Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Public House › armed protestors i Michigan’s State House — & sources of lockdown protest
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May 1, 2020 at 12:10 am #114454znModerator
Multiple armed gunmen storm Michigan’s State House, State police are protecting @GovWhitmer and blocking the gunmen from gaining access to the house floor.
This is America in the age of Trump. pic.twitter.com/tLWR2bvjtR
— Rob Gill (@vote4robgill) April 30, 2020
May 1, 2020 at 11:59 am #114461
joemadParticipanthttps://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-30-2020
April 30, 2020
Heather Cox Richardson
11 hr
211
In America, we elect our lawmakers, and the winners are supposed to be supported by a majority of voters. Once elected, leaders from different parties are supposed to come to agreements about policy through informed debate. That system sometimes frustrates people who hold extreme views that they think should be at the heart of our laws. They can’t get what they want through the democratic process, because most people disagree with them. So they try to get their way by threats.This is exactly what happened today in Michigan, where armed protesters stormed the statehouse. Legislators there were discussing whether to extend Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders past their expiration date at midnight tonight. To stop debate and get their way, men with guns paced the balcony above the lawmakers, some of whom had donned bullet-proof vests. Others, held back by the capitol police, tried to break into the legislative chamber.
Later in the day, Trump tried a more genteel version of the same intimidation. Republican leaders are angry that Democratic states have social welfare systems paid for by taxes, a system they insist hurts the country by redistributing wealth from those at the top of society—the “makers,” who are the ones that truly understand how an economy functions best—to the “takers,” who simply fritter money away. Until the coronavirus, there was little Republicans at the national level could do to bring Democratic state governments like those of New York, Massachusetts, and California to heel.
Now, though, states are reeling as the cratering economy has sapped the tax dollars that make up their main stream of revenue. They estimate they need $500 billion to tide them over until the economy picks back up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has suggested they should be forced into bankruptcy, which would permit federal judges, many of whom share the same ideology as Republican leaders, to choose which parts of their debt the states would be able to honor. According to former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, they have made it clear that they would not accept any new taxes under such a reordering, and that the first things on the chopping block would be social welfare programs.
Today, Trump tried a new tactic. He told reporters that he would be willing to consider funding for the states—he defines them as “Democrat states”– but “if we do that we’re going to have to get something for it.”
This is, of course, the same sort of quid pro quo (I hate that term: it just means “something for something, as in, “I do something for you; you do something for me.”) Trump demanded from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that case, his effort to use the power of the federal government to force an ally to manufacture dirt on his opponent led to his impeachment for abuse of power.
The Senate acquitted him, but in a remarkably prescient moment, Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan said to the House Judiciary Committee: “Imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding. What would you think if you lived there and your governor asked for a meeting with the president to discuss getting disaster aid that Congress has provided for? What would you think if that president said, ‘I would like you do to us a favor?’…. Wouldn’t you know in your gut that such a president has abused his office? That he’d betrayed the national interest, and that he was trying to corrupt the electoral process?”
Indeed, Trump is willing to use any means he can to ensure his reelection as polling shows him underwater pretty much everywhere. Big in the news today is that he has asked intelligence agencies to assess whether the coronavirus began in an ill-managed Chinese lab, although scientists say the genetics of the virus indicate it began in bats.
Trump has blamed the World Health Organization for America’s dire straits, and now is blaming China (which certainly was too secretive about whether or not the disease could be transmitted from person to person). He insists he has seen evidence that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab—although US intelligence services deny it—and his administration is talking about demanding reparations from China, a move that can only be seen as propaganda for the upcoming election. (China would never consider such payments, and pushing the issue will likely hurt our ability to figure out how to combat the virus.)
The other big story today is Trump’s attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden, designed to inoculate Trump against similar attacks. Trump insists that Biden has mental impairments that make him unsuitable for the presidency, an echo of the many stories of Trump’s own mental impairment. Neither are young men, but Biden’s stuttering is well-known, and likely behind some of his problems speaking. This attack on Biden’s health is similar to the attacks the Trump campaign made on Hillary Clinton in 2016, arguing that she was too ill to serve as president.
