How Lockdowns Helped Hide The Plain Evidence That COVID-19 Isn’t A Good Excuse For Panic
What’s obvious to many Americans about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic continues to escape the consciousness of the ruling class.
Top Whitmer aide travels to Florida despite Michigan governor issuing spring break travel warning
A top aide of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took a spring break trip to Florida with family. Only days earlier, the Democratic governor of Michigan warned her constituents about travel because of concerns of spreading COVID-19.
Tricia Foster, Whitmer's chief operating officer, posted photos on Facebook of her family vacationing in Siesta Key, a popular beach tourist destination on the Gulf of Mexico about an hour south of Tampa.
Photos on Foster's Facebook page obtained by Breitbart show her teenage daughters and friends enjoying a spring break vacation in the resort town that has far fewer coronavirus restrictions than Michigan's COVID-19 constraints, which many deem to be excessive and draconian. Foster, her daughters, and their friends are seen maskless and are not practicing social distancing in the social media posts.
NEW: Gov. Whitmer's top aide Tricia Foster defies governor's travel warnings, travels to Florida for spring break v… https://t.co/UCtjmAy31j— Breaking911 (@Breaking911)1618086790.0
"The photos no longer appeared on Foster's timeline Friday afternoon, but the Free Press spoke to a Facebook friend of Foster who saw the beach photos before they were taken down," according to the Detroit Free Press.
However, Whitmer issued a travel warning to Michiganians on April 2, especially traveling to Florida.
"Whitmer said she is concerned about spring break and people traveling, with many going between Michigan and Florida," the Detroit Free Press reported. "If people do travel, she said they should work from home and have school from home for a least a week when they return, assess whether they need a COVID-19 test and get vaccinated."
"Students and families traveling across Michigan, to other states or out of the country risk being exposed to and carrying COVID-19 with them," a press release from Whitmer's office stated. "This, in turn, could fuel outbreaks within their households and the communities where they live or visit."
Whitmer's office did not deny that Foster and her family traveled to Florida, but dismissed the report as a "partisan attack from a garbage white nationalist website."
"Trish Foster is fully recovered from COVID and fully vaccinated," Whitmer press secretary Bobby Leddy said.
When Leddy was asked whether Foster's daughters and her daughters' friends were fully vaccinated, the spokesperson responded, "I don't have anything additional to add."
Michigan currently leads the nation in new COVID-19 cases and positive test rates. Infections in the Wolverine state have increased for seven consecutive weeks.
"Officials are reporting more than 7,000 new infections each day, a sevenfold increase from late February," according to the Baltimore Sun. "And Michigan is home to nine of the 10 metro areas with the country's highest recent case rates."
"Policy change alone won't change the tide," Whitmer said on Friday. "We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility here."
Following the most recent surge of COVID-19 cases, Whitmer has asked that the public take a two-week break from indoor dining, in-person high school, and youth sports.
In January, Whitmer traveled to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President Joe Biden despite discouraging "Michiganders from traveling and attending gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic."
Last June, Whitmer flouted her own executive order mandating social distancing when she attended a George Floyd march and was photographed shoulder-to-shoulder with protesters.
Last May, Whitmer was embroiled in controversy when her husband reportedly attempted to use his influence to persuade a company to prioritize putting their family's boat in the water before Memorial Day weekend. Whitmer claims that her husband was simply making a joke when he told the company, "I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?" Whitmer had instructed her constituents not to vacation in the area where her family's boat was docked.
Federal authorities arrest six men in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Federal authorities have arrested six men in connection with what they say was a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).
The conspiracy was a described by the FBI as a plot to violently overthrow the state government in Michigan, WITI-TV reported. The investigation into this conspiracy involved multiple informants and undercover FBI agents.
Documents filed in court Thursday allege that six men — Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta — plotted to kidnap the governor.
According to the FBI, Croft, Fox, and about 13 other men met in Dublin, Ohio, on June 6 to form a self-sufficient society that would be based on the U.S. Bill of Rights. They allegedly discussed plans to achieve this aim violently.
"Several members talked about murdering 'tyrants' or 'taking' a sitting governor," an FBI agent wrote in the court affidavit. "The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message."
Fox allegedly reached out to a Michigan-based militia group to recruit men to attack the state Capitol building and take hostages, including the governor.
