Monthly Archives: March 2016

Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Part Time Legislature, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

Whoopie Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

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Cattle Roundup Image 1

Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

Some boys goes up the trail for pleasure,
But that’s where you get it most awfully wrong;
For you haven’t any idea the trouble they give us
While we go driving them all along.

Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

When the night comes on and we hold them on the bedground,
These little dogies that roll on so slow;
Roll up the herd and cut out the strays,
And roll the little dogies that never rolled before.

Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

Traditional 19th Century American Cowboy Cattle Drive Song

Rhodes Image 1aMichigan’s tax-and-spend establishment continues to demonstrate world class tactical flexibility as they pursue their dubious ends. Their latest tour de force is the setup for the impending Detroit Public Schools bailout. Michigan’s legislators are being driven like cattle.

The new state appointed emergency transition manager of the Detroit Public Schools, retired U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven W. Rhodes, announced that the district would shut down on April 8th due to a lack of funds. This chilling announcement came a week after Governor Snyder appointed him to replace Darnell Early, who resigned at the end of February. Darnell Early, for some reason, failed to inform Michigan of the April 8th drop dead date. Judge Rhodes made his announcement four weeks in advance of the projected shutdown in a full court press to get a bailout from our State Legislature.

Detroit Public Schools LogoThe first problem here is the State Legislature is scheduled to take two weeks off in the four weeks leading up to April 8th. The last week of March and the first week of April. Judge Rhodes certainly knew this, so the dilatory announcement is unquestionably a deliberate effort to stampede the Michigan Legislature into immediately delivering $ 50 – 70 million to DPS, no questions asked. Two weeks is not a reasonable legislative time frame, rather it is herding legislators like cattle on a two week drive. An echo of the tactics used by Judge Rhodes to ram through the bungled Detroit bankruptcy.

Governor Snyder has been floating an inchoate plan to rescue the Detroit Public Schools since the middle of last year; one which originally envisioned the creation of a ‘bad debt’ shell district and a new, debt free district by cellular division. Wasn’t really well received anywhere, even after he added dissolution of the much hated Education Achievement Authority. As his problems in the Flint water fiasco have mounted, Governor Snyder decided to wash his hands of the DPS situation by throwing $ 700 million at them to extinguish their ‘operating’ debt and return control to the next generation of local thieves elected school board members.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Flint Water Fiasco, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

An Ill Portent From Michigan’s Presidential Primary

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Massive Democratic Turnout on March 8th Puts Control of the Michigan House in Play

Dead Elephant Image 4aYesterday’s Presidential primary in Michigan broke the participation record set back in 1972’s Presidential primary – both in absolute terms and as a percentage of registered voters participating. While the League of Women Voters types will laud this, the establishments in both the Republican and Democratic Parties are flummoxed. Donald Trump crushed John Kasich and Bernie Sanders beat Hillary. Establishment candidates failed. Both party establishments are scrambling to finesse the insubordination of their voters.

Pundits figure that the Democratic Party establishment can bring their obstreperous base to heel, but few figure the Republican Party establishment will have any corresponding success. The prospective success or failure of their counterinsurgency warfare, and its effect upon November, fixates the press and both establishments.

But there is a less obvious, very ill portent here for Michigan Republicans.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Former MiGOP Comm Director Freak Out?

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Medical attention required, as stroke victim cognitively impaired beyond reason.

11703079_10207830552694502_7459487762420931420_nPerhaps Bill Nowling, formerly the Director of Communication for the Michigan Republican Party has popped a vessel.

In a Facebook post, Nowling now pleads with his fellow Republicans to vote for Bernie as apparently he did “feeling the Bern” yesterday.  Nowling says that “the only way to defeat an anti-establishment candidate, in an anti-establishment environment, is with an anti-establishment candidate.”

Also making comparisons of Trump to Hitler, he calls himself a yellow dog republican.

Unless this is an elaborate prank, this is a perfect example of the establishment self destruct that is going on right now.  As a former apparatchik of the MiGOP, Nowling once used his communications skills to target liberals and their antics.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

 

H/T Joan Fabiano

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Cronyism, Detroit, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Taxes

Detroit Schools Bailout Opposed

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MRG Poll Shows Michigan Voters Strongly Oppose Using Taxpayer Money for DPS’ $715 Million Bailout.

bailoutsSome information from the Michigan Association of Public School Academies

MAPSA notes that the the poll is very timely, because the bailout is up for a vote today.

As expected, Michigan voters strongly oppose using taxpayer money to pay off the Detroit Public Schools’ $715 million in debt, according to a new poll by the Marketing Resource Group (MRG). The poll of 600 likely Michigan voters, commissioned by the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, was conducted Feb. 22-27.

Statewide, only 33 percent of voters favor using taxpayer money to pay off DPS’ debt, while 56 percent oppose it (with most of those saying they “strongly” oppose it). Even among Detroit voters, sentiments are almost evenly split, with 40 percent favoring the bailout and 38 percent opposing it. In the entire Metro Detroit region, the bailout also isn’t popular, with only 37 percent favoring it and 52 percent opposing it.

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Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Kasich Surge In Michigan Changes Math Slightly.

