Yeah, but still a militia, right?

Divides? What do you mean "Militia members presence at fire scene divides community"? What do I mean "What do you mean?" I'm referring to an article from the Mercury News about a group called The California 2nd Militia who were helping victims of the Oak Fire. 

Remember when Al Gore ran for President on a platform of environmentalism,
won the popular vote but not the electoral college, so then George W. Bush
became the President and now everything is on fire? Yeah, me too. 

I've had it. It's unpleasant.

Ok, so what's the big deal about the armed services coming out to help people affected by a natural disaster? I'm glad I pretended you asked. Despite the vaguely official sounding name, The California 2nd Militia isn't so much a part of the armed services as they are a bunch of chaps who show up to things like wild fires. While they didn't bring guns to Mariposa they did hand out goat milk, farm fresh eggs, and pancakes. No really, that's what they did. Imagine a farmer's market run by the kind of people who frequent Cabela's instead of hipsters.

Can't imagine why anyone
would get that impression..

Their website--and yes, I looked it up and am now probably on a watch list or something. The things I do for this dumb blog--anyway, the site tries to make it very clear that they're not a hate group or a white supremacist organization:

"We are not a white supremacist group...We are not a hate group...We are not conspiracy nuts..."

-The California 2nd Militia's

About Us page, clearing things up

Don't we have like, tanks and
aircraft carriers and the Pentagon?

But aren't they though? A little conspiracy nutty that is? Ok, maybe that's not the right word--or a word at all--but when one joins an organization whose stated goal is, among other things, to act as a line of defense against foreign invasion, isn't one sort of subscribing to a certain worldview? One that evidently doesn't view the existing U.S. military as being adequate and feels that they need the help of some random dudes with AR-15's.

I don't know that that's quite conspiracy-nut town, but it's definitely not a long walk to conspiracy-nut town.

It's what the French would call l'esprit du chapeau tinfoil. 

A Constitution which can apparently
mean anything. Just, whatever you want.

Obviously some people are, you know, upset by the sight of a bunch of guys in camouflage descending, uninvited, up on the town in military vehicles. Some, according to the Mercury News article, are even suggesting that The California 2nd Militia are exploiting the disaster. Which, I'm not entirely sure how, but I'm kind of with them. The people who are freaked I mean. This is, after all, a group who pattern themselves after the military but unlike the military aren't answerable to anyone other than their own personal interpretation of the Constitution. 

The local Sherrif's Department says that they didn't call the militia group, but defended them saying that they're "not unsupportive...and that they appreciate their efforts..." Yikes. I don't know about you, but there's something alarmingly Kyle Rittenhouse about white guys who just self-deputize. And look, maybe these people are genuinely out there to help, but if you're going to hand out goat milk with your weird Red Dawn cosplay crew, maybe print up some t-shirts or something instead of showing up in full invasion kit?

If they're there to help, why do they need to blend
into their surroundings? Like, the fire can't see them...