Michigan Politics

Michigan Political considerations.

The State wants in…

Follow the Money

The State wants in…

The new “marihuana” law…

Does a difference of one letter mean something in legal terms????…Can’t wait to find out…Anyway, back to the point…

As a Planning Commission member, the new medical marijuana (mariHuana???) laws directly affect my responsibilities a keeper of the Zoning Ordinance…The new laws take effect December 20th of this year, so we all might want to know what’s in them…As much as I hate wading through pages of legislative ‘legalese’, I have begun a cursory inspection…So far, looks like a great deal….for the State of Michigan…

So my being fairly conservative, I approached it from that perspective….To be blunt….the State wants in!!!…Seeing a thriving revenue stream go ‘untapped’ seems to be a cardinal sin to our State legislature, so they ‘fixed’ it…10 new licensing ‘fees’, two brand new taxes, two new ‘boards’ creating a total of 22 new government jobs would seem to do the trick…and I can plainly see more of this coming…Let’s do the “Readers Digest” version first, and we can discuss the issues later…

Five new licensing ‘fees’ (think tax) from the State, five again for any ‘municipality’ that decides to allow (and tax and regulate) any commercial operation connected with the industry…The legislature grants itself permission to ‘raid’ the “Michigan mariHuana registry fund, creates two ‘new’ regulatory boards (more later), and then actually ’taxes’ the commercial end of this…and puts the onus of implementation on the Townships, hence MY involvement…

I welcome any and all discussion here…should we be asked to write a new ordinance governing ‘commercial’ marijuana enterprises within our bounds, what safeguards should we insist be included???…I can make ‘private property rights’ arguments all day, but those need to be transmitted on a personal level to make them really ‘sink in’…I do not wish to suppress any committed commercial endeavor within my Township, but in order for that to happen, we must be ASKED to write the accommodating ordinance, which is why I post this….Please make this thread a topic of serious discussion…

Does one letter make a difference???…

I leave you with this, borrowed from a Libertarian post I saw recently…

“Any license or permit is simply the government stealing an individual liberty, in order to sell it back to you.”

More later…

Tom B…

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Um yeah, about that Detroit Pistons move…

Normally, sports doesn’t have much to do with politics here in Michigan.

Only in this case, what is happening behind the scenes should be of concern to everyone living in Michigan.

Hint: Think politicians being generous with other people’s money.

{Continued below the fold}

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Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste

Flint Lead Remediation Effort Morphs Into An Attack On Hunting, Target Shooting, Fishing, And Even Churches

brian-calley

Michigan’s elites have clearly not absorbed the lesson of November 8th, yet.

The Michigan’s Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board issued their final report last week. Chairman Brian Calley and his team of 14 politicians experts were empanelled by Executive Order 2016-09 to demonstrate that Governor Snyder actually cared about the Flint children exposed to lead, by his previously empanelled team of professional incompetents experts. The CLPEB’s recommendations are a liberal wish list of expensive dreams mostly unrelated to the underlying cause of the Flint water fiasco: government incompetence.

But the CLPEB did put forth the effort to launch an attack on hunting, target shooting, sport fishing, and even religion. Recommended on page 22 of their final report:

Prohibit lead in fishing tackle, establish a fishing tackle trade-in program to encourage consumers and industries to transition away from lead-based tackle, and encourage further study of lead in fishing tackle.

Establish regulations to protect against lead exposures through the use of firearms by:

o Establishing an ammunition trade-in program.
o Establishing a wild game meat testing program for donated products.
o Developing a health education program and public education materials for lead exposures in hunting and wild game consumption.

Recommended on page 26 of their final report:

In post-1978 homes, dust, soil, and water testing should be conducted at the time of transfer of the property or upon the occurrence of some other reliable event, or whenever there are indications of a high-risk activity, such as stained-glass window work or ammunition reloading, being done in the home.

Here we have the elites punishing their subjects for the mistakes of the elites. Michigan government at its finest.

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Old Men Throwing Tantrums – A Sad Account of the Oakland County Republican Party Convention

Although Trump may have won the state of Michigan in unexpected and dramatic fashion, it didn’t feel like that was the case at the Oakland County Republican Party Convention yesterday. Whereas we should have been singing Kumbaya and toasting the imminent demise of liberalism, there was instead strife, turmoil and mayhem due in large part to many dubious local swamp rats chomping at the bit to be drained.

Let’s cut straight to the chase, I will cover the insipid bureaucratic squabbling later. The conquering heroes did all they could to keep order during the event. The chairman was put into place fairly, and he was immediately confronted and challenged by the fringe minority. This unhinged minority presented confusing and contradictory motions. They yelled obscenities. They staged histrionics designed to trick unwitting delegates into siding with them in the frenzy of the madness they artificially created.

