So I Van Went To Van Gogh

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.

A Discovery Of Amontillado

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.

Queen Elizabeth II And Modern Numismatic History

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.

You Can Bet This Incident Will be Recorded As A "School Shooting"

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.

The Soccer War

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.

Saturday: To The Gun Show

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.

Brace Yourself For Black Friday Weekend?

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!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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!

Someone Turned 19 Today

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!

No, Really, Don't Do That With Your Pistol

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.

Surprise: Detroit Criminals Don't Obey No-Carry Zones

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.

So Gov Whitmer You Spent The Last 4 Years Doing What About Roads Exactly?

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.

Scratch A Barcelona Socialist, Find An Antisemite

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.

Where The Process Is The Punishment

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.

Two Airplanes And Crews Down In Airshow Collision

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.

Why The Dems Ran The Table In Michigan

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.

Does Detroit Have More Registered Voters Than Population Actually Eligible To Vote?

It certainty appears so.

Per the City of Detroit Election Website, there were 508,535 Detroiters registered to vote for the 2022 election.

The total population of Detroit per the 2020 census is 672,351 and the current census population estimate for 2021 is 632,464.

Of that population,  the census has 32% of the population under the age of 18. Hence that 32% of the population is ineligible to be registered to vote.

That would imply that around 202,388 of the population is too young to vote. Even if we ignore the 2021 estimate and pretend the population didn't change at all from 2020 that would make 215,152 people ineligible to vote.

That would imply the total pool of people in Detroit eligible to register to voter is 430,076, or if you believe the population hasn't declined even a bit since 2020, a total of 457,199.

Anyone see the issue?

Even if Detroit managed to register 100% of those eligible to vote, which would be quite an unlikely feat of efficiency indeed, there should be 78,459 or 51,336 less voters on the voting rolls than there are currently.

Interestingly, even after losing population since 2020,  Detroit now has more registered voters.  The registered voter total in 2020 was 504,714.

So Detroit both lost population and yet increased the number of registered voters from 2020, yet even if the population remained the same since 2020 the city has at least, statistically speaking, 51,336 more registered voters now than the population should be able to provide.

While not proof of fraud, this does indicate Detroit needs a serious clean-up of their voter registration rolls. Having between 51,336-78,459 more registered voters than people who are actually eligible to vote certainly provides the means and opportunities for shenanigans to take place. 

Given our re-elected Secretary of State's refusal to clean up voter rolls in this state, don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

Ah, Those Pennsylvania Democrats

They not only elected a Brain-Dead Fetterman to represent them in the Senate -- they elected a completely dead Democrat as a state representative.

Really.

The Guardian: Democrat re-elected by a landslide in Pennsylvania – even though he’s dead

Voted

Was voter #94 this morning so there's been a reasonable in-person turnout already at my precinct.

Overall, it proceeded rather smoothly, although the fellow in front of me caused a bit of a hold up. Apparently his claimed new address did not match his current driver's license, nor his voter registration records which were for a different precinct, so he got sent to the town hall to sort it out. Good to see they're checking at least that much.

So if you haven't voted yet, you have a small window left to make sure you understand the issues, the proposals, and then choose people who best represent your views, and vote accordingly.

NY's Ban On Carry In Houses Of Worship Is Asinine At Best

So, the left was all a-flutter that the FBI had declared they had learned of a "credible and widespread threat"  against Jewish houses of Worship in New Jersey, most conveniently close to the election.

Shortly after that announcement got broacast in the news near and far, the threat then apparently went away as it was apparently neither quite that credible nor that widespread.  It turns out to be to be a single source, a single autistic individual living at home posted a threat online and ckaimed he never ws actually plannign to do anything, and that he is now in the words of the FBI -  "no longer a threat to the community".

Most convenient, that. 

So, some Jews being warned of such a credible and widespread threat would like to carry firearms for the defense of themselves and their congregations in New York. After all, it seems only common-sense that in the face of credible threats of violence one should be allowed the practical tools to defend themselves.

Well, they can't.

