Fleetwood Mac was one of the most popular bands in the late 70s and early 80s. Their Rumours album was certified Double Diamond and is one of the top selling albums in U.S history with over 20 million sold in the U.S. The song “Don’t Stop” from the Rumours album was the theme song for former president Clinton’s first inauguration. The most prolific writer for Fleetwood Mac was Christine McVie who passed away today at age 79. She may have passed but her songs will live forever. See my Video of the Day.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Multiple times throughout the more than 2 and ½ years of writing this blog I have had nothing but good things to say about Republican Congressman Fred Upton. Unfortunately, he is retiring from Congress in the next month. He will be sorely missed.
The Detroit News wrote a nice article about Upton today. Here are excerpts from the article, which includes my Quote of the Day.
Fred Upton, the longest serving member of Michigan’s congressional delegation and one-time chair of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, is spending his last few days in the House at a borrowed desk. He had to surrender his primo office in the Rayburn Office Building, the one with the balcony that afforded him a view of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, to Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the incoming chair of the Intelligence Committee. Fittingly for a politician who lived and died by bipartisanship, the Republican is taking up temporary quarters in the office of Rep. Debbie Dingell of Dearborn, a Democrat and his closest friend in Congress.
Upton has always been the man standing solidly in the middle, and he’s paid a price. He followed his conscience in joining nine other Republicans in support of Donald Trump’s second impeachment. The former president’s loyalists responded by hitting him with a primary challenge. That cemented his decision to retire rather than fight for the nomination in a district that contained too few of his old constituents.
Quote of the Day: “I’m going to miss it. The next Congress is going to be more challenging than ever before, and I’d sort of like to be here to help. The margins are so close. People on both sides are so hard-core driven, unwilling to compromise. It’s the middle that’s going to decide what happens. My approach has always been the Reagan model. You’re not going to get things done if you don’t work in a bipartisan manner. My M.O. has always been to work to develop relationships on the other side of the aisle.” Fred Upton
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The IRS is going after Kwame Kilpatrick for tax evasion for the years he was in office as Mayor of Detroit for not reporting as income the bribes and benefits he received when mayor. Now that the IRS has him in their sites, he can expect that his every financial transaction will be monitored.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I am really bummed that this year will be the final year of the ACC/B1G men’s basketball challenge. This has been a highlight of early season college basketball since 1999. It made for great TV as the two most powerful basketball conferences paired off over a three day period. It was a great way for fans to get a good feel of how good their team was going to be during the season.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team rooting very hard for the U.S. men’s team. Under an agreement reached in the last year, the women and men will share equally in all prize money won in World Cup play. The women won $4 million while winning the last women’s World Cup, while the men are guaranteed $13 million for advancing to the round of 16 with more to come for each round they advance. You can bet the women’s team will be rooting very loudly for the men.
Feel free to share my blog or to sign up to receive it directly in your email. See the sign-up mechanism at the bottom of the blog.
Quote of the Day: See above from Fred Upton.
Orchid of the Day: Fred Upton for doing it the right way, even when the right way was very difficult in the world of politics. He will be missed.
Onion of the Day: Germany for not making it to the round of 16. You can bet there will be a coaching change.
Question of the Day: What is your favorite album of all time?
Video of the Day: “Songbird” by Christine McVie