10/28/2021

10/28/2021 Podcast from the Charlottesville trial (Day 4), by Jonathan M. Katz, The Racket

As I launch The Racket I’m experimenting with different kinds of posts. Here are some of my raw thoughts, fresh from a wild day of opening arguments in Sines v. Kessler, the federal lawsuit against the organizers of the 2017 Nazi rampage. This kind of post will soon be for paid subscribers only. Which could be you, if it isn’t already!

10/27/2021 Some 'very fine people' walk into a courthouse, by Jonathan M. Katz, The Racket

Dispatch from the big federal lawsuit in Charlottesville, Sines v. Kessler.

One difference between the two alleged conspiracies is evidence. The plaintiffs have a great deal of it, much of it drawn from a trove of leaked Discord chats published by the media collective Unicorn Riot. Those logs show how the defendants planned for two days of intensive violence, as participants in their Discord forums swapped tips on which weapons to carry and how to pre-arrange their excuses of “self-defense.” Defendant Andrew Anglin’s Daily Stormer website promised: “Next stop: Charlottesville. Final stop: Auschwitz.”

10/25/2021 Roseville church vandalized with spray-painted swastikas, and what appears to be initials, by Frank Witsil, The Detroit Free Press

The symbolism of the swastikas is hard to ignore. They are associated with Nazism, white supremacy and antisemitism. The vandal, or vandals, also left the initials JDS, which Roseville Police Deputy Chief Mitch Berlin said, "no one knows what that means."

9/30/2021 Fringe conspiracy theory has now become mainstream, by Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

Far right White supremacist groups, conservative media personalities and some Republicans in Congress are trying to inflame nativist feelings among conservative Whites by warning that liberals want immigrants to "replace" native-born Americans. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty reports elements of replacement theory appear to have motivated some of the most heinous recent mass murders.

4/23/2021 The racist 'replacement theory' has it all backward, Analysis by Ronald Brownstein, CNN

Racist "replacement theory" inverts the real consequence of immigration for its target audience of Whites uneasy about social and racial change: Many of the Whites most drawn to the far-right argument that new arrivals are displacing "real Americans" are among those with the most to lose if the nation reduces, much less eliminates, immigration in the decades ahead.

With or without immigration, the White share of the population will decline in the coming decades, census projections show. But if immigration is reduced or eliminated, America will grow older, with many fewer working-age adults available to support an exploding number of retirees. And that would not only slow overall economic growth, multiple projections have found, but also would increase pressure for cuts in the Social Security and Medicare benefits that provide a lifeline to the older Whites most drawn to the right's anti-immigrant arguments.

"The projections show we are going to be dealing with lower population growth and an aging population, and the only way we are going to be able to keep our labor force growing and vital is through immigration," says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. "It's a matter of math. I never understood why people who are anti-immigration can't understand the math of the whole thing, because it's quite simple."

Already, in nearly half the states, the number of working-age adults -- defined as those aged 18 to 64 -- declined from 2010 through 2019, according to a recent analysis by Frey. Without immigration, that squeeze will only tighten in the years ahead, forcing Washington to either cut benefits for retirees or to raise the payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare to an unprecedented level on the shrinking number of workers.

If the nation severely restricts immigration, the fiscal impact would be to "double the load on working-age people of all these seniors," warns Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California's Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Today, Whites make up about 60% of the population. At the immigration levels America experienced during the first half of the past decade -- a little over 1 million new entrants per year -- that would decline by 2060 to 44%. With immigration levels reduced to about half that, roughly as the Trump administration and most congressional Republicans proposed in 2018 legislation that ultimately failed, the number still shrinks to 46%. Even if the US shut off all immigration in the coming decades, Whites would still decline to just over 51% of the population, the census projections concluded. (At an accelerated level of immigration, the White share fell to 42%.)

11/23/2018 U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith Attended All-White ‘Segregation Academy’ to Avoid Integration, by Ashton Pittman, Jackson [Mississippi] Free Press

Although the U.S. Supreme Court ordered public schools to desegregate in 1954 and again in 1955 to do so with “all deliberate speed,” Mississippi slow-walked the integration of its schools as long as possible, trying a variety of “school choice” schemes, state legislation and court cases to stop full integration, including arguing that white kids should not go to school with so-called "genetically inferior" black students.

9/8/2021 Former district attorney arrested after indictment in connection with Ahmaud Arbery murder investigation, by Martin Savidge and Angela Barajas, CNN

7/9/2021 White man sentenced in attack on Black teen at Michigan park, Associated Press

4/17/2021 Left-Behind Suburbs Are a Civil-Rights Battleground, by Will Stancil, The Atlantic

In some respects, segregation is even more harmful in the suburbs than in major cities, which typically have a larger industrial and commercial tax base that allows them to weather crises and sustain public services. On average, predominantly nonwhite suburbs have the lowest per capita tax base of any community type in a major metropolitan area—about 25 percent less than major cities, and about 40 percent less than predominantly white suburbs. In many segregated suburbs, the quality of public services erodes over time, forcing the communities to raise revenue through fees and traffic tickets.

U.S. Census Bureau data indicate that Brooklyn Center is typical of a rapidly segregating Minnesota community. In 1990, the city was 90 percent white; its poverty rate was low, at 5 percent. Three decades later, the city is 38 percent white and its poverty rate has tripled, to 15 percent. It is now the poorest major suburb in the Twin Cities region, and it has a higher percentage of residents of color than any other major municipality in the area. Ferguson underwent nearly identical changes in the years before a police officer shot Michael Brown to death in 2014; the city transitioned from 85 percent white in 1980 to 29 percent white in 2010. Over the same period, its poverty rate almost quadrupled.

Social-science researchers describe this process as resegregation: Communities that start out as almost exclusively white go through a brief and unstable period of racial integration, and before long, an overwhelming majority of residents are people of color.

Black Americans especially are migrating to the suburbs in record numbers. Just since 2000, the urban Black population in major metropolitan areas has fallen by about 5 percent, while the suburban Black population has grown by more than 40 percent.

In wealthy new suburbs and exurbs, where McMansions line endless cul-de-sacs, housing that working-class families of color can afford is scarce. Inner-ring suburbs typically have an older housing stock, including small postwar houses, more rental units, and affordable high-density housing. Families migrating from the central cities of a metro area tend to cluster in these more affordable communities; so do immigrants.

Other, more nefarious forces also funnel nonwhite families toward the inner suburbs—such as the practice of discriminatory racial “steering,” wherein real-estate agents are more likely to show families of color homes in already-diverse neighborhoods.

1/19/2021 Lawsuit Alleges Racial Discrimination Against Livingston County Real Estate Agents, Jessica Matthews & Jon King, WHMI

"The complaint states that upon information and belief, currently there are no African American home owners on Zukey Lake and there never has been.

The complaint states that the agents set forth various conditions and provided false information to dissuade them from making an offer because of their race.

