This Is How A Group Linked To Betsy DeVos Is Organizing Protests To End Social Distancing, Now With Trump's Support
Salvador HernandezBuzzFeed News Reporter April 17, 2020
Paul Sancya / AP
A trailer carrying a "Trump Unity" sign is parked at a protest in front of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.
While thousands of demonstrators swarmed the Michigan State Capitol to protest the governor's stay-at-home order Wednesday — honking horns, waving flags, and bringing traffic to a halt — dozens of Facebook groups were already springing up to organize similar rallies across the country.
"Indiana Citizens Against Excessive Quarantine," "Operation Gridlock Tennessee," and other groups with similar names drew people calling an end to stay-at-home orders, measures that health officials say are essential to stopping the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Protests against the guidelines are being planned across the country. The Michigan Conservative Coalition, the same organization that planned the Lansing protest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday, is helping organizers.
"You're going to see some massive protesting going on," Matt Seely, a spokesperson for the Michigan Conservative Coalition, told BuzzFeed News. "We've been asked to basically share our template with other groups to do the same thing, and we've done that."
Like the protest in Lansing, groups opposed to stay-at-home orders are pushing for businesses and public spaces to reopen and for public gatherings to be allowed.
But the protest in Lansing, and those being planned in other parts of the country, have also drawn right-wing organizations like militia groups that oppose stay-at-home orders, calling them a violation of civil liberties and warning supporters of the possibility of martial law being imposed.
WHITE PRIVILEGE TO GO OUT ARMED IN THE STREETS
Paul Sancya / AP
On Friday, President Donald Trump seemed to take a similar tone, airing support of groups protesting the orders and calling on people to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!"
THESE ARE TRUMPS SHOCK TROOPS LIKE MUSSOLINI'S FASCISTI
Thousands of demonstrators showed up in Michigan to protest the governor's stay-at-home order, and they're helping other groups organize across the country.
Salvador HernandezBuzzFeed News Reporter April 17, 2020
Paul Sancya / AP
A trailer carrying a "Trump Unity" sign is parked at a protest in front of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.
While thousands of demonstrators swarmed the Michigan State Capitol to protest the governor's stay-at-home order Wednesday — honking horns, waving flags, and bringing traffic to a halt — dozens of Facebook groups were already springing up to organize similar rallies across the country.
"Indiana Citizens Against Excessive Quarantine," "Operation Gridlock Tennessee," and other groups with similar names drew people calling an end to stay-at-home orders, measures that health officials say are essential to stopping the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Protests against the guidelines are being planned across the country. The Michigan Conservative Coalition, the same organization that planned the Lansing protest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday, is helping organizers.
"You're going to see some massive protesting going on," Matt Seely, a spokesperson for the Michigan Conservative Coalition, told BuzzFeed News. "We've been asked to basically share our template with other groups to do the same thing, and we've done that."
Like the protest in Lansing, groups opposed to stay-at-home orders are pushing for businesses and public spaces to reopen and for public gatherings to be allowed.
But the protest in Lansing, and those being planned in other parts of the country, have also drawn right-wing organizations like militia groups that oppose stay-at-home orders, calling them a violation of civil liberties and warning supporters of the possibility of martial law being imposed.
WHITE PRIVILEGE TO GO OUT ARMED IN THE STREETS
Paul Sancya / AP
ARMED FOR HUNTING HUMANS
THESE GUYS ALWAYS WEAR FACE MASKS SO WHY THE BITCHIN'
DYSLEXIC SWASTIKA YOU WOULD THINK A FASCIST WOULD KNOW HOW TO DRAW ONE
On Friday, President Donald Trump seemed to take a similar tone, airing support of groups protesting the orders and calling on people to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!"
(TRUMP'S ADMONISHMENTS TO HIS TROOPS ARE AN ACT OF TREASON UNDER THE US CONSTITUTION)
Trump, who on Thursday introduced guidelines for states to begin opening up, wrote similar tweets regarding Minnesota and Virginia.
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!03:22 PM - 17 Apr 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!03:21 PM - 17 Apr 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!03:25 PM - 17 Apr 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite
A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that, despite the president calling for the liberation of states, the tweets did not violate its rules. "The use of ‘liberate’ in the Tweets you referenced is vague and unclear, and not something that allows us to reliably infer harmful physical intent," the spokesperson said.
Despite Trump's rhetoric, the three states' Democratic governors seemed uninterested in wanting to getting into war of words with the president.
"As the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I'm fighting a biological war," Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said during a press briefing Friday. "I do not have time to involve myself in Twitter wars. I will continue to make sure that I do everything that I can to keep Virginians safe and to save lives."
A spokesperson for Whitmer said the governor's focus was on addressing the safety of Michigan families.
"We are all on the same team when it comes to defeating COVID-19," Robert Leddy told BuzzFeed News. "As the governor has said, we're not going to reopen Michigan's economy via tweet."
As of Friday afternoon, Michigan has seen more than 30,00 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as well as more than 2,200 deaths. In the last 24 hours, 134 people who have contracted the virus have died in the state.
But protesters argue the financial hardship on people has also been heavy, prompting the demonstrations on Wednesday.
"People are at a breaking point," Seely said. "People put their own families' future on hold for 45 days for the better good of the country and their fellow man, and that is getting overlooked as if it was a trivial sacrifice."
Seely said he was not surprised by the turnout on Wednesday's protest nor the number of groups that have reached out hoping to duplicate the demonstration in their own communities. He said he knew of at least a dozen groups that the Michigan Conservative Coalition had helped to organize protests similar to its own "Operation Gridlock."
Organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the Michigan Freedom Fund, the protest has drawn criticism over its links to Betsy DeVos's family.
"I think it's really inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States president's cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor," Whitmer said, referring to the education secretary.
The Michigan Freedom Fund was founded by Greg McNeilly, a political adviser to the DeVos family, who has provided financial support to the organization.
Seely said the DeVos family has played no role in the protests and that the Michigan Freedom Fund was independent of the DeVos family, calling the attack a deflection from Whitmer.
The protesters in Michigan have, nevertheless, already caught Trump's attention.
"I think they're listening to me," he said during a White House briefing. "They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion is just the same as about all of the governors. They all wanna open."
Meanwhile, more groups organizing protests across the US continue to show up on Facebook. Some have garnered only a handful of supporters, while others have quickly built up hundreds of followers.
"Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine" has garnered more than 48,000 members, while "Minnesotans Against Excessive Quarantine" has more than 17,000.
Both groups have nearly identical descriptions.
"Politicians are on a power trip, controlling our lives, destroying our businesses, passing laws behind the cover of darkness and forcing us to hand over our freedoms and livelihood!" the pages for both groups state.
Meanwhile, another group called "Operation Gridlock Tennessee" notes that while "this has been an excellent reminder for everyone to practice hygienic diligence - wash your hands, stay home when you are sick," the pandemic "should not give any government body the right to mandate that we close our businesses and order us to 'shelter in place.'"
Across the country, "Operation Los Angeles" offers the same description for its protest.
Screenshot
And while some groups are receiving guidance from Michigan about how to organize their own protests against stay-at-home orders, they too are passing the playbook to other states, urging them to replicate the demonstrations.
Facebook
Despite concerns from health officials that lifting stay-at-home orders too early could usher in a new wave of infections, Seely said people needed to start living in a "new normal."
He echoed Trump's comments about reopening the country, saying outbreaks across the country could be addressed regionally if needed. But he said keeping the country's economy shut down was not an option.
"This isn't America," he said. "We need to resume life and get back to life while this plays out."
Americans
ARMED WHITE MALE TRUMP FOLLOWERS
‘Students for Trump’ founder urges ‘peaceful rebellion’ against coronavirus shutdown orders
DOES PEACEFUL INCLUDE CARRYING ASSAULT RIFLES IN PUBLIC
April 18, 2020 By Bob Brigham
Right-wing rage against COVID-19 shutdown orders continues to escalate in America.
IT IS ESCALATING BECAUSE IT IS A FAKE PROTEST ORGANIZED BY TRUMP ALLIES ON THE RIGHT AND IN THE RIGHT WING PRESS
“During a virtual convention on Friday for Students for Trump, the college campus arm of Turning Point USA, the group’s founder Charlie Kirk urged members to launch a ‘peaceful rebellion against governors’ in states like Michigan and Wisconsin,” ABC News reported Saturday.
Michigan and Wisconsin have Democratic Party governors but are considered must-win for Trump to be reelected in November.
“Kirk, speaking to over 500 members of the conservative nonprofit organization geared at activating college students to reelect the president who tuned in to the event, derided governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer for encroaching on their rights and urged them to join the protests around the country,” ABC reported.
“A day after his comments, Kirk appeared on a Trump campaign digital event Saturday night hosted by Lara Trump,” the network noted. “Two Trump campaign advisers, Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, and John Pence, the vice president’s nephew, appeared at the virtual convention following Kirk’s comments.”
The same day Kirk made his comments about rebellion, Trump retweeted him eleven times.
Great book. Get it and support Charlie! https://t.co/fG7YXOCk9R
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020
U.S. governors feel heat to reopen fromprotesters, WHITE TRUMP SUPPORTERS and the president
Stores in Texas can begin selling merchandise with curbside service, and hospitals can resume nonessential surgeries. In Florida, people are returning to beaches and parks. And protesters are clamoring for more.
Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from demonstrators and President Donald Trump are moving to ease restrictions meant to control the spread of the coronavirus, even as new hot spots emerge and experts warn that moving too fast could prove disastrous.
Protests against stay-at-home orders organized by small-government groups and Trump supporters were planned for Saturday in several cities after the president urged supporters to “liberate” three states led by Democratic governors.
But protests were planned in Republican-led states, too, including at the Texas Capitol and in front of the Indiana governor’s home. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has already said that restrictions will begin easing next week, while Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb — who signed an agreement with six other Midwestern states to coordinate reopening — said he would extend his stay-at-home order until May 1.
Meanwhile, infections kept surging in the Northeast.
Rhode Island, sandwiched between the hot spots of Massachusetts and New York, has seen a steady daily increase in the number of infections and deaths, with nursing home residents accounting for more than 90 of the state’s 118 deaths. The state’s death rate of around 10 people per 100,000 population is among the highest per capita in the nation, according to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.
Massachusetts had its highest number of deaths in a single day on Friday with 159. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said it would be premature for states to begin lifting restrictions when deaths are still climbing. Citing the advice of health experts, he said states should look for infection rates and hospitalizations to be on the decline for about two weeks before acting.
Trump, whose administration waited months to bolster stockpiles of key medical supplies and equipment, appeared to back protesters taking to the streets in several U.S. states to vent their anger with the restrictions.
“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, “ Trump said in a tweet-storm in which he also lashed out at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, for criticizing the federal response. Cuomo “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining,’” the president said.
A few hundred demonstrators cheered and waved signs Saturday outside the Statehouse in New Hampshire, which has had nearly 1,300 cases of the virus and more than three dozens deaths through Friday.
