By the time you read this, it will be 2023!
Happy New Year to all.
May we all have a better year in 2023 than in 2022, and may we meet all the goals we have set for ourselves for 2023.
On the plus side, as of today, I now assuredly have enough money to live on for the rest of the year.
Other pluses for the year include some accomplishments both personal and familial.
On the personal front for the year the major news was that I got a new hip.
Downside is the recovery is still taking much longer than expected and the muscles around it still hurt quite a bit. Still, it hurts less than the arthritis and my range of motion is much improved, but I do wish the muscles would settle down and stop hurting as a daily affair.
On the flying front, I got my instrument ticket and flew quite a bit even after being off for months recovering from the hip surgery and got to fly to quite a few places I've never been before.
On the shooting front, I attended three shooting classes, and took part in multiple competitions. As a result I suck just a little bit less at shooting than I did at the end of 2021.
Familial side, eldest daughter is now at the University, has taken to it like a duck to water, and has finished the first semester of her freshman year, and younger child is prepping for her ACTs.
Work definitely had its ups and downs, but is ending acceptably this year though not quite as well as I would like. On the upside, the pro per plaintiff and third-party defendant in the case keep adding much hilarity to the process, including filing some really moronic stuff today, including that pro-per plaintiff did an ex-parte communication to the court which is a no-no. You can't send emails to the court and not let the other side know you're doing it, you moron, and even better concluding that email in a reply brief as an exhibit is hilarious.
So yep, overall on a personal level, 2022 while certainly there was room for improvement, was not all that bad.
Welcome to yet another installment of the pro per case that never ends,
As related in part 6, I won a major tactical victory by excluding the testimony of the Plaintiff's girlfriend after she refused to testify.
The problem now lies in getting the order entered.
Courts speak through their written orders and this Court instead of simply taking in an order a the end of the hearing or issuing one itself, requires that either the parties jointly submit the order after a hearing, or that it is entered under the 7 day rule, where a party may object within 7 days if they don't like the order.
Therein lies the rub.
Since they weren't even present at the hearing they can't really object to the order.
They do so anyways, and claim the hearing never actually occurred.
Of course they do so wrongly and not in conformance with the court rules and I do a response pointing out it is defective, and there was indeed a hearing, and they were not just served with it and the notice of hearing but even responded to it and just failed to show up and their objections should be rejected forthwith.
Of course it is now the holidays and the courts are in slow mode.
So what does Plaintiff and his girlfriend do?
They file new objections last night, kinda sorta fixing the errors I pointed out (but making some new ones too) but still claiming the hearing was never held.
They file this 13 days after the order was submitted.
13 is greater than 7.
So I need to do a response and will be asking for sanctions as this is beyond ridiculous.
May you all enjoy and celebrate the holiday with peace, warmth, and among family and friends.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Apparently, it is now considered by some to be a lack of deescalation problem when a police officer fails to do something other than shooting someone in the act of trying to shoot the officer.
As I had written about the Dearborn Suicide-by-Cop incident, "There have been no protests yet that the Police should have used a social worker in this instance, but as in a recent incident in Detroit that may yet happen."
Sure enough, and it didn't take long, the family in this incident is now protesting and claiming that police should have "deescalated the situation" and hired a lawyer to try and get a payday out of their family member's criminal acts:
The Detroit Free Press: Dearborn police station shooting: New details about man killed by officer, how it happened
Attorney Amir Makled, retained by Naji's family, has acknowledged the threat Naji posed when he pointed the gun at the officer. But Makled argues the killing could have been avoided with proper implementation of police deescalation protocols.
"Officers are trained to and should be skilled at recognizing mental health crises. The deceased was not in a state to know right from wrong," Makled said.
"At what point did police know that there was someone in the lobby with a firearm? Did they give (Naji) the opportunity and time to comply with the demands of law enforcement? At what point were law enforcement in immediate threat if there's bullet-proof glass? This is what we're trying to find out."
Let's remember for a moment that Naji was shot while he was pointing a gun at an officer and had pulled the trigger.
Police Officers, if made to adopt this ridiculous standard suggested by his attorney, would be in an impossible situation.
If someone is pointing a gun at you and pulling the trigger, you're somehow supposed to in a nanosecond evaluate if they're having a mental health crisis - as if this implies someone with a mental health crisis is somehow less of a threat when committing a deadly act - and then apparently try to talk them down while they're trying to kill you?
Sounds like an eminently sensible standard right there, then aagin there has yet been any proof provided that Naji even was diagnosed with a mental illness at the time he committed his act of attempted murder.
What next? Perhaps demanding that Police Officers must be shot first before they can shoot back?
I daresay the attorneys for Naji have jumped the shark in their misbegotten quest to get the family a payday.
A bit of weirdness out of the January 6 Committee report regarding Ryan Kelly, a Michigan Republican politician that was running for Governor in the 2022 election, was present Jan 6 and running for office and thus arrested by the FBi on misdemeanor charges to hamper his gubernatorial run - nothing at all political about that, of course.
Here's where it gets a tad interesting: The Detroit News: Under oath, Ryan Kelley refused to identify himself in Jan. 6 videos
The Detroit News story, and the committee report, is all agog and aghast that Ryan Kelly refused to identify before the committee if a video did in fact show him at the Capitol doing stupid stuff.
Now, Kelly did sorta, kinda, take the Fifth before the Committee on that quesiton, but not exactly correctly, as you can read in the article. But, regardless, he refused to answer the question to identify if the person on the video was him all the same.
So, there's all this umbrage about the failure of Kelly to identify himself by a committee official.
So, now that you have the background, the story gives a nice bit of irony:
"Mr. Kelley, how would answering that question impede your ability to peaceably assemble? It's a video of a thing that happened more than a year ago," an official with the U.S. House committee asked him at one point during the exchange.
Later, an official with the U.S. House committee said Kelley was stating his "opinion of what the Fifth Amendment is."
"But I will again note for the record that the witness has refused to answer the question, and he's refused to raise a recognized privilege as a reason for refusing to answer the question," the official said.
The official's name was redacted in the transcript.
Yep, all this outrage over Kelly's failure to identify himself, and the "official" asking that line of questions has been redacted and unidentified in the report and their identity is a complete mystery.
You can't make that kind of irony up.
In news from France today, it does turn out that French 88-year-olds can not only get frisky in a weird way, but that anything can indeed be a sex toy if you're brave or crazy enough.
Fox 10: Hospital evacuated over elderly man with explosive lodged in his rectum
A French hospital was reportedly evacuated after an 88-year-old arrived with an artillery shell lodged in his rectum.
...
The French publication Var-Matin reported the elderly man had a World War I artillery shell partially inside him.
...
The shell was about eight inches long and two inches wide.
Not to sure what his explanation will be, perhaps confusing the artillery shell with the nearby bidet perhaps?
Well, the shell was older than he was, so at least there were no age of consent issues involved. The shell was successfully removed and defused if not defunked.