Bearing Arms: NYS Jewish Gun Club’s scathing response to non-action of court

New York's law prohibiting lawful citizens from carrying firearms in houses of worship, currently being fought in the courts, though the courts are slow walking the cases, is asinine and leaves people disarmed and vulnerable to criminal attack from those who will not obey such laws. 

Democrats quite simply would prefer dead Jews who were unable to defend themselves to armed Jews.

That's unacceptable.

Playing With Sharks Part 5 - Gotta Love Pro Per Parties

Remember Pro Pers are not proper.

The fun case where the plaintiff is representing himself and his girlfriend - now wife - is being sued by my client the Defendant , that I've blogged about before may be coming to a trial, maybe.

Catching up, her latest motion for Summary dispoisiton of my claims were dismissed completely as being without basis.

My motion against her was granted in part and it's now  established that she did in fact breach the lease by having her boyfriend the Plaintiff stay with her at the Condo, but the Court days damages my client has and will suffer as a result of this case being brought by said boyfriend are an issue of fact and need to go to trial.

We were scheduled for Trial on November 15, but just found out that the case may get pushed due to a criminal case taking precedence.  

 This is annoying as the lack of certainty really messes things up time-wise - especially so when just two weeks ago they told me it was going forward for sure.

So today, in a hilarious, if undecipherable fashion,  the Third-Party Defendant former girlfriend emails me to see if I will concur, which I will not and then the girlfriend files a Motion in Limine that my client's damages are "subjective".

Blink.

That she wishes to establish that my client's damages are subjective doesn't have any legal meaning, nor much in the way of plain English either.

Not what a motion in limine is for, nor is it in a proper format and it lacks a brief or notice of hearing and I'm really not sure what she's getting at. Reasonably sure the Court will not understand what she is trying to do either.

A motion in limine is to handle likely evidentiary objections at trial, not to do some weird attempt to dismiss a claim long after the time for dispositive motions is over.

So I get to waste time doing a reply and asking for sanctions for yet another frivolous motion that the court may not even hear.

You're Just A Little Late There

Got a call from a potential client today with quite a tale of woe.

Allegedly, he had gotten ripped off of his money by his father from the time he was a kid moving forward into his adulthood.  Thus included forging his son's name onto checks the kid received once he was of age and the conservatorship over the kids funds ended. Allegedly a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of an inheritance.

His father even apparently told him he did it and asked him what he was going to do about it when he was an adult.

He then asked if he could do anything about it now.

Well, that depends I say. 

When did his father tell him he was doing it and when did he discover it had occurred?

1990.

Blink.  Just so we're clear, that was 32 years ago that he found out about the dastardly deeds of skullduggery.

You see, there's this little, yet rather very important, concept of the statute of limitations.

Sitting on your rights, and not doing anything for 32 years, really runs out the clock on your rights.

Let's put it this way, the civil fraud statute of limitations is 6 years, not 32 years.

Heck, even the criminal statute of limitations for forging a signature on a check is 10 years.

When you're five times beyond the civil statutory period, there's not really anything that can be done. 

So no, he doesn't get to civilly pursue this one after waiting far too long.

Back To Jitsu

So yesterday night I finally returned to the mats.

Leg took a lot longer to heal up than I would like, and it's still not even 90%, but I figured if I don't get back now and give it a try, I may never get back.  

Besides, I needed to get some workouts going again.

Overall, I'd say it went quite well. We're doing half guard and today was passing from a three-quarter guard.  Basically the opponent is trying to get back to full guard, but there's an opening as they move into three-quarter guard as they're trying to recover full guard, where you can pass their guard and get to a superior control position.

Rather fun, and it went well.  

Had to switch sides for one of the segments as it involved really putting force on the leg being passed, which was not good at all for my angry quad muscle. So, my partner got to try passing on the left side which is harder than it seems when you're used to doing it on the right side all the time.

Then on to some light rolling.  This also went pretty well.  

I did lose some positions as I had to, on occasion, release one of my hands from an opponent to move it down to shove or adjust an opponent's body or leg off my right leg to relieve the pressure and ouchies thus applied on it, but it was still good.   Did take some breaks from rolling as well.

