Party on the Peninsulas Michigan Democratic Party

This Week’s “Party on the Peninsulas”

✹President Joe Biden: Patriot

✹Senator Dayna Pokehanki: the GOP’s war on women

✹This week’s Trump/GOP Outrage:

   Running away from Project 2025









Kamala Harris’s life, career and firsts from AG to the vice presidency – The Washington Post

Gretchen Whitmer endorses Kamala Harris for president – Detroit Free Press

Kamala Harris Gets a Potentially Game-Changing Youth Vote Endorsement – Daily Beast

This Week in the (Other) News

Michigan Politics



* Trump, Fain trade barbs over UAW, state of auto industry – Detroit Free Press

* Lansing Mayor Andy Schor responds to Tom Barrett viewpoint on crime – Lansing State Journal

* Public Policy Poll: Michigan & Pennsylvania

* Donald Trump sues Gretchen Whitmer over Michigan voter registration efforts – Bridge Michigan

* Jeff Timmer: Republicans threaten the ‘Chimes of Freedom’ • Michigan Advancebr...

This Week’s “Party on the Peninsulas”

✹Condemning political violence

✹President Joe Biden’s  address to the nation

✹State Representative Kristian Grant on Democrats’ work to expand affordable housing in Michigan



This Week in the (Other) News

Editorial: Donald Trump Is Unfit for a Second Term – The New York Times

‘Unfit’ to serve, ‘con artist’: How Trump’s VP finalists once bashed him – The Washington Post

Michigan Politics



* President Joe Biden impassioned, invigorated in Detroit speech – Detroit Free Press

* Biden goes on attack against Trump, media in Detroit – Detroit News

* “True Gretch” – Simon and Schuster

* March 2020 Biden rally looked like ‘superspreader,’ Whitmer says in new book – Detroit News

* VIDEO: “He’s Up For This” – Gov. Whitmer On President Biden’s Ability To Serve A Second Term – Late Show with Stephen Colbert

* Gov. Whitmer shuts down 2024 presidential talk but doesn’t hide her ambitions in timely book launch – AP News

* Once solidly red, northwest Michigan offers fighting chance for Democrats – Bridge Michigan



Michigan Policy



* Michigan House Approves Critical Housing Legislation – housedems.com

* Gov. Whitmer Celebrates Record Construction Jobs in Michigan – Governor’s Office

* GM investment into Lansing Grand River plant expected to save 650 UAW jobs – Lansing State Journal

* a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2024/07/11/free-school-breakfast-and-lunch-program-extended-for-another-school-year/74356327007/...

This Week’s “Party on the Peninsulas”



✹MDP Chair Lavora Barnes on a return, after 248 years, of having a King preside over America

✹This week’s Trump/GOP Outrages The double-standard of Republicans and the media for judging Joe Biden and Donald Trump

✹Michigan political legend Mark Grebner on the quiet-but-critical role of county commissions, strategies for GOTV and the amazing career of Debbie Stabenow



This Week in the News

Michigan Politics



* Whitmer Disavows ‘Draft Gretch’ Movement — and Delivers A Warning to Biden – POLITICO

* Whitmer Slams Rival’s Leak That She Said Biden will Lose Michigan – The Daily Beast

* Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers connected to Saudi companies, including one with nuclear ambitions – Heartland Signal

* Republican rivals attack Rogers as Senate favorite and allies counter criticism – Detroit News



Michigan Policy



* Michigan lawmakers want to outlaw deepfake sexual content: What it is – Detroit Free Press

* Macomb Prosecutor Peter Lucido sues county’s top attorney, ethics board

* Michigan HOAs can’t ban solar panels under newly passed bill – Bridge Michigan



GOP/Trump Outrages



* Jobs report June 2024 – CNBC

* (From January 2021) Trump will have the worst jobs record in modern U.S. history – The Washington Post

* Sotomayor’s scathing Trump immunity dissent makes November’s stakes clear – Neal Katyal/MSNBC

* The Supreme Court Just Put Trump Above the Law – Mother Jones

* a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-supreme-court-just-gave-king-trump-license-to-really-run-riot?

This Week’s “Party on the Peninsulas”

✹MDP Chair Lavora Barnes on the presidential debate: Joe Biden’s performance gets the headlines, totally obscuring the barrage of lies and outrageous statements from the increasingly unhinged Donald Trump

✹This week’s Trump/GOP Outrages The unconscionable partisanship of the U.S. Supreme Court, led by its delay of the ruling on Trump’s ridiculous claim of total presidential immunity from criminal accountability. And Oklahoma’s new mandate adding Bible study to public classroom.

✹Joe Biden bounces back with a fiery post-debate speech in North Carolina, labeling Trump for what he is: a convicted felon who lies at every opportunity. We have highlights from the speech.