Verily, some people may love artillery just a little too much.
Well, surprising no one really, there's a very cozy relationship between the state road agency and the contractors that "fix" the damn roads.
That cozy relationship extends to a lack of competent quality testing, resulting in you guessed it - roads that don't even meet the already low quality standards in this state.
The Detroit Free Press: MDOT fails to ensure quality of gravel used in Michigan road projects, audit shows
I mean, our current road construction and quality standards are great - if this state was Georgia.
For Michigan, however, with our winters even our current standards are not enough, and the state can't or will not even enforce those basic standards.
So much for Gov. "Fix the damn roads" Whitmer - it's now over four years and she can't even ensure her own agency is holding the (union) road construction companies to the bare minimums, or her own state agencies to do their own damn jobs.
This is but one of the reasons why Michigan has some of the highest gas taxes and spending on roads, and yet continues to have some of the worst roads in the nation.
This incident that occurred on Sunday had a bit of twist on the more typical suicide by cop incidents.
While all such incidents are terrible as they require the Police to take a life in order to protect themselves, the idiot at least made it somewhat more convenient for the police, as he came to them rather than having them called out to go to him.
Detroit Free Press: Police say Dearborn man pointed gun at officer, pulled trigger, but it failed to fire
A Dearborn man who was shot to death in the lobby of the city's police department Sunday suffered from mental illness and tried to shoot directly at an officer — but the gun failed to fire, police said.
He pointed a stolen 9mm pistol at a police officer and pulled the trigger, but the gun malfunctioned, Lt. Mike Shaw, a Michigan State Police spokesperson, told the Free Press on Monday.
The Dearborn man was then shot by the officer multiple times.
“He was trying to kill a police officer, or whoever was in that lobby at that time," Shaw said.
The man's family identified him as Ali Naji, 33.
So, he apparently stole a handgun earlier that day, and likely didn't know how to use it, which turned out to be a very good thing in this instance. The police officer then demonstrated the appropriate technique and properly ended the threat.
There have been no protests yet that the Police should have used a social worker in this instance, but as in a recent incident in Detroit that may yet happen.
A completely avoidable death from lousy gun-handling:
The Detroit Free Press: Man kills himself in Hamtramck parking lot, police say it was an accident
As the news notes, a man sitting in his car prior to heading into a marijuana store managed to shoot himself in the leg while removing his handgun from his holster. While he missed the draw, he likely successfully hit the femoral artery and he subsequently bled out.
We will leave for the moment that if he's using marijuana, he cannot under federal law posses a firearm, regardless of the fact that the electric lettuce is now legal in Michigan. Federally that's still a no-no. We will also note that marijuana use tends to make you less than fully present at times.
My bet is the marijuana store had a no-firearms policy which is why he was trying to remove the firearm from his person. I'd also bet he had on a flimsy nylon type holster and he managed to depress the trigger while trying to pull out his firearm while seated, with tragic results.
Quick Tip: Have your handgun in a good quality holster that covers the trigger. Then, if you're removing your firearm in a car, or anywhere else for that matter, remove it and the holster together.
Don't take it out of the holster, keep it in the holster with the trigger covered in nice solid kydex (or high quality leather in good condition if that strikes your fancy). There is no need to remove the gun from the holster when you are out and about unless your life or someone else's life is in imminent danger.
Keep the gun where it belongs - in the holster. The life you save may be your own.
Happy Hanukkah 2022!
The celebration of Hanukkah has officially begun. The Hanukkiah has been lit, latkes have been made and eaten, and presents presented.
May the light of freedom shine brightly for all in the upcoming year.
On top of the Ethnic Intimidation charge at the State level, and his outstanding felony case in Wayne County, he's managed to get attention from the federal level.
In addition to state charges, Islamic-Warrior-Wanna-Be Hassan Yehia Chokr just picked up a federal felony charge for lying on a Form 4473:
The Detroit News: Dearborn man accused of antisemitic threats now faces federal charge
Hassan Yehia Chokr, 35, was charged with lying on a federal firearms form when he tried to buy a shotgun, rifle, and a semi-automatic pistol at Dearborn Outdoors on Dec. 2, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Detroit. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.
Likely, I expect the charge is because he failed to answer yes to his being already under indictment for a felony charge in Wayne County, in which case he has added to his list of already exemplary respect for the judicial system by mooning the judge at his Wayne County hearing.
Clearly, Chokr has failed to read how to Win Friends and Influence People. As a result, he's now bail revoked in that case, so even if he gets out of Oakland County Jail on bind, he'll end up being transported to the Wayne County Jail.
Nice to see they're actually prosecuting a criminal for lying on a 4473 Form. Would that this was a regular occurrence.
It sure looks like this guy was about to go past death threats to a full-on attack, so he got stopped just in time.
Call from a potential client:
His adult kid was driving a pickup truck, license suspended, for forgetting to pay a ticket. Big Ooops #1.
He was pulled over and kid happens to have a handgun in the unlocked glove box. Big Ooops #2.
He gets arrested and charged with both DWLS and a CCW violation.
He has no Concealed Pistol License because, you see, they don't believe in CPLs, they believe in the Constitution [yes that's his emphasis right there].
I'm sure you can see where this is going.
I note that while I, too, love and believe in the Constitution, Michigan law is really clear that it requires him to either choose to have a CPL, or not have the pistol in the glove-box, and he's now facing a 5-year felony.
Based on the information provided, it sounds like they have the kid dead to rights (so to speak), and damage control is now needed.
Dad is like, "Well what about the Constitution, we have the right to bear arms and that's what should be argued!"
That's not how this works, that's not how any of this works.
That argument has been made before and lost many times before by others. Michigan law is real clear, crystal clear, that you cannot have a pistol in the glove-box of your vehicle if you don't have a CPL. Period. Flippin' Dot. Full Stop. Go To Jail. Do Not Pass Go.
I stated I can't make that argument in court because it is a losing argument and I know it is a losing argument. To even try and make that losing untenable argument is thus malpractice. If I make it, his kid is going to end up with a felony on his record and probably some jail time which would not be a happy-making result.
Not what he wanted to hear, so nope, not being retained on that one.
Not in a good way either:
That doth suck.
Quite a large nail, but interestingly, it held pressure pretty good and did not deflate the tire.
I only saw it when refilling all the tires as a cold snap made the low pressure light come on and all tires had dropped in pressure and it was face up staring at me as I came to fill the tire.
Sadly, it is apparently not a repairable nailing incident, and the tire needs to be replaced, which means replacing two tires as that tire model is no longer manufactured.
While at the conference last week, I was able to see a presentation by Chris Voss.
Mr. Voss is the former top hostage/kidnapping negotiator for the FBI. To say he has been there and done that is an understatement. He has a wealth of techniques for effectively communicating and negotiating as well as lots of captivating stories that demonstrate each of his points.
He's a riveting speaker with a great manner, sense of humor, and immense knowledge that he imparts in a very effective teaching style.