"Fox said he needed '200 men' to storm the Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, and take hostages, including the Governor. Fox explained they would try the Governor of Michigan for 'treason,' and he said they would execute the plan before the November 2020 elections," the FBI said.
NBC News reported that the involvement of that militia in the plot to kidnap the governor "appears to be minimal as the group charged today allegedly discussed keeping the broader militia out of their plan."
More from WITI:
According to the FBI, it learned of the plan through confidential sources and undercover agents over several months who attended militia group meetings. The FBI said the militia group would hold field training exercises on private property in remote areas of Michigan, where they would engage in firearm training and tactical drills.
At one point, the FBI said the group had a meeting in Grand Rapids in the basement of a shop that was accessed through a trap door hidden under a rug on the main floor. At that business, the FBI said they discussed the plan for the Capitol and planned to use "Molotov cocktails" to destroy police cars.
The FBI said Fox called Whitmer a "tyrant b****" and asked the group to be linked with other systems and asked for ideas of what they can do.
The militia group also met in Ohio and Wisconsin, the FBI reported, and on July 11 in Wisconsin, Croft and another member tried to make an improvised explosive device using black powder, balloons, a fuse, and BBs for shrapnel.
The FBI said they have recordings of conversations discussing plans to attack a Michigan State Police facility and to shoot up Whitmer's vacation home. In one of these recordings, Fox allegedly said the best plan was to "kidnap her outside her vacation home."
"Snatch and grab, man. Grab the f***in' governor. Just grab the bitch. Because at that point, we do that, dude — it's over," Fox allegedly said, according to the FBI.
The FBI said in late August the alleged conspirators took pictures and video of Whitmer's vacation home and researched how far the police were from its location. A few weeks later in mid-September, the group allegedly created and detonated an IED surrounded by human silhouette targets and planned to put a similar device under an overpass to divert police while they kidnapped the governor.
The FBI said Fox told one of their sources he had purchased an 800,000-volt taser to use in the kidnapping. In conversation with an undercover officer, the group determined it would cost about $4,000 to get the explosives they allegedly intended to use for the IED and made plans to raise the funds over the next few weeks.
Michigan election official calls cops on resident who displayed toilet with sign: 'Place mail-in ballots here'
While many are unsure of the effect of mail-in voting will have on the presidential election and see it as a crapshoot, one Michigan resident views mail-in voting as a crap chute. A homeowner displayed a toilet-themed display regarding the upcoming election on his front yard that has angered an election official.
A resident in the town of Mason displayed a toilet on their front yard that was accompanied by a sign that reads: "Place mail in ballots here."
A toilet and a sign: Statement or not, it's illegal, Ingham County clerk contends https://t.co/T4n8fiYWYB— Lansing State Journal (@Lansing State Journal)1600483393.0
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum thought the commode-themed election display stunk and called the police.
"Earlier this week, I filed a complaint with the Mason Police Department and the Ingham County Sheriff's Office regarding a report of a potential election violation located just blocks from the Mason Historical Courthouse," Byrum, who is a Democrat, said in a statement released on Friday.
"Elections in this country are to be taken seriously and there are many people who are voting by mail for the first time this Election," Byrum wrote. "We need to put out accurate, complete information about voting by mail, which is the safest way to vote during the pandemic."
"It's solicitation of absentee ballots into a container," Byrum told the Lansing State Journal. "Our election integrity is not a game. I expect everyone to act appropriately, and this is unacceptable."
"This kind of behavior needs to be quashed immediately," she said, flush with indignation. "They are making a mockery of our elections. I'm not going to stand idly by and watch it happen."
Byrum warned, "It is a felony to take illegal possession of an absentee ballot (voted or unvoted)." She pointed out that "felonies of this kind are punishable by a fine of $1,000.00 or 5 years in prison."
The front lawn also has a sign that reads: "Recall Whitmer," which calls for removing Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from office. There was also an election sign for John James, a Republican running for U.S. Senate.
Local police told the Associated Press that the complaint about the latrine display is being investigated.
Many social media commenters on the story played devil's advocate to Byrum's argument. They questioned if anything beneficial can be derived by people who cast their ballots into a toilet on the front yard of some random person's house.
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