4/17.2021 The Trumpy Republican Who Won in Biden Country, by Olga Khazan, The Atlantic

The less flattering origin story is this: Around 2002, Van Duyne and other homeowners in her subdivision organized to block a big new commercial development from coming to the area. Hackberry Creek is a “master-planned gated community” full of 3,000-square-foot houses with Jacuzzi tubs and plantation shutters, all set among “hillside vistas and winding creeks.” The residents were worried about trash and food odors drifting over from the proposed restaurants and stores, according to Herbert Gears, who was a city-council member at the time and favored the plan. Riled up by the dispute over the development with Gears, Van Duyne ran for city council in 2004 and won his seat.

Van Duyne opposed building apartments in Irving because, as she wrote in a 2008 Dallas Morning News op-ed, “in addition to the greater susceptibility to crime and increased traffic created by the high density of people in an apartment complex, many Irving residents are averse to apartments because of their long-term effects on the community … Will the apartments beautify the area or lower its aesthetic value?”

4/8/2021 Opinion: Republicans are learning that there’s more to capitalism than tax cuts, by Catherine Rampbell, The Washington Post

For a long time, the Republican Party had what it believed was a tacit deal with corporate America. Companies donated enormous sums to GOP campaigns and aligned groups, and in exchange, Republicans delivered tax cuts: on corporate profits, capital gains, estates. Whatever other agenda items Republicans pursued — on immigration, civil rights or anything else — corporate America would generally keep its mouth shut. So long as the tax cuts kept flowing, the only “speech” that corporations engaged in came from their wallets, which in turn were fattened by those tax cuts.

An un-virtuous cycle, if you will.

Last week, the Georgia House of Representatives voted to revoke a break on fuel taxes that benefits Atlanta-based Delta Airlines, which had criticized the state’s recent voting law. House Speaker David Ralston (R) explained: “You don’t feed a dog that bites your hand. You gotta keep that in mind sometimes.” Apparently — shockingly! — this tax break had not been based on some abstract notion of public welfare or good governance or economy-boosting policy but, rather, a perceived quid pro quo.

Textbook Fascism.

4/8/2021 Republicans’ list of enemies keeps growing, by Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post

The disgraced former president maintained an enormous list of people and institutions he insulted while in office. The Republican Party’s list of enemies seems to have expanded well beyond even that.

Republicans these days don’t like the National Football League, the National Basketball Association or Major League Baseball. They do not like corporations such as Coca-Cola and Delta that, however belatedly, support voting rights (though they are fine taking their money). They don’t like historians, climate scientists or statisticians. They do not like Anthony S. Fauci and other public health officials.

They do not like atheists or churches that practice the social gospel and advocate for civil rights. They do not like critics of the Confederacy. They do not like police reformers.

They don’t like judges — even ones they appointed. They do not like book publishers, social media platforms, the mainstream media or Hollywood. They also think universities and tech companies are bad.

4/6/2021 Fears of White People Losing Out Permeate Capitol Rioters’ Towns, Study Finds, by Alan Feuer, The New York Times

When the political scientist Robert Pape began studying the issues that motivated the 380 or so people arrested in connection with the attack against the Capitol on Jan. 6, he expected to find that the rioters were driven to violence by the lingering effects of the 2008 Great Recession.

But instead he found something very different: Most of the people who took part in the assault came from places, his polling and demographic data showed, that were awash in fears that the rights of minorities and immigrants were crowding out the rights of white people in American politics and culture.

Mr. Pape’s initial conclusions — published on Tuesday in The Washington Post — suggest that the Capitol attack has historical echoes reaching back to before the Civil War, he said in an interview over the weekend. In the shorter term, he added, the study would appear to connect Jan. 6 not only to the once-fringe right-wing theory called the Great Replacement, which holds that minorities and immigrants are seeking to take over the country, but also to events like the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 where crowds of white men marched with torches chanting, “Jews will not replace us!”

4/6/2021 Opinion: What an analysis of 377 Americans arrested or charged in the Capitol insurrection tells us, by Robert A. Pape, The Washington Post

The Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by a violent mob at the behest of former president Donald Trump was an act of political violence intended to alter the outcome of a legitimate democratic election. That much was always evident.

What we know 90 days later is that the insurrection was the result of a large, diffuse and new kind of protest movement congealing in the United States.

The Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST), working with court records, has analyzed the demographics and home county characteristics of the 377 Americans, from 250 counties in 44 states, arrested or charged in the Capitol attack.

Those involved are, by and large, older and more professional than right-wing protesters we have surveyed in the past. They typically have no ties to existing right-wing groups. But like earlier protesters, they are 95 percent White and 85 percent male, and many live near and among Biden supporters in blue and purple counties.

When compared with almost 2,900 other counties in the United States, our analysis of the 250 counties where those charged or arrested live reveals that the counties that had the greatest decline in White population had an 18 percent chance of sending an insurrectionist to D.C., while the counties that saw the least decline in the White population had only a 3 percent chance. This finding holds even when controlling for population size, distance to D.C., unemployment rate and urban/rural location. It also would occur by chance less than once in 1,000 times.

3/16/2021 ???

3/16/2021 Tom Cotton slams Chamber of Commerce as "a front service for woke corporations", by ALEX GANGITANO, The Hill

1/14/2021 Four years ago, I set out in an RV to understand Trump’s appeal. Here’s what I found, Opinion by Donna F. Edwards, The Washington Post

8/31/2021 Five Republican Candidates Linked to Racist, Far-Right Conspiracy Facebook Group, Later Removed Themselves From Page, by Ramsey Touchberry, Newsweek

The five candidates were Daniel Crenshaw, a House candidate from Texas; Danny Tarkanian, a House candidate from Nevada; Corey Stewart, a Senate candidate from Virginia; Matt Rosendale, a Senate candidate from Montana; and Patrick Morrisey, a Senate candidate from West Virginia.

Crenshaw, who was a group administrator as of Friday morning, has shared two of his campaign videos to the group, on July 29 and August 13. Other group administrators have shared his campaign website. In a statement to Newsweek, Crenshaw claimed he has "never actively managed or interacted with that page," despite posting his videos.

"They contacted me once and said they'd sign me up as an admin, in case I ever wanted to post," said Crenshaw, who removed himself from the group after Newsweek contacted him. "I quickly forgot about the page and never saw it again. How exactly is this news?"

Trump's response

10/31/2020 Biden camp cancels multiple Texas events after a "Trump Train" surrounded a campaign bus, By Kate Mcgee, the Texas Tribune, Jeremy Schwartz, the Texas Tribune and Propublica, and Abby Livingston, the Texas Tribune

10/31/2021 Sitting U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz chatting up attacking House metal detectors with explosives.

All perfectly normal, right?

9/27/2021 An Attorney Ken White tweet. Click to read his analysis.

