Michigan Freedom Fund
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ntbcw foundation
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mojo
Earlier this week, hundreds of demonstrators blocked the streets of Lansing, Michigan, and defied an executive order from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to shelter in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
The protest, known as “Operation Gridlock,” featured a fair share of MAGA hats, Trump flags, at least one Confederate flag, chants of “Lock her up!” in reference to Whitmer, and far-right groups from the Proud Boys to the Michigan Liberty Militia. They clogged up the streets outside the state Capitol and defied Whitmer’s ban on public gatherings.
The whole charade was facilitated by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a conservative political group that doubles as a front for Michigan Trump Republicans, and promoted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, a conservative group with ties to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a Michigan billionaire philanthropist power broker before she joined the Trump administration. The Detroit Free Press reported that the fund was listed as one of the protest’s hosts on Facebook. The organization also promoted the event on Facebook.
The rift between Whitmer and the groups over the protest emerged on Monday when Whitmer criticized the Michigan Freedom Fund, saying the nonprofit “is funded in large part by the DeVos family,” and adding that “it’s really inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States president’s Cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor, but obviously, on me here at home.” Greg McNeilly, chairman and founder of Michigan Freedom Fund and a longtime adviser to the DeVos family, tweeted that Whitmer was “misinformed and disconnected with reality.”
In a Wednesday op-ed for the Detroit News, McNeilly followed Trump’s lead in calling for easing restrictions on social distancing and demanded that Whitmer unveil her plan for re-opening the state. Michigan, mind you, is wrestling with more than 30,000 confirmed cases and 2,227 deaths from the coronavirus, with Detroit at the epicenter.
As Mother Jones reported in 2014, McNeilly served as a longtime political adviser to Dick and Betsy DeVos and a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party. He managed a campaign against a ballot measure that would’ve enshrined collective bargaining rights in Michigan’s constitution. Here’s how that played out (the DeVos mentioned below is Dick Devos, scion of the Amway fortune and husband of Betsy):
That summer, a group of GOP lawmakers and business leaders—McNeilly won’t say who—asked DeVos and Weiser (who served as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee in 2012) to lead the charge to defeat Proposition 2. They gladly took on the job—DeVos called Prop. 2 “a head-shot at Michigan’s recovery”—but they had bigger things in mind: With McNeilly, who managed the anti-Prop. 2 campaign, DeVos and Weiser sketched out a strategy to defeat the measure, then use the political momentum to pass right-to-work immediately afterward. They also strategized about every other possible obstacle: defending the law from a possible legal challenge, beating a constitutional amendment to repeal it, and protecting Republican lawmakers from recall elections.
They began the anti-Prop. 2 effort in September. Polls showed that 60 percent of voters supported the measure, but DeVos and Weiser tapped their national donor networks, hauling in millions from Las Vegas gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson, Texas investor Harold Simmons, and a slew of Michigan business groups. Ten DeVos family members pitched in with a combined $2 million. The DeVos-backed campaign ran hundreds of ads in the two months before the vote, claiming the measure would give unions far too much power, cost the state more than $1.6 billion, and imperil student safety by making it impossible to fire negligent teachers.
By Election Day, the two sides had spent a total of $47 million, making it the most expensive ballot measure in Michigan history. Voters defeated Prop. 2 by a 15-point margin. DeVos and Weiser wasted no time moving to the next phase of their plan.
In a series of odd tweets, President Donald Trump called for the liberation of states controlled by Democratic governors in what my colleague Inae Oh described as the “latest signal that social distancing has fully warped into a culture war, one that depicts Democrats as oppressors willing to sabotage the economy and perhaps, in turn, the president’s reelection chances.”
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mark fucking meckler(note ~ lockdown was CNP 3 prong strategy)
wapo no lnx
Politics
The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping.
Protests with honking horns, anti-shutdown signs and angry Americans continued in Maryland, Texas and Wisconsin on April 18. (The Washington Post)]
By Isaac Stanley-Becker
and Tony Romm
April 22, 2020
The ads on Facebook sounded populist and passionate: “The people are rising up against these insane shutdowns,” they said. “We’re fighting back to demand that our elected officials reopen America.”
But the posts, funded by an initiative called Convention of States, were not the product of a grass-roots uprising alone. Instead, they represented one salvo in a wide-ranging and well-
financed conservative campaign to undermine restrictions that medical experts say are necessary to contain the coronavirus — but that protesters call overkill and whose economic fallout could damage President Trump’s political prospects.
A network of right-leaning individuals and groups, aided by nimble online outfits, has helped incubate the fervor erupting in state capitals across the country. The activism is often organic and the frustration deeply felt, but it is also being amplified, and in some cases coordinated, by longtime conservative activists, whose robust operations were initially set up with help from Republican megadonors.
Protesters assemble near the Texas State Capitol during a recent demonstration April 18 in Austin.
