Michigan

Passed by voters in 1976, the state’s bottle return law for decades prompted high recycling rates, hitting 89% in 2019. Rates dropped during a complete system shutdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and haven’t recovered, falling to 75.6% in 2022.

“This is a real concern…where stores will sell you products, but they will not take them back,” Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit, said Tuesday during a House Regulatory Reform Committee hearing. “It started with COVID, but now we’ve ballooned to a ridiculous amount of folks that will not take them back.”

Industry statistics indicate that Michigan’s redemption rate exceeds most states with deposit laws, with 70% of cans being returned in California and New York and just 38% in Massachusetts.

Now, see! There's something positive about ingrained Michigan culture! Three-quarters of us give a rat's ass and don't litter the great state of Michigan with cans and bottles!

Jerry Griffin, vice president of government affairs for the Midwest Independent Retailers Association, told lawmakers that consumers may simply be tired of carting bottles and cans to the store, advocating for a one-size-fits-all recycling program encouraging people to put their returnables in the recycling bin. […] “There is a lot of fatigue out there,” Griffin said. “To suggest that that's only because a certain handful of small business retailers are limiting hours for people to bring things back, I think, is ignoring a larger question at hand.”

Oh, please. Fatigue. That's like the nine-year-old crabbing about having to make their bed: "Awwww, I'm just gonna sleep in it tonight anywaaaaaay." Sounds like it's the retailers that Señor Griffin represents that just don't feel like keeping up their end of the bargain…

Rep. Julie Rogers, a Kalamazoo Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said the state needs a statewide standard. […] During spot checks in her district, Rogers said she found retailers who don’t accept returns on Sundays, long-broken machines, limits on total returnables and short time windows for returns.

Most of the people I know are already carting around USD$5 worth of empty cans and bottles rollin' around in their cars already. Too bad there's no deposit on fast food packaging, bubble packs or potato chip bags.

The Bad River Band sued [Canadian multinational pipeline and energy company] Enbridge in 2019, saying it was trespassing and that the pipeline was at risk of rupture, posing an imminent threat to the watershed and threatening sources of food and water, as well as their ways of life.

In the fall of 2022, U.S. District Judge William Conley agreed that Enbridge was trespassing. But he didn't order a shutdown, referring to economic concerns and the implications doing so would have on public policy and trade between the U.S. and Canada.

Enbridge has argued that it’s not trespassing, that it needs more time to move the pipeline outside of the reservation before shutting down that section, and that the court's decision would not be in the public interest. […] Enbridge and the Government of Canada say shutting down the pipeline before relocating it would also violate a 1977 treaty between the U.S. and Canada.

Tribes across the Great Lakes are asking the federal government to weigh in on this case — among them, the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. […] “If the United States doesn't weigh in, what they are risking is that states, tribes, and even the federal government could be subject to trespass by a corporation for the rest of time,” said Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“Whatever decision this court makes will have an impact not only on the Bad River Band, but also on every single tribal nation in the United States,” she said. “And the determinations made will either continue to support tribal sovereignty, or it will undercut tribal sovereignty and allow foreign corporations to trespass on tribal land without any ramifications.”

[…] can you promise me you won’t send the police to my house and have me arrested? […] I got kids. I don’t want them to see that.

Touching, isn't it?

Refusing to submit "fingerprints and a DNA sample as required by law," not appearing at her court date on March 7, 2024, alleged election tamperer and Trump minion, attorney Stefanie Lambert Juntilla is thumbing her nose at everybody. Even her LinkedIn photo is, euphemistically, misrepresentative…

~Photo:~ ~LinkedIn.~

~Photo:~ ~Dieu-Nalio~ ~Chery/Reuters~

Lambert Junttila did not appear at the Thursday show cause hearing and will have 24 hours to turn herself in, with prosecutor Tim Maat requesting that the warrant not be executed until 5 p.m. Friday in line with a previous agreement he had made with Lambert Junttila, where she asked that Maat not send officers to her home to arrest her.

The court had issued multiple orders for Lambert Junttila to have her fingerprints and a DNA sample taken, as is required by law. Matis noted the initial order requesting fingerprints and DNA sampling was issued on Aug. 4, 2023, with a deadline of Aug. 10, 2023.

