4/20/26
DEMOCRATS CHOOSE STATE CANDIDATES
Michigan Democrats chose nominees for several state positions at the party convention in Detroit yesterday.
For Attorney General, Eli Savit gets the nod. He is currently the Washtenaw County Prosecutor.
For Secretary of State, it’s current Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II. Gilchrist had been a candidate for governor, but withdrew to run for Secretary of State instead.
For Supreme Court, Democrats chose incumbent Justice Noah Hood and incumbent Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh.
For State Board of Education, the nominees are Tiffany Tilley and Judith Pritchett.
For MSU Board of Trustees, it’s Brianna Scott and Kelly Tebay Zemke. For U of M Board of Regents, Amir Makled and Paul Brown were nominated. Incumbent U of M Regent Jordan Acker was not selected. Wayne State University Board of Governors nominations went to Richard Mack and Shereef Akeel.
4/17/26
GOVERNOR WHITMER DECLARES ANOTHER STATE OF EMERGENCY
Just one month after placing 7 Northern Michigan counties under a State of Emergency for a devastating ice storm, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has placed the rest of Northern Michigan under a State of Emergency due to widespread flooding.
The Cheboygan Dam and the Bellaire Dam are at record levels, just inches from the top. Downstream residents have been warned to evacuate at a moments notice. Buck’s Pond in Alcona County is no more, after the privately owned Buck’s Pond Dam burst on Monday.
At least 14 bridges across Northern Michigan have failed or are closed.
4/15/26
DOJ FILES TO VACATE TERRORIST CONVICTIONS
The US Department of Justice has filed with the DC Court of Appeals to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, infamous far right terrorist groups that helped to foment the insurrection of January 6 in coordination with President Donald Trump.
These criminals received sentences ranging from 8 to 22 years for their attempt to violently overturn the 2020 election of President Joe Biden. Trump did not pardon these people, he commuted their sentences, which put their cases into legal limbo. It’s now obvious why - since they never had to admit guilt (a requirement for a pardon), the DOJ is now simply moving to dismiss them.
The exception is Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy. For some reason, Trump pardoned him, which means he DID have to admit guilt. Pretty hard to put THAT toothpaste back in the tube.
These criminals were all convicted in jury trials, and are now being defended by a DOJ that has trouble even getting grand jury indictments.
4/13/26
TRUMP COMMENTS ON POPE LEO
Ordinarily, we link to a reputable news source for our stories. This one is from Truth Social, but we’re going to link to it anyway, right here. But this time, we’re going to post the entire text, because we have a feeling this may not be around long.
This is what our president posted about Pope Leo, the first American Pope and leader of over a billion Catholics.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. He talks about “fear” of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart. I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History. Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican. Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama Sympathizers like David Axelrod, a LOSER from the Left, who is one of those who wanted churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
4/12/26
US ECONOMY WEAKENS
There are troubling signs that the Iran War is doing major damage to the US economy already, only 6 weeks into the war.
The price of gasoline rose 21.2 % in March, a record increase for a single month.
The oil shock caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent inflation up by .9% in March, the highest one month jump in 4 years. Inflation now stands at 3.3%, the highest it has ever been in the Trump presidency.
The closely watched University of Michigan consumer sentiment index reached it’s all time low in March, from data reaching all the way back to 1952.
This could be just the beginning. Inflation is likely to keep rising for several months, even if the war is brought to a conclusion soon. If the war is not ended soon, the outlook is bleak.
4/9/26
“SOUNDS GOOD TO ME”
According to reporting by the New York Times, that is what President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after a presentation the Israeli government made in the White House Situation Room on February 11. The presentation was designed to convince the American president to join Israel in a sneak attack on Iran, and it, apparently, worked.
A subsequent meeting, between only Trump and his cabinet on February 12, struck a different tone. Cabinet officials broke the Israeli presentation into 4 parts:
Killing Iran’s top government officials (illegal under international law)
Destroying Iran’s ability to project power
Fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, and
Regime change
Administration officials deemed points 1 & 2 achievable, but were not so keen on 3 & 4.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said regime change as an objective was “farcical”. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was even more direct, calling it “bull****”.
Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine did his job, giving the President his unbiased assessment of the consequences of what was being contemplated, without advocating for or against it. Among the things he told Trump, on that and subsequent days, was that the Israelis were overselling their position, and that war with Iran would drastically deplete American stockpiles of weapons. He also told the President the enormous difficulty in securing the Strait of Hormuz, and the risks of Iran blocking it.