The Convention of States project launched in 2015 with a high-dollar donation from the family foundation of Robert Mercer, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican patron. It boasts past support from two members of the Trump administration — Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development.
It also trumpets a prior endorsement from Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Floridaand a close Trump ally who is pursuing an aggressive plan to reopen his state’s economy. A spokesman for Carson declined to comment. Cuccinelli and DeSantis did not respond to requests for comment.
The initiative, aimed at curtailing federal power, is now leveraging its sweeping national network and digital arsenal to help stitch together scattered demonstrations across the country, making opposition to stay-at-home orders appear more widespread than is suggested by polling.
“We’re providing a digital platform for people to plan and communicate about what they’re doing,” said Eric O’Keefe, board president of Citizens for Self-Governance, the parent organization of the Convention of States project.
A longtime associate of the conservative activist Koch family, O’Keefe helped manage David Koch’s 1980 bid for the White House when he served as the No. 2 on the Libertarian ticket.
“To shut down our rural counties because of what’s going on in New York City, or in some sense Milwaukee, is draconian,” saidO’Keefe, who lives in Wisconsin.
Polls suggest most Americans support local directives encouraging them to stay at home as covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, ravages the country, killing more than 44,000 people in the United States so far. Public health officials, including epidemiologists advising Trump’s White House, agree that sweeping restrictions represent the most effective mitigation strategy in the absence of a vaccine, which could be more than a year away.
White House aides, outside groups launch effort to reopen economy
Still, some activists insist that states should lift controls on commercial activity and public assembly, citing the effects of mass closures on businesses. They have been encouraged at times by Trump, whose attorney general, William P. Barr, said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the Justice Department would consider supporting lawsuits against restrictions that go “too far.”
Further afield, the protests have been encouraged by some of the president’s allies outside the White House, including Stephen Moore,once considered for a top post at the Federal Reserve.
The swelling frustration on the right coincides with major policy changes in some states, especially those with Republican governors. Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee have begun relaxing their restrictions in recent days after bowing to pressure and imposing far-reaching guidelines.
The protests are reminiscent in some ways of the tea party movement and the demonstrations against the Affordable Care Act that erupted in 2010, which also involved a mix of homegrown activism and shrewd behind-the-scenes funding.
For the Convention of States, public health is an unusual focus.It was founded to push for a convention that would add a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. That same anti-government impulse is now animating the group’s campaign against coronavirus precautions.
“Heavy-handed government orders that interfere with our most basic liberties will do more harm than good,” read its Facebook ads, which had been viewed as many as 36,000 times as of Tuesday evening.
Asking for a $5 donation “to support our fight,” the paid posts are part of an online blitz called “Open the States,” which also includes newly created websites, a data-collecting petition and an ominous video about the economic effects of the lockdown.
The group’s president, Mark Meckler, said his aim was to act as a “clearinghouse where these guys can all find each other” — a role he learned as co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. FreedomWorks, a libertarian advocacy group also active in the tea party movement, is seeking to play a similar function, creating an online calendar of protests.
“The major need back in 2009 was no different than it is today — some easy centralizing point to list events, to allow people to communicate with each other,” he said.
Meckler, who draws a salary of about $250,000 from the Convention of States parent group, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service, hailed the “spontaneous citizen groups self-organizing on the Internet and protesting what they perceive to be government overreach.”
So far, the protests against stay-at-home orders in states including Washington and Pennsylvania have captured headlines and drawn rebukes from some governors and epidemiologists. Experts say a sudden, widespread reopening of the country is likely to worsen the outbreak, overwhelming hospitals and killing tens of thousands.
The protesters so far have not aimed their ire at Trump, though it is his administration’s experts whose guidelines underlie many of the states’ actions.
Trump’s public comments — including his recent tweets calling for supporters to “liberate” states including Michigan, a coronavirus hot spot — have catalyzed some of the broader public reaction. Following those tweets, tens of thousands of people joined Facebook groups calling for protests in states including Pennsylvania and Ohio, where the efforts are coordinated by a trio of brothers who typically focus their efforts on fighting gun control.
Pro-gun activists using Facebook groups to push anti-quarantine protests
In recent days, conservatives have set their sights on Wisconsin, where a few dozen protesters turned out at the Capitol to air their frustrations with Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, after he extended his state’s stay-at-home order until late May. Ahead of the demonstration, Moore, the Trump ally, revealed on a live stream that he was “working with a group” in the state with the goal of trying “to shut down the capital.”
Moore, who served as a Trump campaign adviser in 2016, said he had located a big donor to aid in the effort, though he never elaborated. “I told him about this, and he said, ‘Steve, I promise to pay the bail and legal fees for anyone who gets arrested,’?” Moore said in the video. He likened his quest to the civil rights movement, adding, “We need to be the Rosa Parks here and protest against these government injustices.”
Moore, who has also worked at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, did not respond to a request for comment.
