Monthly Archives: March 2016

Michigan, Michigan Politics

DPS Down Payment A Major Mistake.

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What are these legislators thinking?

shackles copyOperation ‘Can Kick’ In Full Swing. (re-posted from jasongillman.com)

Its for the children, right? HB5296, a $48.7 Million bill to get DPS through the school year, met little resistance from our state legislature, with seven senate, and only four house members opposing the final package. How could anyone vote to essentially close the doors? Its a valid question, and the intent should be considered honorable. However, an honest assessment of the overall situation can only remind us that it is with the best intent that we fail our children once again.

If the vote to hand over the money eradicated all debt, and set the course for district solvency, it would be hard to argue against such logic. However, the greater debt and liability still exists, and the precedent is set for the remaining $700,000,000 bailout that is next to come for DPS. Even that number is of questionable sufficiency, and is likely to be higher. Even with a bailout of this magnitude, it would be foolish to think it would be the end of hands out from a district that has produced 25% graduation rates, all the while receiving the highest per capita foundation payments.

And then there is the question of mismanagement being simply benign, or instead as a purposeful quest, evidenced by new indictments of a dozen prominent administrators within the district. Surely this is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Let us not forget also, that Detroit Schools represent only a part of the state’s public education apparatus. To be sure, it is not the only school district in Michigan that is facing obligations that seem insurmountable. What are we to do next when Grand Rapids Schools, Lansing, or even Traverse City Area Public Schools cry “No Mas!” throwing up their hands in futility?

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Michigan, Michigan Politics

Gross Incompetence or Corrupt Lawman?

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While Gov. Rick Snyder’s Relentless Poisonous Actions are discovered to be increasingly insidious, he’s not the only political cockroach running for cover when the disinfecting light of day occasionally penetrates the dark, dank recesses of the Lansing oligarchy.

The Michigan Attorney General’s duties are clearly mandated, and he is REQUIRED to represent the best interests of the citizens of Michigan, and to uphold the State and US Constitutions- not the Governor or his wants and needs.

Sadly, five years worth of opportunities to choose right over wrong has shown us a disturbing pattern of bad choices made by Michigan Atty General Bill Schuette.

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Firearms, Michigan, Michigan Politics

Michigan’s 1st Incarcerated State Senator?

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So much for the plea?

Gosh.

Senator Virgil Smith is headed to the hokey pokey.  Not removed PRIOR to being criminally charged, Smith is now heading to jail with full pay and bennies?

And he actually endangered people.

Smith was allowed to plead guilty to malicious destruction of property greater than $20,000 for allegedly firing shots at his ex-wife’s Mercedes Benz in May 2015. The charge, a felony, carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Guess he never threatened THESE GUYS, right?

Whatever.

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Michigan

Why Are We Bailing Out DPS Again?

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Detroit is flush with taxpayer cash.

Not its own taxpayers mind you, but nevertheless, it has a spigot it can apparently turn on at will. A Granholm era program that somehow still exists and ‘guarantees Detroit HS graduates two years of college will apparently come out of the taxes collected for schools.  Even after getting the State bailout money going forward?

Duggan on Tuesday said that in the 2018-19 tax year tax dollars from the growth of the city will start to go into the scholarship fund.

“What the chamber has done is raise the money to create a bridge for that,” he said. “We can’t expect the chamber to raise scholarship money forever. This is the way that it was intended to work. They’ve done a wonderful job in the short-run. We will have funding out of the education tax in the long-run.”

The city forecasts the tax capture, once effective, would provide funding for the next two decades, ranging from $1 million per year up to $4.5 million projected in 2035, according to property value estimates rooted in the city’s bankruptcy Plan of Adjustment.

Money is fungible.

Check.

Ask your legislator how they could allow this to go on.

H/T 10x25MM

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Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Abysmal Oakland County GOP Leadership Embodies Nationwide Epidemic of Failure

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Pictured: The modern-day GOP in its present state.

It seems as if we cannot go a day without the Republican Party, for one reason or another, disgracing itself in shameful, infuriating fashion. That has certainly been the case with the latest Oakland County GOP Executive Committee meeting, which was canceled and then scheduled mere minutes before important county convention proceedings.

Although Oakland GOP Chairwoman Theresa Mungioli will surely say she had nothing but the purest of intentions scheduling the Executive Committee meeting 20 minutes before a county convention, that is nothing but bunk. This is apart of a long trend of despicable maneuvers to disenfranchise, subjugate and demean the individuals she is meant to be representing. This is no isolated incident, far from it.

This is a palpable, conniving maneuver to sweep a great deal of urgent business under the rug. There are resolutions on the key issues that face our nation that need to be considered. GOP activists are leading the charge on these fronts. They are trying to lead the party by doing yeoman’s work promoting the solutions that will actually restore the republic. However, the country club establishment elite won’t even acknowledge these individuals, much less devote time, energy and resources toward their efforts. Instead, villainous party ‘leaders’ who poisoned an entire town’s water supply and caused national infamy are championed.