“I did order the defendant to be present. Candidly, if she had shown up with proof she had done it that would have been fine. But obviously she’s not present,” [Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Jeffery S.] Matis said.

And with that, Judge Matis issued a bench warrant for Attorney Lambert Junttila's arrest. Enough's enough, n'est-ce pas?

Further reading…

• From MLive: Bench warrant issued for attorney charged in Michigan tabulator probe

• Previous Leon c/detroit: How Michigan lawyer Stephanie Lambert ascended on unproven claims of voter fraud

It should be no surprise: Flint councilman Eric Mays is as controversial in his passing as he was in life.

The siblings of deceased Flint Councilman Eric Mays cannot move forward with a funeral for their brother this week amid a lawsuit over who has the rights to his remains, a judge ruled Thursday.

The lawsuit [filed by Mays' son, Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays] accuses Mays’s four siblings of conspiring to unlawfully seize control of the former councilman’s remains and profit from “their fraudulent scheme” by soliciting donations from the community for funeral services.

Mays, a passionate and combative councilman and TikTok sensation, died at his home on Feb. 24 but didn’t leave behind a will, according to the suit, which claims only his son has next-of-kin rights to handle the remains.

The suit alleges that two of Mays’s siblings lied to the Genesee County Medical Examiner’s Office and said that Mays had no children. A third sibling, who is an employee of the funeral home, falsely claimed that he had legal authority to authorize the release of the body, the suit claims. […] Now the funeral home is refusing to turn over Mays’s body to his son, even though Eric Mays provided the company with the required documentation to release the remains to him, according to the suit.

Further reading…

• The Freep's take: Flint councilman's funeral, life insurance money prompt fight, lawsuit asking for millions (via archive.is)
• And from The News: Late Flint councilman's son claims in lawsuit relatives are 'holding his body hostage' (via archive.is)

Attention: non-community-specific content. You'll live. You may even thank me.

Today is International Women's Day, growing from the Socialist Party of America's Women's Day (February 28, 1908) to the UN's invitation of observance in 1975. And not unlike great American talent Morgan Freeman's observation regarding Black History Month, I too wonder why recognition of roughly half the planet's population is relegated to one month a year.

This year's United Nations theme for March 8, 2024 is Invest in women: Accelerate progress.

According to the UN Women Headquarters website…

• The gender pay gap stands at 20 per cent, meaning women workers earn 80 per cent of what men do. For women of colour, migrant women, those with disabilities, and women with children, the gap is even greater.
• Women also do three more hours of daily care work than men, globally.
• The motherhood penalty exacerbates pay inequity, with working mothers facing lower wages, a disparity that jumps as the number of children a woman has increases.
• Despite significant progress in women’s education and labour market participation, progress in closing the gender pay gap has been too slow. At this pace, it will take almost 300 years to achieve economic gender parity.

Over at the BBC, Why do campaigners argue that International Women's Day is needed?

• UN experts say they have received credible allegations of human rights violations against women and girls in Gaza, including cases of rape by Israeli forces.

• The BBC has also seen evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of Israeli women during the 7 October Hamas attacks.

• In Afghanistan, girls above primary-school age remain banned from classrooms by the Taliban, hindering women's access to equal education.

• In Iran, many continue to defy the rules requiring women to cover their hair, while activists like the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi are facing lengthy jail terms.

• The UN says women and girls in Sudan are being abducted and raped in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), where they are forced to marry and are held for ransom.

• According to the 2023 Global Gender Gap Index, published every year by the World Economic Forum, no country has yet achieved full gender equality or parity.

The question bears repeating…

Where would you be today without a woman?

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I leave you all today with a March 8^th^-inspired playlist by Detroit-based baritone saxophonist, Kresge artist fellow and host of WDET's Visions, Kaleigh Wilder.

⏯ Visions: Celebrate Women’s History Month with music from Sarah Vaughan, Mary Lou Williams, jaimie branch, more

Oh, and Happy March 8^th^, Ms Green.