“Even if the virus were 10 times as dangerous as it is, I still wouldn’t stay inside my home. I’d rather take the risk and be a free person,” said one of the protesters, talk show host Ian Freeman.
Trump is pushing to relax the U.S. lockdown by May 1, a plan that hinges partly on more testing.
Public health officials said the ability to test enough people and trace contacts of those who are infected is crucial before easing up on restrictions, and that infections could surge anew unless people continue to take precautions.
Some Asian nations that until recently appeared to have the outbreak under control, including Singapore and Japan, reported a fresh increase in cases Saturday.
Japan’s total case number rose above 10,000 on Saturday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has voiced concern that people are not observing social distancing and announced a 100,000-yen ($930) cash handout to each resident as an incentive to stay home.
Singapore reported a sharp, one-day spike of 942 infections, the highest in Southeast Asia, mostly among foreign workers staying in crowded dormitories. That brought the total to almost 6,000 in the tiny city-state of 6 million.
The issue of when — and how — to ease the restrictions designed to control the pandemic are vexing governments around the world after weeks of mandatory lockdowns that have brought widespread economic hardship.
In a joint statement Saturday, foreign ministers from 13 countries, including Canada, Brazil, Italy and Germany, called for global cooperation to lessen the economic impact of the pandemic.
“It is vital that we work together to save lives and livelihoods,” they said.
The statement was also backed by Britain, France Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, South Korea, Singapore and Turkey. It said the countries were committed to “coordinate on public health, travel, trade, economic and financial measures in order to minimize disruptions and recover stronger.”
Those efforts include maintaining “air, land and marine transportation links” to ensure the continued flow of goods including medical equipment and aid, and the return home of travelers, they said after a virtual meeting late Friday.
There have been tentative signs that measures to curb the outbreak are working, with the rate of new infections slowing across Europe.
France and Spain started dismantling some field hospitals, while in Germany the number of active cases has slowly declined over the past week as people recover.
France’s national health agency said Saturday that the number of virus patients in intensive care dropped for the 10th day straight, and the number of overall virus hospitalizations has fallen for three consecutive days. The country has seen almost 20,000 virus deaths.
The agency urged the French public to stick to the country’s strict confinement measures, which have been extended until at least May 11: “Together, we will vanquish the pandemic. Don’t relax our efforts at the moment when confinement is bearing fruit.”
Spain’s children have been confined to their homes for five weeks, prompting some parents to ask that they be to allowed to at least take a daily walk. The government says it is studying how to cautiously roll back lockdown measures, but that it is too soon to let kids out since they are a major source of transmission even if they rarely fall ill from the virus.
Fernando Simón, a leading Spanish health official, said Saturday: “For children to go outside, we need to see a sufficiently small number of new cases to ensure that the epidemic won’t explode again and so that we won’t be putting at risk our patients and our hospitals. … We are close, but we need to go day to day.”
Most governments and public health officials remain cautious about relaxing the shutdowns, despite the mounting economic toll.
“It’s wrong, sensationally wrong, to communicate that there is a kind of conflict with health and safety on one side and economic resumption,” said Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency.
“Without health, the (economic) revival will disappear in the batting of an eyelash,” Arcuri told reporters Saturday.
The Italian government’s decree, shutting down nonessential industries and businesses, runs through May 3. Health experts are advising that any easing must be gradual in the country that’s seen the most deaths so far in Europe, with more than 23,000 fatalities and nearly 176,000 known cases.
Iran, hard hit by the virus and international sanctions, allowed some businesses in the capital and nearby towns to re-open Saturday after weeks of lockdown. Gyms, restaurants, shopping malls and Tehran’s grand bazaar will remain closed.
In Africa, one of the world’s poorest regions, the pandemic is only just getting underway. The continent has now recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths, among them the Nigerian president’s chief of staff, and more than 20,000 cases.
While most of those sickened by the virus recover, the outbreak has killed at least 155,000 people worldwide, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally based on figures supplied by government health authorities around the globe.
The number all but certainly underestimates the actual toll. Authorities said that almost everywhere, thousands have died with COVID-19 symptoms — many in nursing homes — without being tested for the virus, and have thus gone uncounted.
President Trump stoked the culture war on Friday with a series of fiery tweets calling for what he termed the liberation of three states, all of which have Democratic governors.
Trump was apparently backing protesters in Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia who have bridled against restrictions put in place in response to the coronavirus crisis.
His tweets were the latest — and starkest — example of how even the debate over the deadly virus is increasingly being strained by the centrifugal forces of a polarizing president and a polarized media.
The tweets were, even by Trump’s standards, a remarkable intervention by a president in the middle of a national emergency. In a four-minute stretch just before 11:30 a.m., he sent three all-caps tweets urging people to “LIBERATE” Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia.
Adding a further twist, Trump linked the situation in Virginia to gun rights. “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” the president urged.
Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam (D), signed several new gun control measures into law a week before.
“They did a horrible thing, the governor,” Trump added at his White House press briefing on Friday.
Trump’s tweets drew immediate outrage from Democratic politicians and liberal commentators.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) — whose state was the first to bear the brunt of the virus’s spread within the United States — accused Trump of “fomenting domestic rebellion” and giving encouragement to “illegal and dangerous acts.”
MSNBC anchor Joy Reid linked to a screenshot of Trump’s tweets, commenting, “So I guess we're just skipping directly to the Second Civil War chapter of this horror novel, huh?”
Chris Cuomo, the CNN anchor who is himself suffering from the coronavirus, asked, “Is this trump ‘helping country heal’?”