The controversy over Chairwoman Mungioli and Secretary Williams’ egregious power-play over the vacancy in the 8th district is still raging as well. Last December, the duly-elected county executive committee members called a lawful meeting to attend to pressing business. Because Chairwoman Mungioli goes out of her way to have as few meetings as possible, we were unable to take care of business so we had to take matters into our own hands. The rogue leadership responded by arbitrarily and illegally canceling our meeting. We didn’t respond to their petty, divisive tactics and held our meeting anyway. This entire fiasco was meant to be addressed during the next Executive Committee meeting, but it’s hard to imagine we will even be able to touch upon it in 20 minutes.

It is always a shell game with Mungioli. We can never get a fair shake. We are never treated like we are members of a party whose input is respected and considered, but rather subordinates groveling beneath a dictator.  It is not just a local problem. This is endemic of the GOP as a whole. The establishment gang never seems to quit, no matter how many times they are disgraced. Remember that they have entire teams filled with golim, funded with taxpayer money of course, working overtime to take away your rights. There is no limit to the tricks they have up their sleeves.

The GOP establishment must think that their cheap parlor tricks are fooling anyone. Hello?!?!? Look at who the front runner for the President is. It has never been more apparent that the ‘Emperor Wears No Clothes’ moment has arrived for these gonifs. What will it take for these tone-deaf, arrogant cretins to get the picture? Will it need to involve pitchforks and torches? Will it need to be blood on the streets? What is the end game here?

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Conservative News, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans

Proportional Backfill

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Did the Michigan Republican Party pull another fast one with RNC delegate allocation?

Those of us who’ve been hanging around RightMichigan since prior to 2014 likely remember well the Michigan Dele-Gate Fiasco of 2012. As a quick refresher, on Tuesday, February 28th of that year, Mitt Romney defeated Rick Santorum in the statewide popular vote, 41.10% to 37.87%. However, because 28 of Michigan’s 30 post-penalty delegates were awarded on a district-by-district basis (Romney and Santorum splitting the state at 7 districts each), and because the statewide vote totals were so close (requiring the two at-large delegates to be split one each), the resulting 15-15 delegate tie didn’t exactly square with the RNC/GOPe’s preferred media narrative that Romney won his native state. Thus, in the telephonic equivalent of a late-night, backroom deal, the MIGOP Credentials Committee (then consisting of Bobby Schostak, Sharon Wise, Saul Anuzis, Holly Hughes, Bill Runco, Mike Cox, and Eric Doster) voted 4-2 – Hughes was not present at the meeting – to creatively interpret State Party Rule 19C, and award both at-large delegates to Romney. The resulting backlash fueled an eleven-week effort that culminated in a two-day Showdown in Motown, with the end result being the ballot box blowout ouster of the national committeeman regarded as the chief engineer of the ex post facto railroad job.

It’s probably not going to draw much attention (likely because damn near no one noticed), but the potential for a Grand Theft Delegate con job similar to the Michigan Dele-Gate Fiasco of 2012 was averted, largely due to one person explaining a key state party rule in a way that eliminated the possibility of applying that rule by political discretion, and instead imposed a resolution rubric according to plain mathematics.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics

Too Big To Fail

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The stage is set for more mis-'appropriations' ..

malfeasanceHow on earth could any legislator demand accountability after voting to pay for the ongoing malfeasance of the DPS?

With a vote of 104-5, the Michigan House of Representatives cleared the deck for the ultimate prize of over $700 Million for continued operations.

Passed 104 to 5 in the House on March 17, 2016, to appropriate $48.7 million to keep the insolvent Detroit school district afloat until the end of the current school year. This is essentially a “down-payment” on a larger bailout package whose details have yet to find a consensus (the House majority wants more education reforms). The bill essentially “borrows” the money from a state account used to pay for college scholarships, and also places the Detroit school district under the same state oversight commission created to oversee the city after its 2014 bailout(see House Bill 5385).
Who Voted “Yes” and Who Voted “No”

“we just need to get em to the end of the school year,” right?

Anyone who thinks there will be a plan from the current legislative slurry to fix the fundamental problems with the DPS is lying to themselves.

Even worse, they are lying to the kids who suffer under the inability of the DPS to teach.

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Michigan, Opinion

Free Speech?

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Beware the unintended consequence of shallow thinking.

sexy2Sometimes, folks want to have an impact in their communities.

They might oppose a millage, pass out literature and information about proposed spending by their local governments. Some might simply try to engage their neighbors in a campaign process through simple means.  They might try to encourage certain priorities as well, and may do so by only spending a few bucks at the local copy mart.

All of this free speech is protected, right? In fact, such expression is legally permissible without a legal regimen, allowing up to $1000 to be spent currently.  Candidates for public office, as well as ballot advocacy groups can opt out of reporting requirements if they do not reach that $1000 spending threshold.

However, as long as there are men occupying government, this too can change.

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