As a Michigander, I'm amazed how well known our governor is. We were in Europe last May, and even Europeans have a positive impression of her. She has made positive and even-handed progress on roads, schools, social justice, and worker rights.
In early November, some friends and I attended the Nebraska-Michigan state football game in East Lansing. We came in a few days before to check things out. The amount of work being done to the interstates in central and eastern Michigan is amazing. Everywhere we went the people were warm and friendly.
We have lived in 10 different states and we love ME, but if we chose to live anywhere else it would be somewhere in MI.
It's not only Whitmer who is amazing. Senator Mallory McMarrow is as well. I'm sure there are many other Democrats in Michigan ready to step up to get things done there. And Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was governor of MI. She has done an excellent job.
Thank you for your kind words. I hope we are welcoming to all visitors and would-be residents. We have many leafy neighborhoods with great schools and affordable housing! Next time you visit, don't miss Pierce Stocking Drive, part of the National Lakeshore near Traverse City. The views are spectacular. We have wonderful independent bookstores in Traverse City and Ann Arbor too.
We took a drive up to the tip of the thumb, wrong side of Michigan from Traverse City. We ate at a wonderful Inn/Restaurant in Bay Port. She told us about a couple of her summer waiters that were working in Lansing at restaurants and we looked them up. They gave us some great tour advice.
They were still harvesting sugar beets. There were huge mountains of them piled up in the processing centers. When I lived in Davis, CA I ran over a sugar beet. It was like hitting a rock. But, we saw no beets trying to escape in Michigan from the trucks.
I worked in Lansing for a year and loved it. A group of us would drive to Ann Arbor to meet up with some other programmers there. We usually just ate drank and talked. No real exploring.
Lansing has a fantastic chocolate shop with hand made candy -- Fabianos Candies.
Those one of a kind businesses that are increasingly rare as as quasi-monopolies spread, are treasured in my memories. I could fill pages with such encounters over my lifetime, and grieve that the vast majority are unrepeatable. In each case a friendly, unpretentious environment, and a product or service worth remembering, sometimes unique. Free enterprise has a cherished place in a free society. It can't do it all effectively, but it can be societally healthy.
Monopolies are the bane of free anything, monopolies of power, be it financial or political, and the less just the society, the more the two are interchangeable. We learned that lesson more than once, but have been lured by false promises, to reinstate what so many fought to ban.
I totally agree JL. They are all bad but the worst are the utilities--electric, cable, natural gas and phone. We have no choice of carriers and they have no incentive to provide good service.
Please do. I would buy a box of their dark chocolates for my wife when I went home on weekends. It got to a point where if I didn't have the chocolates I needn't go home.
We were visiting one of our daughter's friends in NYC and brought her a box. She was an associate editor of Vogue and her room mate worked for Conde Naste as a writer. Her room mate had just reported on the best chocolatiers in NYC. When she tried Fabiano's she said it was better than any of them.
I appreciate the many things I see being done in Maine and even in the many Red states and districts where the Republicans are happy to take credit for much of what their citizens see and appreciate, DESPITE their votes against that legislation that is increasing the benefits the public can see more clearly.
I wish Jennifer Granholm had been born in the US (as an anchor baby, just 4 years before she was born in Canada). Even if she was a Canadian citizen for her first 4 years), she would have had the option to choose which country she wanted to be a citizen of at age 18, and I believed/believe she would be eligible to run for President or Vice President .
I haven't followed her as much as I would have wished (since she is not eligible to become President of the U.S.), but was always impressed by the things she accomplished and tried to do.
A taste of what I liked about her can be found at:
I had swapped assignments coming out of our PCS student assignment to the Weather Maintenance 7-level school at Chanute AFB. My top grades gave me the 1st choice at Kingsley Field, Oregon with its great location and ranking in the top 4% of our field. To the amazement of one who's dream assignment was Kingsley Field, had traded for the assignment at Selfridge ANGB (which I believe was in last place at 203rd), and so close to Detroit and its problems in 1973 with the Oil Embargo. Years later he asked why I had done that. I told him we all got assignments overseas after a year in the states, asking him where he went after a year at Kingsley. I believe he said he ended up with an unaccompanied assignment to Korea. while I was able to tell him I had picked the worst site with the most opportunity for improvement (and one of the last CPS-9 radar they no longer taught at the 7-level school). With the help of the Field Maintenance Shop in Illinois and authorization to do Field Maintenance Shop level repairs ourselves raising the performance of the weather maintenance shop from last place to the top 4%. Actually they gave us an award for being most improved without acknowledging that we had made it into the top 4%. I believe that got us a non-volunteer assignment to 4 years in Hawaii (hit me with that stick anytime you want). As much as we would have liked to stay in Michigan (our daughter was born in Mt Clemens, during the 11 months we were there), and help the rest of the Michiganders build on the many good parts of their potential to make more improvements in some target rich areas, we bailed out on them for Hawaii (to me a top 1 or 2% opportunity).
