Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

That remark pretty much sums up Whitmer and how that witch and her coven will remain n office for 4 more years

Her pal in the SOS has already gotten rid of at least 4 challengers, and its only May. Don't sell Gretch short. She's almost as treacherous as Hillary.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Her pal in the SOS has already gotten rid of at least 4 challengers, and its only May. Don't sell Gretch short. She's almost as treacherous as Hillary.

Heh, I saw some of the signature pages from the five campaigns that got disqualified. The forgers were barely trying. I mean numerous signatures in the same handwriting on the same page all in the same color ink. In all honesty the real blame falls on the contractor that gathered the signatures, not the campaign itself. And my understanding is some of these campaigns that got DQ'd were even using the same contractor.

The decision still has to be approved by the State Board of Canvassers but yeah, those five are done. The candidate the DeVos family is backing isn't among them.

[Obi-Jon]

Whitmer came into office there was a $3B deficit, today there is a $3.5B surplus. All my local roads and bridges have been fixed. My taxes have not increased. I get $400 per vehicle back from insurance robber barons. If that's treachery, I'd like some more please. Focus on performance, not partisanship.

Hillary is an awfully brutal label to be throwing around. As bad as labeling someone to be as ethical and moral as DJT.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Jon Cornyn and Dan Crenshaw have suddenly come up with "scheduling conflicts" and will no longer speak at the NRA convention in Houston on Friday. Trump says he still plans to be there.

[THE_WIZARD_]

So Social Justice "Warrior" (pun intended) Steve Kerr is calling out the Senate to pass more restrictive federal gun laws...yet just two years ago was preaching to get police presence out of the Oakland schools because it was bad for the children...Coach...I loved you as a Bull...and I hear you are a pretty fair coach now...but for the love of Lucifer...STFU.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Rhetorical question here...but will the MSM ever like...just do their job? Now that the Russia Collusion thing has been completely debunked...and in fact is showing unlawful conduct on the part of the primary ACCUSER...and "JIM CROW ON STEROIDS" has been shown to be utter bullpucky......and shall we delve into Hunter and the laptop?

...this is just three items of complete BS in recent memory where the MSM was completely not doing their fucking jobs...

...more pitiful than a poop lollipop...or a CGVT post...

[Tom W]

Whitmer came into office there was a $3B deficit, today there is a $3.5B surplus. All my local roads and bridges have been fixed. My taxes have not increased. I get $400 per vehicle back from insurance robber barons. If that's treachery, I'd like some more please. Focus on performance, not partisanship.

Hillary is an awfully brutal label to be throwing around. As bad as labeling someone to be as ethical and moral as DJT.

The roads around Detroit have been under constant construction (which has been amplified lately) and they still suck. Just because there's activity doesn't mean you're making progress, and if you aren't making progress then it shows that you don't know what you're doing- other than trying to fool people.

And yeah, Whitmer is Hillary Lite- if only because she doesn't have authority over federal assets. If there's one good thing about Kamara (and there probably is only ONE), it's that it's her and not Whitmer standing in the wings waiting for Biden to disintegrate.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I've lived around Columbus since 2014 and the downtown I-70/I-71 interchange has been under constant construction almost that entire time. But otherwise, meh, the roads are ok.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Ukraine: The fucker might just pull a rabbit out of his hat or a semblance thereof.

Local reporting from Ukraine suggests that the Russian Army has substantially changed it's tactics. Previously creating battle fronts stretching thousands of kilometers, the one battlefront now being created is about 60km. You can imagine the impact of focusing 25 BTGs, eah with 500-800 soldiers and a couple of armored companies, on that front versus numerous fronts spread out over a huge amount of Ukrainian territory.

The withdrawal of Russian forces from around Kharkiv in the NE, Kherson, Mykoliv and Zaphorisia in the SW happened 2 months ago. Having failed at making advances there that secured territory allowing political control to evolve, Russian forces have undergone a 4-5w reconsolidation of forces and are about 95% concentrated on 4 towns and 1 city in the E - 3 of these are under Russian control and the big prize, Sverdonetsk is partially encircled and being destroyed. Achieving success - success being defined as forcing Ukrainian troops to withdraw from Sverdonetsk, preventing another Mariupol situation, will provide the DNR - having previously had control of Donetsk - the ability to politically control most of the Donbas, heretofore only controlling something over half of it. The LNR, further north, governing from Luhansk, already had control of most of that Oblast.

What's obvious is both sides are trying to control the information space, more specifically map depictions of who is in control of what territory. It's difficult to follow as both sides put out reports that favor each's view of the battle space. I've clipped a portion of a map from an unbiased source that uses available overhead satellites, war-mappers@twitter. It's not zoomable but you can use your Chrome controls to enlarge the page presentation so you can see some, not all, of the key towns I talk about above.

