MSU Chabad House Vandalised On Hanukkah

 Lansing State Journal: Police ask public for help after East Lansing Jewish Center vandalized twice

 Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect who appears to have thrown rocks at the center, 115 Albert St., and painted Nazi symbols on its front door during Hanukkah, an eight-day holiday in the Jewish faith marked by the nightly lighting of candles.

Interestingly enough, neither the Detroit News nor the Detroit Free Press felt the two vandalism attacks apparently by the same black-clad mask wearing a-hole were worth mentioning.

The attacker first threw rocks at the building and then returned a few hours later to spray-paint the windows and throw more rocks. 

Unfortunately, this is just more of the globalizing the intifada that the left has been pushing.

Well Progressives, I Guess That's One Way To Get Crime Stats Down

Not by doing anything to actually stop crime mind you.  

Instead the progressive solution is to have police ignore crimes.

The Detroit Free Press: Could Detroit end minor traffic stops? Michigan cities offer road map

Detroit police oversight board members hoping to limit minor traffic stops after a series of police shootings that started with issues including alleged license plate and tinted window violations can look to the experiences of at least three Michigan jurisdictions that have restricted such stops in recent years.

“Driving equality”-style ordinances and policies in Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor and East Lansing have aimed to prevent racial profiling and reduce citizen contacts with police. . .

Yep, if you ignore low-level crimes, and don't pursue them, you let the more major criminals continue their actions uninterrupted, then you will get less interactions where criminals are caught by police.  

You will also get more serious crimes committed by these criminals as a result as they weren't stopped and then caught for lesser offenses on their way to commit more serious crimes.

People aren't being shot by police for license plate and tinted window violations nor for failing to have their cars registered and up to date.

They are getting shot when, after being pulled over, they're found to have more serious warrants, or are driving drunk, or otherwise committing illegal acts and THEN THEY FORCEFULLY RESIST ARREST.

If you want less people getting shot while committing crimes, great or small, maybe teach them to stop resisting arrest. 

But, that would imply personal responsibility (and lack thereof) is the cause of the issue, and not the systemic racism nonsense the progressives are spouting. 

Ann Arbor Passes An Ordinance To Be More Welcoming - To Criminals

Mlive.com: Here’s why ‘Neighborhood Crime Watch’ signs in Ann Arbor are going away

City Council voted 10-0 Monday night, Dec. 15, to direct city staff to remove all neighborhood watch signs in the city by July 15 as the city strives to be more welcoming and inclusive.

Because watching out for your neighbors and your property and theirs  and being against crime is, according to the city council, racist. 

 Because, of course it is.

And of course, they brought up the canard of Trayvon Martin:

a young Black teenager walking through a neighborhood he had every right to be in, yet perceived as a threat simply for being there.The tragedy of Martin being fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, did not happen in isolation, Harrison said. It happened in a broader environment that normalized surveillance over relationship and fear over familiarity, she said.

She left out the part where dear, (not so) innocent Trayvon was  killed only after trying to bash that volunteer's head against the pavement.

Because of course she glossed over that. 

Then, of course, she runs with the progressive bromides for which an easy objection is that the bromides are simply not supported by any evidence that they are true:

“Neighborhood watch was built on an old idea that heterogeneous neighborhoods create danger,” she said. “Ann Arbor is built on the understanding that diversity creates strength.”

. . .

“As we remove signs that have long communicated warning, we also have an opportunity to replace them with messages that say something better,” she said. “When people feel welcome walking down the street, visiting family, looking for a place to live, or simply existing in public, our neighborhoods are not just more inclusive. They are safer.”

 There's no facts whatsoever that has shown that diversity creates strength, noir that Neighborhood watch was built on the idea that heterogeneous neighborhoods create danger - she just made that up.

Nor is there any facts that a neighborhood is safer by having people feel inclusive.  Indeed when criminals feel included and unwatched, crime tends to increase and a neighborhood becomes less safe. 

Mamdani Appoints An Armed Robber To Public Safety Team

Because of course he did.

New Yorkers are going to get exactly what they voted for, good and hard.

 Fox News: Mamdani appoints convicted armed robber to public safety transition team 

According to past reports, Linen, a Bronx native who was once signed to Def Jam, was convicted of two felony robberies in the late 1990s.In 1999, a Bronx jury is said to have found him guilty in two armed robberies of taxi drivers, per the New York Daily News.

Well, I guess an armed robber would know all about public safety and be all for Mamdani's "gun violence" initiatives.

Who's next on Mamdani's appointment list?  

Maybe he'll appoint Bonnie Blue for the NYC Health Department next. 

After all, she knows all about the risks of close contact with multiple people, communicable diseases, and the transfer of bodily fluids. but she may get beat out by Typhoid Mary.

Conflict Of Interest, Much?

Jocelyn Benson is Michigan's current Secretary of State charged with conducting, overseeing, and counting the results our state's elections.

She also happens to be running for governor now.

And, she also happens to have a history of being shall we say, awfully flexible with the rules, in ways that happen to favor herself and fellow Democrats?  

Indeed, she broke election and campaign finance laws when announcing her campaign from a state government facility. But, to no one's surprise, the fellow Democrat Attorney General and Benson Buddy Dana Nessel announced there would be no sanctions for the wrongdoing.

Quite the conflict of interest there, as the one charged to administer the election happens to be the same person running in it, especially as she has quite the history of not exactly abiding by the rules. 

Playing With Other People's Money Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry

The Michigan Municipal Employees' Retirement System is on a roll.  

It's a losing roll, but quite a roll nonetheless.

$155 million in losses -- in two transactions. 

The Detroit Free Press:  2 Swiss citizens caused $55M loss, municipal retirement manager says

A nonprofit corporation that manages employee pension funds for more than 1,000 Michigan local governments alleges it was defrauded out of about $55 million after entrusting the money to two Swiss citizens who weren't registered investment advisers.

The losses the Municipal Employees' Retirement System (MERS) suffered on investments in alternative energy projects — disclosed in a Sept. 30 lawsuit filed by MERS in federal court in Grand Rapids — are on top of $100 million MERS lost on a coffee-growing venture in Hawaii

That's $155 million lost in just two gonzo transactions that any responsible fiduciary would have not just walked away from, but ran. 

Why a Michigan entity tried to buy and run  a coffee plantation in Hawaii is  very questionable, but I'm sure the trips to Hawaii to look into it were great.

Don't worry, taxpayers will likely be picking up the pension losses for the government employees who lost money due to the ineptness of other government employees. 

The Archer Engine Replacement Continues

The new engine is now installed on the Archer.

 

Almost ready for testing.

The plane has also gone on a diet, and is feeling rather svelte.

Thirty pounds - yes 30 pounds! - of unused wiring has been removed from the aircraft after years of installers putting in new equipment and just leaving the old wiring for the removed items in place. 

 

The plane is going to get a new weight and balance done once the engine is fully installed and all the parts are reassembled. 

It's also going to be a lot easier to work on now that the excess wire is no longer getting in the way, especially under the panel.

Looking forward to flying it soon.