Michigan Dems Bent On Both Raising Cost Of Energy And Reducing Reliaiblity In the Name Of Global Warming

Michigan Dem's ideology is about to both raise energy prices in this state while at the same time reducing reliability.

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan Senate passes clean energy bills targeting reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Senate Bill 271 requires utilities to generate energy using at least 15% renewables through 2027, 50% from 2030 to 2034, and then 60% from 2035 on. Separately, utilities would be required to have clean energy portfolios of 80% by 2035 and reach 100% clean energy by 2040. The 50% renewable energy target for 2030 matches the goal set by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the MI Healthy Climate Plan unveiled last year.

Also, can a political hack spew anymore cliches per minute than  Senator Geiss in this one short declaration:

“This legislation marks the beginning of taking bold action to address this urgent crisis, one that is a clear and present danger, and failure to tackle it meaningfully cannot be an option. In fact, the cost of doing nothing is dire and detrimental to the health and welfare of our state and her people,” said Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor. 

Seriously, she only missed "the fierce urgency of now" from that world salad.

Meanwhile, global warming is perhaps not exactly caused by human activity, and going out of our way to  inevitably raise energy prices in Michigan while reducing reliability is a fool's errand.

Indeed, even the current love affair with electric cars seems to be coming upo against economic reality: Forget the UAW strike, the real crisis may be a lack of demand for EVs

Now add even more government-mandated EVs on the road trying to charge form the reduced reliability and more expensive renewable energy being mandated by Michigan Dems.

Why Michigan's Democrats seem hell-bent on making energy both less reliable and more expensive is anybody's guess.

All Obstructors Are Equal, But Democrat Obstructors Are More Equal Than Others

You guessed it, Dem Rep Jamal Bowman just got a nice sweetheart deal for his obstructing Congress by falsely pulling a fire alarm in an attempt to stop the Republicans from passing a funding bill.

The Detroit News: Rep. Jamaal Bowman pleads guilty to a misdemeanor for pulling a fire alarm in House office building.

No obstruction felony charge for the likes of him.

But not to worry, under the terms of his deal, even this misdemeanor slap-on-the-wrist will not remain on his record:

He will pay a $1,000 fine and serve three months of probation, after which the false fire alarm charge is expected to be dismissed under an agreement with prosecutors.

It's good to be a Dem, neh?

When Intersectionality Leads to Ridiculous Outcomes

The left has this weird concept of intersectionality that all oppressed (as defined buy the left) share a commonality against their oppressors (again as defined by the left). Sort of a big tent of the aggrieved and oppressed groups that the Left hopes will rise up and well, they really haven't really thought it through all the way,

A major problem  with intersectionality is often one leftist group of the "oppressed" is busily oppressing another leftist oppressed party.

This leads to ridiculous outcomes.

For example - Queers for Palestine  - Gay people backing Islamic believers that just happen to impose the death penalty on gays, t because they're gay. Typically this done by throwing them off rooftops or hanging them from cranes. Because, per the Left,  Palestinians and Gays are both "oppressed" and thus should mutually support each other even as Palestinians tend to support Gays for but a short moment as they lift them up to drop them off rooftops.

The hilarious part is Queers for Palestine busily protests against the only country in the Middle East where killing someone who is  gay just because they are gay is illegal - Israel.

The latest ridiculous example from Andy Ngo on twitter:

Abortion is, you guessed it,  highly restricted in Gaza and the West Bank - by the Arabs. Women can be beaten, jailed or killed for having an abortion.

The protestors, of course, aren't protesting that.  Heaven forbid.

Instead they're trying to find some weird intersection between the US Abortion issue and support for the terror attacks carried out by Hamas - the same Hamas that would jail, beat, or kill a woman for daring to have an abortion on demand.  Oppressed peoples and all that.

Of course they are not protesting these conditions but are instead protesting Israel, where abortion laws are a lot more permissive than under Hamas, so much so that Arab women often cross into Israel for abortions and medical treatment that they need without fear of being beaten, jailed or killed.

To a leftist apparently this insanity makes sense.

I daresay they're very much protesting in the wrong intersection.

Arab Medical Staff In Royal Oak Beaumont Protest And Lie For Gaza

Well the Arab medical staff of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak came out to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the destruction of Israel at the same time.

We will note they couldn't be bothered to condemn the Hamas terrorist attack that kicked it off, nor any mention of that in the protest, nor on their Facebook Page, or their organization website.

Funny, that.

Note that a lot of them were still wearing their Beaumont uniforms in the video.

