I'm still not convinced that being a Trump supporter (or a Cruz supporter) is in any way relevant to what they have been accused of.
Well, a couple of the questions that should be being asked - and would be ... if they were Muslims - are:
"
How were these terrorists radicalized ?
Was it self-radicalization ... or were they inspired by something or
someone ?
"What (or
who) was the tipping point - that pushed them from only holding what are very likely to be a whole crapload of utterly insane views ... to actually
acting ?
And why was that ?
Who was
their Anwar Al-Awaki ?
It's a topic that actually merits some discussion.
Yes it is, assuming you are into straw man hypotheticals. But rather then go off on a wild tangent, which requires fantastical speculation, it might be better to stick a little closer to the facts and circumstances as we currently know them.
"How were these terrorists radicalized ?
Was it self-radicalization ... or were they inspired by something or someone ?"
It appears they were inspired by 911 and the subsequent terror attacks by Muslims. It looks like the Christian connection may be important, as federal documents indicate the attack would, if any luck, start (or rather, restart) a religious war between Christians and Muslims (a Pamella Geller wet dream). They have a connection to, or are maybe even an offshoot of, the Kansas Security Force, an anti-Muslim militia group in the southwestern area of Kansas where the Crusaders lived, as well as ties to other militia and sovereign groups the FBI has been monitoring for years, and had an informant involved with these particular men for more than eight months. The leaders of the group mentioned Timothy McVeigh a lot.
"What (or who) was the tipping point - that pushed them from only holding what are very likely to be a whole crapload of utterly insane views ... to actually acting ?
And why was that ?"
It appears the recent influx of Somali Muslims into their town pushed them over the edge. Other than the apartment complex which housed approximately 120 people, they also considered targeting “city/county commission meetings, local public officials, landlords who rent property to Muslim refugees, and organizations providing assistance to Muslim refugees.” They clearly had a political motive in wanting to shape public policy, and since they intended to harm innocent civilians and even local or state officials, and that they had originally planned the bombing to occur the day after the election.
Other than, of course, anti-Trump.
Well, sometimes one sees what one wants to see ...[/quote]Even if they have to invent it to see it.
FWIW, I've posted nothing "anti-Trump" in this thread ...
Of course you did. You started a thread about a thwarted plot of apparently right wing-nut militia members and then highlighted an as-yet irrelevant association between the terrorists and Trump, planting the "association seed" between Trump and evildoers as if it was somehow important. You could have posted that one is a fan of Ted Cruz, or that one of them owns a modular home center and another one of them works there, as either of those would have been just as relevant as one being a Trump supporter. Unless, of course, you had a reason to to make a notable remark about Trump.
At the very best, it could be said to be "anti some Trump supporters" ...
The two aren't necessarily the same thing.
In and of itself, no, they are not the same thing. But making an irrelevant "anti some Trump supporters" connection is still making an irrelevant association to Trump, as if being a Trump supporter is important of the context of the plot. The only reason to invent such a connection is anti-Trump.
As far as Trump being a "motivation" goes ... could be it's that his rhetoric is more like a license ... rather than the fundamental motivation.
It could be, but there's really no indication of that. Trump's rhetoric isn't new at all. At most he's an echo of millions of people who have long harbored frustrations with the government's policies on immigration, and a long tradition of Christian-Muslims conflict. It's not like we never saw anti-government and anti-Muslim attitudes and violence before Trump arrived on the public stage. Trump didn't invent the attitudes and animosities, or motivate them, or license them. Trump is an echoed product of them. It is an existing, widespread mindset that allowed Trump to rise.
