"A federal jury acquitted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and deadlocked on the case against two others, apparently agreeing to some degree with defense claims that FBI agents entrapped the men..."

"... in a violent plot shortly before the 2020 election. The trial in Grand Rapids, Mich. has been closely watched as a test of the U.S. government’s ramped-up efforts to combat domestic terrorism, and the verdict is a partial defeat for the Justice Department. The men’s arrest in October 2020 raised alarms about the possibility of politically-motivated violence as the nation was increasingly divided over a bitterly contested presidential race.... A mistrial was declared for Fox and Croft, and federal authorities said they plan to go to trial a second time. The case marks one of the rare instances in which an entrapment defense was even partly successful in a terrorism case."

WaPo reports.

Top-rated comments over there: "Jury nullification, just like Kyle Rittenhouse. When even governors aren't safe, our nation has a cancer"/"Hoo boy this country is in trouble"/"If your peers are also sympathetic to domestic terrorism, then there is a problem. Obviously there is a problem in many parts of the US."

"The Plot Against Gretchen Whitmer Shows the Danger of Private Militias/These groups have no constitutional right to exist."

Let's read this NYT piece by Mary B. McCord, identified as "legal director for Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and a visiting professor" and "the acting assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017."

"In a YouTube video from May, Caserta claimed in a 30-minute diatribe that 'the enemy is government.' Caserta recorded the video in front of an anarchist's flag..."

"... and a map of Michigan. He did not post on YouTube again until three weeks ago. In that video, Caserta does not speak and simply loads and poses with a long gun while wearing a shirt that says 'F--- The Government.'... On TikTok, Caserta posted selfie videos railing against the state, along with antigovernment hashtags.... 'The price of freedom is eternal vigilance,' he said in a video posted Wednesday. In one video, Caserta is wearing a Hawaiian shirt, which is typically associated with the boogaloo movement. On Facebook, he posted about guns and Covid-19 conspiracies and espoused conflicting political ideologies, including anarchism. Caserta's Twitter timeline appears to show his rapid descent into radicalization. In 2018 and early 2019, Caserta largely liked and posted about comedy shows, podcasts like 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' motivational quotations and selfies. Caserta's only likes after the onset of the pandemic mention conspiracy theories about Bill Gates and a meme about hogtying police officers." 

From "Whitmer conspiracy allegations tied to 'boogaloo' movement/Several of the men charged with a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan's governor have histories of anti-government organizing, according to their online profiles" (NBC News).

I'm seeing people on the right trying to associate Caserta with the left because of that anarchy flag. I see this at Townhall: "Anarchist Who Plotted Against Whitmer Also Said This About President Trump."

Go there if you need video of Caserta saying, "Trump is not your friend, dude. And it amazes me that people actually believe that when he's shown over and over and over again that he's a tyrant. Every single person that works for government is your enemy, dude." 

Does that line indicate that Caserta is an extremist of the right or an extremist of the left? I say right, because he's addressing righties, saying they need to be more extreme. Why would a lefty extremist address someone who believes Trump is his friend? And call him "dude"? "Dude" is a somewhat nice thing to call somebody. A lefty extremist would, I think, say something closer to "you fucking asshole."

"Six men charged in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer."

"At a meeting, the men discussed attacking a Michigan State Police facility, and in a separate conversation one defendant suggested shooting up the governor’s vacation home, authorities allege" — NBC reports.

At a meeting in July, allegedly attended and recorded by one of the informants, the men “discussed attacking a Michigan State Police facility, and in a separate conversation after the meeting, Garbin suggested shooting up the Governor’s vacation home," authorities said. Then at a July 27 meeting, Fox and an informant discussed a possible kidnapping of Whitmer, with the defendant allegedly saying: “Snatch and grab, man. Grab the f---ing governor. Just grab the b----. Because at that point, we do that, dude — it’s over.”

"About 10,000 people in Mid-Michigan have been asked to evacuate their homes after multiple dams were breached, causing a major flooding emergency."

"The National Weather Service on Tuesday evening urged anyone near the Tittabawassee River and connected lakes in Midland County to seek higher ground following 'catastrophic dam failures' at the Edenville Dam, about 140 miles north of Detroit, and the Sanford Dam, about seven miles downriver.... Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Midland County late Tuesday night, urging residents to see higher ground as water levels were rapidly rising. Gov. Whitmer said Downtown Midland, a city of 42,000 about 8 miles downstream from the Sanford Dam, faced an especially serious flooding threat. Dow Chemical Co.'s main plant sits on the city’s riverbank."

Click on Detroit reports.

"Armed members of the Michigan Home Guard stood outside Karl Manke's barbershop, ready to blockade the door if police arrived."

