JEFF TIMMER, former Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party, is a political, public affairs and communications strategist who has spent 30 years in the trenches of Michigan and national politics. He has advised and directed hundreds of legislative, congressional, statewide political and ballot issue campaigns. He was an advisor to Ohio Governor John Kasich's 2016 presidential campaign.
Jeff is a leading redistricting expert and has been an advisor to Speakers of the Michigan House, Michigan Senate Majority Leaders, the Michigan House and Senate Republican campaign committees, and the Michigan Republican Party.
He is co-founder of Republicans and Independents for Biden, and is a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project.
MARK BREWER served for 18 years as chair or executive chair of the Michigan Democratic Party and as a member of the Democratic National Committee.
He's been a delegate to 5 Democratic National Conventions. He has been involved in a wide variety of election cases since the 1980s including county, legislative and congressional redistricting, presidential primaries/caucuses, recalls, recounts, ballot access, voter protection on Election Day and the protection of the right to vote a straight party ticket.
Mark’s ballot question work ranges from city to county to statewide on topics from the minimum wage, earned sick leave and community benefits to straight party voting, tax reform, redistricting, campaign finance and ethics reform, and county charter government.
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JEFF TIMMER, former Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party, is a political, public affairs and communications strategist who has spent 30 years in the trenches of Michigan and national politics. He has advised and directed hundreds of legislative, congressional, statewide political and ballot issue campaigns. He was an advisor to Ohio Governor John Kasich's 2016 presidential campaign.
Jeff is a leading redistricting expert and has been an advisor to Speakers of the Michigan House, Michigan Senate Majority Leaders, the Michigan House and Senate Republican campaign committees, and the Michigan Republican Party.
He is co-founder of Republicans and Independents for Biden, and is a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project.
MARK BREWER served for 18 years as chair or executive chair of the Michigan Democratic Party and as a member of the Democratic National Committee.
He's been a delegate to 5 Democratic National Conventions. He has been involved in a wide variety of election cases since the 1980s including county, legislative and congressional redistricting, presidential primaries/caucuses, recalls, recounts, ballot access, voter protection on Election Day and the protection of the right to vote a straight party ticket.
Mark’s ballot question work ranges from city to county to statewide on topics from the minimum wage, earned sick leave and community benefits to straight party voting, tax reform, redistricting, campaign finance and ethics reform, and county charter government.
Death of Free Speech (Guest: MIRS Editor Kyle Melinn)
A Republic, If You Can Keep It
44 minutes 1 second
1 month ago
Death of Free Speech (Guest: MIRS Editor Kyle Melinn)
This week's show is sponsored in part by
EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research
MIRS News
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One sure sign you’ve got a dictatorship in the making is when the would-be dictator does everything in his power to crush the ability of his opponents to be heard. In today’s Russia, those dissidents have a history of falling out of windows or suddenly becoming deathly ill. In North Korea, even the dictator’s family members end up dead. In the United States, Donald Trump is using all the tools at his disposal - legal and illegal - to silence his critics.
In a break from our usual format, we’re going to focus our opening discussion on one issue: Trump’s assault on free speech. Later in the podcast we’ll get into the Lansing budget mess and Michigan politics when we’ll be joined by veteran Lansing reporter and columnist Kyle Melinn.
As we look at the death of free speech, We begin with the latest example; the attack on late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, misrepresenting a Kimmel joke and using the threat of broadcast license revocations to muscle Kimmel off the air.
Another favorite Trump tactic: bogus lawsuits, known as SLAPPs. The latest is his laughable $15-billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times. Mark Brewer discusses the endless bogus lawsuits.
Other tactics of an aspiring dictator:
Manufacturing federal “emergencies” to paper over legal and constitutional violations (declaring Antifa a terrorist organization)
Withholding federal money to extort concessions
Using the bully pulpit to destroy reputations, often with false accusations
Manufacturing criminal investigations (dating back to his “perfect call” to Zelenskyy urging a criminal investigation into Biden)
Directing the IRS to challenge tax-exempt status of targets (university endowments, NGO’s, ActBlue)
Firing federal whistleblowers
Ending the autonomy that’s designed as a fail-safe; inspectors general replaced, establishing direct control of formerly independent agencies (CDC, NLRB, FEC, FCC, FTC)
Firing career managers in all federal agencies - fill the jobs with inexperienced/unqualified sycophants
Effectively lying to the courts, saying the right things to the judge(s) but ignoring court orders in the darkness
Government turmoil isn’t limited to Washington D.C. We have a few problems in Lansing as well. The new state fiscal year starts in two weeks and it’s increasingly likely there will be no budget adopted, and much of state government will shut down. What does it mean for the people of Michigan? Joining the discussion is someone who knows as much as anybody about the workings of state government: Kyle Melinn. Kyle is the editor and Vice President of the MIRS Newsletter, a daily on-line political news service covering state government and politics.A professional journalist for 20 years who has covered the state Capitol for the last 13, Kyle hosts a weekly podcast called MIRS Monday, available at iTunes. Before MIRS, Kyle served as a freelance writer for the Boston Herald and as a senior editor for SchoolSports.com. He is a graduate of Michigan State University, who grew up in Byron Center.
Clay Jones-claytoonz.com
Matt Davies:Newsday
This episode is sponsored in part by
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• Public Opinion Surveys
• Market Research Studies
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A Republic, If You Can Keep It
JEFF TIMMER, former Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party, is a political, public affairs and communications strategist who has spent 30 years in the trenches of Michigan and national politics. He has advised and directed hundreds of legislative, congressional, statewide political and ballot issue campaigns. He was an advisor to Ohio Governor John Kasich's 2016 presidential campaign.
Jeff is a leading redistricting expert and has been an advisor to Speakers of the Michigan House, Michigan Senate Majority Leaders, the Michigan House and Senate Republican campaign committees, and the Michigan Republican Party.
He is co-founder of Republicans and Independents for Biden, and is a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project.
MARK BREWER served for 18 years as chair or executive chair of the Michigan Democratic Party and as a member of the Democratic National Committee.
He's been a delegate to 5 Democratic National Conventions. He has been involved in a wide variety of election cases since the 1980s including county, legislative and congressional redistricting, presidential primaries/caucuses, recalls, recounts, ballot access, voter protection on Election Day and the protection of the right to vote a straight party ticket.
Mark’s ballot question work ranges from city to county to statewide on topics from the minimum wage, earned sick leave and community benefits to straight party voting, tax reform, redistricting, campaign finance and ethics reform, and county charter government.
