Video of the Day and Orchid of the Day: Gabby Wilson of the University of Michigan women’s gymnastics team for score of a perfect 10 in the vault at the NCAA regional finals. This led Michigan to the national team finals where they will try to defend their national championship crown from last year. See video of her perfect 10 in the below link.
The last few days have been ‘gut-wrenching” with the information and pictures coming out of Bucha, Ukraine. I understand there are casualties of war and innocent people will die, but I cannot understand how any person can deliberately execute another human being no matter what the reason. The thought of someone being executed makes me shutter to my core. It turns my stomach. To see the bodies of women and children who were executed while they were bound is Hell on Earth. It is the worst of human nature. To quote Edwin Star, “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!!!!”
I have been ranting for the last 15 months about the political prosecution of Nick Lyon, former DHS director, by AG Nessel over the Flint Water Crisis. Today, Bill Ballenger, the number one political pundit in Michigan, posted the following in his blog today titled Five Burning Issues in Michigan. Here is number 4:
Question 4): There’s an old saying: ‘What goes around comes around.’ Former Gov. Rick SNYDER is being dragged through the Genesee County courts over the ‘Flint Water Crisis. Will something similar happen to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and/or Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson if the Republicans take over in 2023?
Answer 4): It may happen whether Republicans take over or not. Remember, Snyder was targeted for prosecution when Republicans controlled ALL of state government, and a GOP Attorney General led the charge. Everybody in Michigan ought to be concerned about the precedent that may be set in the Flint litigation by criminalizing policy decisions by state officials. It’s a time bomb that may explode on top politicians at any time in the next few years if it isn’t taken seriously.
As I have indicated multiple times in the last year, Michigan’s campaign finance rules and transparency rules need a major overhaul. By any accounts Michigan is the lowest or close to the lowest of the 50 states. Today Bridge Magazine had another article on how our political candidates continue to use the loopholes that they created to get around laws and being transparent with the money being spent on campaigns. It is especially disheartening when the AG and the AG hopefuls are some of the biggest abusers of the system. Here is a copy to the link of the full article.
One of my all-time favorite Michigan basketball players is Isaiah Livers, who graduated last year in 2021 when Michigan was a number #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Livers broke his foot at the end of last season, yet Michigan still made it to the elite eight where they were one basket from making the Final Four. Despite his injury, the Detroit Pistons drafted Livers in the second round of the 2021 NBA draft, knowing that he would not be available until December at best. Livers did everything right and played his first game in December but was shut down for another three months due to the lingering effects of his injury. Although it is late in the season, Livers has finally been getting quality playing time and he is making the most of it. Over the last few games, he has led the team in +/- and is averaging over 35 minutes per game. Here is an excerpt from a Detroit News article this weekend about Livers.
A concussion recently cost Isaiah Livers four consecutive games. He didn’t miss a beat returning Thursday, though, knocking down three of four 3-point attempts and playing the entire fourth quarter of Detroit’s 102-94 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Livers picked up where he left off with his first start of the season Friday. He put together another strong two-way performance, finishing with the first double-double of his career and setting career highs in points and rebounds.
Livers’ outside shooting and high basketball IQ made him an appealing prospect in last year’s draft. He missed most of this season as he recovered from a stress fracture in his right foot, but he’s finding his groove late in the season.
“Really happy for the young man,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said before Friday’s game. “He’s a guy that I know Troy (Weaver) had his eye on throughout the entire draft last year. We got him. We understood the fact that he was injured and had surgery. He worked his butt off. It’s good to see him coming around. On top of that, he’s such a great young man. Has a pure heart, plays with a pure heart, roots for his teammates, is happy for their success. That’s why they’re pulling for him while he’s out there.”
I am really looking forward to seeing how Livers and the rest of the Pistons progress next year. They have the youngest team in the NBA. With the outstanding talent, I see a return to the glory years of Piston’s basketball.
I promised myself I wasn’t going to write anything about Donald Trump’s visit to Macomb County, but I cannot help myself when someone as conservative as Nolan Finley of the Detroit News has this today in his daily newsletter.
Former President Donald Trump was in Macomb County over the weekend and demonstrated, unfortunately, that he is still the same old Donald Trump. He went on a riff mocking the name of Representative Peter Meijer, the Grand Rapids Republican who voted in favor of Trump’s second impeachment.
“I said, how the hell do you pronounce this guy’s name? Nobody knows if he’s done nothing in Washington… I said, how do you pronounce his name, is it MA-GER, MY-GER? They said MY-ER. How the hell do you get MY-ER out of it?”
It was classic Trump. The president’s policies were never his problem. It was his character, or distinct lack of it. Trump behaves like a middle school bully, tossing around juvenile insults, along with distortion and outright lies. He is a conman who, despite getting his butt kicked by the likes of Joe Biden in the last election, is still strutting and crowing before supporters who mistake his bravado for courage. In the process, he is ruining the Republican Party. Voters may regret electing Joe Biden, but not so much that they are likely to welcome Trump and his cheap vaudeville act back to the White House.
Pray for peace and tolerance. What are you doing to stop the violence? Get vaccinated and get your booster.
Onion of the Day: The Russian soldiers for the atrocities we are seeing in Bucha, Ukraine.
Quote of the Day: “True. I readily admit that these park-darkening adolescents and pizzeria-polluting patrons weren’t wielding deadly weapons or making the situation unsafe but using crude language without regard for others violates common decency (forget about courtesy).” Brandan Clarey, opinion writer for the Detroit News in his opinion article titled SHUT YOUR POTTY MOUTH IN PUBLIC.