Michigan Politics

Michigan Political considerations.

Abysmal Oakland County GOP Leadership Embodies Nationwide Epidemic of Failure

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?

You Betcha! (19)Nuh Uh.(7)

Proportional Backfill

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.

You Betcha! (12)Nuh Uh.(3)

Too Big To Fail

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.

You Betcha! (14)Nuh Uh.(0)

Whoopie Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

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.

You Betcha! (14)Nuh Uh.(0)

An Ill Portent From Michigan’s Presidential Primary

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.

You Betcha! (14)Nuh Uh.(1)

Former MiGOP Comm Director Freak Out?

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

You Betcha! (12)Nuh Uh.(2)

Detroit Schools Bailout Opposed

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.

You Betcha! (11)Nuh Uh.(2)

Kasich Surge In Michigan Changes Math Slightly.

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.

You Betcha! (6)Nuh Uh.(3)

A Path To A Brokered Election

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.

You Betcha! (19)Nuh Uh.(2)

Bitter Consequences

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.

You Betcha! (16)Nuh Uh.(1)