Michigan

All the Other Stuff, Michigan

Michigan Stinkchips

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Garlic chips on the cheap. And they taste better than legislative sausage too!

toastedYeah..  I can get domestic once in a while.

And as we all know,  tis the season for Chex mix. And I don’t know about you all out there, but the garlic chips usually used are expensive (usually about $3-4 a bag) and they are too darn thick.  With the upcoming additional taxes on gas, we need to make our economies where we can. (Yeah, I threw politics into a recipe – This ain’t Martha Stewart’s page)

So here is a way to make that particular part of the recipe for your mix, that is tasty, flaky, and costs about a buck to make.  (it makes a great snack too!)  It was surprisingly better tasting for me (seriously, I had my doubts) than the typical chips used for chex mix, and I can see it used as a movie snack, croutons, or whatever.

So lets do this.

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Cronyism, Detroit, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy

Constantine is Giving us our Wings

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Not sure if others noticed this in the Detnews.com yesterday, however, while our strabismus AG rummaged about his archaic footnotes of legalese, and even citing back to his Democratic Party predecessor as to somehow absolve an end to justify a collectivist means – there is this.

Macedonian_MafiaOlympia keeps all revenue, including concessions and parking, and any naming rights deal. In an earlier interview with The Detroit News, Christopher Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings Inc, defended the way the arena was paid.

“A public-private partnership is the only way any of these type of projects work in an urban environment,” he said.

He pointed out that while The Palace of Auburn Hills was paid for by private owners, the key difference is it’s an isolated venue in the suburbs.

“The Palace gets all the revenues from parking, concessions, retail,” Ilitch said, pointing out that those sources of revenue are key to the financial success of a major venue.

Did you catch that? Out in the boonies of alleged sparse populous, a billionaire with his own money, is to house his own business with rightful privilege to any and all revenue gained from his ancillary services provided to his customer.

Now, contrast the above with the “urban environment” festooned within a bailout, and the opulence of guaranteed populous in a 143 sq mile boundary, it is unequivocally noted by said li’l Caesar, that not only is what is his, his – what is ours is also his too.

Added bonus to us outside the bowels of “urban environment“?

The state reimburses schools for diverted money.

Well, golly gee. Thanks a lot for that, too!

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans

So You Want To Buy Something?

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So far, second thoughts might keep the additional burdens of doing business in Michigan at bay.

I have lost some big sales in other states because of ‘Amazon Laws’ in the past few years.

Its an amazing thing that happens when your cost of doing business in a state goes up by 10%. (Michigan will be 6%) You lose customers, they pay more, or you eat the costs.  The first option is of course the worst of the three, but when profit margins range between 15-20%, 10 points represents at least HALF the profits, and can be discouraging to even attempting to sell.

California has some of the most used shipping ports, so its natural that many warehouses are located there. It also has quite a large population.  Our business has historically sold more to California customers, than those in Michigan. But a few years ago, I was notified by one of my suppliers who drop ships for me in that state, that unless they had an exemption form on file for the customers, they would have to charge an additional 10% for the product to cover THEIR tax liability; CA Sales tax being 8% and an additional 25% tax for assumed mark-up.

I had a choice.  I could in some cases ship product all the way here, then ship all the way back, and salvage a few pennies, OR I could simply find a supplier for similar product in other state warehouses willing to ship to California.  The unnatural commerce that had to evolve (and quickly), wound up raising the cost of doing business.  It raised the cost and in some cases slowed service for the customers in California who were STILL expected to report their ‘USE tax.’

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking

Crush The Little Guy.

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Kowall and Verheulen play along with monster rent seeking bills.

Bills 4202 and 4303 are designed to do just that.

Every layer of regulation has a time cost.  Never mind that (PER THE LAW) our business already collects sales tax from those who buy retail in Michigan. The big box stores want us to go through enhanced reporting requirements and spend additional time in the entire process of collecting tax as a service to the state.  This form of rent seek is commonly used to suppress competition.

Kowall and Verheulen or anyone who votes for this are the enemy of the ‘small e-tailer.’

Period.