Sure, they've got the right to protest and show the scum that they are, but I would have hoped their employer would not approve of such conduct on company time, company grounds, and in company uniforms. 

Certainly makes me think twice about going to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak for any medical treatment.

 In the linked instagram video they were, after their bromide "the people united will never be defeated" - in which case why demand a ceasefire if you will never be defeated?   They then started going "long live the intifada" - that chant is not exactly calling for a ceasefire. In fact it's the opposite.

Supporting the intifada, which is a call for terrorist attacks against Israel, would to most rational people imply you really don't get to ask for a ceasefire at the same time that you're calling for armed violence, neh?  

Is that a Hippocratic or is that a hypocritic oath in their case?

They're also waiving signs that are lying about "genocide" in Gaza.

Given the Arab population of Gaza has increased from in 2012 1,644,293 million to 2,106,745 today and its expected to double to over 4 million by 2050, this has to be the most inept "genocide" ever.

In short they lie, a lot, no surprise there.

Possibly A Random Detroit Murder, But Possibly Not

Especially given the timing.

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll found fatally stabbed outside her home

The police are being awfully quick to claim antisemitism wasn't involved:

The Detroit Free Press: Police: No evidence of hate crime in Jewish leader Samantha Woll's slaying

Mind you, there's no evidence that it was not such as of yet, and I hate to seem them go out of there way to sweep such under the rug if it is in fact related to what has been going on in Dearborn, and the Middle East lately.

We'll have to wait and see what develops.

I never met the deceased, but friends and acquaintances I know have, and they describe her as one of those truly warm, giving, and wonderful people, and both Detroit and the world is worse off for her loss.

Funny Thing About Those Capitol Hill Protestors

What's in a group name when it's purely false and misleading?

The Detroit Free Press: More than 300 arrested in US House protest calling for Israel-Hamas ceasefire''

Protesters with Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow were detained on Capitol Hill while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, a narrow strip of land bordering Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.

We can note neither "Jews for Peace"  nor "If Not Now" came out and protested the massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas.

Heck, Jews for Peace is two lies in three words as they're at most certainly just Jews in name only, if at all, and certainly not for actual peace.

Funny that if they're all for peace, eh? They're not for peace, they're vile progs on the other side.

"Jews for Peace" and "If Not Now" members are lower than pond scum.

 They're f'ing kapos.

The Typical Response Of Animals

So in response to the false blaming of Israel for Palestinian Islamic Jihad's dropping a rocket on their open hospital (or potentially only the hospital parking lot with far fewer than the claimed 500 casualties - the lie may be even bigger) the Arab world decided to flip out nicely.

Continuing their tradition of Jew-hatred, not to mention lack of respect for anyone's holy places, Arabs and Muslims as expected decided it was time for the time-honored tradition of attacking and destroying synagogues.

Now, one of, if not the oldest, synagogue in Africa was destroyed today based on Hamas' lie:  Historic synagogue in Tunisia heavily damaged in rioting tied to Israel-Hamas war

A historic but defunct synagogue in Tunisia was reduced to rubble on Tuesday amid mass rioting after an explosion in a Gaza hospital that terror group Hamas and much of the Arab world blamed on Israel.

Hundreds of people were filmed setting fire to a synagogue in the central Tunisian city of Al Hammah in the hours after the explosion, at a Gaza City hospital where Hamas said many people died. Videos that circulated widely on social media showed people planting Palestinian flags and chipping away at the synagogue building’s stone walls, all without any police intervention.

Some users shared the video of the arson alongside a “#Palestine” hashtag. A video taken Wednesday shows heavy damage to the site, including to the fenced-off grave of a 16th-century rabbi that been a historic pilgrimage site for some Jews.

Germany, having its own  historical track record of burning synagogues, quickly followed suit - but luckily not with such a devastating result - with a Molotov cocktail thrown at a synagogue today as well. The thrower was arrested shouting anti-Israel slogans, and thankfully his aim was a bit off.

So no, it's certainly not anti-Israel when you torch a synagogue, that's straight out antisemitism, which is no surprise, as much of anti-Israel sentiment is thinly veiled or indeed outright antisemitism itself.

Hamas Drops A Rocket On Their Own Hospital

Hamas tends to use hospitals for military bases, and isn't above creating their own civilian casualties  real or fake, for world sympathy.

Hamas’s Izzad-Din al-Qassam Brigades said it targeted the northern Israeli city of Haifa with an R-160 long-range rocket.