926/2021 GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz said Tucker Carlson is correct about white nationalist 'replacement' conspiracy theory and called ADL racist, by Kelsey Vlamis, Insider

9/25/2021 A Republican saying the quiet part out loud, Martin Pengelly in The Guardian

This Matt Gaetz tweet is just a click away

8/12/2021 Joel Greenberg Providing Investigators With ‘Thousands of Photos and Videos’ Probably Doesn’t Bode Well for Matt Gaetz, by Ryan Bort, Rolling Stone

A periodic reminder that the congressman is under investigation for sex trafficking a 17-year-old

5/14/2021 Former Gaetz Confidant Agrees to Plead Guilty and Cooperate, by Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times

"A former confidant of Representative Matt Gaetz admitted in court papers on Friday to an array of federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl, and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigations."
"Mr. Greenberg did not implicate Mr. Gaetz by name in court papers filed by prosecutors in Federal District Court in Orlando. But Mr. Greenberg admitted that he “introduced the minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts” with her, according to the documents, and that he was sometimes present. The others were not named. Mr. Gaetz is said to be under investigation."
News reports have portrayed Gaetz and other Florida Republicans as partiers and devotees of the sex&rave drug, Ecstasy. When that wasn't enough, they made the sex transactional.
Why else would anyone sleep with a loudmouthed creep like Gaetz?

4/29/2021 Bombshell Letter: Gaetz Paid for Sex With Minor, Greenberg Says, by Jose Pagliery and Roger Sollenberger, Daily Beast

“From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18. I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”

The letter, which The Daily Beast recently obtained, was written after Greenberg—who was under federal indictment—asked Roger Stone to help him secure a pardon from then-President Donald Trump.

“If I get you $250k in Bitcoin would that help or is this not a financial matter,” Greenberg wrote to Roger Stone, one message shows.

“I hope you are prepared to wire me $250,000 because I am feeling confident,” Roger Stone wrote to Greenberg on Jan. 13. [Original texts. ]

“My lawyers that I fired, know the whole story about MG’s involvement,” Greenberg wrote to Stone on Dec. 21. “They know he paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage.”

TweetReGaetz 2021 04 29

4/29/2021 Gaetz, Greene plan national tour to call out RINOs, by Marc Caputo, Politico

The Two Clownacts are taking their stupidity on the road to attack both Democrats and Republicans.

4/29/2021 Matt Gaetz’s wingman confesses they trafficked a 17-year-old girl: ‘I saw the acts occur firsthand’ by Sky Palma, DeadState

A confession letter written by friend of Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz and accused sex trafficker, Joel Greenberg, has been obtained by The Daily Beast. The letter was written in the final months of Donald Trump’s presidency and admits that he and Gaetz paid for sex with a girl who was 17-years-old at the time.

4/26/2021 The Crazy Case of Gaetz Wingman’s Fraudulent COVID Relief Loans, by Roger Sollenberger, Daily Beast

Greenberg was himself an elected official at the time—the Seminole County tax collector—and he did not even operate an independent business, let alone one that would qualify for the taxpayer-backed COVID relief loans he sought. He allegedly got around that technicality by reinstating two of his companies that had been defunct for years—DG3 Enterprises and Greenberg Media Group, both terminated in 2016, the year he was first elected tax collector.

Prosecutors say Greenberg, with help from a “Recruiter Conspirator,” conscripted a government loan officer to override the SBA’s automated system. Among the list of criteria that the co-conspirators faked was revenue in the preceding year (a combined $1.2 million), the number of employees (12), operational dates, and, rather remarkably, that Greenberg was not under criminal indictment at the time. He applied for the loan on June 24, the day after federal law enforcement arrested him on charges of identity theft and stalking a political opponent.

But for Greenberg, the son of a wealthy Florida dentistry mogul, that apparently wasn’t enough. On July 21, he received roughly $300,000 from two additional EIDLs, bumping his total to more than $400,000, according to the Project on Government Oversight's COVID loan tracker. He paid the SBA official $3,000 for her trouble, using the online payment platform Cash App, and his friend and co-conspirator pocketed $16,000, according to prosecutors.

Gaetz, who has acknowledged the investigation, also got pandemic relief money. His family-owned senior care company CareGivers Inc, in which Gaetz holds a sizable stake, took in $475,000 in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans.

4/21/2021 New Docs Show Matt Gaetz Campaign in Full Damage-Control Mode, by Roger Sollenberger, The Daily Beast

As part of his public relations scramble, Gaetz has invested heavily in fundraising, paying Nevada-based Red Rock Strategies nearly $160,000 for fundraising consulting. That’s roughly $10,000 more than the campaign spent on fundraising services in 2019 and 2020 combined, according to The Daily Beast’s analysis of filings in the FEC database.

However, one expense in particular will raise eyebrows: A $5,000 “strategic political consulting” fee to Drake Ventures, the company belonging to longtime GOP smear artist and Gaetz associate Roger Stone. On Friday, the DOJ sued Stone and his wife, Nydia, alleging that the couple owes millions in unpaid taxes and have used Drake Ventures to shelter more than $1 million.

The campaign paid Stone’s company on March 24, just days before Gaetz’s father held an in-person meeting with a former DOJ prosecutor, according to a person familiar with the meeting. In a bizarre March 31 interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Matt Gaetz claimed that his father recorded that conversation at the direction of the FBI, alleging without evidence that the former prosecutor was at the center of a convoluted scheme to extort the congressman. The Gaetz campaign had never paid Drake Ventures until then.

Gaetz has also continued to rack up legal fees, a pattern established last summer around the time the DOJ investigation was reportedly launched. The Daily Beast reported earlier this month that weeks after Greenberg was first indicted—in June 2020—Gaetz paid the law firm Venable LLP $38,000, nearly four times the combined amount of legal fees incurred in the previous five years. The new filing reveals a $21,000 payment to Venable in February, bringing total legal expenses up to $85,000 since Greenberg was charged.

4/21/2021 Roger Stone spent weeks publicly defending Rep. Gaetz after being paid by his campaign, by Matt Gertz, Media Matters

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that federal campaign finance disclosures reveal Gaetz’s campaign paid Stone’s Drake Ventures $5,000 for “strategic political consulting” fees on March 24. It was the first time the campaign had ever made a payment to the firm.

Stone is a longtime Trump political adviser who at one point was banned from all three major cable news networks over racist and misogynistic commentary and conspiracy theories. Trump and his 2016 campaign tasked Stone to “obtain advance information about WikiLeaks's planned releases'' of Democratic Party emails stolen by Russian intelligence in 2016, and they believed he had succeeded in doing so, according to a Republican-led Senate committee’s investigation. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe ultimately led to his conviction on seven federal felony counts, but Trump commuted his 40-month sentence and ultimately pardoned him. Stone is also connected to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Like Gaetz, Stone is currently in hot water with the Justice Department. On Friday, federal prosecutors sued him and his wife over an alleged $2 million in unpaid taxes and penalties. Stone claims there’s a conspiracy behind that one, too.