Four librarians for every 10,000 Michigan students. Even if you're functionally illiterate, that figure should seem criminally low. According to the linked article by Sarah Cweik…

Currently, more than 90% of Michigan’s public schools lack a certified librarian, with only 567 full-time librarians for the state’s more than 1.3 million students last school year

The numbers of school libraries and librarians in Michigan have declined sharply over the past two decades, but two Michigan state senators have introduced bills they will hope will restore them. […] State Senator Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton) is one of them. He’s sponsoring bills that would require every Michigan school district to offer at least one accessible library, and that each be staffed by a certified school librarian [emphasis mine -- r^2^].

Is that really asking so much, even for rural Michigan in both peninsulas, especially in this on-demand digital age of e-books, video and audio files?

The school library legislation also includes a bill sponsored by Senator Rosemary Bayer (D-West Bloomfield) that requires a principal or other school administrator designate someone to supervise students in the library when no certified media specialist is present. […] “Librarians play a vital role in our education system,” Bayer said in a statement. “In today’s age of digital misinformation our librarians help students ascertain fact from fiction and the importance of checking sources. They are providing our students with skills they will use every day.”

In February 2020, Forrest VanPatten died fighting Priority Health, one of Michigan’s largest health insurers, over its refusal to pay for CAR-T cell therapy, his last-chance treatment. The therapy works by genetically reengineering patients’ own cells, then infusing them back into the body to beat back their disease.

Earlier this year, Michigan’s top insurance regulator told health plans they had to cover these treatments. [State Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor)]’s measure would codify that guidance, ensuring it’s not dependent on one regulator’s interpretation of the law. He said he wanted the state’s requirements to be abundantly clear to both patients and insurers.

Update, March 5, 2024: After this story was published, the bill was introduced.

[Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)] show 12,484 recipients lost coverage in January, among approximately 542,000 who have been dropped either due to no longer being eligible or for procedural reasons since automatic re-enrollment ended in Michigan in June 2023.

The Detroit News reported that number more than doubled a Michigan House Fiscal Agency (HFA) forecast in January 2023, which anticipated only about 200,000 people would be disenrolled. Meanwhile, according to a November 2023 report, HFA anticipates “a continuing, but tapering, caseload decline as Medicaid cases that would have been closed under normal circumstances are processed, followed by a more gradual decline back to pre-pandemic caseload trends.” That is currently expected to occur by October 2026.

Medicaid enrollees in Michigan had not been required to reapply for coverage for three years after annual renewals were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that changed when Congress in late 2022 passed legislation that ended continuous enrollment on March 31, 2023. Michigan held off disenrollments until June, with annual renewals being staggered to take place monthly through May 2024.

The Art of Zingerman's: A Feast for Your Eyes
Beginning Wednesday, March 6, 2024
and running until to Thursday April 18, 2024
Ann Arbor Downtown Library, Multi-Purpose Room

Warning: this exhibit may increase your need for a nosh. Zingerman’s aesthetic is instantly recognizable and well-known here in Ann Arbor and across the country. Artist Ian Nagy has been an immeasurable contributor to the brand for more than 33 years. His illustrations, hand-done in pencil, ink, and paint, capture the spirit of fun, food, and community that is Zingerman’s. From zany characters like Grandpa Pickle and Bacon Detective to artful still-lifes of artisan olive oil bottles and packages of coffee beans, Ian has created more than 6,000 images in his career—packed like a Zingerman’s gift box with beauty, whimsy, and the unexpected. Experience their delicious details and colors up close and in person… but please do not lick the art.

Other media coverage:

• WDIV-4 Detroit's AllAboutAnnArbor: I draw food for money! Best job ever.
• BNN: Feast for the Eyes: Ian Nagy's Iconic Zingerman's Art Showcased in Ann Arbor

From the DNR's website…

Michigiizhigookwe's (Robin Clark) career has focused largely on natural resources management within the State of Michigan, including terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem research and management. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies and a Master of Science in Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies, from Michigan State University. In 2021, Robin earned a doctorate in Forest Science from Michigan Technological University. She is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and lives with her partner and two teenagers in their community at Baawiting. Robin is passionate about good forest relations and supporting long-term hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering, and other active relationships with plants, animals, and other relatives in our shared ecological communities.