In Michigan, among those organizing “Operation Gridlock” was Meshawn Maddock, who sits on the Trump campaign’s advisory board and is a prominent figure in the “Women for Trump”coalition. Funds to promote the demonstrations on Facebook came from the Michigan Freedom Fund, which is headed by Greg McNeilly, a longtime adviser to the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
McNeilly said the money used to advance the anti-quarantine protests came from “grass-roots fundraising efforts” and had “nothing to do with any DeVos work.”
Many of the seemingly scattered, spontaneous outbursts of citizen activism reflect deeply interwoven networks of conservative and libertarian nonprofit organizations. One of the most vocal groups opposing the lockdown in Texas is an Austin-based conservative think tank called the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which also hails the demonstrations nationwide.
“Some Americans are angry,” its director wrote in an op-ed promoted on Facebook and placed in the local media, telling readers in Texas about the achievements of protesters in Michigan.
The board vice chairman of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, oil executive Tim Dunn, is also a founding board member of the group promoting the Convention of States initiative. And the foundation’s former president, Brooke Rollins,now works as an assistant to Trump in the Office of American Innovation.
Neither Dunn nor Rollins responded to requests for comment.
The John Hancock Committee for the States — the name used in IRS filings by the group behind the Convention of States — gave more than $100,000 to the Texas Public Policy Foundation in 2011.
The Convention of States project, meanwhile, has received backing from DonorsTrust, a tax-exempt financial conduit for right-wing causes that does not disclose its contributors. The same fund has helped bankroll the Idaho Freedom Foundation,which is encouraging protests of a stay-at-home order imposed by the state’s Republican governor, Brad Little.
“Disobey Idaho,” say its Facebook ads, which use an image of the “Join or Die” snake woodcut emblematic of the Revolutionary War and later adopted by the tea party movement.
In 2014, the year before it launched theConvention of States initiative, Citizens for Self-Governance received $500,000 from the Mercer Family Foundation,a donation Meckler said helped jump-start the campaign. Mercer declined to comment.
While groups and individual activists associated with the Koch brothers have boosted this far-flung network, Emily Seidel, the chief executive of the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity advocacy group, sought to distance the organization from the protest activity, which she said was “not the best way” to “get people back to work.”
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grid
Longtime DeVos Family operative, Greg McNeilly, is defending the Enbridge Corporation’s Line 5
May 20, 2021
tags: DeVos Political operative Greg McNeilly, Enbridge Line 5, Greg McNeilly, radical environmentalists
Last Friday, Greg McNeilly, Chairman of the Michigan Freedom Fund, posted a comment on the organization’s blog, entitled, Party Like It’s 1979.
The blog post was making a cheeky remark about the Colonial Pipeline shut down and that Michigan might also be experiencing a rise in gas prices, especially if Gov. Whitmer “gets her way.”
McNeilly goes on to write:
*This week the Governor bowed to the radical environmentalists in her political base, and ordered Enbridge energy to shutter their Line 5 pipeline. It’s a move that would take 540,000 barrels per day of light crude oil, light synthetic crude oil and natural gas liquids out of the state and away from the region.
It’s unfortunate that McNeilly, and other commentators, use the term radical in a negative way. A more honest understanding of the term radical, means to get to the root of something. However, McNeilly uses the term radical to suggest someone who is an extremist.
Not only does McNeilly misuse the term radical, his suggestion that Gov. Whitmer is bowing to radical environmentalists is simply ridiculous. Whitmer campaigned against Line 5 during her 2018 run for the office, plus virtually every mainstream environmental group in the state endorses the shutdown of Line 5. More importantly, indigenous communities throughout the Great Lakes area, which have been at the forefront of the campaign against Line 5, are not extremists. In fact, for Greg McNeilly to refer to Indigenous people as radical environmentalists is not only dead wrong, it is highly problematic. Does McNeilly, the Republican operative, really want to marginalize indigenous people in the Great Lakes area? If so, he is marginalizing the very people who have lived in harmony within the Great Lakes for thousands of years.
Such tasteless rhetoric from Greg McNeilly is not unusual for him. McNeilly is not only the Chairman of the Michigan Freedom Fund, he is the Chief Operating Officer for The Windquest Group, which is owned by Dick and Betsy DeVos.
In 2006, McNeilly served as campaign manager for Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos.
McNeilly was also Executive Director of Choices for Children, a Michigan-based group that was working to undermine public education. In addition, McNeilly currently serves on the Board of Directors of the DeVos-created Great Lakes Education Project, which also seeks to undermine public education and replace it with privatized education.
McNeilly is also on the Board of Directors of the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority, which is a non-elected entity that uses public tax dollars to promote downtown GR and fund development projects for the business community.
Again, saying that Gov. Whitmer is bowing to radical environmentalists on the potential Enbridge Line 5 shutdown is nothing more than political theater. If there is anyone that should be considered extremists on this issue, it’s McNeilly, for his longtime work as a DeVos-family operative, and the Enbridge Corporation, which constantly puts the Great Lakes ecosystem at risk with their pipelines.
