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New Orleans Whoa, you crazy gunsels! Y’all have absolutely crossed a line here! Planning to kidnap a governor? Are y’all out of your freaking minds?
This was really the news of the day. The FBI arrested six conspirators in Michigan who had seriously considered, discussed, and planned kidnapping Governor Gretchen Whitmer and putting her on trial while taking over the State Capitol in a coup. The FBI had a mole in the operation so the discussion part was actually recorded, despite the Hollywood precautions of their meetings in a basement accessed via a trapdoor of course, obviously covered by a rug. The Michigan Attorney General announced that they had arrested another seven, mostly adherents of a local rightwing militia group called the Michigan Wolverines, who were aiding and supporting the effort of the primary conspirators. These folks had been in training for months across a three-state area of the Midwest to get in shape and get their firing range practice. The Wolverines had police and other political leaders in their sightlines. According to the FBI affidavits, the governor’s failure to open gyms among other coronavirus measures had taken them over the top. You can’t make this stuff up and, unfortunately, it is all too real.
Even the far-right Wall Street Journal felt obliged to tell these guys that this was taking matters too far. Protest the shutdown, OK, kidnap the governor and kill people, not OK. Thanks for clearing that up, but perhaps you need to realize you are part of the problem. On the op-ed page across from that editorial was an incendiary piece provided by Wisconsin US Senator Ron Johnson, also recently in the news for testing positive for Covid-19 at the Amy Barret love-in at the White House. Johnson argued that there was an attempted “coup” that amounted to “insurrection” in the efforts of government agencies to delegitimize Trump. When the Journal allows its megaphone to advance these kinds of baseless conspiracy theories from the top, who is surprised that trigger happy yahoos at the bottom might think it is a call to arms to take drastic measures to “save” the country?
Remember this ilk also showed up with guns of all shapes and sizes to muscle up the Michigan state legislature several months ago. The FBI has warned of increased concerns of domestic terrorists coming from white supremacists. In the most recent “threat” report from Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, the top concern was white supremacist militias.
President Trump has embraced and dog whistled to all of these whacks and even tweeted earlier, “Liberate Michigan.” He’s egged on the Proud Boys and refused to condemn white supremacists.
They are now his people, but our problem.