Lansing, Michigan Protestor
James Smith protesting the protestors who are practicing unsafe methods of protest. They congregate in close proximity to others, failed to wear facemasks, threatened those people who were involved in the protest, and by their actions purposely prevented people and healthcare workers from having access to Sparrrow hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Their right to protest shall not impede upon the rights of others to safety.
I wonder what they will call this mutation of the Tea Party? As in the Tea Party was simply a rename of the John Birch Society.
And one Republican congressional representative hopeful (Detmer) hoping to replace Slotkin is at the protest sans facemask, in close proximity to others, and other supporters the “Proud Boys.” This is what the Republican Party has degenerated too. And then we have here those who wish to claim the Lansing crowd are simply protesters.
And they all have the same funding sources.
“We move along to Michigan, where COVID Truthers held a rally in the state capital on Wednesday. Reportedly, this festival of fools was financed by the family of our Secretary of Education. From the Detroit Free Press:
On Monday, Whitmer criticized Betsy DeVos, who is Trump’s education secretary, over the involvement of a nonprofit foundation backed by the DeVos family, the Michigan Freedom Fund, in a demonstration planned at the Capitol on Wednesday to protest the governor’s stay-at-home order. The car-based protest, intended to tie up traffic and dubbed “Operation Gridlock,” is organized by a different group, the Michigan Conservative Coalition, but the Michigan Freedom Fund has helped publicize it and has been listed as a host on Facebook posts. “This group is funded in large part by the DeVos family,” Whitmer said at a news conference, referencing the Michigan Freedom Fund. “And I think it’s really inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States president’s Cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor, but obviously, on me here at home,” Whitmer said.
Of course, because she is neither a neo-Confederate nut nor a member of the Trump family, Whitmer also graciously thanked the Amway corporation, the DeVos family firm, for its help with Michigan’s fight against the virus.”
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32173298/south-dakota-coronavirus-governor-kristi-noem/
In the early 1950s, young men and women with only an 8th-grade education could go to Detroit and work in the car plants making good enough wages to marry, buy a house, have kids, … Some sent these kids on to college, most went to work at the car plants. The world has changed a whole lot since 1950 era car plants that employed millions on the assembly line. Today, Robots do most if not all of the assembly, and Honda happened.
Michigan has its share of smart people, and its share of ignorant people.
I really like the guy in the video; a man after my own heart.
Ken:
I am from this background of a father who never finished grade school (a bricklayer) and a mom who graduated high school. Depression era parents who spawned 4, 3 of which have advanced degrees. My dad had his issues but, be had taught us not to disparage minorities. We were not that much better off than they.
And of course, when you look at people like these cretinous Devoses, you find a libertarian.
All in all these protestors are just typical Rep voters with time on their hands.
Dahlia Lithwick, my second favorite political writer steps out of her own home park, the judicial system, and shows her talent.
“There are many ironies of the COVID-19 era, perhaps too many to count. There is, of course, the fact that after three years of shouting at one another that “we should be out on the streets” and “what would it take to get us all out onto the streets,” something has happened that would compel everyone to the streets and we can no longer be on the streets. Then there is the fact that after three years of insisting that there should be a tremendous general strike to protest Donald Trump and that it is only by massively tanking the economy that we might be able to stop him, we are witnessing a massive cratering of the economy and incomprehensible unemployment and it has seemingly done nothing to harm him. But perhaps above all, the irony I cannot scrape off the bottom of my shoe, is that having followed this grinning orange jack-o’-lantern ghoul from reality television to the White House, those of us who opted to live off the screen, are now forced to die by it……
When all this passes, and it will certainly pass, it would be good to craft a new way of looking at governance, expertise, and authority that is less bound up in looking at ourselves, and also less caught up in looking at other people looking at ourselves, and in the relentless daily performance of building a brand that those who are looking at us would maybe like to purchase. There is no doubt in my mind that if the response to this pandemic demanded great quantities of kitten heels, sheath dresses, and overpriced real estate, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump should have been tasked with the authority to solve it. That we have somehow persuaded ourselves that unexceptional people who look like the kind of people who might pick up phones to call other people about catastrophic problems, possibly on a TV show, are the people who are most fit to govern, well, that is the result of a life lived entirely in thrall to screen time.
