November 9, 2022

Oakland County all in on transit as millage appears set to pass

(Detroit Free Press) Regional transit efforts got a big boost Tuesday as voters in Oakland County appeared to OK a countywide transit millage for the first time and votes in support of millages for transit service were leading during counting early Wednesday in neighboring Macomb and Wayne counties.

The vote in Oakland County — 330,938 in favor to 247,221 against, according to unofficial results, with almost 97% of precincts reporting just before 2:30 a.m. Wednesday — marks a dramatic shift in the conversation from earlier this year. The Auburn Hills City Council attempted to pull the city out of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, a move later blocked by a judge.

Instead, metro Detroit, a region that has appeared at times hostile to the very concept of transit, is now set for the largest expansion of public transportation in decades. ...........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/11/09/oakland-county-regional-transit-millage/69627039007/

November 9, 2022

THANK YOU DONALD TRUMP !!!!!! ...........

....... for inspiring so many whackjob election-denying anti-choice extremists to run in Michigan!

BLUE WIPEOUT !!!!

November 9, 2022

Michigan Election Day 2022 updates: Long line at U-M lasts past poll closure

(Detroit Free Press) Polls have closed in all of Michigan. Results continue to trickle in overnight.

....(snip)....

Long lines on campus stretch past poll closure

Hundreds of people were still waiting to register and vote in East Lansing and Ann Arbor as of 9 p.m., Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said, after lines as long as three hours were reported at college campus sites as polls closed.

Students draped themselves in blankets to weather the line outside University of Michigan’s central campus with temperatures in the low 40s. Democrat volunteers urged them to stay, providing hand warmers and free pizza. Dozens, meanwhile, continued to wait inside Michigan State University’s Brody Hall at 10 p.m., video posted to Twitter by the Lansing State Journal showed.

Anyone in line by 8 p.m. would be permitted to vote, the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office said.

Pro-abortion rights amendment group Reproductive Freedom For All applauded the student turnout.

"It's truly exciting that University of Michigan and Michigan State University students are coming out in droves to register to vote and cast their ballots tonight," said Darci McConnell, its communications director. "Stay in line. Your voice is your vote." ...........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/11/08/michigan-election-2022-updates-polls/69618975007/

November 9, 2022

Hillary Scholten (D) defeats John Gibbs for west Michigan Congress seat

(Detroit Free Press) Democrat Hillary Scholten has defeated Republican challenger John Gibbs for the open seat in Michigan’s new 3rd Congressional District. Scholten will be the first Democratic representative for the Grand Rapids area in decades.

The Associated Press called the race for Scholten just before 2 a.m. Wednesday morning. Unofficial results had Scholten receiving 52.9% of the vote compared to 43.9% for Gibbs, with 63.5% of the expected vote in. Scholten's victory is another notch for Democrats in what appears to be a strong night throughout Michigan.

Scholten, a former Department of Justice attorney, will be the first Democrat to represent the greater-Grand Rapids area since Gerald R. Ford was in the White House in the 70s. It’s been even longer since a woman has represented any part of Michigan’s western half — Ruth Thompson represented part of Muskegon in the 50s.

“We built this campaign the way I hope to build a new generation of representation here in west Michigan, not clutching desperately to squabbles of the past but focused on our shared future, together,” Scholten told supporters at a Grand Rapids watch party shortly after polls closed. ...................(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/11/09/hillary-scholten-john-gibbs-michigan-3rd-congressional-district/69627573007/

November 9, 2022

The 6 most shocking Jerry Falwell Jr. sex scandal moments from Hulu's "God Forbid" documentary

The 6 most shocking Jerry Falwell Jr. sex scandal moments from Hulu's "God Forbid" documentary
News of Jerry Falwell Jr.'s sex scandal first became public knowledge in August 2020, thanks to a Reuters exposé

By JOY SAHA
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2, 2022 10:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Hulu's provocative new documentary, "God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty," takes us back to August 2020, when news of Jerry Falwell Jr.'s sex scandal first became public knowledge. At the center of it all was Jerry Jr., his wife Becki and Giancarlo Granda — an attractive, twenty-something ex-pool boy who was locked into a seven-year-long affair with the couple.

Jerry Jr. had already emerged as a contentious figure, not for what he did behind closed doors but rather, for what he did publicly. The son of disgraced televangelist Jerry Falwell, Jerry Jr. served as the former president of the Christian college, Liberty University, up until his subsequent resignation, and an ardent endorser of ex-president Donald Trump and the Republican Party. His endorsement was so well-received that the Trump administration allegedly offered Jerry Jr. the position of Education Secretary, which he ultimately turned down.