No missiles hit Haifa or came near Haifa

Instead at the same time, guess what got blown up?

 JNS: IDF: Palestinian terror rocket caused deadly blast at Gaza hospital

You can guess where  the R-160 rocket it hit instead, given the timing.

Now, whether it actually happened by accident (Hamas tends to shoot off rockets not caring much where they land or if they score own goals) or was done by Hamas on purpose to gain world sympathy is an open question.

Also UNRWA needs to stop sheltering Hamas fighters if it wants to complain about their facilities being hit.

Hamas is known to use hospitals, mosques, schools as military sites for storing weapons, launching attacks and for personnel,  etc - all in violations of the laws of war and rendering those places valid military targets.  Using them as military sites is a war crime - by Hamas, and a ploy to gain world sympathy claiming the Israelis bombed a school when the school was being used in a military manner.

Hamas Has Lots of Friends In Dearborn, Michigan

In a charming demonstration in Dearborn, to no one's surprise, they support Hamas.

The Detroit News: Dearborn rally calls for end to Palestinian occupation as war rages

 Much of the article gives the standard Arabist propaganda line including that the massacres committed by Hamas are all just ducky under the rubric of "resisting occupation"..

We then get Amer Zahr, a close confident of Rashida Talib with a laughable attempt to generate sympathy for the Islamists around Dearborn:

Zahr rejected the notion that domestic incidents would occur.

"It's insulting that local Jewish organizations and synagogues are saying they're heightening their security because they think Muslim Americans could attack. There have been no threats or attacks on these groups in wake of this," Zahr said. "Do we tell people we're afraid of the Jewish people when there have been daily attacks on Palestinian people for decades? This is absolutely crazy, and a real stab at the Arab American community here in Detroit."

This claim of abject innocence is brought to you by the very same  "comedian" Amer Zahr who wiped Israel off the map in the Congressional office of Rashida Tlaib the day that bint was sworn into office in Congress. 

Oh, and Amer, name a single example of even one of these daily attacks in the US by Jews you claim have been going in for decades will you? We'll wait.

So why would Jews in Michigan be concerned about potential violence from Muslims in the area?

Oh, well, maybe because of this.

Or because of this.

Or perhaps because of this.

Or you know, THIS.

That Pesky First Amendment Keeps Getting In The Way

An opinion writer bemoans that Michigan's latest hate crime bill, the penalizes someones acts based on the subjective impact on another person, is delayed, and had it been in effect, it would criminalize conduct such as displaying a KKK flag in view of a Black person.

Detroit Free Press:  Michigan lawmakers are supposed to protect us. Why are they letting hate crime bill wither away?

I blogged on this situation before.   A White and a Black neighbor got into a dispute, and White neighbor thought it would be just the thing to fly a KKK flag in view of Black neighbor's house.

Now, the writer of the op-ed bemoans this and would want the neighbor charged with a hate crime.

Now, flying a flag, even one of a very repugnant organization, is protected by the First Amendment. Note that this is going on in Michigan, a state, while of the North, and which oft looks down on the Southern states as backwards, racist and discriminatory, has always had quite a major backwards and racist KKK presence.

However, charging the jerk with a hate crime because a third party is offended is not appropriate and makes this hate crime bill far too overbroad and exactly what most people were warning it could be used for - punishing views people don't like. It is far better for the guy to display to all and sundry that he's a complete, presumably racist, idiot than for it to be hidden.  In short this idiot certainly showed his ass to the world. After all, when someone flies a flag on their own property, you know exactly who they are, and what they support, and you can judge them accordingly.

Again flying a KKK flag is absolutely the act of a jerk and a moron, and not to be condoned. But, being an absolute jerk is not a crime, nor should flying a flag on your own property even when it represents a reprehensible organization. After all, it tells everyone far and wide that the flier of that flag is a moron and not to be associated with in civilized company.

Hamas' Razzia And The Gloves Coming Off

Been both busy at work, and too infuriated to post in a reasonable manner on the terrorist attack by Hamas.

I had many years ago, actually stayed and worked on, as part of trip for a couple weeks, at one of the Kibbutz, Nir Oz, that was attacked.

So far, thankfully most friends in Israel have checked in that they're ok, but they have told us they have both friends and relatives that are now missing. 

One friend has not replied  yet, which is worrisome, but I'm currently thinking positively and hoping it is just because he is now otherwise engaged in doing bad things to even worse people, and too busy. We'll go with that for now.

