ewsieg

but, but....states rights.

That's been the strategy from both sides for along time, Trump just "Trumped" it to another level. I don't know anyone personally that is a supporter of Trump AND thinks he's a good person. I know many avid supporters that don't think he's a good man on a personal level and would probably equate him to Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School in terms of his business background; crooked, but crooked because that's just the way things are done in that world of the 1%'ers that screw the rest of us. He's convinced many that he's just fed up with the system that he acknowledges he was a part of and that's enough of a redeeming quality to back him for some reason. Add the 'the other side wants to radically destroy everything you love' after he's got them hooked and now you have a cult.

You are absolutely correct, ultimately Rick Snyder made the biggest mistake of everyone by trying to appease Flint and appointing a democrat to run the city under emergency management. Joking aside, both local democrats and republicans alike were moving towards KWA before Flint was under an emergency manager and even if Flint wasn't under emergency management and the same events happen, the State, under Snyder, still would deserve blame based on the failures of the DEQ. So many things went wrong and yet, adding one additive at minimal cost could have still saved us from this mess.

I'm still amazing that the GOP convinced their base it was the democrats (that were involved) fault and the Democrats have convinced their base that it was the republicans (that were involved) fault, and 80% of the population just goes with that as fact.

She did nothing for the roads except put out a plan that her own party didn't agree with. Then spent the next few years blaming congress. Luckily for her, she got bailed out, along with every other governor, with Covid money. Did she put that towards roads, education, and mental facilities, yes, so I guess that's good. If she gets credit for stuff somewhat out of her hands, than shouldn't she take credit for this too though? https://www.bridgemi.com/talent-education/michigan-school-m-step-scores-down-sharply-pre-pandemic-testing She didn't cause Covid, but she definitely didn't push to get kids back into schools even after the science was showing just how detrimental at home learning was combined with the fact that kids were the least at risk group to Covid. Funny thing is, she's taking credit for kids back in school now too. Flint just went back to in-school learning. For people that get mad about people of color getting left behind, they should be furious with this. I'll play a political caveat that both sides do when it fits them and point to school funding. When taking inflation into account, funding is not at an all time high per pupil. She's handled Line 5 horribly and at the cost of Michigan tax payers to fight it. Even the Biden administration is not supporting her on it. She was glad it was working when she needed to call in a favor to a billionaire friend and needed gas for the private plane trip to Florida as she was telling everyone else to stay home. Oh wait, not a favor, she paid for it....after she was caught. Flint... are you kidding me? Money was allocated for that before she was governor. In fact under her leadership, Flint went away from scientific based methods in identifying and clearing lines which was not only cheaper, but was faster as well. Governors fault... idk, might be unfair to blame her for that, but I would think Flint would be a hot button issue that any governor would stay on top off. The subsidies for the automakers, I honestly don't know where I stand with that. Almost feels like a necessary evil. Corporations are taking advantage of politicians with it, but if you don't do it, you seem to lose even more. Ford just taking a bunch from Michigan and than announcing major layoffs of their white collar (so mostly Michigan) folks hurts. And I know you guys will treat this like Hunter Biden, but the nursing homes. I guess you can spin it and say she was so much smarter than Cuomo because she was too inept to even track the data, thus no need to fudge it.

I'll give her props on focusing on mental healthcare, but as for the rest, are you enjoying that kool-aid you're drinking?

Trump officials?

I'm sure they are pissed off, and they should be. Note, i'm not saying we shouldn't be supporting this war and Ukraine, i'm just saying there is a very thin line between supporting them and using them as a proxy war. I realized I linked the wrong article above. I think it referenced the one I linked and that's how that one got included, but it was about Boris Johnson's somewhat impromptu visit to Ukraine in April. Now I can't find it. It was reported back then that he warned Zelensky with many of the things you all have pointed out, for instance that you simply can't trust Putin. There is nothing wrong with that. It went further in saying that Johnson said that if they did sign a deal with Russia, he'd be risking western support going forward. If true, I don't see him saying that without US awareness and agreement. Also if true, kind of sounds like we want the proxy war and luckily, for now at least, that coincides with what Ukraine wants.

As I said, if Zelensky wanted to agree to it, and we stronghanded him, that's bullshit. The biggest argument on this site is we should support Ukraine/Zelensky if they want war, conversely we should support him if he wants peace too. In terms of 'owning' the Russians, this war has been a fabulous success that we can all cheer on from the comfort of our homes on the other side of the world. If this war stopped in April, how many tens of thousands would have been saved from the Ukrainian military and citizens? I've heard some estimates of up to 1 million Ukrainians that were forced into Russia, what are the chances they are ever coming back? Imagine how much less this global inflation crisis may have been if this stopped that long ago. We still haven't seen the real crunch on just how bad this war will be globally until we see how Europe gets through this Winter. Points on Putin and just how safe could Ukraine feel even if Russia did pull out are valid. As mentioned, this might be better for us in terms of China as well. From a US standpoint, this has been great. Just surprised it's one of the few guys still on this site that supported us going into Iraq that is the one pointing out war is still a pretty horrible thing and comes with some great losses, even if you 'win'.

