So, by now, everyone should’ve had an opportunity to watch what passes for objective news coverage from yesterday’s rally in Lansing.
Allow me to go over what did happen, what didn’t happen, and what others would like for you to believe happened.

I even have some interesting images from the Michigan Senate Floor that didn’t quite make the “official record”.

{More below the fold}

So, despite the best efforts of being “Zuckerberged”, word did get out about yesterday’s rally in Lansing organized by Michigan United for Liberty.

People began to arrive slightly after 8:00am just prior to the rally’s scheduled start time of 9:00am. Unfortunately, the rally didn’t actually begin until almost quarter to 10, which placed it uncomfortably close to the legislature’s scheduled starting time.

 

It was a pretty good turnout, I’d guess about 1,000, given the limited time-frame and being scrubbed oin social media. My original plan was to catch the rally, and then go inside to see how the vote would turn out. Several days ago, I wouldn’t have given two shakes about that and just went home after the rally itself ended. The only reason I even considered sticking around had to do with a “double-middle finger” possibly getting someone to come to the realization that they’ve been had.

People were going back and forth passing the word about what was happening inside to the people outside. Word started spreading around that the chambers had gone into recess until 12:30, so I stayed to catch most of the rally up to just before Sheriff Clarke.

Those attending the rally was the first part of the story that the media tried to spin. Their main focus when they interview attendees were things like;

“Why aren’t you ‘social distancing’”?

“Why aren’t you wearing a mask?”

“Are you concerned for your safety being in such a large group of people?”

“Are you scared that people have brought firearms?”

No, I’m not kidding about that last one. I’ve overheard that question from more than one news outlet. The best answer that I caught was that they were keeping us safe when Antifa showed up!

Not one reporter asked how the lockdown was affecting them personally or physically (i.e. non-Huwan related health issues).

Not one reporter asked about their financial well-being.

Not one reporter asked how their region of the state was faring economically.

And this was from just about every interview I overheard.

I mean, c’mon, it’s not like they have an agenda to promote here!

Anyway, getting back to the Legislature, I knew that they would limit the people allowed in the galleries, and NOT wanting a repeat of getting physically thrown out of the building like what happened to someone else the day prior, I went in early to reconnoiter.

The Redcoats were surprisingly polite to me. They told me in no uncertain terms that the House had closed off the gallery to all but house members and the press.

Not wanting to press the matter and have them go all Budzyn and Nevers on me, I walked across the building to the Senate side and asked them the same question. The Bluecoats could not have been any more polite to me. It wasn’t 12:30pm yet, but they personally opened the doors for me and told me that I could sit anywhere I wished.

Not wanting to lose my spot, I hunkered down and texted the info to some friends outside to pass around. So, from this point on, I can tell you about what happened on the Senate side only.

Anything happening elsewhere, I’m going off on texts and just looking out the windows.

When the Senate DID convene, they promptly took another break until about 1:30pm.

I had some time to kill, so I started talking to a few other who were in the Senate Gallery with me and following what was happening outside via text.

It was a little after 1:00pm was when the fit hit the shan. People were coming into the Capitol Building and trying to make their way into the respective galleries. The Redcoats held firm, later backed up by MSP, and kept everyone out. But the press could still enter and exit…go figure. There was a lot of chanting, yelling and singing done that could be clearly heard inside of the Senate Chamber. That started to die down after the House had their votes on the extension and lawsuit.

Since there was a lot of last-minute goings on behind the scenes, the Calendar for each chamber was essentially useless, so we were just going relying upon texts and two-ways between both sides of the building for a better part of the afternoon.

Two items that I’d like to pass along on the plus-side of things yesterday:

First, Sen. Shirkey DID take to the time to come up and speak to everyone in the Gallery. He didn’t have to, but he did. So, I can at least respect him for that. He thanked us for taking the time to be there and to be patient. He also told us that government can be a slow process at times and that it can be a good thing. He shooed away the media who was hovering around us and taking pictures, telling the reporter that this meeting was only for us and not for the press (the picture in this link was of that meeting).

Second, when Sen. Shirkey shooed away the media, he called out the reporter by name. Someone in our group did a quick lookup on the stories printed that day and recognized him as Craig Mauger from The Detroit News.

Let’s just say that the crowd wasn’t too happy with the bias in his earlier pieces (i.e. telling readers that a crown of about 1,000 was only 100 and leading his story with people bringing firearms to the Capitol). Mr. Mauger began getting to backpedal a bit and become a little apprehensive about the situation he was in. He tried to claim that people would accuse him of bias if he didn’t report it.

Since he wrote about the firearm aspect within the first two paragraphs, THAT story didn’t fly too well, but he did say that he would focus on other parts of the rally in later articles.

I’ll let readers of this piece be the final judge on that.

After recesses and caucus calls, the Senate finally got back into session at almost 5:00pm.

After they went through a series of unrelated bills, they finally got down to what we were waiting for: Will they give Gov. Witless more power?

Will they take her to court?

After floor speeches that went down party lines, the bill regarding her emergency power (SB-858) was passed.

Sen. MacGregor moved to have it take immediate effect, however it did not have 2/3’s support.

Next up was SR-114. After a few more speeches explaining their previous votes, this one went much quicker. It was approved, but unfortunately, only on a simple voice vote.

 

The Senate went on yet another caucus break and then called it a day around 7:00pm.

So, what does this all mean?

At this point, your guess is as good as mine.

With no authority, I see Monday morning turning into a total train-wreck with people not sure if they can open. Do they stay closed and further damage their business? Do they opening up, only to have AG Nessel try to act important and threaten them with legal action if they don’t comply with an expired order?

This is one of the times where I wish that things were a little more clear cut, but nonetheless, stay tuned…