The debate over solar energy in Michigan may move to the ballot.

It’s been another remarkable week in national and state politics. Nationally: 

A three-judge DC court of appeals panel unanimously shoots down Donald Trump’s claim that a President has full immunity from crimes.

The Supreme Court signals that it will not allow states to take Trump’s name off the ballot.

Nikki Haley comes in a distant second in Nevada, losing by 30 points to “none of the above.”

The Republican caucuses in the House and Senate admit it: they are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Trump Organization.

Former Fox News troublemaker Tucker Carlson joins Vladimir Putin’s PR staff.

Meanwhile, the national economy keeps strengthening … but Joe Biden still doesn’t get credit from voters.

VIDEO: “Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.” - President Biden

In Michigan:

The Wall Street Journal raises more than eyebrows with a story labeling Dearborn as “America’s Jihad Capital”.

It turns out Kristina Karamo isn’t the only Republican Party chair who’s been fired. Former Michigan GOP chair Ronna “Don’t Call Me Romney” McDaniel is on her way out as national GOP chair.

The Biden administration is in Michigan looking to make peace with angry Michigan Muslims and Palestinian-Americans.

A landmark court case in the Oxford High School murders comes just days before new Michigan gun safety laws go into effect.

And efforts are underway to undo one of the green energy laws that goes into effect next week. We're joined by Nick Dodge of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.

===========================

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MAGA Republicans had no problem with White House visits during the Trump years by B-List singers Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Kanye West – but they are freaking out when confronted with the possible Biden endorsement by the most popular entertainer in the world. They are also going ballistic about the UAW’s Shawn Fain’s emphatic support of President Biden. As we record this podcast, Biden is a couple of miles from my Macomb County home visiting with some of the 1-million UAW workers and retirees … voters who could be the difference in swing states across the industrial midwest.

Also this week:

The latest campaign finance reports are in. How much do they signal about the elections? We’ll take a look at some of those reports.

The Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission has some new state House maps for southeast Michigan. Will the maps survive federal court scrutiny … and do they shift the balance of political power in our 50-50 state?

Secretary of State Benson has a $1-million political war chest - a signal for 2026?

Joe Biden continues to draw heat from Michigan Palestinians; meanwhile the only Palestinian-American in Congress, Rashida Tlaib raises $3.6 million in the last three months of 2023.

Republicans now say it might be okay to ignore the Supreme Court, using the same logic that was used by the southern states when they succeeded and launched the Civil War.

In Flint, there's a new contender for congress: the Mayor.

We are joined this week by the Democratic candidate in one of what will be one of the most hotly contested congressional races in the nation – former state Senator Curtis Hertel, who is running to succeed Elissa Slotkin in the House.

As Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Director of Legislative Affairs, Hertel led the state through passing bipartisan legislation that cut taxes for seniors and working families, expanded workers’ rights, and won additional new investments in advanced manufacturing that will bring good-paying jobs to Mid-Michigan and across the state. He was also instrumental in passing legislation that repealed the archaic 1931 law that banned abortion in Michigan, even in cases of rape and incest.

In the legislature, Hertel led the fight to preserve Michigan’s status as the world leader in auto manufacturing and bring thousands of next-generation electric vehicle jobs to Mid-Michigan by working with Democrats and Republicans to help pass the legislation that won GM’s $6.5 billion investment in the Delta and Orion Township battery cell and electric vehicle plants.

===========================

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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You really need this for your mourning coffee!

Donald Trump appears to have done what Jeff predicted on this podcast months ago: locked up the nomination for his third attempt to win the national popular vote. But in the process, some new, large chinks in his Mar-A-Lago armor are showing up as some Haley supporters join the never-Trump movement. Trump has already started his annual “the election is stolen” mantra, apparently in anticipation of losing again.

Meanwhile, President Biden gets two big boosts to his reelection chances: First: the new numbers about the recession that never was. In fact, the U.S. economy is soaring. Economic growth in 2023 was bigger than in any year of the Trump presidency. Just as important politically: Biden gets a rousing endorsement from the United Auto Workers which could prove critical in Michigan, Wisconsin and maybe even Ohio.

We may have a border crisis, but Trump has ordered his supplicants in Congress to sink a bipartisan border bill – because he’s more interested in having a campaign issue than a solution.

