Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Mike]

Granholm: "If you drive an electric car, this would not be effecting you."

[THE_WIZARD_]

Yes...push electric cars...make some money off your position or last name ...it's the Hunter Plan...

[THE_WIZARD_]

NY Democrat Rep. Mondaire Jones used a congressional COVID rule to assign another lawmaker to vote for him on more than a dozen bills in the House of Representatives — while he partied on the French Riviera at HBO star Issa Rae’s lavish wedding, The NY Post has learned.

The Democrat — who represents New York’s Hudson Valley but is currently in a crowded field vying for a new Park Slope-Lower Manhattan district — said au revoir to the hot and humid Washington, DC, summer while voting via a proxy while citing the “public health emergency.”

The allowance was enacted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to let COVID-stricken members vote as well as to reduce their potential exposure to the virus while traveling from their districts to the nation’s capital.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Just more D hypocrisy on display and further proof what a fucking crock of shit the Covid paranoia on the left was and continues to be...

[Tom W]

More evidence that It's mindblowing that this imbecile got elected TWICE as Michigan's Governor- and she's still most gainfully employed by a Democratic administration.

In Speech to DNC, Granholm Revs It Up - YouTube

[lineygoblue]

If it weren't for term limits, Grandholm probably would have gotten a 3rd term.

Politics in Michigan seem to be :

a. The Governor and both US Senators are elected based on what Detroit/Wayne County does. The outstate is fairly solid republican, but Wayne County usually comes along and brings home those three offices home for the Dems. Republican governors have to win by hoping Wayne County stays home, and also hoping that the Dem candidate is term limited.

b. The so-called "citizen committee" that was chosen to re-draw legislative and congressional districts in Michigan is a joke. Dems want the districts re-gerrymandered to give them control of the legislature, and will fight every proposal in court that this 'committee' comes up with, that fails to give them that advantage.

c. I have no idea why anyone thinks that Debbie Stupidnow is a good senator. Nobody in their right mind could think that bimbo is doing anything useful. All she does is stand behind Chuck Shumer and nod her head "yes". Before that, she did the same thing with Carl Levin.

Oh, and she drives her electric car to DC, passing by all the gasoline stations with $5.00 per gallon gas. When will those 'little people' ever learn?

Edit: .. oh, and by the way, .. since US Senators are provided transportation by the US Government, its likely Ms. Stupidnow's electric car was bought by the taxpayers. Nice gig, eh?

[Mike]

More evidence that It's mindblowing that this imbecile got elected TWICE as Michigan's Governor- and she's still most gainfully employed by a Democratic administration.

In Speech to DNC, Granholm Revs It Up - YouTube

Rashida Tlaib makes an early appearance.

[Tom W]

Rashida Tlaib makes an early appearance.

Yeah, and I am SO looking forward to having her "represent" me in congress next year. Of course, she will, because there's a point (d) in Liney's assessment of Michigan politics. The Republicans are too inept to provide candidates that generate enough enthusiasm to overcome the inherent advantages that having a (D) next to your name on a ballot. You would think that they would learn from how Thad McCotter screwed up to make sure that you've got LEGITIMATE signatures on ballot petitions, but NO. Instead of James Craig having a great shot to send Whitmer back to the Spartan locker room, we've got yet another set of no names with about zero chance of that happening. The Rs will just keep rolling out guys like Schute, DeVos and Dick Posthumus (yes, that's really the guy's name) and all sort of far right cardboard boxes.

[lineygoblue]

The Republicans are too inept to provide candidates that generate enough enthusiasm to overcome the inherent advantages that having a (D) next to your name on a ballot.

^^^ This ^^^

Schutte has about as much personality as an empty Corn Flakes box. Posthumus and DeVos tried to win using the John McCain method of winning elections, which is to surrender the election 3 months before election day. Those two were almost as bad as the D's nominating Geoffrey Fieger to run against Engler.

I don't see anyone in the potential R field that has a shot at beating The Gretch with her war chest. Big money Dems are solidly behind her in spite of herself. I don't see any of the 'big three" (Gretch, Nessie or SOS Benson) being defeated by any R. The Party has drenched all three with huge war chests, and the R party will scurry away in fear, .. as usual.

[iam416]

It's always worth reiterating that, at a minimum, a plurality of Ds WANT really high energy prices. Or, I guess, really low Green Energy prices, but, you know...lol. This is EXACTLY what those people want. They essentially want to rid the US of cheap energy.

Don't ever forget that.