Well, all right! From Ms Randiah Camille Green's ❤ article…

Clark is the first Anishinaabe woman to serve on the commission and was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in December 2023 for a four-year term that began in January. The commission is a seven-member board that sets regulations for fishing, hunting, and trapping in Michigan. In her role, Clark says she wants to focus on the impacts of current harvest regulations on wildlife populations including the number of hunting and trapping licenses issued.

“In recent decades, there’s been [a] growing understanding of the significance of Indigenous knowledge when it comes to ecology and biodiversity conservation. We’re everywhere,” she says laughing. “There are 12 federally recognized tribes [in Michigan]. There’s all sorts of urban Indian populations. And so we really do have rich knowledge and relationships to draw from that can inform natural resource management, including harvest regulations.”

“I’m new and just getting to know different sportsman’s groups… and a common theme is that folks will often call fish and wildlife a ‘resource,’ which is kind of a bummer because in my community, and a lot of Indigenous communities, we’re not talking about resources. We’re talking about relatives [emphasis mine -- r^2^] ,” Clark says. “Fish [and] wildlife, in our teachings, these are actually elder beings who have provided for human beings over the generations. So, I will use the term ‘resource’ now, but it’s a little cringy,” she laughs.

It's National Women's ~~History~~ Herstory Month, declared way back in preherstoric 1987. I've got the r^2^ ArtMonkeys™ working on a commemorative banner as we speak! Until then…

On the first day of National Women’s History Month, Michigan women rallied in Detroit on Friday to support the Biden-Harris Democratic U.S. presidential ticket.

Among the participants were Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and state Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing). Also attending were Reproductive Freedom For All director of Michigan campaigns Shanay Watson-Whittaker and Nicole Wells Stallworth, CEO of the Children’s Center in Detroit.

“I am here as a proud woman in Michigan who will be supporting Joe Biden,” said Anthony. She pointed out that Biden appointed Kamala Harris, a former U.S. senator from California as his vice president.

The intersection of Fort Street and Oakwood Boulevard in southwest Detroit today functions mostly as a thoroughfare for trucks and commuters.

However, as you sit idling at the stoplight waiting to cross the bridge over the Rouge River, you might glance to the side and see something unexpected in this heavily industrialized area: A sculpture of weathered steel reaches toward the sky alongside a spray of flowers and waves of grasses and people fishing.

This inconspicuous corner, now the home of the Fort Street Bridge Park, has several stories to tell: of a river, a region, a historic conflict and an ongoing struggle.

If you pull over, you’ll enter a place that attempts to pull together threads of history, environment and sustainable redevelopment.

Signs explain why this sculpture and park are here: to honor the memory of protesters who met on this very spot on March 7, 1932, before marching up Miller Road to the massive Ford Rouge River Complex located in the adjacent city of Dearborn.

Another competing Michigan GOP convention planned for Saturday

Yes, friends of !michigan@midwest.social, you read that right. Apparently the comedy that is the Michigan GOP "Who's The Boss?" (starring recently-ousted GOP Chairwoman-in-Denial Kristina Karamo and official state GOP chairman Pete Hoekstra) has veered into "Twin Peaks" territory with a third announced GOP convention.

Republicans in Michigan's 1st Congressional District announced they would hold a separate convention at 10 a.m. Saturday in Houghton Lake after being denied credentials to a separate convention led by new state GOP chairman Pete Hoekstra in Grand Rapids.

That translates to another 30-odd fanatics want to officially choose Trump. Shocking.

"The newly declared administration of MRP appears to be inviting dissent and disregarding rules with the consent of their Republican National Committee allies. We will not play that game by falling into their confusing messaging and backtracking," said former state Rep. Daire Rendon, who is chairwoman for the 1st Congressional District Republican committee.

Hoekstra said the Houghton Lake convention will not be recognized as anything other than a meeting. […] "They can count their votes but they don’t go anywhere," Hoekstra said.

One would understand if there was dissent among the factions regarding who the state primary candidate would be, but this is about who gets to be king of the anthill.

