In 2024, if you were suspecting someone was having a stroke, was the medical protocol in place at the time to immediately take them to a Waffle House?
Asking for a doctor.
USA Today: 'He's having a stroke': Jill Biden opens up about Joe's 2024 debate
MSN: Jill Biden took Joe to Waffle House after thinking he had stroke on stage
There's been a proposal to mint a commemorative dollar coin and engrave a $250 bank note, both with President Trump's likeness upon them, to mark the 250th Anniversary of our Republic.
Naturally this has certain people up in arms as well as being agog and aghast claiming it goes against all precedent.
Newsweek: Trump Wants His Face on New $250 Bill; an 1866 Law Says It’s Not Allowed
Newsweek in the article states that it is not allowed due to a law that prohibits living people from appearing on the currency:
The enthusiasm, however, runs directly into a long-standing legal barrier as federal statute prohibits living people from appearing on U.S. currency. The last time it happened was 1866, and Congress outlawed it immediately afterward.
The federal statute enacted in 1866 bars living people from appearing on U.S. currency, a rule created after the government briefly allowed a Treasury official’s portrait on a 5‑cent note. The restriction has remained in place ever since, meaning the Treasury cannot legally produce a $250 bill with Trump’s image unless Congress changes the law.
Well, that statement is not in fact correct, nor has the restriction has remained in place ever since 1866.
In honor of the United States Sesquicentennial, in 1926, a Half Dollar was minted with both President Washington and the then President Calvin Coolidge on the coin:
So, yes, there is precedent for a living seated president to be on money in the year of an important anniversary of our republic. Calvin Coolidge, being a darn good President certainly was worthy of the honor in any case.
However, these days, short of the coin and note being limited runs strictly as commemorative items, it would take legislation passing to have President Trump on a bill or coin in general circulation, and there is proposed legislation at the moment to do so.
It may be tacky to some, even as the mock-ups of the coin and note do look pretty good.
It may cause his opponents to go even crazier (which they seem to have no problem doing) -- which could be considered a bug or a feature.
But, it is not the first time it has been done and it is not unprecedented for a present president to be put upon the currency.
CBS News: Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield says city will address downtown teen takeovers:
After several incidents in which large groups of teenagers took over downtown Detroit, city leaders say they are developing a plan to address it.
. . .
While there is some perception that Detroit officials and the Detroit Police Department have been somewhat silent on the issue of these downtown takeovers, since these events began, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield says a lot is happening behind the scenes to ensure that these takeovers don't get out of control.
"It's a comprehensive, interdepartmental, all-hands-on-deck approach to assure that we're addressing the needs of our young people," Sheffield said.
In a one-on-one interview with CBS News Detroit on Wednesday at DPD headquarters, Sheffield says the social media trend is top-of-mind with city officials, police and community intervention groups. Sheffield says the city is taking a holistic approach to addressing the issue and believes it's also an opportunity to serve the youth.
"We didn't experience what other cities did as far as safety," Sheffield said. "Kids came out; they wanted to hang out; they wanted a place for something to do. So we're trying to make sure that we're addressing that need of making sure that young people have a safe space to be occupied and engaged throughout the upcoming summer months."
The response from the teens in addition to continued takeovers, some fights and a shooting clearly has taken this strong and unambiguous message to heart:
Deandrae Morgan said he plans to continue organizing Detroit "teen takeovers," despite Detroit police officers asking him last week to remove social media posts calling for young people to congregate downtown during a weekend that saw one peaceful gathering and another marred by a nonfatal shooting and brawls involving hundreds of combatants.
Compare Detroit's wishy-washy response to that of Mayor of Pontiac and Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard when a Teen Takeover was threatened for Pontiac:
ClickonDetroit: Teen takeover gatherings spread to Pontiac, prompting safety warnings following Detroit chaos
Similar unpermitted gatherings are now being advertised on social media in Pontiac.
Mayor Mike McGuinness said Pontiac officials and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office moved quickly after seeing one such event promoted online Friday.
“If folks are looking to get crazy or act up, Pontiac, Michigan, ain’t the place,” McGuinness said.
McGuinness said deputies were stationed “at every major intersection in downtown Pontiac” as a precaution this past Friday.
Result: No teen takeover and no mass teen violence in Pontiac.
Funny how enforcing the law and not putting up with disorder and crime works.
A car jacking took place yesterday in Oakland County, resulting in a woman being shot during the event. The woman was with her child at the time in the parking lot of the mall.
Click on Detroit: Man who fled after shooting woman in random Oakland County carjacking arrested following police pursuit
The Detroit Free Press: 1 shot in carjacking in Orion Township Panera, Old Navy parking lot
Fox 2 Detroit: Carjacking suspect randomly targeted mother, shot her before stealing car in Orion Township
Do note that none of these stories identify the attacker, even as they note he is an "Ann Arbor Man" and is on probation for a prior violent offense.