The strongest voice against US involvement was none other than Vice President JD Vance, who agreed with other cabinet members about the dangers, and also told Trump that war with Iran could unleash regional chaos and mass casualties. Vance was the only one to tell Trump directly that it was a “terrible idea”.
The only cabinet member to advocate strongly for the Israeli proposal was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
But President Trump didn’t listen to the naysayers, and here we are.
Where we are is this: At least 13 Americans have been killed, with hundreds more wounded. All American bases in the region have sustained damage, and some have been rendered inoperable. The war, so far, has cost at least 40 billion dollars, with some estimates doubling or tripling that number. America is running low on Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense interceptors. Thousands of people have been killed in Iran and Lebanon, with hundreds more among US allies in the Middle East. Iran’s military has been degraded, but is certainly not destroyed, particularly their offensive missile and drone capabilities. Iran’s government remains in place and all indications are that it is more extreme than ever. The Strait of Hormuz, open prior to the conflict, is now under effective Iranian control, along with 20% of the world’s petroleum. A tenuous “ceasefire” is in place, already violated numerous times by Israel and Iran.
So much winning.
4/5/26
THE PRICE OF WAR
According to economic experts, if the Iran war continues for just 6 months, the forecast is world wide recession.
The International Energy Agency in Paris calls the war the largest energy shock in history. Bloomberg Economics says the price of oil could rise to $170 per barrel in just 3 months.
Asia is already being hit hard by shortages, as a great deal of their trade goes through the Strait of Hormuz. Because the travel time to the US is much greater, America will be among the last to feel the effects, but they will be felt. It’s not only petroleum that passes through the Strait, but also a large part of the word’s fertilizer and helium.
In happier news from the war, both crew members of an F-15 jet that was shot down over Iran have been rescued by the US military. During the rescue operation, an A-10 Warthog was also shot down, and it’s pilot rescued. Several Black Hawk helicopters were damaged by small arms fire.
4/2/26
TRUMP SIGNS EO TO NATIONALIZE ELECTIONS
Having failed utterly to intimidate his own party into enacting his voter suppression legislation (the SAVE Act), President Donald Trump on Tuesday took matters into his own corrupt hands and issued an Executive Order that does many of the same things. If followed, the order would:
Severely restrict absentee and mail in voting.
Require the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of citizens who are eligible to vote.
Charge the US Postal Service with checking the “eligible voter list”, and delivering mail in ballots only to those who are both on the list and “approved” for mail in voting.
Withhold federal funds from states and localities that do not comply.
Several things should be noted, before we move on to reactions. The primary one is that the President has absolutely no constitutional role in elections, and that’s exactly as the founders intended. The Federalist Papers are replete with warnings of the dire consequences should a president like Trump ever gain control of US elections. Then there is the matter of DHS involvement, when the agency has no experience in the administration of elections, as well as holding a public image that is currently tarnished, at best. Combine that with only 7 months to go to the mid terms, and the recipe is one of chaos and disaster.
And it’s that “chaos and disaster” thing that is the real point. Like no other President before him, Donald Trump has sought to undermine American faith in our elections. Except the ones he wins.
Reaction to this blatantly unconstitutional order has been swift. Democratic Party leadership filed suit to stop it on Wednesday. Michigan Secretary of State (and gubernatorial candidate) Jocelyn Benson said "This executive order is illegal on its face. States run elections, not the president. As Secretary of State, I will protect the votes and voices of Michiganders. The law is on our side, and I will take swift action to fight this illegal order in court."
3/1/26
HOW MAGA PLANS TO STEAL NOVEMBER
A little reported but very consequential summit meeting occurred on February 19 in Washington DC. Participants were 30 of the most prominent 2020 election deniers, including Michael Flynn, Cleta Mitchell, and Kari Lake. Also in attendance were several current Trump administration officials whose responsibilities concern voting.
What consensus did they reach? That President Trump should declare a national emergency and take over voting nation wide with an executive order. They seek to ban voting by mail, as well as election tabulators.
Nevermind that there is no language in the Constitution that would allow a president any say in the voting process. Nevermind that there is no national emergency (although rumor has it that they’ve manufactured one by claiming China interfered in the 2020 election). They think that declaring an emergency will magically confer on Trump powers that he does not possess.
From the article, which originally appeared in Pro Publica: “The meeting shows that the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have only grown better organized and are now embedded in the machinery of government,” said Brendan Fischer, a director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization. “This creates substantial risk that the administration is laying the groundwork to improperly reshape elections ahead of the midterms or even go against the will of the voters.”