He notes that kidnapping is a business, with the commodity being human bodies and generally follows a business approach in many ways. Effective negotiation techniques do carry over to not just business but everyday life, whether talking with a spouse, child, opposing counsel, or potential client.
He's also the author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It.
To say it is a great book is an understatement. The techniques he discussed on the presentation are outlined, exemplified, and expounded upon in the book.
Yes, I got an autographed copy:
I've already read it once, and am reading it now for a second time as the book is full of material and techniques to be absorbed and tried. Yes, the techniques do work, especially with practice.
One amazing idea is to not make the other side say yes, but instead to have them say no. Seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it?
But, as he explains, it really does work and leads to effective negotiation, rather than a "yes" that really means "quit bugging me" or "quit being a manipulative salesman".
An absolutely fantastic presentation, and the book is top-notch, and highly recommended. I've already learned a lot and changed some of my methods in response to the techniques in the book.
Even if you think you never do any negotiation, everything you do in life does contain elements of negotiation - whether with you spouse, kid or others, and this book helps you communicate more effectively.
The book is very much worth reading and you'll more than recover the time invested in it in improvements in your communication and results.
Did you hear that history was made at the World Cup this year?
Since I'm not a soccer fan, this did not get my attention until now.
NPR: The first all-female referee team makes history at the World Cup
Yes, it was a historic moment having an all-female ref squad for the Costa Rica v. Germany game.
This really affected the game-play because:
Not only were these referees calling penalties that occurred during the game, they were penalizing the teams for what they did in past games over the last 20 years, too!
T'was a good day in court this morning.
In the never-ending case of the Pro-Per Plaintiff and Pro-Per Third-Party Defendant against my client, I made a significant tactical victory.
You see the Pro Per Third-Party Defendant, girlfriend -- and now wife -- of the pro-per plaintiff who we pulled into the case basically on the theory that if the Plaintiff gets anything against my client, she is liable to indemnify my client for any loss.
When I took Pro Per Third-Party Defendant's Deposition, she decided to get cute and refuse to answer a number of questions, claiming privilege because they are now married.
I did note then that that is not how it works as they weren't married at the time, and I wasn't even asking about communications but even observations of his claimed health status. I did ask about communications as well, and got blocked there too.
No that's not how the privilege works, but fine, go ahead and not answer then.
So I did a motion that argued per the court rules she can't change her ind and now talk about that stuff at trial:
A party who claims a privilege at a deposition may not at the trial offer the testimony of the deponent pertaining to the evidence objected to at the deposition.
So, since she refused to answer at the deposition, I file the motion and argue she can't testify at trial to everything she refused to testify to at deposition and attach the pages of the deposition transcript showing her refusing to answer and claiming privilege.
She then files a reply claiming I'm lying and she didn't refuse to answer, and she didn't really understand what she was doing by raising privilege, and who is the court gonna believe: Her or the Court's own lyin' eyes reading the transcript?
For those who are interested, the legal version of "Bitch, please" is "The Third-Party Defendant is being rather disingenuous".
As in "Third-Party Defendant is being rather disingenuous when she now claims in her response that she did not raise privilege and refuse to answer when the transcript of her deposition clearly shows her refusing to answer and stating on multiple occasions "I'm refusing, also privilege" (Ex A p.#); "I'm not waiving privilege"Ex A p.#); and "I'm not going to answer, privilege" (Ex A p.#).
The Court decided to side with my argument, the law, and it's own eyes over the Pro-Pers, about time.
So, the Court actually held one of the Pro-Pers to the rules and now you can't testify to anything she refused to answer during the deposition. This really puts a hole in their case as they don't have much in the way of witnesses to testify to his alleged condition, and it pretty much knocks her out as a witness for him, but keeps her in nicely for our claim against her. Going to be a lot harder for him to present his case as a result.
This trial is gonna be lit.
Returning from a work conference in Tampa yesterday, I saw a Doggo on the plane as I was getting off back in DTW.
Said doggo was very calm and well behaved the whole flight, and walked happily through the terminal after deplaning.
The flight back to Detroit started off on quite a funny note and was a reminder that yes, you were on a flight to Detroit.
The steward doing the passenger boarding announcement stated it was a very full flight.
The Detroit specific part:
He then stated that everyone should put their put their bags in the overhead bins on their sides like a book going back on a bookshelf to fit, and there’s a diagram inside the bin if you’ve never seen a bookshelf. Ouch.
The only WNBA trade to raise anyone's interest, is that of Anti-American druggy Brittney Griner for Russian Arms Dealer Extraordinaire Viktor Bout.
American Paul Whelan (falsely accused and convicted of Espionage) was not part of the deal and is still left behind in Russia. Interestingly according to NBC apparent Russia offered one or the other and then NBC edited that this offer had occurred.
Apparently the Biden Administration asked nicely for Whelan to be released, Russia said "No", and Biden apparently said "Ok then".
Biden said: “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up ”"We will never give up" he says, while giving up by trading away the best leverage the US had in the deal by not insisting Whelan be included for Bout as Bout clearly has a higher value than Griner, and indeed more than Griner and Whelan combined.
As a result, there was a trade of a high-value infamous international arms dealer with blood on his hands and a tool of Russian foreign policy for an avowed anti-American, intersectional, progressive, drug-using, and mediocre ball player to win domestic popularity points.
Biden's negotiators clearly missed out on their negotiation 101 skills and were playing checkers as the Russians played chess or just wanted a quick success for domestic consumption while losing their main chance at freeing Whelan.
So, any one know if there are other Russian criminal masterminds with ties to the Russian regime in American jails at the moment?
This is a very fun week at the training center.
Hoodie choke week happens once a year.
Instead of wearing Gis or the standard no-Gi outfits, you show up wearing a hoodie along with your Gi pants.
Showing up while wearing only a hoodie would make people a tad concerned, just sayin'.
As the name implies, you're gonna get choked with your hoodie when you're playing the attacker.
The Hoodie acts as a rope and you can control someone's movements via their hood, and it gives your arms some nice leverage to effect chokes on an attacker. Note that these are blood chokes - cutting off blood to the brain, rather than air chokes where you prevent people from breathing.
So last night, we got to practice chokes on attackers from various positions (standing, mount, guard, backmount, and sidemount) and much fun was had by all. Hoodies give tons of opportunities for both controlling and choking an attacker wearing a hoodie.
I expect it would be most disheartening for an attacker wearing a hoodie to attack someone and then get choked out by their own clothing.
More fun to look forward to as hoodie choke week continues.
Well, anti-semite Hassan Yehia Chokr flunked the First Rule of Arraignments.
The First Rule of Arraignments: Don't threaten the judge, nor call her names.
By doing so he failed to both win friends and influence people in a positive way.
Detroit Free Press: Police: Dearborn suspect told people at Michigan synagogue they were 'going to die'
A Dearborn man charged in an antisemitic attack at a historic synagogue in Bloomfield Township remained in custody Monday afternoon after a magistrate set a bond of $1 million at an arraignment where the suspect shouted derogatory and anti-Jewish remarks at the magistrate.