Second, Trump and his supporters are hammering on Tara Reade’s accusations that Biden raped her. This accusation would inoculate Trump from the sixteen credible accusations made against him, and is harder for Democrats to address, especially as supporters of Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders have joined in the chorus for Biden to resign in favor of their candidate.
Democrats are torn between their support for the #MeToo Movement in which myriad women related their experiences with sexual harassment and assault, and their concern that Reade’s vague accusation is related to the 2020 campaign, especially since her story has been inconsistent in ways that are unlike the usual inconsistencies in traumatized rape victims. There are a number of smart explications of the Reade accusation that I will link in the notes, most of which suggest there are serious problems with her account, but I thought the smartest approach to these accusations came from women’s health journalist Lindsay Beyerstein.
The problem with the way we approach cases of sexual assault, she says, is that we treat them as if they are uncommon. In fact, they are quite common, and women are as unlikely to lie about them as they are about any other common crime. We should start from a presumption that they are telling the truth, as you would if someone told you they had been mugged. But those claims of a common crime should still be evaluated if they are questioned. If I tell you I was mugged, and you say, “But you were with me the whole time and no one bothered us,” my claims need to be investigated. I am not entitled to be believed automatically.
The Biden camp has been quiet on the issue, determined not to let Trump shape the issues of the 2020 election as he did that of 2016, but as Trump continues to harp on it, it might well weaken support for Biden on the left.
Still, Trump’s narrative is not gaining the traction it might have before the pandemic. Today, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, told reporters that he had the plane with 500,000 coronavirus tests his wife procured from South Korea land at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), rather than Dulles international Airport in Virginia, to make sure the federal government would not seize the shipment. He went on to say the National Guard was protecting the tests at an undisclosed location out of fear that the federal government would swoop in to take them after all. Such a public accusation, based as it is in verifiable other cases of feds taking state shipments, suggest that Republicans so distrust the president they are willing to break with him.
Perhaps even more of a bellwether than Hogan was that one of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s big donors has decided to support Graham’s challenger, Democrat Jaime Harrison, in the 2020 contest. The former chairman and president of Michelin in North America, Richard Wilkerson, said of Harrison on Tuesday that “I am confident that as our next U.S. Senator he will be a tireless advocate for creating well-paying jobs, improving our state’s healthcare system, and training the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow. Jaime is the perfect candidate to bring together South Carolinians from all walks of life. I am proud to endorse Jaime today, and I know first hand he is the change South Carolina needs.” While the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election observer, says that Graham has his victory locked up, Wilkerson’s public shift suggests that Wilkerson thinks the state might flip, and wants to be covered if it does.
A final note: on this date in 1789, George Washington was sworn in as American’s first president. He later wrote to a friend about the new system: “That the Government, though not absolutely perfect, is one of the best in the World, I have little doubt.”
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Notes:
Michigan: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/michigan-armed-protesters-debate-whitmer
May 1, 2020 at 5:58 pm #114473
Billy_TParticipantCanada banned military-grade weapons last week — finally. If we were sane — and we’re not — we would have done that generations ago.
Trump does appalling things several times a day, but his calling for the “liberation” of several states recently was among his worst. He included “2nd amendment” scare tactics when he called for the liberation of Virginia. He’s actually egged on gun-toting morons who will end up killing innocent people, either via those guns or Covid-19.
___
Speaking just for myself: I detested Trump prior to his election, and was absolutely baffled that he had any supporters at all. Could only think of three possible rationales, give or take:
1. Sheer ignorance of his past, his long history of criminality (including Mob ties), sexual assaults, endless/serial lying, grifting, self-dealing, thuggish intimidation of others, his seven bankruptcies, etc. etc.
2. White supremacist leanings or outright embrace of that ideology
3. Vicarious enjoyment of another’s repeated cruelty
Now that we’ve all seen him in action, as president?
I can’t give anyone a pass for ignorance at this point. So it’s down to #2 or #3 for me.
