31 January 2022

National Butterfly Center closed by QAnon threats


I've not featured any posts about the National Butterfly Center, but it really is quite a remarkable place.  Located in Mission, Texas near the Mexican border, it is far enough south to be visited by subtropical species, but that location also puts it in the crosshairs of those demanding a wall be erected along the length of the U.S./Mexican border.
The National Butterfly Center, located less than a half-mile from the U.S.-Mexico border, is a battlefield in the conflict over President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, which is still being built through federally protected land just south of the Center. But this week, the conflict took a distinctly more conspiratorial—and disturbing—tone when, according to an email blast put out by the Center, it was forced to close for three days “due to credible threats we have received from a former state official.”

Center director Marianna Wright “was advised by [a] former state official (whose daughter is the Hidalgo County GOP chairperson) that she should be armed at all times or out of town this weekend,” due to a caravan of attendees at a MAGA-themed border security conference taking place in McAllen, Texas, eight miles away, that same weekend. The “We Stand America” event is scheduled to feature speeches from a host of luminaries in the stolen election/QAnon/anti-vaccine/MAGA universe/build-the-wall universe, including disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, “Stop the Steal” advocate Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Ariz.), stolen election figurehead Patrick Byrne, and QAnon promoter Mel K.

The email from the Center makes it clear that the grounds themselves are in direct danger from conference attendees who intend to form a “rolling car protest,” described as a ’Trump Train’-style “caravan to the border” that will likely make a stop at the National Butterfly Center. The Center’s location just minutes away from the Rio Grande has made it a hotbed of conspiracy theories and rumors, which claim it’s a hub of drug smuggling and human trafficking. Many of these rumors are pushed by Brian Kolfage, the leader of an eight-figure fundraising effort to privately build Trump’s border wall

Kolfage, who has called the Center’s employees “butterfly freaks” running a “sham” sanctuary devoted to profiting off human misery, has pushed the theories hard, including sharing doctored photos of rafts at a dock outside the Butterfly Center. He’s also spammed Wright with violent threats over Twitter, eventually resulting in his account being suspended. Kolfage himself is not speaking at the event, presumably because he’s currently under indictment for wire fraud and tax evasion due to allegedly stealing from the We Build The Wall nonprofit he founded.

Despite there being no evidence of trafficking or smuggling being run through the Center, the MAGA faithful have already started to make it a target. The email blast described an incident that went from troubling to potentially deadly when on Friday, Jan. 21, an unnamed “congressional candidate from Virginia” showed up with someone claiming to be a Secret Service agent, and “demanded access to the river so they could ‘see the rafts with the illegal crossing’ our property.”
Photo via My SanAntonio, where there is additional information.

Addendum:  The NBC has extended its closure beyond the time frame of the original protest in response to ongoing threats.
“Why are you more concerned about butterflies, than you are [about] little children who are being trafficked?” she added, claiming that human traffickers “use the butterfly land.”

Another clip was posted over the weekend by Ben Bergquam, a correspondent for Real America Voice, a far-right news site that also hosts Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.

In it, he is holding a child’s shoe with the butterfly center’s sign in the background, claiming the shoe is from “one of the children that was trafficked.”

9 comments:

  1. "President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, which is still being built through federally protected land"

    Still? Biden has quietly continued most of Trump's decrees and policies, but with unnoticeable coverage or outrage.

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    1. Absolutely true and as you say not much publicized, except by the National Butterfly Center -

      "Before his election, President Biden promised #NotAnotherFoot of border wall would be build under his presidency...but that was a lie. Day after day, border wall is still being built all around us. We've shared photos and video, including drone footage of the on-going construction, but it's not receiving the media attention it should. Moreover, the US Attorneys and Customs & Border Protection are participating in this lie by calling this new border wall construction "levee repair," when it is not. Our levees are earthen and they were reconstructed about a decade ago; so, there is no reason for the earthen levees that withstood the catastrophic flooding brought by Hurricane Alex in 2010, to be torn apart and replaced with vertical concrete wall and the same steel bollard panels used in all of South Texas' border wall. Please take the time to learn more here and SHARE (buttoms on the right), if you want to stop the environment damage wrought by border walls, regardless of whether a Republican or Democratic administration is behind it!"


      more info here -

      chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalbutterflycenter.org%2Fimages%2FNew_Border_Walls_are_Under_Construction_in_South_Texas.pdf&clen=2807222&chunk=true

      Delete
    2. Because those policies were effective.

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    3. A cleaner link to that:

      https://www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/images/New_Border_Walls_are_Under_Construction_in_South_Texas.pdf

      Delete
  2. It is always a worry when your media owners want to promote their own, or their associates, preferred story lines.

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  3. This is hard to believe on manylevels

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  4. Oh, no wonder Brian Kolfage and company have put out this garbage about the Butterfly Center, they have been drawing attention to his/their illegal activities and probably contributed to his arrest.

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  5. An update on that closure:

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/national-butterfly-center-closure-conspiracy-theories_n_61f876fee4b02de5f51d13f5 Texas Butterfly Park To Close Indefinitely As Conspiracy Theorists Intensify Attacks - Trump-allied operatives have baselessly accused the National Butterfly Center of being involved with child trafficking.

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