4/20/2021 Matt Gaetz sparked William Barr to drop the f-bomb in a legal spat over Florida voting, by Betsy Woodruff Swan and Daniel Lippman, Politico

Months before news broke that the feds were investigating him for sex trafficking, Rep. Matt Gaetz was at the center of a separate internal fight at the Justice Department. The sparring match involved an Oval Office meeting, a foul-mouthed threat from the attorney general and voting in Florida. It has not been previously reported.

In Aug. 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Larry Keefe — a former law partner of Gaetz’s at the firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon — as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida. More than a year after he was sworn in, and as Joe Biden was locking up the Democratic nomination, Keefe looked to open a wide-ranging probe into voter fraud in Florida, according to two people familiar with the matter.

After Keefe and Gaetz discussed the issue, the congressman had a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House with Trump. Gaetz said Trump brought up his views on fraud connected to mail-in voting. In response, Gaetz brought up Keefe’s legal theory.

“I said to him that an appreciation for the Keefe position on venue would give good U.S. attorneys in every capital city the necessary jurisdiction to root out fraud,” Gaetz said. “I also shared with President Trump that Keefe had faced substantial resistance from the Department of Justice.”

Gaetz said that Trump then told White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who was in the room, to tell Attorney General William Barr that Trump believed Keefe’s legal theory had merit.

When Barr learned about Gaetz’s conversation with the president, he was incensed. The attorney general called the U.S. attorney and gave him an earful, according to two people familiar with the call.

“If I ever hear of you talking to Gaetz or any other congressman again about business before the Department, I am going to fucking fire your ass,” Barr told him, according to one of the people with knowledge of the call.

4/17/2021 How ‘Papa Gaetz’ tells you everything you need to know about Matt Gaetz, by Gary Fineout, Politico

Want to know how Matt Gaetz became who he is today? Just look at his father.

4/16/2021 How Scandal-Plagued Matt Gaetz Became ‘Excommunicado’ at Fox News, by Asawin Suebsaeng, Lachlan Cartwright, Diana Falazone andJustin Baragona, Daily Beast

“It’s highly unlikely you’ll see him on again anytime soon,” one Fox News insider emphasized to The Daily Beast when asked about Gaetz personally returning to any of their TV programming. Honchos at Fox were annoyed—and in some cases infuriated—by their perception that Gaetz, in his first big television interview after the “Gaetzgate” broke, had used two different parts of his Tucker appearance to try to rope the Fox News star into the congressman’s scandal. Multiple people at Fox described it as Gaetz seemingly trying to turn Carlson into an exonerating witness, which caused Carlson palpable discomfort on air.

4/16/2021 Gaetz ex-girlfriend feared alleged sex-trafficking victim taped call for feds, by Marc Caputo and Matt Dixon, Politico

MIAMI — Matt Gaetz’s former girlfriend has told friends she’s worried that the woman who is key to the federal government’s sex-crimes investigation tried to get her to incriminate the Florida lawmaker on a recorded call.

The revelation raises the possibility that federal prosecutors have two top cooperating witnesses: the woman who was an alleged sex-trafficking victim when she was a minor and the Gaetz associate already indicted for that crime, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg.

Gaetz’s former girlfriend has played a bit role in the unfolding public drama — she is the woman who sent the lawmaker a nude video of her performing a hula hoop dance that he showed to other members of Congress.

4/16/2021 Jimmy Kimmel Heckles ‘Future Former Florida Congressman’ Matt Gaetz, by Trish Bendix, The New York Times

“Kimmel poked fun at Gaetz and his friend Joel Greenberg for making their Venmo transactions public: “One of those ‘salads’ cost more than $1,000 — I guess they added avocado. They didn’t check the privacy box. What’s the opposite of a criminal mastermind?” Jimmy Kimmel joked on Thursday.

4/14/2021 REPORT: MATT GAETZ UPGRADED FROM JUST F--KED TO ROYALLY F--KED, by Bess Levin, Vanity Fair

Last Friday we noted that the Republican lawmaker was “well and truly f--ked,” in light of Venmo transactions showing Gaetz had paid $900 to his accused sex-trafficker friend, Joel Greenberg, which Greenberg proceeded to send to three young women. On Tuesday, though, new reporting indicated that he has been upgraded to exceptionally, royally f--ked.

4/14/2021 Women detail drug use, sex and payments after late-night parties with Gaetz and others, by David Shortell and Paula Reid, CNN

The partygoers, at times dressed in formal wear from a political event they'd just left, mingled and shared drugs like cocaine and ecstasy. Some had sex.
Gaetz, the brash Republican, liked to discuss politics, said one of the women. He behaved like a "frat type of party boy," she said, sometimes taking pills she believed were recreational drugs.

4/14/2021 Gaetz Attended Champagne-Fueled Sex Parties With Other GOP Officials, Two Women Tell CNN, by Jamie Ross, Daily Beast

If a party host requires you to hand over your cellphone before entering in order to stop anyone from documenting what’s about to take place, it’s not usually a sign of an imminent wholesome evening. But, according to women who say they frequently partied with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) over the past two years, that was just part of the normal routine.

Two women have spoken out about their experiences of the parties, which they say were typically packed with Republican officials.

4/14/2021 Matt Gaetz’s Wingman Paid Dozens of Young Women—and a 17-Year-Old, by Jose Pagliery and Roger Sollenberger, The Daily Beast

Federal investigators seized Gaetz's phone in December 2020, and they took his ex-girlfriend's device shortly after, according to two people who heard the woman describe the episode. Timothy Jansen, a criminal defense lawyer representing the woman, said she is refusing to speak to journalists and declined to comment. Others were more opaque, such as 'Stuff' and 'Orher stuff' [sic]. According to three people with knowledge of the relationship, Gaetz was among the men who tapped Greenberg to access a large network of young women. Three payments in the reviewed documents — in amounts of $500, $500, and $250 — were designated for 'Ice cream.' Five other payments were for 'Salad,' one of which topped $1,000."

4/13/2021 New details shed light on Gaetz’s Bahamas trip, by Marc Caputo and Matt Dixon, Politico

Questions surrounding the ages of some of the women surfaced immediately upon their return — three of them looked so young when they returned on Beshears’ private plane that U.S. Customs briefly stopped and questioned him, according to sources familiar with the trip, including a woman on the flight.

In July 2020, as the full scope of his legal troubles were coming into view, Greenberg made a failed attempt to get politically connected friends to ask Gaetz to get President Donald Trump to pardon him, two of the friends told POLITICO. Greenberg was not invited to the Bahamas, the three sources said, because of a conflict with Pirozzolo’s girlfriend. Pirozzolo, who recently told patients that his office was closed “due to a family emergency,” could not be reached for comment, nor could his lawyer or girlfriend.