It turns out Chokr on top of his latest threats, has an open and ongoing felony case for assault with a dangerous weapon and assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer dating to 2019 that is finally heading towards a pretrial finally this month in Wayne County.
He also has one heckuva long record with the Dearborn District Court - Over 30 cases including both civil infractions and misdemeanors dating back years.
So, he ended up with a million dollar cash surety bond, so he'll likely get to spend some more time in jail accordingly.
This also could have been titled: Is that a gun in your pocket and now you;re not happy to see me?
Fox 2 Detroit: 14-year-old caught with gun after asking MSP trooper for bus info
A 14-year-old from Detroit asked a Michigan State trooper for help determining when a bus would arrive - only to be caught with a loaded 9mm, according to MSP.
. . .
the trooper offered a ride, which was accepted.
The trooper asked for a pat down before giving him a ride in his car - which was agreed upon.
That's when the loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson was found in his waistband.
Yes, he not only approached a state trooper while carrying illegally and being in the commission of a nice 5-year felony, he then accepted a ride and a pat down while doing so. The ride certainly didn't end up going where he likely intended it to end.
Not sure how the kid is going to live this one down, really. That has to mess with your street cred.
On Friday December 2, a fellow in a white van drove into the parking lot of Temple Beth El Synagogue, while kids were being let out of religious school, and apparently started shouting such pleasantries according to people who were present, as "Death to the Jews"; "Kanye was right"; and that perennial favorite "Death to Israel".
Temple security responded, and police were contacted.
Bloomfield Township Police stopped and identified him and then let him go.
News reports have actually underplayed this activity as "arguing about the support of Israel" which is a rather quaint if not absolutely BS way to describe the event.
However, "arguing about the support of Israel", even on private property not your own, doesn't get you criminally charged, and now he has been, and is now identified and charged with ethnic intimidation: Hassan Yehia Chokr, 35 of Dearborn, Michigan.
Local 4: Man charged with ethnic intimidation after antisemitic incident at Bloomfield Hills synagogue
Oakland County Prosecutor, Karen McDonald, says the charges stem from the 35-year-old making antisemitic and racist threats to parents, young children, and security personnel at a preschool and synagogue.
Yep, that's not "arguing about the support of Israel" at all, now is it?
Well, he is now getting the pleasure of spending the rest of the weekend in the Oakland County jail pending arraignment.
Apparently they finally decided to charge him after they found he posted a video of his actions online which apparently doesn't support the just "arguing about Israel" line at all. Can't find the video yet and it appears he or someone else may have locked down his social media accounts some time after doing so.
Update: Found his Instagram account with some interesting videos on it: https://www.instagram.com/freedomfighterhassan/
So picture this scenario:
You're a Canadian flight crew about to depart from the Dominican Republic with your passengers. During your pre-flight walk-around, you find someone has shoved eight duffel bags full of cocaine into the avionics bay.
Not only is this hella illegal, it is rather dangerous. The avionics bay is not for cargo and shoving those bags in there creates a fire hazard not to mention the potential for damage and interference to systems that keep the aircraft on course and flying.
So you do the right thing and inform the Dominican authorities and the RCMP about the cocaine.
The result is all your flight crew gets arrested and then held for almost 8 months in the Dominican Republic.
They then were released not from Canadian government pressure, or say the Dominican Republic completing its investigation. Instead the case was dropped when a CTV news crew came to the DR and started asking questions.
The Flight Crew was apparently not even interviewed once in the over 7 months they were held.
Kudos to CTV's W5 news team for getting their fellow Canadians released.
CTV: Pivot Airlines crew back in Canada after being trapped in Dominican Republic since spring
The accident in which the Mooney caught the three-wire, along with the rest of the Tower, in Gaithersburg, Maryland drew quite a bit of attention given its rather rare occurrence of the plane hitting the tower, remaining intact, and both occupants surviving the incident.
There is an early analysis courtesy of AOPA which is rather interesting:
In short, the pilot was flying IFR, doing an RNAV 14 approach and had clear issues both getting onto the appropriate heading to reach the initial fix and then handling after hitting the final approach fix. With weather conditions below minimums and some windshear, the pilot descended below the RNAV vertical guidance and seemed to be off laterally as well to strike the tower.
There appears however to be a neat new exemption from full and final enforcement of this law when you're caught violating it.
Apparently it is unwritten so far in the statutes, but it is now colloquially known as the College Ball Player Exemption.
The Detroit News: Mazi Smith, Michigan defensive lineman, charged with carrying concealed weapon
The Detroit Free Press:Michigan football's Mazi Smith will 'continue to participate' on team despite felony charge
Yes, Wolverine football star Mazi Smith was caught riding dirty with a pistol and no CPL and no driver's license for that matter.
Given this happened in Washtenaw County, home of the UofM and a very progressive and very anti-gun prosecutor, who is publicly all about taking illegal guns off the streets, stopping gun violence, etc, you'd think the law might be enforced to its fullest for such a slam dunk "gun" crime.
Think again.
This is the same prosecutor that dropped the CCW Felony charge against B-ball player Emoni Bates. Given the UofM Wolverine's very winning season this year, Mazi Smith is an even bigger name than Ypsi's Emoni, and Mazi Smith is also Black as well, so I reckon he will get the same special College Ball Player Exemption to the felony charge.
Indeed Mazi is also getting the Wolverine special "Let him play ball with pending felony charges" because he's a "tremendous young man". You can't make that up.
Stay tuned, and we will see where this goes, but I know which way I'm betting as to how this turns out.
We had an "invisible" fence installed last winter for the dogs. Partially due to my surgery talking me off the dog walking roster. It works pretty well at keeping the dogs in the yard.
Unfortunately it was installed by an idiot.
The wires were buried after it thawed this year, but the burying was pretty crappy. The wires coming out of the garage where they were plugged in had been cut and connected with the standard orange non-waterproof connectors and not buried too deep with two of them not buried at all. On top of that one of the wires had uninsulated wire poking out of the cap.
Either the dogs or other creatures dug near the wires, and the wires would then short out basically whenever it rained or snowed, which was not good. It would then set off a loud alarm in the garage that the loop was broken. Once it dried outside the alarm stopped and it worked again.
So, I decided to take a shot at fixing it. I used waterproof connectors, covered then in electrical tape and then put silicon tape for more waterproofing on top of the electrical tape and wrapped it around tightly.
Two of the connectors live in a hole in the ground under a rock that keeps them sheltered from dogs or other predators that might like to rip them up. The other two don't have a rock above them and are just standing up not buried in the dirt, so I need to figure out how best to rebury them.
So far all four repairs are holding up well, without shorting out even through a snowfall here and a major rainstorm since the repair was done. I will need to rebury them soon, unlike how the fellow left them, once I'm sure the fix is still holding up.
