FBI says thwarted plot to kidnap Michigan governor

[Gelannerai]

Conspiracy to commit acts of seditious terrorism from right-wing gun-nuts!? Say it ain’t so!

[pathora44]

Conspiracy to commit acts of seditious terrorism from right-wing gun-nuts!? Say it ain’t so!

Somehow the fable of the scorpion and the frog comes to mind but I can't for the life of me understand why.

[Edge-]

Gee it is almost like the FBI warning that right wing terrorism in the U.S. has been on the rise since the early 2000's and is the biggest threat to national security in this country.

https://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04...remism.report/

Remember that time back in 2009 the Obama DHS warned about the rising dangers of right wing extremism and terrorism? And the collective response from the Republican party was, "We feel attacked!" rather than an openness to look into the issue to see if it was actually a problem?

I think we can pretty safely say that Obama, and then DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and her department, were right.

[Elegiac]

Somehow the fable of the scorpion and the frog comes to mind but I can't for the life of me understand why.

"Why did you sting me?" the frog asked. "Now we will both drown."

The scorpion answered "Wow, so you're happy I'm gonna drown? Tells you something about frogs I guess. So much for tolerant amphibians."

[Felya]

I would just report and move on, it's someone calling everyone who doesn't like Trump deranged when we frequently have to argue basic facts of reality with Trumpsters.

Have you heard of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm

Populism draws all the Earworms to the surface...

[pathora44]

"Why did you sting me?" the frog asked. "Now we will both drown."

The scorpion answered "Wow, so you're happy I'm gonna drown? Tells you something about frogs I guess. So much for tolerant amphibians."

Frogs are the real threat because they will kill us by drowning us just because we stabbed them with our poisonous stingers.

[Gelannerai]

"Why did you sting me?" the frog asked. "Now we will both drown."

The scorpion answered "Wow, so you're happy I'm gonna drown? Tells you something about frogs I guess. So much for tolerant amphibians."

I really wish there was a like option on these forums.

[Edge-]

Frogs are the real threat because they will kill us by drowning us just because we stabbed them with our poisonous stingers.

It thought it was because the water was turning the frogs gay.

[postman1782]

Thank god she was a Democrat otherwise nobody would have ever heard about an attempt like this on a republican governor. Although this forum is basically an echo chamber/circle jerk my hope is one day some of you will be cured of your terminal TDS.

Anything else you want to try? I mean, at some point, one of your talking points might stick, right?

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People like you throwing around the word "terrorist" are gonna make it lose it's value kind of like how the Racist word has over the years.

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Sure it's not a "real" medical term but it's certainly real my friend. These forums are a prime example of where it thrive's lol.

So, you are saying that them plotting to kidnap a duly elected Governor, isn't terrorism?

[Belize]

So glad the administration is taking the potential kidnapping of an official seriously.

They're just mad that's 6 less people to vote for them on November 3rd.

Right-wing militias losing the right to vote due to being arrested is starting to be a real issue for the GOP base.

[pathora44]

So glad the administration is taking the potential kidnapping of an official seriously.

Jesus Christ the bar is so low for Trump and his cronies to crawl under it breaks through to the Upside Down from Stranger Things. Even then the Lovecraftian horrors that live in that world are appalled at how abhorrent Trump and his cronies are.

[Mihalik]

A good reminder that the bar can always go lower.

There is no bar. Not for Republicans. The bar is whatever they can get away with.

Honestly... This specific incident barely even scores as a mildly disturbing at this point.

We're running concentration camps in breach of our own laws, where people drop dead poisoned by pesticides, lack of medical care, or by killed by the ongoing global pandemic. Children and toddlers are kept in cages in their own feces, and women have their wombs removed.

Our streets are flooded by unidentified paramilitary forces black bagging people off the streets.

210k Americans died in a pandemic, a pandemic that somehow actually reduced the number of right wing terrorist attacks by the sheer fact of keeping people in their homes. Remember how racist/incel mass shootings were a near weekly event for 3 years before the lockdown?

[Omega10]

So glad the administration is taking the potential kidnapping of an official seriously.

Let's redo the quote you provided:

Trump campaign official Jason Miller is on Fox News attacking Gretchen Whitmer, the victim of a kidnapping plot: "If we want to talk about hatred, then Gov. Whitmer, go look in the mirror -- the fact that she wakes up everyday with such hatred in her heart for President Trump."

This is not just "not taking it seriously". This is the Trump administration supporting the terrorists.

[Gelannerai]

So glad the administration is taking the potential kidnapping of an official seriously.

Real talk, when did we become North Korea?

[Elegiac]

Real talk, when did we become North Korea?

Honest answer?

September 11, 2001.

[Edge-]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-w...etchen-whitmer

Seven Michigan men were arrested Thursday as part of a sprawling right-wing plot allegedly targeting the state’s government and its embattled governor Gretchen Whitmer in particular.

The charges against the men, who allegedly called themselves the “Wolverine Watchmen,” came in tandem with federal charges against six other men in an alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer. The group’s involvement—or lack thereof—with those facing federal charges was murky at the time of the announcements. But social media posts and testimony from neighbors of the “Wolverine Watchmen” suggest they had a disturbing relationship with the far-right paramilitary movement.

According to state prosecutors, the “Wolverine Watchmen” group plotted a violent attack on Michigan’s government and sought to incite a civil war this summer, with plans to kidnap elected officials. Some of the defendants, who range in age from 21 to 42, had online presences hinting at violence.

In a Thursday afternoon arraignment, Michigan Assistant Attorney General Gregory Townsend called defendants Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico “founding members” of the Wolverine Watchmen, which he described as a group “committed to violence” against the government and politicians.