Alt links:

• archive.is

Hijacking the usual summary -- act accordingly.

Y'know I can comprehend (but not sympathize) why Texans are like that. Living up to all that Texas-Ranger-Alamo-Davy-Crockett-John-Wayne thang, playing cowboys for the better part of the last century, all that gun-totin' and shootin'-iron stuff is part of their, for lack of a better term, culture.

But, really, how does that play into Michigan culture?

The state Senate just passed two bills that would — get this — ban open carry firearms in polling places and surrounding areas, including temporary early-voting sites. These two bills now have to pass in the state House before our beloved Gov Whitmer may sign them into Michigan law with her mightier-than-the-sword fountain pen. Apparently, these proposed bills may meet some GOP resistance.

What I want to know is, and I'm asking the as-of-today 256 subscribed members and also non-subscribed visitors of this community, the answer to one thing…

Why would anybody ever realistically need a firearm in a voting booth?

Is the hunting good? Are there bats or owls in the rafters? Is Frank Miller in town? No, not that coincidentally-named Frank Miller, the emotionally-stunted adolescent-fiction writer/illustrator. Maybe you heard there's gonna be skeet afterward? Maybe just to be "prepared for anything"? Or you're just paranoid.

All snark aside, someone has got to explain this to me and/or why the state House of Representatives would ever try to block a no-brainer set of bills from passing.

…or You're ridin' high in Michigan, shot down in New York. Or something to that effect.

Just over 12 hours after winning big in the GOP Michigan primary, Donald Trump lost big today in his desire to hit pause on the $464 million judgment he owes out of a New York fraud trial.

Pulling a typical Trump move, the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host loudly plead relatively poverty and quietly admitted that he would be forced to sell some of his real estate properties if the court declined his stay request.

With the customary stay pending appeal in place for a few more weeks, Wednesday’s ruling means Trump has until March 25 to come up with the dough. If he fails to do so, New York Attorney General Letitia James has indicated she will seize Trump assets – assets like bank accounts and his beloved Trump Tower.

Canonical YouTube link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12412218

Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan’s primary on Tuesday

Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.

“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,” she said on Sunday during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.”

Whitmer, who is a co-chair of Biden’s 2024 campaign, also said she wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to the protest vote.

Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who is the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress, urged Democrats last week to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan’s 27 February primary.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/8972455

…Herds of Nerds Swarm In Warren

The Great Lakes Comic Convention Friday, February 23 – Saturday, February 24 The Macomb Community College Expo Center 14500 E 12 Mile Road, Warren, MI

Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of The Neverending Story!
with actor Noah Hathaway (Atreyu)

Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Mirage Studios Reunion!
Steve Lavigne - Jim Lawson - Dan Berger

Celebrate The 40th Anniversary of Transformers!
with Bob Budiansky, editor, Marvel Comics

Who knew, this synchronized quadrāgintennial tsunami of pop culture?

50 year Anniversary of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost!
Meet Wesley Eure (Will Marshall)
Kathy Coleman (Holly Marshall)
Phillip Paley (~~Fuzzyboy~~ Cha-Ka the Pakuni)

Okay, I’m out. Vendors, special guests by the Sandcrawler-load, events, tickets, everything you need to grok is at the website.

…or Make-believe Barbarians at The Gates of, uh, where the hell are we?

Michigan Nordic Fire Festival
Friday, February 23 -- Sunday, February 25
Eaton County Fairgrounds
1025 Cochran Ave, Charlotte, MI

Hands-on activities (Free except when noted):

• Spear Throwing
• Archery
• Axe Throwing (additional fee)
• Kids' Quest
• Kid's Axe Throwing

All this and other, erm, Vikingy events and activities, merchants, food and entertainment plus where to point your Viking ship all at the website. Please, no raping, looting or pillaging allowed but otherwise, y'know, have at it.

I'll just leave this here. I KID! I KID!

