ewsieg

He's not getting the Baltic's. Belarus is trying to court favor by being as much of an ally as possible, but their leaders should be watching their back. Moldova definitely would be next. And while I joked about Obama's dissing of Romney over Russia, Obama obviously was right that China as a major concern. China and Taiwan are very interested in how this plays out.

Absolutely, it takes time to regroup.

If Craig sought out to find the worst possible folks to run his campaign, than I think it proves he has some remarkable leadership quality because he succeeded with flying colors. At the same time that's coming out, Bloomberg with some good news for Whitmer. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-02-16/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-leads-the-no-1-u-s-economy

Yup, that's a name I hadn't heard in forever. Reminds me of a buddy informing me about a celebrity death recently. "Ivan Reitman died today", followed up shortly with: "In other news, Ivan Reitman was alive as of yesterday"

Honestly that wasn't on my mind, but yeah, that was a mess. I was thinking more of W advocating for Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. I guess you could argue in hindsight, if that was done, Russia wouldn't be able to do what they did afterwards, but also, here we are several presidents later and even Ukraine's president was pleading for NATO to simply say yes or no to put that talk to bed just last week. Lot's of what if's. One thing I can say confidently, Putin has always been the constant in the equation.

It's not even about more nuclear development, but rather keeping what you have. They have roughly doubled the capacity of their energy grid in the last 20 years and did it on the back of renewables, which is fantastic. But due to Nuclear power being removed, coal and oil usage is down only minimally and natural gas usage is up. It just annoys me that they like to claim a higher morale 'green' policy and then do this crap. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/qa-why-germany-phasing-out-nuclear-power-and-why-now So yes, if we can get Germany to purchase from the US and other US allies, great for our oil companies and bad for Russia, but also tough on those that buy gas in the western hemisphere. Also bad for those that want to decrease carbon emissions.

It was snarky, but towards Obama and not ROMAD. Yes though, it was prompted by ROMAD only pointing out Trump. Putin had a sympathetic voice in Trump without a doubt, but it's not like Putin didn't run over Obama. Many pieces went into where we're at today, many even before Obama too.

If only the Germans had some type of technology, let’s say a technology that is safe, produces energy with minimal carbon footprint, and could be made right in Germany…if only. Obviously Donald didn’t push back, but just him, really? You sound like you think Russia is a threat. The 80’s called, they want their foreign policy back.

I suspect this is exactly what Putin is hoping for. He gets a little bit more of Ukraine, sanctions aren't that bad, and my guess is he's hoping when everything dies down, Nord gets started back up.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10536311/Biden-phones-Zelensky-gathers-National-Security-team-Putin-speech.html Biden's first sanctions prohibit business with those two States that Russia has moved into. More apparently expected tomorrow, but the line I don't like is this: I hope that's a mistake and not the thinking of this administration. Putin remembers Obama's red line in Syria. He chose to cross it, the penalties should be just as severe as if he took the whole country. Might be the only chance to prevent him from taking it all if we do in fact hold him to our word.

FWIW, I don't want to pay any taxes. That doesn't mean there isn't a need for them. I also don't like the GOP mindset that anytime the state has a surplus, it demands we cut taxes, especially when Michigan demands a balanced budget every year and as you state below, we could put that additional money to good use, per an example you provided below: Federal spending has gotten out of control and at the same time, money towards States/Localities is still shrinking as a percentage as their pension liabilities have grown. It may not be sexy, but Whitmer announced that 3.5 billion dollar bond for roads, we're paying for that sooner or later. Instead of a tax cut, financially it makes sense to have this surplus cover that, heck with the Infrastructure passed, maybe we don't even move forward with it and use the surplus to shore up some pension payments freeing up more money for day to day operations.

i heard a report that Russian TV has already shifted from Ukraine human rights abuses to talk about Russia being able to convince the world that they need to deal with Ukraine without a shot fired and mocking western media for saying war was inevitable. Obviously they control the narrative, so it can change quickly. That said, I think that's telling. Rather Putin planned on invading and backed off after seeing surprising support or what, i'm not sure, but hopefully this is a good sign.

This infrastructure bill, along with excess Covid money, has created a huge boon for the state which she will/can point to it going to the roads. That said, even with it appropriated and it will greatly improve our roads, it's essentially still running on a promise as it won't be done by the time we go to the polls. Outside of that, is it just that she stood up to Trump? Outside of Covid, what big bills has she signed? The only one I can think of was the auto insurance bill which moved us from the highest paid insurance to only the 2nd highest paid insurance and we got that benefit at the detriment of some of the most seriously injured people. That said, i see bills like the ones just put forward by the MI GOP where they want to cut taxes just becuase we're getting so much Federal money and it makes me feel a Dem in the Governor's seat is good to safe guard from that.

When I saw it was Wisconsin, this was one of my initial thoughts. Similar to that old Chappelle bit, trust me Juwan, I get it, but you can't do that. You need to do that Juwan....but you can't do that. You have to do that....damnit, but you can't do that. If Michigan gets ahead of it and suspends him for the rest of the season, I think he can stay. If they wait for the Big10/NCAA to weigh in, they risk public outcry/support issues that may make the decision for them.