This Week in the News

Michigan Politics



* Ex-Michigan GOP chair asks Court of Appeals to overturn her ouster – Detroit News

* Michigan GOP went to war with itself. Can it rebuild to win for Donald Trump? – Bridge Michigan



Michigan Policy



* Judge blocks Michigan’s 24-hour mandatory waiting period for abortions – Detroit Free Press

* Michigan lawmakers approve $82.5B state spending plan for 2025 – Detroit Free Press

* Bill barrage: Michigan lawmakers pass ‘Taylor Swift’ bot ban in summer rush – Bridge Michigan

* Michigan’s $23B education deal: Free community college for all, pre-K for many – Bridge Michigan

* Redistricting commission chooses final state Senate plan for court approval – Michigan Public Radio

* Government transparency plan passes Michigan Senate — which had been roadblock – Bridge Michigan

* a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-house-votes-expand-unemployment-benefits-26-weeks-gop-fumes?utm_source=Bridge+Michigan&utm_campaign=560b568335-Bridge+Newsletter+6%2F27%2F2024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c...

This Week’s “Party on the Peninsulas”

✹MDP Chair Lavora Barnes on the new GOP Campaign Tactic: “Cheap Fakes” that amount to video lies about Joe Biden.

✹This week’s Trump/GOP Outrage The U.S. Supreme Court’s six-month delay in deciding whether Trump had presidential immunity, i.e., the right to ignore the law whenever he felt like it.

✹Michigan Democrats versus “Deep Fake” A.I. generated X-rated videos.

We’re joined by the chief sponsor of legislation reigning in A.I. deep fakes, East Lansing Representative Penelope Tsernoglou. Her bill requiring identification of political deep fakes is now law; her bill attacking X-rated A.I. generated images and videos has just passed in the House.



In the News This Week

The Ten Commandments as Practice by the GOP

— Jimmy Kimmel Live —



Michigan Politics



* ‘The Interview’: Gretchen Whitmer Wants a Gen X President — in 2028 – The New York Times

* Neil Friske arrest: Michigan state representative held after chasing adult dancer with a gun. – Slate

* Freep endorsements in Dem primary: Scholten, Dingell, Stevens, Tlaib – Detroit Free Press

* Black voters say Trump’s indictments don’t rally their support – Detroit Free Press



Michigan Policy



* ‘Deepfake’ sexual content targeted by bills passed by Michigan House – Detroit Free Press

* Federal appeal court returns Enbridge Line 5 case to Michigan – Michigan Public Radio

* Supreme Court upholds gun law intended to protect domestic violence victims – AP News

*



Trump/GOP Outrages



* a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/14/cheapfake-biden-videos-enrapture-right-wing-media-deeply-mislead/?

From Chairperson Lavora Barnes

To listen to Republicans, we’re in the middle of an apocalyptic crime wave. The reality: the crime rates have dropped dramatically since they peaked in 2020 during the Trump administration. 

In his “Popular Information” newsletter, investigative journalist Judd Legum reports: ‘In a speech earlier this year at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said that under Biden, the United States is “plagued by bloodshed, chaos and violent crime.” A March press release by the Republican National Committee claimed that “crime [is] spiking” as a result of Biden’s policies. Trump’s claims are being repeated by other Republicans running for office.’

It’s all another Big Lie, ironically being promoted by a convicted criminal.

New data released this last week by the FBI reveals that both violent crime and property crime have dropped dramatically this year. The data compares crime in the first quarter of 2024 with crime in the first quarter of 2023. It shows substantial drops in every category, including murder ( down 26.4%), rape (down 25.7%), robbery (down 17.8%), and property crime (down 15.1%). The only crime rate going up: indictments and convictions of the leaders of efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including indictments of Trump and multiple members of his reelection team.

President Biden is working to continue cutting into violent crime through enactment of common-sense gun laws that make it tougher on criminals without taking away the 2nd amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. At a Washington conference hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund on Tuesday, the President listed gun-related accomplishments during his administration, prompting huge cheers from the hundreds in the audience. He also called for a ban on assault-style weapons and universal background checks for firearms purchases.

This comes even as the Trump-appointed majority on the Supreme Court votes to end the ban on bump stocks, which are used to turn semi automatic weapons into fully automatic machine guns. A bump stock was used in the most devastating mass shooting in US history, the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas where 60 died and more than 400 were wounded. 



Another word of the week: ethics. Republicans in the U.S. Senate have blocked legislation which would create ethics rules for the Supreme Court. The vote came on the same day when three more high-price trips by Justice Clarence Thomas, paid for by a billionaire GOP donor, were revealed by Pro Publica. Thomas’s known ledger of free trips and vacations now totals more than Four-Million-Dollars, roughly equal to his salary over the same time period. Thomas is by far the most ethically corrupt justice in the court’s recent history.

In Michigan, it’s a different story. Momentum is on the side of higher ethical standards in the wake of a series of scandals involving former Republican legislative leaders.

A part of that progress: Attorney General Dana Nessel has affirmed Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s tough enforcement of financial disclosures by public officials and political candidates. The opinion upholds rules that state elected officials must offer details of outside income and that must include names and addresses of the source. Nessel and Benson are the drive for even tougher financial disclosure and ethics laws.



Democrats in the Legislature are also working with Governor Whitmer to fine-tune Michigan’s economic development efforts involving what’s known as the SOAR Fund. Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund has allocated $3 billion toward big projects ...