In short, if someone is a supporter of Trump, now, in 2020, that’s a dead-on deal-breaker for me. No excuses. I have nothing but contempt for them and want nothing to do with them. Life is far too short.
Of course, the power to actually harm others is key to the level of that contempt. But it’s a matter of degrees, regardless.
May 2, 2020 at 4:21 pm #114527znModeratorGroups Aligned with Right-Wing Megadonors Are Promoting Coronavirus Protests
The DeVos-funded Mackinac Center promoted the Michigan protest, named “Operation Gridlock.” Another organizer of the protest, Michigan Conservatives, is led by Meshawn Maddock, an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign.
Since the “spontaneous” anti-lockdown protests began last week, it has become more and more obvious that the movement is being coordinated and financed, at least in part, by big-money right-wing interests, including some of the same forces that sparked the Tea Party in 2009.
FreedomWorks, a group that grew out of a Charles Koch-founded organization and that helped launch the Tea Party in 2009, is organizing some of the protests, holding virtual town halls, and “igniting an activist base of thousands of supporters across the nation to back up the effort.” The FreedomWorks website features a calendar of upcoming protests, and it is polling on the protests in swing districts, reportedly sharing the data with President Donald Trump’s economic task force.
In advance of the Wisconsin protests that began on April 18, Stephen Moore said on a YouTube program that he was “working with a group in Wisconsin that wants to do a drive-in” and that one major donor had promised to pay the bail and legal fees of any protesters who were arrested. Moore, a senior economic contributor to FreedomWorks, is a Trump ally, has close ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and is a distinguished fellow on temporary leave from the conservative Heritage Foundation, both of which are partially funded by Charles Koch and Koch Industries.
Convention of States Action (COSA), another conservative group in billionaire industrialist Koch’s funding network, is also helping mobilize the protests, which have sprung up in states such as Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin and have seen many participants not wearing masks or socially distancing. COSA is a project of the right-wing nonprofit, Citizens for Self-Governance, and has a web page devoted to its new initiative, “Open the States.”
“A spontaneous citizen movement to tell the federal government, and state and local governments that We the People say it’s time to Open the States,” declares the page. Below this line is a video advertising the “Open the States” campaign.
The page provides users ways to urge Trump and state and federal officials to “re-open American for business.” It features a U.S. map that identifies the main protest organizing group in nearly every state, with links to those groups’ Facebook pages. And there’s another page with a list of additional groups, with links.
COSA argues that “only a small number of counties have experienced high rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths,” and, thus, statewide shutdowns should not happen. “Decisions to open the economy and return to work can largely be left with local officials,” the group states.
A bipartisan majority—72 percent of U.S. adults—however, believe that people should stay at home “until the doctors and public health officials say it is safe,” according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos online poll.
“At OpenTheStates.com, you can get plugged in to your local group dedicated to re-opening your community’s economy,” COSA says. “These groups are not affiliated with the [COSA], but we want to give all our supporters and volunteers an opportunity to get involved.”
COSA indicated in an April 21 blog post that it is building a forum and other tools into the openthestates.com site after Facebook removed “Reopen” events from its site. The group has advertised the site and asked for money, on Facebook.
In addition, an organization heavily funded by the family of Education Sec. Betsy DeVos also helped plan a protest at the Michigan state Capitol. The DeVos-funded Mackinac Center promoted the Michigan protest, named “Operation Gridlock.” Another organizer of the protest, Michigan Conservatives, is led by Meshawn Maddock, an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign.
Ties to Koch Funding and Political Networks
Citizens for Self-Governance–a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formerly known as the John Hancock Committee for the States that does business as the Convention of States Foundation (COSF)–and its affiliates have been working for years on a plan to hold an Article V convention to amend the U.S. Constitution. A 2016 Convention of States mock convention passed amendments on the rightwing’s bucket list, such as easing the process to repeal federal regulations, requiring approval to increase the national debt, imposing congressional term limits, repealing the 16th Amendment’s authorization for an income tax, limiting the Commerce Clause, and requiring a supermajority to impose federal taxes.
Additional right-wing groups have been working on their own Article V plans, which have been coordinated through ALEC and bankrolled by the Koch funders network as well.
