@dannyboy Sadly.. this kind of thing? is what "stand down and stand by" is all about...tRump has already shown if he can not win he will cause great chaos and civil war to finish his job of tearing this country apart. We are truly in a battle for our country, our very lives and I am thankful that the Lights are shining in time to stop this debacle. Brace yourselves.. there will more coming.
@dannyboy - I totally agree that the key should be thrown away if they are found guilty and yes - so thankful that they were caught.
And I am so sorry this literally is hitting right next door to where you live and raise your family. I will be sending you good, calming energy as much as I can this afternoon. I have an opportunity to visit my favorite garden for a time on this sunny afternoon (waiting for my older daughter to have an ortho appt.) Will breathe deep and send some calm from the southeast up to you.
Wow what happened in Michigan is scary. It could happen anywhere.
just a thought on the fly, you don’t think it was sent ahead to scout things out for the locusts do you?
Don't lose heart. Remember that we are about to take back our nation. These people will end up going to federal prison as terrorists.
Now, you would think this means that they will go to the federal prisons with tennis courts and loose jumpsuits. But it is not (only rich people accused of embezzling money go to those places). I have seen the prisons that these men will end up at.
Thanks to our court system, there is a disproportionate number of African Americans and Hispanics that end up in the prisons that these people will end up at.
Now, these men who were planning this terrorism are obviously mouthy, militant, and Trump supporters. What do you think is going to happen when they find themselves surrounded by hundreds of decidedly "not-Trump" people?
Hold that image in your head. And smile.
And if you are worried about whether or not these men will go to prison (yes, I am aware of that earlier case a decade ago where the judge found that the government did not prove their case against several terrorists and released them, stating that all they proved was that the men merely "talked" about it), this will not happen. Based on early reports and the court indictments, these men took actual steps to carry out their plot. They tried to get in touch with plumbers and electricians to get blueprints of the buildings, they engaged in surveillance, and they were actually going to do a final trial run this week. They will be prosecuted. Don't worry.
So when you see your daughters later, don't think of this as yet another classic example of how hatred (and Trumpism) is a threat to us all. Rather, remember that light won yet again. They were stopped. They lost. We won.
@dannyboy & @cc21 I'm a Michigander living in the metro Detroit area. I've lurked on this site for a very long time, made my account a few days ago, and this is my first post. The plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer completely horrifies and disgusts me. This is what I was afraid of after the April protests against her executive orders in Lansing, with Trump then tweeting "Liberate Michigan!" and most recently refusing to denounce white supremacy during the last presidential debate. I am so relieved Gov. Whitmer is safe.
Since this is my first post - hello everyone! Just to introduce myself, I'm a 30 year old woman living in Michigan. Like I said, I've lurked on here for quite a while, and really enjoy reading everyone's posts. I follow this and the Covid-19 thread most. Although I feel very strongly about the need to vote in November, I picked my username simply because its my birth month ?. Nice to 'meet' all of you!
To everyone who is upset about this recent Michigan news, take heart in one thing:
The FBI is on our side.
Now, according to reports, this plot against the Michigan Governor was hatched as early as March or April of this year. So why did the FBI wait? Several reasons:
1. They wanted to get enough evidence to nail these people to the wall. Tape recordings, text messages, receipts (yes, some of these idiots actually bought supplies for this), etc. From what I have heard and read in the indictments (which are VERY detailed), they got a lot of evidence (DAs don't often reveal all their evidence at once. They prefer to release it little by little to give a shock affect to the defendants and their attorneys. Drip. Drip. Drip.)
2. They wanted to get as many of the conspirators as possible, so they waited until they identified as many of them as they could before moving in. This meant that any chance that outside conspirators who may be inclined to carry out the plan are put on notice that they are under threat as well, as well as a message to them that the Michigan Governor is protected.
But methinks there was another reason why these arrests were made now and not sooner. And it comes down to politics.
In short, it puts Trump into a corner.
