A Republic, If You Can Keep It

© Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com On our political radar this week… The $200-million, privately funded Trump desecration of the White House has morphed into a $1-billion project … with taxpayers picking up the tab. While the White House focused on the ballroom, taking over DC Golf Courses, repainting the reflecting pool, details of the White House UFC fight on July 4,  and signage at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump International Airport in West Palm Beach, Michigan Democrats maintained their slim majority in the state Senate with a landslide special election victory in the Saginaw Valley. Chedrick Greene did what Democrats have been doing for a year: outperformed 2024’s numbers by a stunning 20-point margin.   In Indiana, Trump’s vengeance … amplified by around $14-million … has purged 5 Republicans from that state’s Senate as penance for daring to defy Trump’s imperial decree: a reminder that Trump’s Republican Party is a cult of servility – or else. The Trump bank account continues to grow, with nepo-grifters Don Jr. and Eric landing a multi-million-dollar contract from Daddy’s Department of Defense. They’ve very quickly become successful entrepreneurs in the military drone business as a supplement to their hawking of worthless meme coins and cashing in on Daddy’s power/name/greed. The Michigan Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the battle over Michigan MAGA House Speaker Matt Hall’s refusal to follow the state constitution when it comes to sending bills passed by the Legislature to the Governor to enact into law has a Supreme Court hearing. The state Senate is the plaintiff and their lead attorney: the honorable Mr. Mark Brewer Esquire. In the race for the Democrats’ U.S. Senate nomination, Haley Stevens picked up two significant endorsements: retired 4-term U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, and the wife of the man she wants to succeed, Senator Gary Peters (who has said he will not endorse in the primary). All three Democratic Senate candidates are set to participate in a forum on the Pod Save America podcast, scheduled to air May 24. The podcast reaches around 1.5 million listeners … slightly more than this podcast! Republicans are claiming that Jocelyn Benson can’t be trusted to run the November election because her name is on the ballot. One problem with their rhetoric: the elections are run by local clerks and the Board of State Canvassers, not the Secretary of State. Benson doesn’t participate in validating signatures on nominating petitions or certifying the results and has taken the additional step of formally establishing a firewall between her and administration of the election. Not to be outdone in the “ignorance on display sweepstakes”, Trump has called for the impeachment and/or indictment of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Impeaching House members isn’t a thing. It’s one more word salad from the mouth of someone a majority of Americans think is lacking the mental sharpness to do the job. Trump held his first post-Correspondants’ Dinner campaign-style rally … at the friendly turf of The Villages retirement community in central Florida. Speaking to a crowd of supportive retirees, he and his fellow TV celebrity Dr. Phil repeated one of his many lies regarding the horrendous Big Ugly Budget Bill, claiming he had ended taxes on Social Security while standing in front of a backdrop making the same bogus claim. <video – Trump> Spoiler alert: it’s not true. What passed was a three-year, $ 6,000 tax deduction for seniors. It expires at the end of Trump’s term!

© Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com On our political radar this week… The Trump Retribution Parade continues as his Department of Payback indicts James Comey for posting a picture of sea shells on social media. If that doesn’t work, they could try claiming the 6-foot-8 Comey’s height poses an imminent threat to the safety of the President. New polling from the Detroit Chamber shows “Undecided” remains the leader in Michigan Democrats’ battle for the U.S. Senate nomination. There’s a new controversy in that race, with long-ago Tweets from Mallory McMorrow coming back to haunt her. Among Republicans, John James continues to lead Perry Johnson, Mike Cox, and the rest of the field. The one no-contest race: Jocelyn Benson has a 58-point lead in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The US Supreme Court has effectively repealed the last remnants of the Voting Rights Act, setting the stage for a possible new round of partisan gerrymanders. It comes as the last four black Republicans in Congress retire, leaving the GOP with the prospect of no black House members in 2027. The impact goes beyond the U.S. House of Representatives. In Michigan, it effectively eliminates majority-minority as a criterion for Michigan’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission when it draws future state legislative district maps – quite possibly before the 2028 elections. The Donald Trump narcissism parade continues to grow. The latest: His snarling mug will now appear on commemorative U.S. passports, although Trump-free passports will continue to be available. And King Charles presented him with the ship’s bell from the World War II submarine HMS Trump. One ominous sign: that ship was sold off and broken up for scrap in August 1971.  In response to the war of words over election integrity, Secretary of State Benson has announced that 2.1 million outdated voter registrations have been canceled since 2019 or are in the cancellation process. For the first time ever, this includes over 180,000 dormant registrations of people who haven’t voted in a single election in the last 20 years or longer. Control of the state Senate will be decided Tuesday when voters in Michigan’s 35th Senate District will decide whether Democrat Chedrick Greene or Republican Jason Tunney will represent them for the rest of the year in Lansing. The district includes Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties. The Democrats are heavily favored to win and maintain control of the Senate. The quote of the week comes from The Bulwark’s Tim Miller: We’re in the Fat Elvis era of the Trump presidency. A note on the passing of Senator Don Riegle. First elected to the U.S. House from Flint in 1966, he served 5 terms and then 3 terms in the Senate, where he succeeded the legendary Phil Hart. He was one of the few people ever elected to Congress from both parties, switching from Republican to Democrat in protest of the Vietnam War and the corruption of the Nixon administration. We also lost a friend of this podcast, former Detroit News reporter and later Department of Justice lawyer Jim Mitzelfeld. Jim and his reporting partner Eric Freedman won a Pulitzer Prize for their uncovering of a million-dollar corruption scandal in the state House Fiscal Agency. Jim died of melanoma a day short of his 65th birthday.   Joining the conversation this week is President of End Citizens United, Tiffany Muller. Mark and Walt Sorg talked with Tiffany Muller. She simultaneously leads the affiliated groups Let America Vote, and the End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund – organizations dedicated to reversing what many consider one of the worst rulings of the Supreme Court in the last century which opened the floodgates for dark money funding of political campaigns. Since joining ECU, Tiffany has helped grow the group from a start-up to a nationwide organization with more than 4 million members and 1 million grassroots donors.

© Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com On our political radar this week… Donald Trump, possessor of the self-proclaimed “Big Brain,” seems to have fully embraced a bunker mentality: his ever-shifting Iran strategy manages neither to sway Tehran nor steady the global economy, but it does keep everyone guessing. Meanwhile, he’s tied up in court trying to build an actual bunker—allegedly tucked beneath his $400 million gold-plated ballroom—because nothing says “strong leadership” like preparing to retreat in style. Michigan Democrats attracted a record-setting 7,200-plus delegates to their endorsement convention … along with potential presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Andy Beshear (as well as home field potential candidates Elissa Slotkin and Gretchen Whitmer). Much to the consternation of party leaders, a sizable contingent of young progressives heckled and booed some of the on-stage candidates … a demonstration that brought quick condemnation from state party chair Curtis Hertel on the party’s weekly podcast. Trump’s polling numbers continue to plummet. The latest AP-NORC poll has his approval rating a massive 40 points under water: 30% approval, 70% disapproval.  The worst cabinet in generations is getting a huge shakeup with the firing of three of the most incompetent – all of them women. Who’s next? Oh, so many bozos from which to choose. Bar-room buddies Hegseth and/or Patel? Bessent? Brainworm Bobby?  Virginia voters narrowly approve a congressional gerrymander that could flip four seats to the benefit of Democrats while Florida struggles to enact what could be the final chapter of the Trump-led gerrymandering quagmire. When it’s all said and done, the GOP plan to reinforce its U.S. House majority may well backfire.  Michigan’s top officials agree: the latest Trump-branded election conspiracy tour deserves a hard pass. This comes as federal officials are demanding full access to Wayne County’s 2024 ballots, apparently treating election records like a clearance rack for future grievances.  The whole exercise doubles as a rehearsal dinner for the GOP’s next claim that 2024 was “rigged,” a storyline notably unsupported by facts but eagerly workshopped by two-time election loser John James, who is still auditioning his 2020 script blaming Secretary of State Benson—a plotline first piloted by Mike Rogers and apparently too good (or too baseless) to retire.  Perry Johnson has taken a page out of the Donald Trump playbook, filing an absolutely absurd lawsuit to get some attention. His target: John James, over a campaign flyer which he claims implies James is already Governor of Michigan. By the way, the latest poll from EPIC-MRA shows that our actual Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has nearly 100% name identification.  The GOP gubernatorial field is down by one. Former state House Speaker Tom Leonard, who was polling in single digits, has dropped out of the race 2 days after filing his nominating petitions. The man who led Trump Airlines into bankruptcy is brokering a deal for the federal government to take partial ownership of the equally prestigious Spirit Airlines … at a cost of a half-billion dollars. Democrats are focusing on gas prices as they challenge Republicans running for reelection to Congress. One target in Michigan: Lansing area Congressman Tom Barrett, who used the price of gas to flip the mid-Michigan district in 2024. He promised back then to get gas prices under control. Meanwhile, a new report from the non-partisan Anderson Economic Group says the ongoing high price of gas is costing a typical family $100 a month. Former Michigan Democratic and Republican party officials are teaming up in an effort to eliminate candidate nominating conventions for top state offices, arguing the practice disenfranchises voters.. The effort is led by former Michigan Democratic Party chair Lon Johnson, and former Republican Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party Jason Roe. Mark is a former Michigan Democratic Party chair, and Jeff is a former Michigan GOP Executive Director. They offer their perspective on the idea. The battle lines are drawn in Michigan for the November elections as candidates near and far file their petitions, and the state’s Democrats give preliminary approval to their candidates for most statewide offices in an often raucous convention. Joining the podcast this week: the Democrats’ choice for Attorney General, Washtenaw County prosecuting attorney Eli Savit. A native of Ann Arbor, Savit attended Kalamazoo College in western Michigan, where he played four years of college basketball. Following his college graduation, he worked as a public school teacher—teaching both special-education and general-education 8th-grade U.S. history. After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, Eli worked for two federal judges. He was then selected to clerk on the United States Supreme Court for Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Prior to his election as Washtenaw County prosecutor in 2020, he served as senior legal counsel for the city of Detroit. As prosecutor, Eli has established dedicated special-victims and domestic violence units, led the successful investigation and prosecution of multiple “cold-case” rape cases, launched multiple successful programs that allow people dealing with behavioral health and substance-use issues to obtain rehabilitative services— while avoiding a criminal conviction, and established Washtenaw County’s first-ever conviction integrity and expungement unit, which remedies wrongful convictions and provides legally eligible residents free assistance in clearing old criminal records. Thank you for your attention to this matter. © Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com

The Trump Economy On our political radar this week… J.D. Vance went 0-for-2 on his European trip. Victor Orban, campaigning with Vance at his side, got dumped as President of Hungary…despite ringing endorsements from Donald Trump and his BFF Vladimir Putin. Then Vance led negotiations with Iran over ending Trump’s Middle East War and struck out, calling it quits after all of one day of talks. Facing multiple allegations of sexual improprieties, Eric Swalwell has resigned from Congress and pulled out of the California gubernatorial race while denying the accusations. There was bipartisan condemnation of Swalwell’s behavior but, when asked if the same standard should be applied to pussy-grabbing Donald Trump, Republicans suddenly had a problem answering. Also resigning in disgrace: Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez, like Swalwell facing allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Republicans are worried that a special election to replace him could result in a Democratic flip thanks, in part, to the new GOP gerrymander of the state. The Trump politicizing of the Justice Department continues. Two federal civil rights prosecutors in Detroit who secured convictions against a group of Christian protestors accused of blocking access to abortion clinics were fired as part of a Trump administration crackdown on what it says were politically motivated cases under former President Joe Biden. Donald Trump is redirecting his demented rage at Pope Leo, who had the temerity to note that Jesus wasn’t a fan of war or genocide. All that’s been missing so far: Trump calling the Pope “Low IQ”. And then, there’s that AI image of “Dr. Jesus of Palm Beach” which was quickly deleted from Trump’s Truth Social account. The field is effectively set for Michigan’s U.S. Senate race. On the Democratic side, Haley Stevens, Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El Sayed each submitted their nominating petitions to the Elections Bureau in the last few days. Republican Mike Rogers’ campaign says he has his petitions ready to go and will file shortly. All four candidates are submitting around 30,000 signatures, the maximum allowed under state law. John James has joined with all the Republican candidates for Governor making a campaign promise they can’t keep: repealing the state income tax. The repeal would basically eliminate the entire General Fund budget. Since Michigan has a flat-rate tax, the biggest winners with repeal would be the state’s wealthiest taxpayers. Attorney General Dana Nessel has blasted on one of the many offsets that’s raising your cost of living: utility rates run amuck. She joined with other Democratic and community leaders to deride the state’s Public Service Commission for rolling over on behalf of the state’s two major utilities. Michigan Democrats are holding their candidate endorsement convention this weekend. The events can be seen as a prelude to the 2028 national campaign with potential presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Andy Beshear and Cory Booker all doing some speechifying in the Motor City. The Dems are focusing on growing inflation brought about by Donald Trump’s Mideast War, and his obsession with tariffs. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell led a news conference addressing the most fundamental “kitchen table” issue: the cost of living, noting that tax cuts in the Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill are more than offset by the cost of groceries, gasoline, electricity and healthcare. It’s a mantra we’ll hear a lot between now and November.  Thank you for your attention to this matter. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by  

On our political radar this week… Pam Bondi joins Meat Loaf, Joan Rivers, Dennis Rodman, Sinbad, Dionne Warwick, Andrew Dice Clay, Omarosa … and Kristi Noem: “You’re fired!” VIDEO: Bye Bye Bondi (A Tribute) Senator Elissa Slotkin – speaking in Iowa – confirms what we’ve been saying for weeks: she’s open to running for President. Two more special elections this week, two more sharp turns to Democrats: –In Wisconsin, liberal candidate Chris Taylor cruised to an easy victory over her conservative opponent in the state Supreme Court race with 60 percent of the vote, expanding the liberal majority on the court to 5-2. – Georgia, Democrat Shawn Harris lost by about 12 percentage points in the race to replace Marjorie Taylor Green, but he shifted the district 25 points to the left. Trump won the district by 37 percentage points in 2024. A national Republican group said Monday it’s dumping $45 million into Michigan’s open U.S. Senate race as an initial investment to help presumptive GOP nominee Mike Rogers flip the seat from Democratic control. The operative word is “initial”, meaning even more millions will flow into Michigan Republican sources. Trump is calling on Congress to give Pete Hegseth a staggering $1.7-trillion dollars over the next year. To fund it, Trump wants to cut virtually every other federal program including a 23% cut for NASA even as four astronauts take a first-ever-for-humans trip to the far side of the moon. One item calling for a major increase: White House repairs and renovations. Trump wants to spend 377-million dollars on fixing up the place, an 860 percent increase. Two more major league grifts from Trump: –The Justice Department has settled for roughly $1.2 million a lawsuit from Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump who pleaded guilty during Trump’s first term to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian diplomat and was later pardoned. Bottom line: if Trump likes you, taxpayers will pay you to lie to the FBI. –Semafor is reporting that Trump has directed the State Department to send $1.25 billion – without any Congressional appropriation or authorization to do so – to Trump’s Board of Peace. The transfer effectively places the money directly in the hands of Trump, the board’s chairman. Trump and the board’s executives control funding for the Board of Peace — and Trump selects the executive board — and the president will continue to do so even after his second term ends in January 2029. In the race for Governor – John James is ducking still another candidate debate, this one set for the end of the month in vote-rich Oakland County. James has seen his once overwhelming lead for the GOP gubernatorial nomination shrink as septuagenarian Perry “Quality Guru” Johnson dumps millions into an effort to spend his way into office. Governor Whitmer says she will not endorse a candidate for U.S. Senate or Secretary of State. She earlier ruled out an endorsement in the race for the gubernatorial nomination. It’s pretty easy for Democrats to be critics of Donald Trump, his policies and his corruption. More important to most people is answering the question: “so what are you going to do?” State House Democrats have answered, releasing their Vision for a Brighter Michigan. We’re joined by House Democratic Leader Ranjeev Puri who led development of the plan. The son of Indian immigrants, Leader Puri made history in 2020 as the first person of color to represent his Canton Michigan district and the first Sikh-American in Michigan’s legislative history. In his second term he served as majority whip, making him the highest-ranking South Asian in state government nationwide. Remarkably, he is one of two first-generation Indian-Americans in top legislative leadership: Senate Majority Floor Leader Sam Singh is also the son of Indian immigrants. Leader Puri’s leadership has earned national recognition, including being named to the Council of State Government’s “20 Under 40” Leadership Award Class of 2023 and receiving the MIRS Legislator of the Year Award in 2024.His leadership has earned national recognition, including being named to the Council of State Government’s “20 Under 40” Leadership Award Class of 2023 and receiving the MIRS Legislator of the Year Award in 2024. (Jeff) First question! A personal note from producer/co-host Walt Sorg April is Michigan Donate Life month, a recognition of the state’s organ donation program. Four years ago I was the recipient of a donated kidney. It changed my life … and probably saved my life. A part of you can live on after death through the simple act of saying “yes, I want to pay it forward.” And you can go a step beyond through a living donation of a kidney, or portion of your liver. My donor was my brother and he’s just as healthy today with one kidney as he was before the surgery. The Michigan Organ Donor Registry is a confidential database that documents an individual’s decision to become an organ, tissue and eye donor. Joining the registry is simple and secure. Michiganders can add their name online at Michigan.gov/OrganDonation, at any Secretary of State branch office or self-service station, or on your state income tax return. And while you’re at it … the donation of blood through the Red Cross is an easy way to save another life. Last spring, donated blood saved my life. Thank you for your attention to this matter. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by  