Some great news from the last few days which seems to be confirmed now. I haven't been around much lately. Has anyone pointed out that it looks like Russia and Ukraine were close to an agreement that would have stopped the war in April but Boris Johnson helped nix it (i'm sure with our support). https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/world-putin-wants-fiona-hill-angela-stent?check_logged_in=1&utm_medium=promo_email&utm_source=lo_flows&utm_campaign=registered_user_welcome&utm_term=email_1&utm_content=20220910 Take a look at the current map below and note that the deal would have given Ukraine everything it controlled prior to Feb 24. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-world-news-kharkiv-e06b2aa723e826ed4105b5f32827f577 If it comes out Zelensky was leaning towards taking the deal and didn't because of us, heads should roll.

Finishing up the concert now and McCartney is out there with Chrissie Hynde and holy crap, she's so good. Rush, being one of my favorite bands, was quite awesome as well. Overall this concert absolutely fantastic.

I saw the likes, which I guess I understand. I never thought i'd be a one issue voter, yet there are two single issues in which I wouldn't vote for Dixon now (Abortion and Election/Trump). That said, we'll be rewarded with this sentiment by 4 more years of a mediocre governor (honestly, only accomplishment that she screwed over Konstanstinov?!?!) along with an horribly incompetent (Flint) and possibly corrupt (See Dugan/Benson husband) Attorney General and a Secretary of State which only increased waiting times, even before Covid, not to mention her law breaking husband..... Sad that these are our options, even sadder that with the options, there is still only one clear cut choice.....ugh.

Abortion is on the ballot in Michigan. Game Set Match for Whitmer.

If she accepted Sterns invitation to his show, this is what you would have had.

First born is heir now, but there are a few generations of first born males already in line. If the Monarchy holds on, it's only a matter of time.

The Trump unity bridge travels around mostly southeastern Michigan. It's a complete shitshow. The Drew and Mike podcast regularly reaches out to the guy, he still hasn't realized they are mocking him.

Right at the end they have an angle on Shane with a blurred Pat Smear in the background and he's got the biggest smile in the world.

I'm surprised no one has talked about this. I'm trying to get through the full concert, i'm about 2 hours in and it's been fantastic. This, rightfully so, won the twitterverse related to this show. I don't think Grohl lied when he said he's never seen anyone hit the drums as hard as this kid.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/08/31/voting-rights-ballot-proposal-headed-court-after-canvassers-deadlock-michigan-abortion-rights/7948041001/ Very likely the MI supreme court allows this on the ballot. If so, Whitmer minds well stop campaigning as there would be no reason to waste funds on a race you already won.

i'm very confident I had it about 4-6 weeks ago, especially as I hung out with my brother (and shared a room) on a family reunion trip last week and didn't get sick as he went from completely fine on a Friday night, to chills/fever as he woke up Saturday. 4-6 weeks ago I had the same symptons as him, 1.5 days of a sore throat, .5 days of chills feeling warm/cold inside those 1.5 days. By day 2, felt pretty good, day 3, felt fine. Hope the same for you.

Maybe I just live in a different world. If my elected official, regardless of the party they are in, have family members getting 100k gifts out of the kindness of someone's heart, I want that scrutinized.

WAPO confirmed thousands of the emails, including the one I have mentioned. Freeh gave the money to Biden's grandkids as he's asking an eager Hunter for a chance to meet with his Dad. That's old school political bribing. You can argue that it's not black and white and technically this or that, but it's bullshit. You know it, I know it. As i've said, if you want to whatabout this and point to Trump being a bigger corrupt politician, I can't argue with that. Jared, as it appears, did nothing illegal either in regards to the Saudi 2 billion, but in a perfect world, he's in jail over it right now. I guess the biggest thing about the Hunter stuff isn't that it should/shouldn't be a bigger story over X, Y, or Z, but that so many people actually think the laptop is fake news still.

If a city of warren businessman that might do business with the city at some point gave Fouts 100k and said 'whatever you choose to do in the future, i'd just like to work with you', you would be good with that? I have a customer that is a government agency, if I saw one of their employees at Starbucks on my lunch and paid for their coffee I could face consequences.

Whatever, I know your MO.

You're honestly telling me that if it came out that someone gave a Pence family member 100k, made a point to tell his kids, and ask them to tell Pence he would look forward to working with him in the future, you would be fine with no one questioning it?