Opinion

Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Don’t Say We Didn’t Tell You So

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The fallout from Michigan's prop 2 is clear as milk.

Prop 2 was a disaster in the making.

Controlling the process was never going to be neutral, and clearly the control would be in the hands of whichever party controls the elections, the questionable Jocelyn Benson.

We have pointed this out in the past with a series of videos, and now the outcome draws near.  The Michigan Republican Party in trying to ascertain the nature of the process being designed by our current Secretary of State for the NEW Gerrymandering schemes is being stonewalled with ridiculous FOIA fees. From the Detroit News:

The Secretary of State’s office estimated it would cost $45,904 to process an initial Freedom of Information Act request that sought “a vast amount of information” from the department, Chief Legal Director Michael Brady told the Michigan GOP in a June 7 letter.

The state used a “conservative” labor estimate to calculate a $10,049 fee for a “narrowed, but still very broad” second request, Brady said in a separate letter denying a Republican Party appeal.

All they want is an unadulterated explanation from documents addressing the process being formulated from the Sec of State.

Real transparency.

And as many who are familiar with FOIA might know, the cost is supposed to be premised on the labor rates of the lowest paid clerical workers who can perform the task.  This suggests one of two possibilities; that the clerical workers in the state are grossly overpaid, OR that Benson’s office isattempting to keeps it’s motivations and early planning from the people of the satet for political reasons.

One or the OTHER.

 

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion

So Then Nessel Kicked Herself In The Coconuts.

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Dana Nessel's most important issue sets new tone on AG opinions.

Who knows?  She may have coconuts.  We aren’t supposed to consider such things as impossible anymore, right?

But Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is certainly committed to her true passion. One might think that she might wish to respect the office she holds, if only to protect her own opinions going forward.  Clearly, that is not the case.

Using federal government activity to upend a legitimate AG opinion barely a year old, Nessel puts perhaps every opinion of her own in jeopardy.  It also points out how completely political the AG’s office has become.  From the State Ministry Of Propaganda:

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Guilty?

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Inman likely no more guilty than many others in the legislature.

I was driving through St. Louis when I got the news that Larry Inman had been indicted.

It was pretty big news.  Disappointing, yet it didn’t surprise me.  In fact, there has been so much ‘questionable’ activity going on in Lansing for decades that it was not surprising that a representative with a record of poor instincts would be the victim of a sting operation.

At least that is my assessment of what happened.  Clearly there is pay for play in our state politics.  The existence of the MEDC, and by extension any organization that profits from doing business with the state would have incentive to fill campaign coffers.  Ask any one who still raises money after they have been term limited why they do so.  If they don’t tell you directly, then look at their campaign statements on the debt side.

It’s not for charity.

Mistakenly express the the wrong sentiment, in a way that is contextually vulnerable, to the wrong people, in the wrong format. Then whammo!  You get a Representative Larry Inman indictment.

But the GOP led house, wishing to remain unscathed in a (heavens forbid) scandal of such magnitude would prefer to let Larry off the bus, ask him to inspect the rear brake lights, and …well as one might see by now, the bus does have reverse.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Hating Evil

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Do some churches willfully ignore their mission to fill seats?

A few days ago, I wrote a prayer.

My suggestion that hate is addictive does not mean we cannot oppose the ideas of those who mislead us.

Clearly, there are areas in which the Christian can focus negative energies battling the subversion of our cultural norms.  The further away we get from traditional family and positive standards of behavior, the easier it becomes to allow others to become our life surrogate. Government easily fills the vacuum left with an absence of the standard core of mother and father.

We know how well that works.

But where is the Christian at risk?  We attend our churches, express our faith in Christ, and depending on which congregation it is, may find ourselves listening to nonsense.  The pastors and church leaders too often overlook or misrepresent the teachings of Christ so as not to offend those who fill the seats for each service.

Many speak to the desired message instead of that which is clearly laid out in the bible, often offering excuse for what is clearly sin and an offense to God. Why? Because we are to love.  The implication that we be permissive and forgiving of acts that are biblically abominable.

A friend puts it this way: “The Heart is the door in which the devil steals our souls.”

On April 27, 2019 the MICPAC hosted several pastors and conservative thought leaders as part of it’s event.  Pastor Christopher Thoma speaks to this topic.  With conviction.

Enjoy.

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All the Other Stuff, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy, Religious Freedom

National Day Of Prayer.

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John 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

We can all be redeemed.

It is a decision one has to make.  We can accept the grace of God, or we can wallow in bitterness and hatred for others.  Hatred poisons the soul.  It physically manifests as addiction, and it binds us negatively to those with whom we find disagreeable.  Hatred is a trap, and is spiritually incompatible with the professing Christian.

The worst of us are made worthy already in the eyes of God through Christ our Lord.  And surprisingly, some of those who profess this belief cannot get beyond hatred of the man  who is our president.  He lives in their thoughts to be permanently scorned, abhorred, rejected outright. No matter the results of his efforts to secure for us a more prosperous, and healthy nation.

To which I offer this prayer.

