Gretchen Witless

First Gavin Newsom tried to make nice with MAGA.  Now it's another governor's turn.

Unlike Newsom, however, who only sought interactions with high-profile Trump supporters on his podcast, Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, embraced Donald Trump himself.  Even as Trump postponed sweeping tariffs for ninety days in light of the global economy cratering (and some foreign manufacturers, like automakers, holding back their products at American ports!), Whitmer said that she was not against tariffs outright and added that she understood Trump's motivation for initiating them.

If Whitmer understood Trump's motivation for initiating tariffs, she would be against tariffs outright . . . at least the sort of destructive tariffs Trump is pushing.

Whitmer could have stopped there, but she then met with Trump at the White House to discuss issues and crises pertinent to her state, like an ice storm that hit the northern part of Michigan, and the result was that the electricity surrounding her 2028 presidential ambitions, like the electricity for northern Michigan residents, went out with a loud thump.  She unwittingly found herself in the Oval Office while Trump signed executive orders demanding investigations of Republican critic Miles Taylor for calling Trump to task over his potentially illegal actions in his first presidential term and of former Trump official Christopher Krebs of having declared the 2020 presidential election to be free fair and secure.  (Trump also intimated that Miles Taylor could be guilty of treason, which, like publishing a blog critical of Trump could be soon, is a capital offense.)  As a visibly nervous Whitmer looked on, Trump praised as was a "very good person" who has been doing an excellent job."

Remember when Elissa Slotkin said that the energy for the top of the Democratic ticket in Michigan in the 2024 presidential campaign wasn't there?  Well, that's why Whitmer is making nice with Trump.  As Allan Smith and Henry Gomez of NBC News wrote, "Whitmer is among a handful of prominent Democratic governors viewed as potential presidential contenders in 2028.  But unlike some of her contemporaries, Whitmer has chosen to seek out a stronger working relationship with Trump in his second term. Trump won her state last fall, and Whitmer views herself as more of a center-left moderate with a middle-of-the-road, Midwestern constituency — one that is receptive to Trump’s message, including and especially on manufacturing and tariff policy."

Whitmer forgot one simple fact, though . . . her strategy might be effective in winning Michigan in 2028, but as a national candidate for President, she has to carry enough other states to win the Presidency.  And Democrats in other states are appalled at what she just did and said, with one Democratic operative calling it "a disaster."

Once again, I am for dissolving the Union and breaking up the United States into separate countries.  Whitmer might still be able to get elected president of a post-Union Midwestern republic.  But after how she just "handled" Trump, no one outside of Michigan wants her to run for President of the United States.  Probably even no one inside of Michigan as well.

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.

The Michigan Rag

With floods ravaging the central area of Michigan's Lower Peninsula - centered around the Midland, the headquarters of Dow Chemical - Trump has tried to use federal funding to deal with the flood damage, caused mainly by failing dams, to get Governor Gretchen Whitmer to stop distributing applications for mail-in ballots.  He confused the applications with actual ballots, saying that what Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, below, was doing was illegal (it's not) and threatening to withhold funding to help with the Midland disaster if Benson persisted.

Benson fired back, explaining that what she did was perfectly legal and perfectly bipartisan.  "In November of 2018," she told MSNBC's Chris Hayes, "citizens voted overwhelmingly to give themselves this right to vote by mail. It was supported by citizens on both sides of the political spectrum, and it's something citizens on both sides of the political spectrum have done."  Indeed; other states, such was Republican-dominated West Virginia, have pursued voting by mail.  Trump himself votes by mail.  But he is trying to deny voters in Democratic states, and in swing states like Michigan, the opportunity to do so in a presidential election where Trump is behind in the polls but in which Democrats are reluctant to vote in person in the middle of an interminable pandemic.

Trump clearly has Michigan in his sights, as he visited the state this past week and toured a Ford factory making ventilators to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.  He reportedly did not violate the policy requiring to wear a mask at first, but only wore it briefly.  Later - unmasked - Trump, who has long since bene unmasked for the rotten leader he is, praised the Ford Motor Company for its contributions to American economy and praised company founder Henry Ford for his good bloodlines.  Henry Ford was a vicious anti-Semite who believed there was a Jewish conspiracy aiming to take over America and the world.

So who won this round?  Apparently, Michigan's mostly female Democratic leadership.  This past Thursday, Trump approved Governor Whitmer's request for federal aid to deal with the flooding in Midland this past Thursday despite his threats to cut off aid.  The Federal Emergency Management Association is now authorized to direct all equipment and resources necessary to handle the flooding, with emergency protective measures to be provided at 75 percent federal funding.  And the ballot applications got sent out.

Meanwhile, as Ford continues to make ventilators in the Ypsilanti, Michigan plant that Trump visited, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused two Ford factories - one of which was making Ford F-150 pickup trucks - to temporarily shut down when workers tested positive for the disease.  Sort of appropriate karma for a car company that, while no longer promoting anti-Semitism, now promotes the purchase of gas-guzzling pickups and truck-based monster wagons.

COVID Tea Party

I have an English ladyfriend who lives in France, and she once told me that she thinks the majority of Americans are ignorant and stupid.  The news of the past few days regarding the coronavirus only confirms her observation.

