raoulraoul

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced charges on Wednesday against former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott and her attorney, Stefanie Lambert Junttila, alleging the pair permitted an unauthorized computer examiner to access voter data concerning the 2020 election, which included non-public information.

In a statement, the Michigan Department of Attorney General contended that Scott, a Republican, disregarded multiple instructions from the director of elections to present the Adams Township voting tabulator to an authorized vendor for maintenance and testing. The department said Scott withheld the tabulator until it was seized by Michigan State Police executing a search warrant.

“Ensuring election security and integrity stands as the cornerstone of our democracy,” said [AG Dana] Nessel[.]

[Stefanie Lambert] Juntilla’s attorney, Dan Hartman said a statement: “I have spoken to Stefanie who remains steadfast in her efforts to bring transparency to the people’s election data, processes and procedures.”

With all the National Guard surrounding many university campuses nationwide, it came to mind how potentially similar outcomes could be to the infamous day on the Kent State University grounds…and wouldn't you know it?, the incident happened 54 years ago today!

Today in History: On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.

The confrontation, sometimes referred to as the May 4 massacre, was a defining moment for a nation sharply divided over the protracted war, in which more than 58,000 Americans died. It sparked a strike of 4 million students across the U.S., temporarily closing some 900 colleges and universities. The events also played a pivotal role, historians argue, in turning public opinion against the conflicts in Southeast Asia.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, called editorially for “an immediate investigation and prompt steps to prevent a recurrence of the most tragic campus violence ever in the United States. […] “Many questions will have to be answered: Why were these people shot? Who shot first? How could these deaths have been avoided?

Let's all cross our fingers that history doesn't repeat itself.

Remember…Parma spelled backwards is AMRAP!
!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

As covered back in March (you read it here! -- r^2^), our Gov Whitmer signed off on two bills banning the sale of…

[…]any device specifically designed for inhaling nitrous oxide from canisters for recreational purposes, with stiffer penalties for selling the devices to minors.

That's great and would have solved the problem there and then…but unfortunately we're dealing with humans. The problem with idiot-proof solutions is that they're always inventing a better idiot. Take me, for example: I'm most likely a better idiot than you are.

From today's Detroit News article, "'Whippets' cannisters causing big problems in Michigan as lawmakers crack down"…

Many community leaders are hoping a new statewide ban, starting June 10, will make a difference. The two-bill package adds nitrous oxide or whippets to the list of drug paraphernalia under the Public Health Code that can't be knowingly sold to minors for the purpose of being inhaled for recreational use.

Of course. We all hope for the same thing, even the most cynical and coldhearted amongst us. But let's get down to the real problem here…

Whippets are metal containers. Some are about 3 inches tall and often sold in packs. More recently, cylinders about 12 inches tall also are being sold. Once a user sucks out the nitrous oxide, the canisters are no longer needed. Tens of thousands of them end up as hazardous litter, contend many who deal with the issue.

Four years ago, more than 30,000 canisters were picked up in a six-week period in southwest Detroit by a group that formed to clean up whippets in the community, organizers said. And more than 11,000 were picked up in a single day at a recent Motor City Makeover, an annual citywide volunteer cleanup and beautification initiative, Detroit Police Department officials told a state House health policy committee in February. [all emphasis mine -- r^2^ ]

It's no skin off my genitalia if you wanna huff your way to a vitamin deficiency (to go with your mental deficiency)—weed's gonna harm you less in the long run. Nevertheless, like I have no legal problem with heroin enthusiasts or exhibitionist sex, I don't wanna see your—ahem—biohazard leftover paraphenalia littering my streets. Ya follow?

And now…

r^2^'s Solution to The Whippit Problem

Return deposit on whippit cannisters.

• USD$1.00 on 3" cannisters
• USD$5.00 on 12" cannisters
• USD$20.00 on cannisters larger than 12"
  • Exemption for individuals/businesses with a valid Michigan food establishment license

Labelling

• Cannisters may no longer have "enticing" labelling. Any labelling on cannisters is limited to company information (name, address, internet information) and cannister content information. Labels are to be no greater than one-quarter of cannister surface area minus 0.25" top and bottom radii. Labelling must be text only, with no illustrations nor logotypes.
  • This is inspired by Plain Tobacco Packaging statutes worldwide…except here…in "The Greatest Country in The World"

"Cracker" tax
No…I'm not saying adding a new tax on 80% of the citizenry of Michigan and Ohio (I'm kidding! I'M KIDDING!)…

• a 50% state tax would be applied to the purchase of N~2~O "crackers," including online sales.
  • aforementioned exemption applies for licensed individuals/businesses

It may not be the perfect solution but as the old saw goes, "'perfect' is the enemy of 'good'". It's not going to stop anybody from inhaling laughing gas but you're gonna see a dramatic decrease—decrease is the keyword here, for the Manichians or absolutists among you—of whippit litter around the state.

