Detroit

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The Michigan Connection

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Maybe North Korean efforts might have been more difficult if not for a former Detroit athlete?

As you know, these pages have been primarily for Michigan based political discussion and opinion.

I thought this might be an opportune time to offer some credit to an unlikely recipient of praise for anything ‘diplomatic.’ The strange path to regained world prominence continues with a historic effort by Donald Trump’s administration and possibly bolstered by a former Detroit (among others) basketball player.

The effort by our president and his team in Singapore appears to have borne fruit.  Removing the nuclear threat from North Korea is now a very real possibility, and even better, the possibility of continued human rights abuses by that regime will be lessened as economic growth and wealth realization appeals to its leadership.

Kim Jong Un, who came to power following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in 2011, an heir to a dictatorship has always had a taste for western luxury.  A private yacht akin to a Disney ride, and port turned into a private resort. Former Piston Dennis Rodman described it as a Seven Star Party:

“He’s got 50 to 60 around him all the time – just normal people, drinking cocktails and laughing the whole time. …If you drink a bottle of tequila, it’s the best tequila .. Everything you want, he has the best.”

And Rodman was laughed at by many folks (including myself) for his attempt at personal diplomacy.

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Conservative News, Democrats, Detroit, Firearms, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans, Taxes

Michigan Criminal Justice Reform: Too Much, Too Soon?

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Recidivism Is Worse Than We Have Been Told

Michigan has been at the forefront of ‘criminal justice reform’, which is newspeak for prison population reduction. In just a few years, Michigan has driven the MDoC prison population down 18%.  Democrats love criminal justice reform because it gets one of their major constituencies back on the streets, and voting. Republicans love criminal justice reform because it cuts prison spending, which has become a bottomless pit with all the various mandates. Both of these views are decidedly near term.
The question for non criminal Michigan residents is longer term: will crime rates rise as more prisoners spend less time incarcerated and more time in your neighborhood?

A study just released by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics undermines the case for criminal justice reforms intended to reduce prison populations. This study contradicts previous studies which showed much lower rates of recidivism, probably because it better tracks released prisoners who have moved to other states and also looks at a longer time frame.

This BJS study followed 67,966 state prisoners released in 2005, in 30 states, over the 9 year period following their release. This was a statistically representative sample (16.8%) of the 404,638 prisoners released that year in those 30 states. The BJS study included 2,603 Michigan individuals; sampled from the 12,177 releases from MDoC custody during 2005.

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans, Research & Analysis, Roads, Taxes

Oh no! This doesn’t look too good.

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With County leaders going off-script and not following the established speaking points. When your (possible) PR-firm goes and takes a page from the Coleman A. Young (The First) Playbook and employed a time-worn (and easily recognizable) tactic which hopelessly backfired. When The Bridge Magazine (of all people), comes out and tells people that the latest iteration of mass transit, the Q-Line, over-promised its potential and hilariously underperformed when it comes to paid ridership and maintaining schedules. Now comes the Michigan Legislature throwing yet another log on the fire that is the RTA.

{You’ll need to click below to find out what that is}

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans, Research & Analysis, Roads

I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!

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Local leaders aren’t warming up you your schemes. The scuttlebutt is that focus group testing isn’t looking too good either (not having a real plan with real numbers didn‘t help). Lately, you have enlisted local business “leaders” to help in promoting your cockamamie strategy, but wouldn’t you know it, they aren’t getting that much traction either.

So, who are these people and why are they employing the last refuge for desperate men?

Here’s a hint: All the more reason to hold onto your wallet a little more tightly around Detroit.

{I’ll tell you who they are below the fold}

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Conservative News, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Firearms, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Is Congressman Mike Bishop Abandoning The Second Amendment?

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And the rest of the conservative agenda?

Michigan 8th District U.S. Congressman Mike Bishop’s campaign website has been scrubbed updated to remove any mention of the Second Amendment from its Issues page. Or anything else remotely controversial in the conservative agenda. His new campaign website Issues page has a bunch of anodyne pablum, but no mention of firearms:

His new, Second Amendment free, Issues page

His previous, 25 September 2017, Issues page:

2nd Amendment
Supporting our 2nd amendment right to bear arms, Mike Bishop championed right-to-carry legislation, received A/A+ rating from NRA and is personally a gun owner with a CPL.

The Rochester Republican has not made any public statements indicating changes in his position on the Second Amendment, but the update of his campaign website speaks volumes.

Bishop faces no opposition in the August 7th Republican Primary, but tough Democratic opposition in the November 6th General Election. Chris Smith, a labor-backed professor at MSU’s School of Criminal Justice, and Elissa Slotkin, an Obama Administration DoD appointee, are both running. The winner of this Democratic primary match up is expected to be well funded in the Fall.

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2018 Michigan Gubernatorial Race, All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans

Going where other Republicans fear to tread – Follow up

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Let me start off by being honest here.

For 75% of the candidates speaking last weekend at the Michigan United People’s Governor Forum, I could’ve very easily just stayed home and wrote this piece out and included their responses even before they made them. They are ridiculously simple to predict and I would’ve easily gotten it pretty darn close to what they actually said with no one being the wiser.

I WOULDN’T do that because that’s not the kind of person that I am.

I also didn’t go to hear what those 75% had to say (although to be fair…some of what those other candidates actually said and how they said it was significantly far more concerning than even I would’ve initially suspected…more on that later).

I went to hear only one person.

Specifically, I wanted to see how he handled himself. More importantly, would he “modify his message” to placate the hostile masses.