I think Jennifer Granholm made much better progress, even without our help.
YES! Voters Not Politicians is how we were able to undo the Republican gerrymandering of 2010 so we could elect Governor Whitmer, Secretary of State Benson and Attorney General Nessel. Plus, candidate Gretchen Whitmer hiked, biked, snow shoed and/or cross country skied through every county, city and village in Michigan asking us what we needed. Her "Fix the Damn Roads" campaign was OURS!
That's what we did in California in 2016 supporting Bernie Sanders and getting a lot of independents, Republicans (current and former), and non-corporate Democrats to tell us what their priorities were. Back then the PTB in the party didn't want to talk to us at all, so we had trouble getting them to vote for Hillary like most I knew did.
After the loss, I was amazed at the Indivisible veterans and effective campaigners that were now willing to join our Unity Coalitions that focused on far less divisions separating us to avoid splitting support for those that gave Democrats the 41 seat increase in the House in the 116th Congress, and 7 more Governors.
To me, it makes the Unity Coalition, though identified as Democrats, a fitting description as much as the Opposition Coalition was in the 34th Congress that was the majority. That Majority had 100 identified by an "O" for Opposition, and 51 still identified by "A" for the American party otherwise known as the No Nothing party.
Perhaps we should stress the "Unity Coalition" with fuller support from the talent in the Indivisible organizations.
Most effective politician on the national stage, now that Pelosi has stepped down. Biden is third and also plenty damn good, up there with the best since Lincoln.
Biden has done well for the most part in his presidency. But I believe he has made some serious mis-steps regarding Gaza. Terrorists fighting terrorists is a terrible thing, and our perceived support of the Israeli government could be an unmitigated disaster for the United States and the world. The world is watching.
Actually, leaders of both sides have been awful, and are both culpable. It's time we stopped taking sides, and put equal pressure on both to finally grow up and stop behaving like warring children.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have been rife with corruption. And the Oct 7 attack was NOT designed to do anything good for the actual Palestinian people. It seem more like the people are pawns in the struggle for power.
The struggle for decency and civil rights for Palestinians is absolutely a just struggle, but the way Hamas acted is reprehensible.
The respone from Bibi is reprehensible, as well.
Netanyuhu is staving off charges of corruption, also, and his policy toward a Palestinian state, and his treatment of Palestinians has been abysmal.
Leaders there are prolonging this problem, not moving to solutions.
Exactly. That's why it's not helpful for any of us to take sides, since then we would just be doing what these two sets of leaders have been doing, that is pointing fingers. It's time the world took one stance, that of condemning both sides in this conflict and pressuring them both to stop the aggression.
We can take BOTH sides of the people, and criticize BOTH sides of leadership.i
If we are not eager to see safety and decency for the people, then why even care, so we need to ground our criticisms in the effects all of this is having ON PEOPLE.
As an aside, has anyone else noticed BlinkenтАЩs travel schedule? I used to do a lot of international travel for work, and there is absolutely no way I could ever keep up the pace Blinken has. Of course, he has a lot of support, but even so, I bet he doesnтАЩt even know what time zone heтАЩs in half the time. The guy is amazing!
ЁЯТпЁЯТп that kind of travel without even accounting for the intensive diplomacy work day after day after day is so exhausting. HeтАЩs so good at it but I donтАЩt know how he could keep it up for another 4 years
Hey, Larry. This latest FB chat from Heather helped me to better understand what Biden is trying to accomplish re the MidEast: keeping America safe and keeping Iran from getting involved in the war. Her talk about immigration starts at time 33:04. Her talk about the MidEast starts at time 56:12.
What would you do if you were faced with having to decide what to do regarding Gaza? ItтАЩs highly unlikely you would support Hamas vs the Israel government. But what would you support doing (if anything) regarding Hamas invasion of Israel? Of HamasтАЩs killing/ murdering innocent civilians, some in brutal, horrific ways including the rape and dismemberment of women? What would you support doing?
Would the worlds perception of the United States be the determining factor, the driving force of what action or non-action you would take? Keep in mind Hamas initiated this conflict (aka they started it) when they invaded Israel. Biden could have done nothing. But how would the world perceive him doing nothing?
Take a walk in BidenтАЩs shoes. Those shoes are likely much more difficult to walk in than it is to offer critique from a distance. I suspect the decisions he has made, and must make weigh heavily upon him. Many leaders of the world likely know how heavy a burden this is too. ItтАЩs not a burden IтАЩd want to bear.