"God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty" takes the spotlight away from Jerry Jr. and shines it on Granda, who appears in front of the camera to share his story and recount details of the prolonged sexual threesome. Granda's sister, investigative journalist Megan K. Stack and journalist Mark Ebner, who co-wrote Granda's new memoir, are also featured in the documentary.

Here are the 6 most shocking moments from the Hulu documentary:

01 Becki's sexual proposition to Granda

While working as a pool attendant at Miami Beach's luxurious Fontainebleau hotel, Granda met Becki Falwell, who he said was sitting by the pool and taking photos of him from afar. Granda recalled that Becki had told him, "Don't waste your time with the younger ones, they don't know what they are doing." She invited him back to her room and explained that her husband, Jerry Jr., also wanted to watch the pair have sex.

That night, Granda received a phone call from Becki via a blocked private number. She asked that Granda meet her and her husband at a nearby Days Inn instead of at their Fontainebleau room because their children were staying there. Granda met Becki in the lobby of the hotel, where she gave him a cup of Jack Daniel's whiskey to calm his nerves and proceeded to stroke his inner thigh. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/02/the-6-most-shocking-jerry-falwell-jr-scandal-moments-from-hulus-god-forbid-documentary/

November 9, 2022

Lots of visitors here tonight. Just sayin'

November 8, 2022

Even the Polling Experts Say the 2022 Midterm Polls Don't Tell Us Anything.

Even the Polling Experts Say the 2022 Midterm Polls Don’t Tell Us Anything. Ha! Ha.
What does our country want? Don’t ask our country.

BY BEN MATHIS-LILLEY
NOV 08, 20225:40 AM


(Slate) On Thursday, four polls of the Georgia Senate race between Republican challenger Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock were released. One showed Warnock leading by 5 points. Another had him leading by 2. A third had Walker leading by 1. And another had Walker leading by 4.

These were all reputable pollsters with grades of B or above in FiveThirtyEight’s ratings. Their methodologies seemed fine. They simply don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in a close race and are—each of them—making their best guesses with imprecise tools.

That’s the story everywhere, really. It’s not just Georgia. Nate Cohn is the longtime editor of the New York Times’ Upshot section; he’s seen as much midterm poll data as anyone in the country and probably knows as much as anyone about the statistical analysis that goes into making it. He wrote an Oct. 25 piece called “If These Poll Results Keep Up, Expect Anything on Election Night.” On Monday, the Economist’s data journalist G. Elliott Morris published his own … prediction? .............(more)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/11/polling-experts-say-2022-midterm-polls-predictions-lol.html

November 8, 2022

Pandemic greed killed more than 1 million people globally, study says

(Salon) Placing profits above people when it comes to COVID vaccination has led to an estimated 1.3 million deaths globally and nearly 300 million additional infections. According to new research in the journal Nature Medicine, rich countries that hoarded vaccines — in many cases, even trashing them — have not only contributed to otherwise preventable deaths but also helped prolong the pandemic and spur the emergence of mutated variants that continue to plague the public.

Using a mathematical model crunching data from 152 different countries, epidemiologists from the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, charted differences in COVID vaccine distribution from the start of the pandemic to the end of 2021. They found that vaccine access varied drastically. Some countries gained over 90% vaccination in adults (meaning two shots or more), while some had coverage as low as 0.9%, with a country's level of wealth playing a key role in this discrepancy.

"We found that greater vaccine sharing would have lowered the total global burden of disease," the study's lead author Sam Moore and colleagues wrote. "Our results reinforce the health message, pertinent to future pandemics, that vaccine distribution proportional to wealth, rather than to need, may be detrimental to all."

This uneven distribution has severe consequences not only locally but also internationally. There have been an estimated nearly 630 million COVID infections worldwide and more than 6.5 million deaths, according to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, this figure may be low: Some estimates based on excess deaths anticipate the number could actually be between 16.5 million and 28.1 million deaths. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/08/greed-more-than-1-million-people-globally-study-says/

November 8, 2022

The 6 most shocking Jerry Falwell Jr. sex scandal moments from Hulu's "God Forbid" documentary

The 6 most shocking Jerry Falwell Jr. sex scandal moments from Hulu's "God Forbid" documentary
News of Jerry Falwell Jr.'s sex scandal first became public knowledge in August 2020, thanks to a Reuters exposé

By JOY SAHA
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2, 2022 10:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Hulu's provocative new documentary, "God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty," takes us back to August 2020, when news of Jerry Falwell Jr.'s sex scandal first became public knowledge. At the center of it all was Jerry Jr., his wife Becki and Giancarlo Granda — an attractive, twenty-something ex-pool boy who was locked into a seven-year-long affair with the couple.

