Judgment Day … fizzled

A couple days ago the gun happy crowd was preparing for another protest at the Michigan Capitol. There have already been a couple protests against the stay-at-home order. The last one included armed men getting into the building and sitting in the gallery with their guns while the legislature tried to conduct business. Yes, intimidation.

That prompted Whitmer to ask the Capitol Commission to ban guns in the building. Attorney General Dana Nessel said she would back the commission in court if they banned guns. The commission (which has a GOP majority) wailed what if we get sued? And voted to “study” the issue. Lawmakers asked if the dress code now required bullitproof vests.

Leading up to this one there were a lot of violent messages posted on social media, including calling for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to be fitted with a noose. The AG and police were also threatened.

Yesterday’s protest, described as “Judgment Day,” … fizzled. There were maybe 200 people standing in the rain and a few more in cars honking horns. The Capitol building was closed because at the end of Wednesday’s session lawmakers announced they were adjourning until next Tuesday.



Contradiction #1: Angry Staffer, who is not a current WH staffer, tweeted:

The White House is flipping the f*** out about how close coronavirus is getting to Trump and Pence — and tightening restrictions — while telling you to go back to work and send your kids back to school.

Contradiction #2: Jeremy Duncan tweeted:

Can someone explain to me why the same people who don't need to wear a mask because God will look after them also need an AR-15 because God won't?

It’s almost like God is a pretense we use to justify what we want to do

Contradiction #3: Jacki Schechner tweeted:

It’s safe enough to reopen states but too dangerous to keep Paul Manafort in prison?

The Wisconsin Supreme Court – working from home – struck down the stay at home order from Dem Gov. Tony Evers. It seems the court ignored the governor’s order and struck down the corresponding order from the Secretary of the Department of Health Services, saying it exceeded statutory authority. Yeah, the suit was brought by GOP lawmakers. A recent poll shows most residents support the stay at home order, more than half trust the governor, and only a third trust the GOP controlled legislature. Expect a spike in cases in about two weeks. Between this and voting the GOP in Wisconsin wants to kill its citizens.



New claims for jobless benefits for last week was just under 3 million, bringing the eight week total to 36.5 million.



Back in 2018 when Michigan passed its amendment for a citizens redistricting commission, Missouri voters also passed an amendment to lessen gerrymandering. In both states the win was above 60%. And in both states the GOP is trying to undo them. I get updates from the Michigan effort, the case is now in the Circuit Court of Appeals and will likely head to the Supreme Court.

The GOP led Missouri Senate passed a bill to modify the criteria to be used in the redistricting process and eliminate the nonpartisan head of the process. If it passes the House (likely) it will go before voters in November.

When it passed in 2018 the redistricting amendment was part of a broader clean government package. This new amendment to the amendment will strengthen some of the other proposals and hope voters won’t notice that it guts the gerrymandering prevention.



Sarah Kendzior tweeted:

The constitution is only as good as the people willing to uphold it, and the people tasked with upholding it are not good at all. People should be forming back-up plans for if they indefinitely postpone, cancel, or rig the election. NEVER assume law magically works on its own.

The US House passed two bills today. One to allow proxy voting so fewer people had to come to Washington for votes. Another to spend $3 trillion on economic relief. This second one likely faces strong opposition in the Senate.