I get that. Too many either have never heard of or ignore, the "Walk a mile in my shoes" quote. BUT 20,000 people - many women and children - killed so far? I'm really not sure that Biden COULD do something to prevent that - but continuing to send military help rubs me the wrong way. And yes - a very heavy burden - serving as President & DOING THE JOB which the tfg didnt do, didnt care to do, and did not know HOW to do!
Biden is definitely the best president of my lifetime, which began the first summer of the Eisenhower Administration. No earlier president has ever made me feel like I had the wind at my back as I rode my bicycle across the Great Plains of Montana and North Dakota, and then again on my record day of riding, Arnprior Ontario to Montreal--150 miles.
Biden has done so well despite the GOP holding the Senate, and the Democrats' slimmest of slim Democratic majorities in the House. And as Ellen an J. Nol point out, below, the blame over Gaza belongs with Netanyahoo and Hamas.
I think Biden is in a no win situation, yet he keeps acting like a leader. I think he has done a wonderful job. Can you even imagine what state the world (and the US) would be in if tfg was the POTUS? Makes my skin crawl.
Eventually, I do believe she will be our president.
As a Michigander, I'm amazed how well known our governor is. We were in Europe last May, and even Europeans have a positive impression of her. She has made positive and even-handed progress on roads, schools, social justice, and worker rights.
In early November, some friends and I attended the Nebraska-Michigan state football game in East Lansing. We came in a few days before to check things out. The amount of work being done to the interstates in central and eastern Michigan is amazing. Everywhere we went the people were warm and friendly.
We have lived in 10 different states and we love ME, but if we chose to live anywhere else it would be somewhere in MI.
It's not only Whitmer who is amazing. Senator Mallory McMarrow is as well. I'm sure there are many other Democrats in Michigan ready to step up to get things done there. And Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was governor of MI. She has done an excellent job.
Thank you for your kind words. I hope we are welcoming to all visitors and would-be residents. We have many leafy neighborhoods with great schools and affordable housing! Next time you visit, don't miss Pierce Stocking Drive, part of the National Lakeshore near Traverse City. The views are spectacular. We have wonderful independent bookstores in Traverse City and Ann Arbor too.
We took a drive up to the tip of the thumb, wrong side of Michigan from Traverse City. We ate at a wonderful Inn/Restaurant in Bay Port. She told us about a couple of her summer waiters that were working in Lansing at restaurants and we looked them up. They gave us some great tour advice.
They were still harvesting sugar beets. There were huge mountains of them piled up in the processing centers. When I lived in Davis, CA I ran over a sugar beet. It was like hitting a rock. But, we saw no beets trying to escape in Michigan from the trucks.
I worked in Lansing for a year and loved it. A group of us would drive to Ann Arbor to meet up with some other programmers there. We usually just ate drank and talked. No real exploring.
Lansing has a fantastic chocolate shop with hand made candy -- Fabianos Candies.
https://www.fabianoscandies.com
If it's not the best chocolate you have ever had let me know who is better.
Those one of a kind businesses that are increasingly rare as as quasi-monopolies spread, are treasured in my memories. I could fill pages with such encounters over my lifetime, and grieve that the vast majority are unrepeatable. In each case a friendly, unpretentious environment, and a product or service worth remembering, sometimes unique. Free enterprise has a cherished place in a free society. It can't do it all effectively, but it can be societally healthy.
Monopolies are the bane of free anything, monopolies of power, be it financial or political, and the less just the society, the more the two are interchangeable. We learned that lesson more than once, but have been lured by false promises, to reinstate what so many fought to ban.
I totally agree JL. They are all bad but the worst are the utilities--electric, cable, natural gas and phone. We have no choice of carriers and they have no incentive to provide good service.
I just tried to order a dark chocolate nut mix -- they are so busy that they are not taking any more orders! Good for them. I will try later.
Please do. I would buy a box of their dark chocolates for my wife when I went home on weekends. It got to a point where if I didn't have the chocolates I needn't go home.
We were visiting one of our daughter's friends in NYC and brought her a box. She was an associate editor of Vogue and her room mate worked for Conde Naste as a writer. Her room mate had just reported on the best chocolatiers in NYC. When she tried Fabiano's she said it was better than any of them.
I hope they are still as good.
Well, now I will stay on it! Happy holidays to you!
Try Grocer's Daughter in Empire:
Grocer's Daughter Chocolate https://www.grocersdaughter.com/
Try Grocer's Daughter chocolates in Empire. Better yet, order for family and friends for the holidays!