The Detroit Institute of Arts is hosting a special "Van Gogh In America" exhibit, bringing together multiple works of Van Gogh for public display at the DIA.
Security was rather tight and they're not allowing bags in.
I had planned to see the exhibit and then do some work in their courtyard after seeing the exhibit, but due to vile progs defacing art in the name of Global Warming Climate Change, you can't bring bags in anymore including laptop bags. So, we decided to just see the exhibit and then head back to do work afterward.
This is not the immersive traveling Van Gogh exhibit, but rather the actual paintings on a special exhibit. There are 74 Van Gogh paintings and sketches on display in the exhibit brought in from numerous institutions to be put on for this exhibition.
Including the very one first purchased by the DIA in 1922, which was the first purchase of a Van Gogh by an American Art Museum.
This one:
One of his rather famous self-portraits.
He did a lot of self-portraits, being unable to afford models much of the time. Quite neat to see it in person along with the other art works. Apparently, the DIA caught quite a bit of flack back then for buying it as Van Gogh's art wasn't considered quite artsy enough at the time.
Lots of his works have olive trees:
This is because they were outside the windows of the asylum he checked himself into for mental issues.
He had a mental condition that we would likely diagnose as Bi-Polar today.
In his final days, he produced 75 paintings in 70 days. Can you say manic episode?
Van Gogh died at a young age from suicide in 1890 at the age of 37. A lot of talent that sadly burnt out at so young an age.
His art took some time after his death to catch on in America. It finally started to become popular here in 1935 due to a the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition of his work which caught peoples attention and led to its popularity.
Quite a nice exhibit and a nice morning break from the office and the usual day-to-day.
If you're near the Detroit area, I'd recommend taking the time to go see it. There are tickets required with set viewing times, as they want to limit the number of people who are in the exhibit to allow people to be able to enjoy it and be able to easily view the art without it being crowded.
I recently went to Total Wine, which is a dangerous place - think a Costco-sized building full of different wines and spirits from around the world. Quite a few interesitng bottles were purchased.
I was looking for some Sherry by Lustau for Tash, as we had tried some lovely sweet Lustau Sherry as a dessert finisher at a bar one night, and accidentally picked up and purchased a bottle of Amontillado Los Arcos that was mixed in with the sweeter Lustau Sherry that Tash likes.
It turns out it was quite a happy accident. Of course we were expecting a sweet Sherry so the initial taste was rather not what were were expecting but it quickly grew on me.
The Amontillado is a dry sherry, not sweet but very refined and is most pleasant to drink. It is dry but not sand-papery. Not bitter, nor overly tannic, nor harsh as you might expect a fortified wine to be, it drinks most smoothly, and has a lot of depth and subtle flavors, and the aftertaste is very nice indeed.
If you think all sherries are sweet dessert wines think again.
While there's absolutely nothing wrong with sweet dessert wines and the sweeter sherry, Amontillado changes your concept of what sherry can be. This smooth, dry, light brown colored liquid stands on its own.
How good is it? Well, after drinking this, I can understand why the fellow in the tale of the Cask of Amontillado was so easily lured with the promise of trying some fine Amontillado.
So if you come across a bottle of Lustau Los Arcos Amontillado Sherry, don't run away thinking it is a dessert drink. Instead, it's a rather fine wine. Apparently Sherry also offers impressive health benefits (This study brought to you by the Sherry industry), so there's yet another reason beyond simple enjoyment to consume it responsibly.
The Royal Mint has released a series commemorating the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and the longest reign of a monarch in the history of the United Kingdom.
Interestingly, these coins will also be the first coins to bear the portrait of the new monarch, Charles III, on the obverse of the coin, making the end of an era:
This makes for quite an interesting holiday gift to the coin collector, investor, or historical enthusiast that's on your list.
With brilliant uncirculated crowns that have two portraits of Queen Elizabeth II on the reverse going for around US$17, and 50 pence with a different reverse design consisting of coats of arms going for $13.14 on the low end, there's plenty for the starting collector. You can also, if there's a goldbug in your life, get a commemorative memorial sovereign for $830.00.
These will only be on sale through December 31, 2022 or until they run out. A neat opportunity to pickup a piece of history.
Fox 2 Detroit: 3 suspects sought by Detroit police after Henry Ford High School students shot in ambush
Two students were both struck in a drive-by shooting outside Henry Ford High School in Detroit Monday afternoon in what police say is a targeted attack.
Chief James White said the injuries were not life-threatening, however, but victims were struck twice during the attack. Three suspects are now sought in the ambush.
"We know who we're looking for," said Detroit Police Chief James White.
. . .
"We are looking for three African-American males possibly all three wearing masks," White said. "No one else is at risk it appears to be an isolated incident, (a result) of a conflict that groups were having.
It looks like T-Dog, Jr. and Ray-Ray, Jr., while turning their lives around, ticked off a rival gang that decided to do some drive-by payback as conflict resolution. Since the police know who they are looking for, I expect the criminals involved will have prior records, if not gun-owning disqualifying felonies. To no one's surprise, said criminals will have been somehow free to drive around the streets and obtain firearms to commit crimes.
Unfortunately, being on/near school grounds, various anti-gun organizations and the media will consider and record this a "school shooting" (note the handy statistics site linked, that is often referenced by the media, et al considers an event a :"school shooting" even if no one is shot, and even counts an event as a "school shooting" when a firearm is not even discharged) rather than a gang-related crime of violence independent of a school as a reason for the shooting, and add it to their misleading statistics.
While the World Cup in Qatar is on people's minds currently, it's an opportunity to look at how crazy non-Americans can be about soccer.
So crazy they actually have gone to war over it.
In the Football War, the nations of El Salvador and Honduras traded barbs and soccer hooliganism in the 1969 qualifiers as they competed for spots in the FIFA 1970 World Cup.
This soccer-related violence and taunting rapidly came to a head, and El Salvador opened the match, uh, war, by bombing targets in Honduras by strapping bombs to passenger aircraft to act as bombers, and it then invaded Honduras with its larger army.
Honduras called offsides, and bombed El Salvadoran airfields back, and the last recorded propeller-plane warbird vs propeller plane warbird air combat then took place, with Honduran F4U Corsairs fighting El Salvadoran Cavalier Mustangs and FG-1D Corsairs. Honduras seemed to have the advantage in the air, but the advantage of El Salvadoran numbers on the pitch ground more than made up for that.
The OAS was then called in to referee the match, and as in many soccer games, while El Salvador took an early 1-0 lead on the ground, progress and gameplay was impressively slow, and after much passing and quite a few penalties, the match overall ended in a tie.
A ceasefire was declared, El Salvador withdrew from Honduran territory (along with thousands of El Salvadorans who had been living in Honduras prior to the outbreak of hostilities, leading to an economic crisis in El Salvador) and El Salvador then advanced on to the 1970 FIFA World Cup to be eliminated after its first three matches.
Yes, there was an actual shooting war lasting 100 hours over soccer.
