Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Whitmer also won Grand Rapids, the Saginaw-Midland area, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Marquette in the UP. I dunno if she'd take any of those by the same margin today but she did win more than Wayne-Washtenaw-Oakland.

Oakland County, btw, is a big story in how it's swung from being a reliably Republican County to increasingly Democrat. And there's indication in some recent polling that the Dem advantage there could be its biggest ever this year. Would be good news for Slotkin.

[lineygoblue]

She won the liberal cities within those counties, which allowed her to carry the counties. She didn't win the townships around them. As I said, her opponent wasn't exactly the type of guy to attract votes. He was a total bum, and she was marketed as "pretty and witty". Her "fix the dam roads" mantra drew a lot of attention her way, and it admittedly won her votes.

Since then, when she actually made her proposal to "fix the dam roads", folks saw that the bill was going to be a 170% gas tax increase, which was absolutely panned by every politician in Lansing, including her own party. She couldn't find even one Democrat to actually write the bill to present to the House and Senate. Not one. Nobody wanted to write up such a foolish proposal, because they knew it was political suicide. When she didn't get her way, she went off on a tantrum, and slashed funding by fiat from other departments, attempting to bully the Republicans into giving her the money she wanted. The Republicans said "yeah, right", and told her she had to dig her way out of that mess all by herself. She had to backtrack, and re-establish funding for key services and eat a huge slice of humble pie in the process.

Now along comes Covid, and for the first 30-45 days, she didn't do such a bad job. Her responses were lawful and helpful. At the end of April however, she realized that under State law, she now had to get with Republicans in the Legislature to work out a bipartisan way to continue attacking the pandemic. She basically said, "Forget that", and went off on her own way, writing over 100 executive orders and refusing to deal with the Legislature. That brings us to Friday, where the MSC reeled her back in, and told her she was out of line. Even the Democrats on the MSC told her she was wrong.

So, if that election were held today, she'd lose. There aren't enough votes in those metro areas to get her past any rational Republican candidate running against her, and she knows it. The "wave" of popularity she rode in on has crashed on the beach. Its gone. She's in trouble, and she knows it. Its too bad she's not up for election next month, because she'd be gone.

Jon lives in Oakland County, and the reason they've become more Democrat is because a lot of the population from Wayne County is moving north into Oakland and Macomb Counties. Oakland County has also attracted population from Genesee County, which is Flint, where nobody wants to live anymore.

[Ghengis Jon]

Slotkin is popular around here as she is not a liberal democrat. Her national security chops carry some water and her analytical calm demeanor plays well. It is heavily GOP leaning here in rural areas of Slotkinland, many local races have no democratic candidate. She has her strength in the 'burbs and from Lansing. Politics hasn't turned her to the Dark Side yet so I think there's a very good chance she'll be re-elected, in part because of her non-firebreathing personality. I think she's an example of voters finally tiring of partisan extremism. Paul Junge is a Trumpian goo-gobbler - if the GOP had put forth a non-sycophant, Slotkin would be in a tough fight.

[Da Geezer]

I don't know if this will come through since I have cut and pasted the WSJ. This is a pretty good explanation of the two laws involved in Friday's decision.


Michigan’s one-woman rule is no more. When the coronavirus hit the state this spring, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drew complaints for the seemingly arbitrary nature of her lockdown orders. Stores were told to cordon off nonessential sections. You could buy lottery tickets, but not paint or gardening supplies.

Those rules have eased, but Ms. Whitmer extended Michigan’s state of emergency again last week, this time through Oct. 27. In a Friday opinion that limits the Governor’s emergency powers, the Michigan Supreme Court quoted Montesquieu: “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty.”

Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, has acted under two state laws. The Emergency Management Act lets the Governor declare a disaster, but only for 28 days unless a longer period is approved by the Legislature. In this case, Republican lawmakers declined to authorize any declaration past April 30. Ms. Whitmer’s response, the high court said in its opinion, was to end the first emergency and immediately declare a new one “for the identical reasons.”
Those rules have eased, but Ms. Whitmer extended Michigan’s state of emergency again last week, this time through Oct. 27. In a Friday opinion that limits the Governor’s emergency powers, the Michigan Supreme Court quoted Montesquieu: “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty.”

Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, has acted under two state laws. The Emergency Management Act lets the Governor declare a disaster, but only for 28 days unless a longer period is approved by the Legislature. In this case, Republican lawmakers declined to authorize any declaration past April 30. Ms. Whitmer’s response, the high court said in its opinion, was to end the first emergency and immediately declare a new one “for the identical reasons.”

The law says the Governor “shall” issue a declaration “if he or she finds that an emergency has occurred,” so Ms. Whitmer argued, as the court explained it, that she “had no choice here but to redeclare a state of emergency.” But as Justice Stephen Markman wrote for a unanimous court on this point, “To allow such a redeclaration would effectively render the 28-day limitation a nullity.”

---

A second state law, the Emergency Powers of the Governor Act, says Ms. Whitmer can take “reasonable” action as needed “to protect life and property or to bring the emergency situation within the affected area under control.” As an illustration of its scope, the court said that Ms. Whitmer’s orders have required residents to stay home; mandated masks; forced the closure of churches, cafes, salons, gyms, schools, libraries and so forth; prohibited nonessential travel; and barred private gatherings between people from different households.