This past week, after Donald Trump set out a series of economic re-opening phases for the states to follow as guides and not the gospel, it readily became apparent that too few if any states would be ready to open soon under the guidelines specified in Phase One (in which Doris gets her oats!).  That didn't stop protesters from filling the streets of various cities, mainly state capitals, demanding an end to the lockdowns and dismissing them as an assault on freedom.  The protests were apparently encouraged by Trump himself, especially in states with Democratic governors to embarrass said governors, one of them being Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer - a female governor who's on Joe Biden's short list for a vice presidential running mate. Of course - rough up a woman being rumored as a candidate for the Vice Presidency!  The Michigan protest - which included militia-type gun-toting guys giving candidate with bare hands to similarly bare-handed children - is shown below. 

Michigan is as divided as the country at large, maybe even more so.  The COVID-19 cases in the state are heavily concentrated in the Detroit metropolitan area, while the rest of the state is largely virus free - and Whitmer's restrictions are meant to keep the rest of the state virus-free while reducing the numbers in the Detroit area.  But with Detroit itself being heavily black and its suburbs being a good mix of non-Hispanic whites and racial/ethic minorities and with the rest of the state being mainly white, the restrictions have also sparked a Tea Party revival, as evidenced in the photo above. I am certain that most of the people in the above photo have phone numbers with a 906 area dove. 906 is the area code for Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  

Trump, of course, is adding fuel to the fire with tweets designed to shame the governors following his own suggested re-opening guidelines: "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" LIBERATE VIRGINIA!" "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" (Minnesota governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, has allowed the resumption of outdoor recreational activities where social distracting is possible, such as golf and boating.)  You don't see a "LIBERATE NEW JERSEY!" tweet against Phil Murphy because Trump knows he can't win New Jersey in November under any circumstances.  And because Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio is a Republican, you don't see a "LIBERATE OHIO!" Tweet either.  It's quite obvious that these protests are in fact Trump rallies without Trump.

But there have been protests in states led by Republican governors, including Ron DeSantis's Florida, where the picture above was taken.

If these women get their way and defeat the lockdown in Florida, the two of them will get both of what their signs are requesting. 

Pandemic Panic

The United States has the largest number of coronavirus cases of any country.

And the number is over 100,000.

Donald Trump has been fouling up the response to the crisis, yet a majority - yes, a majority - of people surveyed approve of how he's handling it.  This is probably owing more to high marks from people in parts of the country that are less affected by COVID-19 than others, and it's worth noting that his overall approval rating is still below 50 percent.  The small bounce he's getting may be indicative of a desire by Americans to see Trump to a good job, not necessarily a desire to see him get re-elected.  But he dithered when he ordered General Motors to make ventilators, and General Motors was unsure of whether there was a deal or not between the company and the federal government, and he blew off Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York by saying he didn't think the state needed so many ventilators (and also has insulted other governors, including Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and "failed presidential candidate Jay Inslee of Washington).  Other forms of equipment necessary to fight the pandemic are in short supply, and states have to compete with each other and with other countries to buy it.  Trump's order to GM goes a little in the right direction, but not far enough.  People are supporting Trump because he's the only leader we have - except for Andrew Cuomo, of course (more on that later)  - and they want him to get us out of this mess.  But when you think about it, Trump is more infamous for messes he's gotten us into.  He wanted to open the country for business for Easter, but why did he think he could do that when the Indianapolis 500 - which runs every Memorial Day - has been postponed this year until summer? (He's since extended social distancing guidelines through April.)

I could think of more examples, but I don't want to give myself a headache (though that would be preferable to COVID-19).

Congress passed a bipartisan $2 trillion (that's $2,000,000,000,000) relief package to shore up private businesses and help people.  It will help, but it won't be enough.  And don't ask me to break the bill down in detail, but suffice to say that the Democrats improved it and prevented from becoming a full-blown corporate bailout.  So, in the spirit of bipartisanship, let's hope Trump helps get us out of this mess.  But let's not hope he gets re-elected.    

Power Failures

Not the sort I've been having for nine years and change.

In Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled legislature passed - and outgoing scumbag governor Scott Walker signed - legislation limiting the power of incoming Democratic governor Tony Evers, making it illegal for Evers' administration to rescind a state suit against the federal health care law, and limiting early voting in an attempt to help Trump win the state again in 2020.  Evers asked Walker - pretty please, with sugar on it - to veto the legislation.  Yeah, right.   Walker responded by saying no to Evers with a bottle of elderberry wine.  With a touch of arsenic.  And similar efforts are afoot to undermine incoming Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan as well.

And then there are the new Democratic attorneys general in those states having their power reduced . . .

No matter how many state legislative seats the Democrats won in the 2018 midterms - 336, by one count - they still don't control enough state legislatures, and the newly elected Democratic governors in this cycle are more often than not susceptible to being failures as many of them will have to deal with GOP legislatures that will seem them damned before helping them run their states.  The Republicans are hell-bent on negating elections and rigging the system to keep themselves in power, or at least give them the upper hand in perpetuity.  The Democrats have to get smarter in winning back power in the states (and this goes for Win Back Your State) if they want to control more state legislatures.  Yet, even as Democrats won seats of Republican-leaning U.S. House districts by nominating candidates far more moderate than the Democratic base, this strategy translated into far less success at the state level - if indeed it was consciously employed at the state level.  Perhaps they should have nominated more moderates who could compete in Republican-leaning state legislative districts.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, where the Republican legislature turned Democratic governor Roy Cooper into a virtual figurehead and restricted voting rights in the name of stopping voter fraud, Mark Harris may have gotten himself involved in a voter-fraud case concerning absentee ballots in his race against his opponent Dan McCready for the seat for North Carolina's Ninth U.S. House District.  The local election board has refused to certify the results showing a Harris win, and a new election may be ordered.

Harris is the Republican candidate.