We will close this historical footnote out by noting that the combined losses to both El Salvador and Honduras in the Football War is lower than the death toll of construction workers who built the soccer stadiums for this year's World Cup in Qatar - 3,000 deaths combined in the war as compared to 6,500+ who have died building the stadiums.
Went to the Novi Gun & Knife Show with couple friends today.
Got there at about 10 am and the place was rather humming:
So we wandered around the aisles.
Interestingly, quite a few aisles had quite an odor of instant NICS denial.
I suspect quite a few marijuana users were about to run headlong into Form 4473 Question 21.e.
They were about to find out that while it may be legal to use marijuana in Michigan, the Feds still do not allow you to purchase firearms if you're a marijuana user, and given the way the smell permeated entire areas of the show, and oft appeared like a halo around some folks, there were quite a few heavy users there.
Overall, the show was rather entertaining in terms of walking around and getting to look at things. It was even more entertaining to see what dealers were charging for things.
SKSs were in the $900+ range, Mosin Nagants in the $550-800 range, there was a Turkish Mauser at $600 that looked like Johnny Turk hadn't cleaned it since Gallipoli. Even the more modern stuff was priced above retail: Tavors at over 2K; Century Arms AP-5s at $2,500; and Ruger LC Carbines for $1100 (You can buy these at Cabelas, or online all day at $799 and even paying your LGS the $20 for the transfer you're still way ahead over the show price. Ammo and magazines were similarly priced at or even above the top of the market.
In short, the prices at my friendly LGS were much better than those at the Gun Show where deals were supposed to abound. No bargains were to be found after wandering the aisles looking for them.
I did, however, almost buy this to deal with the Driveway of Doom™ this winter:
The purchase was, however, not approved by she-who-must-be-obeyed when it comes to considerations of snow clearance while not scaring the neighbors, so it is on hold for now pending further negotiation.
So, overall, it was more of a looking expedition, fun people-watching and listening, especially to dealers tell stories about firearms that were rather entertaining and often flat-out wrong.
For example, contrary to the dealer talking to an interested show attendant, India did not convert 2A1 Ishapore Enfield rifles into 7.62 Jungle Carbines and then use them as such making it a "rare historic rifle for $1,500".
What instead you have there sir is a Navy Arms/Gibbs rifle conversion that was done after they purchased the full-sized rifle as surplus from India, cut it down and cleaned it up, and it was never used by the Indian military as a jungle carbine. It was a nice-looking rifle for all that, but caveat emptor indeed.
So yep, a fun time walking around and worth the $10 price of admission, even if I didn't find anything worth buying that I couldn't find retailing anywhere else for much less.
Then my friends and I went out for Korean food for lunch, and one friend who was stationed in Korea some years ago stated it was indeed most authentic and really good - and indeed it was really good.
Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
One item to consider for purchase this weekend is a brace for an AR or AK pistol you may consider building.
Certainly there are some good sales for them going on at the moment from various vendors for Black Friday.
Since it appears that ATFE is about to issue their ruling in December that effectively makes AR15/AK braced pistols SBRs and it seems they may offer a free registration of such pistol braced SBRs saving $200 per pistol thus made by regulatory fiat into an SBR there is an opportunity here.
There's also some peril in this ruling, as some states allow pistol braced pistols but do not allow SBRs, and the legal interplay between state and federal law and their competing definitions can be problematic.
The interplay can also be beneficial. In Michigan, for example, you can have a firearm that is both a Federal registered SBR and a Pistol under Michigan law at the same time, which allows for some interesting and useful things to happen if you have a concealed pistol license.
In 2019 there were some 413,167 SBRs in the NFRTR.
There are estimated at least 3-7 million braced pistols out there, which would increase the number of SBRs on the registry almost 20-fold. Since those are rookie numbers we ought to pump those numbers up some this weekend.
Anyone else think statistical proof that 7,413,167+ SBRs are in circulation would make a convincing argument that SBRs are in common use. Hence SBRs as found to be in common use should not be banned by a State nor need to registered Federally as unusual and dangerous weapons?
Hence go forth and get a a brace and assemble yourself or buy a completed an AR pistol prior to the regulation coming out. It's fun, it's easy, and you will likely get a free Form 1 and help make SBRs common use items.
In short ATFE classifying braced pistols as SBRs may just have a wonderful unintended consequence of providing the fodder for a challenge to the banning of SBRs by states and requiring their registration and control federally on the basis of the common use test.
So go on out and brace up this weekend!
The Thanksgiving meal has now been had as is tradition.
The turkey I made came out great, being roasted in the oven.
The sides from mashed potatoes to corn mush, squash, green beans and more also were all very tasty.
Birthday cake will follow momentarily, after we have a break.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
As is tradition, a Cherry Cheesecake was served for breakfast in bed.
All candles were blown out in one solid breath and delicious cheesecake was then served.
Presents then followed.
Things will be Done next. Happy Shenanigans may ensue,
Then after Things are Done, Thanksgiving dinner will be prepared and served .
Amazing how the years fly by and the firstborn is now 19. She's an amazing, smart, and beautiful young woman now. She just signed her first lease ever for a shared apartment to begin next year as a Sophomore at University.
Happy Birthday Abby!
Texting while driving is bad. Shooting yourself while driving is even worse.
Fox 2: Man accidentally shoots self with unholstered pistol while driving on I-94
The fellow had a CPL, but apparently lacked the sense to carry in a holster. He apparently then "shifted" the firearm while driving and shot himself in the leg.
No information is provided as to what kind of pistol it was, but I'd suspect it was a striker-fired pistol of some sort, and with the trigger unprotected by a holster, he likely nudged the trigger enough while moving the firearm in his pants to cause it to fire.
Firearms and holsters are like peanut butter and jelly - a great combination and one is not great for carrying alone by itself without the other.
Shoving a firearm down your pants without a holster to protect the trigger is highly sub-optimal.
Then playing with it as it likely moved from where you shoved it as you don't have it in a holster makes it worse. That messing about with it opens opportunities for you to discharge it in a manner you would not expect nor desire. In addition, not having it in a holster and having it move about as it may will cut down on your ability to effectively access it should you need it to protect your life - having to find it after it has fallen down your pants leg and potentially got stuck there probably doesn't give you quick access to it at your moment of need.
If you carry a gun, have a quality holster for it that not just protects the trigger but also protects you and keeps the gun where you placed it so it doesn't go flopping about just anywhere.
If you can afford to carry a gun, you certainly should afford to carry it in a decent holster. The leg (or other body parts) you save might be your own, or your passengers, or an innocent in another car.
So last night they had the Annual Detroit Tree Lighting.
There's quite a list of things you can't bring to attend the lighting ceremony:
Of course, weapons are banned, firearms most especially, but they seem to dislike quality cameras as well. In reading the list, pretty much everything is banned or can be banned, including underwear if it has any explicit, profane or derogatory characterizations.
