Posted on 03/06/2022 7:50:39 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — They railed against politicians, conducted military-style exercises and spoke darkly of confronting tyrants scheming to seize their guns and enslave them.
Yet historian JoEllen Vinyard says the “citizen militia” activists she got to know in the 1990s didn’t seem like the types who would abduct a governor or stage a coup.
“I don’t think they were dangerous,” said Vinyard, an Eastern Michigan University professor emeritus and author of a book about far-right movements in the state. “They reminded me of the good old boys I knew growing up in Nebraska.”
But as four men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer go on trial Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, Vinyard and other political extremism scholars say things have changed in recent years.
In contrast to militants from before, who mostly avoided bloodshed with the horrific exception of the Oklahoma City bombing, some modern successors have taken a more radical and potentially violent turn.
“This is a different type of domestic terrorism phenomenon than we’ve faced in previous decades — completely different from anything I’ve observed,” said Javed Ali, a University of Michigan professor who served with the FBI and intelligence agencies.
They’ve kept a somewhat lower profile since the kidnapping arrests and the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 election, said Rachel Goldwasser, a research analyst with the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.
The outcome of the Michigan conspiracy trial, she said, may “indicate whether they stay in their foxholes or come out as a force in public again.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
More BS gaslighting from the gaslight media. The “plot” was hatched and mostly perpetrated by the criminals at the FBI. (Including some literal criminals, i.e. actually being charged.)
fbi. Known 🐂💩 story.
Exactly. FBI and FBI informants hatched the plot and got a few morons to go along. So the get charged and probably sent down the river, media makes a mountain out of a molehill, FBI looks like they’re doing something useful.
Can’t believe they’re still gonna try to pimp this phony, FBI led plot against MI’s nasty governor.
Almost everyone involved in OKC was a government informant with the exception of the two guys convicted.
Now the Asspress regurgitates proven lies for its smears. Obama legalizing propaganda causes them to happily do this.
As another old boy who grew in Nebraska might have said, they failed to git ‘er done.
Occupy Femocrats... 🤣
A Muslim “professor” concerned about evil White men getting violent?
Beyond hilarious. Is he the ISIS minister of propaganda?
The FBI informants repeatedly referred to the head of this plot as ‘’ Captain Autism.’’ This entire episode was another example of the FBI stringing along a bunch of losers who on their own could barely hold a job, let alone implement this.
Well stated.
Gee, when you have the AP reporting the opinions of experts, it would be hard to imagine a higher plateau of credibility./s
Ass Press strikes again!
“More BS gaslighting from the gaslight media. The “plot” was hatched and mostly perpetrated by the criminals at the FBI. (Including some literal criminals, i.e. actually being charged.)”
...and yet we believe this same media when it comes to telling us about Ukraine, including what led to the war there?
“Almost everyone involved in OKC was a government informant with the exception of the two guys convicted.”
I didn’t know that, how many others were there and why wasn’t it stopped?
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