Chairman Matt Maddock entertained the motions of the crybaby minority, going out of his way to hear concerns that were frankly rude, unnecessary and embarrassing. This fringe minority called division on a motion to stop discussion that took roughly thirty minutes to sort out amidst constant chatter in the audience and poor audio quality staged throughout the venue. Old men were throwing tantrums like little children. Obviously, egotistical infighting had taken precedence to party unity and crushing liberal scum within these petty, desperate individuals.

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Michigan’s Energy Senate Bill 437/ VOTE NO!

Cronyism alive and well in Lansing with renewable energy mandate 'lighting' it up.

fuscaldoThe Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the two energy oligopolists in Michigan, through their lobbyists are attempting to railroad through a lame duck Michigan legislature Senate Bill 437. The bill would line the pockets of the energy oligopolists with subsidies and alleged necessary rate increases. The “climate change” advocates are being bribed to support the legislation because the legislation includes the production of more renewable energy in Michigan via windmills, etc. pursuant to Granholm’s 2008 Renewable Energy Mandate.

The following quote is from the linked article that substantiates the claim that in view of the 2016 Presidential Election results the legislature should stand fast and not support this wind fall profit package to the energy oligopolists and climate change advocates.

QUOTE: “The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States and the GOP maintaining control of the U.S. House and Senate means the key reason for pushing forward with Senate Bill 437, a bill that will revise utility regulations in Michigan, has effectively gone away.”
http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/22976

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Michigan Election Results

President:
Trump 47.6 Clinton 47.3

Supreme Court:
67-23 for Viviano
59-28 for Larsen

Education Boards:
SBOE:  McMillin and Snyder win, pulling Rs into a 4-4 tie.  Big loss for D bathroom policy.
UofM:  Weiser wins, Illich second.  Now 3R, 5D.
MSU: Kelly and Byrum win. Now 4-4 tie.
WSU: Gaffney and Busito win Now 3R, 5D.

Congress:
1. 55-40 for Bergman over Johnson. Big win in a race many pundits called a tossup.
2. 63-32 for Huizinga
3. 59-38 for Amash
4. 62-32 for Moolenaar
5. 35-61 Kildee
6. 59-36 Upton over Clements. Wenke got 5%.
7. 55-40 Walberg over Driskell. Big win in a race Ds fought for.
8. 56-39 Bishop. Secure.
9. 37-58 for Sander Levin
10. 63-32 for Paul Mitchell
11. 53-40 for Trott.  Surprisingly, this was the closest congressional race.
12. 29-64 for Debbie Dingell
13. 16-77 for Conyers
14. 19-79 for Lawrence

State House:
17. 52-44 for Bellino over Lavoy. Shocking upset and PICKUP.
20. 56-44 for Noble.  Big conservative win.
23. 49.7-50.3 Camilleri beats Howey.  Tough LOSS in a tough district.
24. 55-45 for Marino. The tapes didn’t matter.
30. 54-46 for Farrington
39. 50-42 for Kesto
40. 53-47 for McCready. Close call in an upscale district.
41. 56-44 for Howrylak
50. 48-52 for Sneller. This wasn’t even on the radar.  Trump did well here.
52. 45-52 Lasinski wins.  Not that close, but this might have been won with a stronger candidate.
57. 56-44 for Kahle
61. 49-45 for Iden. Iden seriously underperformed.
62. 48.0-47.5 Bizon wins a very tough district.
66. 54-46 for Griffin
71. 54-43 for Barrett
85. 56-34 for Frederick. Locked down early.
91. 49-44 for Hughes
99. 55-45 for Hauck
101. 54-46 for VanderWall
104. 51-43 for Inman
106. 61-35 for Allor over sign-stealing Kennedy.
108. 53-47 for LaFave. Dems top recruit loses.

Macomb: Candace Miller wins public works. Rs win Treasurer and Clerk narrowly.
Oakland: Incumbents win, including Patterson and Bouchard.
Kalamazoo:  All incumbents win.
The metro Detroit transit millage failed.

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Breaking – Illegal Voting In Traverse City

We are becoming a nation of the lawless.

Sometimes law enforcement or appropriate legal action arrives too late.

This morning, I learned about an election law violator.  A call from a contact in Lansing gave me the heads up on a high profile lawbreaker in Traverse City.  Apparently, Michael Moore thought it would be good to let people not just know how he voted, but to broadcast the image of his ballot explicitly:

Gosh, haven’t we been warned incessantly by the media constantly about how showing pictures of our ballots is illegal?

Certainly in Michigan it is.

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