Yes, you know why.
And the attack should never have been able to take place, as he should have been in jail at the time of this attack.
The Detroit News: Carjacker should have been in jail for prior violent attack, sheriff says
The "Ann Arbor Man" was previously convicted for a crime committed in late 2024. Said assault consisted of hog-tying and suffocating a woman in Washtenaw county. He should have been in jail for the assault with intent to do great bodily harm in Washtenaw County.
But he was not.
Instead, he was released on probation, because of the Washtenaw County prosecutor's progressive policies.
The Washtenaw County prosecutor is the woke progressive Eli Savit. The same Eli Savit that unleashed a raft of progressive policies in the County like ending zero tolerance policies, not accepting prosecution for illegal items discovered during traffic stops and for minor offenses, and other progressive pro-criminal policies. For equity and racial justice, of course.
This is the same person the Democrats are running for election this year as Attorney General of the State and who as Washtenaw County prosecutor.
So the criminal the progressive prosecutor let off on probation after assaulting a woman now went ahead and shot a woman.
Democrats talk about a war on women, and they are indeed fighting it - but not on behalf of women.
But, at the same time, they can't manage to run their own candidates' election without some serious problems that call into question if the winners actually won - including voters' votes not counting, and people voting who were not supposed to vote.
Then again, those are rather typical issues that crop up in Democrat-run elections, innit?
The Detroit News: Mystery lingers if some Michigan Democratic convention votes counted
Ten Michigan Democrats said initial records from the party's April 19 convention inaccurately reflected what they thought their votes were, raising new questions about the system used to nominate candidates for attorney general and secretary of state.
...
Candidates have already contended that more than 200 people cast votes from outside the convention hall when, according to party rules, they were supposed to be there in person to participate.
Ironically enough, numerous Democrat party personalities such as Dana Nessel are calling for an audit of the voting process for the candidate seleciton, which they otherwise shy away from. Funny, that.
The voting irregularities may have led to progressive Karen Macdonald losing the Attorney General selection to the even more progressive Eli Savit, as it is possible that enough votes to tip the balance seem to be shown to not having been voted at all - when voters believed they had done so.
Michigan Democrats can't even conduct their own internal election without major irregularities, but we are told they can definitively run the state's upcoming elections in a free and fair manner. And certainly, you better not even ask for an audit of the election results.
Some women choose the bear.
Some women choose the gator
One will eat you now,
the other will eat you later.
A photo shoot of a college graduate probably wins this year's contest for cool graduation photo shoots.
The New York Post: Glamorous coed takes insane graduation pics of her kissing 14-foot alligator
The graduate in the picture, in addition to graduating college, is a trained alligator handler and animal rehab worker.
Don't try this at home folks.
Summer is here, and the media, obfuscating as usual, describes the latest round of disorderly issues in Blue State Cities to be created by"Teens" just happening to be out and about:
The New York Post: ‘Teen takeover’ descends into wild brawl inside DC Chipotle — as feds promise to charge ignorant parents
The Detroit News: Teen takeover in Detroit results in brawls, shooting. Sheffield responds
The choice of words by the media is typical in that it is technically accurate yet does not nearly accurately describe the perpetrators of the disorder. These deliberate word choices are interesting as an apt demonstration in how the media chooses to obfuscate the facts.
Apparently, Detroit Mayor Sheffield's response to the "teen takeover" is to re-establish midnight basketball and other activities to give the "Teens" something to do other than blocking the streets, starting brawls, and assaulting people - instead of severely cracking down on the behavior and heavily prosecuting the miscreants to deter such behavior. That should work just swimmingly.
The Detroit News: Republican senator wants U.S. DOJ to probe Whitmer's ties to Beydoun
Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt asked the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday to investigate Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's connections to businesswoman and political donor Fay Beydoun.
On May 6, state Attorney General Dana Nessel charged Beydoun of Farmington Hills with 16 felonies, alleging Beydoun had misused a $20 million taxpayer-funded grant
Well, the money trail is certainly there and it all point to Beydoun heavily investing in Democrats.
Beydoun gave heavily, as in tens of thousands of dollars to Democrat politicians and political organizations. Including $10,500 to the Michigan Democratic State Central Cmte (D), Over $7,500 in multiple donations over time to Gretchen Whitmer's campaign coffers directly and another $7,500 to her campaign committee.
That kind of money buys access.
Its not just that politicians can be bought its how cheaply they can be bought.
That roughly 15k in direct contributions to Gov Whitmer and her campaign helped get Beydoun a $20 million dollar grant that she promptly misused.
Heckuva return on political corruption, that.
