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Take advantage of your local library. Reading is obviously the #1 reason but they offer so much more. Our pretty small and not well off city has an amazing library. They have a 3D printer, vinyl cutter, T-Shirt press, small recording studio, laser engraver, film scanner for old home movies and negatives. A decent amount of computers, printers, fax machine, etc. They also offer a few meeting rooms you can book. And they have subscriptions to some expensive services you might not want to pay for. I use one for demographics to research different markets when we open a new location. They have classes on genealogy. They also allow you to stream movies and music. I'm sure they are not great but the price is right. Tons of great stuff that you don't really think about being at the library.

We have term limits in MI and I'd say in general it made things much worse - you don't want government expertise to turn over too fast. With short limits the permanent staff ends up running everything and the reps themselves end up like the staff's interns. I'm not against the concept per se but the implementation here was too reactionary - they made the limits too short (3 x 2 yrs or 2 x 4 yrs) - for the state HOR that's only 6 yrs. They should be no less than 10 yrs, I'd say maybe 15yrs. I want the 20-30 yrs guys to roll out, not the person who's been there just long enough to understand the issues and start being an effective legislator. We have changed it in MI in the last election so it's now 12 yrs combined in both Houses, which hopefully works better - a House rep could stay 6 terms max in the House, or a Senator 3 in the Senate or some combination. I'd have gone one term longer but this should still improve the State House.

There could (and probably will be) major cuts to transit, environmental projects and protection, education, research...you get the drill. A lot of damage can be done in four years, and once cuts to funding and regulations have been made, it's difficult to get them back. Here in Boston we've already seen what happens to a transit system that's underfunded and neglected for decades, and I'm pretty sure there's a lot of infrastructure nationwide that was only beginning to be addressed 30+ years after it should have been. And it isn't only the poor that will be affected.

But there is a another way to look at it, which is that primaries have a different nature for incumbencies. Your party chose a person as the best candidate, he/she ended up having wide enough appeal to win the office, why do you want to revisit that by running someone against them in a primary? That's basically strategic suicide for a party in the absence of some real issue with the incumbent. For a party to run against it's own incumbent in a primary is basically an intra-party impeachment-you're telling the world your party was too incompetent to get the choice right the 1st time and you, MR. Voter, didn't make a good choice in electing him. A lot of bad subtext there. Running anything other than tokens against incumbent will just never be SOP for a well functioning political party. With Biden you'd have to make a serious case that he was becoming demonstrably incompetent or something, and maybe some people believe that, but all I see is what is normal for a guy that is getting physically frailer but still has his wits about him. There is more risk at his age that he won't finish his term, but there's no guarantee either way. I'm old enough to remember that the youngest president we ever elected didn't finish his term either. In a perfect world it would have been nice if Biden decided early not to run again, but the problem is that there is no good time for a President to announce that without neutering his admin, so it even if there is some inclination (not that I think there was any with Biden) the shear momentum of trying to get things done works hard against that decision ever being implemented.

The ironic part. Any type of customer survey you read will list noise as the #1 complaint. Not bad food, not poor service, noise. Two big reasons for noise going up the past 10-15 years are open kitchens and the industrial look. Everyone always asks us why we don't go those routes with our places. Well, they are insanely loud. They dining areas are generally big squares so nothing separates the noise. Kitchens are extremely loud and an open kitchen dumps that noise into the dining area. The industrial look is usually brick with exposed HVAC ducts which all reflect noise. There is a seafood place in Davison named Whiteys that I have gone to my entire life. Big place, probably seats 250 maybe 275 people. Very popular and always full and you can hear a pin drop in that place. Their kitchen is dead nuts center of the restaurant and closed. That basically separates the dining area into four different areas to help control noise. One of the areas has huge windows and glass is bad for sound, so that is a bit louder than the other three areas. But all soft finishes on the walls otherwise and mostly carpeted floors, so chairs scraping on hard tile. The central kitchen also makes things feel very cozy. They do 1,000+ covers a night and the entire time you are seated its like eating with only 60 other people. Very well designed place.