The largest demonstration so far occurred on Wednesday in Lansing, Mich., where several thousand protesters rallied in “Operation Gridlock.” They were expressing their dismay with the strict social distancing measures put in place by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who has recently found herself in Trump’s rhetorical crosshairs.
The Wolverine State had, at the time, around 27,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The total had swelled to more than 30,000 by Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
For many, both for and against the protests, the demonstrations have called to mind the Tea Party rallies that arose during former President Obama’s first term. Among the many parallels, charges and countercharges have been leveled about whether the Lansing protests were an authentic expression of popular discontent or an effort ginned up by conservative groups.
In addition, news reports said that some of the protesters in Michigan chanted “Lock her up!” — the slogan with which Trump supporters assailed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 — in relation to Whitmer.
“They seem like very responsible people to me,” Trump said about the protests when asked about the demonstrations at his Friday press briefing.
Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor who specializes in political communications, said that "the model for how coronavirus has infected the political environment is Lansing. It’s sort of the perfect test case."
"You have people who are upset and a governor who is trying to govern, and maybe those people have been riled up by outside forces, or maybe they are being wrongly accused of being riled up by outside forces. The bottom line is, again, everything is so politicized," he added.
Polling indicates that — for the moment — there is widespread acceptance of the need for social distancing measures in response to the coronavirus.
A Morning Consult poll on Friday asked whether people believed it was more important for government to address the spread of the coronavirus or the state of the economy. Seventy-five percent of Americans — and 65 percent of Republicans — said that the priority should be on fighting the virus.
A Monmouth University poll conducted earlier this month asked respondents whether the federal government's response to the spread of the virus had been appropriate, had gone too far or had not gone far enough.
The numbers who believed it had gone too far were tiny across the board — 8 percent of Republicans, 8 percent of independents and 4 percent of Democrats.Meanwhile, a Gallup poll earlier this week underlined the degree to which a return to normalcy will be determined as much by citizens’ attitudes as by pronouncements by the president or by governors.
Asked how soon they would return to their normal activities after the government lifts restrictions on social contact, only 20 percent of Americans said “immediately.” Seventy-one percent said they would “wait to see what happens.”
On that particular question, however, there was a partisan split that could be a sign of things to come.
Only 11 percent of Democrats in the Gallup poll said they would resume their normal lives right away. The figure among Republicans was almost three times as high, at 31 percent.
There is obvious potential for that kind of schism to be broadened, especially in a partisan media environment.
Tucker Carlson of Fox News on Wednesday interviewed New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and asked him by what authority he could “nullify the Bill of Rights” by imposing social distancing rules on religious services.
“The science ... says people have to stay away from each other,” Murphy responded.
The media divides are, as always, even more evident on social media than on the airwaves themselves.
On Friday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham tweeted her support of the president’s call for supposed liberation of certain states by drawing a comparison with the liberation of Iraq, while MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell called Trump “a sociopath.”
Those divisions seem much more likely to widen than narrow in the days ahead.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.
Trump, who on Thursday introduced guidelines for states to begin opening up, wrote similar tweets regarding Minnesota and Virginia.
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!03:22 PM - 17 Apr 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!03:21 PM - 17 Apr 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!03:25 PM - 17 Apr 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite
A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that, despite the president calling for the liberation of states, the tweets did not violate its rules. "The use of ‘liberate’ in the Tweets you referenced is vague and unclear, and not something that allows us to reliably infer harmful physical intent," the spokesperson said.
Despite Trump's rhetoric, the three states' Democratic governors seemed uninterested in wanting to getting into war of words with the president.
"As the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I'm fighting a biological war," Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said during a press briefing Friday. "I do not have time to involve myself in Twitter wars. I will continue to make sure that I do everything that I can to keep Virginians safe and to save lives."
A spokesperson for Whitmer said the governor's focus was on addressing the safety of Michigan families.
"We are all on the same team when it comes to defeating COVID-19," Robert Leddy told BuzzFeed News. "As the governor has said, we're not going to reopen Michigan's economy via tweet."
As of Friday afternoon, Michigan has seen more than 30,00 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as well as more than 2,200 deaths. In the last 24 hours, 134 people who have contracted the virus have died in the state.
But protesters argue the financial hardship on people has also been heavy, prompting the demonstrations on Wednesday.
"People are at a breaking point," Seely said. "People put their own families' future on hold for 45 days for the better good of the country and their fellow man, and that is getting overlooked as if it was a trivial sacrifice."
Seely said he was not surprised by the turnout on Wednesday's protest nor the number of groups that have reached out hoping to duplicate the demonstration in their own communities. He said he knew of at least a dozen groups that the Michigan Conservative Coalition had helped to organize protests similar to its own "Operation Gridlock."
Organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the Michigan Freedom Fund, the protest has drawn criticism over its links to Betsy DeVos's family.
"I think it's really inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States president's cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor," Whitmer said, referring to the education secretary.
The Michigan Freedom Fund was founded by Greg McNeilly, a political adviser to the DeVos family, who has provided financial support to the organization.
Seely said the DeVos family has played no role in the protests and that the Michigan Freedom Fund was independent of the DeVos family, calling the attack a deflection from Whitmer.
The protesters in Michigan have, nevertheless, already caught Trump's attention.
"I think they're listening to me," he said during a White House briefing. "They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion is just the same as about all of the governors. They all wanna open."
Meanwhile, more groups organizing protests across the US continue to show up on Facebook. Some have garnered only a handful of supporters, while others have quickly built up hundreds of followers.
"Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine" has garnered more than 48,000 members, while "Minnesotans Against Excessive Quarantine" has more than 17,000.
Both groups have nearly identical descriptions.
"Politicians are on a power trip, controlling our lives, destroying our businesses, passing laws behind the cover of darkness and forcing us to hand over our freedoms and livelihood!" the pages for both groups state.
Meanwhile, another group called "Operation Gridlock Tennessee" notes that while "this has been an excellent reminder for everyone to practice hygienic diligence - wash your hands, stay home when you are sick," the pandemic "should not give any government body the right to mandate that we close our businesses and order us to 'shelter in place.'"
Across the country, "Operation Los Angeles" offers the same description for its protest.
Screenshot
And while some groups are receiving guidance from Michigan about how to organize their own protests against stay-at-home orders, they too are passing the playbook to other states, urging them to replicate the demonstrations.
Despite concerns from health officials that lifting stay-at-home orders too early could usher in a new wave of infections, Seely said people needed to start living in a "new normal."
He echoed Trump's comments about reopening the country, saying outbreaks across the country could be addressed regionally if needed. But he said keeping the country's economy shut down was not an option.
"This isn't America," he said. "We need to resume life and get back to life while this plays out."
ARMED WHITE MALE TRUMP FOLLOWERS
protest US coronavirus lockdowns — with President Trump’s encouragement: ‘Live free or die’
Published April 18, 2020 By Agence France-Press
Hundreds of people demonstrated Saturday in cities across America against coronavirus-related stay-at-home rules — with the explicit encouragement of President Donald Trump — as resentment against prolonged confinement grew.
An estimated 400 people gathered under a cold rain in Concord, New Hampshire — many on foot while others remained in their cars — to send a message that extended quarantines were not necessary in a state with relatively few confirmed cases of COVID-19, an AFP photographer reported.
A similar rally outside Maryland’s colonial-era statehouse in Annapolis drew around 200 protesters. And more than 250 people showed up in the Texas capital of Austin, as such protests continued to spread.
They drew encouragement in certain Democratic-led states from tweets by Trump — who has said he favors a quick return to normal practices — though protests have also taken place in Republican-led states like New Hampshire.
In Concord, demonstrators carried signs with slogans like “The numbers lie” (ANTI MATH, ANTI STEM) or “Reopen New Hampshire.”
Their common demand was that the stay-at-home order for the state of 1.3 million people be called off before its scheduled May 4 end date.
‘Live Free or Die’
Others, amid a sea of American flags, chanted the state’s Revolutionary War-era slogan, “Live Free or Die.”
Among the demonstrators were several armed men wearing face-covering hoods, the AFP journalist noted.
“People are very happy on a voluntary basis to do what’s necessary,” one demonstrator, 63-year-old Skip Murphy, told AFP by phone.
He added, however, that “the data does not support the egregious lockdown we are having in New Hampshire.”
He said only the southeastern part of the state, near the Boston metropolitan area, had an elevated incidence of the disease, and he argued that the rest of the state, with far fewer cases, should be exempted from confinement orders.
As of Friday morning, New Hampshire had reported 1,287 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 37 deaths.
‘Free country’
“What about our constitutional rights?” Murphy said.
“All over the country, a lot of people are saying, ‘We will do our part, but at the same time this is supposed to be a free country.’
“When that gets transgressed, people start to say, ‘Wait a minute, this is wrong.'”
Most Americans — by a two-to-one margin — actually worry about virus restrictions being lifted too soon, not too late, a recent Pew survey found.
But demonstrators found encouragement Friday from the president himself, who in a series of tweets called to “LIBERATE” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia — all states with Democratic governors — from stay-at-home orders.
Trump has repeatedly called for the earliest possible return to normality as virus-related closings have had a crushing impact on American workers and businesses.
But public health officials warn that too quick an easing of restrictions could allow a disastrous resurgence of the virus.
The largest protest against stay-at-home rules so far took place Wednesday in the Michigan capital of Lansing, where some 3,000 people demonstrated against confinement orders from Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Murphy said he had voted for Trump, but insisted his motives were not partisan. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is a Republican, he noted.
“This has nothing to do with Trump or the Democrat and Republican governors,” Murphy said.
“It is a case of one size not fitting all — the lockdown should cease where it does not make sense.”
Published April 18, 2020 By Agence France-Press
Hundreds of people demonstrated Saturday in cities across America against coronavirus-related stay-at-home rules — with the explicit encouragement of President Donald Trump — as resentment against prolonged confinement grew.
An estimated 400 people gathered under a cold rain in Concord, New Hampshire — many on foot while others remained in their cars — to send a message that extended quarantines were not necessary in a state with relatively few confirmed cases of COVID-19, an AFP photographer reported.
A similar rally outside Maryland’s colonial-era statehouse in Annapolis drew around 200 protesters. And more than 250 people showed up in the Texas capital of Austin, as such protests continued to spread.
They drew encouragement in certain Democratic-led states from tweets by Trump — who has said he favors a quick return to normal practices — though protests have also taken place in Republican-led states like New Hampshire.
In Concord, demonstrators carried signs with slogans like “The numbers lie” (ANTI MATH, ANTI STEM) or “Reopen New Hampshire.”
Their common demand was that the stay-at-home order for the state of 1.3 million people be called off before its scheduled May 4 end date.
‘Live Free or Die’
Others, amid a sea of American flags, chanted the state’s Revolutionary War-era slogan, “Live Free or Die.”
Among the demonstrators were several armed men wearing face-covering hoods, the AFP journalist noted.