//
Shocking News: DeVos controlled Grand Rapids DDA approves DeVos/Van Andel development planOctober 11, 2024In "Indy News"
Managing Michigan Politics: Greg McNeilly, the DeVos Family and the November ElectionsOctober 14, 2018In "Indy News"
Deconstructing the argument against Critical Race Theory from a DeVos operative and President of the Michigan Freedom Fund, Greg McNeillyAugust 25, 2021In "Dissecting the Local News"
vid
On Thursday, the FBI announced that six men were facing federal charges in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and possibly kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that seven of their allies were facing weapons charges at the state level.
And in a new local sheriff who had appeared at a rally with some of the suspects made an awkward effort to defend them, implying that perhaps they were merely trying to "arrest" Whitmer rather than kidnap her.
According to the FBI, far-right extremists (including members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a militia group) planned to kidnap Whitmer and take her to Wisconsin, where they would conduct a "trial" for treason. The militia members were furious with Whitmer for the social distancing restrictions that she ordered in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And if they found Whitmer guilty of treason, the FBI said, she would be executed.
But when Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf was interviewed by Fox 17 (a Fox affiliate in Grand Rapids, Michigan), he implied that what the extremists had in mind was not a terrorist plot, but merely a citizens' arrest.
Two of the men facing charges are brothers Michael and William Null, who have been accused of providing support for terrorist acts. Fox 17 aired video that showed Leaf standing alongside William Null at a demonstration in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where both of them protested against Whitmer's stay-at-home order. Leaf was a guest speaker at that event.
Leaf, discussing the Null brothers, told Fox 17, "We can't convict them in the news media here. They do have a right to a fair trial."
Leaf was asked if he had any "regrets" about standing alongside a man who is "now being charged in a plot to kidnap the governor."
He responded, "Well, it's just a charge. And they say a plot to kidnap, and you gotta remember: are they trying to kidnap — because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested. So, are they trying to arrest, or was it a kidnapping attempt? Because in Michigan, if it's a felony, you can make a felony arrest."
Leaf added, "It doesn't say, if you're elected to office, that you're exempt from that arrest. I have to look at it from that angle, and I'm hoping that's more what it is. In fact, these guys are innocent until proven guilty. So, I'm not even sure if they had any part in it."
Leaf's comments are drawing a lot of responses on social media. Twitter user George Schwab, @CpkGeo, posted, "That sheriff needs to go NOW!," and another Twitter user, Eric Brown, @EricBrown1911, wrote, "Words cannot describe the lengths at which people go through to justify ignorance and stupidity."
Detroit-based attorney William Maze, @TheDUILawyer, tweeted, "Insane. But Sheriff Dar Leaf is a member of the far right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) and has links on his page to 'Posse,' which can only refer to the right wing hate group Posse Comitatus."
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Michigan governor slams Betsy DeVos for her ties to a far-right anti-lockdown protest group
Americans still support social distancing measures — 83% of Democrats, 72% of independents and 62% of Republicans, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll released this week.
Although the majority of Americans still support social distancing measures — 83% of Democrats, 72% of independents and 62% of Republicans, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll released this week — a minority of far-right extremists have been holding rallies, protests and rallies in opposition to shutdowns and stay-at-home orders. And in Lansing, Michigan, where one of those protests was held, some of the “organizational assistance” — according to Daily Beast reporter Scott Bixby — came from a “dark money group with close ties with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.”
Reckless and dangerous behavior, Bixby reports, was not hard to find at the Michigan protest — for example, protestors “snarling local ambulances in traffic and handing out candy to children with ungloved hands.” And Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is calling for DeVos (who is the sister of Blackwater mercenary Erik Prince) to condemn that type of recklessness.
At a press briefing, Whitmer told reporters, “This group is funded in large part by the DeVos family. And I think it’s really inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States president’s cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor.”
Like many other Democratic governors — including New York’s Andrew Cuomo, California’s Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf and New Jersey’s Phil Murphy — Whitmer hasn’t been shy about promoting aggressive social distancing in her state. Whitmer’s position is clear: social distancing is necessary to slow down the spread of COVID-19. But she has encountered some angry opposition from far-right extremists. And an anti-Whitmer protest in Lansing, Michigan (the state capital) was called Operation: Gridlock because, as Bixby reports, it was designed to cause an “intentional traffic jam” — which, of course, is the last thing that ambulances need during a pandemic.
==
notto dk money?
It could be months or even years before we know the true coronavirus toll.
Irwin Redlener
Sean Hansen
Published Apr. 20 2020 4:41AM EDT
As the number of coronavirus deaths across the U.S. passed 40,000, there were emerging signs of hope: hospitalization rates were decreasing, daily death tolls were beginning to flatten, and transmission rates were seeming to slow.