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/8956353

Apologies about the late posting especially for missing these two important events…

• (non-Detroit-Michigan-related) Nina Simone (RIP) was born on February 21, 1933
• (Detroit-born) Malcolm X (RIP) was designated persona non grata by The Nation of Islam and then later assassinated February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in NYC

February 23, 1868—Dr. W.E.B. DuBois is born William Edward Burghardt DuBois in Great Barrington, Mass. DuBois can easily qualify as Black America’s lead­ing scholar and intellectual of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was also an educator and social activist fight­ing tirelessly against racial injustice and U.S. imperialism.

February 24, 1868—The U.S. House of Represen­tatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson.

Thanks to Johnson, who was acquitted by one vote in the Senate, the promise of Forty Acres and A Mule was never kept. If he had been expelled, who knows in what kind of America we would all be living in today? I'm sure that Rosa Parks would have sat on the bus wherever she damn pleased her entire life, Rev King would mostly likely have been "just another" Baptist minister, we wouldn't have had to wait until 2009 for our country's first Black president and our next quoted item would have never been realized…

February 26, 1920—Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) founds the first nation­ally organized celebration of Black American history (then called Negro History Week), which was first cele­brated on this day in 1926. Woodson scheduled the week to coincide with the birthdays of Civil War President Abraham Lincoln and Black aboli­tionist Frederick Douglass. However, in 1976, Negro History Week was expanded into the current day Black History Month.

Sitting next to each other are two members of the Montmorency County Board of Commissioners. Like all others on the board, they are Republican, which perhaps isn’t surprising in a county Donald Trump won by 44 points in the 2016 presidential election and by the same lopsided margin in 2020.

~Disney~ ~Channel's~ ~Zack~ ~and~ ~Cody~ ~stars~ ~Cole~ ~(left)~ ~and~ ~Dylan~ ~Sprouse~ ~enjoy~ ~a~ ~pop~ ~together...no,~ ~wait...~ ~that's~ ~not~ ~right...~
~Photo~ ~by~ ~Ron~ ~French~

“He’s the only one in all my years who did what they said they'd do,” said Don Edwards, who listed strict border policies and forceful international relations as two of Trump’s strengths. “So why wouldn’t I vote for him again?”

With all due respect, Mr Edwards, what exactly did Mr Trump do? Did he "drain the swamp" — a slogan he himself derided — or "build the wall" while making Mexico foot the bill? Do you think his inviting Putin's Russia to attack NATO allies is sound "international relations" or is "forceful" the only metric? How about the big nothing he'd done in North Korea?

Moving right along…

Nowhere in Michigan is as diehard Trump County as Up North. But Trump’s best shot this fall is not only keeping his overwhelming grip on those supporters, but cutting Biden’s base in suburban Detroit and Grand Rapids.

To give an idea of scale, in the 49 counties where Trump got at least 60% of the vote in 2020, he had a total margin of 344,000, an increase in margin of 42,000 votes from four years earlier. […] Oakland County alone had a bigger swing the other direction (54,000).

As illustrated in the last quoted paragraph, the population density is quite light in comparison to southeastern Michigan. Nevertheless, due to advances in broadband, Wi-Fi and satellite internet technologies, practically no one is no longer left in an information vacuum anymore. It's just a question of doing a little fact-checking from reliable sources — admittedly, not necessarily an easy thing since the 1987 revocation of the Fairness Doctrine.

So why would the uppermost part of the Great State of Michigan support a habitual fabricator and conspiracist who has been convicted of sexual abuse, defamation of character and civil fraud and admitted Dictator-for-a-day?

Compartmentalization, a mental defense mechanism. A person of reasonably sound mind would never vote for someone with these criminal defects. A rational being would never allow a wolf to guard the flock. And yet, many of the fine folk of Elk Capitol of Michigan still hang their banners and wear their MAGA caps, proudly even.

~Photo~ ~by~ ~Ron~ ~French~

Could it be that the voters of Northern Michigan just don't see themselves in President Biden. And yet — here's the part I just don't understand — they see themselves in the thrice-married, privileged, irresponsible son (a millionaire by age eight) of a New York real estate baron who deferred the military draft four times although deemed fit for military service, who has obscured his academic, medical and tax records, who has lost more money than probably all his Northern Michigan supporters have ever seen, bankrupting hotels and casinos…this disgusting list goes on and on. Trump University, anybody?