“People are very happy on a voluntary basis to do what’s necessary,” one demonstrator, 63-year-old Skip Murphy, told AFP by phone.
He added, however, that “the data does not support the egregious lockdown we are having in New Hampshire.”
He said only the southeastern part of the state, near the Boston metropolitan area, had an elevated incidence of the disease, and he argued that the rest of the state, with far fewer cases, should be exempted from confinement orders.
As of Friday morning, New Hampshire had reported 1,287 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 37 deaths.
‘Free country’
“What about our constitutional rights?” Murphy said.
“All over the country, a lot of people are saying, ‘We will do our part, but at the same time this is supposed to be a free country.’
“When that gets transgressed, people start to say, ‘Wait a minute, this is wrong.'”
Most Americans — by a two-to-one margin — actually worry about virus restrictions being lifted too soon, not too late, a recent Pew survey found.
But demonstrators found encouragement Friday from the president himself, who in a series of tweets called to “LIBERATE” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia — all states with Democratic governors — from stay-at-home orders.
Trump has repeatedly called for the earliest possible return to normality as virus-related closings have had a crushing impact on American workers and businesses.
But public health officials warn that too quick an easing of restrictions could allow a disastrous resurgence of the virus.
The largest protest against stay-at-home rules so far took place Wednesday in the Michigan capital of Lansing, where some 3,000 people demonstrated against confinement orders from Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Murphy said he had voted for Trump, but insisted his motives were not partisan. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is a Republican, he noted.
“This has nothing to do with Trump or the Democrat and Republican governors,” Murphy said.
“It is a case of one size not fitting all — the lockdown should cease where it does not make sense.”
‘Students for Trump’ founder urges ‘peaceful rebellion’ against coronavirus shutdown orders
DOES PEACEFUL INCLUDE CARRYING ASSAULT RIFLES IN PUBLIC
April 18, 2020 By Bob Brigham
Right-wing rage against COVID-19 shutdown orders continues to escalate in America.
IT IS ESCALATING BECAUSE IT IS A FAKE PROTEST ORGANIZED BY TRUMP ALLIES ON THE RIGHT AND IN THE RIGHT WING PRESS
“During a virtual convention on Friday for Students for Trump, the college campus arm of Turning Point USA, the group’s founder Charlie Kirk urged members to launch a ‘peaceful rebellion against governors’ in states like Michigan and Wisconsin,” ABC News reported Saturday.
Michigan and Wisconsin have Democratic Party governors but are considered must-win for Trump to be reelected in November.
“Kirk, speaking to over 500 members of the conservative nonprofit organization geared at activating college students to reelect the president who tuned in to the event, derided governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer for encroaching on their rights and urged them to join the protests around the country,” ABC reported.
“A day after his comments, Kirk appeared on a Trump campaign digital event Saturday night hosted by Lara Trump,” the network noted. “Two Trump campaign advisers, Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, and John Pence, the vice president’s nephew, appeared at the virtual convention following Kirk’s comments.”
The same day Kirk made his comments about rebellion, Trump retweeted him eleven times.
Great book. Get it and support Charlie! https://t.co/fG7YXOCk9R
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020
U.S. governors feel heat to reopen from
Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from demonstrators and President Donald Trump move to ease restrictions, even as new hot spots emerge
People demonstrate against the government mandated lockdown due to concern about COVID-19 at the State House, Saturday, April 18, 2020, in Concord, N.H. AP
CORONAVIRUS IS A PATHOGEN IT IS NOT A COMMIE OR A REPUBLICAN
I GET IT THAT IS RIGHT WING POLITICALLY CORRECT CODE FOR CHINA
People demonstrate against the government mandated lockdown due to concern about COVID-19 at the State House, Saturday, April 18, 2020, in Concord, N.H. AP
CORONAVIRUS IS A PATHOGEN IT IS NOT A COMMIE OR A REPUBLICAN
I GET IT THAT IS RIGHT WING POLITICALLY CORRECT CODE FOR CHINA
Stores in Texas can begin selling merchandise with curbside service, and hospitals can resume nonessential surgeries. In Florida, people are returning to beaches and parks. And protesters are clamoring for more.
Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from demonstrators and President Donald Trump are moving to ease restrictions meant to control the spread of the coronavirus, even as new hot spots emerge and experts warn that moving too fast could prove disastrous.
Protests against stay-at-home orders organized by small-government groups and Trump supporters were planned for Saturday in several cities after the president urged supporters to “liberate” three states led by Democratic governors.
But protests were planned in Republican-led states, too, including at the Texas Capitol and in front of the Indiana governor’s home. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has already said that restrictions will begin easing next week, while Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb — who signed an agreement with six other Midwestern states to coordinate reopening — said he would extend his stay-at-home order until May 1.
Meanwhile, infections kept surging in the Northeast.
Rhode Island, sandwiched between the hot spots of Massachusetts and New York, has seen a steady daily increase in the number of infections and deaths, with nursing home residents accounting for more than 90 of the state’s 118 deaths. The state’s death rate of around 10 people per 100,000 population is among the highest per capita in the nation, according to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.
Massachusetts had its highest number of deaths in a single day on Friday with 159. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said it would be premature for states to begin lifting restrictions when deaths are still climbing. Citing the advice of health experts, he said states should look for infection rates and hospitalizations to be on the decline for about two weeks before acting.
Trump, whose administration waited months to bolster stockpiles of key medical supplies and equipment, appeared to back protesters taking to the streets in several U.S. states to vent their anger with the restrictions.
“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, “ Trump said in a tweet-storm in which he also lashed out at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, for criticizing the federal response. Cuomo “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining,’” the president said.
A few hundred demonstrators cheered and waved signs Saturday outside the Statehouse in New Hampshire, which has had nearly 1,300 cases of the virus and more than three dozens deaths through Friday.
“Even if the virus were 10 times as dangerous as it is, I still wouldn’t stay inside my home. I’d rather take the risk and be a free person,” said one of the protesters, talk show host Ian Freeman.
Trump is pushing to relax the U.S. lockdown by May 1, a plan that hinges partly on more testing.
Public health officials said the ability to test enough people and trace contacts of those who are infected is crucial before easing up on restrictions, and that infections could surge anew unless people continue to take precautions.
Some Asian nations that until recently appeared to have the outbreak under control, including Singapore and Japan, reported a fresh increase in cases Saturday.
Japan’s total case number rose above 10,000 on Saturday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has voiced concern that people are not observing social distancing and announced a 100,000-yen ($930) cash handout to each resident as an incentive to stay home.
Singapore reported a sharp, one-day spike of 942 infections, the highest in Southeast Asia, mostly among foreign workers staying in crowded dormitories. That brought the total to almost 6,000 in the tiny city-state of 6 million.
The issue of when — and how — to ease the restrictions designed to control the pandemic are vexing governments around the world after weeks of mandatory lockdowns that have brought widespread economic hardship.
In a joint statement Saturday, foreign ministers from 13 countries, including Canada, Brazil, Italy and Germany, called for global cooperation to lessen the economic impact of the pandemic.
“It is vital that we work together to save lives and livelihoods,” they said.
The statement was also backed by Britain, France Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, South Korea, Singapore and Turkey. It said the countries were committed to “coordinate on public health, travel, trade, economic and financial measures in order to minimize disruptions and recover stronger.”
Those efforts include maintaining “air, land and marine transportation links” to ensure the continued flow of goods including medical equipment and aid, and the return home of travelers, they said after a virtual meeting late Friday.
There have been tentative signs that measures to curb the outbreak are working, with the rate of new infections slowing across Europe.
France and Spain started dismantling some field hospitals, while in Germany the number of active cases has slowly declined over the past week as people recover.
France’s national health agency said Saturday that the number of virus patients in intensive care dropped for the 10th day straight, and the number of overall virus hospitalizations has fallen for three consecutive days. The country has seen almost 20,000 virus deaths.
The agency urged the French public to stick to the country’s strict confinement measures, which have been extended until at least May 11: “Together, we will vanquish the pandemic. Don’t relax our efforts at the moment when confinement is bearing fruit.”
Spain’s children have been confined to their homes for five weeks, prompting some parents to ask that they be to allowed to at least take a daily walk. The government says it is studying how to cautiously roll back lockdown measures, but that it is too soon to let kids out since they are a major source of transmission even if they rarely fall ill from the virus.
Fernando Simón, a leading Spanish health official, said Saturday: “For children to go outside, we need to see a sufficiently small number of new cases to ensure that the epidemic won’t explode again and so that we won’t be putting at risk our patients and our hospitals. … We are close, but we need to go day to day.”
Most governments and public health officials remain cautious about relaxing the shutdowns, despite the mounting economic toll.
“It’s wrong, sensationally wrong, to communicate that there is a kind of conflict with health and safety on one side and economic resumption,” said Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency.
“Without health, the (economic) revival will disappear in the batting of an eyelash,” Arcuri told reporters Saturday.
The Italian government’s decree, shutting down nonessential industries and businesses, runs through May 3. Health experts are advising that any easing must be gradual in the country that’s seen the most deaths so far in Europe, with more than 23,000 fatalities and nearly 176,000 known cases.
Iran, hard hit by the virus and international sanctions, allowed some businesses in the capital and nearby towns to re-open Saturday after weeks of lockdown. Gyms, restaurants, shopping malls and Tehran’s grand bazaar will remain closed.
In Africa, one of the world’s poorest regions, the pandemic is only just getting underway. The continent has now recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths, among them the Nigerian president’s chief of staff, and more than 20,000 cases.
While most of those sickened by the virus recover, the outbreak has killed at least 155,000 people worldwide, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally based on figures supplied by government health authorities around the globe.
The number all but certainly underestimates the actual toll. Authorities said that almost everywhere, thousands have died with COVID-19 symptoms — many in nursing homes — without being tested for the virus, and have thus gone uncounted.
The Memo: Culture war hits coronavirus crisis
BY NIALL STANAGE - 04/18/20President Trump stoked the culture war on Friday with a series of fiery tweets calling for what he termed the liberation of three states, all of which have Democratic governors.
Trump was apparently backing protesters in Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia who have bridled against restrictions put in place in response to the coronavirus crisis.
His tweets were the latest — and starkest — example of how even the debate over the deadly virus is increasingly being strained by the centrifugal forces of a polarizing president and a polarized media.
The tweets were, even by Trump’s standards, a remarkable intervention by a president in the middle of a national emergency. In a four-minute stretch just before 11:30 a.m., he sent three all-caps tweets urging people to “LIBERATE” Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia.
Adding a further twist, Trump linked the situation in Virginia to gun rights. “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” the president urged.
Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam (D), signed several new gun control measures into law a week before.
“They did a horrible thing, the governor,” Trump added at his White House press briefing on Friday.
Trump’s tweets drew immediate outrage from Democratic politicians and liberal commentators.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) — whose state was the first to bear the brunt of the virus’s spread within the United States — accused Trump of “fomenting domestic rebellion” and giving encouragement to “illegal and dangerous acts.”
MSNBC anchor Joy Reid linked to a screenshot of Trump’s tweets, commenting, “So I guess we're just skipping directly to the Second Civil War chapter of this horror novel, huh?”
Chris Cuomo, the CNN anchor who is himself suffering from the coronavirus, asked, “Is this trump ‘helping country heal’?”
The largest demonstration so far occurred on Wednesday in Lansing, Mich., where several thousand protesters rallied in “Operation Gridlock.” They were expressing their dismay with the strict social distancing measures put in place by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who has recently found herself in Trump’s rhetorical crosshairs.
The Wolverine State had, at the time, around 27,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The total had swelled to more than 30,000 by Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
For many, both for and against the protests, the demonstrations have called to mind the Tea Party rallies that arose during former President Obama’s first term. Among the many parallels, charges and countercharges have been leveled about whether the Lansing protests were an authentic expression of popular discontent or an effort ginned up by conservative groups.
In addition, news reports said that some of the protesters in Michigan chanted “Lock her up!” — the slogan with which Trump supporters assailed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 — in relation to Whitmer.
“They seem like very responsible people to me,” Trump said about the protests when asked about the demonstrations at his Friday press briefing.
Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor who specializes in political communications, said that "the model for how coronavirus has infected the political environment is Lansing. It’s sort of the perfect test case."
"You have people who are upset and a governor who is trying to govern, and maybe those people have been riled up by outside forces, or maybe they are being wrongly accused of being riled up by outside forces. The bottom line is, again, everything is so politicized," he added.
Polling indicates that — for the moment — there is widespread acceptance of the need for social distancing measures in response to the coronavirus.
A Morning Consult poll on Friday asked whether people believed it was more important for government to address the spread of the coronavirus or the state of the economy. Seventy-five percent of Americans — and 65 percent of Republicans — said that the priority should be on fighting the virus.
A Monmouth University poll conducted earlier this month asked respondents whether the federal government's response to the spread of the virus had been appropriate, had gone too far or had not gone far enough.
The numbers who believed it had gone too far were tiny across the board — 8 percent of Republicans, 8 percent of independents and 4 percent of Democrats.Meanwhile, a Gallup poll earlier this week underlined the degree to which a return to normalcy will be determined as much by citizens’ attitudes as by pronouncements by the president or by governors.
Asked how soon they would return to their normal activities after the government lifts restrictions on social contact, only 20 percent of Americans said “immediately.” Seventy-one percent said they would “wait to see what happens.”
On that particular question, however, there was a partisan split that could be a sign of things to come.
Only 11 percent of Democrats in the Gallup poll said they would resume their normal lives right away. The figure among Republicans was almost three times as high, at 31 percent.
There is obvious potential for that kind of schism to be broadened, especially in a partisan media environment.
Tucker Carlson of Fox News on Wednesday interviewed New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and asked him by what authority he could “nullify the Bill of Rights” by imposing social distancing rules on religious services.
“The science ... says people have to stay away from each other,” Murphy responded.
The media divides are, as always, even more evident on social media than on the airwaves themselves.
On Friday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham tweeted her support of the president’s call for supposed liberation of certain states by drawing a comparison with the liberation of Iraq, while MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell called Trump “a sociopath.”
Those divisions seem much more likely to widen than narrow in the days ahead.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.
Newsom tells protestors he won't be swayed by politics
BY J. EDWARD MORENO - 04/18/20 THE HILL
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Saturday that he won’t be swayed by the protests that erupted in his state demanding an end to the stay-at-home order.
“We are going to do the right thing, not judge by politics, not judge by protests, but by science,” Newsom told the Los Angeles Times.
Newsom said he encourages residents to “practice your free speech” so long as they maintain social distancing guidelines while doing so.
“I just want to encourage people that when you practice your free speech — which I don’t [just] embrace, I celebrate — just do so safely. This virus knows no political ideology. It doesn’t know if you are Republican or Democrat, supporting the president, opposing the president, so practice physical distancing,” Newsom said.
Several protests have popped up in the California this week, including one in Huntington Beach against the governor's social distancing measures.
“Make sure that you are not infecting others. Even if you feel healthy and have no symptoms, you can spread this,” he added.
Growing unrest due to social distancing guidelines have resulted in dozens of protests across the country as groups demand an end to their state’s executive orders. The protests have mostly been spearheaded by local conservative groups.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Thursday night that the protests in her state are the “kind of irresponsible action that puts us in this situation where we might have to actually think about extending stay-at-home orders, which is supposedly what they are protesting
“We are going to do the right thing, not judge by politics, not judge by protests, but by science,” Newsom told the Los Angeles Times.
Newsom said he encourages residents to “practice your free speech” so long as they maintain social distancing guidelines while doing so.
“I just want to encourage people that when you practice your free speech — which I don’t [just] embrace, I celebrate — just do so safely. This virus knows no political ideology. It doesn’t know if you are Republican or Democrat, supporting the president, opposing the president, so practice physical distancing,” Newsom said.
Several protests have popped up in the California this week, including one in Huntington Beach against the governor's social distancing measures.
“Make sure that you are not infecting others. Even if you feel healthy and have no symptoms, you can spread this,” he added.
Growing unrest due to social distancing guidelines have resulted in dozens of protests across the country as groups demand an end to their state’s executive orders. The protests have mostly been spearheaded by local conservative groups.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Thursday night that the protests in her state are the “kind of irresponsible action that puts us in this situation where we might have to actually think about extending stay-at-home orders, which is supposedly what they are protesting
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/protesters-decry-stay-at-home-orders-in.html
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