I apologize if I wasn't clear, in reviewing I honestly am not sure where I went wrong, but do show that I mentioned various differences in different posts. For example I started here mentioning several different protests in recent years. I only referenced shutting down roads which BLM/George Floyd riots, i'm sorry, peaceful protests were ongoing. But I did think it was common knowledge that a precinct in Minneapolis was burned down. Pretty sure Portland had a precinct that was started on fire too. Still, I'm mentioning several different ones though. After that, comes to this comment by me below. At this point I am claiming that I believe there is a double standard in how the Freedom Truckers are being viewed. IMO, they are being viewed the same way the violent and illegal segments of the BLM/George Floyd riots, again, sorry, peaceful protests, should have been viewed. So again, I'm pointing to multiple things, - camping/Wall Street - taking over city blocks/Seattle - Burning down a police station/BLM - shutting down interstate and service roads/BLM - International traffic/Freedom Truckers. Ok, here is where it went sideways: My point here wasn't that you guys were downplaying Occupy Wall Street, my complaint was that previous to this last above comment, when I questioned why Freedom Truckers deserved universal bad press from MSM everyone seemed to ignore BLM/Floyd and the Seattle CHAZ occupation which I had brought up and focused on the one protest I mentioned that the illegality of it was as little as a trespassing ticket. I wasn't saying that horrible things happened during this protest.

I'm guessing at least based on reports I heard from him here in Detroit that he's not often in a situation where he would be able to practice this training, so I'm guessing that's not it. With that though, we see this happen from the crowd vantage point, not from the Stafford's view. I'm sure there were security and other folks that rushed to her side immediately who were already down where she fell. In twitter-world, Kelly came off looking good and Matt looked bad. This happens on a highway, people are yelling at Kelly to stop gawking and telling everyone to act like Matt and let the folks attending to the situation deal with it.

Grabbing my original posts. I pointed out a very draconian way to deal with a protest, then said I’m game for it here. I even took a dig at Wall Street that the Wall Street Occupy protest may not have been impacted as Wall Street stole all those protesters money already. i really have no patience for legal protesters that take nothing but my time, go ahead and cost the economy money due to illegal actions while protesting…I’m not saying I wish them dead, but…..

You guys made the comparison, and yes it sucked. I merely stated they were protests, which they were.

haha, you are quite talented at selective reading/hearing. I have said nothing about different rules. In fact, I haven't said anything about my views on the protests themselves nor the level of illegality that the protesters used in order to protest nor a ranking of that illegality. I simply pointed to previous 'peaceful' protests have occurred and were cheered on by the left and the media. Some were as small as taking over a public park, no big deal without a permit. Others resulted in horrific destruction to some inner cities. The fact that each of you keep pointing to the Occupy Wall Street portion of my statement, which I simply argued was indeed a protest, just like this border thing is a protest, points that you know you can't speak to how the media, dem party, and each of you viewed the BLM protests which caused a significant larger economic damage to impoverished areas, resulted in deaths related to the riots that came with the protests, burned down businesses (and police stations), among other things.

I keep on trying to write a response to this but I feel like it sounds like i'm trying to snag you in a 'gotcha' or sounds condescending which is not what i'm trying to do, but based on some of the different things I mentioned, the burning down of a police station doesn't jog your memory? I assumed LW folks would know all about it as it's often claimed that it was burned down by a Boogaloo boy (which one of the many found and charged was in fact). Specifically I was referring to the peaceful protests In Minneapolis as part of BLM. You know, the protests so incredibly peaceful that Covid couldn't even spread in them and at the same time Democratic leaders were telling people to they should stay in their house if at all possible to help contain the spread, they encouraged folks to march, even as we saw mass destruction happen in inner cities across the nation. BLM protests costs - 1 to 2 billion, most of that incurred in the poorest and largely minority communities. Freedom trucker costs - I heard an estimated 300 million for the automakers, an effect that will hurt their shareholders and mostly white, but all middle class autoworkers. In true fashion, dems blast one set, while encouraging the other while they have the gall to say they are the only party that cares about minorities.

To go further, please don't even think i'm saying what they are doing is right. They obviously feel strongly enough about what's going on in their country with restrictions that they feel it's worthwhile, but I'm not saying that. If someone jumped into the first truck in line and honked the horn as they sped through to the US side to help deliver something that would help me not be inconvenienced, I would have been more than willing to look the other way. Trust me, there is no moral barometer on my end with this. I'm just surprised by the vast different way it's being portrayed by the media than with some other recent protests which were quite costly as well.

You guys love going back to the Occupy Wall Street, conveniently leaving out taking over an entire few blocks in a city or burning down a police station, just more 'peaceful' protests. And again, you seem to think I'm saying truckers have the right to occupy an international border crossing. I'm saying they have a right to peacefully protest, but if they break laws in doing that, they are weighing the risk of what may happen to them from a legal standpoint.

Is it not? Again, you guys are determining the value of the protest based on if you feel it's appropriate or not. I'm just saying it's a peaceful protest, that part is the same.

My guess is the trespassing ticket isn't as bad as impeding and points on your license, especially if you're a trucker, but again, you guys are the ones ranking it. If there is something you want to peacefully protest, are there set guidelines out there on what is/isn't an acceptable form of breaking the law in order to disrupt folks and highlight your cause? Camping in a park - OK, Taking over a few city blocks - ok, burning down a police precinct - ok, shutting down traffic - ok, shutting down international traffic - not ok?

You guys are the ones ranking the comparisons. You guys are doing that in order to justify your hypocrisy as that allows you to differentiate one over the other. A union that manages to get a plant shut down, you're seriously going to tell me that you're not on board with that? Occupying a park (Occupy Wall Street), shutting down a road (Freedom Truckers and BLM), occupying a downtown area (Seattle), all of these things are illegal and the government has means to deal with it, but it still puts pressure on the government. Civil Rights and sit-in's were no different. The idea and hope of those doing it is that the disruption will change people's minds. It has been wildly successful in some aspects, not so much in others. It usually has the support of the party that agrees with the protesters, and is condemned by those that oppose those ideas. This is no different. If the same folks were doing the same thing but the message was that Canadians weren't going to allow trade with the US until the US adopted more Canadian like Covid policies, most of you would be cheering it on.