Grocer's Daughter Chocolate https://www.grocersdaughter.com/
I will definitely order from them. Interesting background story.
Dear old friends started it. They do so much for the growers.
Aside from brief layovers at the airport in Detroit, I have never been to Michigan. Sounds like I should visit!
I appreciate the many things I see being done in Maine and even in the many Red states and districts where the Republicans are happy to take credit for much of what their citizens see and appreciate, DESPITE their votes against that legislation that is increasing the benefits the public can see more clearly.
Pete Buttigieg will be an amazing president, too!
I wish Jennifer Granholm had been born in the US (as an anchor baby, just 4 years before she was born in Canada). Even if she was a Canadian citizen for her first 4 years), she would have had the option to choose which country she wanted to be a citizen of at age 18, and I believed/believe she would be eligible to run for President or Vice President .
I haven't followed her as much as I would have wished (since she is not eligible to become President of the U.S.), but was always impressed by the things she accomplished and tried to do.
A taste of what I liked about her can be found at:
https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/clean-power-good-jobs-energy-independence-april-21-2011/
I had swapped assignments coming out of our PCS student assignment to the Weather Maintenance 7-level school at Chanute AFB. My top grades gave me the 1st choice at Kingsley Field, Oregon with its great location and ranking in the top 4% of our field. To the amazement of one who's dream assignment was Kingsley Field, had traded for the assignment at Selfridge ANGB (which I believe was in last place at 203rd), and so close to Detroit and its problems in 1973 with the Oil Embargo. Years later he asked why I had done that. I told him we all got assignments overseas after a year in the states, asking him where he went after a year at Kingsley. I believe he said he ended up with an unaccompanied assignment to Korea. while I was able to tell him I had picked the worst site with the most opportunity for improvement (and one of the last CPS-9 radar they no longer taught at the 7-level school). With the help of the Field Maintenance Shop in Illinois and authorization to do Field Maintenance Shop level repairs ourselves raising the performance of the weather maintenance shop from last place to the top 4%. Actually they gave us an award for being most improved without acknowledging that we had made it into the top 4%. I believe that got us a non-volunteer assignment to 4 years in Hawaii (hit me with that stick anytime you want). As much as we would have liked to stay in Michigan (our daughter was born in Mt Clemens, during the 11 months we were there), and help the rest of the Michiganders build on the many good parts of their potential to make more improvements in some target rich areas, we bailed out on them for Hawaii (to me a top 1 or 2% opportunity).
I think Jennifer Granholm made much better progress, even without our help.
Glad to see Granholm redeeming herself on the national level.
ThereтАЩs not a woman in Michigan who is holding office right now, who I do not like.
That is fantastic and most of them seem to be Democrats.
The same is true of Maine and our officeholders in my opinion.
And your state has Voters Not Politicians doing good work!
https://votersnotpoliticians.com/
YES! Voters Not Politicians is how we were able to undo the Republican gerrymandering of 2010 so we could elect Governor Whitmer, Secretary of State Benson and Attorney General Nessel. Plus, candidate Gretchen Whitmer hiked, biked, snow shoed and/or cross country skied through every county, city and village in Michigan asking us what we needed. Her "Fix the Damn Roads" campaign was OURS!
That's what we did in California in 2016 supporting Bernie Sanders and getting a lot of independents, Republicans (current and former), and non-corporate Democrats to tell us what their priorities were. Back then the PTB in the party didn't want to talk to us at all, so we had trouble getting them to vote for Hillary like most I knew did.
After the loss, I was amazed at the Indivisible veterans and effective campaigners that were now willing to join our Unity Coalitions that focused on far less divisions separating us to avoid splitting support for those that gave Democrats the 41 seat increase in the House in the 116th Congress, and 7 more Governors.
To me, it makes the Unity Coalition, though identified as Democrats, a fitting description as much as the Opposition Coalition was in the 34th Congress that was the majority. That Majority had 100 identified by an "O" for Opposition, and 51 still identified by "A" for the American party otherwise known as the No Nothing party.
Perhaps we should stress the "Unity Coalition" with fuller support from the talent in the Indivisible organizations.
I had no idea! IsnтАЩt she amazing?!
Most effective politician on the national stage, now that Pelosi has stepped down. Biden is third and also plenty damn good, up there with the best since Lincoln.
Biden has done well for the most part in his presidency. But I believe he has made some serious mis-steps regarding Gaza. Terrorists fighting terrorists is a terrible thing, and our perceived support of the Israeli government could be an unmitigated disaster for the United States and the world. The world is watching.
It's Netanyahu who has made serious missteps regarding Gaza. Put the blame where it belongs.