4/13/2021 Indicted Gaetz Associate Is Said to Be Cooperating With Justice Dept., by Michael S. Schmidt and Katie Benner, The New York Times

Speculation about Mr. Greenberg’s cooperation began mounting last week, after his lawyer and a federal prosecutor both said in court that he was likely to plead guilty in the coming weeks. “I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today,” Fritz Scheller, Mr. Greenberg’s lawyer, told reporters afterward.

The United States attorney’s office for the Middle District of Florida is leading the investigation, which is examining not only whether Mr. Greenberg, Mr. Gaetz and others broke sex trafficking laws but also whether Mr. Gaetz paid for women over the age of 18 to travel with him to places like the Bahamas.

4/12/2021 ‘Felt like a setup’: WhatsApp chat shows Gaetz ally scrambling to contain fallout, by Marc Caputo, Josh Gerstein and Matt Dixon, Politico

The Florida county tax collector was five days away from a federal indictment for sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old — the same one Gaetz is now being investigated over — so Greenberg reached out to mutual friends on Aug. 14 last year and tried to enlist them in his defense, according to a WhatsApp chat shared with federal investigators and obtained by POLITICO. Greenberg went so far as to push Gaetz to use his influence with Trump for a pardon, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, including one who heard Greenberg say it repeatedly. Gaetz couldn’t be reached this weekend to discuss the WhatsApp messages that are the subject of this story.

4/12/2021 Exclusive: John Boehner believes Matt Gaetz should step down if indicted, by Jessica Koscielniak, USA TODAY

In an exclusive interview, Former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner told USA TODAY's Susan Page that he believes embattled Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz should resign if indicted.

4/11/2021 ‘Like the Tiger King Got Elected Tax Collector’: Inside the Case That Ensnared Matt Gaetz, by Patricia Mazzei, Michael S. Schmidt and Katie Benner, The New York Times

Records and interviews detailed a litany of accusations: Mr. Greenberg strutted into work with a pistol on his hip in a state that does not allow guns to be openly carried. He spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to create no-show jobs for a relative and some of his groomsmen. He tried to talk his way out of a traffic ticket, asking a police officer for “professional courtesy.” He played police officer himself, putting a flashing light on his car to pull over a woman and accuse her of speeding. He published an anti-Muslim Facebook post. He solicited help to hack critics on the county commission. Stalking a rival candidate got him arrested. Federal agents looking into the matter found at least five fake IDs in his wallet and backpack, and kept digging. Their inquiry culminated in 33 federal charges against Mr. Greenberg, 36, including sex trafficking of a minor, bribery, fraud and stalking — and led to a mushrooming political scandal that burst into national news in recent days and ensnared Mr. Gaetz,

4/8/2021 Indicted Matt Gaetz Associate Is Expected to Plead Guilty, Lawyers Say, by Patricia Mazzei, Katie Benner and Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times

Investigators have also been told of a conversation where Mr. Gaetz and a prominent Florida lobbyist discussed arranging a sham candidate in a State Senate race last year to siphon votes from an ally’s opponent, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

Mr. Gaetz’s legislative director in Washington, Devin Murphy, abruptly quit last week, three people familiar with the decision said on Thursday, becoming the second senior aide to resign since the Justice Department inquiry came to light.

4/8/2021 Key figure in Matt Gaetz probe likely cooperating with federal prosecutors, by Josh Gerstein, Politico

“I am sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today,” Joel Greenberg’s defense attorney said.

4/8/2021 Justice Dept. Inquiry Into Matt Gaetz Said to Be Focused on Cash Paid to Women, By Katie Benner and Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times

Investigators believe Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a federal sex trafficking charge and other crimes, initially met the women through websites that connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts, fine dining, travel and allowances, according to three people with knowledge of the encounters. Mr. Greenberg introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them, the people said.

Some of the men and women took ecstasy, an illegal mood-altering drug, before having sex, including Mr. Gaetz, two people familiar with the encounters said.

4/7/2021 Sean Hannity and his Fox News colleagues leave Matt Gaetz for dead, by Matt Gertz and Eric Hananoki, Media Matters

Perhaps the most notable absence from Gaetz’s defense is prime-time host Sean Hannity. Even as Gaetz responded to the allegations by spinning the sort of convoluted tale of deep state conspiracy and right-wing victimhood that seems tailor-made for Hannity’s program, the Fox star has seemingly left him for dead. Hannity campaigned with Gaetz in 2018, praising him as the Mickey Mantle of Congress

Gaetz is a Hannity fixture. Since August 2017, he made 127 appearances on the program, roughly 41% of the 310 interviews he gave the network overall (including a disastrous turn on Tucker Carlson Tonight to respond to the initial Times report), according to Media Matters’ database of weekday programming. Gaetz is the 11th most-frequent Hannity guest over that period, and ranks second to Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) among guests who have not served as paid Fox contributors.

Chickenshits of a Feather Flocking Together

4/6/2021 The congressman and his wingman, by Marc Caputo, Politico

Florida has never seen a tax collector like Joel Greenberg.

His Seminole County tax office was the only one in the state where employees were armed with pistols and body armor. He wore his own law enforcement badge and carried a sidearm at tax collector conferences. He let people pay property taxes with Bitcoin. He tweeted Islamophobic comments, installed a remote-controlled sprinkler system to spray petition gatherers he didn’t like and doled out fat contracts to his groomsmen shortly after winning the usually humdrum Orlando-area office with a campaign to stop “crony capitalism.”

Less than a week after his initial arrest and resignation, federal prosecutors allege, Greenberg kickstarted a new fraudulent scheme over Covid relief money. That charge was added to his third and (so far) final superseding indictment that was returned March 30. The indictment also alleged Greenberg had set up a company called Government Blockchain Systems LLC to use his elected office to “embezzle and divert over $400,000” in public money to personally benefit himself by using cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Greenberg is accused of misusing tax money to buy Bitcoin mining machines and then selling them at a personal profit on Amazon.

“You couldn’t make this story up, it’s so crazy,” said David Bear, an attorney for a Greenberg political rival whom the now-former Seminole County tax collector is accused of falsely smearing as a pedophile two years ago.

“Ultimately, it’s about abuse of power and how the Republican Party lost its way with guys like this,” Bear said. “As one of the few remaining Never Trump Republicans, nothing could make me happier than seeing Matt Gaetz and his kind being taken down. They’re the embodiment of Trumpism.”

4/6/2021 Matt Gaetz, Loyal for Years to Trump, Is Said to Have Sought a Blanket Pardon, by Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times

Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, was one of President Donald J. Trump’s most vocal allies during his term, publicly pledging loyalty and even signing a letter nominating the president for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the final weeks of Mr. Trump’s term, Mr. Gaetz sought something in return. He privately asked the White House for blanket pre-emptive pardons for himself and unidentified congressional allies for any crimes they may have committed, according to two people told of the discussions.