But as mayors and governors, with the president’s blusterous urging, begin easing restrictions and other emergency public health measures—sending Floridians back to packed beaches this weekend, for instance—we still need a better understanding of the true number of COVID-19 deaths. Not just because having a transparent and accurate death count is critical (it is), but because it can illuminate unknown hot spots and provide critical insight into the real scope of this pandemic—and how to avoid new disaster amid the urge to resume normal life.
It’s not exactly breaking news that the United States has underreported COVID-19 deaths, especially early on in the pandemic. First, the delayed response to the virus, and the botched rollout of testing kits, means that many deaths occurring in late January, February, and even March may have been misidentified as pneumonia or influenza. Particularly in rural areas, where testing capacity is limited or unavailable, it’s possible that coronavirus cases—and deaths—are still misrepresented as more common diseases.
“Thousands of probable cases are not accurately reflected in ongoing virus mapping efforts.”
Less obvious, but just as important, is that as hospitals are stretched to cope with the onset of COVID-19, the quality of care received by all patients is diminished, raising the prospect of a significant secondary body count. Patients with chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, or kidney disease, are at much greater risk if routine medical assessments are not possible. Although it is probably correct to discourage people from visiting their health-care providers unless absolutely necessary at the height of a pandemic, the long-term consequences of diminished preventive health care and routine check-ups could contribute to unexpectedly high rates of mortality.
A Great Depression’s Worth of Pink Slips in Just Four Weeks
‘ECONOMIC WOUNDS’
Tom Shachtman, Harry Siegel
Meanwhile, despite moves to ease statewide lockdowns, widespread testing remains unavailable to the majority of Americans. In other words, thousands of probable cases are not accurately reflected in ongoing virus mapping efforts. One way to assess this gap is to compare daily local death to rates at a city or state level to average daily death rates before COVID-19 appeared. A recent report found that over 200 New York City residents were dying each day at home—an increase from 20 or 25 before the coronavirus appeared. Officials there reversed their policy of not counting “probable” COVID-19 deaths, and after the reporting switch, the number of deaths soared by over 3,700.
Inconsistent reporting mechanisms are a nationwide problem, including in some of the states facing pressure to end their lockdowns early. In Michigan, which has had the highest fatality rate in the U.S., deaths are only counted if they are reported by health care providers, medical examiners, and recorded by local health departments on a county level as COVID-19. In Georgia, cases—and deaths—are only recorded by the state health department if the person has tested positive for the virus. That means that the state’s 687 deaths (as of Sunday afternoon) are likely not accounting for additional deaths that weren’t officially confirmed as coronavirus cases. In Florida, which has among the lowest reported death rates for COVID-19, it’s also likely that officials aren’t counting probable coronavirus deaths. The state’s spike in pneumonia and influenza deaths last month seems to suggest deaths are similarly being vastly underreported.
While the CDC recently issued new guidance for how to certify COVID-19 deaths, such advice is likely being observed differently. The new guidelines state that deaths are only to be counted as coronavirus-related if the patient tested positive or “if the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty”—a subjective metric that relies on officials to “use their best clinical judgement.”
When will we know when the COVID-19 death count accurately reflects reality? It could be months or even years. In the immediate wake of Hurricane Maria, President Trump praised the U.S. response and the (relatively) low death count of just 64 people. Yet revised estimates later showed that the actual death count attributed to the natural hazard and its secondary effects was nearly 3,000 people.
The implications of such underreporting are massive. The president has consistently misrepresented the threat posed by virus, and deflected criticism depicting his administration’s response as anything less than perfect. Talk of flattened curves is already being used to justify an early end to emergency policies designed to limit the spread of the deadly disease. It would be only the latest in a pattern of shirking responsibility for the crisis. Just last week, President Trump announced a freeze in funding to the World Health Organization, claiming that the global coordinative body misrepresented the threat posed by COVID-19 and was too trusting of China, which revised its own suspiciously low death count upward in recent days.
But you don’t need a Communist regime to deflate terrifying death totals from an historic pandemic. Overburdened health officials—and an administration desperate to put a health crisis partially of its own making behind it—can do that, too.
With so much data and statistical modeling updated daily, it’s hard to keep predictions and reality clear. But one thing is certain: months into this crisis, much remains that we don’t yet know about just how deadly the virus is. The scale of the death toll is still coming into focus, and any governor easing restrictions or inviting people to resume their normal lives should have to answer a simple question.
How confident are they in their state’s tally of lives lost?
IrwinRedlenerMD
ir2110@cumc.columbia.edu
Sean Hansen
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https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/conservative-group-linked-to-devos-family-organizes-protest-of-coronavirus-restrictions-in-michigan}:
no lnx
Conservative group linked to DeVos family organizes protest of coronavirus restrictions in Michigan
Written by Igor Derysh / Salon April 16, 2020
Protesters rallied around the country this week against stay-at-home orders forcing nonessential businesses to shut down, but Michigan’s governor warned that they may have backfired by creating “a need to lengthen” the lockdowns.
