WHO WAS BEHIND THE OTHER PROTESTS? BECAUSE WE KNOW THE ONE IN MICHIGAN IS LINKED TO THE DeVOS FAMILY

Wow, that looked ... spontaneous.

On Wednesday, opponents of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order in Michigan held a car-bound protest dubbed “Operation Gridlock.” ... the protest saw the streets around the capitol in Lansing fill with vehicles. The traffic jam blocked at least one ambulance.

Despite organizers asking protesters to remain in their cars, groups gathered in front of the capitol waving pro-Trump and anti-Whitmer signs. One reporter tweeted that he heard chants of “recall Whitmer,” “U-S-A,” and “lock her up.”

... On Tuesday, more than 100 protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina, came together to oppose Governor Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order. Some shouted and honked from the relative safety of their cars.

Also, by astonishing coincidence, at exactly the same time...

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Impatient protesters demanding Gov. Andy Beshear reopen Kentucky disrupted his televised Wednesday afternoon pandemic update, chanting, blowing horns and shouting into a megaphone outside the window of the briefing room and nearly drowning out his comments to Kentuckians.

The protest began with just a few people holding signs on the Capitol lawn, but by the time Beshear started to speak, the group numbered about 100 people.

I don't know who's behind the other protests, but the Michigan protest is linked to the DeVos family.

... Michigan Freedom Fund is a listed host of the in-car rally.... It’s also sharing updates about the protest on social media.

... The group was founded by Greg McNeilly, political adviser to the DeVos family, a powerful name in Michigan Republican politics who’ve also contributed to the group financially.

This didn't all happen on the same day by accident, in red or purple states with Democratic governors. Someone in the Republican establishment and/or the plutocracy sent up the bat signal. Someone's trying to drive down these governors' ratings and manufacture consent for a broad reopening by creating the impression that "real Americans" are eager to end the lockdowns.

They aren't.

Most Americans believe President Donald Trump needs to issue a national stay-at-home order in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to polling data released Wednesday by The Economist and data analytics firm YouGov....

A majority of those surveyed, 61 percent, said Trump should issue a stay-at-home order for the entire country. Those against the idea numbered 22 percent while 18 percent said they weren't sure.

And the polling for the governors has been quite good. In Michigan, Whitmer's poll rating, which had been 42% positive and 34% negative in October, jumped to 60%/22% in March. In North Carolina, Cooper had his highest job approval number ever in late March, at 62%. Kentucky's Beshear had the highest rating of any governor in a U.S. News poll released earlier this month, with 86% of respondents rating his response as good or excellent.

****

What continues to be maddening is that we have a massive crisis on our hands, yet the top priority of the right is to score political points, whether it's agitating against lockdowns (especially in Michigan, which is the state with the third-highest covid-19 death toll, behind only New York and New Jersey) or obsessing over the possible origin of the virus. CNN is reporting that the feds are "looking into the possibility" that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan -- but Fox News is declaring that theory all but proven.

Sources believe coronavirus originated in Wuhan lab as part of China's efforts to compete with US

EXCLUSIVE: There is increasing confidence that COVID-19 likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though not as a bioweapon but as part of China's effort to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States, multiple sources who have been briefed on the details of early actions by China's government and seen relevant materials tell Fox News.

Obsessing over the origin of the virus while you're slackening in your efforts to curb transmission is like sending the firefighters away while your house is still burning because you think the #1 priority is to find someone to blame for the fire.