Being how I don't run in those circles, I had no idea (other than the non-trivial litter problem) how common and widespread the problem is worldwide.

Has anybody in the State government considered any of these proposals before and I'm just repeating past arguments as my own? I couldn't find any prior art online.

What do you think?!

Alt link for your convenience via archive.is

Remember…Parma spelled backwards is AMRAP!
!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/11707077

…or is that Honor Among Thieves in Saginaw…? Quid Pro Quo in Action? Birds of a Feather Flock to Mid-State Michigan? l could go on and on, you know I could…

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose prison sentence was shortened by then-President Donald Trump in January 2021, attended a campaign rally for the Republican candidate on Wednesday in Saginaw County.

Kilpatrick was once a prominent Democratic politician in Michigan before he was sentenced in 2013 on two dozen counts of using his positions as mayor and state representative to carry out a decade-long criminal racket involving extortion, bribery, conspiracy and fraud.

Trump commuted Kilpatrick's sentence[…]16 years before Kilpatrick was initially set to be released from federal prison.

"This commutation is strongly supported by prominent members of the Detroit community," the Trump White House said in a statement in January 2021.

By who exactly?

From the Freep's article…

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra − who knew Kilpatrick from his time as mayor and as a state legislator and Hoekstra's time as a congressman from west Michigan − told the Free Press he saw Kilpatrick, his wife and his children come into the hangar at MBS Airport in Freeland ahead of the event.

"He said, 'Hey, congressman, good to see you.' I didn't recognize him at first − my bad − and he said, 'Kwame Kilpatrick,'" Hoekstra said, adding that the two spoke briefly. Hoekstra also served in Congress with Kilpatrick's mother, former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit.

---

Alternate links for your convenience:

• Detroit News, Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick attends Donald Trump's rally in Michigan via archive.is
• Detroit Free Press, Kwame Kilpatrick among those who attended Donald Trump rally in Saginaw County via archive.is

---

Further reading:

• The Metro Times: Kwame Kilpatrick’s wife buys enormous house in Novi despite former mayor’s unpaid restitution
• The Freep: Kwame Kilpatrick has a new job, but he has shown he prefers thrills to paying his bills

---

Stay sick, scratch glass, turn blue, climb walls…but don't get caught!
!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

When either logged in at lemmy.ml or merely just visiting, I can't see the community !music@midwest.social, which does exist and is visible from (at least) midwest.social, lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works.

At the bottom of my posts (please see below Examples) there are three links to communities I'm involved in. From lemmy.ml clicking the first two links work correctly. !music@midwest.social doesn't.

When following a direct link to https://lemmy.ml/c/music@midwest.social it lands on an error page:

Error!

The server returned this error: couldnt_find_community. This may be useful for admins and developers to diagnose and fix the error

Refreshing the page multiple times, which usually resolves the problem on the first refresh, does nothing in this case.

Any insights? Thank you.

• !detroit@midwest.social <-- this works
• !michigan@midwest.social <-- this works
• !music@midwest.social <-- ~~this doesn't~~ inexplicably now working!

EDIT 2024-05-01, 19:33:20, CEST: after literally weeks and hundreds of tries (possibly thousands) https://lemmy.ml/c/music@midwest.social works. No longer do I see the error page. I theorize that previously I was the only one looking for that community on the lemmy.ml instance but maybe someone else saw this post, possibly @Nemo@midwest.social, and tried to browse !music@midwest.social, thus "propagating the federation"…?

Oh, the many mysteries of Lemmy, the Tupolev TU-144 of social media®.

Michigan prosecutors executed a search warrant to obtain hundreds of files from Google and X (formerly Twitter) as part of an ongoing investigation into the fake electors plot in the state.