In general I’m going to believe the woman because historically they have gotten the short end of these situations both in terms of lack of Justice and overall shaming and questioning. So if that means a douchebag like Bauer is unfairly accused… so be it. I’m fine with him being allegedly falsely accused if it means other women are rightfully believed and feel courage coming forward when it happens to them. I’m sure there’s millions of women out there saying “yeah it sucks when you are unfairly judged on something. welcome to the club. My rapist got off because I had a black bra on.”

The theory that judges/justices are impartial (that we were taught in elementary social studies) has been proven wrong several times. That coupled with the fact that too many judges have held on long past their healthy expiration date. I would love to hold all federal court judges to say a 15 year term, let them retire with pensions and even give them emeritus status on the court. 30 plus years on the court is way too long.

It will be hard because so many of the GOP policies are “weird”. I use that word because I saw a tweet recently summing it up that way and I think it fits. Just take the Alabama IVF decision as an example. It’s extreme to normal people but it’s the logical extension of their position on abortion. How many are trying to walk it back after being exposed for endorsing similar laws in the past? I think a national law codifying Roe and hopefully closing the book on that issue is a necessary first step. But Roe has been the heart and soul of GOO politics since the late 70s when Falwell started the moral majority. It’s been proven time and again there’s no place for Romney style economi conservative policies with a blind eye toward the firebrand social issues. a path forward could emerge via a split of the Democratic Party with folks like Manchin butting heads with the progressives.

I’m not sure how much of a mystery it is—he’s declining offensively and has an aggressive agent who probably set his expectations too high.

sort of tangentially related, but my long time gripe is that if taxpayer funds, facilities, and resources are used in these primary elections, I shouldn't be restrained in who I can vote for. At least I can pick one or the other party and vote, but I think it's trash that I can't vote in both. I think it's even more trash that some states administer these primary elections with taxpayer resources and people aren't allowed to vote. I love Democracy but the way we do it leaves a lot to be desired.

Beard

Literally... The Pot calling the Kettle...

I think Trump winning will have a serious threat to global affairs. Russia will steamroll Ukraine and go after Poland and given his talk about NATO…. We won’t step up. Our allies might. Then it’s a mess. Taiwan will be in danger too.

Plus judges like Clarence Thomas can get their RVs sooner without influence peddling. Theoretically

Judging from the responses, I gather that term limits are not good for Democrats. 😀 So, if that's the case, I am sorry I mentioned it! How about "term" limits for the Supreme court?

I don't agree even a little that a perfect world would have Joe Biden opting out of running because he is old. Joe Biden is arguably the best president since FDR, is still performing at a high level into his 80s, and if nothing else, he has surrounded himself with good and competent people to pursue the agenda he has established—an agenda that has resulted in getting COVID under control; soft-landing the economy without a recession; marshaling the world's efforts against Putin; bringing prices way down on life-saving drugs; making us the leading producer of renewable energy (and non-renewable energy, FWTW); cracking down on junk fees by banks; keeping China at bay; tackling crippling, coercive student debt; bringing high-tech microchip production to the US; implementing the greatest infrastructure effort since the Interstate Highway System; and several more that are escaping me at the moment. Don't you want four more years of the same? Because put some other Democrat in there and there's no guarantee they don't just substitute batons instead of taking Joe's and running with it. Besides, who would you run in Biden's place? Gretchen Whitmer? (A) she's not available or ready to run, and (b) there are still a lot of people on the margins, enough to cost the election (thanks to the Electoral College), who will simply not vote for a woman for president, even in 2024. Pete Buttigieg? Same thing, substitute "gay' for "woman". J.B. Pritzker? Nobody knows who he is, he weighs 400 pounds so substitute "fat" for "old", and people would hang the myth of nation-leading Chicago crime around his neck like an anvil on a pier. Dean Phillips? He's already proven to be dead in the water. Marianne Williamson? Robert Kennedy Jr? Kamala Harris? *snort* Who else ya got? Besides, I don't think it's a fait accompli that Biden will be dead before January 20, 2029, anyway. Every elite in the world is living into their 90s and beyond these days because they all have access to the best, most advanced healthcare in the world, and Biden has the best of all of them, literally 24/7. Plus he has shown that he's pretty healthy—he even rides bicycles for exercise, or at least he did as recently as last August. Biden is not gonna simply drop dead of being 85. So I'm not worried about that at all.