2/17/26
U.P. lawmakers rescind support for Bergman following LaFave endorsement
LANSING — On Tuesday, state Sen. Ed McBroom and Upper Peninsula state representatives Greg Markkanen and Karl Bohnak rescinded their endorsement of U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman after he released an endorsement of Beau LaFave in the 38th Senate district race and he and his staff began personally attacking the current Upper Peninsula team of state lawmakers.
In a press release from McBroom’s office, the 38th Senate seat is currently held McBroom but he’s term-limited and cannot seek re-election. McBroom was last elected in 2022 with 63 percent of the vote. All five of the lawmakers involved are Republicans.
In the press release, McBroom and the others did not mix words as far as Bergman’s endorsement of LaFave was concerned.
“Jack promised me he would not be endorsing in this race. I wish I could say I’m surprised that he lied to me or that this is out of character for my time working with Jack, but it’s not,” McBroom said in a news release. “I’ve seen him be disloyal to local party members, interfere in races outside his district, stab fellow Republicans in the back and even publicly attack me. Those were internal party matters. This time is different. This time, he straight up lied to me. Now he’s siding against the clear, best option for the U.P. I will not stand by silently while he undermines the work we have done for the U.P.
“Even more disturbing is that Beau just hired Jack’s chief-of-staff’s consulting services. Jack has a clear history of automatically endorsing Tony’s clients, helping his own employee’s personal business,” said McBroom.” Regardless, I will not be voting for Jack again. He said he wanted our endorsements last summer but it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t want them now.”
2/7/26
IS THE PRESIDENT A RACIST?
A recent post by President Trump to his Truth Social page is getting a lot of pushback.
Late Thursday night, as he often does, Trump posted an election conspiracy video to his Truth Social platform. The video was a little over a minute long and, near the end of it, Barack and Michelle Obama can be clearly seen depicted as apes.
The condemnation was loud and swift. Which, of course, caused the White House to double down, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling it “fake outrage”.
And then Tim Scott (R, S. Carolina), one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and the only black Republican in the Senate said this: “praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Scott also called for the removal of the post.
That seemed to do the trick and, after 12 hours, the post was taken down.
Trump is now blaming an aide for the post, despite his past assertion that only he and Dan Scavino have access to his Truth Social account. Despite calls from many quarters to apologize, Trump is refusing to do so, saying “I didn’t make a mistake”.
2/3/26
TRUMP WANTS ELECTIONS “NATIONALIZED”
President Donald Trump, in a Monday interview on the podcast of his former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, said Republicans should “take over” voting in 15 places.
"The Republicans should say, 'We want to take over,'" Trump said. "We should take over the voting ... in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked and they're counting votes."
The US Constitution is clear in it’s mandate that individual states run voting, subject to certain rules approved by Congress.
The President’s comments come just days after the FBI confiscated 2020 voting data from Fulton County, Georgia, the scene of one of Trump’s most blatant efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
1/25/26
THE EXECUTION OF ALEX PRETTI
Alex Pretti was a 37 year old ICU nurse who worked at the Veterans Hospital in Minneapolis. By all accounts, he was a nice guy who loved the outdoors. He had no contacts with law enforcement, other than a few traffic tickets. He also was licensed to carry concealed firearms.
Yesterday morning he was gunned down on the streets of Minneapolis by federal agents identified as Customs and Border Patrol.
CPB Chief Greg Bovino said Alex was armed and aggressively resisting arrest. He also claimed that Alex was planning a mass murder of federal agents. He said his agents “fired defensively”.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called Alex a domestic terrorist.
President Trump just blamed the governor of Minnesota and mayor of Minneapolis.
But we have video. Lots of it. And it shows something completely different than our government is telling us.
The video shows Alex taking video of an ICE operation, and he’s not the only one. At one point, a federal agent near Alex pepper sprays a woman and shoves her to the ground. Alex goes to assist the woman, and is himself sprayed. He is then tackled by several agents, eventually totaling 6, who beat him viciously. At no point does Alex make any effort to reach for his legal pistol, which is in a holster on his right hip. An agent sees the pistol, snatches it, and yells “gun”.
What happens after that is a massacre.
Agents pump no less than 10 rounds into the now unarmed Alex Pretti, who never reached for his weapon. The first shots are clearly from behind him. No attention was paid to him for at least 15 minutes, and then it was for agents to rifle his pockets.
This is so bad that a judge has actually ordered the Trump administration not to destroy or alter evidence relevant to the case.