That the Biden administration's first reaction when the attack occurred was to call for restraint and a lack of retaliation was infuriating beyond measure, and thankfully reality struck them, and that insanity has now been walked back.

Hamas with their razzia just changed the entire nature of the conflict, and showed who they really are, a bunch of evil savages.   Their backers on social media and elsewhere are similarly showing exactly who they are too.

Certainly, their apologists and fellow-travelers in the USA are taking it on the chin, as it is really hard, even as they try, to  justify beheading babies, gang-raping women, and pouring gasoline on women and setting them ablaze to burn to death - while filming all of it. That would be because there is no justification for such acts.

In short, the raid has managed to get Israel to finally take the gloves off and hopefully they get the time and freedom of action to at least reestablish deterrence and at best wipe Hamas off the map.  

You cannot teach Hamas to obey the rules of war, you cannot teach them morality, you cannot teach them not to behead babies, rape women, or burn them alive.  

All you can do is teach them its unsafe to mess with you and yours and they will only understand that when the message is delivered in the most direct and violent way as possible.

Hamas' actions have hopefully removed at least some of the blinders from the Israeli left and indeed the world's left as to the nature of the savages and scum that they were supporting up to now. Hamas is simply doing exactly what they have always said they would do. Even as the left has always defended them and claimed in the face of Hamas' statements that they don't really mean what they say - they do.

Hamas delenda est.

AG Nessel Dips Into Hawaii Case Not Even Knowing Michigan's Laws

So our Democrat Attorney general Dana Nessel, decided to join in an amicus brief supporting the appeal of the overturn of Hawaii's ban on butterfly knives, calling them exceptionally dangerous weapons (quick clue, they're not).

The Detroit Free Press: Hawaii seeks to reinstate butterfly knives ban: Nessel, attorneys general support state

Here's the fun part:  Butterfly knives are completely legal to own in Michigan, as indeed they are in most states.  As long as they are openly carried in Michigan it is perfectly legal to not just own it but carry it, too. Michigan also allows out the front automatic knives and switchblades as well, the horror.

I certainly hope it is pointed out during the appeal that this "extremely dangerous weapon" she complains about is perfectly legal to own in her own state of  Michigan - and neither has the sky fallen here nor has there been a rash of ballisong attacks.

Of course, she could try arguing that Hawaiians are either dumber, more dangerous, or criminal-prone than Michigan residents, but given Detroit and other  Democrat-dominated crime zones, methinks that argument has been dulled. Verily one would think that the court should disqualify anything she has to say on the matter on those grounds alone.

Culture Wars Come To Court: Michigan Judges Required To Use Litigants' Preferred Pronouns

The Michigan Supreme Court, currently dominated by Democrats, has passed an edict that, come 2024, all judges in Michigan must address the parties before them using the parties preferred pronouns.

MLive: Michigan judges must use preferred pronouns in court come 2024

All involved in state court cases are now required to use an individual’s preferred pronouns and corresponding honorific when referring to them in court according to a new rule passed down by the Michigan Supreme Court.

The only safety valve if a judge does want to use a ridiculous Ze, Xim, Xer or other ridiculousness is to address the participant by their role such as juror, attorney, defendant, etc.

In short the potential for stupidity and making a mockery of the court system is obvious with the Michigan Supreme Court deciding to go woke.

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. 

As such, starring in 2024 my preferred pronouns in court will be M'Lord and His Majesty.

Police Caught A Hardened Criminal

 From Florida, of course.

The Detroit Free Press: 77-year-old Florida man accused of getting ED pills to distribute in retirement community

A Florida man has been federally charged after investigators said got $1,800 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs with the intention of distributing them locally in a popular retirement community.

The 77-year-old resident of The Villages, a massive retirement community between Orlando and Gainesville that has become infamous (albeit due to some tall tales) for its lively and frisky residents.

An interesting choice of drugs to peddle, but he certainly knew his target audience.

Back From The Desert

Now, I've been through the desert, the Mojave Desert to be precise, but I did not have a Horse With No Name.

Instead, I spent a week with Murphy's Law out at, and in, his mines, along with his dogs.

Looking up and out of the shaft of the Columbia Mine

In short, the land he owns is beautiful, hot, harsh, and rugged.  It's also out in the middle of nowhere, to give a good basic description as to its location.

Can't beat the view

Chock full of mining history, it was quite a place to visit.

It was a good place to shift gears and reset a bit.

Lots to report on and it was a fantastic trip. But I need to first put out some fires at work, and do some serious laundry to wash away the desert dirt that got absolutely everywhere.