The plot to kidnap (and potentially kill) the governor of Michigan isn’t just the feds rolling up a dumbass to pad their statistics. It’s one to note.
Remember: never never never trust the journos; always always always read the actual affidavit. bit.ly/3jIMuhY
The FBI’s go-to play is:
1) find a dumbass who is potentially dangerous but at this point just runs his mouth 2) indulge him and rev him up 3) introduce him to a friendly undercover FBI agent offering to sell him explosives 4) THE ARISTOCRATS!
This is not one of those.
This one is unusual in that they had a group of guys, several of whom were already ideologically into the idea of violence and hadn’t managed to talk themselves into actually acting yet.
They were, however, fervent. Plausibly dangerous dudes, shit-talking themselves up.
Naturally, the core group had grandiose plans involving a small army, so they reached out for like-minded people
to a Michigan militia
which had been, you guessed it
infiltrated by the FBI
The deal with the Michigan militia appears to be that some of their dudes started talking about maybe killing cops, which made one member nervous, so he tipped the feds and became a confidential informant.
So he was already an FBI asset when *these* dudes came looking.
These guys had plans to attack the governor’s vacation home, found and surveilled the property, checked out a nearby bridge to see if they could blow it up to deter police response
but they couldn’t even build a successful black-powder IED
so the CI said, “hey, I know a guy...”
at which point the FBI got very very excited because guess what
they got to pull out their old go-to play
“Our new friend knows a guy who can sell us explosives!”
“Awesome! There is *no* chance the dude selling explosives will be undercover FBI!”
So once again the far right fails to learn the lesson that it ain’t your messaging platform, it’s your people
for which we can all be grateful
HARD RIGHTY 1. “Why are the Hard Lefties so much more effective”
HARD RIGHTY 2. “Don’t ask me, dude, I’m just undercover FBI”
HARD RIGHTY 1. “Wait what”
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Reread BATMAN: YEAR ONE and was amazed anew by just how insanely tight the writing on that is. It’s four issues! The *entire trade paperback* is under a hundred pages!!!
Get in and out of scenes early? You have *nothing* on 1986-vintage Frank Miller. Check out Jim Gordon’s relationship with his crooked partner deteriorating in *two panels.*
Note: not only did we not see Gordon come down hard on Morgan, the character Morgan is never introduced.
Issue one: Jim Gordon meets his partner on the second scripted page, has had *three distinct scenes with him* by page FIVE, gets jumped by the partner and other crooked cops at the bottom of page seven, gets beaten up on page eight, gets revenge on pages fifteen through eighteen.
Watched STATE'S ATTORNEY (1932) based on the recommendation of @NitrateDiva and LORD ALMIGHTY JOHN BARRYMORE IS WILDING
Bachelor mob lawyer Barrymore defends hooker Helen Twelvetrees, shacks up with her, then switches to prosecutor and goes straight but keeps Twelvetrees
UNTIL
Barrymore's political ambitions put him in circles with society gal Lilian Ulrich, who tells him she had a serious relationship at nineteen, and when he asks how serious her response is to *whisper*
to which he replies, "That makes things much easier!"
cut to: a parked car
headlights pass as they sit up and she talks a drunk Barrymore into going to find a judge or the mayor and get married
which they do
Barrymore then goes to tell Twelvetrees and then elects to sleep it off at a bachelor hotel
What’s interesting, if you read it, is that the first is the most radical because it affects casting and subject matter of films...
...so that’ll take all the heat...
...but the later provisions are hilariously undercutting, because they give wiggle room in hilarious ways!
So: to be eligible for Best Picture (this doesn't affect any other Oscar nominations; wait a few years for that), a movie must meet TWO out of FOUR standards for inclusion.
It’s been one of those days and folks could use a break from it all
So how about a story of absolute badassery that has something for everyone
It is from one of my favorite books to keep in a place one occasionally sits with time to spare
Paul Kirchner’s THE DEADLIEST MEN
Kirchner, an associate of the late Col. Jeff Cooper (he provided illustrations for some of Cooper’s books), tells many stories of deadly people — not all of them men — from a variety of backgrounds, from Jim Bowie to Mgobozi to La Maupin.
I will share the story of Jean-Louis.
Jean-Louis was a mixed-race Haitian, and in 1795 (with Haiti and indeed the whole island of Hispaniola in just *a wee bit of turmoil*) the eleven-year-old orphan took advantage of an opportunity to get the hell out & head to France, which he did by enlisting in the 32d Regiment.
I am fairly one of the anxiety-inducers, but in my defense a few years back I made a whole essay about manageable things people can do (for folks who haven’t seen it, check my pinned tweet).
Depending on what is in CIA records or NSA intercepts, if I’m remembering the law correctly this could potentially pose serious problems for these guys. Back when I was doing war zone work, I learned something interesting about Americans fighting in non-US militaries...
Namely, you can *do* it, but you gotta watch the Ps and Qs.
Like, say you’re a dual citizen somewhere with a military service obligation. Or you long for adventure in the French Foreign Legion.
You can, as an American, serve in a foreign military doing military stuff!
The catch: it has to be a *nation-state’s* military.
Because it is not exactly illegal to serve in a foreign militia, but if it’s not the actual gummint army, there are suddenly a lot more technicalities.