Rent Seeking

2020 Presidential Election, All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Government Incompetence, Immigration, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans

That’s some pretty interesting math you’re using there!

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With the much under-reported partial federal government “shut-down” being eclipsed by the battle over The Wall by President Trump, who is aggravating the republican swamp-dwellers by actually keeping his campaign promise, compared to recalcitrant democrats claiming that the entire concept is “immoral”, what passes for an unbiased press is hoping that you’ll pay more attention to the shinny object (aka The Wall debate) rather than what is really happening in America.

Want to know what that is?

{Click below to find out more}

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

Whistling past the graveyard

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There are a couple of stories making the rounds, that taken individually, might not pique everyone’s interest for very long, but taken collectively should be sounding alarm bells at the highest levels of what passes for leadership in the Michigan Republican Party.

Especially considering who was the actual cause behind it.

{Post continues below}

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Cronyism, Economy, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Sports

Sausage Making

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Regional 'payoffs' still ignore proper role of government.

Cronyism is now everywhere.

I have written at the beginning of Snyder’s terms that he was the guy who essentially brought the neu-cronyism to Michigan.  He invented the current form, and served as its first overlord.  Money spent in ways that used to invite constitutional challenges, now routinely passes through the sieve of Lansing into favored projects and could be expected to always get the blessing of the governor.

I doubt the new governor will do anything but enhance it’s reach as she attempts to cajole lawmakers from the ‘other side’ to embrace her sure-to-be bizarre mechanizations that raise the cost of government further.  Sadly, it is a Republican legislature that continues to make this kind of thing happen:

$10M In Sports Funding Coming: Is Indoor Traverse City Sports Complex Next?

By Beth Milligan | Dec. 29, 2018

$10 million in state funding is headed to northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula to create a regional sports commission – an initiative that dovetails with an effort by Traverse City Tourism to explore opening a year-round indoor sports complex in Traverse City.

Governor Rick Snyder signed off Friday on two supplemental spending bills totaling $1.3 billion for numerous projects throughout the state, including road upgrades, contamination clean-up, and education initiatives. The bills – approved earlier this month by state lawmakers – also include funding for community projects throughout Michigan, including $10 million to establish the Northern Michigan Regional Tourism and Sports Fund and to create a Great Lakes Sports Commission.

…

… Traverse City Tourism hired a consulting firm earlier this year to conduct a feasibility study on whether there is a need for such a facility in the area, how much it would cost to construct, and if it would be financially sustainable. The firm’s results are expected in January. But Traverse City Tourism President/CEO Trevor Tkach says preliminary findings “prove there is enough demand to run a cash-positive business if the facility gets built.”

Maybe “cash positive” means profit?  Maybe, maybe not.

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking

Well, that didn’t take long to go back to their old ways.

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Another chapter in the quest to rewrite history that progressives cannot accept.

When Gov. Snyder and Michigan Republicans bailed out the Detroit Public School System and City of Detroit a few years earlier, many posters on this site (myself included), warned everyone that it wouldn’t take long for inept & corrupt former political structure to reassert itself when the time presented itself.

Well, guess what?

{More information after the fold}

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Democrats, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking

Proposal 2 Funders

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Who are the largest donors of the campaign to screw up Michigan's election districts?

The ‘grass roots’ effort to end gerrymandering in Michigan is a scam.

There was an effort by progressive liberals, to rig the game in their favor using the California model as a template.  Gullible voters could give them the win, but the funding for the proposal’s passage leaves us with more questions as to what they really want to do.

Out of state money is pressing hard to destroy accountability, but fighting the yes-vote is Michigan only Money.  MCFN notes the Tony Daunt comments:

Out-of-state special interests are trying to buy Michigan’s constitution, but our constitution is not for sale,” said Tony Daunt, spokesman for opposition group Protect My Vote, in a press release. “Hypocrite is too kind a description for the liars behind this sham proposal, and voters who’ve been duped by their scam have every right to be outraged.”

Over 80% of the funding for Prop 2 passage efforts comes from elsewhere.

Enjoy the video and pass along.

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2018 Michigan Gubernatorial Race, Democrats, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Damned Straight

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Schuette fights 'misleading' health care claim, attacks Whitmer's vote cutting AG rate oversight

It had to happen eventually.

The theft by BCBS of Michigan of BILLIONS in taxpayer dollars may now be looked at a little more closely. And all it took was much of that money being used to promote Gretchen Whitmer’s candidacy for governor.