Let me just say that what I saw should change your mind (if you haven’t already) regarding this particular candidate for Michigan Governor.

I’ll also get to why I waited this long to post this.

{And those answers are below the fold}

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2018 Michigan Gubernatorial Race, All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Going where other Republicans fear to tread.

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“My son, we're pilgrims in an unholy land.” - Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery) “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Admit it.

You’ve got to hand it to Sen. Pat Colbeck credit on this one.

It’s one thing to take on the party kakistocracy and challenge not only their hand picked heir apparent to the Michigan Governor’s Office, but the wanna-be as well.

This is taking up a notch.

Honestly, more like two or three given the venue and locale.

Curious as to what this just might be?

Then click below to continue.

{Continues after the fold}

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Taxes

Another nail in the coffin.

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It’s amazing what falls under the radar in the local news.

So recently, Oakland Co. Exec. L. Brooks Patterson announced that he will not be supporting the RTA tax when it come up again on the ballot again this fall.

The response was very predictable. The leeches and parasites (aka Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Wayne Co. Exec. Warren Evans) threw a hissy fit that a.) they weren’t notified in advance, b.) they felt that they already had an agreement in place to jam it down Southeastern Michigan Taxpayers Throats, and c.) the RTA would collapse like a house of cards because the cost to Wayne County would be too great.

The sycophants of the leeches and parasites in the local media (read: The Freep) threw an equally unimpressive temper tantrum..using the same talking points.

Well, guess what?

Macomb County got into the act as well (and it doesn’t look too good for the RTA tax).

{More below the fold}

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Taxes

Did we just dodge another huge bullet here?

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While I don’t agree with Oakland County Exec. L. Brooks Patterson on some things (okay…most things), kind of like a stopped clock, he finally got something right for a change.

According to The Detroit News, during his annual address to Oakland County last night, County Exec. Patterson came out whole-heartedly and unequivocally against the RTA Tax v 2.0.

 

Why should ANYONE be made to pay for something that they will not use?

No, the ballot proposal hasn’t officially been announced for the ‘18 General yet. My snitches tell me that they are still working out on how to best polish this heaping, steaming pile of bull droppings, without much success.

Good luck on that.

Citing the lack of hard facts from what those pulling the levers behind the scenes will actually do with the monies collected, much like one of the laundry-list of problems with the last proposal, County Exec. Patterson said this,

“… I can’t do it. I won’t do it,” he said to a standing ovation. “And I will never, ever betray the public trust I respect and represent.”

I should stress that County Exec. Patterson received a standing ovation from those in attendance during that particular portion of his speech.

This isn’t something that you get when, according to RTA tax supporters, people overwhelming support your plan.

Pay us so that we can placate the mass transit snowflakes by driving around town empty.

This should (hopefully, anyway), have some affect here in Macomb, where Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel is also having some serious difficulty signing off on this.

And did I mention that the roads here in Southeastern Michigan look like the 107th used them for light target practice?

Fixing them takes money, too.

I’m not going to add anything more at this time due to the fact that my considerable folder on these con-artists just got a little bit bigger, and I’d like to keep my powder dry…just in case.

I will be adding more when this story unfolds.

Stay tuned.

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Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Fees, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans, Taxes

What Is Going On Here?

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Governor Snyder is attempting to resuscitate his reputation by benevolently raising your taxes.

Our ace Governor is not going quietly into the night as his governorship slides into the twilight zone. He launched two tax proposals last week which he touted as environmental initiatives. Neither raises enough funds to even remotely achieve his stated environmental objectives, unless the taxes he proposed skyrocket in the future. Both proposals are actually designed to expand our hopelessly inept (and periodically corrupt) bureaucracy. The environmental angle is just eyewash to sell higher taxes to the gullible. And those tax rates he proposes will skyrocket – bet on it.

First up is an increase in the current landfill tipping tax from $ 0.36 per ton to $ 4.75 per ton. Snyder claims this tax increase will raise $ 79 million for recycling programs. It won’t. The incremental revenue will be something less than $ 70.7 million, because 769,000 tons of solid waste from other states with lower tipping taxes will no longer be land filled in Michigan (pdf). Michigan landfills will suffer a 4.5% volume drop, which will be consequential. They will either curtail operations (read: lay off workers), cut workers’ wages or raises, and/or adjust tipping fees. Local units of government, which also collect revenue from their landfills, will suffer revenue losses as well. Environmentalists will applaud, but the trash is just being diverted to different land fills. There is no environmental benefit to playing musical chairs with garbage.

Governor Snyder implies in his press release that his proposed tipping tax increase will diminish Michigan’s solid waste imports from his Canadian buddies; the ones who are building his bridge. It won’t. Ontario landfill tipping fees start at $ 75 CAD per metric ton ($ 55 USD per short ton). Comparable Michigan landfill tipping fees are in the low $ 30 USD range. Snyder would have to raise the Michigan tipping tax by $ 25 USD, not the $ 4.39 he proposes, to materially reduce Canadian solid waste exports to Michigan. Keep in mind that the Canadians will ignore their transportation costs; they need to feed tolls to that fancy new bridge as cross border truck traffic otherwise declines.  Our Canadian neighbors didn’t pay for the Gordie Howe Bridge out of the goodness of their hearts.  It was cheaper politically than opening land fills.

A tipping tax which would actually impact Canadian trash exports would wipe out Michigan land fills and their workers. And all of our solid waste would be exported to other states, making Michigan many new friends across the Midwest. Yet tipping tax proponents will imply that the tipping tax increase will curtail Canadian trash exports to Michigan.

It won’t.

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