In a series of social media posts on Tuesday, Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel made a racially loaded comment that sparked immediate backlash online, including from a Detroit News editor and columnist.
In response to reports that the coronavirus is disproportionately impacting minorities, Nessel posted a pair of tweets declaring that African Americans are &#8220;treated like garbage&#8221; in terms of equal opportunity and access to healthcare — and mocking &#8220;white folks&#8221; for supposedly being &#8220;outraged because they can&#8217;t go golfing.&#8221;
&#8220;The high rates of infection and death within our African-American population from [COVID-19] is staggering and horrific. It further establishes how AA’s are treated like garbage when it comes to equal opportunity and access to health care, housing, education and employment,&#8221; wrote Nessel. &#8220;Every one of us who serves in government must double-down on our commitment to do right by the African-American communities in our state and across our nation. Failing to do so is a complete abdication of our obligation as office holders.&#8221;
&#8220;I just can’t hear about one more black health care worker, police officer or bus driver die while getting a barrage of complaints from white folks outraged because they can’t go golfing,&#8221; the attorney general added in a follow-up post.
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Every one of us who serves in government must double-down on our commitment to do right by the African-American communities in our state and across our nation. Failing to do so is a complete abdication of our obligation as office holders.
&mdash; Dana Nessel (@dananessel) <a href="https://twitter.com/dananessel/status/1247672743644069896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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I just can’t hear about one more black health care worker, police officer or bus driver die while getting a barrage of complaints from white folks outraged because they can’t go golfing. <a href="https://t.co/PfpYOYdDeh">https://t.co/PfpYOYdDeh</a>
&mdash; Dana Nessel (@dananessel) <a href="https://twitter.com/dananessel/status/1247675753333952514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Along with other blowback from residents of the state, including <a href="https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2020/04/08/you-should-resign-michigan-ag-blasted-for-tweet-about-white-folks-outraged-because-they-cant-go-golfing-while-minorities-are-disproportionately-affected-by-coronavirus/">calls for Nessel&#8217;s resignation</a>, the thread prompted Detroit News deputy editorial page editor and columnist <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/staff/2647623001/ingrid-jacques/">Ingrid Jacques</a> to call out Nessel for making the crisis into a racial issue.
&#8220;Why is our attorney general turning a pandemic affecting all of us into a racial issue? &#8216;White folks outraged because they can’t go golfing.&#8217; Seriously? White folks are dying, too,&#8221; wrote Jacques.
Nessel responded by declaring that those who don&#8217;t support left-wing policies, like universal health care, are hurting minorities: &#8220;[Because] when you advocate against universal healthcare, a living wage, paid sick leave, public education and environmental regulations, the virus disproportionately impacts communities of color and black Americans get sick and die at exponentially higher rates.&#8221;
&#8220;I never said there aren&#8217;t disparities, [Dana Nessel],&#8221; Jacques, a self-described conservative, replied. &#8220;We should be concerned, and we must tackle those issues. But right now, we are all in this together, and it affects all of us.&#8221; 
That inspired another snarky response and loaded accusation from the progressive attorney general: &#8220;&#8216;Right now&#8217; we all in this together. But [tomorrow] you will go back to railing against policies badly needed to assist communities most in need which would mitigate the racial disparities evident from the impact of the virus. Use this event to promote fairness and justice for all.&#8221;
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Bc when you advocate against universal healthcare, a living wage, paid sick leave, public education and environmental regulations, the virus disproportionately impacts communities of color and black Americans get sick and die at exponentially higher rates. <a href="https://t.co/ZmFcDvf1Tw">https://t.co/ZmFcDvf1Tw</a>
&mdash; Dana Nessel (@dananessel) <a href="https://twitter.com/dananessel/status/1247919756126158854?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
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“Right now” we all in this together. But tmr you will go back to railing against policies badly needed to assist communities most in need which would mitigate the racial disparities evident from the impact of the virus. Use this event to promote fairness and justice for all. <a href="https://t.co/DAq0PKpEIo">https://t.co/DAq0PKpEIo</a>
&mdash; Dana Nessel (@dananessel) <a href="https://twitter.com/dananessel/status/1247933850027687937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
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As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trump-warns-black-americans-at-higher-risk-from-coronavirus">The Daily Wire</a> reported, President Trump addressed the issue of the disproportionate impact of the virus on African Americans during the daily coronavirus briefing Tuesday. &#8220;We are actively engaging on the problem of increased impacts – this is a real problem, and it’s showing up very strongly in our data on the African-American community – and we’re doing everything in our power to address this challenge, which is a tremendous challenge.&#8221;
&#8220;We’ve known literally forever that diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and asthma are disproportionally affecting minority populations, particularly African-Americans,&#8221; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, explained. &#8220;Unfortunately, when you look at predisposing conditions that lead to a bad outcome with the coronavirus – the things that get people into ICUs, require intubation, and often lead to death – they are just those very co-morbidities that are unfortunately disproportionately prevalent in the African-American population. So we’re very concerned about that, it’s very sad, there’s nothing we can do about it right now except to try and give them the best possible care to avoid those complications.&#8221;

Dana Nessel

Michigan Attorney General’s ‘White Folks’ Coronavirus Tweet Sparks Blowback

Coronavirus

Michigan

Racism

This article has been updated since its original publication. 
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been floated as a possible running mate for former Vice President Joe Biden in the coming 2020 election. However, her actions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic may have seriously hurt her popularity in the swing state that President Trump so desperately needs to win.
In an op-ed published on Saturday, the Michigan paper <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2020/04/04/editorial-whitmer-must-make-michigan-her-priority/5111367002/">Detroit News, </a>which endorsed Libertarian Gary Johnson over Trump in 2016, severely criticized Whitmer for playing politics as her state suffers through an unprecedented crisis.
&#8220;Gov. Gretchen Whitmer must send an unequivocal message to her constituents that Michigan is her priority in this hour of crisis,&#8221; wrote Detroit News. &#8220;Her running feud with President Donald Trump calls into question whether she&#8217;s acting in the best interests of this state, or on behalf of the Democratic Party.&#8221;
Whitmer has routinely used COVID-19 pandemic as a means to battle with President Trump, such as when she alleged the federal government was not helping her state with coronavirus while <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michigan-governor-claims-feds-wont-deliver-coronavirus-supplies-to-state-refuses-to-provide-proof">providing zero proof</a> to support her case. She also <a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/03/31/gov-whitmer-reverses-course-on-coronavirus-drugs-is-now-asking-feds-for-hydroxychloroquine-and-chloroquine">reversed course</a> after instructing medical professionals in her state not to prescribe the drug hydroxychloroquine, which the Trump administration had been pushing to combat COVID-19.
“Prescribing any kind of prescription must also be associated with medical documentation showing proof of the medical necessity and medical condition for which the patient is being treated. Again, these are drugs that have not been proven scientifically or medically to treat COVID-19,” said a letter from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
Unlike Dem Governors Gavin Newsom (CA) and Andrew Cuomo (NY), Whitmer&#8217;s actions became so blatantly partisan that President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michigan-governor-claims-feds-wont-deliver-coronavirus-supplies-to-state-refuses-to-provide-proof">had to publicly call her out</a> on it.
“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic,” Trump tweeted. “Yet your Governor, Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA.”
Though Detroit News did not necessarily criticize Whitmer&#8217;s handling of the pandemic in her state, the newspaper did feel that her priorities were out of place by focusing so much media time on criticizing the Trump administration.
&#8220;She&#8217;s also assumed the role of designated Democratic attack dog in this crisis, appearing almost daily on cable news shows to criticize the administration&#8217;s handling of the virus response,&#8221; Detroit News wrote. &#8220;That creates confusion about whether Whitmer is advocating for her Michigan constituents, or carrying out her duties as co-chair of Joe Biden&#8217;s presidential campaign, or worse, serving her own ambition to be vice president.&#8221;
&#8220;Trump apparently thinks it&#8217;s the latter,&#8221; the op-ed continued. &#8220;He&#8217;s singled out the governor for particular disdain, repeating often the unsupported claim that Whitmer is mishandling the crisis in her state. Last week he demeaned her by referring to her as &#8216;the woman from Michigan.'&#8221;
While Detroit News referred to Trump as a &#8220;petty and vindictive man,&#8221; the newspaper ultimately felt that Whitmer should put the needs of her state first and seek to foster a collaboration with the president, citing Governors Cuomo and Newsom as chief examples of politicians who have set aside their differences with Trump for the good of their state.
&#8220;If everyone pulls together, the worst of the COVID-19 crisis might soon be behind us, and there will be time to return to the jousting of the election campaigns,&#8221; the op-ed concludes. &#8220;Until then, Michigan residents need to know their governor is serving one master – them.&#8221;
Joe Biden, who has promised to pick a female running-mate, has <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/490570-biden-confirms-hes-considering-whitmer-for-vp">already stated</a> that Whitmer is on his &#8220;list&#8221; of potential choices for the 2020 race.
UPDATE: The original article said that Detroit News is &#8220;hardly a bastion of conservatism.&#8221; The language was altered to reflect the fact that the paper has been more libertarian-leaning than the Detroit Free Press. It did not endorse President Trump in 2016.