When all this passes, as we certainly hope it will, the poets and philosophers and scientists might step up to write (in truth, in words, in indelible black pen) the history of whatever the hell happened that damaged us so badly that we were willing to follow a bunch of character actors up over the embankment and down into a democracy measured in ratings and brand names and how we looked on camera. The revolution was, in fact, televised. And that was our first mistake.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/coronavirus-donald-trump-and-the-wizard-of-oz-presidency.html
This part:
“Then there is the fact that after three years of insisting that there should be a tremendous general strike to protest Donald Trump and that it is only by massively tanking the economy that we might be able to stop him, we are witnessing a massive cratering of the economy and incomprehensible unemployment and it has seemingly done nothing to harm him.”
shows what the GOP voter is truly motivated by. It was never about the economy, and in November it will not be about the economy. It was never about populism. It was about one thing, the legacy of George Wallace.
And it will not go away until the old Rep voters die off, and the super rich have to find another method of putting their boys in power.
More proof? take a look at a political ad.
” Donald Trump’s Campaign Team Ripped Over Racist Anti-Joe Biden Ad
“This is the kind of s**t that led to El Paso,” Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro tweeted in response.
Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign team is drawing stinging backlash on Twitter for using an image purportedly of MS-13 gang members to attack presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden:”
The picture here and the words are simply horrible. Best summed up by:
” Kat 4 Obama @Kat4Obama
Replying to @TrumpWarRoom
Republicans spent 8 years passing around racist depictions of President and Mrs. Obama. All they offer is racism and incitement to violence in hope of distracting from their damage to the country. It’s the party of racism. Trump is the arch-racist they will follow off a cliff.
79
8:34 PM – Apr 16, 2020″
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-2020-campaign-biden-ad-anger_n_5e995c2ac5b63639081c62bb
Run
I went to the one-room 1-8 school house, knew those kids
ken:
I can not upvote your comment, thank you for your reality.
Protestors block traffic. That’s what they do. When the governor decides to confiscate his income to divvy it up with folks losing their jobs and businesses we can check back in with Mr. Cheerful here. It’s not personal and an hour or two from now it’ll be over is a sounder outlook.
Eric:
The governor did not take their money The work stoppage is the result of a pandemic. Protestors do not have the right to endanger others or impede another’s rights by protesting without practicing safe healthcare methods or by blocking access to a place of healthcare. If you or others insist on doing so and do contract COVID 19, please find a nice corner and practice another right of yours . . . the right to die and not take up space in a hospital from someone who did practice safe healthcare methods during a pandemic.
Many of the protestors have probably lost money before and fear such a thing happening once more, but I would bet good money that none of these protestors have ever lost their life before.
When I was a child I despised boredom. I thought that when I would die then dying of anything else would be better than dying of boredom.
My wife can work from home, so has not lost any income from the pandemic lockdown. She complains about the boredom often because she did not serve in Viet Nam as I did. While serving in the 101st Airborne Division I learned to respect and cherish boredom for what it is, a chance to live another day. Now I hope to die of boredom one day a long, long time from now.
Ron:
Kicked around a bit. 8th, 10th, 5th, Marines, Headquarters Bn 2nd MarDiv. 68 – 74. We did not stay in one regiment or one place long for that matter.
I have an Elkhound and we would walk miles together in the woods or down dirt roads. Just exploring. There is always something to also read whether it is here or in a book. There is always some place to go where I do not have to mingle with idiots. We need to last the year before things get close to normal again.
In Michigan, it is not about money for these people. It is about being told by a woman and a Democrat what they can and can not do. They lost in the last election and they are going to lose by a bigger margin this coming election as Trump and their actions sink them and public opinion of ump and them.
Ron,
Agreed, but they lost their souls a long time ago.
EM:
The debasing of Biden has already begun at other sites (to go unnamed). Do I prefer Biden? No! But I am not so stupid as to withhold my vote for him, give it to a candidate who has no chance of winning, and be part of the cause of Trump having a second term. Yet, some are willing to do so.
Run,
A repeat of the horrors of 2016 is possible. Is NC one of those sites?
Positively ignorant actions. Any Progressive that repeats 2016 in 2020 should be shunned.
And Biden was just about my last choice, besides Bloomberg and Mayor Pete.
EM:
Of course . . . This is where I separate myself from some. It is not realistic to shoot yourself again because of ideology. Spare me the over used neoliberal contagion some seem to toss about freely. Trump and followers must be put down. Some of these people at Lansing are politicians and well known antagonists. Their pictures are in the newspapers. Why not ticket them?
“Progressives” like Yves and her cronies should be shunned by real progressives.
They are a major reason why Dems have lost so many elections. they can’t see the forest for the trees.
EM and Run,
Yep and yep.