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Fun with delegate numbers

bizarro-voteMichigan has a proportional system to settle the 59 delegates choosing the GOP candidate for the presidential primary in 2016.

Because legislators chose a date prior to March 15, the is no winner take all system in place.  Currently polling has Trump at about 42%, Cruz and Kasich each at about 20, and Rubio falling flat at 10 or so.  In the delegate pooling (hopefully I calculated this correctly), this would result in 25 delegates for Trump, 12 for Cruz, 12 For Kasich and zero for Rubio.  The remainder is split the same 8 for Trump, and 1 each for Kasich and Cruz.

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

A Path To A Brokered Election

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Subject: Look At The Numbers Michiganians

Kasich-RubioA vote for Rubio or Kasich in Michigan is a vote for a RINO brokered convention. Look at the numbers.

Rubio will not win Florida! Why? Northern Florida…aka the “red neck riviera”, will probably go for Trump. Southern Florida, which is predominantly Cuban Americans, will go for Cruz. Why? Rubio’s support for amnesty and immigration reform allowing more Mexicans and Puerto Ricans and other non Cuban “Hispanics” into the U.S. will be his downfall.

Cubans trace their heritage back to mother Spain as do the Argentines and Chileans. They are the true Hispanics. Lyndon Johnson bastardized and generalized the term Hispanic to mean all persons living in Latin America. There is significant bias and prejudice in Southern Florida between Cuban Americans and Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and other Latin American cultures that do not derive their heritage and roots from mother Spain. They are predominantly perceived by Cubans as indigenous Indians.

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80th District Special Election (2015), Conservative News, Democrats, Elections, Firearms, Flint Water Fiasco, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Proposal 15-1, Republicans, Taxes

Bitter Consequences

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Scorched Earth Politics Isolates the Republican Establishment in Michigan

Mitt Romney Image 1Anyone who watched or listened to Mitt Romney’s lame assault on Donald Trump yesterday had to wince at the Obamacare architect and gun control proponent questioning the bona fides of the current Republican front runner. Hypocrisy at its finest. A blatant violation of Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment. A testament to the abject desperation coursing through the Republican establishment today. Stark evidence of how few friends the Republican establishment actually owns has.

Just how did the Republican establishment get themselves into this predicament?

What does their predicament portend in Michigan politics?

This year’s Presidential nomination process demonstrates convincingly that money is no longer a substitute for actual human support in a political process where the great unwashed get to vote. Money – and the TV advertising it bought – had a 40 year run buying elections, but this elixir of modern American politics is no longer working. ¡Jeb! is very expensive history. The great unwashed are in open revolt.

Ace over at the Ace of Spades HQ blog offered the very best analysis of the national Republican establishment’s current predicament, which compelled Mitt’s embarrassing performance yesterday. You should read it in its entirety, but in a nutshell:

The Republican establishment has no one credible to make their case against Donald Trump. Absolutely no one who has even a shred of credibility with Trump supporters. They sent Mitt Romney out on yesterday’s kamikaze mission because they had nothing better to offer. Then they will have to spend a mountain of wealth with no real prospects of success. And engage in strong arm tactics. Making an embarrassing spectacle of themselves.

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Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans

Draft Ben Carson For US Senate

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Ben-CarsonPopped up in my Facebook feed today:

Run, Ben, Run! Join our effort to draft Dr. Carson, a Detroit native, to return to Michigan and run for the U.S. Senate in 2018. https://www.facebook.com/Draft-Ben-Carson-for-US-Senate-1560440750949118/

I agree.

Come on home Ben.  Bring your politically incorrect platform back to Michigan and show how a real conservative can win a US Senate seat in Michigan.  Stabenow has been allowed far too much time in DC working against us and the constitution, and the GOP bench repeatedly puts up weak candidates.

This is an outstanding idea.

Run Ben Run indeed!

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Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Ross’ Revenge

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To understand the Butterfly Effect, one must understand whence the butterfly came.

To say that the 2016 Republican Presidential Campaign has become interesting since June of last year is a bit of an understatement, to say the least. An out-of-the-blue “chaos injection” on June 16th (that FOX News polling saw coming as early as March 31st, but no one else picked up on until late May) became the nationally-recognized front runner not five weeks later, completely leapfrogging the “heir apparent” (who promptly went into a freefall, and has now exited the campaign). Because of this chaos injection, one candidate, who was until that point considered to be irrelevant, leapfrogged to become the national runner-up about five and a half weeks later (and was the national front-runner for three days in November), and two young guns are now openly tussling for second place nationally, neither of whom were supposed to have a realistic chance to begin with.

As should have been expected, the thorough derailing of the coronation train for the republican heir apparent makes the professional political establishment very unhappy, and, of course, they’re hell-bent on doing something about that. But the reason that all of their scrambling is increasingly ineffective is that they don’t seem to really understand the causa provocare of the outsider’s challenge, perhaps because they really don’t understand the degree to which the typical voter is disgusted with the political status quo in America, or why. Thus, predictably, the flailing increasingly exposes them for who they are and what they intend, which conversely makes the outsider’s job that much easier.

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