The warrants targeted the Google and X accounts of pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who played a major role in the scheme nationwide. […] The warrant sought Chesebro’s emails and direct private messages after he denied having an X account in an interview with Michigan prosecutors last year. […] State prosecutors obtained more than 160 sent messages and more than 25 received messages from X between 2014 and 2021, with most of them coming after the 2020 election.

In July 2023, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office charged the 16 fake electors for falsely claiming Donald Trump won Michigan in the 2020 election.

The new documents obtained by Michigan prosecutors show that Chesebro tried in vain to lure several notorious, controversial Trump allies to Washington, D.C. to witness the fake elector scheme unfold on Jan. 6, 2021, the day that rioters burst into the U.S. Capitol. […] The records also show that Chesebro encouraged conservative pundits and right-wing figures to promote his strategies for subverting the Electoral College process.

In related news…

BridgeMichigan: Michigan backtracks ‘co-conspirator’ claim in fake electors probe

Attorney General Dana Nessel is walking back claims former Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox is an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a plot to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.

Kim Bush, a spokesperson for Nessel, told Bridge Michigan in an email late Monday that the department “considers Laura Cox to be a cooperating witness in the case.”

Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) [Michigan's only Jewish state senator -- r^2^] took to the floor of the Senate last week to condemn bigotry against Jews that he says is being wielded hypocritically.

“The overwhelming majority of Jews believe in a place of refuge in a Jewish homeland. But if you even mention how woven the Jewish religion is with Jewish sovereignty in Israel, today you get called a ‘colonizer,’ a ‘racist,’” he said. “Zionist is now being weaponized as a slur, and it is infuriating that the same people who will say that also post ‘Happy Passover’ to all who are observing without acknowledging what we’re actually observing.”

“And maybe even more so sickened by those who want to define what antisemitism is and it isn’t,” Moss said. “American Jews, especially on our college campuses are facing harassment, intimidation, incitement, praise for Oct. 7 [when Hamas attacked Israeli civilians and] threats of a repeat, just because they are identifiable as being Jewish.”

“I’ve said it after Charlottesville, Tree of Life, Poway, and specifically, I have said it from this floor a few years ago, antisemitism thrives when it is failed to be called antisemitism,” he said. “And I don’t care if it comes from the right or the left. Instead, some of the very same far left figures, activists, and organizations who were quick to condemn Charlottesville are cheerleading the chaos on our campuses and gaslighting those of us who call it out for what it is. Using the same tired trope that’s existed for centuries. The Jews have brought this upon themselves.”

Decades of pollution and rapid urbanization created ecological problems so severe that the lake was designated a “Great Lakes Area of Concern” by the U.S. and Canada in 1987.

Through expansive cleaning efforts, Muskegon Lake has gone through every step required to remove that designation. The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership is waiting for the EPA to officially delist the site, meaning it will no longer be a designated Area of Concern.

A recent study in the Journal of Great Lakes Research found that residents of lower socioeconomic communities in Muskegon feared the cleaned-up shoreline would be taken over by private interests.

The study found that many Muskegon residents were excited about the revitalized lakes, but others were concerned that the restored areas would attract high-end development and raise nearby housing prices. They feared that would lead to gentrification and less public access.

[Amanda Buday, rural sociology researcher from Grand Valley State University who worked on the study] said that as new businesses come to Muskegon, there needs to be a plan in place to prevent gentrification. […] “If there’s not some conscientious development occurring, if it’s all just high-end condominiums, then the price and the value of those houses can put a pinch on lower-income residents.”

Over at Michigan Advance, reporter Anna Liz Nichols writes…

Michigan Judge Kristen Simmons, while presiding over the case against several individuals facing felony charges for submitting false electoral votes for former President Donald Trump in 2020, began court Tuesday with a warning: Cut the social media posts.

“If it appears that you’re taking a photo, I’m going to have to take your phone and have it searched because we’re not going to have witnesses being intimidated when they’re coming in here under a subpoena to give testimony nor will I have to be taking time away from my judicial duties to address commentary made on Facebook posts. It’s juvenile and it’s ridiculous,” Simmons said.

Apparently, it's endemic amongst Republican minions as their Loudmouth-In-Chief was requested and ordered to do the exact same thing. Strategy? Egomania? Megalomania?

No one in the courtroom was singled out by Simmons, but her comments followed an in-chambers meeting with Nick Somberg, the lawyer for Meshawn Maddock, a defendant in the case and former Michigan Republican Party co-chair.