In Michigan:

Governor Whitmer unveils her priorities for 2024 focused on the basics: economic growth, education and the cost of living.

Governor Whitmer is flanked by Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist as she delivers her State of the State Address.

The Republican National Committee has started to move into the internal chaos that is the state’s GOP.

The Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission is working furiously to meet a deadline that’s just days away for coming up with a new, constitutional map for Southeast Michigan legislative districts.

Our neighbors in Ohio have launched a war on transgender people, with that state’s Republican Legislature overriding Governor Dewine’s veto of an anti-LQBTQ+ bill.

We're joined by Detroit News politics editor Chad Livengood to talk about the politics of Whitmer’s State of the State speech and the prospects of getting her program through the Legislature. Chad was a political reporter in The News' Lansing Bureau from 2012 through 2016 before becoming a reporter and columnist at Crain's Detroit Business. He rejoined The News' politics team in May 2022.

===========================

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

a full service survey research firm with expertise in:

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• Focus Group Research

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===========================

You really need this for your mourning coffee!

Self-described "stable genius" D. J. Trump cleverly labels Iowa's #1 cash crop as "non-liquid gold."

This week, on A Republic, If You Can Keep It: 

17% of Republicans in the corn-rich state of Iowa have spoken. Their message: Trump really won in 2020, but half of them don’t want Trump in 2024.

Trump doubles-down on his contention that a President has a license to kill

Michigan Republicans prepare for their presidential-delegate-selection convention – but can they afford the room rental?

We may have a new contender in the race for the U.S. Senate nomination - as new polling shows the leader is some dude named “undecided.”

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson steps into the redistricting controversy

The U.S. Supreme Court sidesteps the first in a series of anti-transgender Americans lawsuit

A new statewide poll shows Biden with a narrow lead over Trump - is it an outlier?

We start with the headline of the week - from Mother Jones:

Florida Man Facing 91 Criminal Counts Wins Iowa Caucuses

===========================

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===========================

Trump. Donald Trump.

A License to Kill? Donald Trump’s lawyer contends a President has the right to break the law without facing criminal prosecution, even if that means ordering a political assassination.

That was just the beginning in an especially active week of lying and sedition by the Orange Menace as he:

Resurrected an oldie-but-goodie lie. In 2015 it was Barack Obama who wasn’t a real American eligible to run because he was born in Kenya; in 2016 it was Ted Cruz, challenged for being a Canadian; in 2020 it was California-born Kamala Harris, challenged because her parents were immigrants. Now it’s Nikki Haley who he claims is disqualified because her parents weren’t U.S. citizens when she was born … in South Carolina.

Refused to sign an Illinois election pledge not to overthrow the government.

Went batshit crazy in a New York courtroom, with the judge finally telling him to (in effect) shut up.

Continued to raise millions on his every manifestation of personal grievances.

Meanwhile, the first actual voting in the 2024 presidential campaign is Monday: the battle for runner-up.

In Michigan:

The latest polling shows potentially big trouble for Joe Biden, and a statistical tie in the U.S. Senate race.

The circular firing squad once known as the Republican Party has become a total mess with two factions both claiming to be the real Republican Party – with no headquarters, but two separate websites each claiming they are the official website.

Leaders of the MAGA-centric party (parties?) want to eliminate primary elections for their ticket, leaving the decisions to a handful of party activists.

A federal court has given the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission just 3 weeks to come up with a new state House map for southeast Michigan.

Onetime Trump critic Mike Rogers has done a 180 in hopes of landing a U.S. Senate endorsement.

And Bill Schuette Jr. says he’s not running for Congress - a blow to Republican chances to flip Michigan’s 7th congressional district.

The perfect gift for the democracy lovers in your life!

===========================

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

a full service survey research firm with expertise in:

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• Market Research Studies

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• Focus Group Research

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===========================

Election law ... and the courts ... dominate politics as we begin 2024:

Michigan’s redistricting re-do - what, why, and how!

The Supreme Court’s challenge from conflicting decisions on Trump’s ballot access

A separate Supreme Court challenge on whether the President is above the law … or, as Nixon famously told David Frost decades ago "but when the President does it, that means that it's not illegal"

Also this week:

Another candidate steps up to succeed Dan Kildee in Congress, and immediately becomes the Democratic frontrunner

Kristina Karamo’s days as Michigan Republican Party chair may be numbered

And a new report illustrates how Donald Trump and his family used the U.S. government to rake in millions for their businesses.