More than 200 organizations, including the Center for Media and Democracy, signed onto a letter in April 2017 denouncing an Article V convention as “a dangerous threat to the U.S. Constitution, our democracy, and our civil rights and liberties.”
Since 2014, COSF has been financed by funds connected to Koch and donors in the Koch political network.
Donors Capital Fund, a conduit for charitable donations by right-wing philanthropists including Koch, gave COSF $2.5 million from 2015-16, and DonorsTrust, a sister conduit, gave nearly $100,000 in 2014. Also in 2014, the family foundation of GOP megadonor Robert Mercer donated $500,000.
The Judicial Education Project, a legal nonprofit closely tied to the conservative Federalist Society and its co-chairman, Leonard Leo, gave COSF $950,000 in 2016. DonorsTrust, Donors Capital Fund, the Charles Koch Foundation, and the Mercer Family Foundation have given the Federalist Society millions of dollars since 2014. CSG Action, another 501(c)(4) affiliate of COSF, received large donations from multiple nonprofits tied to Leo in 2016, as well as $10,000 from the Koch-founded Citizens for a Strong Economy in 2015.
Another nonprofit in the Koch donor network, the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, gave COSF $100,000 in 2017.
The biggest donor in recent years is Vanguard Charitable, a donor-advised fund sponsor that channels its clients’ money to charitable nonprofits, which has given COSF nearly $5.1 million since 2014. Another major donor is the Armrod Foundation, which contributed $600,000 from 2015-17.
It’s more difficult to identify donors to Convention of States Action (COSA), but the Deramus Foundation gave $275,000 to “Convention of the States,” according to recent tax records that specified a COSA location in Purcellville, Virginia, the same city that COSA lists on its LinkedIn page.
COSF, which is led by Mark Meckler, a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, has still more connections to Koch and his political network. Meckler appears to be using the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to bring more money into COSA’s bank account by creating a paid, membership-based “online community…to keep everyone feeling sane, entertained, mentally stimulated,” according to an email sent by COSA.
Political operative and Koch associate Eric O’Keefe is board chairman at COSF and COSA and a director of CSG Action. He is also director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a political organization that has received funding from Koch-connected groups. As the Libertarian Party’s national field director, he helped manage the campaign of Koch’s brother, David, who ran for vice president on the Libertarian ticket in 1980.
Tim Dunn, an oil executive and a founding director of COSF, COSA, and CSG Action, is vice chairman of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a think tank that is heavily funded by the Koch Foundation and allied right-wing charities. The policy shop has been outspoken in its criticism of Texas’s lockdown, with its director penning an op-ed that cites the protests and declares, “It’s time to reopen the U.S. economy.”
Another COSA director, oil investor Kyle Stallings, is also on the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Stallings is a major donor to political group Empower Texans, which is tied to the policy foundation and the Koch network. Dunn founded Empower Texans.
COSF is closely tied to ALEC, a corporate bill mill linked with Koch operatives that has been funded by Koch Industries and Koch family foundations. ALEC, too, is pushing back against mandatory business closures. FreedomWorks’ Moore is a member of ALEC’s Private Enterprise Advisory Council. FreedomWorks recently registered at least two websites, reopenoureconomy.com and reopensociety.com, concerned with ending the business closures. Reopenoureconomy.com is the site of “Save Our Country,” a joint initiative of FreedomWorks, the Tea Party Patriots, and ALEC that has advised the White House on a strategy to reopen the economy.
A communications agency launched by Koch, In Pursuit Of, registered the site reopenmississippi.com on April 16.
Koch’s premier political nonprofit, Americans for Prosperity, which helped launch the Tea Party, has not publicly endorsed the coronavirus-related protests. AFP CEO Emily Seidel said the protests are “‘not the best way’ to ‘get people back to work.’” But AFP was “an early shutdown opponent,” saying, “Rather than blanket shutdowns, the government should allow businesses to continue to adapt and innovate to produce the goods and services Americans need.” State branches of Americans for Prosperity have been harshly criticizing governors’ shelter-in-place orders.
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