Remember, he has mercilessly attacked the Michigan governor and encouraged his followers to storm the capital back in March and April (over the emergency Covid-19 protocols, of all things). Further, he even texted that the Michigan Governor she "negotiate with them (the protestors)."
Now it has been revealed that some of these "protestors" were terrorists.
This is a gift from the FBI to Biden and the Democrats. Pressure will be on Republicans and Trump to denounce these people (and questions will be asked about whether Trump incited these people to violence as a result of his rhetoric, as he had incited countless violence against others).
Remember how Trump has accused Black Lives Matter protestors of being rioters and criminals? Yes, I know that some were, but let's take a step back and look at this from an independent person's perspective.
Which seems to be a bigger threat to you? Rioters who vandalize government buildings and businesses (under the guise of protesting deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement)? Or men armed with guns and bombs who plan to take over buildings, hold people hostage, kidnap some of them, and hold a "trial" before they execute them (their biggest complaint is that the governor shut down the state and mandated masks in an attempt to control the Covid-19 outbreak, which at the time Michigan had the forth highest death rate)?
Seriously, THIS is Trump's idea of law and order? To encourage his gun-toting terrorists to hurt people he doesn't like? Who will be next? The people in California and other blue states? Single women like me who despise Trump and believe a woman should say whether or not she should be forced to carry her rapist's child or to carry a child even if it costs her her life? Even his own followers won't be immune, because if he wins re-election, he has no reason to keep them happy anymore. (Not to mention more of them will likely die from Covid-19 anyway).
I have sat here and breathed, switched over to my iPad where I went to my favorite hollow bastion on my own data plan (Gizmodo and Lifehacker — both wonderful if you want to move away from the world for an hour and focus on the shallow) and am feeling better now. Jeanne, feel free to delete my ranty posts above. I first heard of this in a text message thread with my friends and at the time it just sounded like “Eh, they picked up some proud boys being proud boys.” And then absolutely lost it when I watched the press conference. My other posts probably don’t belong here or anywhere else on the site. This just hit closer than I generally like my national news to hit.
We ARE surrounded by Michigan Militia in the village right outside of Cadillac that I live. But I think some of them are in love with the “idea” of that, and not the actions like we saw today. I’ll hold on to that one too.
Anyway, thanks guys for letting me process this in writing in a public forum with a group of wonderful strangers. I’m not done, but at least my work day is over in 45 minutes.
While I don't think the FBI purposely waited to arrest these men simply as a means to hurt Trump (I firmly believe that they wanted a mountain of evidence before they closed in), this will ultimately hurt Trump. If he encourages his people to "watch polls" and to become violent if they don't like the election results, then many people will see this as Trump supporting domestic terrorism. He will whine and complain and do a half-hearted denial, and then blame the Michigan governor for the problem ("If the Michigan Governor didn't act so badly, maybe they (the Michigan terrorists) wouldn't have felt so threatened that they felt they had to take action.") [Disclaimer-if Trump tweets something like this, it will likely be in all caps and badly misspelled. I grew up in a family of teachers, and thus I can't bring myself to copy his bad grammar. Sorry.]
Either way, this takes away Trump's attempts to both use the Black Lives Matter Protests as a means to scare Americans into thinking that Biden will usher in a period of lawlessness and crime, as well as his ability to try to incite violence with his followers over the election results. If he does so, the FBI and law enforcement will get them.
If I were a Trump supporter now, I would be very, very afraid. I would wonder if the FBI has been viewing my Facebook and Tweets. I would be wondering if any comments I made about attacking people before or after the election will cause me to be sitting in a courtroom a few months from now in handcuffs. It is one thing to say that you are willing to use violence and even kill for your country (as I am sure these idiots would have done if they succeeded.) But it is another to think that you may have to serve many years or life in prison, and you never even got to carry out your objectives (aka-attack and kill anyone Trump tells you to or anyone who doesn't agree with you).