I like watching live music. I will go see anybody anytime. I wish I had more opportunities and friends interested in that. It’s different if you go to a place when a stage and it’s a normal occurrence that someone is there. In my situation above it’s a small brewery. They basically move tables and a guy sets up. Just wasn’t in the mood for it. Unnecessarily loud and the acoustics in there are bad already. I’m crabby but old man. Last year I reconnected with an old best friend. Went to a tiger game on like a Monday night. After went into bookies. It’s 10pm on Monday night with hardly anybody in there. We are at the bar trying to eat and talk. The music was too loud. When you can’t hear the person 10 inches from you….

What a beautiful sight...............Is to cry !

The 68 election was close and hard to analyze because of Wallace who won 5 southern states and in 3 of them Humphrey got more votes than Nixon. And you had Vietnam.

Yeah, if Biden theoretically announced he wasnt running, he would immediately endorse her and it would be over. The fact that there have been so many articles written over fantasy scenarios that make The West Wing look realistic by comparison is a real indictment of the pundit industrial complex.

Excellent post!

I remember one he had when he was the Rangers' guy, and the Tigers had Fu Te Ni. "The knights who say Fu Te Ni"

OK, I will. Thanks for the advice Cecil.

Is this part of the reason the Wings’ offense was dynamic today?

Half the population lost a right they had for 50 years because of Trump. Thousands of people died unnecessarily because of Trump. Whole generations will be affected because of Trump’s Supreme Court. Trump is promising to deport millions of people. You do your protest vote because Biden is old.

The Yankees and Tigers had an exhibition baseball game scheduled for today but apparently a football game broke out at Joker Marchant stadium in its stead. 22-10 NY final.

No, there are stupid people too. I means what else would you call supporting Trump by other means?

Big questions are 1. Is Miggy looking to be in good shape, has he slimmed down? 2. Is Bonderman's Change-Up coming along?

Tigers pitching a bit erratic today. Would be nice to hear C-Mo suggest to Dan bringing Bauer into camp to help.

Isn't O'Rourke well past his use by date

For lo, my hangover is gone, the pain is mostly over and gone: the Tylenol appears on my counter and the time of the clearing of throat is come and the voice of Tom Waits is heard in my house.

That's exactly why I wanted them to sign Goff to an extension sooner. I don't think the rising cap will make a massive difference (he would have gotten $45m+ even if signed earlier) but every dollar counts and now Goff will be $50m+.

The place sure looks different since my first trip there in 1971.

I don’t think Young meets the character prerequisites set in place by Holmes and Campbell.

The Lions offense scored 31 points on one of the best defenses in the NFL. My takeaway wasn't that there was a significant deficiency in talent. My takeaway was that the Lions were legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

I took a break after the way things ended. Looking back, I don't think the Lions really overachieved. I think the Lions did what we expected them to do in the regular season -- win the NFC North. And if we had been told that our playoff opponents would be the Rams and the Buccaneers (rather than the Rams and the Cowboys or Eagles), I think most of us would have expected them to win playoff games against those teams. If they overachieved anywhere, it was in the first half of the SF game. They caught the home team flat-footed and raced out to an early lead. Some of this was aggressive coaching, some of it was converting on several 3rd and longs to keep drives alive. In the second half, the talent deficit caught up with them, and the game ended the way pretty much all of us expected it would, and the way we would have expected at the start of the season. The fact that the NFC Championship game was as close as it was is a testament to Holmes's incredible drafting and Campbell's incredible coaching. Next season every player on that roster will show up to training camp expecting to play in the Super Bowl, and it will be a perfectly reasonable expectation.

I don't think Sutton was ever considered a No 1 CB, was he? I think Mosely was expected to be our No 1 with Sutton the No 2, where I think he'd have been fine.

The Lions got here at least a year before I thought they could - While I would have probably made different decisions regarding FGs in that last game, I am absolutely convinced DC is the right coach. He got more out of this group than he probably should have. Completely agree on CBs. I would put another edge rusher on par with that. Beyond that, I hope we use a best player available approach at the draft - Outside of perhaps RB, QB, & S, I don't know that there is any position group where we don't need depth.

The Lions scored 31 points and the issue is the QB.