Dangerous Times

If we were only just dealing a pandemic, we'd be fine.  But with Mike Pence having refused during a vice presidential debate to commit to a peaceful transfer of power to the Democrats should Donald Trump and he lose to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November, Trump pushing the Justice Department to push a damning result of an investigation against Biden regarding the 2016 campaign, and Trump making consequential decisions while on steroids (wonder if he'd make Marion Jones chair of the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition?), things have gotten pretty scary.  

Now they've gotten scarier still.  A bunch of guys belonging to an illegal militia in Michigan (actually, apart from National Guard units, all militias are illegal)  were arrested on Thursday after the authorities discovered they were involved in a plot to kidnap and assassinate Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer for her lockdown of the state in the worst months of the COVID-19 pandemic and overthrow the Michigan state government.  I've never heard of anyone who would want to overthrow the government of one state, but I can imagine that similar attempts at coups d'etat in other states could have been perpetrated if these loonies had succeeded in taking Governor Whitmer hostage.  In fact, there could have been one in New Jersey against Governor Phil Murphy for the same reason this coup against Whitmer was plotted - because, like Whitmer in Michigan, he wouldn't open up gyms during the early days of the pandemic.

Fortunately, federal authorities discovered this plot before Whitmer was kidnapped (the plan also involved having a show trial for her in Wisconsin) and before the lieutenant governor had to call out the real militia (again, the National Guard) to secure Lansing against the phony militia trying to take over.  I suddenly yearn of the days when the Guard was only called out to quell race riots and rock concerts ("Listen to the radio, talkin' 'bout the last show, someone got excited, had to call the state militia").

Whitmer (above) has made it clear that Trump's vicious rhetoric has given life to extremists.  Trump, for his part, excoriated Whitmer for, I believe, being herself, after he tried to take credit for the sting operation against her would-be captors and killers. 

November can't come fast enough.