"They were determined to help Manke, 77, reopen his shop Monday, in defiance of state orders, and dozens joined them, wearing Trump sweatshirts and Trump cowboy hats and waving Trump flags. They gathered not because they desperately needed haircuts but to rail against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s approach to fighting the coronavirus outbreak in Michigan, one of the nation’s worst hot spots. They were channeling President Trump’s support of such protests, but some also were taking aim at the state’s Republicans, who they say have not done enough to 'liberate' the state from safety measures that have ground life to a halt.... The protest and others like it — including two last month that included demonstrators with swastikas, Confederate flags and some with long guns inside the capitol — have alarmed lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. But after Trump appeared to urge the militia members on, tweeting that they are 'very good people' who 'want their lives back again,' they have forced Michigan’s Republican lawmakers to strike a delicate balance, managing a deadly virus while also being careful not to contradict Trump or alienate their conservative supporters.... Protesters in Michigan have sought a radical turnabout in the state’s response to the pandemic, with some demanding that Whitmer lift all restrictions. Many come from fringe movements and harbor deep suspicion of health officials.... While Trump won the state by 10,700 votes in 2016, there are signs Michigan is shifting to the left as it again stands to be a major battleground in 2020.... Now, some see signs that Trump’s attacks on Whitmer — and his support of hard-line protesters — could further endanger his prospects...."

From "Armed militia helped a Michigan barbershop open, a coronavirus defiance that puts Republican lawmakers in a bind" (WaPo).

You can see the slant of the article, even as it gives you so many reasons to doubt it. Is Trump doing well in Michigan? Will this protest movement help him or hurt him? WaPo wants to assure us that the state is moving left and Whitmer represents the future, and it wants to pressure Republican legislators to stick with Whitmer's approach and to steel themselves against the rowdy freedom freaks. But there's Trump, giving those protesters reason to love him, even though he doesn't give them that much. He just says they're good people who want their lives back. That's not saying they're going about it exactly the right way, just that he loves them. Meanwhile, the elite media and politicians find them stupid and toxic — deplorable. But Trump is "endanger[ing] his prospects" we're told. Who can believe that? Only the willfully blind. And why not go for willful blindness if you hate Trump? Your alternative is to root for the disease to flare back up and kill the freedom freaks you deplore. You don't want to say that, but isn't it what you think?

When Jake Tapper asked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to explain her belief in Christine Blasey Ford and not Tara Reade...

... she really got desperate. Let's look at the transcript from last Sunday's "State of the Union." Tapper asks a completely fair and well-stated question:

TAPPER:  You have said that you believe Vice President Biden. I want to compare that to 2018, when you said you believed Dr. Christine Blasey Ford after she accused now Justice Brett Kavanaugh of assault. Kavanaugh also, like Biden, categorically denied that accusation. And Blasey Ford, to be honest, she did not have the contemporaneous accounts of her view of what happened that Tara Reade does. You have spoken movingly about how you're a survivor — survivor of assault yourself. Why do you believe Biden, and not Kavanaugh? Are they not both entitled to the same presumption of innocence, regardless of their political views?

"For miles, thousands of drivers clogged the streets to demand Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) ease restrictions and allow them to go back to work."

"They drowned downtown Lansing, Mich., in a cacophony of honking. They blared patriotic songs from car radios, waving all sorts of flags from the windows — President Trump flags, American flags and the occasional Confederate flag. But in the massive demonstration against Whitmer’s stay-at-home executive order — which they have argued is excessive and beyond her authority — the pleas from organizers that protesters to stay in their vehicles went unheeded. Many got out of their cars and crashed the front lawn of the capitol building, with some chanting, 'Lock her up!' and 'We will not comply!'" — WaPo reports, with this video:



Background on the strict and confusing order:

Confused shoppers found they could buy liquor and lottery tickets on a trip to the grocery store, but couldn’t visit the vegetable seed aisle or gardening center. The order required large stores to shut down plant nurseries and rope off sections where carpet, flooring and paint were sold, provisions that conservatives found both arbitrary and harmful to business owners.

It would be nice to consider the constructive things people might think of doing when they are confined to their homes. Paint and garden supplies would help people keep a positive outlook and also actually improve homes. If the Governor had observed and listened and tweaked the order when arguments about arbitrariness arose, she would not have been so vulnerable to these charges of "petty authoritarianism."

Meanwhile, WaPo is encouraging its readers to distance themselves from the deplorables who won't follow orders. Confederate flags? Really? The Michiganders who want to plant a vegetable garden are — what? — racists? This is just stoking divisiveness. The enemy is a virus. People need to work together.

"Boys have teased me about my curves since 5th grade. My mom said 'hold your head high and don’t let it bother you.' That @Fox2News story was way out of line. I’m tough, I can take it."

Tweeted Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, who wore a dress to her State of the State Address that was just way too tight. As many of the commenters (at The Daily Mail) observe, you can see the outline of her bellybutton. It's not really fair to accuse everyone of body shaming when you wear something that fits so poorly. People talk about Trump's tie being too long....