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Slammed By Detroit News For Playing Politics During Pandemic

COVID-19

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

President Trump has single-handedly thrust a mostly unknown politician into the spotlight — and she might just wind up being Joseph R. Biden’s running mate, bashing him relentlessly until Nov. 3.
During his daily press briefing last Friday, Trump said that Democrats&#8217; failure to appreciate his handling of the crisis is ultimately failure to appreciate other key people and entities working to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.
“When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps. They’re not appreciative to FEMA. It’s not right. These people are incredible. They’re working 24 hours a day,” he said. “Mike Pence, I don’t think he sleeps any more. These are people that should be appreciated.”
Then he got personal. “I mean, I’m a different type of person. I say, ‘Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington. You’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan.’ All — it doesn’t make any difference what happens,” he said.
And he went on about “the woman from Michigan.”
“Michigan, all she does is — she has no idea what’s going on. And all she does is say, ‘Oh, it’s the federal government’s fault.’ And we’ve taken such great care of Michigan,” Trump said.
And boom. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, hits the big time.
How big? On March 5, her odds of being selected by Biden as his running mate were 33/1. By March 20, she’d risen to 16/1. On Tuesday, she was a 10/1 shot.
Trump has continued to put Whitmer front and center in the race to join Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on the ticket.
And the president is keeping up the heat. He later referred to her as “Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer” in a tweet and said she is “way in over her head,” “doesn’t have a clue” and “likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!”
But Trump is playing with fire.
Whitmer, 48, is barely known even within circles of political pundits and pollsters, but she’s seen by top power brokers as a rising star in the Democratic Party. A lawyer whose father was the president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and whose mother was an assistant state attorney general, she’s real.
In 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which voted for former President Barack Obama twice, and Biden will need to flip them back to the Democratic side to win in November.
But Whitmer’s addition to the ticket might just put Michigan, a state whose governorship she won by nearly 10 percentage points in 2018, into the D column.
While many have never heard of her, she was selected to give the official Democratic response to Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, considered a big honor.
And she has of late taken direct aim at Trump, complaining that the federal government’s response has been lacking in her state. Trump has been pushing the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which some doctors have said shows promise in treating COVID-19, but Whitmer instructed medical workers in Michigan not to prescribe the medicine.
“Prescribing any kind of prescription must also be associated with medical documentation showing proof of the medical necessity and medical condition for which the patient is being treated. Again, these are drugs that have not been proven scientifically or medically to treat COVID-19,” said a letter from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
And Whitmer responded to Trump’s attacks on Twitter with a post that included a hand-waving emoji, writing, “Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me.”
Biden also defended Whitmer in a statement last week, saying Trump could “learn a thing or two from Governor Whitmer — speed matters, details matter, and people matter.”
But the spotlight brings more scrutiny, and she’s had a few fumbles. Last Friday, Whitmer urged Michiganders to “lock arms” to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Um … locking arms is how the virus spreads. She was widely mocked on social media.
Yet unlike many of the others contenders — and remember, Biden has vowed to pick a woman — Whitmer has said she doesn’t want the job.
“I think it is important that he has a woman running mate, to be honest. I think that there are a lot of phenomenal potential running mates for him,” she said earlier this month on MSNBC. “It’s not going to be me, but I am going to have a hand in helping make sure that he has the rounded-out ticket that can win.”
But turning down an offer to be the second-most powerful politician in the world doesn’t happen often.
And if Biden comes knocking, she’ll answer.
*Joseph Curl ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2014 and covered the White House for a dozen years. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter at @JosephCurl. A version of this article ran previously in The Washington Times.

US-ECONOMY-DETROIT-AUTO

Trump Just Might Turn ‘The Woman From Michigan’ Into Biden’s Running Mate

2020 Election

Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday suggested President Donald Trump’s administration had directed vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the Great Lakes State, though she refused to say who made the order and which vendors were affected.
Crain’s Detroit <a href="https://www.crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/whitmer-feds-told-vendors-not-send-medical-supplies-michigan">reported</a> Whitmer’s comments on Friday.
&#8220;When <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/trump-told-governors-to-buy-own-virus-supplies-then-outbid-them">the federal government told</a> us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on,&#8221; Whitmer said in a radio interview on WWJ 950AM. &#8220;What I&#8217;ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It&#8217;s really concerning.&#8221;
Crain’s reported that “Whitmer didn&#8217;t say who has told vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the state, but strongly implied the order came from President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration” and “did not back away from her earlier claim” Friday afternoon during an appearance on CNN.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve entered into a number of contracts and as we are getting closer to the date when shipments are supposed to come in, they&#8217;re getting canceled or they&#8217;re getting delayed,&#8221; Whitmer said on CNN. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been told they&#8217;re going first to the federal government.&#8221;
Crain’s reported that the “governor&#8217;s office could not provide any additional information Friday afternoon substantiating Whitmer&#8217;s allegation.”
Trump took to Twitter as usual to criticize Whitmer, saying she “doesn’t have a clue.”
“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic,” Trump tweeted. “Yet your Governor, Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA.”
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-fires-back-at-michigans-whitmer-claims-dem-governor-doesnt-have-a-clue">reported</a> that Michigan “had more than 2,200 confirmed cases of the virus, ranking fifth in the nation, and had seen at least 43 deaths.” Trump on Friday approved “a disaster declaration for the state, ordering federal assistance to support state and local efforts,” the outlet added.
Whitmer had claimed previously that her state hadn’t received “clear directives and guidance” from the Trump administration regarding how to handle the outbreak. More from Fox:
<blockquote>Earlier Friday, Trump told reporters during a White House news briefing that he advised Vice President Mike Pence – leader of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force – against communicating with Whitmer, claiming she was among a small group of governors who weren’t being “appreciative” of the Trump administration’s virus response efforts.
“I say, Mike … don’t call the woman in Michigan. I say, if they don’t treat you right, don’t call,” Trump told reporters.</blockquote>
Trump made similar remarks Thursday on Sean Hannity’s program, saying, “We&#8217;ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor.”
“You know who I&#8217;m talking about, from Michigan. We don&#8217;t like to see the complaints,” Trump said.
Other prominent Democratic governors have praised the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“I spoke to the president this morning again. He is ready, willing, and able to help,” Cuomo said earlier this month. “I think the president was 100% sincere in saying that he wanted to work together in partnership and in a spirit of cooperation. Steps he has taken are evidence of that.”
Whitmer is considered to be a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Michigan Governor Claims Feds Won’t Deliver Coronavirus Supplies To State, Refuses To Provide Proof

Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to win the all-important Michigan primary, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/polls-close-missouri-mississippi-michigan-north-dakota">according to Fox News</a> and the Associated Press, likely dealing a killer blow to Sen. Bernie Sanders&#8217; (I-VT) hopes of winning the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Biden was slated to win the Michigan primary, according to a poll released Monday, which put him nearly two dozen points ahead of Vermont socialist Sanders, but Michigan polls have proven incorrect before. Back in 2016, then-frontrunner Hillary Clinton was projected to win the same primary by a cool 20 points but ended up losing to Sanders by 14 points &#8212; an upset victory that Sanders&#8217; supporters felt justified their candidate&#8217;s continued presence in the race.
At 10pm EST, two hours after polls closed, Biden was leading Sanders by that same 14 points, 54% to 40%. Both former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who exited the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last Monday, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who beat a dismal exit from her own campaign last Wednesday, received support &#8212; 3% and 2%, respectively.
Michigan&#8217;s primary was the first time the Democratic candidates officially competed in the all-important Rust Belt and Michigan, a &#8220;battleground&#8221; state with a large percentage of so-called &#8220;Reagan Democrats&#8221; &#8212; moderate Democrats, many of whom are union members, who lean left on economic issues but straddle the line between the two parties on social issues &#8212; is seen as key to winning the 2020 presidential election.
President Donald Trump&#8217;s message of economic populism resonated loudly with Michigan&#8217;s Democrats in 2016 and the Democratic party likely hopes Biden&#8217;s folksy persona and demonstrated connection with the working class helps lure voters back into their camp. The stakes are high and Democrats believe the numbers are in their favor; Trump won the state by less than a quarter million votes in 2016.
Michigan also found itself, unexpectedly, a &#8220;key&#8221; contest in the race for the Democratic nomination. Sanders took an early lead on the competition, winning the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, and then the Nevada caucuses (by an astounding two-to-one margin). Apparently fearful the Vermont socialist would snag the nomination, Democrats pressed Biden in South Carolina, delivering a victory for the &#8220;moderate&#8221; Obama alum and setting Biden on a winning streak &#8212; a streak made all that much easier when Warren, Bloomberg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg bowed out of the contest.
Bloomberg, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) threw their support behind Biden in an effort to unite the party.
With 125 delegates at stake, Michigan was likely Sanders&#8217; last stand and his last opportunity to prove he could take on the Democratic machine. If Biden takes Michigan by as large a margin as expected, it means Sanders has few opportunities to catch Biden in the delegate race and he may be forced to finally bow out.
At 10pm EST, Biden had also won Missouri and Mississippi, continuing his record of domination of the Rust Belt and south.
Despite Biden&#8217;s win, Trump&#8217;s campaign told media Tuesday night that they believe they will ultimately prevail in Michigan, particularly in light of an incident Tuesday morning, where Biden, confronted by an auto worker on the issue of gun rights, lost his cool, calling the man a &#8220;horse&#8217;s a**&#8221; and threatening a slap.
“It has never mattered who the Democrat nominee turns out to be, and now that there are only two options left, it is clear that they are two sides of the same coin,&#8221; Trump 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said in a statement, per Fox News. &#8220;The Democrat candidate for president will be running on a big government socialist agenda regardless of the name on the ballot. It is also clear that the Democrat establishment has rallied around the confused Joe Biden in an effort to deny the nomination to Bernie Sanders. Either way, President Trump is on an unstoppable drive toward re-election.”