John Bebow (Bridge Michigan photo)

We're joined by award-winning journalist John Bebow. Bebow began his journalism career on a bike delivering newspapers and ended it playing an instrumental role in shaping Michigan’s modern media industry. Bebow, 56, stepped down at the end of 2023 from his role as publisher of Bridge Michigan, a publication that under his leadership won more than 200 state and national awards and was lauded as a national model for economic viability in nonprofit news. He will remain as an executive adviser through 2025.

He had crucial roles in some of the biggest changes in Michigan media over the past 25 years, from uncovering corruption in Detroit as a reporter and helping launch the MLive online news site to launching and growing Bridge Michigan and its sister publication, BridgeDetroit.

In 2006, Bebow was the first employee of The Center for Michigan, that launched what was then Bridge Magazine in 2011. When the latest round of expansion concludes this month, Bridge and the Center will have more than two dozen full-time employees, with offices in Ypsilanti and Lansing and a more than $4 million annual budget.

“It is exponentially more rewarding than any story that ever appeared under my byline,” Bebow said of Bridge’s growth. “It’s so far beyond my wildest dreams, it would have taken me two bottles of Jack Daniel's to have dreamed up the ridiculous success that has happened.”

Bebow has had ink in his blood since middle school, when he delivered the Lansing State Journal on a route in his Ingham County hometown of Mason.

After graduating from Western Michigan University, he worked at the Lansing State Journal, Traverse City Record-Eagle and Ann Arbor News before joining The Detroit News. There, he covered the mob, corruption in casino development and troubles in the city water department. He deployed to Iraq to cover the war for the News in 2003, and was injured in a military truck mishap. After a stint at the Chicago Tribune, John returned to his home state, where, for the Detroit Free Press, he investigated Baker College.

Bebow was part of the launch of MLive, which served as an early model for publications moving stories online. There, he rose to become editor in chief.

“Without John Bebow, there is no Bridge Michigan,” said David Egner, CEO of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation. (Bridge photo by Brayan Gutierrez)

At Bridge, the former investigative reporter became a prolific fundraiser, a shrewd accountant, and a boss that demanded the best of his employees while sticking to a mantra of “family first,” giving staffers generous time off to deal with family issues.

“I have tremendous admiration and respect for my colleagues,” he said. “I lit a lot of fires, (but) I think a lot of that was needed at various points to get to where we are today. It was the product and the impact that were first and foremost.”

Festivus, the holiday created by the folks on the Seinfeld TV show, is this Saturday: the TV-official day for the airing of grievances. For Donald Trump, every day is a day for the airing of grievances — and this week he had plenty of opportunity:

Colorado’s Supreme Court threw him off that state’s ballot … for now

Nearly a quarter of Trump voters say he shouldn’t be the nominee if he’s convicted of a felony, but another one-third want a president willing to break rules and the law if that gets the job done

Trump’s erstwhile attorney Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy after a defamation judgment that could next challenge Trump

His racist statements about immigrants poisoning America ignite fires (a puzzling statement who's married not one, but two immigrants!).

Also this week:

Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed felony charges against state House Speaker Lee Chatfield. We’ll talk with one of the reporters covering the story, Clara Hendrickson of the Detroit Free Press

The Colorado decision on Trump gives more support to the case now in front of Michigan’s Supreme Court to do the same in our state

And a new tally of spending on roads says Governor Whitmer has put $2-billion into her promise to “fix the damn roads” during 2023.

And even as we were recording the podcast, more breaking news: a federal Court of Appeals has thrown out parts of Michigan citizen-drawn legislative districts. Mark and Jeff offer their thoughts even as they read the ruling while we record!

The perfect gift for the democracy lovers in your life!

===========================

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

a full service survey research firm with expertise in:

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• Focus Group Research

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===========================

As their Lord and Master Donald Trump has commanded, Republicans in the U.S. House have officially launched a fishing expedition in hopes of finding something -- anything! -- they can use as an excuse to impeach Joe Biden. It was a straight party-line vote: something that may haunt Republicans next November.