Unlike the other law, this one includes no specific time limitation, so in theory the Governor’s emergency powers could continue indefinitely. “Almost certainly,” Justice Markman wrote for the majority, “no individual in the history of this state has ever been vested with as much concentrated and standardless power to regulate the lives of our people, free of the inconvenience of having to act in accord with other accountable branches of government.” In a 4-3 vote, the court struck down the statute as “an unlawful delegation of legislative power” under Michigan’s constitution.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Power hungry corrupt beyotch.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Pat Toomey says he's not running for reelection in 2022. Guy's only 58. Came in with the Tea party class of 2010 and he's clearly been uncomfortable adopting to the Trumpian changes to the Republican Party. Opens up a seat that's a fairly good pickup chance for Dems.

[Tom W]

Slotkin is popular around here as she is not a liberal democrat. Her national security chops carry some water and her analytical calm demeanor plays well. It is heavily GOP leaning here in rural areas of Slotkinland, many local races have no democratic candidate. She has her strength in the 'burbs and from Lansing. Politics hasn't turned her to the Dark Side yet so I think there's a very good chance she'll be re-elected, in part because of her non-firebreathing personality. I think she's an example of voters finally tiring of partisan extremism. Paul Junge is a Trumpian goo-gobbler - if the GOP had put forth a non-sycophant, Slotkin would be in a tough fight.

Yes, Slotkin does seem to reasonably moderate-or at least tolerant- which is much more than we can say for her teammates of Stevens and Tlaib. I live in Stevens' district and it wouldn't surprise me the least if she loses her seat. Tlaib, on the other hand, represents Conyers' old district. That's probably where most of that 60% myth comes from. She'll be entertaining us for years to come.

[lineygoblue]

Tlaib, on the other hand, represents Conyers' old district. That's probably where most of that 60% myth comes from. She'll be entertaining us for years to come.

Yeah, Tlaib is in a safe district just like Pelosi is. No matter what she does, she has a lifetime job, or at least as long as she wants it. Her district is about 80% islamic, and she's a 'palestinian', so she's not going anywhere. Even Conyers would have had a hard time beating her now. Her district is an example of what lies ahead here in Michigan once the Democrats are allowed to re-gerrymander the districts back to their advantage.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Press Secretary announcing she's now tested positive.

[CGVT]

Power hungry corrupt beyotch.

Trump? Yes.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Trump? Yes.

You forgot lying, despicable and orangeman

[Jeff Buchanan]

Filtering through COVID news and the president's bout with C-19, I offer these thoughts:

• The media seeks controversy. Every snippet of Trump's medical circumstance is interpreted in that context. My advise is to not listen to it or watch it on TV.
• Trump is probably doing pretty well. That he is is more a reflection of the knowledge gained in the care of at risk C-19 diagnosed patients that have been admitted to a hospital.
• His care team doing pressers isn't going to release any shit that is detailed enough to completely understand his medical status. The press will over-analyze everything they say and will be mostly wrong if they try to draw conclusions.
• I watched his tweet video before he took a ride outside Walter Reed to wave at his supporters yesterday. He was out of breath and struggling not to show it. That's COVID. He has it. That he is standing, looks decent suggests one of two things (1) He's doing well for a 74yo with COVID, (2) Fabulous staging by him and his handlers.

I remain aggravated by bad news reporting of a "surge" in new COVID cases that occur locally. There is no attempt to contextualize it and that is, of course, misleading. Worse, reporting like this makes these local outbreaks appear to be happening on a wide-spread basis throughout the entire US. They are not.

The purveyors of "dire consequences" news do not report on or recognize that these are local outbreak where local PH officials are identifying those infected, tracing contacts and then imposing targeted mitigation measures exactly like they should be doing to contain the local outbreak and move on. In Brooklyn, for example, there's an outbreak in a couple of zip codes. Some mitigation measures are being re-imposed - some schools will stop in person learning ........ for a week or 2 and then, once the positivity rates drop, they'll reopen, that second part isn't in the headline.

I mean, fuck the press. If they were doing a service to the public with accurate reporting on COVID, I'd praise them but they are writing stories that are terribly misleading and are routinely misrepresenting data to advance their "dire consequences" false narrative.

[iam416]

They'll start "accurate" reporting as soon as Biden is in office.

I mean -- this is an actual AP standard: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/...utm_term=first

Avoid using the word "rioting"

[iam416]

For Jeff -- article with very basic summary of Covid stats and progression: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/2020...us-about-covid

One thing that I like is the perspective that Covid hasn't really changed, we have a much better understanding of it now (both in terms of how to treat it and in a statistical sense).

0.6 CFR is roughly 6X the flu. Fatality rates for people younger than 40 are microscopic.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Wiz, this seems like a pretty good opportunity for you if you're interested in relocating to Pennsylvania. Introduce Fayette County to your Chadron State Chili Wings

https://nypost.com/2020/10/05/creepy-silence-of-the-lambs-house-up-for-sale-for-298k/