No major pains and I was careful not to strain the muscles and not go too hard with the leg.  Mainly caused me to be defensive but I need to work defenses too, so still a good workout and got some good rolls in.

A bit more limping around this morning than yesterday morning as a result, but no substantial increase in pain or any mobility loss, so I'll chalk that up as a win.

Rent Control: A Misguided Progressive Economic Policy Strikes Yet Again

Kinda hard to have sympathy for people looking to repeat the same problems of the past and having learned nothing from the past lessons.

Ignorance of economics is not supposed to be an excuse.

The Detroit News: As housing prices surge, rent control is back on the ballot

Because limiting the income landlords receive on their rentals to -- under many of the proposals and laws already passed and described in the article -- below even the rate of inflation, is really going to encourage landlords to provide new, more, and better housing stock.

Yes there are  ore tenant voters than landlord voters which is how this stuff gets through, but having landlords lose money on every tenant  is hardly going to encourage them to keep renting properties out - they will not makee up the loss in volume.

It's the same stupid progressive magical thinking, using other people's money (in this case landlords) to pay for their fever-dreams.

While one might sympathize with tenants facing higher rents in very desirable areas to live as depicted in the article, with many of those areas limiting housing development and supply by local ordinance,  what exactly did they expect?

Combine:

a) high inflation with and the cost of everything from utilities to repair materials and labor costs going up; 

b) very high demand for rental space by people with Biden bucks in their pockets bidding up the rent and investment companies (often Biden and Dem contributors and promoters of ESG theories) looking for high return;  and

c) then throw in the reality of landlords getting hosed for two years with the CDC allowing tenants to live in rental units without having to pay rent for two years with landlords being unable to evict them and getting stuck eating the costs.

 Put all that together and you get the current big increase in rental costs, courtesy of misguided progressive economic policy.  

Adding yet another progressive misguided economic policy of rent control to try to fix the prior progressive misguided economic policy brought to you by the same people is not going to make it any better.

Good Luck With That Ya Dumb Twit

Dean Obeidallah a progressive twiterati, and apparently a progressive comedian (yet not a funny one), has announced he doesn't like Elon Musk. 

Since after all its an evergreen progressive screed that "Everyone I don't like is a fascist", and Dean surely considers Elon Musk to be one, as he won't abide by the progressive line.

But Dean Obeidallah didn't want to leave it at that.

He announced today decided to file a FOIA on Elon's immigration application to try and see if he could get him deported.  Really.

As a lawyer however, Dean Obeidallah is really not that good.

After all, doesn't he know you cannot simply FOIA someone's immigration application?  By the way, you don't need to even be a lawyer to do a FOIA request, just saying.  But in this case its a rather fruitless one that will be denied.

But, well, apparently he does not know this:

No, no you won't ya dimwit.

Absent the applicant's permission, those records are not FOIA-ble.

One wag on Twitter asked him to do Ilhan Omar's next.  No response, funny that.

Any side-bets that progressive simps in USCIS will leak the application?

Turns Out, The DHS Disinformation Board Didn't Exactly Go Away

The censoring functions in the name of "fighting disinformaiton" just carried on without the name.

It now turns out that while they got rid of the board name,  DHS continued the censoring functions of controlling the narrative and flow of information on social media sites, just without a "Disinformation Board".

The Intercept: Truth Cops Leaked Documents Outline DHS Plans to Police Disinformation.

Even without the board, DHS and agencies continued to work to shape the narrative and remove information they did not like form social media.

So much so that Twitter and Facebook gave the government special access to remove posts they found objectionable.

 

Among other things, Hunter Biden's laptop anyone?

So, The Biden Administration was using social media sites as their agents, with government agents themselves flagging and censoring content they did not like and requested the sites to remove.

This is at most likely, if not de facto and de jure absolutely, given what is being revealed about this program so far, to be a major ongoing First Amendment violation by these government agencies in censoring speech. 

Remember when the Left and Democrats were in favor of free speech and against government censorship?  Good times.