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BREAKING: Joe Biden Wins All-Important Michigan Primary Likely Ending Bernie Sanders’ Chances For Nomination

Bernie Sanders

Former Vice President Joe Biden is crushing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in polls out Monday as the campaigns hone in on Michigan, likely the last primary contest where Sanders can turn around his losing streak.
An &#8220;early results&#8221; poll commissioned by local news outlet, <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/03/09/polls-joe-biden-holds-lead-over-bernie-sanders-michigan-primaries/4994142002/">the Detroit Free Press</a>, shows Biden with a commanding two-to-one lead over Sanders, shellacking the Vermont socialist 51%  to 27%.
&#8220;EPIC-MRA talked to 400 people, according to the ABC12 poll, the results are very different from 2016. Sanders beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Michigan during the 2016 elections,&#8221; Michigan outlets reported Monday. &#8220;Results show 51% of voters say they&#8217;re picking Biden, Sanders comes in with 27%, 9% say they&#8217;re voting for another candidate and 13% say they&#8217;re undecided. There&#8217;s a 4.9% margin of error.&#8221;
The chasm is so big that even if all undecided voters swing to Sanders, he won&#8217;t make up the difference. And among those who spoke to the Detroit Free Press, only around 11% remain open to switching their vote in the 24 hours ahead of the contest.
For Michigan voters, the poll says, health care remains a top concern, but Sanders doesn&#8217;t necessarily pick up support for his &#8220;Medicare for All&#8221; plan, likely because Michigan&#8217;s many union members are part of collective bargaining agencies that have fought hard for comprehensive health coverage as part of their benefits packages. A &#8220;Medicare for All&#8221; plan would end those benefits, and union members seem none to happy about that prospect.
Sanders had made Michigan into a keystone state for his campaign, and held half a dozen rallies there over the weekend, largely focused on turning out the state&#8217;s youth vote. Sanders, who struggles with support among African-Americans, largely abandoned plans to focus on minority voters in his Michigan appearances, according to reports from within the campaign, in the hopes that he can ride the support of college students and other ethnic minorities to a late victory.
&#8220;In a revised stump speech urging the mostly white audience to consider whether they were &#8216;satisfied with the status quo,&#8217; the senator emphasized the importance of Michigan to his second presidential campaign,&#8221; the Washington Examiner reported. &#8220;Sanders played with his messaging to black Democrats over the weekend, scrapping plans to &#8216;directly address the African American community and make the case for why black voters should support him over Joe Biden&#8217; before announcing an endorsement from civil rights activist and former White House hopeful Jesse Jackson. Jackson joined him on the trail in the conservative stronghold Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Sunday morning.&#8221;
Although there&#8217;s a 20-point difference between Sanders and Biden, the Vermont socialist isn&#8217;t out of the contest. Sanders supporters&#8217; pointed, Monday, to a similar poll taken just a day before the Michigan matchup in 2016, then between Sanders and the eventual 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.
Clinton was leading Sanders by 25 points in a poll released the Monday before the 2016 Michigan primary, but Sanders pulled out a remarkabke upset victory over Clinton, besting her campaign by 14 points. This time around, though, Sanders is contending not just with &#8220;moderate&#8221; union members, many of whom have responded well to president Donald Trump&#8217;s message of economic populism, but with practicality. Michigan&#8217;s Democratic elite have mostly endorsed Joe Biden on the premise that Biden performs demonstrably better against Trump in the &#8220;Rust Belt&#8221; battleground state than Sanders.
Michigan is one of six states voting March 10th &#8212; Washington, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, and North Dakota make up the other five. In total, just over 350 delegates are at stake Tuesday.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Campaigns In Los Angeles Day After His Big Super Tuesday Wins

OUCH: Biden Crushing Sanders In Michigan Polls But Bernie Hopes For Big Last-Minute Comeback

On Friday, a black pastor and lifelong Democrat from Flint, Michigan, confronted Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez about the leftist policies the Democratic Party has embraced. He pointed out that some of his congregants ask, “How do we preach one thing on Sunday, but then campaign for people who are totally opposed to that?&#8221;  He asked, “Do I, as an African-American pastor, lifelong Democrat, do I have a place in this party?”
As <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/02/28/dnc-chair-tom-perez-talks-state-party-democrats-detroit/4906515002/">The Detroit Free Press</a> noted, Pastor Chris Martin of the Cathedral of Faith in Flint, Michigan, stated:
<blockquote>I am a moderate Democrat, but I do not support abortion. I do not support same-sex marriage. I have people in my congregations who ask us, “How do we preach one thing on Sunday, but then campaign for people who are totally opposed to that?” …  Do I, as an African-American pastor, lifelong Democrat, do I have a place in this party? Or is it all about health care, immigration, and these other things?
What about the things that we have to deal with? Bade County has always been a reliable Democratic county. In 2018 they went Republican. Saginaw County and Genesee County, Flint is still in the middle of a water crisis. The people up here don’t want to vote for any Democrats. You don’t win Michigan elections without Genesee County, Saginaw County and Bay County.</blockquote>
He continued, “But there are union members who are meeting with (GOP senatorial candidate) John James from the UAW. That’s unheard of! … What would be the narrative for this party to get the apathy reversed for those types of counties that you’re going to need to win this state?”
<a href="https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/03/01/michigan-black-pastor-rebukes-dnc-do-i-have-a-place-in-this-party-892735">BizPac Review</a> pointed out that President Trump has stated, “We are going to compete for every single vote in 2020. And we expect a historic share of the black vote come Election Day.” In South Carolina over the weekend, Trump added, “The unemployment rate among African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans has reached record lows. Black poverty levels are the lowest ever recorded in the history of our country … For decades, Democrat politicians betrayed African-Americans. They forced their childen into failing schools. They shipped their jobs to foreign countries. They pushed unfair [jail] sentencing policies on them. They favored illegal aliens over their own constituents. My administration is reversing these failed policies and delivering record gains for African-Americans.”
Last week, a survey conducted by a political action committee that <a href="https://blackpac.com/about/">describes itself</a> as an “independent, Black-led organization” revealed that more than half of their respondents felt that the Democratic Party was not responsive enough to their needs.
BlackPac stated on its <a href="https://blackpac.com/">website</a>:
<blockquote>Black voters are the core of the modern progressive coalition. We engage our community around the issues that matter most from protecting our voting rights to a fair economy and quality schools for our children, to criminal justice reform and a healthcare system that works for everyone. We believe in talking to Black voters on these issues at their doors, in their neighborhoods, online, and by mail. We educate, register, and mobilize Black voters, and use our power to hold our elected representatives accountable.</blockquote>
Video below:
<iframe title="Detroit Free Press Highlights Black Pastor Rebuking Far-Left Dems: “Do I Have A Place In This Party”" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/01On9P0L-y0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

US-POLITICS-VOTE-2020-DEMOCRATS-MINORITIES

WATCH: Black Pastor Tells Off DNC Chair: ‘Do I Have A Place In This Party?’’

Blacks

A focus group of swing voters in the battleground state of Michigan told media outlet Axios that they&#8217;re sticking with Donald Trump, potentially taking Michigan out of the &#8220;swing state&#8221; category.
The voters, who were culled from a group in Saginaw, Michigan &#8212; right in the heart of the state&#8217;s rural country, in a county that went for former President Barack Obama twice but switched to President Donald Trump in 2016 &#8212; and represented a segment of &#8220;moderate Democrat&#8221; that abandoned the party when it ran Hillary Clinton, largely, it seems, over Trump&#8217;s message of economic populism.
And, Axios found, they have no plans to return to their former political home.
&#8220;Some swing voters here who voted for Barack Obama and then Donald Trump are firmly in Trump’s camp now — and they&#8217;re sick of impeachment,&#8221; <a href="https://www.axios.com/focus-group-michigan-swing-voters-trump-impeachment-183e4fc7-5ecc-41bd-add1-537ed8a2fd8f.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=twsocialshare&amp;utm_campaign=organic">Axios wrote Monday</a>. &#8220;The two-plus hour conversation revealed major warning signs for the Democratic Party in a crucial swing county that will be a pivotal area to win in 2020.&#8221;
For starters, the voters &#8220;hate the fact that House Democrats are moving toward impeaching the president,&#8221; and prefer the President&#8217;s agenda, which they say could &#8220;actually improve their lives.&#8221; Among Trump&#8217;s priorities, they &#8220;like preserving Social Security, cracking down on illegal immigration, and keeping jobs in the U.S.&#8221;
They also like Trump&#8217;s attitude toward the media and his critics, and believe that he&#8217;s the right man for the job if the economy suddenly takes a turn for the worse, even if Trump himself has been throwing curveballs on the issue, like starting a possible trade war with China.
Ultimately, Axios says, Michigan voters are firmly in Trump&#8217;s camp, even if they were just middling on Trump three years ago.
Although they appear to like Trump as a person &#8212; much of Trump&#8217;s attitude and character is baked into their perception of him, and little about his past or his antics comes as a surprise &#8212; part of the fault for their Trump loyalty seems to lie with Democrats whom, Axios seems to think, squandered their opportunity with these voters by focusing less on solving the nation&#8217;s problems and more on impeaching Donald Trump.
&#8220;Instead of working on policies and things that will help the people, they are just working to basically preserve their own position &#8230; [T]hey don&#8217;t really care about you and [me], I don&#8217;t think,&#8221; one focus group participant told the group.
Axios is quick to point out that Saginaw, Michigan, is not necessarily representative of swing state voters &#8212; or even Michigan voters as a whole &#8212; but the results should be concerning for Democrats nonetheless. The message swing state voters seem to be sending to the Democrats is this: your focus is on policies far too far left to resonate in the areas you need to control.
The Axios findings mirror a New York Times/Siena College poll from last month that found former Vice President Joe Biden as the only Democrat who could beat Trump in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) found themselves soundly beaten in battleground states, a result, the Times found, of their progressive platforms.
&nbsp;

Donald Trump Michigan

Poll: Swing Voters From 2016 Are Sticking With Donald Trump

Your feel-good story of the week.
A 5-year-old boy in Michigan invited his entire kindergarten class to his adoption hearing so they could be part of his moment. Of course they showed up.
CBS News reported Michael Orlando Clark Jr. “was officially adopted on Thursday and all his friends showed up to the Kent County Courthouse in Michigan to celebrate with him.”
Kent County’s Facebook page posted a photo of Clark’s hearing. His classmates can be seen in the background holding up hearts for support. On Friday, the Facebook page for the county shared a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KentCountyMI/posts/1750401311751738">heartwarming follow-up</a> for Clark:
<blockquote>Yesterday we brought you the story of Michael. He invited his kindergarten class to his adoption hearing because, in his words, they are part of his family. 
We knew people would love Michael, but we were surprised at how fast and how far this story traveled. 
Michael was on NBC Nightly News and ABC&#8217;s World News Tonight, The Today Show, Good Morning America and hundreds of other media outlets worldwide. 
His story was seen by 12 million people on this Facebook page alone. 
Perhaps the interest in Michael&#8217;s story proves that the things that unite us are far more important to us than the things that divide us. 
We learned this lesson from a five year old who never endeavored to teach. 
He simply let us witness love, effortlessly. 
Thank you, Michael</blockquote>
CBS also shared video from Clark’s special day, showing him smiling ear to ear with his new parents &#8212; Andrea Melvin and Dave Eaton &#8212; and Judge Patricia Gardner as they banged the gavel together to make his adoption official.
&#8220;Sometimes their journeys have been very long, they&#8217;ve included miracle and change for the children and family and incredible community support as you&#8217;re able to see today in Michael&#8217;s adoption hearing,&#8221; Honorable Judge Patricia Gardner said.
&#8220;His whole kindergarten class and school being here to say &#8216;we love you,&#8217; and &#8216;we support you&#8217; and &#8216;we&#8217;ll be here not only today but in all the years in the future.'&#8221;
WATCH:
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After the hearing, Clark enthusiastically <a href="https://www.wzzm13.com/article/life/family/kent-county-adoption-day/69-c037502e-f0ae-4dbb-a1f0-38744b17c127">told WZZM</a>: “I love my daddy. I love my daddy so much.”
His new father could barely contain his emotions.
Each of Clark’s classmates was given the chance to introduce themselves to the Judge and tell her why they were there to support Clark. One of his classmates, identified only as Steven, said, “Michael is my best friend.”
&#8220;We began the school year as a family,&#8221; Clark&#8217;s teacher said at the hearing, according to WZZM. &#8220;Family doesn&#8217;t have to be DNA, because family is support and love.&#8221;
Clark was one of 37 children who were also adopted on Thursday as part of Kent County’s annual Adoption Day, CBS reported.
WOOD TV <a href="https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/adoption-day-secures-forever-families-for-37-kids/">reported</a> that Melvin and Eaton became Clark’s foster parents nearly a year ago.
“We were thinking, ‘How can we build our family?&#8217;” Melvin told the outlet. “And there’s so many options, right, for building a family these days.”
“We asked him and he said ‘You know, the class is kind of my family.’ And he wanted them to be there,” Eaton told WOOD TV.

Hands

WATCH: Adorable Little Boy Invites Entire Kindergarten Class To His Adoption Hearing

adoption

Two previously charged with sexual assault have had their charges tentatively dismissed after the prosecutor in charge of the case resigned over allegations of misconduct.
One of the accused men lived in Detroit’s affluent Oxford suburb. The other was his stepson. The Daily Wire will not name the men because the charges have been tentatively dismissed. Both were investigated in 2015 for the alleged sexual assault of a child under the age of 13. The Detroit Free Press <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/25/nessel-larry-orr-oxford/4300124002/">reported</a> that the “Oakland County Sheriff’s Office had investigated the cases against [the two men] in 2015 and submitted its findings to the prosecutor&#8217;s office, which ended up not charging the two men because it couldn&#8217;t establish that the crime had occurred.”
But earlier this year, the two men were investigated for the same crime once again. Undersheriff Mike McCabe wrote a letter on September 13 to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, saying, &#8220;The defendants were thoroughly investigated on the same allegations in 2015 by the Oakland County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, Child Protective Services and the FBI.” McCabe added that after “careful review, it was determined by all four agencies that the case lacked evidence and probably [sic] cause to justify actions by CPS or an arrest warrant” for either of the men. The stepfather, McCabe said, also passed several polygraph tests. Further, the two men were kept in prison for six months due to the allegations. The stepfather was kept in isolation because he was a police officer.
The prosecutor involved in the case this year, assistant Attorney General Brian Kolodziej, resigned in September after it was revealed he had an inappropriate intimate relationship with the victim in another sexual assault case. Kolodziej’s behavior led to investigations into all his other cases. Of those cases, the one involving the Oxford man and his stepson “rose to the level of further investigation and have been turned over to the Michigan State Police to see whether criminal charges can be brought against Kolodziej,” the Free Press reported.
Michigan Attorney General Nessel did not expand on why she filed a motion to dismiss the charges against the two men.
“I am compelled to dismiss the charges in this case following the information we received regarding Mr. Kolodziej’s prosecutorial conduct, which are tantamount to serious violations of our prosecutorial standards,” Nessel said in a statement, as reported by the Free Press.
Chief Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Paul Walton said the case was too murky to bring charges four years ago.
&#8220;Not based on the evidence we had,&#8221; he told the Free Press, &#8220;We had no evidence of sexual abuse and we had two forensic interviews of the child where there was no disclosure of criminal sexual assault.&#8221;
Kolodziej’s affair also led to Nessel setting aside the plea deal of the man accused of sexually assaulting the woman with whom the former assistant AG had the relationship.
“We are committed to doing everything we can to address the issues caused by Mr. Kolodziej’s employment as an assistant attorney general,” Nessel said, according to the Free Press. “We will submit all of our internal interviews to the Michigan State Police as well as the Attorney Grievance Commission so they may independently determine appropriate actions.&#8221;
The Attorney General added that the dismissals did not mean the office thought the accusers were lying, and said the charges could be brought again if more evidence came to light.

Scales Of Justice

Sexual Assault Charges Dropped After Prosecutor Accused Of Misconduct

Sexual Assault

The county government seized a Michigan man’s property after an accounting error led to him underpaying his property taxes by $8.41. His property was then auctioned and sold for less than he paid for it and for far less than what it was worth. The county kept the profits from the sale.
Uri Rafaeli, 83, purchased a home and property in Southfield, Michigan, which Reason <a href="https://reason.com/2019/11/06/a-michigan-man-underpaid-his-property-taxes-by-8-41-the-county-seized-his-property-sold-it-and-kept-the-profits/">described</a> as “a lower-middle class suburb just north of Detroit.” Rafaeli purchased a three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot home in the area in 2011 for $60,000, telling Reason it was “good to the state economy, and [at] the same time, it may produce a good rent for my retirement.”
The purchase was recorded in January 2012. Six months later, Rafaeli was told that he underpaid his 2011 property taxes by $496.
“Rafaeli made subsequent property tax payments on time and in full—and, in January 2013, he attempted to settle the unpaid tax debt, according to court documents,” Reason reported. “But he made a mistake in calculating the interest owed, resulting in another underpayment of $8.41.”
For that, Oakland County put his property up for auction along with about 11,000 others. The property seizure was part of a Michigan law pass in 1999 that allows such government acquisitions. The law was supposed to help rehabilitate abandoned properties, but has resulted in county treasurers seizing properties to collect revenue based on their sales.
“In the process, it creates a perverse incentive by allowing treasurers&#8217; offices to retain excess revenue raised by seizing and selling properties with delinquent taxes—even when the amount owed is miniscule, and even when the homes aren&#8217;t abandoned or blighted at all,” Reason reported.
Rafaeli is a victim of the law and is part of a class-action lawsuit that is set to be heard before the Michigan Supreme Court this month.
The county ended up selling Rafaeli’s property for $24,500 – about $35,000 less than he bought it for and more than $100,000 less than it was valued. Rafaeli was not able to pocket the money from the auction; the county kept that for itself.
&#8220;I believed in the power of the U.S. to withstand the difficulties,&#8221; Rafaeli told Reason, &#8220;and I believed in its fairness and dignity in doing business there.”
Rafaeli is represented by attorneys with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which says more than 100,000 properties have been confiscated in Michigan since 2002.
“In thousands of instances each year, the proceeds for a given property sold at auction far exceed the delinquent tax amount and are far less than a delinquent taxpayer&#8217;s equity in the property,&#8221; the law firm said. &#8220;This results in millions of dollars in surplus proceeds and equity for the counties and tax sale purchasers.&#8221;
Reason reported that Wayne County has “funneled more than $382 million in delinquent tax surpluses into its general fund budget since 2012,” thanks to this tactic.
Philip Ellison, a private attorney who has worked on class-action lawsuits regarding this law, told Reason that the process was “government-sanctioned theft.”

Money theft

Michigan Man Claims His Property Was Seized After He Underpaid Property Taxes By $8.41

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) was recorded lashing out at both her constituents and the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Tuesday evening during a town hall aimed at curbing gun violence.
&#8220;This is why the NRA has got to go,&#8221; <a href="https://pluralist.com/haley-stevens-town-hall-gun-control/">Stevens shouted</a> as pro-second Amendment advocates made their voices heard. &#8220;The NRA has got to go!&#8221; she screamed a second time.
An estimated 200 people attended the hour-long event, which was held at the Multi-Lakes Conservation Association in suburban Detroit. Interestingly, the venue is home to pistol, shotgun, and rifle ranges and many attendees showed up open-carrying their own firearms.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
📢<a href="https://twitter.com/RepHaleyStevens?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepHaleyStevens</a> shouts: The NRA has got to go📢 <a href="https://t.co/Vpnun5vwN5">pic.twitter.com/Vpnun5vwN5</a>
&mdash; Michigan Rising Action (@MIRisingAction) <a href="https://twitter.com/MIRisingAction/status/1179392984518942720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The town hall was organized as a question-and-answer style format and was intended to cover a variety of gun-related topics spanning from protecting victims of domestic abuse to firearm storage, reported <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/01/haley-stevens-holds-gun-violence-town-hall-at-gun-club/3834884002/">The Detroit News</a>. In addition to Stevens, Michigan&#8217;s House Democratic Leader Christine Greig and Democratic State Rep. Robert Wittenberg were also in attendance.
During the contentious town hall, many of the attendees booed and shouted &#8220;NRA,&#8221; showing their support for the gun rights organization, and some held signs that said &#8220;Vote out Haley Stevens — a liar.&#8221;
The event was hosted by the left-wing activist group Fems for Dems, a grassroots organization focused on electing progressive lawmakers in the state of Michigan.
&#8220;Representative Haley Stevens revealed her true intentions during her unhinged outburst directed at her own constituents,&#8221; Tori Sachs, the executive director of Michigan Rising Action told The Daily Wire. &#8220;[She] may have run as a moderate who would support &#8216;common sense&#8217; gun reform, but it&#8217;s now clear she&#8217;s joined the gun-grabbing radical left trying to completely dismantle the NRA and take away 2nd Amendment rights from law-abiding citizens.&#8221;
&#8220;It makes sense that Haley Stevens would be widely out of touch with her constituents after living in liberal cities like Chicago and Washington D.C., only moving home to Michigan recently so she could run for office,&#8221; Sachs added.
Stevens was elected to the 11th Congressional District in 2018, when Michigan experienced a swing to the left following President Donald Trump&#8217;s surprise victory in the Great Lakes State in 2016. The seat was previously held by former Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI), who opted not to seek re-election after serving for two terms. While Trump won the congressional district in 2016, Stevens was able to flip the consistently red district blue.
Some of Stevens&#8217; Democratic colleagues in the state have been distancing themselves from the anti-NRA outburst as the video continues to circulate online.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to find a way to restore some sense of community, that we can disagree,&#8221; Rep. Debbie Dingell said on a <a href="https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/611315">local Detroit news show</a> while discussing Stevens&#8217; outburst. &#8220;We all have different life experiences, we have different perspectives, we&#8217;ve had different experiences. Instead of screaming at each other all the time, how do we listen to each other?&#8221;
&#8220;I made some stupid comments about the NRA when I was young, too, because I was afraid of them, and didn&#8217;t understand everything,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;But if we could find a way to listen to each other more and to take some of the drama out.&#8221;

Haley Stevens

WATCH: Democratic Lawmaker Screams At Constituents Over NRA Support

National Rifle Association (NRA)

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has announced they will be dispersing baseball cards trolling Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) — who as of January was still <a href="http://The National Republican Senatorial Committee has announced they will be dispersing baseball cards trolling Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who as of January was still unknown to 36% of his own constituents, at a Republican leadership conference in Michigan this weekend. The Hill reports that the NRSC released a statement this week, and the committee wants to draw attention to the fact that Peters “remains the most unknown senator in the country because he has failed to stand up for the principles and priorities of Michigan voters.” The conference, which will feature a keynote address by Vice President Mike Pence, aims to bring together “conservative leaders from across America to discuss solutions to the critical issues facing our nation,” according to the organization’s website. Both Secretary of Education Betsy Devos and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will also make speeches at the event. Attendees will also have the opportunity to collect the novelty baseball cards, all of which have Peters’ first name misspelled and also feature a nickname, reports the Hill. Some of the names include “Barry Peters, aka Socialists’ BFF” and “Harry Peters, aka He’s Just There,” and “Jerry Peters, aka The Invisible Man,” notes the news agency. Veteran and Businessman John James announced in June that he would run for the senate seat against Peters in 2020, telling Fox News that he sees it as an opportunity to continue his service and put Michigan first, according to Politico. &quot;I believe that right now nothing has changed. I still have a passion for service, I still have a clear vision, understand that service before self,” said James. In the 2018 midterm election, James ran an unsuccessful Senate bid against three-term Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who went on to win by 7 points, according to CNN. However, Stabenow experienced a far more narrow margin of victory than she has in past elections; in 2012, she won by over 20 points, reports the New York Times. Despite being unsuccessful in politics so far, James exhibits an impressive professional record. The Times notes that, after graduating from West Point, he “spent eight years in the Army, including service in Iraq. He is the president of his family run business, a global provider of logistics support for Fortune 500 companies.” Although James has grown in popularity across the country, he has made Michigan issues a central focus of his campaign. &quot;I plan on using every resource at my disposal...to shed light in the dark spaces of Michigan that have been underrepresented and neglected by Senator Peters,” James told Fox News in June. “I'm going to bring Michigan's issues and take them to Washington, and work with anyone and everyone to make sure we create pipelines of prosperity into our neglected neighborhoods and our forgotten farms,” says James, reports the news agency.">unknown</a> to 36% of his own constituents — at a Republican leadership conference in Michigan this weekend.
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/462330-nrsc-to-hand-out-baseball-cards-mocking-peters-at-republican-leadership">The Hill</a> reports that the NRSC released a statement this week, and the committee wants to draw attention to the fact that Peters “remains the most unknown senator in the country because he has failed to stand up for the principles and priorities of Michigan voters.”
The conference, which will feature a keynote address by Vice President Mike Pence, aims to bring together “conservative leaders from across America to discuss solutions to the critical issues facing our nation,” according to the <a href="http://www.mackinacgop.com/about/">organization’s website</a>. In addition to Pence, both Secretary of Education Betsy Devos and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will make speeches at the event.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to collect the novelty baseball cards, all of which have Peters’ first name misspelled and also feature a nickname, reports the Hill. Some of the names include “Barry Peters, aka Socialists’ BFF” and “Harry Peters, aka He’s Just There,” and “Jerry Peters, aka The Invisible Man,” notes the news agency.
Veteran and Businessman John James announced in June that he would run for the senate seat against Peters in 2020, telling Fox News that he sees it as an opportunity to continue his service and put Michigan first, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/06/john-james-senate-michigan-1511229">Politico</a>.
“I believe that right now nothing has changed. I still have a passion for service, I still have a clear vision, understand that service before self,” said James.
In the 2018 midterm election, James ran an unsuccessful Senate bid against three-term Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who went on to win by 7 points, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results/michigan">CNN</a>. However, Stabenow experienced a far more narrow margin of victory than she has in past elections; in 2012, she won by more than 20 points, reports the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/us/politics/john-james-michigan.html">New York Times</a>.
Despite being unsuccessful in politics so far, James exhibits an impressive professional record. The Times notes that, after graduating from West Point, he “spent eight years in the Army, including service in Iraq. He is the president of his family run business, a global provider of logistics support for Fortune 500 companies.”
Although James has grown in popularity across the country, he has made Michigan issues a central focus of his campaign. “I plan on using every resource at my disposal &#8230; to shed light in the dark spaces of Michigan that have been underrepresented and neglected by Senator Peters,” James told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-james-gary-peters-senate-2020-michigan">Fox News</a> in August.
“I’m going to bring Michigan’s issues and take them to Washington, and work with anyone and everyone to make sure we create pipelines of prosperity into our neglected neighborhoods and our forgotten farms,” says James, according to the news outlet.

John James

GOP Trolls Unknown Incumbent Running Against Businessman John James

Conservatism

Republican Party

Early Monday, thousands of United Automobile Workers (UAW) union members began a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51813/watch-gm-strike-officially-begins-heres-how-much-james-barrett">national strike</a> of General Motors in what many feared might turn out to be a painful and ultimately costly showdown between workers and management. According to <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/17/white-house-general-motors-strike-1735740">Politico</a>, the Trump administration is trying to save both sides the trouble by intervening in a way that aligns more with the goals of the union, a move that could end up having a significant impact on the 2020 election. The White House, however, denies the claim.
In what is the union&#8217;s first national strike in over a decade, UAW members, including those employed at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, picked up the picket signs early Monday and called on the company&#8217;s leadership to come to terms with embattled union leaders for higher wages, increased job security, and better health care coverage. The national strike involves around 48,000 UAW members employed by GM.
<a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2019/09/15/uaw-strike-gm-autoworker-contract-talks/2333883001/">The Detroit Free Press</a> reported Monday that the strike could end up costing GM around $400 million a day, while the striking autoworkers would find themselves taking home just $250 a week in strike wages from the UAW&#8217;s $850 million fund. As workers told reporters that they feared the fallout of the impasse, the White House has reportedly decided to step in on the side of the union — or at least that&#8217;s what Politico&#8217;s sources say.
&#8220;The White House is seeking to end the United Auto Workers strike against General Motors with an agreement that would reopen an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio that GM shut down in March,&#8221; Politico reported Tuesday. The White House&#8217;s efforts would effectively align the administration with the UAW.
&#8220;Federal mediation is always possible, if that&#8217;s what they want,&#8221; Trump told the press Monday, in comments reported by Politico. &#8220;Hopefully, they&#8217;ll be able to work out the GM strike quickly. We don&#8217;t want General Motors building plants outside of this country.&#8221;
Citing &#8220;two people close to the matter,&#8221; Politico names both National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and White Houst trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro as allegedly being engaged in the discussions.
While the move could end up helping Trump in both Michigan and Ohio in 2020 — both states which were key in his electoral victory in 2016 and in which his approval ratings have been declining — Deputy Press Sec. Judd Deere told Politico that its big &#8220;White House intervenes&#8221; scoop is &#8220;false.&#8221;
&#8220;This story is false,&#8221; Deere told the left-leaning outlet. &#8220;The Trump Administration, including Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro, are not involved in the negotiations between the UAW and GM. As President Trump has said, we would like to see a fair and speedy conclusion to these talks.&#8221;
In its <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2019/09/16/strike-uaw-workers/2338281001/">coverage</a> of the strike the Detroit Free Press spoke to a number of the striking UAW members, some of whom expressed concern about the potential impact of the walkout.
&#8220;My concern is not just for myself, but for the many other families that are affected by this strike,&#8221; UAW member Ralph Burchart told the Free Press&#8217;s Phoebe Wall Howard. &#8220;Our kids are grown and married, but I have co-workers with younger children who would have a much harder time of it if this is an extended strike. My hope and prayer is that a reasonable contract that benefits both parties would be agreed upon sooner rather than later.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49407/will-trump-win-latest-trumps-national-and-state-josh-hammer">Will Trump Win? The Latest On Trump’s National And State-By-State Approval Ratings.</a>
This article has been revised for clarity.

donald_trump_gm_gi.jpg

Report: Trump Sides With The Union In GM Strike; White House Responds

Ohio

Trump Administration

Republican Senate candidate John James responded on Wednesday after his incumbent challenger Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) criticized the combat veteran for his frequent television appearances.
“I’ll tell you what, being unknown by 40 percent of the electorate, after 30 years as a career politician and 10 years in Washington is not a badge of honor,” James responded to host Dana Perino during an appearance on Fox News. “I plan on using every resource at my disposal, whether it be an Apache or a camera, to shed light on the dark spaces in Michigan that have been under represented and neglected by Senator Peters and his like.”
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James announced in June that he was officially launching another bid for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat in 2020. He had previously run in 2018 to unseat long-time incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), losing in a closer-than-expected race.
“We had to start off from absolutely nothing. We started off on a wing and a prayer,” James said. “We started off with a campaign that knew we wanted to bring glory to god and help our neighbors and love our neighbors ourselves.”
“We had to use a strategy of earned media, social media and word of mouth,” he continued. “We had to put the work in, we had to put the hustle in, and that included using every single resource.”
Michigan is expected to be a top-tier battleground state going into the 2020 election cycle. Then-candidate Donald Trump edged out Hillary Clinton by just over 10,000 votes during the 2016 presidential election — it was the closest presidential race in the state’s history. Prior to 2016, Michigan <a href="https://www.270towin.com/states/Michigan">had not voted</a> for the Republican presidential candidate since 1988.
“I wasn’t the establishment favorite [in 2018],” James said. “But because our grassroots army — who understood that a message of faith and family and god and country and service before self, who understood someone who is a combat veteran who understood national security from a firsthand perspective defending this country abroad, but also a business leader who understands what it takes to grow a company and create jobs in Detroit — that’s who we need representing us on the floor of the Senate.”
James, 38-year-old Army combat veteran, was considered one of the strongest Republicans in 2018 despite losing his race, according to an elections analyst at <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-just-scored-a-strong-recruit-in-the-michigan-senate-race/">FiveThirtyEight</a>.
Peters’s Senate seat is particularly vulnerable going into 2020 for a variety of reasons, including his lack of name recognition. A <a href="https://morningconsult.com/senator-rankings-q2-19-2/">Morning Consult poll</a> revealed that Peters is the country’s most unknown senator with only 40 percent of Michiganders knowing enough about the junior senator to have an opinion on his performance.
“We need to have people who are able to reach across the aisle, reach across the state, understand where people are coming from and melting into Washington is not an option,” James said. “We need to have somebody who’s going to use every single resource at their disposal to bring resources, money, and attention back to Michigan, back to Detroit, and back all over this wonderful state.”

GOP Senate Candidate John James Holds Election Night Event In Detroit

WATCH: GOP Senate Candidate Takes A Shot At His Incumbent Challenger: Being Unknown ‘Is Not A Badge Of Honor’

Five years after the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, began, the city is not doing enough to protect the health of residents, in violation of federal law.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) sent <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/documents/flintwater/Letter_from_EGLE_Oswald_to_Flint_Bincsik_dated_081619_663711_7.pdf">a letter</a> dated August 16 to Michigan’s director of public works, Robert Bincsik, informing him that Flint is not properly monitoring lead and copper levels in its tap water. This violates the Safe Drinking Water Act, a federal law that protects public drinking water supplies. Specifically, Flint has violated two sections of the law – monitoring requirements for lead and copper in tap water and reporting requirements for lead, copper, and corrosion control.
EGLE wrote that Flint is required to test 60 high-priority drinking water sites, known as Tier 1 sites, to check lead and copper levels.
“EGLE’s review of compliance monitoring reports indicates the City sampled from a total of 129 sites during the monitoring period. Of those, only 35 were confirmed to be from Tier 1 sampling locations,” the letter said. “Additionally, 14 sites were addresses with a confirmed service line replacement but of unconfirmed service line material, 30 sites were invalid, and 50 sites have yet to be verified by the City.”
The review showed that Flint was “out of compliance.” To return to compliance, Flint “must collect samples from 60 confirmed Tier 1 sites in the distribution system during the monitoring period of July 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019; have them analyzed for lead and copper; and submit the analysis reports to [EGLE’s Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division].”
In addition, Flint must “confirm the service line material of the 50 sites lacking verification and the 14 sites from locations where the service line has been replaced but no service line material composition was provided” by September 16.
EGLE also wrote that it extended a deadline for Flint to validate the 50 unverified sites by 14 days, yet no additional information was provided.
“Due to this violation, public notification will be required. We will determine the content and timing required for that public notification after we have received confirmation of the 64 sites no later than September 16, 2019,” the letter stated.
Flint will escape a fine for its violation this time, but EGLE warned the city government that if it fails to properly monitor its water for the next six months, they face “a fine of $1,000 per day with a $10,000 maximum.” If the city does not post a public notice of the violation, it could be fined $1,000. They may also face additional fines if further violations occur.
In April, Michigan Radio NPR published <a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/post/does-flint-have-clean-water-yes-it-s-complicated">an article</a> stating Flint has safe drinking water but that service lines that still leach lead into the drinking water need to be replaced.
“Since 2016, crews have inspected more than 20,000 service lines, replacing roughly 8,000 lead and galvanized pipes. By the time the work is done, nearly every line in the city will have been inspected or replaced,” the outlet wrote.
Residents are still advised to use filters from the government to ensure they aren’t drinking contaminated water.

FLINT, MICHIGAN &#8211; DECEMBER 20: Workers load bottled water into

Flint, Michigan Violating Federal Law By Not Properly Monitoring Lead, Copper In Water

Flint

Hundreds of Facebook and Reddit users say they will boycott a popular Michigan restaurant chain after its Federal Election Commission filing delineating its political donations was made public, all for one reason: the chain made contributions to President Trump.
<a href="https://fox17online.com/2019/08/08/discovery-of-annas-house-political-donations-upsets-facebook-reddit-users/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&amp;utm_content=5d4ce2f9a281bd0001affe24&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter">Fox 17 in West Michigan</a> reports, “ &#8230; hundreds of Facebook and Reddit users are posting they will no longer be eating at Anna’s House after seeing a Federal Election Commission filing detailing its political contributions.” Anna’s House, with eight franchises in Michigan that advertise “Voted #1 Best Breakfast in Michigan,” gave $15,000 to Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee, in April 2019.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The reputation of a local restaurant chain is getting political after public records of its donations to President Donald Trump surfaced on Reddit.​ <a href="https://t.co/AJZU43BREC">https://t.co/AJZU43BREC</a>
— FOX 17 (@FOX17) <a href="https://twitter.com/FOX17/status/1159662091831263233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Doug Chu saw a screenshot of Anna’s House partial FEC record, then posted it on Facebook. Fox 17 added, “ … it was shared on Wednesday and shared it to his personal Facebook page. It’s since been shared hundreds of times, mostly by people upset to learn about the restaurant chain’s support of the president.”
On Thursday night, Anna’s House owner Josh Beckett released this statement:
<blockquote>I am proud to live in a country where we are free to have different opinions and to support a candidate of our choice. At Anna’s House, we employ and serve people of all backgrounds and beliefs, without judgement. Our goal is to treat everyone like family – and in families, there are often differences of opinion. Embracing these differences and respecting each other despite them is what makes our country great. If you are looking for an open, supportive, and accepting place to enjoy a great meal and conversation, Anna’s House is here for you.</blockquote>
Kent County Republican Party Chair Joel Freeman told FOX 17:
<blockquote>Treating people with different political viewpoints as enemies to be eliminated is toxic and counterproductive. Anna’s House is a popular locally-owned business that has found success serving delicious breakfasts that everyone can enjoy. It’s too bad that some would prefer division and strife over breaking bread, but that just means there’s more waffles for the rest of us.</blockquote>
Anna’s House is not the only restaurant to be targeted for supporting Trump; after Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) published a list of 44 Trump donors from San Antonio, Texas, including Balous Miller, owner of the Bill Miller Bar-B-Q restaurant chain, <a href="https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Bill-Miller-BBQ-becomes-a-trending-topic-after-14286533.php">mysantonio.com</a> reported, “Bill Miller BBQ then became a trending topic on Twitter, with some vowing they will boycott the barbecue staple …” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded on Twitter, “Perfect night for @BillMillerBarBQ.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Perfect night for <a href="https://twitter.com/BillMillerBarBQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BillMillerBarBQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/9bMV5Lk8Tx">pic.twitter.com/9bMV5Lk8Tx</a>
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1158910107637428225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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In August 2018, a Houston Tex-Mex restaurant, El Tiempo Cantina, was targeted by anti-Trump partisans after the co-owner posed for a photo with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/13/restaurant-boycott-jeff-sessions-us-attorney-general">The Guardian</a> reported, “The restaurant was immediately inundated with protest from anti-Trump Houstonians, who posted their outrage alongside the hashtag #BoycottElTiempo &#8230; The restaurant’s Yelp page also received a number of one-star reviews referencing the Sessions photo.”
<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-boycott-retailers-sell-trump-products-2017-1#wegmans-3">Business Insider</a> reported in July 2018 that a brand and digital strategist, Shannon Coulter, started a #GrabYourWallet hashtag, urging people to boycott companies that did business with members of the Trump family.

Anti-Trump Sign

Trump-Haters Target Popular Michigan Restaurant Chain For Supporting Trump

Imagine an on-fire progressive named Amy decides to pursue her dreams and start a company that writes speeches for progressive politicians and non-profits. Her goal is simple: Use her talents to help promote the policies she believes in and lives by. But just three weeks after the company launch, a local politician asks her to write an Independence Day speech endorsing Donald Trump.
What should she do? Easy answer, right. No way would Amy do that.
But what if a local law required her to write that speech? What if a law forced Amy to use her talents to advocate for the very ideas she detests most? And what if that law fined Amy $500 per day until she submitted the speech?
Impossible? Too far-fetched? Well, it’s happening in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Two conservatives, Grant Strobl and Jacob Chludzinski, recently started a political consulting firm called <a href="http://www.thinkrightstrategies.com/">ThinkRight Strategies LLC</a>. ThinkRight offers to do things like write speeches and draft Facebook posts that support conservative positions. But an Ann Arbor law forbids public accommodations (entities like businesses that serve the public) from “discriminating” on the basis of political beliefs. And that means ThinkRight cannot legally decline to create material supporting progressive causes. That would be illegal “discrimination.” And the law fines violators up to $500 per day until they comply.
But Ann Arbor’s law doesn’t just affect conservatives. Under this law, a Jewish speechwriter who offers her services publicly cannot decline to write a speech advocating for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel. A pro-abortion consultant cannot decline to design fliers criticizing abortion on behalf of pro-life political candidates. A progressive writer cannot refuse to praise President Trump’s immigration policies in a speech.
That’s not just wrong. It’s egregious. No one should be forced to express a message she disagrees with as the price of earning a living.
Public accommodation laws exist to make sure no one gets kicked out of a restaurant because of sex — or barred from a hotel because of race. These laws exist to combat actual status discrimination. They were never meant to compel people to promote positions with which they disagree.
When these laws start requiring that, they’re no longer combatting discrimination. They’re mandating certain views — and punishing people who believe differently than do those in power.
This hurts everybody. Once the government has this kind of power, no one’s beliefs are safe; just because a view is allowed today, what’s to stop the government from switching its target tomorrow? The only way to preserve our freedom to live and work in accordance with our deepest convictions is to advocate for that freedom for everybody.
Unfortunately, Ann Arbor isn’t the only government trying to force people to express beliefs with which they disagree.
In Colorado, <a href="https://adflegal.org/detailspages/case-details/masterpiece-cakeshop-v.-elenis">cake artist Jack Phillips</a> lost all of his wedding business — over 40% of his annual revenue — because the government tried to force him to violate his conscience and design a wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. In Phoenix, Arizona, <a href="https://adflegal.org/detailspages/case-details/brush-nib-studio-v.-city-of-phoenix">calligrapher Joanna Duka and painter Breana Koski</a> face up to six months in jail because they can’t handcraft wedding vows that celebrate same-sex marriage. And in Minnesota, <a href="https://adflegal.org/detailspages/case-details/telescope-media-group-v.-lindsey">filmmakers Carl and Angel Larsen</a> also face jail time because they can’t produce films celebrating same-sex weddings.
All these artists serve people in the LGBT community. They just can’t promote certain messages. Just like a LGBT web designer who generally serves Muslims but can’t create a website for a Muslim client that criticizes same-sex marriage, these other artists can’t covey certain messages with which they disagree. None of this is discrimination. It’s called diversity. It’s the freedom to disagree with each other — yet still treat each other with dignity and respect.
If the government can force cake designers, calligraphers, and filmmakers to convey messages with which they disagree, nothing stops it from forcing a progressive speechwriter to pen a pro-Trump paean she detests.
So the truth at the center of Grant and Jacob’s lawsuit, <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10805">ThinkRight Strategies LLC v. City of Ann Arbor</a>, goes deeper than political or ideological disagreements. It goes to the core freedoms we all share — our freedom of conscience, our freedom to live and work consistent with our deepest beliefs, and our freedom to disagree. When these freedoms get taken from one of us, we all lose. Let’s hope these freedoms have not yet disappeared in Ann Arbor — for everyone’s sake.
Jonathan Scruggs is senior counsel and director of the Center for Conscience Initiatives at <a href="http://www.adflegal.org/">Alliance Defending Freedom </a>(<a href="https://twitter.com/AllianceDefends">@Alliance Defends</a>), which represents ThinkRight Strategies.

SCRUGGS: New Ann Arbor, Michigan Law Violates The First Amendment

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Constitution

First Amendment

Lawsuit

A 25-year-old YouTuber who boasts more than 500,000 subscribers, purchased a tiny, five-acre Michigan town called Hell and renamed it &#8220;Gay Hell&#8221; to protest the Trump Administration&#8217;s refusal to fly the LGBTQ rainbow flag in front of U.S. embassies during LGBTQ Pride Month in June.
&#8220;Gay Hell&#8221; is located 15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor with a population of 70, as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/youtuber-buys-michigan-town-renames-it-gay-hell-protest-trump-n1018561">NBC News</a> notes.
Elijah Daniel tweeted, &#8220;Ahead of pride month Trump&#8217;s administration put a ban on embassy&#8217;s flying pride flags. So as of today, I am now the owner of Hell, Michigan. I bought the whole town. And my first act as owner, I have renamed my town to Gay Hell, MI. The only flags allowed to fly are pride.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
ahead of pride month Trump&#8217;s administration put a ban on embassy&#8217;s flying pride flags.
so as of today, I am now the owner of Hell, Michigan. I bought the whole town.
And my first act as owner, I have renamed my town to Gay Hell, MI.
The only flags allowed to fly are pride. <a href="https://t.co/AKOcZm2Jvm">pic.twitter.com/AKOcZm2Jvm</a>
&#8212; elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) <a href="https://twitter.com/elijahdaniel/status/1140711709939814400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/us/mayor-gay-hell-michigan-elijah-daniel-trnd/index.html">CNN reported</a>, &#8220;Daniel is from Michigan and says that he always drove past the town growing up. He also grew up &#8216;very religious&#8217; and was told a lot if you&#8217;re gay you go to Hell, Daniel said. &#8216;I&#8217;m just from Michigan and every time we drove past we knew that town, oh that&#8217;s Hell. I just thought turning it into Gay Hell would be funny.&#8217;&#8221; Daniel added, &#8220;It&#8217;s been pretty good for my fans. A lot of upset Trump fans, but that&#8217;s nothing new to me.&#8221;
Daniel told NBC News that the statement, &#8220;The only flags allowed to fly are pride,&#8221; was intended as a joke. He explained his purchase of the town thus: &#8220;I have a young audience who is 16 to 24 who would not be involved in politics if it wasn&#8217;t in a funny or meme way. I&#8217;m just trying to have fun and get my audience politically active.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48263/pence-flying-gay-pride-flag-us-embassy-flagpoles-hank-berrien">Earlier this month</a>, Vice President Mike Pence did not back down when asked if he supported the State Department&#8217;s decision not to fly the rainbow Gay Pride flag on the flagpoles outside American embassies. Pence stated, &#8220;I&#8217;m aware that the State Department indicated that on the flagpole of our American embassies that one flag should fly, and that&#8217;s the American flag. And I support that. &#8230; when it comes to the American flagpole at American embassies at capitals across the world, having the one American flag fly, I think, is the right decision.&#8221; He added, &#8220;We put no restrictions on displaying any other flags or any other displays at our embassies beyond that.&#8221;
The Obama administration said embassies could fly the rainbow flag from poles outside the embassies but they had to be smaller and fly lower than the American flag. The Trump administration issued instructions that embassies needed approval from the State Department&#8217;s Office of Management to fly a rainbow flag.
As <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jonmichaelpoff/gay-hell-michigan-pride-elijah-daniel">Buzzfeed News</a> noted, Daniels has used the town of Hell for publicity before; in 2017.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
As of today, August 30th, 2017 I am the legal mayor of Hell, Michigan. This is real. I am the mayor of Hell. <a href="https://t.co/J7fuaLnFKV">pic.twitter.com/J7fuaLnFKV</a>
&#8212; elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) <a href="https://twitter.com/elijahdaniel/status/902973541058039808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Daniels paid $100 so he could act as mayor for a day; whereupon he banned heterosexuality and was subsequently impeached. He claimed the joke was to mock President Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-travel-ban-takes-effect-thursday-many-questions-still-air-n777946">restrictions on travel</a> to the U.S. from Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.
<a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/03/11/price-hell-michigan/81634638/">The Detroit Free Press</a> reported that the town of Hell was on the market for $900,000 in 2016.

YouTuber Protests Trump By Buying Town And Renaming It  ‘Gay Hell’

A hotel manager in a conservative Michigan town has publicly announced that she will provide free rooms and transportation to and from clinics for women seeking abortions from states that have placed restrictions on the procedure.
Shelley O&#8217;Brien runs the Yale Hotel in Yale, Michigan, a city that, <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/06/07/michigan-abortion-yale-hotel-shelley-obrien/1334959001/">according to the Detroit Free Press</a>, voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. He received 65% of the vote in the city. O&#8217;Brien posted the following message on Facebook:
<blockquote>
Dear sisters that live in Alabama, Ohio, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, or any of the other states that follow with similar laws restricting access,
We cannot do anything about the way you are being treated in your home-state.
But, if you can make it to Michigan, we will support you with several nights lodging, and transportation to and from your appointment.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed"><iframe allow="encrypted-media" frameborder="0" height="280" width="500"></iframe></div>
She has updated the post several times since she originally put it up on May 16, as more states moved to restrict when during a pregnancy a woman could obtain an abortion. She also said she would donate 25% of her &#8220;receipts that are a direct result of the new policy to a fund&#8221; like Yellowhammer, which provides money to women in Alabama seeking an abortion. O&#8217;Brien wrote that she has already donated $100 so far due to the new policy.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got some amazing people in our village&#8230; we&#8217;ve got your backs,&#8221; she wrote.
Her policy was directed toward states that have passed &#8220;fetal heartbeat&#8221; laws, which ban abortion after a heartbeat has been detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. The Press reported that five states &#8212; Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Ohio &#8212; have passed such a law. Alabama also passed a law that bans abortion except for when the life of the mother is at risk. Missouri&#8217;s new law bans the procedure after eight weeks of pregnancy.
While speaking to the Press, O&#8217;Brien compared her providing women free rooms so they could terminate their pregnancies to the work of those running the Underground Railroad, which led slaves to freedom in the North back in the early to mid-1800s.
&#8220;This is important,&#8221; she told the outlet. &#8220;This is my line. There&#8217;s no coming back from this. You start taking away the right for women to control their own bodies, and we&#8217;re done for as a civilization.&#8221;
&#8220;I can&#8217;t stop what&#8217;s happening, but I have the resources to maybe help someone in that position, and especially knowing that women are coming from other states already,&#8221; she added.
She also said one man called to complain about what she was doing after hearing about her Facebook offer.
&#8220;I have had one person call to say that he thought it was wrong,&#8221; she told the Press. &#8220;He didn&#8217;t have Facebook, but he heard about it and he wanted to let me know that he thought what we are doing is wrong. And I&#8217;ve been called a baby killer. And it&#8217;s like, &#8216;No, I&#8217;m not killing babies in the basement. I am just giving someone a place to stay or maybe a ride.&#8217;&#8221;
She also told the Press that she has not seen any protesters outside the hotel and has not been confronted personally.

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