On our political radar this week… Michigan Republicans have turned their backs on the craziest of the MAGA crazies with hopes of at least one upset in November. But the leader in their race for Governor had a bad weekend. John James had some of the delegates booing him as he was introduced for his speech … much to the delight of septuagenarian perpetual candidate Perry Johnson. Volunteers manning a Rank MI Vote booth at the Michigan Republican Party’s endorsement convention this past weekend were asked to leave by party leaders and security after Rep. MAGA Matt Maddock told them their presence wasn’t welcome…and called them Communists. Rank MI Vote volunteers said they had paid the party for a booth under the name of the ballot question seeking to establish a ranked voting system in the state and wanted to talk with people who are politically active about their objective. The Michigan Court of Appeals which ruled that 37 absentee ballots for Mayor of Hamtramck should be counted … in an election that was otherwise decided by 11 votes.  National Democrats have targeted two Michigan Republicans in Congress for retirement. “House Majority Forward” is running ads on the TSA mess at airports – pointing out that Bill Huizenga and Tom Barrett blocked legislation paying TSA agents … even though the bill they opposed was unanimously approved by the Senate.  A new tabulation from the Huffington Post shows Donald Trump’s nearly weekly golf trips to Florida have cost taxpayers $100-million in the last year. He is  on track to hit nearly one-third of a billion dollars by the end of his term.  The latest in the Trump ego-massage campaign: Trump shared the first images of his planned presidential library in downtown Miami, posting a short video that depicts a skyscraper which appears to be about 50 stories tall and filled with reconstructions of parts of the White House, military vehicles and at least two gold statues of Trump. Also included in plans for the gaudy Miami high rise: a hotel, golden escalators, gold doo-dads everywhere, displays attacking Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and the Boeing 747 given to Trump by the oil sheiks of Qatar. Probably missing from the high-rise library: books … and any mentions of Jeffrey Epstein. Another Trump stroking comes by way of Florida. Travelers in Palm Beach soon will be able to drive down President Donald J. Trump Boulevard to catch a flight at President Donald J. Trump International Airport, all in the shadow of nearby Mar-a-Lago, owned by President Donald J. Trump. Trump had a hat-trick of losses in court over the last week: construction on his half-billion-dollar ballroom has been paused, with the judge saying it needed congressional approval, another judge ruled the defunding of NPR and PBS was unconstitutional, and still another judge ruled that presidential immunity did not shield Trump from lawsuits growing out of the January 6 insurrection. And the Supreme Court seems poised to reject Trump’s abolishing of birthright citizenship. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson calls bullshit on the latest Trump executive order which turns control of elections to the Post Office, Department of Justice and Homeland Security. Her immediate reaction: “States run elections, not the president. This executive order is illegal on its face.” Expect to hear from Dana Nessel and other Democratic state attorneys general about a lawsuit in the near future. There’s seemingly no end to politics in our lives. It has even infiltrated sports. As we approach this weekend’s Final Four in men’s basketball, we take a deep dive into the intersection of Sports, Politics and Money with three-time Michigan Sportscaster of the Year Jack Ebling. He has covered college sports dating back to the days when Jim Harbaugh was the University of Michigan’s quarterback and Earvin Johnson was a magical MSU freshman. Unlike ESPN’s Stephen Smith, Jack’s take on political issues actually make sense … and he doesn’t start screaming to make his point! A two-time graduate of MSU, the former English teacher and coach spent nearly a quarter-century as a beat writer and columnist for the Lansing State Journal and won 21 major writing awards before entering broadcasting in 2002. In addition to the sportswriting honors, Jack was named 2017 Michigan Broadcaster of the Year and was a 2006 inductee into the Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Fame. He has received 21 major state and national writing awards, authored or co-authored eight books and contributed more than 125 articles for national publications. He has hosted sports and news talk radio shows for nearly a quarter-century, including The Drive with Jack Ebling. Every Sunday evening since 2013, he has hosted Press Pass with Jack Ebling on FOX 47 in Lansing, the state’s longest-running hour-long, year-long sports TV show. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by © Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com  

i On our political radar this week… As Donald Trump’s polling numbers continue to plummet to record-setting lows, he’s constantly shifting positions on Iran, NATO, DHS funding and ICE messaging on a daily basis. About the only constants: his efforts to shift the blame for everything bad to Biden and Obama, and his preoccupation with his $400-million ballroom, and figuring out ways to add more to the $4-billion his family has gobbled up in the last year. Attorney General Dana Nessel is fighting efforts by ICE to convert a Romulus warehouse into a Trump Immigration Prison which would lock up as many as 500 men, women and children. The warehouse would give ICE close access to Metro Airport, but it’s also adjacent to a residential neighborhood, near both a middle school and high school, and in a flood plain. The drive to reverse changes the state Legislature made last year to Michigan’s tipped and minimum wage laws is on hold. One Fair Wage had sought to collect enough signatures to place a referendum vote on the November ballot, but was unable to meet their signature goals. Instead, the group said, it planned to throw its efforts behind a separate ballot initiative seeking to limit certain political contributions. The Democratic race for U.S. Senate has a battle of the polls this week. A new internal poll from state Senator Mallory McMorrow’s campaign shows her leapfrogging Rep. Haley Stevens, who’s now trailing the field in third place behind Abdul El-Sayed in the closely watched Senate Democratic primary. Her poll by Global Strategy Group has McMorrow leading the field with 30 percent, followed by El-Sayed at 25 percent and Stevens at 23 percent, with 21 percent undecided. The same survey showed McMorrow in second place and trailing Stevens by six points last June. A poll from the Stevens campaign shows the race as a statistical three way tie: Stevens 28, El Sayed 26, McMorrow 25 – well within the poll’s 3.5% margin of error. McMorrow is the first statewide candidate to announce she has the signatures to get on the ballot. Her campaign says she will file 30,000 signatures, the maximum allowed under state law, to qualify her for the August primary. The signatures were all gathered by volunteers. Nearly all statewide campaigns typically use paid circulators. We are recording two days before state Republicans gather in Novi to endorse candidates for statewide offices other than Governor and Lt. Governor. There’s new drama in the battle for Secretary of State. The sister of contender Amanda Love publicly alleged her family member was a “truly evil person.”Adora Orlowski says her sister would do “anything to anyone to gain power and control.” She accused Love of never having a real job and lacking the experience to serve as Michigan’s secretary of state.” Break out the popcorn! A majority of Michigan voters believe the country is generally going in the wrong direction. 58% say things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong, and 33% say the country is headed in the right direction. Only 63% of Republicans polled were happy with the country’s direction. The poll was commissioned by the Republican-leaning Marketing Resource Group. Donald Trump is now represented in Florida’s Legislature by a Democrat. Emily Gregory scored a major upset on Tuesday, flipping the legislative district that includes Trump’s waterfront grifting headquarters at Mar-a-Lago. Gregory, a first-time candidate who runs a fitness business serving pregnant and postpartum women, defeated her Republican opponent by a 51-49 margin to win the 87th House District in Palm Beach County. Trump, who says mail-in voting is cheating, voted in the election … by mail. Melania and Barron also mailed in their votes. Florida Democrats flipped a second legislative seat. Navy veteran and union official Brian Nathan flipped a Tampa-based state Senate seat that became vacant after Governor Ron DeSantis tapped its previous occupant to serve as his lieutenant governor. Congratulations to Trump as winner of the brand new America FIrst Award, bestowed on him by U.S. House Republicans. This latest in a string of newly created awards gives the attention-craving Trump still another big, beautiful gold doo-dad to put right next to the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize, the first-ever “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal” award, multiple golf championship trophies he awarded to himself, and his second-hand Nobel Peace Prize. As a topper, Trump’s hand-picked Federal Arts Commission has approved putting Trump’s mug on a commemorative 24-karat gold coin as part of the 250th anniversary celebration despite a law prohibiting putting a living President on U.S. coins. The New Yorker reports that year one of the Trump presidency has increased his family’s wealth by a staggering $4-billion. And that doesn’t even count the tens-of-millions taxpayers have spent to pay for Trump’s every week golf trips to Florida. Joining the conversation is veteran Detroit Free Press reporter Todd Spangler. Todd Spangler has been with the Free Press since 2003, previously as metro editor in Detroit (among other gigs) and since 2007 as Washington correspondent. In that job, he covers the presidency, Congress, politics and federal policy, a panoply which, admittedly, often makes him scratch his head in wonderment (if not outright confusion).  Before joining the Free Press he managed the AP’s Pittsburgh bureau for 4 years. Away from work, Todd runs, hikes, bikes, cooks and listens to jazz. And when he’s back in Detroit he can be found, at least one night of the trip, at Lafayette Coney. Todd is a graduate of West Virginia University where he majored in journalism. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by © Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com  

iIt’s not just college basketball Madness – the bracket busters extend into the halls of Congress where two of Donald Trump’s legion of incompetents got busted over the administration’s war on Iran … and on the American people.  Michigan’s two Senators took part in the Homeland Security Committee’s grilling of onetime MMA fighter and plumber Markwayne Mullin who is set to inherit Kristi Noem’s office … presumably minus any romancing with Corey Lewandowski. Elissa Slotkin tried to get a commitment that ICE agents won’t be showing up at voting precincts in November … with a response that wasn’t exactly reassuring. Gary Peters reminded Mullin that it’s Republicans who are voting against getting paychecks for TSA employees at airports. Peters re-emphasized what he said on last week’s episode of this podcast about the growing mess at airports. Also on our poli-radar this week The Trump grift-and-grab family found another opportunity for personal enrichment. Jared Kushner, the not-a-government-employee who is taking the lead on Middle East negotiations, is simultaneously soliciting $5-billion from Middle East potentates in the form of investments in the Kushner wealth management company. In Michigan, state House Speaker MAGA Matt Hall is taking a page out of the Donald Trump Ego-Massage Manual, bragging about winning an apparently fictitious award for government transparency. The problem with the organization honoring Hall? It apparently doesn’t exist. State Democrats responded by offering Hall with the equally bogus SAD Award, or Speaker’s Asinine Decision Award. Oakland County hosted Vice President James Donald Bowman – or is it James David Hamel? Or is he sticking with J.D. Vance? Whatever he calls himself, the self-proclaimed Appalachian Hillbilly checked in to tell Michiganders “don’t believe your eyes and ears: the economy is really just peachy.” The Jeff Epstein web of debauchery threatens to tarnish Michigan’s famed Interlochen Center for the Arts, with state Democrats calling for an investigation into what they described as disturbing connections between Epstein, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and the northern Michigan arts institution.  Donald Trump says a former living President privately supported the Middle East War and wishes he had done it, with all four former living Presidents denying that they’ve even talked with Trump about the war. But … we haven’t heard denials yet from President Jeb Bartlet or President Frank Underwood, or the ghost of the late great Abraham Lincoln. Michigan is a national political center of attention. Governor, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, Attorney General, the entire congressional delegation and the entire legislature are all on the ballot in November. Covering all of this is Bridge Michigan’s outstanding political reporter Lauren Gibbons. Lauren covers state politics and policy for Bridge Michigan. Prior to joining Bridge’s Capitol team, she worked at MLive, where she led coverage of the state Legislature and the redistricting process, and before that covered the state Senate for MIRS News.  She has covered the ins and outs of Michigan politics for nearly a decade and has won awards both for her political coverage and her work documenting the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case. Lauren grew up in the Lansing area and graduated from Michigan State University, majoring in journalism and history. She lives in Ferndale, and her party tricks include Irish dancing and telling friends what political districts they live in without looking. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by © Clay Jones — https://claytoonz.substack.com  

i On our radar this week… © Clay Jones – claytoonz.substack.com In the last week, the list of Donald Trump’s broken campaign promises was seemingly endless: beginning with starting a Middle East War and increasing gas prices to go up 60-cents-a-gallon (with the prospect of Four Dollar per gallons looming … maybe even more). The “I will end inflation” guy is now looking at inflation headed in the wrong direction. The man who promised to create manufacturing jobs has given way to the reality of manufacturing job losses. Promises of draining the swamp have taken a multi-billion-dollar detour into the Trump family bank accounts. The long-ago pledge to balance the budget and pay off the national debt have been transformed into record-setting deficits in order to cut taxes for the yachts-and-private-jets crowd. And the promise to release the Epstein Files … well, we all know how that’s going. Also this week: We have the tenth special election flip from Republican to Democrat – this time in New Hampshire … as the Trump Train Wreck barrels down the tracks with his polling numbers hitting a new all-time low. His latest political Hail Mary is the SAVE Act which would take away the right to vote from untold hundreds-of-thousands. But his demands are falling on deaf ears on Capitol Hill, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune telling him it ain’t gonna happen.  The Trump family has, of course, figured out how to make money from the war. Sonny and Fredo, a.k.a. Don Jr. and Eric, are backing a new drone company that is vying to meet fresh demand from the Pentagon and fill a hole left by the administration’s ban on new Chinese drones in the U.S.   Clay Jones – claytoonz.substack.com Trump says the U.S. won the war in the first hour. But they still managed to spend 11-billion dollars after we supposedly had won…and the bombing continues.  It looks like the Gordie Howe Bridge will be putting the Maroun Family into the penalty box. Tolls to cross the not-yet-open bridge will be less than half the fees at the competing Ambassador Bridge for both passenger vehicles and commercial trucks, setting in motion a forthcoming toll war between the two Detroit River crossings. Michigan Democrats are using the Bridge controversy to highlight the financial ties between the Maroun family and GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers.  In Michigan, Republican candidates for Governor are all calling for pretty much closing most of state government by repealing the income tax, property taxes, or both. Apparently they think things like State Police, prisons, public health, public parks, food safety inspections, mental health and our universities can all be funded with the sales tax, sin taxes, unclaimed bottle deposits, the lottery and the tooth fairy.The state Senate has passed bipartisan legislation to help people deal with medical debt. But its fate is uncertain in the House, where Speaker Matt Hall has very different ideas for addressing medical debt through more transparency in pricing. Petitions have been filed with the state to force a vote in November on a deceptive proposal which, on its face, prohibits non-citizens from voting in Michigan … something that is already a part of state law. Left unstated by the backers are the proposal’s impact on voting rights. A longtime chronicler of state government has taken a look behind the proposal of “Americans for Citizens Only Voting.” John Lindstrom has covered state government over the last four decades. Since retiring as publisher of the highly regarded Gongwer Michigan report, he’s been a columnist for the Detroit Free Press. John is the newest inductee into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame – the ceremony formalizing his induction is a month from now in East Lansing. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by ©Clay Jones:claytoonz.substack.com  

i On our radar this week… Trump’s “Wag the Dog” tactic has started a war that’s quickly engulfing the entire Middle East, is costing taxpayers tens-of-billions of dollars. It has been an expensive and largely unsuccessful diversion tactic, made even worse with the combative testimony of the Clintons in a House Oversight hearing into the Epstein story. If anything, the two days of testimony from Hillary and Bill Clinton increased the heat on Trump and his coverup. © Clay Jones – claytoonz.com Not satisfied with launching a Middle East war, invading Venezuela, sinking a bunch of small boats on the open seas, hinting at a hostile takeover of Cuba and picking out White House drapes, Trump has now launched a military operation in Ecuador. All of Trump’s efforts have been aimed at the supply of drugs – with no effort to reduce the domestic demand for drugs that makes the drug trade so profitable. Also this week: Texas Democrats are thinking upset in November, with Dems outnumbering Republican voters in the primary … and Republicans headed to what promises to be a very messy runoff campaign between their corrupt state Attorney General and a beleaguered sitting Senator. In North Carolina, the nomination of a popular former Governor for the Senate … and the Democratic turnout outnumbering Republicans by 200,000 … have the Dems increasingly confident of flipping that Senate seat. In Arkansas, another Democratic flip. Democrat Alex Holladay won a Republican-held seat in the Arkansas state House on Tuesday, marking the ninth time Democrats have flipped a district from red to blue in a special election since the start of Donald Trump’s second term One of the behind-the-scenes powers in Lansing is stepping down from the Legislature. State Senator Sam Singh, long considered one of the most effective lawmakers in Lansing, says he won’t seek another term despite the prospect of moving up to Senate Majority Leader in 2027. Even as the United States spends tens-of-billions in borrowed money to bomb Iran, more financial problems for Trump’s record-setting budget deficits. A federal trade-court judge has ordered the Trump administration to start refunding the more than $130 billion it collected in the global tariffs invalidated by the Supreme Court last month. Joining the conversation is Michigan’s senior United States Senator, Gary Peters. He was first elected to the Senate in 2015 after serving as a member of the Rochester Hills City Council, Michigan State Senate, and Director of the State Lottery. During his two terms in the state Senate, he authored and passed more bills signed into law than any other member of his party – a record of productivity that has been mirrored in his two terms as U.S. Senator. (Jeff) Senator Peters is the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and also is a member of the Appropriations Committee, Armed Services Committee, and Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by © Clay Jones – claytoonz.substack.com  