4/2/2021 Matt Gaetz sex competition was so shocking it had a Harry Potter rule: report, by Bob Brigham, RawStory

"The sex competition even involved the 'Harry Potter' book series, the GOP source told Insider. Anyone who had sex with a certain conservative woman "won the whole game regardless of points," she said. That woman was known as the 'snitch,' a nod to the Harry Potter game of Quidditch. The GOP source said she 'heard specific references of Gaetz being involved and scoring points.' She declined to name the woman to protect her privacy," Business Insider explained.

The game was initially revealed by Chris Latvala, a Republican who served alongside Gaetz in the Florida legislature. Latvala revealed the game over a year ago after Gaetz complained about him meeting with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

4/2/2021 Feds' investigation of Matt Gaetz includes whether campaign funds were used to pay for travel and expenses, by Evan Perez, David Shortell, Paula Reid and Pamela Brown, CNN

The investigation of Gaetz began in the closing months of the Trump-era Justice Department under then-Attorney General William Barr and was initially part of a broader probe into trafficking allegations against another Florida politician, Joel Greenberg.

4/2/2021 The Matt Gaetz Investigation: What We Know, by Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times

Gaetz has claimed his family is being extorted. Not exactly.

The disclosure of a serious federal criminal investigation would typically prompt carefully vetted statements and studied silence in Washington. Mr. Gaetz has gone on a media tour instead, confirming the existence of the inquiry while shifting attention to another attention-grabbing claim: that his family is being targeted by two men trying to extort it for $25 million in exchange for making potential legal problems “go away.”

4/2/2021 Feds looking at alleged payments Rep. Matt Gaetz made to women and online solicitation: Sources, by Alexander Mallin, Mike Levine, John Santucci, Katherine Faulders and Will Steakin, ABC News

Sources said Gaetz was part of a group of young male lawmakers who created a "game" to score their female sexual conquests, which granted "points" for various targets such as interns, staffers or other female colleagues in the state House. One of the targets of the scoring system was a group the lawmakers had heard were "virgins," according to a source. The scoring system by male Florida lawmakers was previously reported by the Miami Herald.

One source said Gaetz was often spotted trying to pick up young women at 101 Restaurant, a once-popular watering hole in Tallahassee for some lawmakers and students from nearby Florida State University.

While on Capitol Hill as a member of Congress, Gaetz allegedly boasted of his sexual encounters with women, and would allegedly try to show colleagues photos and videos of naked women he said he slept with, according to sources familiar with Gaetz’s actions. One video in particular was of a naked woman with a hula hoop, according to a source who was shown the material -- an allegation first reported by CNN.

Prior to joining Congress, Gaetz was a member of the Florida House of Representatives when his father was also a member of the Florida Senate. Sources told ABC News the two were often referred to as "Daddy Gaetz and Baby Gaetz." Sources said some women referred to him as "Creepy Gaetz."

3/31/2021 Rep. Matt Gaetz under federal investigation, accused of having sex with a minor, Staff Video, USA Today

3/31/2021 The one big problem with Matt Gaetz's explanation, by Chris Cillizza, CNN

The Department of Justice declined to comment to CNN on Tuesday night. In a statement to CNN, the FBI in Jacksonville said, "The FBI declines to confirm nor deny the existence or status of an investigation. We refer you to the Department of Justice for further comment regarding this report."

Which, well, seems to matter. Because, if Gaetz's allegations are totally accurate, it would seem incumbent upon the DOJ and/or the FBI to say so. Allegations that a 38-year-old member of Congress had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and may have paid for her to travel with him are serious. The Justice Department is even investigating whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, according to The New York Times report. If they are entirely inaccurate -- and if the teenager is, as Gaetz claims, entirely fictional -- then the FBI and DOJ not saying so could, after a while, amount to character assassination.

And yet, neither the DOJ or FBI has said anything -- amid repeated requests from media organizations to do so. (Worth noting for people alleging that this is a political hit on Gaetz, a major ally of former President Donald Trump: The investigation began in the final months of the Trump presidency, while Bill Barr was still the Attorney General.)

3/31/2021 In investigation of Rep. Gaetz's alleged sexual relationship with minor, feds looking beyond Florida, sources say, by Mike Levine, Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin and John Santucci, ABC News

Within the last several weeks Gaetz started reaching out to prominent attorneys, according to one source. The source said that one of the attorneys Gaetz asked to represent him was Washington attorney Bill Burck, who represented Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Don McGahn during the Mueller probe. Burck turned down the case, according to a person familiar with the decision.

3/30/2021 Joel Greenberg's Third Superceding Indictment, United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division

3/30/2021 Matt Gaetz Is Said to Face Justice Dept. Inquiry Over Sex With an Underage Girl, by Michael S. Schmidt, Katie Benner and Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times

The investigation was opened in the final months of the Trump administration under Attorney General William P. Barr, the two people said. Given Mr. Gaetz’s national profile, senior Justice Department officials in Washington — including some appointed by Mr. Trump — were notified of the investigation, the people said.

12/11/2017 Women in politics fear #MeToo moment will backfire — and they’ll be the ones punished, by Mary Ellen Klas, Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau

Mayfield said she was outraged her freshman year as a House member when a group of freshmen male legislators lived together and ran their rented session home “like a frat house.”

They created a scoring system to rank female legislators and lobbyists, she said. One of them was asked what he wanted to do in Tallahassee and his answer was “to sleep with as many women as possible,” Mayfield recalled. “Who is investigating that?”

She said she believes Latvala’s accuser, but Mayfield also suggests that Tallahassee’s go-along, get-along culture may have allowed him to become “desensitized,” while those he may have shamed and offended did not feel free to complain.

‘I’ve walked around the building and you can look in women’s eyes and you just know they’re in pain. They’re terrified,’ said Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation.

4/18/2021 I tell my criminal law students to start with jury instructions if they want to understand crimes, by Joyce Alene, MSNBC

The instructions explain what the prosecution must prove to convict.

In my new piece for @msnbcdaily I explain why they're so important in the Chauvin trial

Why Chauvin trial's verdict may hinge on Judge Cahill's jury instructions, by Joyce Alene, MSNBC

3/5/2021 UofM Law Professor and ex USAtty Barb McQuade cohosts a Legal Podcast

with Detroit Journalist Kimberly Atkins, ex USAtty Joyce Vance and Watergate Prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks,

- Detroit Free Press report by Julie Hinds, 3/5/2021

Asha Rangappa is a senior lecturer at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, a former Special Agent for the FBI, and a Contributing Editor at Zócalo Public Square. Rangappa is also recognized for her frequent Network news show expert commentaries, especially in these past several Trump soaked years.

4/8/2021 How the Supreme Court Gave Cops a License to Kill, bBy Elie Mystal, The Nation

Derek Chauvin’s defense team is hoping that the 1989 Graham v. Connor ruling will be his ticket to acquittal.

There is nothing unique or interesting about the defense strategy employed by the lawyers for Derek Chauvin. The trial has produced no made-for-television stunts or rhetorical flourishes. There’s no bloody glove, no rhyming couplets. Chauvin’s defense is so basic that an attorney straight out of law school could pull it off. His lawyers are simply arguing that cops have the right to kill people, if they think they need to.