Protesters in at least six states planned to protest restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the new coronavirus this week. In Michigan, a conservative group linked to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ family organized “Operation Gridlock” to protest restrictions on nonessential businesses and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent order barring travel between homes. The state is among the hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, reporting more than 27,000 confirmed cases and 1,909 deaths.
A convoy of motorists protested Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic directive, calling on state leaders to allow small businesses to reopen.
Dubbed “Operation Gridlock,” the demonstration jammed the streets around the capitol. https://t.co/5qef4M6K1e pic.twitter.com/zbpvG4OWns
— ABC News (@ABC) April 15, 2020
Some protesters, several of whom wore pro-Trump gear, gathered on the capitol steps as many remained in their cars. Demonstrators chanted “recall Whitmer” and “lock her up,” a chant normally usually used by Trump supporters in reference to his 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Chants of “recall Whitmer,” “USA” and “lock her up” outside Michigan Capitol. #OperationGridlock pic.twitter.com/7Q7niiNFUF
— Malachi Barrett (@PolarBarrett) April 15, 2020
Whitmer, who has feuded with President Donald Trump over the delayed federal response to the crisis, argued that “it wasn’t really about the stay-at-home order at all.”
“It was essentially a political rally — a political statement that flies in the face of all of the science and all of the best practices from the stay-at-home order that was issued,” the Democrat told MSNBC on Wednesday.
Whitmer said the cars “were blocking one of our hospitals, so an ambulance literally wasn’t able to get into the bay for ten minutes.”
“We know that this demonstration is going to come at a cost to people’s health,” she said. “The sad irony of the protest is that they don’t like to be in this stay-at-home order, but they might have just created a need to lengthen it.”
Other states saw smaller protests against the coronavirus restrictions.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, had his news briefing interrupted Wednesday by dozens of protesters. The small group chanted, blew horns and shouted into a megaphone to drown out the governor’s comments. The protesters chanted “we want to work” and “facts over fear.”
Protesters who oppose Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision to close businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus have gathered en masse outside the room where he is doing his daily #COVID19 press conference, crying out “We want to work!” and now “Facts over fear!” pic.twitter.com/49812u8G4R
— Morgan Watkins (@morganwatkins26) April 15, 2020
Scientists and business executives alike have repeatedly argued that the economy cannot simply reopen if the risk of infection remains high.
“We do have some folks up in here in Kentucky today – and everybody should be able to express their opinion – that believe we should reopen Kentucky immediately, right now,” Beshear said at the briefing. “Folks, that would kill people. That would absolutely kill people.”
Dozens of protesters also gathered outside ofOhio Gov. Mike DeWine’s Monday news briefing to call for an end to the state’s stay-at-home order. DeWine, a Republican, has also received criticism from his own party for issuing a stay-at-home order, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
This photo, from an Ohio protest demanding opening the economy, is everything (taken by Joshua A. Bickel for The Columbus Dispatch) pic.twitter.com/WlSHauMvjM
— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) April 15, 2020
DeWine told MSNBC that he would not reopen the economy until medical experts deem it safe to do so.
“Whenever we open up, however we do it, if people aren’t confident, if they don’t think they’re safe, they’re not going to go to restaurants,” he said. “They’re not going to go to bars. They’re not going to really get back into society.”
Dozens of individuals also gathered in Utah to protest the business closures, carrying signs like “Resist like it’s 1776” and “America will never be a socialist country,” according to KSL-TV.
Walk for Freedom on Wednesday-Southern #Utah doesn’t let a pandemic get in the way of a protest #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/JbpA8jCkt9
— Scott Schwebke (@TheChalkOutline) April 16, 2020
The state’s stay-at-home order was set to expire this week, but Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, extended it through May 1.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that in order for us to slow the spread and to get back on our feet socially and economically, this is not the time” to reopen, he said earlier this week.
At least one protester was arrested in North Carolina after about 100 protesters gathered in Raleigh to protest the state’s stay-at-home order. The Raleigh Police Department warned that “protesting is not listed as an essential function.”
Holly Springs woman arrested during protest to Reopen NC https://t.co/dcbFAiDyv5 pic.twitter.com/3SV0t6Xanx
— CBS 17 (@WNCN) April 14, 2020
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said Monday that reopening the economy prematurely would be disastrous.
“Some people want to completely obliterate these restrictions,” he said. “It would be a catastrophe. The numbers are very clear that the interventions that we’ve entered into — social gatherings, limitations on bars and restaurants, the stay at home order — those kinds of things are working.”
Protesters are also set to demonstrate against the restrictions Thursday in Virginia.
“Government mandating sick people to stay home is called quarantine. However, the government mandating healthy citizens to stay home, forcing businesses and churches to close is called tyranny,” the group ReOpen Virginia said in a statement, claiming that “thousands of concerned citizens” would gather at the state capitol.
Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, extended the business closures Wednesday through May 8.