Reps. David Scott (D-GA) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) appeared to “doze off” during Donald Trump’s SOTU address. On our radar this week… “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”  – George Orwell, “1984” We opened last week’s podcast with those words from Orwell’s prescient dystopian novel. On Tuesday, Donald Trump lived those words in a gibbering, rambling, bitter, divisive, partisan, and lie-filled one-hour 47-minute diatribe. The speech was boycotted by dozens of Democrats … and a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court and, based on the TV ratings, the majority of Americans. Newly elected Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, in the official Democratic response, summed up Trump in one biting paragraph: “…who benefits from his rhetoric, his policies, his actions, the short list of laws he’s pushed through this Republican Congress? Somebody must be benefiting. He’s enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented. There’s the coverup of the Epstein files, the crypto scams cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms, putting his name and face on buildings all over our. Nations capital. This is not what our founders envisioned. Not by a long shot. So I’ll ask again. Is the president working for you? We all know the answer is no.” Ryan Garza – Detroit Free Press A day later, Governor Whitmer offered her 8th and final State of the State assessment: realistic, grounded in reality, and a reflection of someone whose approval rating is 15 points higher than Trump’s. Multiple polls show a stunning 60+ percent of Americans say Trump sucks while Whitmer’s approval has consistently been in the low-to-mid 50’s. Whitmer’s speech focused on “kitchen table” issues: affordability, medical debt, housing and literacy. She somehow forgot to label Republicans as “Low IQ”, “Crazy”, “Lunatics” or responsible for all of Michigan’s problems … she didn’t even once blame anything on Rick Snyder … but she did take the opportunity to brag about Michigan athletes dominating the U.S. medal count at the Olympics. And she even high-fived House Speaker MAGA Matt Hall for working collaboratively on sick-time legislation! The contrasts between those two speeches frame this week’s discussion. Later in the podcast, we are joined by two anti-authoritarian experts to discuss an issue facing many American families and neighbors: how we can talk with each other in this era of often-angry partisan divisions – and why it is critical that we do. We’ve all been there. Going to the Sunday family dinner that always devolves into a debate about Trump. A few of my extended family members are MAGA to the point where we avoid politics completely. Scrolling through Facebook and encountering that childhood friend whose feed has become a minefield of MAGA memes. For a decade, the conventional wisdom for surviving the American political divide has been “don’t go there.” We’ve treated political topics like radioactive waste—best left buried for the sake of the relationship. The folks at the Democracy Investment Fund think that silence is costing us more than we realize. Their new free app, LSTN2U, is a bet on a radical idea: that we can actually talk to each other again, provided we stop trying to “win.” LSTN2U isn’t a social media network or a news aggregator. It’s essentially a flight simulator for difficult conversations. The free, nonpartisan app provides a judgment-free digital resource where users can practice realistic dialogue. We’re joined by the two people behind this optimistic approach to politics: my friends Erin Dobson and Trygve Olson. LSTN2U is a free app: no upsells or hidden fees. Your data is not sold or used commercially. LSTN2U emphasizes: Active Listening: Truly hearing the “why” behind someone’s “what.” Emotional Awareness: Identifying when your own “fight or flight” response is hijacking the logic centers of your brain. Boundary Setting: Learning how to stay in a conversation without losing your peace of mind—and knowing when it’s OK to step back. Other issues on our radar this week that, in more normal times, would occupy an entire podcast include The appearance that Donald “Give Me the Nobel Peace Prize” Trump is on the verge of starting a war with Iran … a war that could rival the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in futility, and further alienate the United States from the world. This comes six months after Trump claimed to have obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities. Apparently obliteration has a short shelf life. The Epstein cover-up became even more evident with the revelation that dozens of documents pointing directly at Trump … including allegations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl … have been hidden by the utterly corrupt Pam Bondi. But Republicans on Capitol Hill are more interested in the Clintons, with Bill and Hillary dragged in front of the House Oversight Committee this week for depositions that will keep the Epstein story in the headlines … but provide little else. After the Supreme Court told him his tariffs were illegal, Trump doubled down by imposing a 10 percent then 15 percent tariff on all imports. If, as Trump says, those tariffs would replace the federal income tax, it would be a huge financial windfall for the highest income taxpayers … his billionaire buddies, shifting the tax load to low- and middle-income families. Republicans are pushing to pass a bill to combat non-existent voter fraud. The so-called “SAVE” act would, in reality, burdening millions of Americans as they exercise their right to vote by requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. The proof: either a birth certificate or passport. Millions of American citizens, including low-income, minorities, seniors, and -get this- women who have a different last name than they were born with, would have to jump through hoops and incur costs to comply. FBI Director Kash Patel spent $1-million or more of taxpayer money for a thinly disguised junket to the Olympics, culminating with chugging beer with the victorious U.S. men’s hockey team. Of course, he claimed official business as an excuse for his trip. New polling shows the race for Governor appears to show the race is a statistical tie, with Democrat Jocelyn Benson narrowly leading Republican John James and independent Mike Duggan. But the polling raises questions, especially because the poll was commissioned by supporters of Mike Duggan. The poll assumes James will be the survivor of a four-way GOP primary race, with 78-year-old Perry Johnson promising now to spend $10-million over the next few weeks in a statewide advertising blitz. Legislation has been introduced to limit the use of artificial intelligence to monitor workplace activity. State Representative Penelope Tsernoglou joined with Michigan AFL CIO President Ron Bieber to warn of abuses already happening as some employers use A.I. to monitor everything from computer activity to bathroom breaks. State House Speaker Matt Hall is floating a property tax relief plan funded by enacting a new tax on services – an idea once promoted unsuccessfully by Jennifer Granholm. The Department of Homeland Security says ICE officers will not interfere with voting precincts in November … but a lot of people are skeptical given the history of voting fraud conspiracy promoters making the promise. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by ©Clay Jones:claytoonz.com  

On our radar this week… “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” George Orwell wrote those words 76 years ago in “1984” – seemingly the operating manual for Donald Trump’s administration. In fact, Trump used those exact words in a campaign speech and has lived by them ever since.  George Orwell also wrote: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” Every day is an exercise in taking attention away from the growing coverup of the Epstein files and financial corruption, with Trump apparently terrified that his sordid decades-long history as a sexual predator will finally catch up with him.  It’s a stark contrast with England, where the Andrew formerly known as “Prince” is celebrated his 66th birthday in police custody as England actually holds the powerful accountable for the Epstein-led sexual abuse of children, while in Epstein’s home country the White House continues to coverup the crimes of the rich and powerful … very possibly a group that includes Trump. Case in point: the Department of Justice spoke four separate times to a woman who credibly accused Donald Trump of having sex with a 13-year-old he met through Jeffrey Epstein—but most accusations against the president appear to have been removed from the government’s documents on the alleged sex trafficker.  A part of Trump’s defense is also right out of “1984”: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” That means silencing his critics including the late night comedians who, in the tradition of Will Rogers, lampoon him non-stop. But the tactic is backfiring: Kimmel’s banishment lasted a few days, and Stephen Colbert has become even more focused in the last weeks of his days on CBS. The made-for-YouTube video of Colbert with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico has racked up more than 7.5 million views which is triple the Colbert TV show ratings. And Talarico raised a staggering $2.5-million in the day following the incident. Trump wants everything possible named after him. Now, he apparently wants to profit from those efforts: his company has filed papers to trademark use of his name at airports even as his Florida fans in the state’s legislature pass a bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport in his honor and he pressures Congress to rename Dulles Airport. If signed into law, the Palm Beach International change would cost the airport $5.5 million to remake signs, uniforms, promotional products, equipment, and more, according to Palm Beach County’s department of airports. Also on our radar The Supreme Court kicked off another Trump tantrum by axing his tariffs. The war between Dozing Donald and the court he thought he controlled is now started. Trump got a little nap time during the initial meeting of his made-up Institute for Peace, nodding off repeatedly in front of the world leaders who had ponied up the $1-billion membership fee. Before nap time, Trump pledged a $10-billion U.S. contribution to what amounts to his personal slush fund – ignoring the constitutional requirement that spending needed to be authorized by Congress. Governor Whitmer attended the Munich International Security Conference. At the conference, she joined AOC, and Trump’s NATO ambassador on a panel discussion where she was highly critical of Trump’s economic war with Canada has driven our neighbors to the north to get cozy with China. Independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan has a new problem. His campaign claimed union endorsements he hasn’t received. It’s a near certainty that the Service Employees International Union and the United Auto Workers will ultimately endorse Jocelyn Benson. Benson, meanwhile, picked up the endorsement of the Michigan Nurses Association. Mark has a new neighbor. ICE has opened a regional headquarters next door to my office … and also is opening a detention center in Romulus. Nobody’s happy about this except Stephen Miller. Is this a staging area for masked ICE agents outside Democratic-leaning voting sites in southeast Michigan this November? And we can’t unwatch the incredibly insane 90-second, taxpayer-funded video of RFK Jr. and Kid Rock flexing and sweating, apparently to promote physical fitness. RFK thankfully did not include snorting cocaine from toilet seats as part of his workout regimen. On a far more serious note, we recognize the unique contributions of two men we lost this week: the internationally known Rev. Jesse Jackson, and one of the “good guys” who made Michigan State government work better over his decades of service, our friend Bill Gnodtke. On Tuesday, west Michigan Congresswoman Hilary Scholten went inside an ICE concentration camp. Scholten, who was an immigration attorney before being elected to Congress, joins this week’s conversation. Congresswoman Scholten is a fourth-generation West Michigander. Prior to her election in 2022 she was an immigration attorney who served in the U.S. Department of Justice.  Scholten began her own career as a social worker, working with people affected by issues of housing and homelessness. During this time, she worked with individuals in the LGBTQ community who were facing homelessness and housing insecurity—often because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  Congresswoman Scholten obtained her law degree from the University of Maryland Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and then went on to clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in their special unit focused on immigration issues. Following her clerkship, she joined the Justice Department through the Attorney General Honors Program, where she continued to work on matters of immigration and civil rights. In Congress she serves on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the House Committee on Small Business. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by ©Clay Jones/claytooz.com  

On our radar this week… A World Without Exploitation – Release the Epstein Files The 2017 Donald Trump lavished praise on the multi-billion-dollar plan crafted by Michigan and Canada to build the much-needed connector for our two economies. The 2026 Donald Trump sees the bridge as nothing more than a bargaining chip. We’ll get into the details of the potential economic disaster with former U.S. Ambassador to Canada … and former Michigan Governor … Jim Blanchard. For Michigan Republicans, Bridgegate poses a new choice: Michigan workers, or Donald Trump. Most apparently are choosing Trump. In Washington D.C. (District of Chaos)Trump’s Justice Department-led war on his critics loses again. It’s said a prosecutor can get a ham sandwich indicted, but Pam Bondi couldn’t get a federal grand jury to indict Elissa Slotkin, Mark Kelly and 4 House Democrats for sedition. Slotkin and Kelly told reporters they refuse to be intimidated by the White House bully. Another federal court, this time in Michigan, has rejected efforts by Bondi to get confidential details of Michigan’s qualified voter list. The decision came from a Trump-appointed judge. 8 years after running on a pledge to “Fix the Damn Roads,” Gretchen Whitmer is celebrating bipartisan legislation that’s doing just that. Her new budget calls for an extra $2 billion in road and bridge funding, a continuation of the budget deal enacted last October. The executive budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 will fund both state and local roads as it executes the first full-year of funding for Michigan’s roads. Whitmer’s 88-billion dollar budget based on roughly $800 million in tax increases, $630 million in cuts and $400 million from the rainy day fund. It calls for increasing the state’s “sin” taxes to fill the gap left by Trump’s federal budget cuts to Medicaid and nutrition programs. House Speaker Matt Hall says any tax increase, even if it’s taxes on tobacco and gambling, is a non-starter. Senate appropriations chair Sarah Anthony counters: if that’s your position, show us what you’ll cut. WIll Michigan House Republicans dare to cut Medicaid benefits to ¼ of the state’s population in an election year? Trump’s economy is hitting Michigan auto workers. Ford reports that 2026 profit-sharing checks will be one-third less than 2025 checks. That drop impacts not just the UAW members, but also the businesses where those workers spend money. Two of three people accused in a case regarding fake nomination petition signatures for candidates in 2022, including gubernatorial candidates, were found guilty of numerous charges by a Macomb County Circuit Court jury after two days of deliberations. A third person, the wife of one of the other defendants, was acquitted of all the charges filed against her. The signature fraud likely contributed to the GOP nominating Tudor Dixon for Governor … who was swamped by Gretchen Whitmer in the election. Unfortunately, the scores of persons who actually forged the signatures remain at large and available to do it again. We are joined this week by former U.S. Ambassador to Canada (and former Michigan Governor) Jim Blanchard who played a pivotal role in negotiating details of the Michigan-Canada agreement to build the Gordie Howe Bridge. After 8 years as Michigan’s Governor, Blanchard was named as the nation’s representative in Ottawa by President Clinton. He served in that role for two-and-a-half years. Governor Blanchard holds two degrees from Michigan State University, and a law degree from the University of Minnesota. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by KevinNecessary.Substack.com  