Those who have watched the Chauvin trial have undoubtedly noticed the string of racist bread crumbs laid out by the defense about Floyd’s apparent “strength.” There is a long and ugly history of white people ascribing super strength to Black people as a way to justify the use of deadly force against those Black people. There’s even a controversial medical term, “excited delirium,” that is often cited by the police to explain why they just had to kill an unarmed Black person.

Search millions of opinions by case name, topic, or citation.

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About the Free Law Project

Started in 2010, Free Law Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that works to make the legal world more fair and efficient. We do this through a number of projects including:

The RECAP Extensions — Simple browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox that open up federal court data. If you use PACER, install RECAP to join this initiative.
CourtListener.com – Our fully-searchable and accessible archive of court data including growing repositories of opinions, oral arguments, judges, and federal filings.
Fact sheets for PACER and the FJC Integrated Database so that the public can better understand these services.
An extremely detailed database of reporters.
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A repository of judicial seals.
Data services and consulting.

All together, these projects provide valuable tools and analysis for those that want to access, study, or improve the American legal system.

We do all of this work on a shoestring budget that is supported by a blend of services, donations, and sponsorships. We occasionally seek and get grants, but we usually lack the resources they require for submission unless grant officers come to us.

All of our work is open source, creating a rich culture of staff and volunteers.

In the following YouTube videos, Maryland Attorney Mirriam Seddiq introduces you to the Law.

2/28/2021 MORE Act 2021: Federal Decriminalization of Weed! What are the Odds? (Lawyer Take)

2/24/2021 Arrested for Unlawful Flower Arranging. Government Regulation Gone Mad. Talk w/ Shoshana Weissmann

2/19/2021 Kyle Rittenhouse Shooting: He's Not the Problem. A Legal Analysis.

2/17/2021 Social Media Free Speech Debate: can you shout fire in a crowded theater? Interview w/ Popehat on Free Speech, Mental Health, and Racism

2/15/2021 Legal Burden of Proof: Burden of Production vs. Burden of Pursuasion

2/15/2021 Kyle Rittenhouse Shooting: Was it Self-Defense? No Way.

2/12/2021 Social media free speech debate: can you shout fire in a crowded theater? Interview with Popehat

2/10/2021 Journalist Ida B. Wells and the Impeachment Opening Statements

2/8/2021 RICO Laws and White Supremacy.

2/5/2021 Ben & Jerrys Founder Ben Cohen talks Ice Cream and Qualified Immunity

2/5/2021 Ben & Jerry's Founder Ben Cohen talks Ice Cream & Qualified Immunity

1/31/2021 Trump Impeachment Explained: What You Need to Know Before Trial

1/29/2021 Qualified Immunity, Holding Police Accountable Pt. 2

1/27/2021 Domestic Terrorism Laws: Do We Need Them?

1/24/2021 Zip Tie Guy Detained: Lessons in Federal Pretrial Detention.

1/19/2021 What is Qualified Immunity? We Must Hold Police Accountable.

1/16/2021 Q Shaman Update: Jake Agneli Detained Pending Trial!

1/15/2021 DC Capitol Riots and Federal Bail - Should Q Shaman Be Released?

1/13/2021 How does impeachment work in the US? Will Trump get Convicted?

1/13/2021 Federal Conspiracy: Is Trump Guilty?

1/6/2021 What is Sedition? US Capitol Attacked.

1/5/2021 Black History and mental health in the legal profession.

1/3/2021 Can I legally record a conversation? The Trump GA secretary of state call.

1/2/2021 Election Lawsuit Status: What is Injunctive Relief?

About SeddiqLaw

9/10/2021 Democrats Eye Taxing Stock Buybacks and Partnerships to Pay for Agenda, by Jonathan Weisman and Peter Eavis, The New York Times

Buybacks have come under withering criticism since former Trump’s huge corporate tax cut was enacted in 2017.

Proponents of that legislation promised that companies would use the tax law’s windfall to boost worker wages and grow their businesses. Instead, it touched off an explosion of stock buybacks that critics say has made top executives and industry insiders even more wealthy. In 2019, the largest American companies spent a record $728 billion on stock buybacks, a 55 percent increase from 2018, according to Senate Finance Committee data.

Companies in the S&P 500 spent $6.2 trillion on new plant and equipment in the 10 years through 2020, according the Times’s analysis, a similar amount to what they spent on buybacks over the same period.

"Triumph of the Libertarian Will" - The Full Flower of Laissez Faire

FloridaCondoCollapsed 2021 06 28 900x674

Who will Libertarians cast as Leni Riefenstahl?

Fuckwittery on Eastshore Dr 2 800w600h

This ideologically pure piece of "I can do whatever I want on my property" Libertarian mode

housebuilding appeared on Whitmore Lake's East Shore Drive several years ago. Cable and Telephone

lines were deflected laterally by the impinging roof structure. After roofing, the cable and telco lines

rubbed raw against the abrasive coated roof shingles for years. Eventually the lines were elevated.

Lying is a Choice

Libertarian, Misogynist, Billionaire Creep. (and wannabe Vampire)

"Deregulate" "There's too much regulation, too many regulations." "Freedom"

2/26/2021 Impacts of PFAS could ripple for years in Livingston County, despite progress, by Jennifer Timar, Livingston Daily

In July, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced the "do not eat fish" advisory will remain in place as more data is collected.

In Livingston County, the advisory includes:

The Huron River

Kent Lake

Ore Lake

Strawberry Lake

Zukey Lake

Gallagher Lake

Loon Lake

Whitewood Lake

Base Line Lake

Portage Lake

connected bodies of water in Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties.

That covers pretty much all the area lakes except Horseshoe and Whitmore Lakes. Which means lakeside property is even more priceless.

Such a great time to sell North Village lakeside parkland for a song! Expecially to build ticky-tacky crackerboxes squeezed into trailer park sized lots.

Watery Victory for Michigan Libs whining about "burdensome regulation, unnecessary regulation, freedom-hating regulators"

Owners of dams flooding Midland ignored federal regulators for years

"Government can't do anything well." "Volunteers." "Pay for it with contributions."

1850 “The state shall not be party to, or interested in, any work of internal improvement, nor engage in carrying on any such work...” Michigan 1850 Constitution

1844 Private Turnpike Companies:

Beginning in 1844, private turnpike companies attempted to fill this void with a network of toll roads, portions of which were constructed of wooden planks. Although these companies had to be chartered by the state and were required to construct and operate their roads according to certain standards, these toll roads were entirely the responsibility of private enterprise. This was significant because it marked the only time that public roads in Michigan were not a direct government responsibility. One of the first plank road companies, the Detroit and Port Huron, was chartered in 1844. Several more of these private toll road companies were established during the next few years, and in 1848 the state legislature passed a General Plank Road Act to regulate their operations.