The take away from this map for me is that Russian advances remain small and gaining territory inside Ukraine is hard and costly for Russia. Pro-Russian media is reporting that various steps are underway to make it easier for Ukrainians in Russian controlled territory inside the legal boarders of Ukraine to get Russian passports. Ukrainian news sources are claiming this is illegal - nothing illegal has stopped Putin so far so, who cares. The net effect is annexation of previously held Ukrainian territory into Russia. In the end, if this sort of annexation stands - and I have no doubt the international community will not recognize it - here's Putin's off ramp, his semblance of a rabbit out his hat. He'll declare an end to his special military operation, having secured questionable control of the entire Donbas, and declare a victory. There will be no formal peace agreements because neither side is going to agree to anything. The Ukrainians will keep resisting and we have the recipe for a simmering, often flaring up to full-fledged combat involving the two sides for years to come. It will be an uncomfortable circumstance in this part of the world.

As many point out, what's happening in Ukraine is happening in Ukraine and as far as the situation in the battle space is concerned, there is not much we, meaning people like us, can do about it. Titling at windmills may be an appropriate analogy here. The west and the EU may remain somewhat united but actually delivering on words is becoming elusive. Interest will wane.

But, have no doubt, Putin and Russia are wounded. I doubt sanctions will come off - some will - but not enough to return Russia to it's pre-war economic circumstances - far from it. Putin's adventurism in Ukraine has been and will continue to be disruptive to all manner of life inside Russia for Russian citizens and global undertakings outside of it. This prediction is based on some untoward black swan event changing the course of where I think we are headed. Saving that, things will stabilize and because of the nature of humans we'll fall into social constructionism where we just accept what has gone on and what will continue to go on in that part of the world and move on to something else.

Guide to the map below: Yellow is Ukraine controlled territory, Red is Russian controlled, Pink is Russian advances in the face of Ukrainian defenses, Purple is occupied territory pre-02/24/22. The farthest boarder to the right is Belarus in the N and Russia S and along the boarder of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The red and pink areas directly N of Luhansk and to the Russian boarder are part of the Luhnask Region. There's really nothing there so Russian occupation of that is unimportant other than to symbolically extend Russian control of that region and protect Belgorad, just inside Russia and a major military supply point..

You can't zoom in and see the smaller names on the map but almost due W of Luhansk are a bunch of red dots. These are Russian advances in the last 2w - they are tactical and not strategic, pro-Russian news thinks they are strategic and are playing-up the Russian Army advances as battle success. They are far from it. Just above and to the right of all those red dots is that round area named the "cauldron." Also within it is the Ukrainian declared capital of and home to Ukrainian defensive forces in the Donbas (Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts), Sverdonetsk. If it is captured, that will be a symbolic blow to Ukraine let alone leaving the question of what happens to the Ukrainian army forces and command element that are there defending and coordinating military operations from within it? Sverdonetsk is the principle strategic target of the Russians right now - a huge step down from strategic intentions 3 months ago. You can call it being adaptive and I've heard that - the other definition is they got beat.

Ukriane Map 05.25.222.JPG

[Jeff Buchanan]

Evidence of kind-of what I think will ultimately happen and in not the too distant future - maybe another month possibly less:

From Twitter:

Der Spiegel after a plane brief with Scholz on his war goals."Victory for Ukraine does not seem to be an option. The strategy could be called active waiting. The Germans are cautiously supplying arms, participating in boycotts & waiting for Putin to say his war goals are reached"
1:02 PM · May 25, 2022·Twitter Web App

[Tom W]

I've lived around Columbus since 2014 and the downtown I-70/I-71 interchange has been under constant construction almost that entire time. But otherwise, meh, the roads are ok.

Ohio has always had better roads than Michigan. But having decent roads doesn't mean that everything else about that state doesn't suck big time.

[iam416]

I've lived around Columbus since 2014 and the downtown I-70/I-71 interchange has been under constant construction almost that entire time. But otherwise, meh, the roads are ok.

Roads in and around Columbus are gads better than Cleveland or Youngstown. Dresden circa 1945 had better roads than Southern Mahoning County.

The exchange is more or less done -- well, the ridiculous 1-lane 70-W funneling is done.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Downtown Akron is another spot up that way that seems to just be an endless project.

[Jeff Buchanan]

....... I94 East and Westbound in Jackson MI is a 4y ongoing project with orange cones and confusing roadway changeovers through the 10 mile or so construction zones. I've stayed a couple of times in Jackson - about an hour W of AA - for games. That mess is one of the reasons we don't leave our tailgate site until at least 2h after game end and even then the traffic jam clears form east to west with Jackson continuing to be a trouble sport for long after game end.

I'm told the project was designed 10y ago or more and is now outdated. A chance to widen I94 to 3 lanes just before COVID couldn't be accomplished due to lack of funds so, it will still suck even with the design changes DOT started out with.

I don't even live in S MI anymore but I go there enough to appreciate how the roads in and around AA and Detroit Metropolitan Airport are awful, constantly under construction, seemingly never finished.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Highway smack. Only in B1G country...