“As we have seen from our data and models, social distancing is working, and we are slowing the spread of this virus,” he said. “But it is too early to let up. By extending this order to keep certain businesses closed or restricted, we can continue to evaluate the situation and plan for how to eventually ease restrictions so that our businesses may operate without endangering public health.”
Former Obama aide Tommy Vietor argued that the protests’ ties to conservative groups like the DeVos-linked Michigan Freedom Fund show that the demonstrations are just “astroturf” efforts “paid for by billionaires.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel slammed the protesters for defying guidelines intended to protect the public.
“Using your right to peaceably protest in such a manner as to spread a virus which may endanger your life, the lives of your friends, family and neighbors, and the lives of countless food service, law enforcement and healthcare workers does not make you a patriot,” she said. “A ‘patriot’ is defined as a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against its enemies. The enemy here is the virus-not each other.”
===
Greg McNeilly is a Republican political strategist in the United States, and the President of the Michigan Freedom Fund.[1]
McNeilly was a regular host of WWJ (AM) talk-radio's Eye on Michigan Politics.[2]
In 2012, McNeilly led the efforts of the Michigan ballot committee Protecting Michigan Taxpayers which successfully defeated the union initiated proposal 57-42%.[3]
In 2010, McNeilly was the General Consultant for the Michigan Republican Party to then Chairman Ronald Weiser.
McNeilly was one of AOL-Time Warner's Political Machine bloggers[4] during the 2008 Presidential campaign. Political Machine has since become Politics Daily.
In 2006, McNeilly served as campaign manager for Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos. While unsuccessful at the ballot box, National Journal cited the DeVos campaign as the best run Republican challenger campaign of 2006. That cycle, no Republican challenger won election from the state house level to U.S. Senate; and only in Wisconsin did a Republican win an open seat for Attorney General.
In 2005, he served as Recruiting & Strategy Director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee under the leadership of then U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC).
During the reelection campaign of President George W. Bush (R), McNeilly served as Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party, then under the chairmanship of Betsy DeVos.
In 2002, McNeilly served as communications consultant to Don Carcieri’s winning gubernatorial campaign against Myrth York in Rhode Island.
In 2000, he served as Communications Director for the Michigan statewide ballot proposal “Kid’s First Yes!” which sought to take money from public schools, to fund children in private schools. In 2001, he was the Executive Director of Choices for Children a Michigan-based education reform advocacy group supporting greater taxpayer accountability in state-run k12 schools. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Great Lakes Education Project.[5]
McNeilly, according to the St. Johns Reminder,[6] got involved in politics early in life at age 8; volunteering for State Representative candidate, a neighbor, Alan Cropsey.
McNeilly graduated from Michigan State University with a B.S. in Social Studies, Politics and Economics. During his undergraduate tenure he won placement in an essay contest for doctoral students in the Mont Pelerin Society’s Fredrick Hayek Essay Contest.[7]
Career
McNeilly managed his first campaign, an unsuccessful congressional effort by West Point graduate and retired U.S. Army Colonel, John Pappageorge in 1992. Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI) won by 7%.
In 1994, in a re-match the same outcome was experienced. This race saw Pappageorge outnumbered by a 3-to-1 ratio and in the end Pappageorge narrowed the loss to a 2.5% swing of the vote. The 1994[8] race earned national attention when then Congressman Newt Gingrich called the core of volunteers that helped the campaign “the Pappageorge Army…the best application of grassroots volunteers in America.”
Beating out three others, McNeilly was elected to the state GOP's post of Youth Vice Chairman from 1993 to 1994. He was first employed at the central Republican Party's office in 1988, while still in high school, by then Chairman E. Spencer Abraham.
Later, in 1997, he returned to serve as the Communication's Director for the Michigan Republican Party and then in 1998–2000 as its Political Director. In 1998, Michigan Republicans had the most successful political year capturing all statewide offices, except Attorney General, including the state Supreme Court.
In 2003, he returned to the Michigan Republican Party to serve as Executive Director under Chairman Betsy DeVos. The duo inherited an organization $1.2 million in debt, the debt was overcome and the party was a key player in the 2004 electoral map.
In 2009, McNeilly served as a consultant to Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser.
McNeilly, a product of both public and private schools, has been a key player in Michigan education reform battles. In 2000, he was Communication's Director for the Kids First Yes! ballot proposal that would have legalized k12 school vouchers and merit pay for teachers. In 2001, he was the Executive Director of a start-up school reform advocacy organization, Choices for Children. Since 2007, he has been a member of the board of directors of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) under its Chairman E. James Barrett.[9]
In late 2009, McNeilly announced he would be serving as Vice President of Administration for the Windquest Group, a company led by Betsy and Dick DeVos. In 2012, McNeilly became the Windquest Group's Chief Operating Officer.
Controversy
During the 2004 election cycle, McNeilly admitted to leading the charge to put independent Presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot. McNeilly defended the move by claiming it was simply a matter of providing choice to the voters. Local Democrats filed legal action against him but ultimately failed and he was cleared of any wrongdoing.[10]
Later in the same election, McNeilly accused filmmaker Michael Moore of breaking Michigan election law by bribing college students to vote.[11] Moore was offering noodles and clean underwear during Democrat get-out-the-vote drives.