Whitmer,  who’s father once ran Blue Cross, has been working the former insurer-of-last-resort for Michigan for her campaign finances.  Her actions with regard to policy have reflected the cozy connection that has existed between her and the organization that controlled over $4billion in cash reserves as Michigan’s protected underwriter.

Bill Schuette rightly called out Whitmer today for this relationship, raising so many questions about who Gretchen Whitmer has been working for.  Is it the well connected fat cats who run health care policy with billions of taxpayer funded dollars? Or is it the taxpayers, who have seen their premiums skyrocket, and insurance worsen by her actions?

Corruption is real. There is big money in healthcare.  It would be a huge mistake for anyone to assume that because she is a Democrat, that it ain’t about taking the money.

Bill Schuette on Monday:

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Elections, Michigan, Rent Seeking, Taxes

A Tax Increase

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Misrepresenting reality is apparently the new tool for school

Perhaps it is time for Lansing to actually fix prop A.

The local public school district is trying to sell the renewal of a 2007 bond as not being a tax increase.  Even IF the tax would be zero sans its approval.  Going from ZERO to 3.1 is an increase, yet the radio commercials tell us otherwise.

No wonder each generation is dumber than the last.

PART of the problem may be that the schools have maintenance issues that can only be addressed with new buildings?  When a roof fails, they say the building is done, not because a brick and steel structure is bad, but because the operating money from Lansing is not quite enough perhaps?

I have often remarked that this is like buying a new car when the tires go bad.

The promise of an end to a bond that is USUALLY assigned to a project, is apparently as empty as the young heads full of mush after 13 years in our public schools.   If they cannot get to fourth grade without being able to read, they haven’t a chance in deciphering the political nonsense used to sell us this S*** on a shingle ..quite literally.

Gimme a break TCAPS.

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2018 US Senate Race, All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans

You do know that whole “The Wall”- thing could’ve stopped all of this (or at the very least significantly reduced it).

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So in the latest distraction in our 24-hour News Cycle World, the latest “outrage” is coming from a surprising source?

And just whom that might be, you may ask yourself?

{Click below to learn the answer}

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking, Taxes

Quis Solvet? MSU Settles With Nassar Victims For $ 500 Million

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Michigan has the least elite elites in the nation

Who exactly is going to pay the $ 500 million that MSU just agreed to pay to 332 victims of Dr. Lawrence G. Nasser?

MSU says they can’t tap their $ 3 billion endowment, which was the focus of former President Lou Anna K. Simon (and why she wasn’t paying any attention to Nassar and Strampel).

This bleed will probably eclipse that of the Flint water fiasco. From the Detroit Free Press:

The settlement, which covers all 332 current claimants, will cost Michigan State $500 million. The school will pay $425 million now and hold $75 million in reserve in case other Nassar victims come forward.

MSU will now work on how it will pay the settlement, MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant told the Free Press.

Survivor attorney James White said this is a chance for the survivors to begin to move forward.

“I don’t think they can ever be made whole, but this is a step in the right direction,” he said.

The settlement was announced Wednesday, after the Detroit Free Press published news of the settlement, following two days of closed-door mediation sessions between lawyers for the university and the survivors.

Terms of the settlement are as follows:

• $425 million dollars will be paid to all current claimants

• $75 million dollars will be set aside in a trust fund to protect any future claimants alleging sexual abuse by Nassar

The settlement was approved by the MSU board in a conference call Tuesday night.

I underestimated the costs here by $ 25 million, when adjusted for the additional claimants who have come forward.

Strampel’s cases are not part of this settlement, so there is more bleeding to come.

This disaster is on the Democrats, exclusively.

Michigan has the least elite elites in the nation.

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Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking

Blowing Us Away

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Only SANCTIONED thievery is allowed in Michigan's cronyism environment.

It wasn’t just Granholm.

Rick Snyder got the ball rolling back not too long after Jennifer Granholm was blushing behind a privacy screen on the dating game, but well before she became our state’s executive Monte Hall.

Rick Snyder was the first CEO of the MEDC, and don’t let this fact escape anyone.

The MEDC has given BILLIONS of dollars to ‘winners’ since its inception in the 90s.  Granholm was certainly more embarrassed however, to find out that it was the MEDC under her watch which gave $9 million to a guy running an international corporation out of a trailer in flint. He just got out of prison.

That guy didn’t really have a business, and he went to jail.  He didn’t create the jobs and suffered penalties for fraud.

Of course there were others who abused the system and also paid.

But then there were others who legitimately, and legally stole from us under Rick Snyder’s creation, have not created those jobs, and none are screaming for heads. (free market minute audio here)

Why do you suppose that is the way its done?

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