Just to give Democrats even more electoral ammunition:

The economic numbers continue to shine: a new record-setting high this week for the Dow Jones Industrials, inflation and mortgage rates coming down, gas prices below $3 per gallon, and continuing job growth. Will this translate into improved job performance ratings for the President?

The Republican war on women has escalated with a cruel, heartless, unconscionable denial of an emergency abortion for a Texas woman – something that could have killed her. And a new case in Kentucky will keep the GOP’s no-abortions-ever policies in the headlines.

New York Democrats get the green flag for gerrymandering their state – which could flip multiple U.S. House seats

The Republican war on transgender Americans escalates in Ohio

The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to rule on Trump’s claim that he is immune to criminal penalties for anything he did as President

Two more state criminal investigations have been launched involving former Republican Speakers of the state House

Michigan attorney general investigating $25M grant to ex-House speaker’s aide - Bridge Michigan

Dana Nessel’s office probing $2M rocket plan that failed to launch - Bridge Michigan

Governor Whitmer, meanwhile, will be sending out state earned income tax credit checks to 700,000 families - and you can never lose by giving people money!

The perfect holiday gift for the democracy lovers in your life!

===========================

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

a full service survey research firm with expertise in:

• Public Opinion Surveys

• Market Research Studies

• Live Telephone Surveys

• On-Line and Automated Surveys

• Focus Group Research

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===========================

Trump finally says it out loud: he's open to being a dictator, but only admits to wanting to be our fuhrer for Day One. This comes as Atlantic magazine devotes an entire issue to the potential end of democracy under a return of Trump, and Liz Cheney warns that if he’s reelected he’ll never leave.

Elsewhere in the political ecoshere:

There’s another Republican wannabe in the race for U.S. Senator from Michigan – someone with a big personal bank account

One potential candidates says “no thanks”, another says “maybe” in the race to succeed Dan Kildee in Congress

Michigan’s Republican Party is reported to be on the verge of bankruptcy

The GOP battle for second place gets nastier … and low TV ratings

But lucky for us: CNN promises two more meaningless debates in the run-ups to the Iowas caucuses and New Hampshire primary

Joining the conversation this week is nationally respected political data guru Tom Bonier. Bonier is a veteran Democratic political strategist and CEO of TargetSmart, a political data services firm. Prior to TargetSmart, Tom co-founded Clarity Campaign Labs in 2012 and helped build it into one of the nation’s leading Democratic analytics and research firms. He has spent more than 20 years working in Democratic and progressive politics.

Prior to Clarity, Bonier served as Chief Operating Officer at the National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC). Throughout his career, Bonier has received numerous awards for his contributions to political campaigning, redistricting, and strategic planning.

The perfect holiday gift for the democracy lovers in your life!

"Feeble" - the latest from The Lincoln Project. Trump says they used A.I. to make him look bad. The response: no need to do that!

===========================

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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• Market Research Studies

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• Focus Group Research

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===========================

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Governor Whitmer may have just that by now as she signs dozens of bills passed in the closing days of the legislative session. Jeff and Mark offer their take on how the successes … and delayed initiatives … of 2023 could impact 2024. They also update the nationally significant congressional race in Michigan’s 8th district in the aftermath of Dan Kildee’s retirement announcement.

Also in this week's chat-fest:

Donald Trump continues to spend a lot of time in court. In between his $250-MILLION business fraud trial in New York, and his four pending criminal trials in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington D.C. he also has to focus on keeping his name on the ballot in multiple states, including Michigan. 

The circular firing squad that is the Michigan Republican Party continues to take aim on each other. Chairperson-for-now Kristina Karamo has instituted an internal purge in an effort to enforce loyalty to Madame Chair.

Donations to GOP drop as worries mount about the party’s finances

Kevin Kijewski, Attorney for Alleged MI Fake Elector Clifford Frost, Wants Co-Defendants to ‘Shut Up’

Second Democrat says he was offered $20M to run against Tlaib

Michigan anti-property-tax group seeks to get on 2024 state ballot

Trump Has a Master Plan for Destroying the ‘Deep State’

Election 2024: Trump says he would renew efforts to replace 'Obamacare'

White House Calls Out GOP Obamacare Threat After Trump Suggests He’d Repeal Law

Trump hints at expanded role for the military within the US