Somberg told media outside of court he was called into the judge’s chamber ahead of court Tuesday with the Assistant Attorney General’s on the prosecution’s side to discuss a Facebook post he had made. The post was in regards to testimony from James Renner, a member of the group who had his criminal charges dropped as part of a cooperation agreement with the Attorney General’s Office to testify in the case. […] “He testified publicly; it’s no secret that he is an Informant or snitch,” Somberg said. “Nothing I said was disparaging.”

Last I remember from way back in elementary school, the word "snitch", applicable or not, was disparaging. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/11301182

The Pride of Muskegon and Ypsilanti…ladies and gentleman or whatever you consider yourselves…

Happy Birthday, Iggy Pop! Mostly shirtless but always dangerous since 1947!

~Mr~ ~"Gimme~ ~Danger"~ ~at~ ~Beale~ ~Street~ ~Music~ ~Festival,~ ~New~ ~Orleans,~ ~LA,~ ~2007.~
~Photo:~ ~Bill~ ~Dierssen~~.~ ~Later~ ~version(s)~ ~uploaded~ ~by~ ~Pomte~ ~at~ ~en.wikipedia.,~ ~CC-BY-SA~ ~2.5~~,~ ~via~ ~Wikimedia~ ~Commons~

How many second chances does Iggy Pop get?

-- journalist/Rolling Stone editor David Fricke on Iggy and The Stooges' Ready To Die

[…]the man doesn't seem to know how to sell out, even when he tries[…]

-- journalist Mark Deming on Iggy's Party

Mr Dichotomy, the Peanut-Butter-Smeared One himself has said…

I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music.^1^3

"Idiot thugs with guitars" or not, Iggy's still got the goods…and the voice…

The-Shadow-Of-Your-Smile BONUS:

• Iggy Pop - Strung Out Johnny

---

!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

Michigan Advance's Katie O'Brien Kelley reports…

The Keweenaw Land Association has requested metallic mineral lease rights to about 10,631 acres across Baraga, Dickinson, Iron, Marquette and Menominee counties. At a Wednesday virtual public meeting held by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), residents of these counties, members of environmental groups and other community members expressed concerns about the lease request and called for the DNR to deny it.

Tom Grotewohl, a U.P. resident, said he thinks that approving a mineral rights lease of this scale would be “entirely contradictory” to the DNR’s mission of protecting and managing natural resources. […] Grotewohl also said he was “very alarmed” that there were no in-person hearings being held by the DNR to discuss this lease. […] “Virtual meetings are a new technology, which still has not been embraced by many among older generations, which may include adjacent land wonders who have the right to know of the potential for mining to lower their property values,” he said.

This concern was reiterated by other speakers throughout the meeting, as several people were not able to unmute their microphones to give their public comments. […] Anna Bunting from Freshwater Future rejoined the webinar via phone because of this issue. […] “This is a woefully inadequate public participation process for such a huge lease request,” Bunting said. “There needs to be, and I certainly request, an in-person public hearing.”

Don't forget, kids: it's just not the same telling someone to go jump in the lake in a Zoom meeting. And by the way…

The DNR said that it will be accepting further questions or comments regarding the lease application. Comments can be submitted to the DNR via email. […] A post-meeting summary, which will respond to questions people had during Wednesday’s meeting, will also be posted on the DNR’s website.

…or What Goes Around, Comes Around: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Edition.

Here's a piece from the venereal, errr, venerated reportage of the BBC on the voluntary/mercenary counter-cyber on the behalf of the Ukraine. You may ask, "Raoul, baby, we all want world peace and all but what's this got to do with c/michigan@midwest.social?"

The [vigilante hacker] team, One Fist, has stolen data from Russian military firms and hacked cameras to spy on troops.

One of the hackers called "Voltage" has been co-ordinating hacks from his home in the US. […] His real name is [redacted -- read the article -- r^2^ ] and he is an IT worker from Michigan [emphasis mine -- r^2^ ].

The 53-year-old told the BBC he is delighted his efforts for Ukraine have been officially recognised with a certificate of gratitude.

Since the start of the conflict, Ukraine has controversially been encouraging volunteer hackers to attack Russian targets. But sending out official awards to foreign civilians is being seen as a controversial move and a sign of the times.