Jerry Jr. had already emerged as a contentious figure, not for what he did behind closed doors but rather, for what he did publicly. The son of disgraced televangelist Jerry Falwell, Jerry Jr. served as the former president of the Christian college, Liberty University, up until his subsequent resignation, and an ardent endorser of ex-president Donald Trump and the Republican Party. His endorsement was so well-received that the Trump administration allegedly offered Jerry Jr. the position of Education Secretary, which he ultimately turned down.

"God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty" takes the spotlight away from Jerry Jr. and shines it on Granda, who appears in front of the camera to share his story and recount details of the prolonged sexual threesome. Granda's sister, investigative journalist Megan K. Stack and journalist Mark Ebner, who co-wrote Granda's new memoir, are also featured in the documentary.

Here are the 6 most shocking moments from the Hulu documentary:

01 Becki's sexual proposition to Granda

While working as a pool attendant at Miami Beach's luxurious Fontainebleau hotel, Granda met Becki Falwell, who he said was sitting by the pool and taking photos of him from afar. Granda recalled that Becki had told him, "Don't waste your time with the younger ones, they don't know what they are doing." She invited him back to her room and explained that her husband, Jerry Jr., also wanted to watch the pair have sex.

That night, Granda received a phone call from Becki via a blocked private number. She asked that Granda meet her and her husband at a nearby Days Inn instead of at their Fontainebleau room because their children were staying there. Granda met Becki in the lobby of the hotel, where she gave him a cup of Jack Daniel's whiskey to calm his nerves and proceeded to stroke his inner thigh. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/02/the-6-most-shocking-jerry-falwell-jr-scandal-moments-from-hulus-god-forbid-documentary/

November 7, 2022

From Karl Rove to the Big Lie: GOP loves to claim victory when they feel insecure

From Karl Rove to the Big Lie: GOP loves to claim victory when they feel insecure
It's nothing new for Republicans to promise a blowout victory. The real question is why the media falls for it

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 7, 2022 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) One more day until the voting is done. Hallelujah! When the polls are so tight and the campaigning so intense you reach a point where you almost don't care who wins anymore and just want it to be over. But of course you do care, as we all must in this age of authoritarian right-wing, lunacy.

I wrote on Friday that nobody really knows anything about this election. It could go either way. It might be a close result or one side could sweep both houses of Congress with big wins. But if you just read the headlines and listen to the pundits and strategists on TV, you'd think the evidence showed clearly that Republicans were running away with it. There's a reason for that: Republicans plant this notion in the press and the sad-sack Democrats play into it by prematurely assembling the circular firing squad whenever a race is close.

You see headlines like "Democrats fear midterm drubbing as party leaders rush to defend blue seats," but the fact that Donald Trump held big rallies just days before the election in Florida and Pennsylvania, where the GOP is defending numerous seats, isn't framed the same way. There's "CNN panelist predicts 'bad night,' says Democrats didn't 'listen' to voters throughout the election" while the New Yorker publishes a widely-read article headlined "Why Republican Insiders Think the G.O.P. Is Poised for a Blowout."

Maybe it's all true. Maybe it will turn out that Democrats have blown the election (even though all the fundamentals and historical precedents suggest defeat was more or less preordained) and maybe the Republicans played a masterful hand (in winning an election everyone assumed was already in the bag). We will see. But let's not kid ourselves about what is going on in these final days. Republicans are playing the press for chumps, as they do every single time. Of course they may win, but this election is close and they're not soothsayers. It's a deliberate strategy.

....(snip)....

We're in a new landscape these days with election denial prominently featured on the menu. (Karl Rove is actually getting booed as a RINO sellout at GOP rallies.) The bandwagon effect is still in play but they now have a back-up: the Big Lie. It's not overly cynical to suspect that a whole lot of the happy talk coming from Republican strategists whispering in reporters' ears about how great their private polling looks is just a set-up for the possibility that they won't do as well as they would like. As we already know, their voters are fully indoctrinated to believe that Democrats can only win if they cheat, and Republicans have created a full-scale election denial operation to challenge any negative results they don't like. In some instances, they have challenged election systems in counties Trump won by double digits! Election denial has become the party's primary organizing principle. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/07/from-karl-rove-to-the-big-lie-loves-to-claim-victory-when-they-feel-insecure/