Plank roads were required to be from two to four rods wide, 16 feet of this to be a “good, smooth, and permanent road”. Eight feet of width was to be of three-inch plank. For two-horse wagons and carriages, as well as “for every score of neat cattle”, a toll of two cents per mile was permitted. For one-horse vehicles, the maximum rate was one cent per mile. Altogether, more than 202 companies were chartered, although most never began operations. The Detroit and Pontiac Plank Road was opened late in 1849. The Detroit and Howell—50 miles long, with 10 toll gates along Grand River Road was completed in 1851. It was soon discovered, however, that the planks decayed rapidly and that the roads could not be kept up from the tolls received. “Mark Twain, who traveled to Grand Rapids by stage to give a lecture, was asked how he had liked the trip. ‘The road could not have been bad,’ he replied, ‘if some unconscionable scoundrel had not now and then dropped a plank across it.’” Many companies abandoned operations after a few years and few were able to show a profit. However, this situation lasted only about 40 years as the toll roads proved economically impractical. The support by the legislature of private toll companies did not meet the needs of a well-planned road system.

The practice of working off one’s road taxes, called the statue labor system, was the cornerstone of 19th century highway taxation policy in early Michigan.

Each able-bodied male living within a local designated road district was directed to work off his road tax at the rate of not more than thirty days per year. The road supervisor, who was elected by residents of the road district, had authority to determine the time and place for each citizen to work. In the event that the citizen could not work, his road tax could be commuted at the rate of 62.5¢ per day. Every able-bodied male was expected to work a certain number of days a year on road construction or maintenance. The road overseer notified all such township residents of the time and place of work; those that failed to report were penalized. A resident who provided a wagon, scraper, yoke of oxen, team of horses, or other equipment would be assigned a reduced number of work days. The statute labor system provided little cash for the purchase of road equipment or the hiring of full-time road personnel. Indeed, there was the prevailing view that no experience or training was necessary to build or maintain roads. Anyone who could operate a scraper or yoke of oxen could build roads, according to common belief.

The results of such amateur efforts were detrimental to an efficient system of roads; in fact, such efforts often left roads in worse condition than they were before such “repair work” had been initiated. One shrewd contemporary of the time observed:

The experienced traveler who finds himself at the beginning of a newly mended road will betake himself to the nearest house and learn how far the improvement extends; if for the distance of 10 miles, he will then inquire by what circuit, not exceeding 15 miles in length, he can escape from the danger of repairs. After a time nature mends the damage done by the process of reconstruction, and the journeyer may find once again a way tolerable…”

Despite the inefficiency of Michigan’s highway system, it was strongly defended by farmers of the state. They not only favored use of amateur personnel as adequate for the task, but they stoutly opposed any attempt to abolish the statute labor system in favor of taxation to finance roads. The depressed economic plight of Michigan farmers in the late 19th century helps explain this fear of increased taxation.

In 1907, the legislature repealed the act which had permitted citizens to work out their road taxes.

- excerpts from The History of Roads in Michigan, by Dorothy G. Pohl, Managing Director for the Ionia County Road Commission, and Norman E. Brown, retired MDOT Act 51 Administrator. It was presented to the Association of Southern Michigan Road Commissions on December 2, 1997

RandPaul PaulRyan AynRand walkintoabar

7/21/2021 Note to my Mother, by Hope Underwood, quoted on Quora

Note to my Mother:

I am unconcerned that we have different politics. I do not think less of you because you voted one way and I voted another. We need people to vote and the candidate we select is not always going to win. It is hoped that we will have someone who is competent enough to run our country. That didn’t happen in the last election. We got a thin-skinned egomaniac who has never been held accountable for any atrocities he has committed.

Let me be clear. I think less of you because you watched an adult mock a disabled man in front of a crowd and you still supported him. I think less of you because you saw a man spouting clear racism and you cheered for him. I think less of you because of your willingness to support someone who openly admires dictators and demonizes the press and anyone who criticizes him. I think less of you because you heard him advocate for war crimes and you still thought he should run this country. I think less of you because you watched him equate a woman’s worth to her appearance and you thought that was okay. I think less of you because you’ve seen his appointees systematically destroy legal protections and loot the tax payers money and you are ok with that. You watched, along with the rest of the nation, as he separated families and locked innocent children in dog cages and you were not horrified as the rest of us were. You refuse to accept the fact that this man wants to work with dictators but has alienated our long standing allies. I think less of you because you refuse to review the facts and accept that this man is lying to you on a daily basis.

It isn’t your politics I find repulsive. It is your willingness to support racism, sexism, misogyny, and cruelty that I find repulsive. You supported a tyrant and bully when it mattered and that is something I will never forgive or forget. Your lack of morals and basic humanity are devastating to me.

There are some things I can never be civil about: concentration camps, genocide, white supremacy, misogyny, harm to children, mass trauma, state violence, rising fascism, to name a few. There is NO civil discussion with someone who agrees with putting children in dog cages.

So, no...you and I will never be “coming together” to move forward or whatever. Trump literally disgusts me and I hate the sound of his voice spewing hate and dividing the country, but the fact that he doesn’t disgust you is something that is going to stick with me long after this presidency. You have shown me who you really are and the fact that you still support this monster and rush to justify everything he does makes me feel that we have nothing to discuss.

2/5/2021 Column: What can you do about the Trumpites next door? by Virginia Heffernan, Los Angeles Times

You might end up like the upper-middle-class family I stayed with in France as a teenager. They did not attend a citywide celebration for the 100th birthday of Charles de Gaulle, the war hero who orchestrated the liberation of his country from Nazi Germany in 1944. They did have several portraits of Philippe Pétain, Nazi collaborator, on their wall.

When I screwed up the courage to ask how it was for them during the occupation, the lady of the house replied, “We were happy because the Nazis were very polis.” I didn’t know the word, so I excused myself to consult a French-English dictionary. I was in tears when I found the entry: “polite.”

The majority of Northfield Township, my neighbors, supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans.

You kept him in business with your support.

4/7/2021 Opinion: The GOP can’t be saved. Center-right voters need to become Biden Republicans, by Max Boot, The Washington Post

Most Republicans don’t care that Trump locked up children, cozied up to white supremacists, tear-gassed peaceful protesters, benefited from Russian help in both of his campaigns, egregiously mishandled the pandemic, incited a violent attack on the Capitol and even faced fraud complaints from his own donors. A new Reuters-Ipsos poll finds that 81 percent of Republicans have a favorable impression of Trump. Wait. It gets worse: 60 percent say the 2020 election was stolen from him, only 28 percent say he is even partly to blame for the Capitol insurrection, and 55 percent say that the Capitol attack “was led by violent left-wing protestors trying to make Trump look bad.”

This is a portrait of a party that can’t be saved — at least in the foreseeable future. The GOP remains a cult of personality for the worst president in U.S. history. It has become a bastion of irrationality, conspiracy mongering, racism, nativism and anti-scientific prejudices.

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