The state capitol's insider publication MIRS,[12] wrote in a 2006 piece about McNeilly, he has “few undecideds. You know whether you like him or not.”
In a failed attempt to repeal the state's campaign contributions, McNeilly sued the State of Michigan (McNeilly v Land) but was rebuffed by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.[13]
Issues
In addition to being one of the top architects of Michigan's Right-to-work law,[14] McNeilly has been an advocate of repealing the states mandatory prevailing wage.[15] McNeilly has also gone on record favoring elimination of the compulsory State Bar of Michigan dues requirement for lawyers,[16] government teacher certification requirements,[17] for greater choice in electric utility options.,[18] in support of gun-rights,[19] and for greater transparency in Michigan's state government.[20]
Personal
On 22 March 2014, he married Douglas Meeks, a Lansing attorney.[21]
References
ggl 6 25
[### Greg McNeilly
_Wikipedia_
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Greg_McNeilly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_McNeilly)
Greg McNeilly is a Republican political strategist in the United States, and the President of the Michigan Freedom Fund. McNeilly was a regular host of WWJ ...
[### Greg McNeilly
Grand Rapids Chamber
https://grandrapids.org › speakers › greg-mcneilly](https://grandrapids.org/speakers/greg-mcneilly/)
As the CEO and President of Windquest Group, Greg McNeilly energetically serves each company within its portfolio.
[### Longtime DeVos Family operative, Greg McNeilly, is ...
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy
https://griid.org › 2021/05/20 › longtime-devos-family-...](https://griid.org/2021/05/20/longtime-devos-family-operative-greg-mcneilly-is-defending-the-enbridge-corporations-line-5/)
May 20, 2021 — Last Friday, Greg McNeilly, Chairman of the Michigan Freedom Fund, posted a comment on the organization's blog, entitled, Party Like It's ...
[### Greg McNeilly - Windquest Group
LinkedIn · Greg McNeilly
3.2K+ followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregmcneilly)
Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States · Windquest Group
Experience: Windquest Group · Education: Michigan State University · Location: Grand Rapids · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Greg McNeilly's profile on ...
Missing: devos | Show results with: devos
[### Report: DeVos ally Greg McNeilly says billionaire family is ...
Michigan Advance
https://michiganadvance.com › Briefs](https://michiganadvance.com/briefs/report-devos-ally-greg-mcneilly-says-billionaire-family-is-done-with-amash/)
May 22, 2019 — Justin Amash (R-Cascade Twp.), thank you very much. McNeilly, who has had various roles in DeVos campaigns and organizations, said Amash's ...
[### Greg McNeilly, CEO and President of the Windquest Group ...
Facebook · WOOD Radio
8 reactions · 3 weeks ago](https://www.facebook.com/woodradio/videos/greg-mcneilly-ceo-and-president-of-the-windquest-group-joins-us-to-discuss-the-w/710204481374609/)
[
3:52](https://www.facebook.com/woodradio/videos/greg-mcneilly-ceo-and-president-of-the-windquest-group-joins-us-to-discuss-the-w/710204481374609/)
Greg McNeilly, CEO and President of the Windquest Group joins us to discuss the West Michigan CEO Summit coming up on Tuesday June 10.
[### Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids
https://www.facebook.com › groups › posts](https://www.facebook.com/groups/490129837666392/posts/9894566680555947/)
The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has recently announced that longtime DeVos political operative Greg McNeilly will be the Chair of the 2025 CEO Summit ...
[### Prominent gay Republican said DeVos stood up for him
The Detroit News
https://www.detroitnews.com › michigan › 2016/12/03](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/12/03/prominent-gay-republican-said-devos-stood/94866284/)
Dec 3, 2016 — Greg McNeilly, political advisor to Betsy DeVos and a prominent gay Republican, spoke Friday of the incoming education secretary saying she stood up for him.
[### Deconstructing the argument against Critical Race Theory ...
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy
https://griid.org › 2021/08/25 › deconstructing-the-arg...](https://griid.org/2021/08/25/deconstructing-the-argument-against-critical-race-theory-from-a-devos-operative-and-president-of-the-michigan-freedom-fund-greg-mcneilly/)
Aug 25, 2021 — Last week, Chairman of the Michigan Freedom Fund and DeVos-operative Greg McNeilly, wrote an opinion piece for the Detroit News, entitled, ...
[### A DeVos-Linked Group Promoted the Right-Wing “ ...
Mother Jones
https://www.motherjones.com › 2020/04 › a-devos-link...](https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/04/a-devos-linked-group-promoted-the-right-wing-operation-gridlock-tantrum-in-michigan/)
Apr 17, 2020 — The founder of the Michigan Freedom Fund is a longtime adviser to the DeVos family.