So with the weather improving it was time for some self-improvement.
After doing a thorough cleaning around the place, and having an electrician friend assist me in adding some lights to some dark spots in the basement, it was time to go rucking again.
More than time to begin getting some of the winter hibernation worked off.
Unfortunately, I seem to have developed tendonitis in my right ankle which makes it ever so much more fun to do any workout at all over the past few weeks.
Today it had settled down enough so I threw on the ruck with 35 pounds in it and headed out.
I decided to take it relatively easy and did 2 miles and a bit in 45 minutes.
Nice and sunny and it was a pleasant ruck at a decent pace,
The ankle while still tender, doesn't feel worse than when I began so that's a good thing.
Might as well keep it up and get back in shape.
The link to the Silenced No More report documenting the sexual assault crimes of Hamas and participating Gaza civilians in the October 7 attack on Israel and in its aftermath can be retrieved and read here.
I'd strongly suggest not eating or drinking anything before reading it.
Know that the sexual attacks were systemic, planned and organized by Hamas beforehand and part of a deliberate strategy of atrocities, and these deliberate acts were, by any definition, atrocities.
If you can't make it through the report, and you very well might not, a decent summary can be found at The Medialine: How the ‘Silenced No More’ Report Documents Sexual Violence on October 7 and Israeli Civil Commission Report Says Hamas-Led October 7 Attack Included Organized Sexual Violence.
On a rather scenic route in northern Michigan, a rather large set of gallows has been setup:
Daily Press: Gallows built along M-28, generating controversy
Tom Pegenau, owner of Pegenau Builders, set up a wooden gallows structure with a noose outside of the Pegenau Builders business on M-28 in Chocolay Township, later painted with the words “bureaucrats,” “justice” and “freedom,” along with a banner reading “United States of America 1776-2026 250 We the MFin People.”
Kind of a bureaucrat, rope, gallows, assembly of one of each approach to things.
Mr. Peregnau, per the article is rather unhappy (as many people are) with government at the moment, and he stated he was rather frustrated with both sides of the aisle in many areas so he built the gallows as a matter of protest.
Chocolay Township, where the gallows are located, is unamused.
The Detroit Free Press: Marquette-area township orders gallows along major U.P. highway moved
In short the setting up of gallows along the roadway is claimed to be a zoning violation in the area. This may indeed make Mr. Peregnau even more annoyed with bureaucrats, but it is most likely that the gallows are headed for the gallows so to speak.
Quite interesting how the unsubstantiated opinion piece by Nicholas Kristoff in the New York Times to bash Israel with lurid claims that Israel had prisons with dogs trained to sexually abuse prisoners, just happened to come out a day before a report on actual and documented sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and the Gazans:
First on CNN: New report details ‘systematic’ rape and sexual violence during Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel
Why, one might almost think it was not a coincidence and deliberately run to get the factual report of Hamas and Gazan depravity from the headlines and distract attention from it.
The New York Times did not cover the report on the October 7 attack at all.
Funny, that.
Funny also that one must point out that Israelis security personnel were previously criticized for refusing to rape Arab women, because racism, or something. Yep, that claim actually happened, twice.
As a Michigan Democrat, you can steal from the state, but you're not supposed to be overly blatant about it, or even worse, show highly conspicuous and gauche taste in doing so.
I mean, for Democrats, it's one thing to steal $20 million from the state as a non-profit, but to spend $4,500 of it on a coffee maker and $40,000 for personal furniture? How very déclassée!
The facts have been known for over two years now, but only now is Fay Beydoun, a prominent Democrat and Governor Whitmer's friend and fundraiser, to whom the governor steered the grant, getting prosecuted.
Michigan Department of Atotrney General: AG Nessel Charges Fay Beydoun with 16 Felonies for Stealing Global Link International Grant Funding
The Detroit News: Fay Beydoun hit with 16 criminal charges in $20M earmark scandal
The two year delay likely was done to further protect Whitmer from her role in arranging for the $20 million grant, and there are some cracks in the current Michigan Democratic coalition between the progressive-Islamic and the left-but-sane factions that are allowing some of this to bubble up.
Given how the Beydouns are a clan with ties and sympathies with Hezbollah, it'll be an interesting question as to how much of the stolen money went back to Lebanon or was used for propaganda purposes here in addition to Democrat graft.
Interesting political times for Democrats in Michigan.
This morning was a perfect day to get up and fly. Winds calm, sun bright and sky totally clear below 7,000 with only a few clouds above that.
I did the preflight and all was good. First time flying the Archer since it got a new engine.
The Archer started up immediately and it climbed into the sky like a homesick angel.
For the first pattern I had to do a go around as the prior aircraft to me did a bomber pattern and then decided to take their sweet time departing the runway.
