This is stapled to a tree by the side of the road near my house, in a conservative county in a red state (Iron County, Missouri). https://ibb.co/XpjL6PR
The “12th” reference seems to be to the 12th Amendment, which lays out the process for electing the POTUS – obviously that’s been an issue for the far right of late. I don’t get the reference to Wolverines – looked it up and I didn’t see anything related to domestic terrorism. Further, whatever they’re advertising, they seem to miss the point. There’s no reference to a date, a meeting location, any actions. It seems to just be intended as a dog whistle, but with no real goal.
Is anyone familiar with the organization behind this, or what they’re about?
I thought “Minute Men” might be a misspelling of the original “Minutemen”, but it’s apparently a Civil War-era Missouri secessionist paramilitary organization. I’m not sure if that flyer actually refers to that, or if it’s a coincidence.
There’s no contact information because it’s a secret and they don’t want anyone other than members to know. If you were a Minute Man you would know this is a call to arms and you’d know who to contact and where to go. Yes, it’s a “dog whistle” in the political sense.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
But I suppose that won’t fit on a tee shirt, at least not if you want a nice flag on there too.
Cliff: Hold it, hold it hold it, hold it, hold- Look, no, I’m telling you, Normie, recent research into the Revolutionary War indicates that the, uh, defenders of this area were not called the, uh, Minutemen after all. Norm: Oh, like every history book is then wrong, right? Cliff: Oh, they were actually called the Minute Men. A lot of them under three feet tall, as a matter of fact. Norm: Right. Cliff: Way back in history, people were shorter. Norm: All right, fine. Cliff: Take, for example, the, uh, the Knights of the Round Table. Norm: Yeah? Cliff: Genuine midgets. Norm: You’re a very lonely man, aren’t you?
Hey, off topic but I just spent a week in and around Iron County, MO. You sure have some great state parks and other natural areas down there. Can’t say I’m surprised to see that sort of sign, though.
Apparently there is an organization called the Michigan Militia Wolverines, which is the constitutionalist faction of the Michigan Militia Corps (MMC).
There is another paramilitary group in Michigan, (a newer, more radical group) called The Wolverine Watchmen.
It’s not an exact fit for either of this, but it’s starting to look like Michigan terrorists have a thing for wolverines.
Probably a combination. The fictional resistance group in the Red Dawn movie named themselves the wolverines after their high school mascot. So its not surprising that a group with very little imagination in the home of the University of Michigan wolverines would think themselves clever by doing the same thing.