Nobody's perfect.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12238058

A Michigan man whose 2-year-old daughter shot herself in the head with his revolver last week pleaded not guilty after becoming the first person charged under the state’s new law requiring safe storage of guns.

Michael Tolbert, 44, of Flint, was arraigned Monday on nine felony charges including single counts of first-degree child abuse and violation of Michigan’s gun storage law, said John Potbury, Genesee County’s deputy chief assistant prosecuting attorney.

Tolbert’s daughter remained hospitalized Wednesday in critical condition from the Feb. 14 shooting, Potbury said. The youngster shot herself the day after Michigan’s new safe storage gun law took effect.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/8876223

Yeah, yeah, I get it. Honest I do. Enough's enough. An unnecessarily exaggerated response. An incredibly complicated situation that just keeps getting knottier. But just like in comedy, timing is everything.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib's call for people to vote against President Joe Biden in Michigan's Feb. 27 Democratic primary reverberated across political circles and social media over the weekend, with nervous supporters of the president's saying she was helping former President Donald Trump's reelection efforts.

On Saturday, even as Trump was making his way to Michigan for a raucous rally in Waterford Township, Tlaib, D-Detroit, who represents southeast Michigan's large Arab-American and Muslim community in Dearborn, released a video of her telling people to vote uncommitted as a signal to Biden of their continued demand that he call for Israel to stop a bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

Several Democrats and others denounced Tlaib's stance almost immediately. Norm Ornstein, a congressional expert and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, proclaimed it "shameful" on X on Sunday.

And after a group, Republicans Against Trump, posted the remarks, asking, "Who's going to primary her?" the civil rights lawyer Andrew Laufer said of her comments on X: "That’s an amazing stance @RashidaTlaib. Have your supporters not vote or vote for the guy who will deport them. Just an amazing position."

And as for the Listen to Michigan campaign, Tlaib has literally close relations with its membership: Her sister, Layla Elabed, is its campaign manager. Several other local leaders with whom she is close, including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township, also have signed onto the uncommitted campaign.

…also "signed on", that bastion of hard-hitting journalism, The Metro Times.

Even a dog knows not to defecate where he sleeps.

---

Alt. link: https://archive.is/apavN

Further reading:

• Michigan Advance: Biden campaign focusing on Trump, despite ‘uncommitted’ campaign in Michigan Dem primary
• The Freep via archive.is: Trump rails against EVs, China, job security in Michigan visit: Here's a fact check

This linked article from Michigan Advance was originally published in Indian Country Today -- r-credit-where-credit's-due-r

Elders and members of the Bay Mills Indian Community welcomed home the set of four scrolls — used by Ojibwe peoples to record historical and religious information – on Tuesday with ceremony and dignity, and at least a few tears. […] “In Western culture, they say a picture says a thousand words. But for Ojibwe, a picture has thousands of years of meaning,” [organizer Jerry] Jondreau told ICT.

The scrolls had been set for auction at Cottone Auctions based in New York on behalf of a private collector. Jondreau helped organize an effort via social media to purchase the scrolls at a public internet auction, raising about $5,000. The Bay Mills Community quickly joined Jondreau’s efforts, contributing the final $2,500 to make up the $7,500 purchase price to ensure the precious artifacts could be returned to the extended Ojibwe community around the Great Lakes.

In recent years, however, the general public has come to question the practice of ignoring the Indigenous worldview and connection to their patrimony. In 2021, Skinner Auctioneers agreed to remove an Ojibwe scroll offered for sale on their website and permitted Sean Blanchet, co-owner of Revere Auctions in St. Paul, Minnesota, to purchase the scroll at its top assessed value of $2,500. Blanchet then returned the scroll to the White Earth Nation.

If you were to conduct a "vox pop" poll anywhere, the question of the day being, Would you elect a person who…

• …was involved with election tampering or racketeering?
• …has a history of racism or misogyny?
• …creates and disseminates false and disproven conspiracy theories?
• …has a proven habit of repeatedly making false and misleading statements?
• …has been found guilty of fraud?
• …was found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation?