Morrison used his property in Munith, Michigan, for militia training, according to Townsend. Members of the militia, according to Townsend, had participated in some of the same activity alleged against the federal defendants, including plotting to bomb bridges and surveilling Whitmer’s home.

“There are multiple members of the Wolverine Watchmen,” Townsend said. “Mr. Morrison was considered the commander.”

The property in question, a blighted home in rural Michigan, flies a Confederate and “Original 13” flag. (The latter has sometimes been adopted by racists, inviting controversy about its intended use in some cases.) Junk—rusted cars, a shop vac, coolers—fill the yard.

Several neighbors of the pair wouldn’t use their names for fear of retribution from the militia. But they told The Daily Beast of they’d heard some shooting coming from the property. They described those who had lived at the house as “disrespectful” and said large groups regularly gathered on weekends and “bullets would be flying off their property in all directions.”

The neighbors said they suspected the people were part of a militia because of the number of visitors who would show up on weekends, and the number of high caliber rounds that they fired off, characterizing the household as “a nuisance.”

“I was in the Army,” one neighbor told The Daily Beast. “I’ve got all kinds of guns in my house, some of them high caliber. But I don’t shoot them around here.”

Another neighbor said the household didn’t have many ties to the community. “They were the kind of neighbors you stayed away from,” they told The Daily Beast. “They were mean. You knew they were involved with the militia. That was obvious from the constant shooting.”

Social media pages for the alleged militia members also suggested less-than-friendly posturing.

A Facebook page for Eric Molitor, another Michigan man who faces state charges in the case, features praise for 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who’s accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha, Wis. Molitor also posted about conspiracy theories relating to the QAnon movement, posting the QAnon hashtag “Save Our Children” and images about human-trafficking conspiracy theories. Molitor had previously posted images indicating affiliation with “three-percenter” militias, a far-right paramilitary movement.

Defendants Musico and Morrison, both 42-year-olds who lived together, had sparser online profiles, with neither of them liking anything on Facebook besides a Christian broadcasting group. But on YouTube, Musico was more vocal, sharing rambling tirades against taxes, gun control, and the “Deep State”—as well as a rant from 2019 entitled “Gretchen Whitmer Interview” in which he railed against her policies around auto ownership. In the video, he implied that he was going to obtain an in-person interview with Whitmer.

A Pete Musico also has a page on the social media site Gab, popular among white supremacists and the alt-right, on which he promoted the unfounded claim that in South Africa “they are killing white people.” Although many of the posts feature broken images (a hallmark of Gab), one of the user’s favorite accounts wa that of Joe Biggs, a Proud Boy organizer who has glorified violence against the left. Biggs and anti-Semitic Infowars personality Owen Shroyer are the only accounts he follows.

A Michigan-based Pete Musico also has a Twitter account with a Tea Party-style “Don’t Tread On Me” banner as the profile image and a number of posts from 2016 voicing support for Trump and calling for the imprisonment of then-Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. It also includes unfounded allegations that former President Bill Clinton fathered an “illegitimate black child” and that vaccines contain dangerous levels of mercury. Another post urges his 14 followers to visit right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s site Infowars.

Michigan has been a hotbed of militia activity for decades, with over a dozen active militia groups. In 2010, members of a militia group called the Hutaree were indicted for sedition and weapons-related charges over an alleged plot to bomb a law enforcement officer’s funeral. They were ultimately acquitted of the most serious charges.

The state’s militia movement surged back into the spotlight during the coronavirus pandemic, with militias joining other far-right groups to protest Whitmer’s coronavirus restrictions.

In April, armed men tried to break onto the floor of the state capitol, only to be stopped by security. In May, armed militia members rallied outside the capitol to protest Whitmer’s pandemic orders.

Molitor is facing charges of providing material support for terrorist acts and carrying a firearm during the commission of a felony. Musico and Morrison each face counts of terrorism, gang membership, providing material support for terrorist acts, and firearms felonies.

Co-defendants Paul Bellar, 21; Shawn Fix, 38; Michael Null, 38; and Wiliam Null, 38, all face charges of providing material support for terrorist acts and carrying a firearm during commission of a felony. Bellar also faces a count of gang membership.

It was not clear whether any of the men charged had retained lawyers.

Uh...this looks like a DIFFERENT extremist right wing group than the 6 dudes who were plotting to kidnap Whitmer.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the home to the "Michigan Militia" is also home to a whole slew of extremists, anti-government right wing militias but still...the fuck Michigan?

[nonameelf]

So, when it's right wingers planning to commit violence for political goals it's a "militia" but anyone else doing this would be terrorists.

[Edge-]

So, when it's right wingers planning to commit violence for political goals it's a "militia" but anyone else doing this would be terrorists.

None of these groups are designated as terrorist groups and they're not facing terrorism charges, so media won't refer to them as terrorists.

I mean, I think they most absolutely are, but there are journalistic standards at play here.

[nonameelf]

None of these groups are designated as terrorist groups and they're not facing terrorism charges, so media won't refer to them as terrorists.

I mean, I think they most absolutely are, but there are journalistic standards at play here.

Clearly they should be designated as terrorist groups and face terrorism charges, but with the Trump DOJ that seems unlikely.

[Themius]

None of these groups are designated as terrorist groups and they're not facing terrorism charges, so media won't refer to them as terrorists.

I mean, I think they most absolutely are, but there are journalistic standards at play here.

That's a thin thin thin reason.

A group of people that together plan, commit, and follow through on, terrorist threats and attacks are a group of people working together to perform terrorism almost like a ... group of terrorists which is like a terrorist group. It seems when it comes to white groups of people plotting and commit terror attacks there's lots of splitting hairs. Just as there was splitting hairs over whether the KKk was a terror organisation as they murdered, lynched, and terrorised black people.