Kowall-Verheulen-Taxers

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Conservative News, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy

Thank you, Rep. McMillin

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I hate to see Tom, leave.

To the rest of the MI-GOP’s RTL-MI endorsed, dunces touting their *pro-life street cred* in Lansing, take your seat on Nancy Pelosi’s abortionist sofa.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/31/girl-scouts-join-planned-parenthood-at-huge-pro-abortion-conference/

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/17/Girl-Scouts-Threaten-Legal-Action-Against-Critical-Pro-Life-Groups

The biggest problem I see for Michigan, is that it is full of Michiganders. For the state where the Party of Lincoln was born – that is sad but, Truth.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

Credit Where Due

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We applaud our Attorney General for opposing Obama's illegal acts.

Ilegal_AliensMichigan is a border state.

We have also been blessed with planned migration of illegal children, and causing what I believe to be an outbreak of disease we have not seen in decades.  Then taking the immigration action the fraud-in-chief has perpetrated into account, its about damned time we do something as a state to fight back. Its not like we haven’t been encouraging it, right?

Yup, Its bad enough our congressional delegation hasn’t done JACK.  But I guess a limit was finally reached in Lansing.  From an Attorney General’s Office release:

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today joined a lawsuit brought by attorneys general and governors from 20 other states to challenge the President’s recent unilateral executive order on immigration.

“America deserves a hopeful immigration policy. Throughout our history, America has provided a beacon of hope across the world. But the President’s unilateral executive order on immigration, bypassing Congress, is constitutionally flawed,” said Schuette.

The States’ complaint was filed by Texas in Federal District Court and was immediately followed by a request for a preliminary injunction. The multistate coalition includes Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Good start.

Read the States’ motion for a preliminary injunction filed on December 04, 2014, HERE.

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Proposal 15-1, Republicans

Hey, who wants to pay a higher gas tax?

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“It’s a first step. It’s a big step – don’t get me wrong. In a bipartisan way, the Michigan Senate was ready to say, `We want to fix roads and we’ll take tough votes to do it,”‘ said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, a Monroe Republican.

“What I would say is the House action doesn’t get us there fast enough or far enough. It also creates major consequences to schools and local partners — that I don’t want to see negative things happen to them,” said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

And these guys are “republicans”?

So, who’s thirsty?

{Not to fear, more below the fold}

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Kowall & VerHeulen Pushing MORE Regulation On Michigan

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Big Box retailers have found foot soldiers willing to do bidding in HUGE rent seek.

Kowall-Verheulen-TaxersHeads up!

Word on the street is that HB 4202 and HB 4203 are on the schedule for second reading today in the Michigan House of Representatives. That means it would be up for FINAL PASSAGE tomorrow. You can read below all the details about the bills. Bottom line, if they are enacted, you will be paying MORE taxes.

Please take a moment and contact your representative today. Let your opinion be known! These phone calls and emails do matter. They do affect how a representative votes.

Find your representative’s contact information here.

We will keep you posted of the progress (or lack therof) of these bills tomorrow.

House Bills 4202 (Kowall-R), and 4203 (VerHeulen-R), will impose new taxes on consumers in Michigan and will further burden online sellers, especially the mom and pop shops that operate out of a small store front office or the business owners home. They will be subjected by government to an abundance of new compliance requirements. It will stifle competition as many smaller competitors to the big guys (like Amazon) will likely be forced to downsize or worse yet, go out of business.

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Conservative News, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy

The Next Time Someone Says Coal Is Bad

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Even the bureaucrats understand an electric system that is fubar.

energyBreak out the blanket and paddles.

Folks speculate all the time whether ‘renewable energy’ is plausible enough to hit 10%, 15% etc. by a certain date.  We have had our governments propose and mandate certain dates are met with minimums of electricity being provided by ambiguous, as-yet-to-be-discovered sources to the point where our eyes bleed.

However, in the mean time, it seems someone is taking notice of the insufficient resources that only ‘magically clean’ will provide.  The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has somehow looked beyond the fools in Michigan’s political theater to address a looming reality. They are starting to actually ask the important questions.

And they are probably just starting to realize, our electric capacity is on borrowed time:

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