Oh Lord, Father, Creator, giver of life, hear the cries of this nation.  Hear the despair that manifests itself as antipathy for the President, a man you have sent to lead our nation.  Right the hearts oh God, of those who cannot separate themselves from the hate to which they hold so tightly in their hearts.  Heal their wounded souls so they might know the difference between disagreement and willful revulsion.

Cure the poison within us Lord, so that we may find the path to you in righteous posture. Cast out our addiction to hatred and indignant pride. Reveal to all the love in Your holy word. Make a way for us to open our hearts and expel that which binds us to continued pain through obsession.

Oh Father hear our pleas.

Show those who seek you, how to love as you instruct. Put us in the paths of those who do not, we your willing servants, so they might know the way to you oh God.  Give us the strength to guide them to you Father in the name of your son Jesus who bore the weight of our sins and offered us eternal life.

Amen.

 

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Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Site Prep

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When the MEDC says "hold my beer.."

Turnkey operations are clearly the next step.

It’s true, why not turn our government bureaucracies into full blown business incubators? Buy a number of corner buildings, land, ready spaces, and turn em into a new 7-11 chain, tux shop conglomerate, or CBD syndicate. Then, turn em over to someone willing to fill out the paperwork, stand on a stage with a governor,  and swear allegiance to the bureaucracy and our sacred Eco-Dev Central!

the MEDC is having a birthday.  In fact it is apparently ready to graduate from simple cronyism, to full blown Fascism.  Government determining which component of the economy it will promote with taxpayer money is certainly bad, but when it actually does the site work?  From Crains:

Are there are some areas outside of your control and domain that you think we ought to be focused on as a state in order to improve our chances to land the next company from San Jose?

The one that’s in our domain that we have started doing some work on — working with our local partners — and that’s having ready sites. Whether it’s just raw acreage that has the right infrastructure available in terms of electrical capacity, water and sewer. …

We are not a state that has a lot of available spec buildings — the 180,000-square-foot size buildings that have been built speculatively by developers that we can immediately turn to a prospect and say here’s a building you can move into in 60 days. We’re doing some work in that space both on the spec building side … as well as on the raw land site improvement to help get us better prepared or ahead of the curve to take advantage of some of the opportunities that are out there.

In other words “if we build, they will come”

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Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion

The Nessel Doctrine

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Dana Nessel doesn’t like the title of the pipeline law.

So much so, that she is using that as a reason to stop the Enbridge tunnel construction from happening.  From the state’s official propaganda service:

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued her first formal legal opinion today, finding Public Act 359 of 2018 unconstitutional because its provisions go beyond the scope of what was disclosed in its title.   Governor Gretchen Whitmer had sought the Attorney General’s opinion on the constitutionality of Act 359 in a request submitted on January 1.

In her opinion, the Attorney General concludes that certain provisions of Act 359 – including those transferring all authorities related to a utility tunnel from the Mackinac Bridge Authority to the Straits Corridor Authority and requiring the Corridor Authority to enter into an agreement for the construction of a tunnel if a proposed agreement was presented by a specific date and met listed criteria – are unconstitutional because they violate Article 4, Section 24 of the Michigan Constitution, referred to as the Title-Object Clause.

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Economy, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Roads

Howes: it’s just I know so much that isn’t so

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Shot

Chaser

As usual, Sundance is spot-on in his assessment. Mary Barra, perhaps the most questionable selection of a CEO in General Motors’ history, is not operating in the best interests of the working men and women of America, just the same as the politically motivated UAW leadership that fails it’s members. When it comes to these Wall Street players, sorry worker bee’s, they both are just not that interested in Main Street pain.

Also, of late Mr. Howes appears to trumpet the nonsense of autonomous vehicles, which GM, Ford, Google (I know, astonishing, right?), among a few others have gone “all in” as the way of their future business model. Meh, perhaps. However, all one needs to do is look at Tesla, Airbus, and now, Boeing, to see that autonomous vehicles are in no way, shape nor form, close to being primetime on our congested roadways. Not in our lifetime, anyway.

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Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Clown Bigotry – The Greatest Show On Earth.

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Nolan Finley puts his head in a lioness' maw.

The reality over the years is that when we disagree with the clown from the Detroit News, its based on a reasonable difference of opinion over the facts.

We don’t hate clowns.  We are just don’t take em so seriously very often.. We call out clownish pranks and goofiness as such.  And truth be told, I once had a (sort-of) clown as a good friend. So there is ..that.

But the bottom line is that once in a while, a clown makes a point.  And today The News’ big top car stuffer is spot on.

Combating hate crimes is a worthy endeavor. But the new campaign announced by Attorney General Dana Nessel has the real potential to morph into thought policing.

Nessel, in partnership with Agustin Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil rights, say they will create a process to document incidents of hate and bias that don’t rise to the level of criminal or civil infractions.

That could translate to speech or expressions of opinion that some may find offensive, but are protected by the First Amendment. Bias is protected by the Constitution until it infringes on the rights and freedoms of others, and hate is often in the eye of the beholder.

If what Nessel and Arbulu are targeting are words, thoughts and opinions, this could easily become a weapon to shut down groups they find abhorrent, but are operating within the law.

Its true. 

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