1/9/26
BLAMING THE VICTIM
By now, you know her name was Renee Good, and that she was a 37 year old single mom in Minneapolis. She was also a citizen, meaning the ICE agents who murdered her had absolutely no jurisdiction to detain her or order her out of her vehicle. But that’s what they attempted to do, before firing the 3 shots that killed her.
There is a lot of back and forth over this. There is also a LOT of video, which seems to indicate clearly that the ICE agent murdered her in cold blood.
What does our leadership say about this?
President Trump said the ICE agent was “viciously run over”. The videos make pretty clear that is untrue.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem labeled Good a “domestic terrorist”, and said the ICE was justified in killing her. She is also behind the curious idea that Minnesota law enforcement agencies have “no jurisdiction” in their own state.
Veep JD Vance called it an “attack on federal law enforcement” and said that Good had been “radicalized” by leftists. He also called the shooting justified and said, basically, that Good’s death was her own fault - a “tragedy of her own making”. Vance also claimed that the ICE agent had “absolute immunity”, a concept familiar only to totalitarian states.
Meanwhile, after initially cooperating with Minnesota law enforcement, the DOJ abruptly reversed course and is no longer doing so. Astute readers may come to the conclusion that it’s because of the opinions already expressed by the “leadership”. Minnesota can, indeed, prosecute the shooter, but they would need a thorough investigation, almost impossible with the DOJ’s obstruction.
Meanwhile, protests that started in Minneapolis are rapidly expanding to cities across the country.
9/18/25
DOJ REMOVES STUDY ON FAR RIGHT VIOLENCE
The US Department of Justice has quietly removed from it’s web site a study that concludes the far right is responsible for the lion’s share of domestic terrorism.
The study found that, since 1990, the far right has committed 87% of the murders ascribed to an ideological motive. The study was conducted by the National Institute of Justice.
8/19/25
RIGGING THE 2026 ELECTION
President Donald Trump vowed Monday to end all mail in voting and get rid of voting machines.
Mail in voting is used by 1/3 of all Americans and vote tabulators are in use in nearly every voting precinct.
The US constitution gives no authority to the president to regulate voting. Those functions are left to individual states.
To justify his dictatorial comments, Trump claimed states “are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes” and must do what the federal government “as represented by the President of the United States” tells them to do.
8/8/25
TRUMPSTEIN - THE MONSTER THAT WILL NOT DIE
Like the antagonist in Mary Shelley’s classic novel, the Epstein Affair created by MAGA seems destined to pursue Republicans and Donald Trump to the ends of the earth. As of July 29, a whopping 79% of Americans want all of the Epstein files released.
It would be difficult, these days, to find a topic on which more Americans agree. The reason is simple - Epstein was the worst child sex trafficker of this era. His services, however, were not cheap. Many very wealthy people paid him to have sex with children, a crime as great as those of Epstein himself. Everyone wants to know who those people were.
Epstein’s assistant in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted and is serving a 20 year sentence. She was recently interviewed by the Deputy Attorney General himself, an unprecedented event despite the President’s assertion that it was “not unusual and totally above board”. Maxwell must have told the Deputy AG what he wanted to hear, because she was transferred to a minimum security facility days later, in another highly unusual move. Trump, meanwhile, denied any knowledge of Maxwell’s transfer, a laughable claim for a control freak who has made the DOJ his private law firm.
Every attempt at deflection, and they are coming in bunches every day, only adds fuel to the fire. It’s so bad that a strategy meeting was scheduled at VP Vance’s house to discuss how to make Epstein go away. This meeting was cancelled when the press got wind of it, and Vance denied it was happening, but not really - it was moved to the White House itself.
It’s not going away. Perhaps it’s because of all those photos of Trump and Epstein, or perhaps it’s because of all the nice things Trump said about him.
8/1/25
RCSO SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH ICE
On June 5, 2025, the Roscommon County Sheriffs Office became only the 5th law enforcement agency in Michigan to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The RCSO entered this agreement under the “Task Force Model”.
Among the things detailed in this agreement is the idea that citizens can be questioned and detained for the mere suspicion that they are “illegal aliens”. It also makes clear that, except for training and some IT services, Roscommon County is on the hook for ANY expenses associated with this agreement.
As of this article, there are now 6 Michigan LEAs (out of hundreds) that have signed these agreements with ICE.
Roscommon County’s economy is based on tourism. We have no agriculture to speak of. We have not, in the past, had a large “Illegal alien” problem. What is the point of this agreement? We have been provided with no evidence that the benefits outweigh the cost.