This week’s episode is inspired by Homeland Security immigration attorney Julie Li who let it all hang out at a Minneapolis immigration hearing, telling the judge “The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep.” On our radar this week… This week in Trump includes: Claims that the latest partial release of the Epstein files exonerates him … it doesn’t. His name appears 38,000 times, including allegations involving 13- and 14-year-old girls. A demand for a federal takeover of elections in democratic areas of swing states, including Detroit … accompanied by a declaration from Steve Bannon that ICE will be used to enforce Trump’s will Ordering the seizure of Georgia 2020 voting files from a county he lost, and assigning his Director of National Security to lead the new attack on the 2020 election. Filing a $10-billion lawsuit against the IRS (and effectively himself) for leaks of his tax returns during his first term, tax returns he often promised to release voluntarily. The ultimate decision on whether the IRS settles and pays up will be made by … Trump. Deciding to close the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for 2 years as artists continued to cancel performances. Announcing plans for a White House statue honoring Christopher Columbus, an explorer who ended up landing in the wrong continent. Making it known he wants Dulles Airport and New York City’s Penn Station renamed in his honor. Reposting an AI video that includes a shot depicting the Obamas as apes, something that even Trump-loving GOP Senator Tim Scott (the Senate’s only black Republican) called “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House” Bailing from attending the Super Bowl, after aides reportedly warned him he’s get booed even more than he was at the Lions-Packers game. Elsewhere in the District of Crazy: The Washington Post, long considered one of the nation’s most important newspapers, is being gutted by Jeff Bezos to save money. (Jeff’s net worth is around a quarter-of-a-trillion dollars, and he recently launched his $500-million yacht, and spent $75-million on the Melania disaster.) 30% of reporters are being fired. The paper’s masthead reads “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Jeff Bezos just dimmed the light. Senator Elissa Slotkin has told the FBI and Department of Justice to take their requests for an interview and shove it. They want to talk about the video in which she reminds military personnel they should not and cannot obey illegal orders. She’s thinking about suing them. With Trump’s economy sagging, Ford car sales are down and GM is warning of slowing sales. So much for the promise of a manufacturing rebirth in the “hottest economy on the planet.” In Michigan politics, the stage is set for a special election on May 5th that will decide control of the state Senate. It’s a Marine Corps veteran slash firefighter for the Dems against a Republican lawyer. The field continues to clear for Lt. Governor Garland Gilchrist in the Democratic race for Secretary of State, with former state Senator Adam Hollier the latest to drop out of the race. Attorney General Nessel has rolled out a new “Immigration Action Reporting Form” urging residents to document ICE and Border Patrol activity while warning that some federal immigration operations are endangering people in Michigan. A Republican-aligned group says it has enough signatures to get a voter-suppression constitutional amendment on the state ballot. The proposal would require providing proof of citizenship to register to vote – something hundreds-of-thousands don’t have.   We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by ©Clay Jones – claytoonz.com  

On our radar this week… The first-ever recipient of a previously owned Nobel Peace Prize apparently wants to be the Genghis Khan of the 21st Century. In the last week, Trump has  Threatened to invade Venezuela if his hand-picked government doesn’t do his bidding;  Stationed an armada near Iran in preparations for an aerial war;  Hinted at an imminent effort at regime change in Cuba;  Doubled-downed on his armed assault on the Constitution in Minneapolis with a change in messaging but little else, He replaced one Nazi-adjacent ICE commander with a fascist-adjacent ICE commander in Minneapolis with vague promises of a future future drawdown on masked thugs roaming the streets, but not now. Sent his FBI and Tulsi Gabbard to investigate the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, a continuation of his b.s. claims of fraud costing him a win over Joe Biden, and  Had his FBI raid the home of a reporter in violation of federal law; and, Arrested reporter Don Lemon for covering a peaceful Minneapolis protest because it “disrupted” a religious service Trump’s war on Minneapolis inspired a powerful anthem from “The Boss.” Bruce Springsteen’s “The Streets of Minneapolis” pulls no punches in denouncing Trump, ICE Barbie and Stephen Miller. Due to copyright restrictions we can’t play it here … but it’s well worth a visit to YouTube. Trump World is also having a direct impact on Michigan politics. Trump has reportedly inserted himself in the battle for the party’s gubernatorial nomination, torpedoing frontrunner John James and encouraging 78-year-old rich guy Perry Johnson’s newly announced campaign.  Michigan Democrats have launched their first attack ad on independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan even as the party’s contests for Attorney General and Secretary of State are all but over.  A Republican dark money group is promoting one of the Democrats in next week’s primary to fill a state Senate primary … with the belief that State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh would be easier to beat in the April general election. Democrats, including Saginaw Dem chair Jennifer Austin and Saginaw state Representative Amos O’Neal, are crying “foul.” Senator Elissa Slotkin says Kristi Noem has to go. In a Senate speech, Michigan’s junior senator noted she had voted to confirm Noem … but the cabinet member derided as “ICE Barbie” has betrayed fundamental American values. We’re joined this week by political science guru Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute with his assessment of congressional dysfunction and Trump’s drive for one-person government. He is the co-author, with Thomas E. Mann, of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism. Norm is a Minnesota native. He was a child prodigy, graduating from high school when he was fourteen and from college when he was eighteen. He received his BA from the University of Minnesota and PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.  By the mid-1970s, he had become a professor of political science at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., establishing a reputation as an expert on the United States Congress. Ornstein is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, The Atlantic and the National Journal. He wrote a weekly column for Roll Call for 11 years, and was co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. He helped draft key parts of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain–Feingold Act. Ornstein is a registered Democrat but considers himself a centrist and has voted for individuals from both parties. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by © Clay Jones/claytoonz.com  

Adobe Images On our radar this week… Taco Trump went to Davos intent on taking over Greenland or Iceland (depending on the moment) … calls our allies stupid and worthless … and comes home with the “concept of a framework for a future agreement” that amounts to little more than total surrender to a united Europe. That, after a one-hour rambling, disjointed speech to the assembled world leaders who watched in stunned silence. Trump’s really bad week continued at home with a series of defeats: His beauty pageant runner up is forced to resign after a federal court reminds her that she was not, in fact, the U.S. Attorney for northern Virginia The Supreme Court seems poised to veto his efforts to stack the federal reserve with stooges Former special counsel Jack Smith verbally filleted Trump, testifying to the House Judiciary Committee in detail about the case proving “beyond a reasonable doubt” it was Trump who instigated the January 6 insurrection in an effort to overturn the 2020 election Another federal court struck down the blatantly unconstitutional tactics used by ICE in Minneapolis A newly uncovered ICE memo directing Trump’s goon squad to break down doors without a warrant has put “Homeland Barbie” Kristi Noem on the defensive … again In Michigan, legislation has been introduced pushing back on ICE tactics by designating no-arrest zones, prohibiting masking of law enforcement with common-sense exceptions, and prohibiting the release of government information to ICE without a judicial warrant Michigan’s research universities are pushing back on Trump efforts to effectively stifle free speech on college campuses. We talk with University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker about the challenges facing one of the world’s leading research institutions. Acker is Mark’s longtime friend and law partner at the Goodman Acker law firm. Prior to law school, Jordan worked as a communications aide to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. After law school, he served as an associate in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel before being appointed by President Obama to be an attorney-advisor to Secretary Janet Napolitano at the Department of Homeland Security. While at DHS, Jordan worked on cyber, immigration and other homeland security issues. He was elected to the UM Board of Regents in 2018. Acker was named one of Crains Detroit 40 under 40 in 2020, Michigan Lawyers Weekly Up and Coming Lawyers, and is an alum of the non-partisan Michigan Political Leadership Program Fellowship at Michigan State University. Since joining the University of Michigan Board of Regents, he has focused on reforming sexual misconduct reporting and adjudication at the University, NCAA reform, including the future of NIL, expanding the Go Blue Guarantee, and making the University affordable for Michiganders. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by © Clay Jones/claytoonz.com  

On our radar this week… Donald Trump’s reaction to a heckler at his Detroit Economic Club speech was symbolic of his administration: flipping the bird to all of us as he simultaneously destroys the economy, government services and NATO. The irony: his target, who was suspended by Ford, has received more than 800-thousand dollars through two Go Fund Me appeals launched by friends. Listing Trump’s weekly rundown of outrages could easily fill out the podcast, so we’ll go with the most outrageous. His week of destruction and dementia include: Openly threatening to use the U.S. military to steal Greenland over the objections of Greenlanders, Denmark and our angry allies in NATO.  Taking on another political critic with former Fox News screamer Jeanine Piro, now U.S. Attorney for D.C., investigating Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin for the crime of quoting federal law, a followup to the Pete Hegseth assault on Senator Mark Kelly.  Also under investigation by Trump’s retribution machine: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who made it clear it’s nothing more than another Trump retribution charade. Trump gave a 60-minute speech to Detroit area business leaders, a speech long on fantasy and lies. We learned that those increases in grocery and housing prices are apparently going down, much to the surprise of anyone buying groceries or trying to find a home. The fact checkers may be facing PTSD. And his administration is using a right-wing video as the excuse to cut off food benefits to millions … but only in blue states. In Michigan: New polling shows the races for Governor and U.S. Senator are both statistically tied. State Democrats are working to make sure voters know it’s Michigan Republicans who are responsible for skyrocketing health insurance premiums. The new state legislative session faces multiple challenges: housing shortages, never-ending potholes, continuing calls for more openness … and an ongoing battle between Republican House Speaker Matt Hall and a state Senate controlled, at least for now, by Democrats…pending the outcome of an upcoming special election. Caught in the middle of all of this is Senate Majority Floor Leader Sam Singh. Singh is the son of Indian immigrants. His political career dates back 30 years when, at age 24, he was elected to East Lansing City Council and later served as the city’s mayor. He is a past president of the Michigan Nonprofit Association and Public Policy Associates. In 2012 he was elected to the first of 3 terms in the state, serving as Democratic floor leader in his final term. Singh moved to the state Senate two years ago and was elected to the #2 leadership slot as Majority Floor Leader. He’s a graduate of Michigan State University. We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by Nick Anderson – Pen Strokes  

We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. On our radar this week… There is a lot on our radar along with Santa’s sleigh… It was inevitable from the day Donald Trump sent his masked, unqualified, undertrained stormtroopers into American cities. An American citizen was summarily executed; Trump, Vance, and Kristi Noem immediately called the shooting justified self-defense and branded the dead American mother a domestic terrorist. But, we have clear unrefutable evidence we have all seen with our own eyes … which proves everything they have said in the aftermath are lies. It. Was. Murder. And now – Kash Patel has decided he, and he alone, will investigate. Trump is in full land acquisition mode, launching an invasion of Venezuela and making it clear he’s looking hard at Cuba, Columbia and Greenland … although his minions say he wants to buy Greenland. And he admits we could be in Venezuela for years. He apparently learned nothing from the George W. Bush’s Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…or the Vietnam War he avoided with those dreaded bone spurs. Trump adds the title of pirate to his resume with the seizure of a 50-million barrels of oil … saying he, and he alone, will illegally and unconstitutionally control the billions raised by selling his booty. Trump says it out loud: if Democrats flip the U.S. House, he expects to be impeached for a third time. Could this be an effort to motivate the MAGA vote? In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel has ruled House Speaker Matt Hall’s unilateral cancellation of more than a half-billion dollars from the state budget is unconstitutional … probably setting up a major court battle. State Democrats have rolled out the first blasts aimed at independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan with polls showing Duggan’s Independent candidacy could help elect a Republican as Governor. West Michigan has been trending more Democratic over the last decade. The transition culminated with the 2022 election of Hillary Scholten to a congressional seat once held by Gerald Ford in a district that had only just two years of Democratic representation in Michigan’s history. In 2026, Democrats see the opportunity to flip another longtime Republican district by defeating 8-term Republican congressman Bill Huizenga. They’re counting on state Senator Sean McCann of Kalamazoo to do that. McCann’s political career began 26 years ago as a member of the Kalamazoo City Committee, followed by election to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2011, and moving to the state Senate 8 years later. He’s now completing his 2nd term in the Senate. McCann is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a degree in political science. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by Courtesy Clay Jones – claytoonz.com  

We’re now on YouTube every week! Click here to subscribe. On our radar this week… There is a lot on our radar along with Santa’s sleigh… The Justice Department is dipping into the National Black Toner Cartridge Strategic Reserve as it redacts tens-of-thousands of pages of the Epstein files. Even so, the scandal continues to grow in a way not seen since the days of Monica Lewinsky. Larry Nassar, the disgraced onetime MSU sports doctor, is now a part of the scandal. A note allegedly from Epstein celebrates their shared perverted interest in vulnerable teenage girls. The FBI says the letter is a fake – and we know that Kash Patel would never tell a lie. The newly released files also show Trump was an Epstein Frequent Flyer … after saying for months he never flew on Lolita Airlines. Attorneys General are increasingly in the political bullseye. Democrats in the U.S. House may be joined by some Republicans to impeach Pam Bondi over the Epstein files debacle, even as Bondi continues to fail in efforts to indict New York AG Leticia James. In Michigan, state House Republicans are mulling over an attempt to impeach Attorney General Dana Nessel, something that would be totally symbolic but make MAGA Republicans feel good. The MAGA movement may need to get some couples therapy after an unhinged verbal brawl at the Turning Point USA weekend conference. We’ll be joined later in the podcast by Politico senior Adam Wren who’s been covering Turning Point’s efforts to be a major political force. The next key political battle in Michigan: a special election for the state Senate. The primary for replacing now-Congresswoman Kristen McDonald Rivet is set for February 3 … a swing district that will determine control of the state Senate for 2026. We’ll take a look at the candidates on both sides. CBS News has gone from The Gold Standard for broadcast news to the toilet with Trump-favorable censorship of 60 Minutes. Murrow, Cronkite, Severeid, et. al. are spinning in their graves, and the very much alive Katie Couric calls it a “disgrace.” First it was the Donald Trump Institute for Peace, then the Kennedy Center, Trump Saving Accounts, Trump $1 coins. Now Donald Trump has decided an entire class of battleships will bear his name…and he’ll play a role in designing them because, he says, “I’m a very aesthetic person.” Is the world’s first gold-plated Navy fleet in our future? And will he continue his years-long business of licensing use of his name on other people’s projects? Trump has raised the possibility of awarding himself a $1-billion settlement of the lawsuit he’s filed against the government he runs…in effect, judge, jury and beneficiary. Why stop at a billion? Why not a trillion or gazillion? Of course he’ll say tariffs will cover the check. We’re joined this week by Adam Wren, a national political correspondent for POLITICO, based in the Midwest. He is a contributor to POLITICO Magazine, Playbook and West Wing Playbook, focusing on Donald Trump’s remaking of the federal government and the Democratic response to his return to power ahead of what could be a wide-open 2028 presidential contest. Wren previously served as a national politics features correspondent at Business Insider. He has also written for The New York Times and Washington Post. Originally from Ohio, Adam graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University and has a master’s from Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. You can find Adam online X/Twitter and Instagram. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by Nick Anderson substack  

On our radar this week… Dozing Donald woke up from his nap long enough to shout out an 18-minute campaign speech, laden with lies and blaming everything on Joe Biden. It was the centerpiece of a truly horrific week politically for Trump and Republicans. The ACA tax credits are going, going and nearly gone … and with them, Republican prospects for the 2026 midterm elections. Adding to the political challenges to the GOP: Donald Trump’s massively offensive responses to two mass shootings, and the horrific murders of Rob and Michele Reiner. The chorus of one-time MAGA acolytes breaking with Trump is growing louder … and his shouted 19-minute televised falsehood-laden campaign speech didn’t help, a speech Jimmy Kimmel labeled “a liar-side chat”. Also this week: The Michigan Legislature has concluded the 2025 session and setting an unenviable record in the process: not counting the years when the Legislature only met in even-number years, it was the least productive legislative session in history. The record up until this year was 1842 when the Gov. John S. Barry signed 90 public acts. The 2025 session of the 103rd Legislature is estimated to pass around 70. The unprecedented slashing of the state’s budget by House Speaker Matt Hall is drawing bipartisan backlash … and creating pain for Republicans across the state. Two top aides to former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield are sentenced for corruption, agreeing to testify against Chatfield … and also accusing Chatfield of raping one of them. Another special election, and another Democratic over-performance. Democrat Gary Clemons scored a landslide victory in a special election for the Kentucky Senate on Tuesday night, demolishing Republican Calvin Leach by a 72-25 margin. That’s a full 20 points better than Kamala Harris’ margin in 2024 and 18-points better than Joe BIden in 2020. We now know both more and less about pythons in Peru – thanks to a 10-minute rambling, fictitious fantasy by America’s Poster Child for “weaving.” His hate-filled response to the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner drew condemnation from all sides … including some of the most influential voices in MAGA world. In Trump-the-Man-Child News: His gilded “Presidential Wall of Fame” has been transformed into a tacky Wall of Insults … guaranteeing it will be gone when he leaves office. Trump’s hand-picked Kennedy Center board has decided to rename the cultural center the Donald J. Trump-John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts (even though Trump is allegedly still alive), giving him top billing over JFK. The Kennedy Center is named by federal law, which prohibits renaming the building without congressional approval. The price for Trump’s ballroom has doubled from the original estimate, with the master contractor saying it’s now going to require $400-million in billionaire largesse to finish. Looks like Trump is transforming the White House into a theme park. We’re joined by Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, the senior member of the state’s Democratic delegation in Congress. The Dingell legacy, dating back to her father-in-law John Dingell Senior’s first term in 1933, is the nation’s healthcare program. Debbie Dingell was first elected to the House in 2015. She succeeded her late husband, John Dingell Jr, who was the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history. Her husband had succeeded his father who was first elected in 1932. There’s been a Dingell in the U.S. House non-stop for 92 years. A hallmark of their service has been a proposal for a national health insurance system, first introduced by John Sr. in 1933 and re-introduced since at every Congress by the father and then the son. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by Nick Anderson:Pen Strokes  

Clay Jones/claytoonz.com On our radar this week… Tomorrow … You’re only a day away! President Donald Trump took his show back on the road this week in a desperate attempt to rekindle his “rally magic” and tell voters not to believe their eyes, ears, brains, wallets, or increasingly harder to fill refrigerators. Starting in Pennsylvania, he vows to campaign early and often across the country in competitive seats for the U.S. House and Senate. Democrats should offer to pay for the rallies. As our (least) Favorite President emerges from his Mar-A-Lago cocoon to deny economic reality, with his economic team claiming everything gets better … eventually: Prices will come down, he’ll have a healthcare plan you’ll love, urban crime will end, the Kennedy Center will have a rebirth as the Trump Center for the Arts and medical science will come up with a cure for cankles. Trump and his economic team sound like “Annie”! Also this week… Democrats have scored two more major election wins, most significantly electing the first Democratic Mayor of Miami in 20 years … and it was a landslide. And the Dems flipped a Trump +12 legislative seat in Georgia. In Lansing, it’s been a year since the Legislature passed 9 laws that are still unconstitutionally sitting in the House of Representatives and signed into effect by Governor Whitmer. I’ve been the lawyer leading the so-far successful lawsuit to free the hostages as Speaker Matt Hall is and the GOP now look to the Michigan Supreme Court as they continue to ignore the constitution and keep stalling. There’s a new name in the Democratic party campaign for Secretary of State, with Lottery Director and former congressional candidate Suzanna Shkreli joining the field which already includes Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, former Senator Adam Hollier, and Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie. ACA premium tax credits are officially dead. Premiums will skyrocket for millions at the same time as major retailers raise prices to cover the costs of Trump’s tariffs … while the President is proposing $12-billion in tariff subsidies for farmers. A Republic, If You Can Keep It is sponsored by Jeff Margulies/Washington Post

Clay Jones-claytoonz.com It’s Show #250! On our radar this week… Trump and onetime Fox couch potato Pete Hegseth are putting that shoot-em-on-5th-Avenue theory to the test … but instead, his real-life murders have generated bipartisan talk of War Crimes, even without an actual war. A special election in Tennessee, and a new Michigan poll both point to a potential Blue Tsunami in 2026. Trump is going on another pardon-and-commutation binge. His beneficiaries include a top-level drug trafficker, Ponzi Schemer who stole $1.6-billion  and corrupt politicians. Could Ghislaine Maxwell could be next? Trump’s economic news is tumbling as job numbers tumbling … but we’re relying on ADP data: federal numbers are being stalled by Trump’s minions at the Department of Labor. And in our future giggles file: Pillow Plutocrat Mike Lindell has taken the first step to run for Governor of Minnesota, the same state that entertained us 25 years ago by electing Governor Jesse Ventura. Joining the podcast this week is Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. We talk election security, potential voter intimidation, gubernatorial politics…and the Lions and Pistons! Secretary Benson was first elected in 2018 and reelected in a 2022 landslide. She’s former Dean of the Wayne State University Law School, and considered one of the nation’s top experts on election law. In the most recent polling, she has an overwhelming lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for Governor, leading Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist by 43 points. The most recent EPIC-MRA poll shows her in a statistical tie with Republican John James in the general election, with Independent Mike Duggan 13 points behind. Mike Luckovich – Atlanta Journal Constitution

VIDEO: Senator Elissa Slotkin responds to Donald Trump’s outrageous threats against her, Senator Kelly and four House members. On our radar this week… Donald Trump says it’s criminal to post a video quoting federal law – with the Pentagon looking to court-martial Senator Mark Kelly, and the FBI investigating Elissa Slotkin and four House members. Trump’s healthcare plan … something promised for 9 years as coming “in 2 weeks” … turns out to be “dead even before arrival” in Congress. In addition to either executing or jailing Democratic members of Congress, Trump is focused on upgrading military golf courses in the DC area. It’s official: in the battle for Michigan’s U.S. Senate Republican nomination, Mike Rogers has a primary fight on his hand with just-resigned state GOP co-chair Bernadette Smith.  There’s increasing speculation about whether Gretchen Whitmer will run for President. An Axios profile says she’s retreating from the national stage, even as fellow Michiganders Pete Buttigieg and Elissa Slotkin ramp up their national visibility. The Trump Retribution Campaign is hitting massive roadblocks:  Indictments of top-level Trump foes James Comey and Leticia James were thrown out of court  His Attorney General is having trouble even getting indictments against other targets … and even finding prosecutors willing to take on those cases Marjorie Taylor Greene has started what she predicts will be a wave of Republican congressional resignations  And his utterly incompetent FBI director is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Clay Jones – claytoonz.com 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 This episode is sponsored in part by

On this week’s show… Democrats: Our military’s oath – defend the Constitution. Republicans: That’s sedition! Donald Trump thinks Elissa Slotkin should be executed. Trump sees the Epstein documents parade going in the other direction and runs to lead it…but launches Phase Two for keeping the Epstein files secret. Trump accidentally admits he’s known about Epstein’s abuse of teenagers for more than a decade … now saying that Epstein was a sick pervert and he knew it 20-plus years ago. The Texas gerrymander demanded by Trump gets thrown out by a three-judge appeals panel – with the lead opinion written by a Trump-appointed judge. Want a change in U.S. foreign policy? How about getting some state-of-the-art fighter jets. Or absolution for ordering the vicious murder of an American journalist? And, to top it all off, a black tie VIP dinner at the White House? All it takes is writing big checks, payable to the Trump family. A fringe Republican candidate for Governor has stirred up some hateful anti-Muslim demonstrations in Dearborn.  And the rhetorical temperature is also going up in Hamtramck with another increasingly contentious debate over that city’s mayoral election. Nick Anderson/Raw Story The most recent EPIC-MRA poll shows Michigan voters are angry over the Trump tariffs and what they are doing to the economy. It’s especially important in Michigan, where our top trading partners are Canada, Mexico and China. We’re joined by a Michigan business owner who is suing the Trump administration over the tariffs. Mike Musheinesh has been CEO of Detroit Axle since 2012, taking over from his father Ed Musheinesh, who started the company as a small aftermarket parts shop in 1990. Mike has grown the company into a leading global retailer and distributor of remanufactured and new aftermarket auto parts. Today, Detroit Axle employs hundreds of people in Metro Detroit, and it operates a large online operation to serve customers nationwide. kevinnecessary.substack.com 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

John Darkow – PoliticalCartoons.com On this week’s show… The federal government shutdown is over for now, but the debate on healthcare rages on. Michigan Democrats, led by Senators Peters and Slotkin, have harsh words for the 7 Democrats who voted with Republicans to end the 41-day shutdown without any guaranteed continuation of healthcare insurance subsidies. The Republican bill includes a potential onetime $500,000 or more bonus for 8 Senators investigated as part of the January 6 insurrection (Lindsey Graham says he’ll sue for millions!) The White House calls the newly released Epstein emails part of a Democratic Party hoax – that there’s nothing there – but Trump is doing all he can to keep the files secret, and redirect the story to investigations of retirees like Bill Clinton and Larry Summers. The U.S. House will vote on a full release of all the files in early December. Donald Trump basically admits widespread law-breaking by his reelection team, issuing federal pardons to 71 of his minions – even though they haven’t been federally charged. And the pardons don’t save folks like Giuliani and Meadows from possible state criminal charges. The looming increases in health insurance premiums has convinced four companies to pull out of the Michigan market.  Former Congressman Mike Rogers thought he had a free ride to the GOP nomination for U.S. Senator, but there’s a new candidate who could make the next 9 months a lot more difficult for him. Former Michigan Republican Party co-chair Bernadette Smith starts with more than a little support from the party’s MAGA base.  Rogers is now saying the 2024 election was stolen from him but providing no proof.  And there’s the story of two presidential grandkids extending family traditions: JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, extends the family tradition by running for Congress in New York … in a district that includes Trump Tower. Donald Trump’s granddaughter, Kai, is extending a different family tradition: she’s playing golf, making her LPGA debut as an invited golfer in the LPGA Annika Tournament. Sadly, after the 2nd round she was dead last (18 over par) and missed the cut 🥺, Joining the conversation this week is Michigan Advance senior political reporter Ben Solis. Solis has covered state and local government for nearly a decade as a former staff writer with Gongwer News Service and multiple MLive newsrooms. He is an award-winning writer and editor and was a finalist for the Michigan Press Association Richard Milliman Journalist of the Year award in 2022 for his work covering Michigan’s independent redistricting process. Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. Nick Anderson-Raw Story 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Nick Anderson/Raw Story  On this week’s show… The Donald Trump Hunger Games begin with the administration doing as little as possible to comply with a court-ordered continuation of SNAP Benefits. For millions of Americans, it means going hungry … just not quite as hungry as Trump had wanted. The Trump shutdown is officially the longest in U.S. history, surpassing the record of 35 days set during the first Trump term. With Trump’s administration failing on the economy, foreign policy, healthcare and basic competence in the background, Democrats sweep the handful of off-year elections including flipping Virginia’s governor’s office and holding on in New Jersey. We’ll do a post-mortem on the election, and the impact on Michigan politics, with former Obama Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri. Two updates on Michigan’s congressional races: a familiar name enters the GOP primary to replace John James, and new polling shows Lansing-area Congressman Tom Barrett trailing two relatively unknown Democrats. A former top aide to former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield pleads guilty to assorted corruption charges … and agrees to testify against his former boss. The latest political shocker nationally: Marjorie Taylor Greene is talking about running for President. Of the United States. Yes, that MTG! And the Subway Sandwich Terrorism trial has ended with an acquittal. Sean Dunn was charged with misdemeanor assault after hitting a federal agent with a “sub-style sandwich.” Apparently ICE agents consider mustard a weapon of mass destruction…but the prosecution’s case, it turns out, was toast. Dunn reportedly relished the decision. There were, of course, a lot of significant elections on Tuesday. Joining the post-election analysis is guest commentator Jennifer Palmieri. Her credentials include three years as Barack Obama’s Communications Director and then Director of Communications for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. Before her service at the White House, she was the National Press Secretary for the 2004 John Edwards presidential campaign and for the Democratic National Committee in 2002, after a brief time at the advocacy group Americans for Gun Safety. She served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, deputy director of Scheduling and Advance, and finally as a Deputy White House Press Secretary. More recently she co-hosted the political documentary series “The Circus” on Showtime with John Heilman, Alex Wagner and Mark McKinnon. drewsheneman.substack.com 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 drewsheneman.substack.com On this week’s show… Donald Trump’s medical path seems to be tracking alongside his poll ratings: going down. Six months after his “annual” physical exam, doctors gave him a screening test for dementia, and ordered an MRI for undisclosed reasons. But when your doctor says you need an MRI (or a monthly dementia check-up), it’s not a clean bill of health. The latest campaign finance reports are in, and they offer some strong clues for what to expect over the next year of campaigning. We’ll take a deep dive into “following the money”, and be joined later by campaign finance tea-leaves reader Simon Shuster from Michigan Bridge. The state court of appeals has ordered state House Speaker Matt Hall to release his hostages: nine bills passed by the Legislature in the final days of the 2024 session that he unconstitutionally refused to deliver to the Governor for signature. We get the lowdown from the attorney for the winning side (his last name is Brewer). As Trump continues his unconstitutional killing of alleged drug runners in international waters, a lot of his underlings may be needing criminal defense lawyers. Trump has Supreme Court gifted immunity, but everyone from Pentagon Pete Hegseth on down could be looking at multiple charges of murder as the killing spree escalates. Simon D. Schuster/Bridge Michigan State Republicans staged their first gubernatorial candidate debate and the alleged frontrunner didn’t even show up. John James continues to hide in the witness protection program both as a candidate and as a congressman. An estimated 1.4-million Michiganders are on the verge of losing SNAP benefits. State legislators are trying to fill the federal funding void – a $71-million emergency appropriation passed the state Senate earlier today on a bipartisan vote; the state House can act on the measure as early as Tuesday. We start with the latest batch of campaign finance reports – the ones filed by would-be Governors. On the Democratic side, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson smoked the competition for the cycle. On the Republican side, candidate-in-hiding John James continued his strong fundraising, and former attorney general Mike Cox opened his own checkbook to fatten his campaign treasury. This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ====================================================== We’re joined this week by veteran journalist and media monitor Jennifer Schulze for a deep dive into the right-wing takeover of where we get our news. Jennifer Schulze is a longtime journalist, mostly broadcast news and mostly in Chicago.  She headed the WGN TV newsroom and lead the team that created the WGN Morning News.  She writes media cricitism and other articles for The Contrarian, Lincoln Square, Heartland Signal, etc.  She does regular media roundups for Civic Media and Courier Newsroom with host Pat Krietlow and for WCPT Radio with host Joan Esposito.  Her fellow Chicago journalist Mark Jacob joins her on both of those regular segments.  Jennifer’s Substack is called Indistinct Chatter and you can find her on Blue Sky and threads @NewsJennifer. This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 On this week’s show… GOP efforts to discredit the No Kings protests across the nation flopped, with seven-million+ Americans registering their disgust with Trump in peaceful, often mocking demonstrations across America. Trump’s disdainful, self-revealing response: an AI-created video fantasy of Mad King Biff carpet-bombing crowds of American people with feces while flying an airborn firefighting super tanker. Adding to his show of disdain: while hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without paychecks, and with inflation and the price of groceries skyrocketing, Trump had the entire East Wing of the White House demolished – in violation of federal law – to erect a palatial, gilded, $300 million (and growing) ballroom … the worst damage to the White House since the British torched it in the War of 1812. Let them eat cake, Donald? And now he’s telling his Justice Department to pay him $230-million for the trauma of being investigated for his long string of crimes. The decision is up to two of his former personal attorneys: AG Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, now his personal henchmen inside the DoJ. Also in our gunsights this week: Trump’s puppets in the U.S. House continue to stonewall the release of the Epstein files, but Speaker Mike Johnson faces a lawsuit from the state of Arizona for his month-long failure to swear in newly elected Congresswoman Adelita Grivalva as the House completes a 4th week of no sessions. Thousands of federal workers are facing layoffs or payless paydays, SNAP benefits are running out of money and Republicans won’t budge on reversing healthcare cuts to millions … but Kristi Noem’s got $172-million for a pair of private jets. In Michigan, MIRS News reports a petition drive to eliminate property taxes statewide is falling short of collecting the signatures needed to get on the ballot. New polling shows Jocelyn Benson with an overwhelming lead for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor, leading Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist 56% to 17%. Another poll shows Mary Sheffield with a 50-point lead over Solomon Kinloch for Detroit mayor. And the Michigan Court of Appeals says chimpanzees are not persons protected under the Constitution, the worst news for chimps since they co-starred with Ronald Reagan in Bedtime for Bonzo. The weaponizing of the Justice Department continues to expand the Trump-revenge web. We are joined by one of the potential targets: former DHS Chief of Staff Miles Taylor – also known as “Anonymous”, the first high-level Trump administration whistleblower. Miles Taylor is a national security expert who served in the administrations of George W. Bush and Donald Trump, where he was chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security. In 2018, Taylor wrote an op-ed in The New York Times under the pen name “Anonymous” – “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” – which drew widespread attention for its criticism of Trump.  Several months after quitting the administration, he published a book titled, A Warning (again under the pen name “Anonymous.) He later revealed that he was “Anonymous” and was the first former Trump administration official to endorse Joe Biden. Miles is an Indiana native and earned his B.A. in international security studies from Indiana University, with a masters degree from Oxford University in England which he attended as a 2012 Marshall Scholar. He began his government service in 2007 as a college intern under Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Vice President Dick Cheney.  He’s no longer “anonymous” and speaks out forcefully about the Trump abuses in his online blog “Treason with Miles Taylor”.  Rick McKee – caglecartoons.com:cartoonist:rick-mckee This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ====================================================== We’re joined this week by veteran journalist and media monitor Jennifer Schulze for a deep dive into the right-wing takeover of where we get our news. Jennifer Schulze is a longtime journalist, mostly broadcast news and mostly in Chicago.  She headed the WGN TV newsroom and lead the team that created the WGN Morning News.  She writes media cricitism and other articles for The Contrarian, Lincoln Square, Heartland Signal, etc.  She does regular media roundups for Civic Media and Courier Newsroom with host Pat Krietlow and for WCPT Radio with host Joan Esposito.  Her fellow Chicago journalist Mark Jacob joins her on both of those regular segments.  Jennifer’s Substack is called Indistinct Chatter and you can find her on Blue Sky and threads @NewsJennifer. This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 On this week’s show… Donald Trump’s drive to autocracy is hitting some speed bumps and accelerating at the same time. Just this week: Kristi Noem’s partisan video diatribe over the government shutdown is being banned by airports across Michigan and the nation One more Trump opponent is indicted while a future target, former special counsel Jack Smith, ended his silence … and unloaded on the President indicted for a crime virtually identical to the charges of mishandling classified documents used to indict John Bolton The often timid news media told former Fox News couch-sitter Pete Hegseth to take his Pentagon news coverage rules and shove them. They walked out of the Pentagon press room en masse … even Fox News took a hike! Portland is keeping it weird by ridiculing the Goons of ICE with an early Halloween parade of animal costumes Marjorie Taylor Greene ramped up her criticism of Trump on the shutdown, healthcare budget cuts and most pointedly on the continuing Epstein Files coverup Rand Paul says publicly what a lot of Republicans are saying privately: the Trump ordered executions of boaters in the Caribbean are illegal On the MAGA+ side, the President managed to find time between multiple rounds of golf for a Middle East victory lap … a victory that is already showing signs of falling apart In non-Trump news, new campaign finance reports show all three Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate raised more money than unopposed Republican Mike Rogers And young Republicans are learning the hard way that it’s politically harmful to put the phrase “I Love Hitler” and jokes about gas chambers into Telegram chats In the age of crypto and endless Trump crime family grifting, there’s never been a more important time to understand white collar crime. They don’t use guns and goons: the weapons for these criminals are banking laws, off-shore accounts and trading on the ignorance of their victims. Joining this week’s conversation is Jennifer Taub, a legal scholar and advocate whose writing focuses on “follow the money” matters— promoting transparency and opposing corruption.  Taub was the Bruce W. Nichols Visiting Professor of Law in fall 2019 at Harvard Law School and is now a professor of law at the Western New England University School of Law. A former associate general counsel at Fidelity Investments, she is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School. Taub’s most recent book was “Big Dirty Money” published in 2020 by Viking Press. Her first book was Other People’s Houses, published in 2014 by the Yale Press. She posts daily on YouTube. This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ====================================================== We’re joined this week by veteran journalist and media monitor Jennifer Schulze for a deep dive into the right-wing takeover of where we get our news. Jennifer Schulze is a longtime journalist, mostly broadcast news and mostly in Chicago.  She headed the WGN TV newsroom and lead the team that created the WGN Morning News.  She writes media cricitism and other articles for The Contrarian, Lincoln Square, Heartland Signal, etc.  She does regular media roundups for Civic Media and Courier Newsroom with host Pat Krietlow and for WCPT Radio with host Joan Esposito.  Her fellow Chicago journalist Mark Jacob joins her on both of those regular segments.  Jennifer’s Substack is called Indistinct Chatter and you can find her on Blue Sky and threads @NewsJennifer. Clay Jones – claytoonz.com This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Clay Jones – claytoonz.com On this week’s show… The Attorney General goes to the U.S. Senate to workshop her new stand-up/outraged authoritarian dystopian comedy routine … without any jokes. A Trump-appointed federal judge is getting increasingly pissed over Bondi’s defense of National Guard Whack-a-Mole. The judge said sending troops to Portland was illegal, so Bondi’s lawyer thugs came up with a different state’s guard to deploy – and the Trump-appointed judge sounded like a parent scolding a child in referring to the whole strategy as untethered from reality. And now Trump is facing another court challenge over the Texas National Guard incursion into Chicago, which, like Portland, is the quietest Burning Hell Hole in the history of Burning Hell Holes. And as the very MAGA governor of extremely red Oklahoma said this week, “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.l?” This simply cannot be allowed to happen. Trump’s puppet U.S. Attorney in Northern VIrginia doubles down on retribution indictments by calling out New York Attorney General Leticia James. Next up, based on Trump’s Oopsie It Was Supposed to be Private demand to Bondi, will be California Senator Adam Schiff. The Supreme Leader, never one to worry about what is and what is not legal, is now apparently directing the Treasury to issue a Donald Trump one-dollar coin. Federal law prohibits putting living persons on our currency … but then again, Fearless Leader is 79-years-old, obese, eats a high-fat diet, limits exercise to getting in and out of his golf cart … and is plagued by cankles. You never know…we’re 9 months away from the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And in Michigan, a threat from the Trump administration to renege on upgrading GM’s Lansing-Grand River assembly plant threatens 700 factory jobs with a ripple impact on thousands of Michigan workers. We’re joined this week by veteran journalist and media monitor Jennifer Schulze for a deep dive into the right-wing takeover of where we get our news. Jennifer Schulze is a longtime journalist, mostly broadcast news and mostly in Chicago.  She headed the WGN TV newsroom and lead the team that created the WGN Morning News.  She writes media cricitism and other articles for The Contrarian, Lincoln Square, Heartland Signal, etc.  She does regular media roundups for Civic Media and Courier Newsroom with host Pat Krietlow and for WCPT Radio with host Joan Esposito.  Her fellow Chicago journalist Mark Jacob joins her on both of those regular segments.  Jennifer’s Substack is called Indistinct Chatter and you can find her on Blue Sky and threads @NewsJennifer. Clay Jones – claytoonz.com This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 It’s tale of two cities, told to us by two experts. In the nation’s capitol, a would-be dictator takes time away from his golf game to launch a federal government shutdown, and lecture the nation’s military leaders about transforming the military into a political tool. In the state’s capitol, a more promising story as the Governor barters a one-week budget-battle truce with a promise of keeping the government open. This week’s theme – “The Enemy Within” – focuses on the moves by Trump in the last week to establish his authoritarian dominance of our lives. An alternative title could be “The Rubicon has been crossed” episode, as Trump uses a highly unusual audience and venue to declare war on American citizens, the Constitution, a lawful civilian-controlled military, and the very notion of a limited government that derives its existence from “we the people.” But because our culture and our media are so entirely broken and damaged, the biggest story is the breathless coverage of the federal government shutdown and not the 12-alarm departure from the rule of law and prelude to martial law and authoritarianism. Lauren Gibbons – BridgeMi.com In Lansing, there’s a one-week truce in the battle of the state budget, averting a shutdown with both sides promising to get the budget adopted by next Tuesday at midnight. We begin the show by doing a deep dive into the partisan battles in Lansing, and strong signs that the state can avoid a government shutdown. Our tour guide is veteran Bridge Michigan state capitol reporter Lauren Gibbons. It’s a $80-billion budget dispute. Will it last? Is there really agreement on a framework for the budget? What is standing in the way of final agreement? Major General William Enyart (US Army-Retired) In the Trump/Vance/Hegseth world of Fatsos and Beardos, two more American cities — Portland, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee — will likely see National Guard troops deployed in the coming days, though exact timings remain unclear. An Oregon Military Department spokesperson had said troops could arrive in Portland as soon as Thursday (our recording day), but legal and logistical delays may push the deployment into next week. Angry state leaders’ efforts to have the deployment halted will be heard by a federal judge tomorrow. Trump is using the military to try to eliminate dissent. Caught in the middle of his lust for absolute power are the citizen-soldiers of the National Guard in his target states. Joining us is an expert on what that means: the retired adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard, General William Enyart. Major General Enyart served in the Air Force for 40 years. He was appointed to lead the National Guard and the Illinois Department of Military Affairs as Adjutant General in 2007, and was reappointed in 2009 and in 2011. He retired from the military in 2012, and was elected to Congress where he served for one term.   This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 The man who recommended Ivermectin and bleach injections for treating covid joins with a recovering heroin addict and a former TV snake-oil salesman to warn us about the dangers of Tylenol. Trump? He probably needed to take a Tylenol after watching Tuesday night TV. But he’s moving forward with taking over the media, carving out a deal so his closest billionaire buddies get control of TikTok. The MAGA moneymen now control CBS, Fox News, X-Twitter, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the owners of nearly 400 television stations … and have effectively neutered ABC and ESPN. This week Trump focused on  using the federal government to put his political opponents in prison  bombing speedboats in the Gulf of Mexico  declaring a non-existent organization as a domestic terrorist group avoiding the Tom Homan and Jeffrey Epstein scandals, and  taking time to embarrass the nation with a bonkers U.N. speech which included a rant on the U.N. escalator and a teleprompter operator,  America’s favorite unlicensed pharmacist didn’t seem to be worried that his government is about to shut down because his underlings in Congress can’t enact a budget…and he’s too busy to negotiate with Democrats. Not to outdone, Michigan statehouse Republicans are doing the same to the state. Instead of working to actually fund education and the rest of state government, a lot of them spent a few days on Mackinac Island figuring out how to return to full power in Lansing. And topping off the week, Governor Whitmer said “no thanks” to Trump’s offer of a military invasion of Detroit. Joining the podcast this week: an unlikely victim of the post-Charlie Kirk murder cancel culture – former GOP campaign guru and now former MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd. The longtime Republican campaign consultant was dumped by MSNBC, a supposedly liberal media outlet, for his comments on the Kirk shooting. Matthew was the chief strategist for President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign. A native of Detroit, he began his lifelong work in politics as a volunteer for Michigan Congressman William Broomfield. He was later a longtime political contributor for ABC News. In 2021, he launched a short-lived, unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor of Texas. Dowd joined MSNBC as a political contributor and analyst in 2022.   Bill Bramhall/New York Daily News This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 One sure sign you’ve got a dictatorship in the making is when the would-be dictator does everything in his power to crush the ability of his opponents to be heard. In today’s Russia, those dissidents have a history of falling out of windows or suddenly becoming deathly ill. In North Korea, even the dictator’s family members end up dead. In the United States, Donald Trump is using all the tools at his disposal – legal and illegal – to silence his critics. In a break from our usual format, we’re going to focus our opening discussion on one issue: Trump’s assault on free speech. Later in the podcast we’ll get into the Lansing budget mess and Michigan politics when we’ll be joined by veteran Lansing reporter and columnist Kyle Melinn. As we look at the death of free speech, We begin with the latest example; the attack on late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, misrepresenting a Kimmel joke and using the threat of broadcast license revocations to muscle Kimmel off the air. Another favorite Trump tactic: bogus lawsuits, known as SLAPPs. The latest is his laughable $15-billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times. Mark Brewer discusses the endless bogus lawsuits. Other tactics of an aspiring dictator: Manufacturing federal “emergencies” to paper over legal and constitutional violations (declaring Antifa a terrorist organization) Withholding federal money to extort concessions Using the bully pulpit to destroy reputations, often with false accusations Manufacturing criminal investigations (dating back to his “perfect call” to Zelenskyy urging a criminal investigation into Biden) Directing the IRS to challenge tax-exempt status of targets (university endowments, NGO’s, ActBlue) Firing federal whistleblowers Ending the autonomy that’s designed as a fail-safe; inspectors general replaced, establishing direct control of formerly independent agencies (CDC, NLRB, FEC, FCC, FTC) Firing career managers in all federal agencies – fill the jobs with inexperienced/unqualified sycophants Effectively lying to the courts, saying the right things to the judge(s) but ignoring court orders in the darkness Government turmoil isn’t limited to Washington D.C. We have a few problems in Lansing as well. The new state fiscal year starts in two weeks and it’s increasingly likely there will be no budget adopted, and much of state government will shut down. What does it mean for the people of Michigan? Joining the discussion is someone who knows as much as anybody about the workings of state government: Kyle Melinn. Kyle is the editor and Vice President of the MIRS Newsletter, a daily on-line political news service covering state government and politics.A professional journalist for 20 years who has covered the state Capitol for the last 13, Kyle hosts a weekly podcast called MIRS Monday, available at iTunes. Before MIRS, Kyle served as a freelance writer for the Boston Herald and as a senior editor for SchoolSports.com. He is a graduate of Michigan State University, who grew up in Byron Center. Clay Jones-claytoonz.com Matt Davies:Newsday This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Like most Americans, we are stunned and saddened by the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk. Listeners to this podcast know that we differed with Kirk on many, many issues. We were not fans. Kirk’s politics dabbled in racism, homophobia, misogyny and outright deception. He frequently used provocative language that bordered on inflammatory. But that’s how the First Amendment works. Murdering political opponents, even those with whom you find reprehensible, is never the answer. Mark Brewer and Walt Sorg offer their thoughts on the Kirk murder at the top of the podcast. Jeff, who is off this week, gave his view in a post on the Lincoln Square Substack.  Kirk’s Assassination Brings Trump’s Authoritarianism into Even Clearer Focus Jeff Timmer @ Lincoln Square On our radar this week… In Lansing, a district judge ruled that the 2020 fake Trump electors were either too ignorant or too stupid to be convicted of a crime. Ignorance in this case actually is legal bliss! Republicans are now arguing that 22 years ago somebody decided to forge Donald Trump’s signature on a birthday wish for his BFF Jeffrey Epstein. They’ll probably try to blame it on Marty McFly and Doc Brown’s DeLoreon! Speaking of Epstein, none of Michigan’s Republican members of Congress are backing the discharge petition to force release of all of the documents. In Michigan politics, former state Senator Adam Hollier has pulled out of the 13th district congressional primary – good news by narrowing the field for Representative Donavan McKinney, who is challenging two-term incumbent Shri Thanedar. Meanwhile Hollier becomes the third Democrat running for Secretary of State. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that racial profiling is O.K. The message in the unsigned opinion: don’t speak Spanish in a Home Depot parking lot. Donald Trump says domestic violence doesn’t count as a crime, as least in cities he’s invaded with the National Guard. Former Michigan State economist Lisa Cook will continue as a Federal Reserve governor after a federal court puts a stay on Trump’s attempt to fire her in violation of the law. Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director who has led the charge in accusing Cook and Trump opponents of mortgage fraud, said. “If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation.” So maybe he should report his parents. Reuters reports that the senior Pulte’s – the Michigan real estate multi-millionaires – have claimed primary residences in both Michigan and Florida. Almost unnoticed by the media, but felt in every household: inflation continues to climb even as monthly employment numbers sink. Trump’s economy is going from bad to worse. Trump and his newly christened “Department of War” sank an unarmed Venezuelan speedboat hundreds of miles away from the United States, claiming it posed an imminent threat to the nation. And this headline: the nation’s President who tried to overturn an election with a violent coup sentenced to 27 years in prison. No, not Trump…but his Brazilian buddy, Jair Bolsonaro. All of that in just the last week. Breathtaking! More than 445,000 federal employees saw their union protections disappear in August, as agencies moved to comply with an executive order President Trump signed earlier this year that called for ignoring collective bargaining contracts with nearly one million workers. Trump’s move comes at a time when unions have their highest public approval rating in years. Joining the conversation this week is Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber. Bieber is a third-generation UAW member, and the son of former UAW President Owen Bieber. Prior to his election as President of the Michigan AFL-CIO 10 years ago, he served as Director of the UAW’s Community Action Program. Ron previously served as assistant director of the UAW’s General Motors Department. He joined UAW Local 730 at 18 after being hired at GM’s Metal Fabricating plant in Wyoming. His top achievement (among many) during his tenure: in 2023 Michigan became the first state in the nation to repeal a so-called “right to work law”, thus guaranteeing workers to unite for collective bargaining. Matt Davies:Newsday This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Clay Jones:claytoonz.com On our radar this week… Donald Trump had multiple court case losses this week. One court ruled his military invasion of Los Angeles was illegal; another struck down his tactic of punishing universities with the loss of research funding; his tariffs were rules illegal; and  the Fifth Circuit blocked Trump’s effort to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.  One of his many clown-car cabinet appointees got clobbered in a U.S. Senate committee, with Republicans joining Democrats in lambasting Bobby “Brain Worm” Kennedy’s upending of U.S. health policy. His Department of Defense sank a boat out of Venezuela, claiming it was being used to run drugs. Is this an Act of War? The week ended with a very bad jobs report: only 22,000 added jobs in August, and June’s report revised to show the loss of 13,000 jobs. Trump continued to try to rig elections: Missouri’s Governor has called the Legislature into session with the intent of eliminating the only black-majority House district in his state;and  Trump is reportedly trying to buy off a couple of candidates for New York City mayor in order to help Andrew Cuomo. His latest make-Donny-richer grift debuted this week with the launch of still another crypto-driven Ponzi scheme that is netting The Orange Crypto Criminal several billion dollars. In Michigan, House Speaker “MAGA” Matt Hall says an association president who criticized the Republican’s state budget plan should be fired … you can’t get Trumpier than that! Our guest this week is former Senator Debbie Stabenow. 2025 is the first year in the last 50 she’s been a private citizen, with a career in public service that began on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, continuing on as state Representative, state Senator, member of the U.S. House and … for 24 years as United States Senator.  Senator Stabenow has been one of the worker bees in the Senate, shunning publicity and notoriety to focus on policy … and getting things done. As a political candidate she was nearly unstoppable, defeating incumbents to win 4 of the five jobs she’s held … and in a 5th campaign flipped a Republican-held seat. These days she proudly bears the title of Grandma! This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Clay Bennett:Chattanooga Times Free Press On our radar this week… Wars in Ukraine and Gaza; Ground beef more than $6 a pound; A military invasion of Washington D.C.; Trump tries to strong-arm the Federal Reserve; Still no release of any new Epstein files; More DOJ investigations into Trump’s political opponents; Trump extorts a 10% ownership of Intel; Questions about Trump’s health continue to grow, not just over his cankles, but over increasingly common mental lapses … like a shoutout to Michigan Governor “Christi uh Christine Whitman uh Whitmer”; Trump lords over a 3-hour 15-minute Cabinet meeting with one agenda item: the Team of Incompetents heaping praise on the Fearless Leader. Yes, the entire Trump cabinet spent an entire afternoon kissing Trump’s ass; In another insult to the nation’s military, Trump now has National Guard troops picking up trash in Washington D.C. – something that’s actually the job of the National Park Service. But 180 out of 200 NPS employees in D.C. were laid off in the DOGE rampage; Democrats get a big win in an Iowa special election, flipping a state Senate district by 10 points … a district Trump carried by 11 points. In the process, they ended a GOP legislative super-majority; And there’s more good news: A D.C. grand jury refused to return an indictment against a former Justice Department employee who was seen on camera throwing a hoagie at the chest of one of the federal officers President Donald Trump has deployed in the nation’s capital, according to two people familiar with the matter. It’s a major blow to former Fox News screamer Jeanine Pirro; In Michigan, the budget war continues with state House Republicans passing a 79-billion-dollar budget with no committee hearings and no debate. Among other things, the GOP spending plan defunds the police with major cuts in support of the State Police and Department of Corrections! And most importantly, Taylor and Travis get engaged … Despite all that, the big MAGA issue of the week is a restaurant chain’s logo. But they got their Cracker Barrel back! That pretty much sums up the quality of our politics as we head into the fall. For an update on Lansing’s $79-billion budget mess, we’re joined on the podcast by House Appropriations Committee member Jason Morgan. Representative Morgan is serving his second term representing Washtenaw County’s 23rd House District. The son of a commercial fisherman and union laborer, Representative. Morgan was raised in Pinconning. Morgan worked his way through college as a first-generation college student, earning his Bachelor’s of Political Science from Northern Michigan University and then a Master’s of Public Administration from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Representative Morgan served six years as a Washtenaw County Commissioner and was elected as the county’s first-ever LGBTQ chair of the Board of Commissioners. Over the last 15 years, he has worked in various leadership positions in Michigan and Washington, D.C. including senior staff positions to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and five members of Congress. Much of his career has also focused on higher education, working as the director of government and community relations and later teaching government at Washtenaw Community College. Ann Telnaes:anntelnaes.substack.com This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA A full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Clay Bennett/Tribune Content Agency On the podcast this week… Turns out slavery wasn’t all that bad – at least, according to renowned civil rights advocate Donald Trump, who took a break from his continued cover-up of the Epstein Files and restoring Confederate traitor names to current U.S. military bases, to demand the Smithsonian alter their displays to adhere to his whitewashed view of history. Trump genuflected, fan-girled, and failed to deliver his long-promised “end to the war in Ukraine in 24-hrs” as he was yet again outfoxed and manipulated by Vladimir Putin in Alaska. The leaders of the free world were so alarmed with Trump’s disastrous display that they high-tailed it to Washington to provide protection and backup to Ukrainian President Zelensky at the White House Monday and to prevent Donald Trump from surrendering Ukraine and NATO power to the New Soviet Order. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office is the newest social media sensation with posts trolling and mimicking Trump and all things MAGA. The ridiculing of the Supreme Leader has led to non-stop whining on Fox News and elevated their constant hypocrisy to new heights. Republican Aric Nesbitt, the minority leader in the state senate, was discovered to have funneled nearly half a million dark money dollars into his campaign for governor in what looks to be a clear and deliberate effort to circumvent Michigan’s law limiting the amount a person or group can contribute to campaigns and to make those names public. Michigan is facing a government shutdown deliberately and unilaterally engineered by Republican House Speaker MAGA Matt Hall. Hall and the House GOP are defunding the police and schools. Independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan endorsed Mary Sheffield to succeed him as Detroit mayor, while his campaign is combining some very public endorsements and some very large cash contributions from Republicans. The latest target of Trump’s Department of Retaliation (formerly the Justice Department) is a former MSU Economics Professor: Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Joining the conversation is a journalist with a keen eye for what’s really important. Nancy Kaffer is national award-winning columnist who writes about politics, policy and the complicated relationship between the two, from Detroit’s historic municipal bankruptcy to the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in Detroit to the Flint water crisis. She oversees publication of commentary and letters to the editor, pens columns and contributes to unsigned editorials. Nancy is a native of Mobile, Ala. Before joining the Free Press in 2012, she was a staff writer for Crain’s Detroit Business, where she covered the city of Detroit. She has also worked at publications including the Dearborn Press & Guide and the Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American, where she covered K-12 education and post-Katrina recovery in Mississippi’s Pine Belt. Nancy lives in southwest Detroit with her husband and son. Jack Ohman/Tribune Content Agency This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 This week marks the 90th anniversary of FDR signing the Social Security Act. In the background, #10 is Michigan Representative John Dingell Sr., a key force in enactment of Social Security. His legacy continued years later through his son, Representative John Dingell Jr., who worked tirelessly to enact Medicare and Medicaid. On the podcast this week… Donald Trump’s drive to dictatorship continued in a week where he Appointed himself the overlord of Washington D.C., inventing a crime emergency despite FBI statistics showing violent crime plummeting in D.C. and the nation Named an ideological zealot to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Told Goldman Sachs they should fire their top economist because their man didn’t agree with Trump’s economic policies. Told anyone who would listen that the economy under Biden was a disaster, and now we’re the world’s economic hottie…while the economy actually begins to stall under the weight of his tariffs and budget policies. Continued to falsely claim his “Big Beautiful Bill” ended taxation of Social Security benefits and overtime. Ordered a rewrite of exhibits at the Smithsonian to ensure they align with Trump’s view of history. Personally picked the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, then appointed himself as the host for the event. Encouraged the war of words over rigging 2026 congressional elections continued to escalate, much to the relief of a person who is happy when people aren’t talking about his onetime BFF Jeffrey Epstein. Also on our political radar this week: Mayors across America are assessing the threats to their cities with Trump’s stated intention to impose L.A. and D.C. style federal occupations to deal with his imagined crime wave. The cities he named share three commonalities: they are run by Democrats, crime is going down in their cities, and the mayors are black. Governor Whitmer is quietly continuing her shuttle diplomacy, telling Trump in private that his policies are a major threat to the American auto industry. Ford Motor Company has gone all-in on EVs, announcing creation of a new electric vehicle production system and a new EV platform that will allow the automaker to more efficiently bring several lower-cost EVs to market. And in another “you’ve gotta be kidding me” moment, Trump openly considers awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to “Big Balls” for the teenager’s courage in fighting two other teenagers who tried to hijack his car. We look at the revolutionary remake of the Republican Party over the last two decades in this week’s guest segment. Jeff and Mark are joined by one of the best practitioners of the political arts, former Republican State Chairman Rusty Hills. Hills is a walking Wikipedia of Michigan Republican politics over the last half-century. He and Jeff Timmer worked side-by-side on multiple campaigns; Rusty and Mark were friendly rivals during his two terms as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. He was twice elected unanimously to serve in that job, spending every day trying to make Mark’s life as Democratic Party chair miserable! Before that, Rusty served ten years as one of Governor John Engler’s chief lieutenants following Engler’s electoral ouster of two-term incumbent James Blanchard in November 1990. Hills now is a teaching professor in public policy at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy of the University of Michigan, and serves as Chancellor and Founder of Holy Spirits Institute, a non-profit educational venture. His goal is to establish a quality, four-year liberal arts Catholic college, located in the Greater Lansing area. AnnTelnaes.com This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ====================================================== Mike Luckovich/Atlanta Constitution

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 MAGA “Sheep” – The Lincoln Project On the podcast this week… Trump’s insane tariffs are now in effect … and the inflation surge is underway. Tomatoes, iPhones, Bananas, Automobiles, Coffee, Prescription drugs, Chocolate, Wine, virtually everything sold by Walmart and Amazon – prices are going up on just about everything. Economists at Yale this week estimated the impact on an average family at $2,400 per year. Just to make things even worse, the Trump tariffs are pissing off all of our allies and increasingly isolating the United States from the rest of the world. This last week included the 60th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Both Trump and his Supreme Court are working to finish gutting the law for which a lot of people gave their lives. Between walks on the White House roof, Trump is ramping up the heat on Republican-run states to increase the rigging of congressional elections. What started with his claim that Texas “owed him” five additional districts rigged to favor Republicans is expanding across the nation with talk of new gerrymanders in multiple Republican-run states. Democrats are fighting back in multiple ways. Later in the podcast we’ll talk with one of the leaders of the anti-gerrymandering crusade, Texas state representative Mihaela Plesa – the vice chair of the Texas House Democratic caucus who is currently on an extended out-of-state trip. And the Supreme Court has decided it will hear arguments on challenges to provisions of the law which provide protections against racial gerrymanders. Also on our radar this week: There’s a clear frontrunner for mayor of Detroit as Mary Sheffield gets 52% of the primary election vote in a 9-candidate field. Republican fundraising emails promise a “Tariff Rebate Check”, and claim Social Security benefits are no longer taxes. Both claims are lies. The online copy of the U.S. Constitution maintained by Congress was edited this month – leaving out the section on habeas corpus, and also omitting a prohibition on congress granting titles of nobility. Trump is ordering the Commerce Department to conduct a new census which does not include undocumented immigrants – even though the Constitution requires counting everyone living in the United States, and doing it every 10 years. State House Speaker Matt Hall is refusing to bring legislators back to town, even though the state’s budget is now 5 weeks overdue. We’re joined on the podcast by one of the leaders in Texas fighting against a bigger gerrymander of congressional districts, Representative Mihaela Plesa. Representative Plesa is a lifelong Texan serving the Dallas area. She is the first-generation daughter of Romanian immigrants who fled Eastern Europe. Now in her second term as State Representative, Plesa was elected the Vice Chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. Representative Plesa owned and operated her own small business in fashion merchandising and design, focusing on Texas-made products while helping other entrepreneurs start and grow their own small businesses. Before running for the Texas House, Plesa served as a legislative director for three regular sessions and four special sessions. She currently is on an extended tour of an undisclosed location outside of Texas … rumored to be Chicago. Michael Ramiez/Las Vegas Review-Journal This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ====================================================== Mike Luckovich-Atlanta Journal Constitution

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Ann Telnaes/AnnTelnaes.com On the podcast this week… We’re recording on August 1, the day that was the unchangeable deadline for trade deals that changed. To no one’s surprise, Taco Don has done it again – announcing a 90 day extension of the deadline with Mexico. The tariff-created damage has already begun. There’s anger and apprehension in Michigan’s auto industry. Both the UAW and Manufacturers’ Association say Trump’s sketchy tariff deal with Japan is devastating for domestic manufacturers, giving Japanese manufacturers an advantage over domestic producers. Some suppliers have already begun layoffs. Trump traveled to Scotland to 1) promote his golf courses, 2) create the appearance of a tariff deal with the E.U., and 3) escape the daily questions about his onetime BFF Jeffrey Epstein. He cheated at golf, the announced tariff deal is probably an unworkable fantasy, and the Epstein story only got worse for him as his explanations kept changing.  His top priority this week is getting Texas to expand its gerrymander to create 5 additional Republican districts. Some of the other stories we’re tracking closer to home: Michigan’s gubernatorial candidates have filed their first campaign finance disclosures. Mark and Jeff do a deep dive into those reports, and what they could mean for the future of several campaigns. Michigan Democrats continue to focus their attacks on John James and Mike Rogers with something they can’t escape: their support of Trump policies that are crippling Michigan. A new non-partisan analysis says Trump’s budget will cost Michigan government a staggering $1.1-billion, most of it in Medicare and food assistance for children. The Trump economic chaos is also assaulting Michigan’s auto industry, with both Ford and Stellantis reporting losses caused by the ever-changing tariffs. State House Democrats are calling for unmasking ICE agents. Republican Speaker Matt Hall calls the bill Dead on Arrival. We’re joined on the podcast today by Jeff’s fellow warrior at the Lincoln Project, All Star campaign consultant Rick Wilson. Rick is a renowned political strategist, infamous ad-maker, writer, speaker, and political commentator. In December 2019 Rick co-founded the Lincoln Project. Their mission is to hold accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would place their loyalty to others before their loyalty to the American people and democracy. Rick has authored two New York Times bestsellers. His first book, the very prescient “Everything Trump Touches Dies”, shot to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list in 2018. His second book, Running Against The Devil – A Plot To Save America from Trump And Democrats From Themselves, was released in January to rave reviews and opened at #4 on the New York Times bestseller list. Rick hosts the podcasts “Rick Wilson’s The Enemies List” and the Lincoln Project podcast. Senator Elissa Slotkin chats it up with Trump’s favorite late night comic. This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ====================================================== Rick McKee/Cagle.com

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 AnnTelnaes.com On the podcast this week… The Epstein saga continues to dominate Donald Trump’s admittedly minimal attention span as he throws out all sorts of invitations to talk about anything else. Just this week, that list of distractions included  Reviving his attacks on President Obama for the 2016 Russia investigation, accusing Obama and multiple others of “treason” Publicly considering stripping Rosey O’Donnell’s citizenship  Posting an AI video of a woman in a bikini catching a snake Suing the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for $10-billion Demanding Coca Cola use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn sugar (even as he continues to chug Diet Coke which has no sugar) Demanding that Washington’s NFL team and Cleveland’s baseball team change their names back to Redskins and Indians Suddenly releasing the MLK assassination files Posting A-I created videos of Barack Obama getting arrested Celebrating the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show and urging similar fates for Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon Congressional Republicans contributed to the blizzard of distractions by voting to rename the opera center at the Kennedy Center the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House” And even releasing medical information on his old-age-related circulatory problems. Joining the podcast this week is 10th district congressional candidate Tim Greimel. Michigan has multiple congressional races that could determine which party controls the House beginning in 2027. One of the most nationally significant races is in Macomb County. John James narrowly won the seat in 2022. Prior to becoming Mayor of Pontiac, Greimel served in the Michigan legislature from 2012 to 2018. During four of those years, he was the Democratic Leader of the Michigan House of Representatives Pedro Molina/Tributne Content Agency. This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 On the podcast this week… Donald Trump says of MAGA supporters demanding release of the full Epstein files “I don’t want their support anymore” – and that group apparently includes his daughter-in-law Lara. Meanwhile, he’s going through a bad breakup with his BFF Vladimir Putin. The economic news was also bad for Trump and Republicans: inflation is creeping upwards again and employment numbers going down. A $63 billion computer chip project in Flint has been shelved; Sandisk management blames the decision on economic uncertainty created by Donald Trump, especially his on-again off-again tariffs. In a move that would make Putin proud: Trump was able to walk away with the Fifa Club World Cup trophy (a $230,000 bauble), while the winning team from England was forced to settle for a replica. Democrats are eying a congressional seat pickup in southwest Michigan, with state Senator Sean McCann announcing that he’s running for the seat now held by Republican Bill Huizenga. Huizenga is expected to announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in a matter of days. The latest campaign finance reports show all 3 Democratic U.S. Senate candidates, and Huizenga, with solid financial support … not so much for Republican Mike Rogers. We learn that Shri Thanedar’s reelection campaign is being financed in large part by profits from crypto currency speculation Keef Knight Project/www.pateon.com/keefknight This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 This week — Donald Trump celebrated Taco Tuesday bigly: Launching another change in his threatened tariff wars, postponing T-Day from last Wednesday to August 1st Threatening Brazil with 50% tariffs in an effort to protect fellow criminal and former President Bolsonaro Reversing himself on the sale of arms to Ukraine after saying he didn’t know who stopped those sales Finally realizing that his buddy Vladimir Putin is feeding him … in Trump’s words … a lot of bullshit Showing off his skills as an interior decorator at his cabinet meeting – certainly a priority rather than dealing with 3 ongoing wars, a worldwide economic trade war and a devastating human catastrophe in Texas.  As for his 90 trade deals in 90 days: it’s been 90+ days, and he’s about 88.5 deals short of his goal. Now, he says sending a letter is the same as a deal. Some of the Michigan political news on our radar this week: MAGA icon Tudor Dixon says she won’t run for either Governor or U.S. Senator, much to the disappointment of Democrats There’s another potential statewide ballot proposal in the works, this one an effort to make voting more difficult Newly filed court documents reveal the secret financial involvement of DTE energy in efforts to undermine Governor Whitmer’s Covid lockdown policies Mid-Michigan will be at the center of one of the most hotly contested congressional races in the country. First-term Republican Tom Barrett is seen as very beatable, especially after his vote to take away healthcare from tens-of-thousands of his constituents. There’s a third candidate running to take on  Barrett. The first candidate to enter the race: former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink. Brink has served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 30 years, most recently as United States Ambassador to Ukraine. She was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate shortly after her nomination in 2022. Prior to her role in Ukraine, she was the U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia from August 2019, to May 2022. Brink’s tenure in Ukraine coincided with the Russian invasion, which began in February 2022. She actively supported Ukraine, advocating for U.S. military aid and signaling strong support for the Ukrainian government. Brink announced her resignation 3 months ago, citing disagreements with the Trump administration’s policies, which she felt pressured Ukraine while softening the stance towards Russia.   Michael Ramirez:Las Vegas Review-Journal This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================  

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 This week — The Big Bad Billionaires’ Tax Cut squeaks through the Senate with J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. After we recorded, the House grudgingly concurred as self-styled fiscal conservatives caved in to support the massive increase in the national debt — all to give billionaires the huge tax cut they cherish. The BBB front-loads the tax cuts, and delays the program-slashing cuts until after the next election. That’s a “tell.” The surprise retirement announcement from North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and non-MAGA GOPer Don Bacon in a Democratic-leaning Nebraska Congressional seat sends a dire warning to purple-seat Republicans on the ballot next year. Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow announces a $2.1 million haul in her first partial fundraising quarter. Elon Musk reignites his war with Trump and the Republicans, threatening to fund campaigns against anyone voting for Trump’s Big Bad Bill AND Trump threatening to turn DOGE and ICE on Elon. Access to Mackinac Island could become a lot more expensive. Lawmakers are looking at putting some limits on parking and ferry transport fees in the wake of a new monopoly of ferry boat options. Another petition drive is in the works for Michigan. Led by Voters Not Politicians, this ballot proposal would limit political contributions by state-regulated utilities and companies with large state contracts … while providing some sunshine on dark money in politics. We’ll talk with VNP’s Kimberly Murphy-Kovalick about the first VNP-led ballot drive since the group ended gerrymandering in 2018. We recorded the podcast on July 2 and, as of then, state lawmakers are nowhere near resolving the state’s budget. This week’s guest is a leader in the battle over the exorbitant cash being donated for political campaigns. A coalition of state nonprofits is hoping to ban some of Michigan’s largest corporations from donating massive amounts to politicians. Under the effort, regulated utilities and those with government contracts in excess of $250,000 would be unable to make political contributions. It hopes to put the question to voters next year. The coalition includes Voters Not Politicians, the group that led the successful 2018 campaign to pass an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment. Joining the conversation is Senior Director of Policy and Programs of the Voters Not Politicians Ballot Committee, Kim Murphy-Kovalick. (Full disclosure: Walt Sorg was one of the founders of Voters Not Politicians in 2017, but no longer affiliated with the group other than as a financial donor.) Clay Jones/claytoonz.com This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================  

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 As Donald Trump’s poll numbers continue to sink to new record lows, his anger grows. He’s been lashing out at media reports that his Iran War didn’t end Iran’s nuclear program, signs of opposition to his Big Bad Budget Bill among Republicans in Congress … and possibly having his golfing schedule interrupted by his war in the Middle East. Michigan political news on our radar this week: Democrats across Michigan and the nation are trying to figure out the implications of New York City’s mayoral election. In Michigan, the victory of Zohran Mamdani comes as especially welcome news to U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. The prosecuting attorney in Michigan’s 2nd largest county wants to be Attorney General Republican candidates for both the U.S. Senate and Governor are trying to figure out how to finesse the highly unpopular idea of Medicaid cuts with their support of Republican federal budget proposals. Kristi Noem says Trump has solved the southern border problem … and now it’s time to focus on the northern border. Does that mean a fence down the middle of Lake St. Clair, Lake Huron and Lake Superior (with Canada paying for it)? And we can now officially say “goodbye” to “Big Balls.” 19-year-old Edward Coristine, one of the first teenage Ninjas hired as part of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is no longer working for the federal government according to multiple media reports. Matt Davies:Washington Post This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management ======================================================  

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press The Trump administration’s latest anti-democracy tactic is arresting the opposition. Trump’s masked brownshirts have now moved from arresting immigrants who haven’t committed crimes to arresting elected officials and threatening their staffs with arrest for the crime of disagreeing with Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. Adding to the terror: threats and acts of violence aimed at politicians and government workers, with the horrific murder of a Minnesota legislator and her husband the most terrifying attack of all. We are joined by a senior leader in the Michigan Legislature who has served the public for 30 years: Senate Majority Floor Leader Sam Singh. And we can’t overlook the pathetic, under-attended and over-priced birthday parade that was so boring even the birthday boy himself fell asleep as the soldiers marched by…while five-million or so pissed off Americans took to the streets for peaceful protests over the full panorama of Trumpism. Also on Michigan’s political radar this week: The campaign finance scandal growing out of opposition to Governor Whitmer’s COVID policies brings its first criminal conviction There’s another Republican in the race for Governor, the second announced candidate who has already lost a statewide election Two more Democrats have announced they are running for Congress in Michigan swing districts, including the recently resigned U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. State Democrats are dialing up the attacks on the proposed Trump budget, with a focus on healthcare and Michigan jobs. Michigan’s junior U.S. Senator is making more national headlines. This time it was Elissa Slotkin verbally castrating Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a cross-examination that has gone viral. If you missed it, we’ll have a link to the exchange on our website. We begin with the first guilty plea in what’s likely to be a growing campaign spending scandal: the funding of the Unlock Michigan campaign which threatens former state Senate GOP leader Mike Shirkey. The original complaints about the financing of Unlock Michigan were filed by longtime GOP activist Bob Labrant and with the assistance of Mark and Jeff: Jeff as a witness, and Mark as attorney for the trio. Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin cross-examines Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on whether he’s authorized troops to fire on unarmed civilians at protests. MarkFiore.com This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management =========================== ===========================  

This week’s show is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Donald Trump made his first visit to the now Woke-Free Kennedy Center this week for a performance of his favorite musical, Les Miserables. He apparently failed to see the irony in how the musical’s plot mirrors the week in Los Angeles: the people rising up to protest a militaristic autocracy intent on smashing their rights and who ultimately overturn the ruthless militaristic autocracy. The French resistance barricades the streets and light fires. And, as we record this week’s show, a member of the United States Senator is assaulted and handcuffed by Kristi Noem’s security detail – sparking outrage on the left, and lies on the right. There’s also a lot of Michigan political news on our radar this week: Governor Whitmer has joined with other Democratic governors in opposing Trump’s politicizing of the National Guard and threats to launch military invasions of more cities. Another Michigan Democrat has entered the conversations about 2028 presidential nomination. Senator Elissa Slotkin has entered the conversation after mapping out a center-left strategy for taking on Trump. State house Republicans have passed education budgets that jack up state support for private schools and totally gut the budgets of the state’s public universities, with MSU and UM having nearly all their state support wiped out. And a shout-out to the NY Times for the best headline of the week in the reporting on The Resistance, adapted from Shakespeare: First we employ all the lawyers! Amen to that! We’re joined by Bridge Michigan political and state government reporter Jordyn Hermani for a deep dive into the politics of Michigan’s budget and the multiple 2026 races that have national importance. She is an Emmy-nominated journalist whose byline has been featured in several publications including POLITICO, The Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star and now Bridge Michigan. Her coverage of Michigan politics throughout the years has seen me featured on a host of networks such as CNN, CBS News, Fox News, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and NPR. Jordyn also has been featured in the Columbia Journalism Review and Washington Post.  Outside of politics, she is an avid trail hiker and estate sale enthusiast. Her passions include cats, horror movies, hockey and her husband… but she quickly adds “not necessarily in that order!” AnnTelnaes.substack.com This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management =========================== ===========================  

Our apologies for the audio distortion on this week’s episode. We’ll enlist some newly out-of-work DOGE techies to fix it for next week 😂 This week’s show is sponsored by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 The bromance appears to have ended between the world’s wealthiest man and the world’s most brazen. What does the growing rift between The Ketamine Kid and TACO Don mean for the next few months? Senator Joni Ernst has a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease with her revelation that we’re all going to die … allowing Democrats to note it will happen faster under GOP policies. And “Big Balls” is back in the news. The 19-year-old Doge Wunderkind is now a top-level executive with the General Services Administration which gives him access to all sorts of data on every American compiled. And he’s drawing one of the top salaries in the federal government – more than $106,000 a year. There’s also a lot of Michigan political news on our radar this week. MDP Chair Curtis Hertel There’s a new campaign finance scandal growing with revelations of a huge dark money slush fund. The state Republican Party is moving out of its downtown Lansing headquarters, saying it has far more office than is needed for its current staff. The jokes write themselves. Some Republicans are trying to impeach Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson State Democrats continue to hone in on the impact of federal Medicaid cutbacks in the run-up to 2026. We are joined by Democratic State Party chair Curtis Hertel. Michigan looks to be the focal point for 2026, critical to control of Congress … and with expensive, competitive races to replace term-limited Gretchen Whitmer, Jocelyn Benton and Dana Nessel. RJ Matson, CQ Roll Call This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management =========================== ===========================

This week’s show is sponsored by: EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News Fulton Fish Market 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Dave Whamond:cagle.com “Big Balls” and all his Doge teenage mutants are on their way out as head Doge Elon Musk slinks to the exits, unhappy with Trump’s pretty much ignoring efforts to cut the federal deficit as the mostly dysfunctional Re¡publican Congress decides if it needs to inflict even more damage on the nation. We’ve got the usual lineup of Trump outrages through the week: handing out pardons like Oprah hands out cars, sending his sons and Vice President to suck up to the crypto kings at their convention, and whining as a three-judge panel tells him he doesn’t have the right to impose his tariffs. We’ve got new polling that points to a Benson-James showdown for Governor, and one of two women going head-to-head with Mike Rogers. But it’s still 15 months until the primary. Donald Trump says he’s open to giving pardons to the ragtag militia members who were planning to kidnap and murder Governor Whitmer. Why not? In the last few days he’s pardoned a half-dozen or more conflict felons, all of whom happen to be MAGA zealots Whitmer keynotes the annual Detroit Chamber policy conference on Mackinac Island talking unity, and drawing appreciative chuckles with references to her budding bromance with Trump. New national polling hints that her working cooperatively with Trump is paying benefits. Attorney General Nessel issues her own scorecard in the ongoing filing of lawsuits against Trump’s most outrageous and illegal actions. Spoiler alert: Nessel and the coalition of Democratic state attorneys general are winning most of the cases MSU could be facing a new financial challenge as Marco Rubio starts a purge of Chinese nationals attending American universities. Another victim could well be the landlords of the most pricey rental units in East Lansing We’re joined in the podcast by author, legal commentator and UM law professor Leah Litman. Her book  LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes has just been published. Litman teaches and writes on constitutional law, federal courts, and federal post-conviction review. Her research examines unidentified and implicit values that are used to structure the legal system, the federal courts, and the legal profession. In 2023, the American Law Institute named Litman a recipient of its Early Career Scholars Medal, which is awarded every other year to “two outstanding early-career law professors whose work is relevant to public policy and has the potential to influence improvements in the law.” Also in 2023, the American Constitution Society recognized Litman with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Scholar Award. Leah is is one of the co-hosts and co-creators of Strict Scrutiny, a Crooked Media podcast about the US Supreme Court, which received the 2023 Podcast Academy award (Ambie) for Best Politics or Opinion podcast and a 2023 Anthem Award for its coverage of the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade.  Following her clerkships, she worked at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, one of the DC law firms targeted by Donald Trump for retribution – something struck down earlier this week by a federal court. The firm said in its lawsuit that Trump was punishing the firm for cases it had taken, noting among other things that it had filed a suit this year challenging Trump’s dismissal of inspectors general and previously represented some of his political opponents. Clay Bennett, Counterpoint Media This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management =========================== ===========================

This week’s show is sponsored by: EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News Fulton Fish Market 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Mike Luckovich – Atlanta Journal Constitution Donald Trump had one of the best weeks of his 4-month presidency this week, with his “Big Beautiful Budget Bill” sneaking through as his personal music of the night. The “let’s protect the rich folks, screw everyone else” budget passed the U.S. House after an all-night session; His new ride, the $400-million gold-leaf jet, is officially in the hands of the Air Force needing about $1-billion in upgrades; He wrapped up his crypto-coin-scam to the tune of a few hundred million dollars more with his Meme-coin dinner. This past week may go down in history as the most corrupt week in the history of American government, far surpassing the exploits of even Richard Nixon or Warren Harding. There’s also a lot of Michigan political news on our radar this week: The DeVos family has invested the first five-million dollars in its continuing family campaign to take over Michigan politically… Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum launches her campaign for Secretary of State, something she’s wanted to do for years; A new name has emerged as a challenger for Tom Barrett’s seat in Congress. He’s Matt Maasdam, a retired Navy SEAL and former military aide to President Barack Obama (the guy who carried the nuclear codes); other names are being floated as possibilities. Among them: former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and Michigan native Bridget Brink, who resigned her position to protest Trump’s treatment of President Zelensky. Mark will have his thoughts on the passing of former Michigan Chief Justice Michael Cavanagh, a little known but towering figure in the annals of Michigan state government and our justice system. Also this week: Jeff and producer Walt Sorg and  talk politics, healthcare … and Trump corruption… with U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed The race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination has four heavyweights poised to battle over the next year. Among them: former Wayne County health director and Bernie Sanders favorite Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. He ran for Governor in 2018, coming out of nowhere to score 30 percent of the vote to Gretchen Whitmer’s 52 percent. Recognized nationwide as an expert on improving the American healthcare system, he authored Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide, which explains how to build a healthcare system that guarantees high-quality, affordable healthcare for every American. In 2020, he was selected to serve on President Biden’s Unity Task Force for Healthcare, helping craft policies that are lowering prescription drug prices today. Dr. El-Sayed is a native of southeast Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan with the highest distinction and played on the Wolverines men’s lacrosse team. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University on an NIH-funded fellowship and a second doctorate at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Lalo Alcaraz/Andrews McMeel Syndication This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting • Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research • Community – Media Relations • Issue – Image Management • Database Development & List Management =========================== ===========================