Funnily enough, the ban on firearms inexplicably did not prevent two shootings:
The Detroit News: 2 shootings confirmed near Detroit tree lighting, police chief says
Criminals don't obey no carry zones - who knew?
Both shootings seems to be due to an "altercation" between two rival groups of youths with in the first shooting a 15-year-old getting a round in the neck. The second shooting also had a "youth" getting shot and police believe the shootings are related.
Gov Whitmer's campaign slogan in the 2018 election was she was going "To Fix The Damn Roads".
Despite a very visible flurry of construction that -- coincidentally I'm sure -- started around the beginning this year's campaign season, after years of her not doing much, she now says she's ready to fix the damn roads.
The Detroit Free Press: Whitmer: Entirely new approach needed to 'fix the damn roads'
So Gov, what have you been doing these past 4 years then on your signature campaign issue?
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she still wants to "fix the damn roads" as she begins her second and final term, but now believes an entirely new funding system is needed, to allow for the growth in electric vehicles and associated drop in gasoline consumption.
I expect we will see not much real action on fixing the roads, aside from her trying to push a new tax scheme. I further expect that much of the money raised in such scheme will go not to fixing the damn roads but to more Democrat pet projects like mass transit and various government commissions on mass transit, urban panning, etc. Got to keep that graft going, after all.
At least she claims she is backing away from her 45 cent-per-gallon gas tax increase plan - at least for now.
Barcelona has a rather long history of antisemitism, which can still be seen in its buildings today.
From the attack on the Jewish Quarted of Barcelona in 1391; to the massacre in 1349 when Barcelonians decided to attack Jews blaming them for the Black Plague; to the attack and destruction of the Jewish Quarter in 1391 when at least 3,000 Jews were killed, to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 and then the Inquisition as well.
So it's always interesting to see the rulers of Barcelona return to their historic trends.
Barcelona City Council is apparently working on a resolution to "un-twin" Barcelona from Tel Aviv in the name of social justice and BDS. How soon Barcelona forgets Tel Aviv standing by Barcelona after the 2017 ISIS terorist attack, or this is simply another example of Barcelona showing the terrorism works.
We'll note the Barcelona City Council is run by The Socialist Party of Catalonia and the Barcelona en Comú party which has a "social justice" theme. Progressives/Socialists as antisemites? Well, no surprise there.
Sadly not surprising at all.
Just finished up representing a friend's girlfriend, who we will call Y, in Detroit District Court on a misdemeanor charge and got the case successfully dismissed.
The problem is the uphill battle it took to get there, and it is part of why I really detest going to Detroit District Court. At least it was by Zoom so we saved travel time and parking.
The scenario: Y was an employee at a restaurant. Y was the only person there when A City of Detroit Inspector came in in January 2022. They ask for her ID, likely she thinks to verify she is of age to serve alcohol at a restaurant, and nothing else is stated and the inspector leaves.
Y thinks nothing of it, and a few months later gets a ticket in the mail for having an unlicensed restaurant, which is a misdemeanor.
Turns out that while all the state permits are in order, and the City of Detroit Annual Health department license is in order, the City of Detroit annual Building License is not, but we could not know that from the ticket and indeed didn't even know that until today, the second pretrial. Note the sheer number of license and permits you need to just run a restaurant in Detroit (never mind the hundreds of dollars in licensing fees) - and people wonder why businesses aren't exactly flocking there.
Small problem, by the time she gets the ticket she doesn't even work there anymore. The owner who we will call O is not exactly super cooperative in trying to figure out what is going on but after being talked with agrees to help her out and is eventually is willing to step up and say substitute him on the ticket for her as she really should have this ticket in the first place. Oh, and to top everything off, the restaurant is currently out of business. She also never had the authority or ability to apply for a license for a business she does not own, and she's not an employee surely couldn't now even if she wanted to do so.
All of my efforts to contact the City attorney prior to pretrial result in a null response. They don't call me back and no one will tell me even who is the prosecutor assigned the case.
So at the first pretrial I check in with the court on time and ask to speak with the prosecutor to figure this out. Court Clerk says ok and then pops me and my client in a Zoom room where we wait. Prosecutor doth not cometh.
Over an hour passes. I pop out of the room and ask the Court clerk what's going on. The judge then asks me if we have a plea and I state no we're still waiting on the prosecutor to discuss and try to get this figured out. The judge says its up to me to find the prosecutor - on Zoom. I reply that's truly great but could I get a hint first such as perhaps the name of the prosecutor and some contact information please so I have a shot at finding him/her? The judge is like - that's on you and is rather unhelpful.
Court clerk actually gives me a hint at that point by at least giving me the prosecutor's last name, and then the prosecutor shows up.
Prosecutor does not believe anything and thinks my client is trying to con him and is secretly the owner. No kidding. Refuses to dismiss against her and file against the owner. Says it's up to me to prove who the owner is and to contact the Health Department and Building department. So we set it for a second pretrial today.
Ok then. I call both the Health Department and Building Department, and get no responses to multiple calls and emails, I find a Health Department inspection website where I download their record which shows the owner is indeed O and not my client. That's as far as I get, no one returns my calls or emails.
Second pretrial is today.
O and Y are both online with me which is nice. O agrees he's good with having Y out of it and put it all on him to figure out what the problem is. I talk to the prosecutor and he again first thinks I'm lying when I say I didn't get any response back from the Health Department and Building department as I have the report showing who the owner is - which he still doesn't believe. I note I got the report. as I had already told him two weeks ago when I emailed it to him, from a publicly available city website not from the departments directly and I had sent him the link so he could do his own search already to prove I'm not making it up.
I then finally find out this is about the Building License not the Health Department license and he then offers a plea deal of Y pleading guilty with a deferred sentence that drops if she can have the building properly licensed within a certain amount of time.
I note she can't accept that as again, as I told him before, she's not an owner, she doesn't work there, and she certainly can't get a license for it, and the place is closed down. But, I state the owner is present today and willing to be subsituted on the ticket so could we dismiss and then he can refile if need be.
He doesn't want to do that and still claims that I might be trying to make things up to trick him. FFS.
I send the Prosecutor a copy of O the Owner's driver's license at that point so he can see the name exactly matches that on the ownership records and other licenses, and it turns out O has the receipt for the 2022 Building license he paid for in February 2022, but the City is dragging its heels issuing it. In short the Building license is already applied for and there's really nothing my client Y could do now even if she wanted to do so.
He says no we should take it to trial and the building inspector will show up at trial and decide then what to do.
I note calmly that it sounds like a rather bad idea from my perspective and I'm not having my client go to trial in the hope the inspector might change his mind at trial. Trials get kinda expensive and this is going off into never-never land.
Finally, after again my going over all the evidence and the again stating the situation he finally agrees to dismiss the case against my client, two and a half hours into the second pretrial.
The prosecutor and I enter our appearances on the record and then enter the dismissal on the record before a different and far nicer judge than the first one. (note - always, always have your dismissal entered on the record so there's proof it happened) and my client is fionally done with no risk of a misdemeanor on her record.
