commit to murdering them in cold blood in their own homes.

On No Kings day, our movement to smash American fascism to smithereens was born in the streets – our streets.

The task that lies ahead is to identify the structure of the MAGA terror organization, its billionaire backers, their enablers in Congress and the corporate media. We will hunker down and begin the grim but essential work of dismantling their system of hatred and terror.

MAGA, we are finally taking you for your word. We see you for who you are and we are not afraid.

– Feminist News
via social media
June 16, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
A Midnight Assassin, Masked Agents and Rising Political Violence – Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (Democracy Now!, June 18, 2025).
Trump Says Calling Governor Tim Walz About Attacks on Minnesota Lawmakers Would “Waste Time” – Brianna Kelly (Bring Me the News, June 17, 2025).
Right-wingers Spew Outrageous Lies About Pro-Trump Assassin in Minnesota – Mike Figueredo (The Humanist Report, June 16, 2025).
Sen. Tina Smith Confronts Repubican Sen. Mike Lee Over “Cruel” Response to Minnesota Shootings – Stef W. Kight (Axios, June 16, 2025).
“The Response on the Right Has Been Absolutely Deranged”: Tim Miller Reacts to Minnesota Shootings – MSNBC (June 17, 2025).
“We Loved Her”: MN Attorney General Keith Ellison Mourns His Friend Melissa Hortman, Slams Republican Rhetoric – Democracy Now! (June 17, 2025).
A Democratic Legislator Was Assassinated; Right-wing Influencers Coughed Out Disinformation – J. Patrick Coolican (Minnesota Reformer, June 14, 2025).
Trump’s Long Legacy of Inciting Violence – Mark Follman (Mother Jones, November 3, 2024).
Trump’s Extreme Rhetoric Is Echoing in Threats of Violence – Mark Follman (Mother Jones, October 24, 2024).
Trump’s Violent Political Rhetoric Threatens All Americans – John Ripton (Common Dreams, September 24, 2024).
Trump’s Rhetoric Has Caused Violence, Not Democrats Calling Him a Threat to Democracy – Donna Brazile (The Hill, September 20, 2024).
Trump and Vance Are Hypocrites About Political Violence – Will Saletan (The Bulwark, September 18, 2024).
A New Era of Violent Rhetoric Began in 2015, and We're All in Danger – Donna Brazile (Newsweek, September 16, 2024).
The Danger of Treating Politics Like War – Jennifer Mercieca (Time, July 15, 2024).
Donald Trump and the Gathering Darkness Threatening U.S. Politics – Richard Hargy (The Conversation, July 15, 2024).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Fascism Is Upon Us”
• President Trump, “We Hold You Responsible”
• William D. Lindsey: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2022
• Quote of the Day – October 28, 2018
• In Charlottesville, the Face of Terrorism In the U.S.
• Trump’s America: Normalized White Supremacy and a Rising Tide of Racist Violence
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump
• Trump’s Playbook
Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump