He's building his personal army

 

And after Gretchen has been so obsequious toward him lately.  He really goes after the people who bend the knee.  He sees them as weak, and he only attacks the weak.

What happened to "Big Gretch"?

 Again she's on camera with Trump.

She has even affected the cosplaying style of Kristi Noem.

Gretchen Whitmer still pushing forward

The attempt to kidnap and possibly kill her hasn't made her afraid.

Michigan became the first state in decades to repeal its “right-to-work” law when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed legislation on Friday to rescind it.

The governor’s office said in a release that Whitmer signed a package of bills that will protect workers’ safety and help them push for better wages and working conditions.

[...]

The repeal of the law is a major victory for labor unions in the state amid record low union membership nationwide.

“Right-to-work” laws allow employees at unionized workplaces to opt out of joining a union and or paying dues.

[...]

Whitmer also signed a prevailing wage law into effect that requires contractors who are working on state projects to pay union-level wages. Republicans had repealed this law in 2018.

[...]

Indiana was the most recent state to repeal a “right-to-work” law in 1965. Republicans restored the law in 2012.

  The Hill

"Right to work" is another GOP misleading label hoping - and often succeeding - to get low information and poor readers' votes.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

MAGA spurned in Michigan governor race

Nice rebuttal to MAGA attacks on Whitmer in the 2020 election.

 

Not just Republican, but MAGA.

I can no longer bear to watch

Madness always attends a time of plague. People trying to leave Memphis during a yellow fever epidemic were hung by terrified neighbors.

[...]

At the end of all this, [Michigan governor Gretchen] Whitmer—and Michigan's Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson—is going to be regarded as a winter soldier of the highest rank. The way you know this is that, in an utterly insane press conference with what lawyer Jenna Ellis referred to as an "elite strike force" of administration* dead-enders, lead crazy person Rudolph Giuliani, hair dye cascading down both sides of his face as the gods of absurdity overachieved, singled them out in one particular bizarre moment.

You actually want me to take seriously the secretary of state of Michigan? When the secretary of state of Michigan never bothered to find out that the votes in her state were being counted in Germany by a Venezuelan company? And you want me to take her seriously or him seriously? I mean, I was in government. If I were the governor of that state, I'd fire everybody involved in this election. They didn't come and tell me that my state was going to be embarrassed, made a fool of because I'm sending my votes of people in Michigan over to Germany to be counted by a company who is owned by Michigan over to allies of Maduro and Chavez.

Anyone who watched this torrential storm of arrant bullshit will know a lawyer named Sydney Powell was even further into Dimension X than Giuliani was, attributing the plot to "Communist money" and a nefarious gathering of hosts that included Venezuela, Cuba, China, various voting-machine companies, George Soros, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and Hugo Chavez, who managed to fix the 2020 presidential election seven years after he died.

  Charles P Pierce

But the president* is the primary arsonist loose on the land these days. Sooner or later, he's going to find a powder magazine and blow the whole thing to hell.

  Charles P Pierce

Place your bets

What makes Trump think he can successfully pressure Michigan legislators?

President Trump on Thursday invited Republican state legislators from Michigan to visit the White House as he wages a fierce campaign to undermine the election results in the Wolverine State and other battlegrounds that went for President-elect Joe Biden.

An official familiar with the plans confirmed that the president will meet with Michigan lawmakers Friday, but it was not immediately clear how many will attend and what Trump intends to say upon their arrival.

The meeting comes amid a full-court press by Trump and his legal team to subvert Michigan’s election results, which currently show him losing to Biden by more than 150,000 votes.

His attorneys are also looking to overturn the results in a handful of other states including Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin through lawsuits, efforts to sway the vote certification process and pressuring state lawmakers to send pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College.

  The Hill

Yes, but he hasn't "invited" anyone from those other states to visit him. So, is this an artifact of his vengeance and disdain for Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, against whom he has incited an assassination plot?  Or is there something else afoot?

“It is telling that Michigan GOP legislative leaders Mike Shirkey and Lee Chatfield are jetting off to Washington DC this week to meet with President Trump. They are more focused on continuing the GOP smoke and mirrors show designed to hide Trump's humiliating defeat than taking care of the actual problems impacting Michiganders,” the [Michigan Democratic] party said in a statement on behalf of Chair Lavora Barnes.

He's already phoned Monica Palmer, one of the Wayne County canvassers who was amenable to refusing to certify the election results, and who now wants to rescind her capitulation. Now it's a question at the state level.

One of the two Republicans on the four-member Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Thursday said he is leaning toward calling for a delay in the certification of the state’s election results until an official audit has been completed.

“I do think with all of the potential problems, if any of them are true, an audit is appropriate,” Norman Shinkle said in a telephone interview with The Washington Post. “I take one step at a time, and if we can get more information, why not?”

Shinkle reportedly cited among his concerns a since-debunked claim from President Trump and his allies that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of voting machines, deleted thousands of votes that had been cast in favor of the president.

[...]

Shinkle told the Post on Thursday that, “my job is to try to do the right thing for the vote in Michigan,” adding that “the odds are probably that he [Biden] will become president.”

[...]

Shinkle added that he has been getting calls from fellow Republicans trying to convince him to not certify the vote in Michigan, which The Associated Press and other news outlets projected President-elect Joe Biden would win.

AP projections showed Biden leading Trump in the state by more than 155,000 votes as of Thursday.

[...]

Monica Palmer, a GOP member of the Wayne County, Mich., canvassing board, told the Post that Trump called her Tuesday night after she and fellow Republican board member William Hartmann initially refused to certify election results.

The two eventually relented and certified the results, but on Wednesday both Palmer and Hartmann sought to rescind their certification.

Palmer denied that she felt pressured by Trump to reverse course after agreeing to certify the vote. She indicated the two discussed the results in different states, but "we really didn’t discuss the details of the certification."

Sure, Monica.

Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold, is home to Detroit and voted overwhelmingly for Biden.

At this point, it seems that Trump, knowing he can't overturn the election, is hell bent on changing the number of electoral votes Biden got to less than 306 - the same number Trump got in 2016.  He wants to at least be able to say he got more.

The scheduled meeting threatens two kinds of danger. At the largest level, it threatens the system of democratic presidential elections: If state officials start claiming the right to overturn elections because of vague claims about “fraud,” our democratic system will be unworkable. But in a more specific and immediate way, it threatens the two Michigan legislators, personally, with the risk of criminal investigation.

The danger to democratic elections is well understood. The Constitution authorizes state legislatures to decide how states choose presidential electors. For more than a century, every state legislature has chosen to do so by popular election. According to one school of thought, though, a state legislature could choose to set aside a popular vote if it doesn’t like the result and choose different electors instead. This is a pretty undemocratic idea, as well as one that misreads the history of election law: the National Review recently described it as “completely insane.” (State legislatures have the power to change the system for choosing electors in future elections, but not to reject an already conducted election just because they don’t like the result.)

[...]

Why, exactly, does Trump want to see these two men in person, in his office? It isn’t to offer evidence that Michigan’s election was tainted and should therefore be nullified. If he had any such evidence, his lawyers would have presented it in court, rather than abandoning their Michigan lawsuit as they did today. It’s also unlikely that Trump is planning to persuade the Michiganders through subtle legal arguments about their constitutional role. Subtle argument isn’t really Trump’s way of doing things.

The president is a deal-maker, and it’s far more likely that his agenda is transactional. When considering a course of action, he doesn’t think about principles; he thinks about what’s in it for whom. So it makes sense to think that he is inviting Shirkey and Chatfield for a private meeting to offer them something.

[...]

The danger for Shirkey and Chatfield, then, is that they are being visibly invited to a meeting where the likely agenda involves the felony of attempting to bribe a public official.

[...]

Shirkey and Chatfield are already on record—admirably—as being against a legislative intervention to ignore the popular vote and reallocate Michigan’s electors. If they take a meeting with a man who desperately wants them to change their minds, and who has no scruples about what kind of leverage he might use to get it, and then they do change their minds and try to send Michigan’s electors to Trump, the possibility that they were bribed will be screamingly obvious.And the relevant prosecutor—Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel—is a straight-shooting Democrat who does not pal around with Shirkey and Chatfield. If she thought the facts justified an investigation, Shirkey and Chatfield would be investigated.

[...]

And the relevant prosecutor—Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel—is a straight-shooting Democrat who does not pal around with Shirkey and Chatfield. If she thought the facts justified an investigation, Shirkey and Chatfield would be investigated.

  Politico

I suspect Shirkey and Chatfield are simply exercising a Republican taste for publicity.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

UPDATE

MAGA

Disgusting

"The people" were encouraged by Trump's disgusting statements about the governor to plot a kidnapping, and possibly murder.  

What Trump has wrought

The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The alleged plot involved reaching out to members of a Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit filed Thursday.

The court filing also alleges the conspirators twice conducted surveillance at Whitmer's personal vacation home and discussed kidnapping her to a "secure location" in Wisconsin to stand "trial" for treason prior to the Nov. 3 election.

"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."

[...]

The conspiracy described by the FBI specifically involved at least six people:The affidavit filed in federal court details probable cause to charge the six men with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer. Those identified by name include: Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris, Brandon Caserta.

[...]

The investigation dates to early 2020 when the FBI learned through social media that individuals were discussing the violent overthrow of several state governments and law enforcement.

[...]

The militia group is not identified in the court filing, but members periodically meet in remote areas of the state for firearms training and tactical drills.

The FBI was already tracking the militia in March after a local police department learned members were trying to obtain addresses of local law-enforcement officers, the FBI agent wrote.

“At the time, the FBI interviewed a member of the militia group who was concerned about the group’s plans to target and kill police officers, and that person agreed to become a (confidential source),” the agent wrote.

[...]

In late June, Fox posted on Facebook a video in which he complained about the state’s judicial system and COVID-19 restrictions on gyms operating in Michigan.

“Fox referred to Governor Whitmer as ‘this tyrant b----,’ and stated, ‘I don’t know, boys, we gotta do something,” according to the court affidavit. “You guys link with me on our other location system, give me some ideas of what we can do.”

  Detroit News

Trump began attacking Governor Whitmer in March.

[March 26] President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks Friday night on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after she said equipment that Michigan and other states need to fight the coronavirus epidemic is being diverted to the federal government.

"I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic," Trump posted on Twitter. "Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her ahead, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!"

[...]

Trump disparaged her during a Thursday interview on Fox News in response to her criticism of the federal government's lack of preparedness and sluggish response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"She is a new governor, and it's not been pleasant," Trump told Sean Hannity.

"We've had a big problem with the young — a woman governor. You know who I'm talking about — from Michigan."

  Detroit News

[May 28] The latest curveball Trump has thrown her way is a tweet he shot off last week about Michigan’s Democratic Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson. Trump incorrectly said Benson, who he referred to as a “rogue Secretary of State,” had sent out mail ballots to voters, when in reality she had sent out applications for absentee ballots. (Some of Benson’s Republican counterparts in other states have taken similar action.) Alarmingly, Trump threatened to withhold funding from Michigan over the matter on May 20, inaccurately claiming it would increase voter fraud.

[...]

Whitmer said the President’s threat came as she was visiting Midland, where flooding caused by two failed dams resulted in a massive evacuation in the midst of the pandemic.

  Time

Back to the plot to kidnap and/or kill Governor Whitmer...

Fox and two other individuals located Whitmer's home and shot video and took photos of it as they drove by on Aug. 29. One of the individuals then calculated how long it would take local and state police to respond to an incident at the property.

"We ain't going to let 'em burn our f---in' state down. I don't give a f--- if there's only 20 or 30 of us, dude, we'll go out there and use deadly force," said Fox during the surveillance operation, according to an audio recording quoted in the affidavit.

[...]

"Kidnapping, arson, death, I don't care," Franks said, according to the affidavit.

[...]

In an encrypted group chat, Garbin later suggested that demolishing a nearby bridge would hamper a response by police to the governor's home, according to the court filing.

The September surveillance followed a field exercise in at Garbin's property in Luther, Michigan, where the conspirators allegedly detonated an improvised explosive device made from a commercial firework wrapped in shrapnel "to test its anti-personnel effectiveness."

[...]

The group later made plans to conduct a final training exercise in late October but then decided that was too close to the November election, so they moved forward with raising money to procure explosives and other supplies including an 800,000-volt taser.

  Detroit News

Despot Donnie

And this is what he was impeached for.  Impeach him again.

He was just impeached for a quid pro quo withholding aid from Ukraine for a political favor, and people suggested his getting away with it might lead to him doing it to a governor of one of our own states.  That didn't take long, did it?

Finally, however, they've gotten him to enforce the Defense Production Act.

But does he even know the details?

When he DOES know who he's talking about, he just admits he's doing it because he has a grudge against General Motors.

Also...I guess he forgot.

And...

Totally incompetent.

With Trump, EVERYTHING is an opportunity to send campaign mailers.



Amen.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:  From the impeachment hearings in December...

UPDATE:

Get this pariah out of the White House

He's looking a bit haggard.  Not sleeping well?  Fever?  Worried about the stock market and November?

While Cuomo, Whitmer and other governors have been among the most vocal critics of the federal coronavirus response, they have been far from alone. The Trump administration has come under a steady drumbeat of scrutiny over its inability to quickly ramp up coronavirus testing capabilities as well as its weekslong rhetorical campaign to downplay the virus' threat to Americans. Only recently has the president reversed course in his own public utterances to warn the public about the severity of the pandemic's threat.

[...]

The president's criticism of Whitmer on Tuesday appeared to be triggered by her appearance on MSNBC, where she said her state is working to flatten the curve by closing restaurants and bars after a federal government response that did not take the outbreak “seriously early enough.” She also outlined her plan to expand unemployment benefits as workers lose jobs and are forced to stay home amid the pandemic.

How dare she.

"Cuomo wants ‘all states to be treated the same.’ But all states aren’t the same. Some are being hit hard by the Chinese Virus, some are being hit practically not at all," Trump tweeted, referring to the novel coronavirus by a controversial name that some in his administration have adopted. "New York is a very big ‘hotspot’, West Virginia has, thus far, zero cases. Andrew, keep politics out of it.”

  Politico

Only Dear Leader is allowed to make politics a big factor.

And still calling it "the Chinese virus." Pathetic.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.