Actually, leaders of both sides have been awful, and are both culpable. It's time we stopped taking sides, and put equal pressure on both to finally grow up and stop behaving like warring children.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have been rife with corruption. And the Oct 7 attack was NOT designed to do anything good for the actual Palestinian people. It seem more like the people are pawns in the struggle for power.
The struggle for decency and civil rights for Palestinians is absolutely a just struggle, but the way Hamas acted is reprehensible.
The respone from Bibi is reprehensible, as well.
Netanyuhu is staving off charges of corruption, also, and his policy toward a Palestinian state, and his treatment of Palestinians has been abysmal.
Leaders there are prolonging this problem, not moving to solutions.
Exactly. That's why it's not helpful for any of us to take sides, since then we would just be doing what these two sets of leaders have been doing, that is pointing fingers. It's time the world took one stance, that of condemning both sides in this conflict and pressuring them both to stop the aggression.
We can take BOTH sides of the people, and criticize BOTH sides of leadership.i
If we are not eager to see safety and decency for the people, then why even care, so we need to ground our criticisms in the effects all of this is having ON PEOPLE.
Easier to criticize Biden, Blinken (and others) than to do what they have been trying to do.
As an aside, has anyone else noticed BlinkenтАЩs travel schedule? I used to do a lot of international travel for work, and there is absolutely no way I could ever keep up the pace Blinken has. Of course, he has a lot of support, but even so, I bet he doesnтАЩt even know what time zone heтАЩs in half the time. The guy is amazing!
ЁЯТпЁЯТп that kind of travel without even accounting for the intensive diplomacy work day after day after day is so exhausting. HeтАЩs so good at it but I donтАЩt know how he could keep it up for another 4 years
Yes, I am in awe of Secretary Blinken. He is so talented in diplomacy, and works toward solutions relentlessly.
Absolutely agree, Dave, he is amazing.
Hey, Larry. This latest FB chat from Heather helped me to better understand what Biden is trying to accomplish re the MidEast: keeping America safe and keeping Iran from getting involved in the war. Her talk about immigration starts at time 33:04. Her talk about the MidEast starts at time 56:12.
https://fb.watch/p5oZia8cCC/
True тАФ easier said than done
What would you do if you were faced with having to decide what to do regarding Gaza? ItтАЩs highly unlikely you would support Hamas vs the Israel government. But what would you support doing (if anything) regarding Hamas invasion of Israel? Of HamasтАЩs killing/ murdering innocent civilians, some in brutal, horrific ways including the rape and dismemberment of women? What would you support doing?
Would the worlds perception of the United States be the determining factor, the driving force of what action or non-action you would take? Keep in mind Hamas initiated this conflict (aka they started it) when they invaded Israel. Biden could have done nothing. But how would the world perceive him doing nothing?
Take a walk in BidenтАЩs shoes. Those shoes are likely much more difficult to walk in than it is to offer critique from a distance. I suspect the decisions he has made, and must make weigh heavily upon him. Many leaders of the world likely know how heavy a burden this is too. ItтАЩs not a burden IтАЩd want to bear.
I get that. Too many either have never heard of or ignore, the "Walk a mile in my shoes" quote. BUT 20,000 people - many women and children - killed so far? I'm really not sure that Biden COULD do something to prevent that - but continuing to send military help rubs me the wrong way. And yes - a very heavy burden - serving as President & DOING THE JOB which the tfg didnt do, didnt care to do, and did not know HOW to do!
Biden is definitely the best president of my lifetime, which began the first summer of the Eisenhower Administration. No earlier president has ever made me feel like I had the wind at my back as I rode my bicycle across the Great Plains of Montana and North Dakota, and then again on my record day of riding, Arnprior Ontario to Montreal--150 miles.
Biden has done so well despite the GOP holding the Senate, and the Democrats' slimmest of slim Democratic majorities in the House. And as Ellen an J. Nol point out, below, the blame over Gaza belongs with Netanyahoo and Hamas.
I think Biden is in a no win situation, yet he keeps acting like a leader. I think he has done a wonderful job. Can you even imagine what state the world (and the US) would be in if tfg was the POTUS? Makes my skin crawl.
I, too, greatly admire Whitmer's skills but I think it will take too long for Americans to shake off the misogyny that remains rife in our society.
Unfortunately, too many of us still are afraid of women's power, thus the misogyny.
No doubt. As supposedly one of the best countries on the planet, we still have some serious hang ups.
After the Trump and GQP debacle, I believe the thinking will change.
Wait 'til you meet Gretchen on the campaign trail!
We can certainly hope. I'd vote for her.
Who?
Gretchen Whitmer