A great result, but it took about almost 5 hours of court time total to get done what should have been wrapped up in 30 minutes to at most an hour. Sheesh.
A terrible accident at the Commemorative Air Force’s Wings Over Dallas Show occurred yesterday.
Fox 4: Historic military planes collide in mid-air crash at Dallas Executive Airport
The B-17 Texas Raider, seen in better days above, was lost with all on board.
The P-63 Kingcobra that struck the B-17 was also lost with its pilot.
Freom looking at the various videos of the collision, it looks like the P-63 deviated from its own airshow lane and crossed into the B-17's airshow lane and hit it behind the wing, severing the rear fuselage leading to both planes having uncontrolled crashes. The NTSB investigation will probably provide more detail in time.
Given the angle of approach, The B-17 pilots most likely never saw it coming and had no chance to react, and had no chance at all to recover after the collision.
That makes six dead in a tragic accident, along with the loss of two irreplaceable historic aircraft.
There's hopefully going to be a lot of analysis, spending time in the woodshed, and then a lot of work put in by Republicans to turn this around - if it can even be done given the structural disadvantages that just got baked into our State's Constitution.
1. While the MI GOP were playing checkers, the Democrats have been playing chess, if not using a different board entirely.
Some major structural issues mailed the Republicans this election:
A. With the Dem-led "Voters not Politicians" redrawing the electoral map to make it "competitive" it gave a significant advantage to the Dems. Failure to effectively stop this referendum campaign, or battle the new gerrymandered map that resulted has given the Dems a massive advantage.
B. Absentee for no reason, Mail in / dropbox voting which kills off the chain of custody of the ballots and opens the way to lots and lots of opportunities for fraud.
2. The MI GOP then left these issues unfixed and then compounded these structural errors and decided to fight the battle on the terms set by the Democrats - on Abortion and Trump.
Great decision making there, well done.
They fell right into that trap rather than on solid issues they would win on - Whitmer's actions during the lockdowns, the economy, and how the Democrats on the national level have been making a mess of the country this state.
Does the GOP and its candidates not have any polling done before deciding on their strategy? At all?
Had Tudor Dixon not chosen to make Abortion her number one issue by making a hardline statement that was even beyond what the 1931 law held - that she was for no exceptions for abortion including even for the life of the mother, she could have separated voting for her from voting for Proposal 3.
Instead she lost and Proposal Three passed.
Yes, Proposal Three just made Michigan a more than Roe state and just enshrined it in the constitution and given the language of the amendment just got rid of most, if not all prior legal restrictions on abortion. And it got the Dems out in droves.
She didn't separate herself and instead nicely tied herself to it in a way to make independents say no to voting for her. Talking to independents and Dems that I know, the only thing they heard was Tudor's extreme anti-abortion stance and that was enough for them to vote no on her no matter how much they had issues with Whitmer. Had she toned it down her message might of been heard but her broadcast hardliner statements that were even more extreme than not just Roe but the 1931 law doomed that. It also didn't help that Whitmer was outfunding and outspending Dixon by 10 to 1 or m ore, but at least have a viable message that can get more than just a portion of your base to vote for you.
That the GOP didn't think ahead, plan, and refine her message so they were not fighting on the exact ground chosen by Democrats is inexplicable.
3. The MI GOP ran some truly horrendous candidates, again choosing the ground picked by Democrats. How many Democrats crossed over in the primary to help pick the worst possible candidates is uncertain, but that likely helped as well.
DePerno had to come off as a raving lunatic of a candidate.
Look, while Whitmer should be investigated and prosecuted for lots of good reasons, you do not announce you're going to do it until after you're elected, not before to energize your opponents. See our Current AG Nessel and her prosecution of former Governor Snyder for how to play this political game. You also do not put up someone running for AG who is being currently investigated for potentially violating Michigan law for messing with voting machines. But the GOP did and Nasty Nessel got easily reelected as a result in what should have been an easy win. 2020 election denial without court-admissible proof, not theories, goes nowhere folks.
People, election fraud is hard to prove. But either prove it, or instead work to stop it happening in the future. Going off with unprovable theories does not cut it at all.
If DePerno was instead running to ensure Nessel was re-elected Attorney General it is hard to see what he would do differently.
Karamo the Republican Secretary of State candidate decided to put Trump front and center in her campaign and even filed a lawsuit seeking an extraordinary remedy of injunctive relief for absentee voting in Detroit on the very eve of the election without any admissible evidence to win. Good job rilling up Detroit and every possible Democrat with that right before the election, and completely tainting claims of actual fraud by this absolute incompetence in filing a frivolous lawsuit. Really nicely done. Again, Benson was beatable on the issues, but Karamo chose Trump and unprovable theories that made her unelectable.
If Karamo was running to ensure a Benson was elected Secretary of State it is hard to see what she would do differently.
Chief Craig, who would have been very hard to beat in the run for governor, got "ratfucked" as they say, by a corrupt Democrat and felon-led signature collecting fraud drive. Unsurprisingly, our Democrat AG is not investigating. That the opportunity for this even happened at all is inexplicable. It belies a complete lack of competence by his campaign and the other 5 candidates to whom this occurred, and a clear lack of infrastructure for signature collecting and for guidance by the state party.
In short, the Democrats outmaneuvered the Republicans at every damn turn and the Republican candidates happily obliged and decided to fight according to the exact terms set by the Democrats and lost handily.
As a result we got Proposal 3 passed, if you didn't like abortion in Michigan before, you're really gonna hate how unrestricted it is now.
Even worse we got Proposal 2 passed which makes it:
- Even easier for elections to be "fortified", and it certainly is written on a manner that can be interpreted that even felons in prison (a nice Democrat voting block) have a right to vote in elections.
- ensures the straight-party ticket beloved by the Democrats is now a constitutional lock.
- allows out-of-state and corporate money to "help" fund elections (remember when Democrats used to want corporate money out of politics? - good times, those),
- removes any chance at independent audits of an election allowing only the Secretary of State to do an audit and it is written in a manner to keep political parties from inspecting or having any role in the conducting of the audit.
-Makes certification of the vote a ministerial duty and doesn't allow the Certification Board to meaningfully investigate nor contest election results.
Basically this is a Democrat wish-list for handling elections and to prevent fraud investigations or election accountability so long as they control the Secretary of State slot, that just got enshrined into our State Constitution - and they sold it under the false claim of requiring people to have to have ID to vote.
Proposal 2 is a disaster for this state.
That there were no Republican led proposals on the ballot to strengthen elections, and for many other areas that things could be improved structurally is unfathomable and a missed opportunity.
The MIGOP needs to sit down and reassess their message and tactics, and it looks like they're starting to do so, but not soon enough. Republicans in this state are now way, way behind the 8-ball in this state and the Democrat machinations to date unless effectively challenged are going to keep Democrats in power and Republicans out for a long time to come.
