Last night at the Cedar Mills Gun Club, xenophobe and conspiracy theorist Ron Branstner was scheduled to speak at the monthly meeting of the Constitutional Organization, a group that we discussed in a November post, Tonight, new constitutional township movement folks bring Michelle MacDonald to Montevideo.
We've been posting about this fellow since 2007.
On Constitutional Organization's page about this event, we read:
This is one meeting you need to attend. Mr. Ron Branstner will be speaking so get ready to be surprised. Do you enjoy what you think is free money from the GVT? For various land and conservation programs, are you aware of ESG? How about the WHO that Biden is trying to hand over control of our country to? The real control will be China. If you don’t want Blue Helmets giving you orders then you had better wake up fast.
We may also have a new candidate running for Secretary of State. If this happens I can tell you we will not have to worry about constitutional and honest elections ever again. We will have several people from the Litchfield and Wilmar area that are going to join us. We also will have a very interesting man from Olivia who is going to join us. He is part of an interesting group of people from around the state. He will make some statements as well and you’ll really enjoy him. Folks from the Hermantown group were also invited to come get a feel for our plan. . . .
We've been looking for news and social media about the event, wondering who that new candidate for Secretary of State might be (we suspect the one endorsed Republican SOS candidate Kim Crockett wants to spank), but nothing's turned up yet.
It doesn't appear that any local candidates attended. Endorsed Republican Minnesota House District 17A candidate Dawn Gillman, was at the Republican Party of Wright County's booth at the Wright County Fair last night as well she should be. Gillman was guest with unsuccessful Republican Attorney General Lynne Torgerson at the group's April 2022 monthly meeting. We're happy she's keeping better company.
The Cedar Mills event isn't unique for Branstner. On July 13, the Otter Tail County Conservative Coalition urged Facebook page visitors to attend an event the next day:
Details from the Facebook post:
. . . *Agenda 21: International, National, Regional and Local Non-governmentalorganizations (NGO’s), Non-profits and Local Stakeholders,“Trojan horses of the Deep State
...Free will donation is appreciated for Ron's expenses, and rental of VFW
Background:Ron Branstner is a researcher and public speaker who believes in education of Constitutional Law and promotion of the Bill of Rights.He works to combat a non-elected autonomous government and has been a member of the Minuteman border watch group.The topics Ron Branstner covers in presentations in towns and cities across MN speaking all tie to the importance of protecting the US Constitution, Americans’ inherent rights and freedoms. Events may center on exposing Islam’s creeping Sharia and its seditious goals or the topic of environment/climate change and the rhetoric driving it. Other presentations deal heavily with CRT / Critical Race Theory and the degenerate LGBTQ agenda invading MN public schools.
In all situations, Branstner’s focus is on logically walking back the hype to expose those who manipulate these conversations for financial gain and control, their demand for equity. He accomplishes this by offering case study facts that reveal the elected and non-elected players in charge, those who are endangering your town, county and region.
As the post notes, this wasn't the first time Branstner spoke in Fergus Falls. In 2019, Johanna Armstrong reported for the Fergus Falls Daily Journal in Polarizing speaker addresses FF crowd:
Ron Branstner stood in front of a small group gathered in the community room at the Fergus Falls Public Library on Thursday, May 30, speaking about laws, legislators and organizations that he believes are involved in a widespread conspiracy to illegally bring a large number of immigrants and refugees into the United States under the guise of “welcoming,” “inclusivity” and “equity” initiatives. He spoke for three hours straight, even after the library closed at 8 p.m. and the lights automatically turned off at 8:15 p.m. . . .
He was invited to Fergus Falls by a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Fergus Falls. “We’re looking out for the Constitution and for the First Amendment,” says Cathy Colling, one of the organizers of the event. . . .
Very few things were safe from Branstner’s critical gaze: 501 (c)(3) organizations, Agenda 21, Green Steps, the Blandin Foundation, the League of Cities, the McKnight Foundation, One MN, even our own downtown here in Fergus Falls wasn’t safe.
He explains that city governments want residents to donate their closed down, empty, downtown buildings to the city, “And then they donate it to a minority, because they’re trying to get people from the inner-city out there to where they all feel inclusive. What they do is, they say, ‘OK we’ve got this building that’s vacant, we’re going to make it into an artsy store.’ You’re going to start noticing downtown being an eclectic arts place here in the next few years.”
“It already is,” say some members of the crowd.
However, for all the problems that Branstner points out in our federal, state and city governments and in corporations that use undocumented immigrant labor, he stops short of recommending any kind of action. “He’s trying to just educate and say, ‘At least take a look at what’s going,’” says Debbie, another organizer and attendant of the meeting. Branstner isn’t advocating for any kind of action, “He just wants people to ask questions.”
Concerned Citizens of Fergus Falls, however, wants people to do more than just ask questions and handed out a small flyer with suggestions on actions to take now, including attending city council and county commission meetings, becoming election judges and poll watchers, auditing your child or grandchild’s K-12 and MN State classes for “radical/unconstitutional agendas,” serving on education and curriculum committees, help organize events and host study groups.
she deplored the leadership of then-state Republican Party of Minnesota chair, Jennifer Carnahan; by April 2022, she bemoaned the state of the county caucuses in an LTE, What is going on?.
What's Branstner's agenda?
While we've written about Branstner for over a decade, the best description of his Agenda 21 schtick is found in the Minnesota Reformer in Macklin Caruso's Merchants of misinformation target rural Minnesota:
That fear campaign was on full display during Branstner’s presentation in Redwood Valley. The central tenet is the so-called Agenda 21. The idea is that the United Nations is stripping local governments of their sovereignty, attempting to institute one-world government. A quick Google search of Agenda 21 will take you down some of the internet’s darkest rabbit holes.
Branstner has managed to localize the conspiracy theory. According to Branstner, all roads lead to the Blandin Foundation — a philanthropic organization based out of Grand Rapids. The Blandin Foundation, Branstner charged, is working with food processing giants like Hormel to import low-skill refugees and immigrants to exploit for cheap labor.
“This theory is not true. Period. The foundation stands by rural Minnesota community leaders — in vibrant towns throughout rural Minnesota — as they build communities where every resident can meet their needs, work together for the common good, and participate in creating a healthy, resilient future,” Dr. Kathleen Annette, president and CEO of Blandin Foundation, wrote in an email to the Reformer. . . .
It's also worth your time checking out two 2016 posts: Unpacking Ron Branstner's Blandin Foundation bashing & fact checking his Baxter handouts and Ron Branstner "decries Hillary Clinton, Democrats, socialism, the United Nations, Forum Communications, the Blandin Foundation, the American Red Cross, the popular vote. . ."
We'll keep an eye out for his appearances.
Related post:
Flyer: from the Constitutional Organization's website page about the event.
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So people are anti-refugee! I wonder what would happen if every refugee in MN failed to show up for work tomorrow. I suspect the dairy industry would have some unhappy cows by the end of the day.
Posted by: Bill | Jul 23, 2022 at 08:37 AM