Effectively pro-coronavirus.

The plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor by armed terrorists and feature her in a show trial is still in the news. Sarah Kendzior tweeted a quote from her book Hiding in Plain Sight that is appropriate:

The main tactic of the Trump camp and their backers was not to directly threaten you with violence, but to smear you to the point that a fanatic might find murdering you an appealing prospect.

I downloaded Michigan’s coronavirus case and death data again today. Because of the way the data is reported to the state and their desire to date a case by the onset of symptoms, not when the test was taken or the results reported, data for the last couple weeks (and even longer) can change from one time I download to the next. Yesterday’s data shows that twice in the last two weeks the number of cases has topped 1060 new cases a day. That’s after staying below 900 cases, and sometimes down to 500 cases, since the end of June. The trend line is up. Though the number of deaths has stayed low, the trendline since mid September is also rising, getting to over 20 deaths in a day a few days ago. It hadn’t been above 15 a day since early June. David Nir of Daily Kos discussed the situation in Michigan beyond the kidnapping plot. I had mentioned the state Supreme Court, currently with a 4-3 GOP majority, voted to strike down the law Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has based her emergency mandates on. Nir wrote:

That tells us two things: 1. The Republican justices are effectively pro-coronavirus. 2. They don’t believe that Democrats, when they win office, are legitimate and entitled to govern. Both of those are terrifying propositions. The first will lead to ever-greater losses of life and prolonged misery for the entire state. The second, meanwhile, defies the will of the public and fosters a political environment where extremists no longer accept the outcome of elections when Democrats prevail and instead do things like … plot to kidnap their own state’s governor.

One of those GOP justices is leaving under mandatory retirement. So this is a chance to flip the court. Alan Avalos tweeted a quote from Timothy Snyder on Kendzior’s podcast Gaslit Nation:

Healthcare is the surface under which wealth transfer takes place.

Kos of Kos reported the latest the nasty guy is doing to the GOP. Many GOP campaigns are low on money, in contrast to many Democrat campaigns which have been pulling in lots of small donations. It seems many billionaire donors don’t like the nasty guy so are sitting this one out. That’s puzzling to me because Moscow Mitch is usually so responsive to donors and would want to please them. Mitch seems to be encouraging the worst in the nasty guy. Kos reported that the nasty guy is ranting against candidates of his own party for not doing what he wants (mostly because there’s no evidence or it’s illegal). He’s also ranting against Fox News. So why would the nasty guy’s supporters vote for any of the cowards? They may vote for him and leave the rest of the ballot blank. Which is good for us.