[iam416]

Also, of course, in May we had the highest number of immigrants ever apprehended at the border. Ever.

[iam416]

But, yeah...it's astounding...I mean astounding to listen to Granholm demand long-term investment from Oil & Gas and then promise to shut down the industry in 10 years. It's...I mean...how the fuck do these people think the world actually operates?

[lineygoblue]

I'd have no problem with so-called "green" alternatives to energy if they were inexpensive enough for average folks to afford. Most people in flyover America can't even think about buying an electric car. Yet that's what The Party expects. I think solar energy would be great to heat my house, make hot water, etc., but even if I could afford that many solar panels on my house, what would I do on the 300 cloudy days in Michigan each year? Light a campfire and boil my water? Tree huggers don't want me to use wood, so that's out. Coal is a fossil fuel, .. so I can't use that.

When/if 'green' alternatives are available on an inexpensive basis to the average folks, then I'm fine with phasing out fossil fueled sources of energy. But, that's not happening in the time frame that The Party says it will.

Why they insist on inflicting so much pain on average folks is just beyond me. I don't get it.

[iam416]

I think most sane people are very much in favor of cheap energy regardless of source.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Ukraine: I've been reading in the news feeds covering Putin's war in Ukraine the last few days a heavy dose of everything is fine in Russia. Sanctions? No worries. We're closer than ever to China (not sure the Chinese agree with that in material terms). A Russian company has co-opted McDonalds franchises and renamed everything. Plenty of Биг Мак and фри... и чай. That's Big Mac and fries in Russian.

• The "big lie" coming out of Russia today is that the Russians are allowing grain shipments to restart. The problem is they don't say from where and by what conveyance. It's just more classic bull-shit: blame the Ukrainians for holding up grain shipments. Look at us, we're the good guys. Russia claims it's the mines in the channels of Ukrainian ports, esp. Odesa, that are holding up grain shipments. No one of any importance in getting this done believes that lie. It's all part of the "good news" from Putin. Fuck him
• Yep, we're getting prepared to hold referendums in the Ukrainian territory we've captured so that Russian speaking people can vote to become part of the Russian Federation. Things are good. We're winning and the Ukrainians are losing. The west has shot itself in the head by supporting Ukraine and sanctioning Russia. Putin is very good with propaganda ...... it can be convincing and nailing down that the shit he's serving up are lies can be hard.
• The "fog of war" makes it difficult to determine exactly what's happening on the ground. I'm reading several good sources: The Guardian, CTR and the British MOD. From what I can tell, the Russians have one significant advantage: tons of artillery and are just shelling the shit out of whatever they want to. 90% of the shelling is coming from long range tubes that the Ukrainians cant get to with counterbattery fire or troops. Russia does have some old soviet era missiles they're firing from inside Russia itself. They're not accurate and tend to have a large indiscriminate blast radius. Destructive but not usually to an important target even though they claim daily that they are interdicting western arms being moved into and stored in Ukraine. They are also launching ship to surface cruise missiles from the Black Sea, firing off precision weapons from bombers (in limited amounts because they're supposedly running out of them) and carrying out limited tactical aircraft attacks.
• In all of this, some tactical objectives are identifiable. According to military experts, none of them are of strategic importance but could be considered highly symbolic (I'll spare the historical details). It's hard to see a coherent Russian strategy other than to "liberate" the Donbas - the line Putin has been pushing since his army fucked up trying to take Kiev and Kharkiv. But that only makes sense if Putin wants to absorb all of Ukraine into the Russian Federations and there is plenty of pundits that think that's what he wants to do. NATO's response to this likelihood is telling.
• If and when Ukraine is fast track admitted to the EU, and that looks imminent, the next step is some kind of hybrid security arrangement involving select countries committing to the defense of Ukraine, not necessarily NATO Alliance members. It's a bulwark and a credible threat to Putin should he think about or actually try to occupy all of Ukraine in a long game.
• Putin is already in a bind having over-reached even in the limited scope of his operation in the Donbas. That is because it will be impossible for him to administer any of the territory he claims he's won by any other means than force of arms. That requires a lot of troops generally thought to be a 3:1 ratio between the general population and armed soldiers. Moreover, Putin has managed to piss-off a good portion of Russian speaking Ukrainians - the ones that Putin's propagandists claim are loyal to mother Russia - who are dead set against their Ukrainian homelands being joined with Russia. There's already effective partisan resistance that the Russians work hard to cover up. It's real and if it turns out to be widespread, a nightmare for an occupying Russian force.