…I'd like to believe that the average American from New York to California, even ~~those misguided fools~~ citizens of the Fair State of Ohio, would answer no to any of the above. Those are not exactly qualities one looks for in their elected representatives. What if the question was, Would you elect a person who has done all of the above?

How do you explain this, then? The Detroit News: Trump supporters in Michigan are unmoved by his criminal charges, financial penalties

Cognitive dissonance

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when an action or idea is psychologically inconsistent with the other, people do all in their power to change either so that they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

Compartmentalization

Compartmentalization is a form of psychological defense mechanism in which thoughts and feelings that seem to conflict are kept separated or isolated from each other in the mind. Those with post traumatic stress disorder may use compartmentalization to separate positive and negative self aspects. It may be a form of mild dissociation; example scenarios that suggest compartmentalization include acting in an isolated moment in a way that logically defies one's own moral code, or dividing one's unpleasant work duties from one's desires to relax. Its purpose is to avoid cognitive dissonance, or the mental discomfort and anxiety caused by a person having conflicting values, cognitions, emotions, beliefs, etc. within themselves.

Compartmentalization allows these conflicting ideas to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit acknowledgement and interaction between separate compartmentalized self-states.

Alt. link: https://archive.is/rdE15

Meanwhile at The Freep: Trump supporters line up to see former president in Waterford

• Alt. link: https://archive.is/fE5va

Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery
Dr David Pilgrim, founder and director
presents
Overcoming Hateful Things: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery
from February 12 to mid-August
Wayne County Community College District
Curtis L. Ivery Downtown Campus
1001 West Fort Street, Detroit

Upon entering the traveling exhibit at WCCCD, an opening sign states that some of the objects' images may seem "funny," "harmless or nostalgic," but they are "propaganda ... perpetuating anti-Black messaging, reinforce harmful ideas about African Americans, and continue to influence attitudes toward Black people." The sign also warns patrons that the displays are graphic, explicit and potentially offensive and disturbing.

Tears ran down the face of WCCCD student Micqoua Franklin last Wednesday as she described how she was moved by the exhibition. […] "It really brings back how segregated we really were," said Franklin, 44, who is set this year to earn a social work degree from Wayne County Community College. "How we were treated like dogs. What we had to go through was so much. We are all the same people.

Seeds of the show were planted when[…]one of [the Jim Crow Museum's founder David Pilgrim's] teachers came to class with a chauffeur's cap and asked what it had to do with the Jim Crow era. […] The teacher told the class that Blacks could[…]work during the 1930-40s in fields such as education and earn enough to buy clothing, a home and car.

"But if you had a nice car, you could have been beaten because Black people weren't supposed to have a nice car," Pilgrim said. "Having a chauffeur's cap could save your life. Because it was a way of saying, 'This is not my car. I know my place. I understand my role in society. I am not a threat to you.' That story left such an impression on me about the power of objects as teaching tools."

I'd like to once again remind the readership that the collection includes an all-too-recent past, with legal segregation ending in only the 1960s, desegregated busing upheld in 1971. A powerful, evocative article from The News' Kim Kozlowski about a powerful, provocative exhibit. The exhibit is open to the public and admission is gratis.

Interviewer: How do you feel like things have changed over the past couple decades?

*White people have gotten less crazy. That's all. [...] You can say “there's progress” and all of this. But when you say there's progress, but you're acting like what happened before wasn't crazy.

“Oh, segregation, we've made a lot of progress and there's no more segregation”?— Segregation's retarded. It's crazy to think you're better than somebody, and they can't eat with you and segr— that's crazy! That's insane behavior! Just to think that, on any level— that's kind of insane! So, you can say “black people have made progress”, but to say “black people have made progress” would mean we deserved to be segregated. The reality is: white people got less crazy.

My father didn't suddenly deserve to eat with people because he earned it. The people who were denying him his rights got less crazy. And that's what, progressively, has happened throughout the years. People are now getting less crazy about gay people. People are crazy.*

-- Chris Rock, CBC Radio One "Q" interview

Alt. link: https://archive.is/S5ibp

EDIT 2024-02-18 17:48 CEST: typographic/markdown errors