So I got a nice go round in to stay sharp.
I then did 5 landings with three full stop and two touch-and -goes as most aircraft in the pattern were doing full stops, so Tower couldn't fit in my touch-and-goes in the traffic flow.
Lots of aircraft were flying this morning.
Landings were good and got better as I got more landings in.
So, I'm now current for carrying passengers, now on to throwing a safety pilot in the right seat and getting my IFR rating back in currency.
That's 0.8 and 5 landings.
The main graduaiton ceremony took place on Saturday.
Held in the Big House, With 14,000 graduating, there was really nowhere else to hold them all along with their families and guests.
Rather packed it was, and quite chilly, with temperatures starting in the high 30s and moving into the low 40s during the ceremony.
This was a landmark ceremony as the University was going to confer its one millionth degree since its founding. Graduating students received a commemorative tassel with 1M on it in addition to their department tassel.
The ceremony, of course, began with a land acknowledgement, which was, of course, both politically correct and purely performative.
The acknowledgment, from the first speaker, stated the land had been ceded by the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa under the Treaty of Fort Meigs, which it was, to forma college for educational purposes
The University of Michigan has, for some unknown reason, made no move to hand itself back to the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa, nor has the University offered the descendants of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa a free education at the University's expense.
Funny, that.
Then honorary degrees were given out.
Shirin Ebadi was honored with a well-deserved Doctorate of Laws. Funny, as the majority of UofM students and much of the faculty are busy supporting the same theocracy that has stripped her of her titles and career and imprisoned her.
Michael Phelps alsp received an honorary doctorate, as did Jalen Rose. Engineer Ingeborg Hochmair received an honorary doctorate of engineering, which given her engineering accomplishments is only fitting. Regent Emeritus Ron Weiser and Kent Syverud, who was set to become the new president of the university before being diagnosed with brain cancer also received honorary doctorates.
Then a speech by Professor Peterson had to throw in a one-sided anti-Israel comment, supporting the pro-Hamas protesters on campus and equating them with actual civil rights heroes -- and not more appropriately with civil rights villains with their attacks on Jewish students and blocking them from classes, disruptions of classes and ceremonies, and, of course, support for terrorism.
Unfortunately many students cheered this bit of crap, but many people in the audience shouted "Bull Sh#t" in response.
In short, it went as one might expect from the progressives of the University of Michigan.
Aside from that bit of leftist performative foolery, the ceremony went quite well and each department rose in turn as graduates and were allowed to move their tassel to signify their new status as graduates.
That's one down, one to go!
Abby was awarded her degree this weekend in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan.
The main graduation was on Saturday where 14,000 students earned their degrees and the University of Michigan conferred its one millionth degree since it was founded, which is quite a milestone. More on the Saturday ceremony later.
For the record, that she graduated with that degree means she is a heckuva lot smarter than I am.
In addition to that, at the smaller and much more personal graduation ceremony for the MCDB Department, on Friday evening, she walked and received her degree certificate and her thesis was announced.
She also received the award that is given to the honors undergraduate with the highest ranked thesis not just in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology but in the entire Biology Department. That make her the #1 graduate out of 600 graduates. The Review team for the award had comments that included that the thesis was not an undergraduate level but was instead a thesis at the doctoral level, which is amazing.
For the record, that means she is a heckuva, heckuva, lot smarter than I am.
The members of the lab she worked at, including the head professor of the lab, and two of her co-(and more senior) researchers and friends who had just earned their Ph.D.s were there to cheer her on.
She's going to work in the lab this summer as an actual employed (and paid!) Research Aisstant and then she will be heading out of town to a PH.D. program in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology to make her mark in the world doing some cutting-edge research in the field.
To say I'm beyond proud is an understatement.
Michigan Democrats are indeed profligate spenders.
The state's budget and spending has increased by 50% just under Governor Whitmer's term to date alone.
But that's still not enough spending for Michigan's Democrats.
Instead they want to increase it, and to do so have to tap into the state's emergency fund to do so.
The Detroit News: Michigan Senate dips into rainy day fund for $88B budget plan.
Everyday budgeting is not what a rainy day fund is for, but the Democrats see a pool of money and want to spend it now rather than wait for an actual revenue shortfall where the funds would be needed.
That means under this budget state government spending is around $8,800 for each and every resident of Michigan. If asked I don't believe most residents of Michigan would say they're getting their money's worth under this plan - especially those actually paying the taxes to cover it.
The 19 Democrats in the Senate voted for this increase, and 18 Republicans were opposed, so yet again the headline is a tad misleading. It wasn't the Senate, but the Democrats in the Senate pushing this through.
The House has not approved this yet, so there's still hope that some responsible budgeting may yet prevail.
