"First rule in government spending: Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" - S.R. Hadden (John Hurt) "Contact"
I’m going to throw out a few hypothetical questions to the readers here at RM, and I’d like to get your candid response.
Ready?
Here we go…
{Click the red box to continue}
(5)Nuh Uh.
(0)Michigan efforts demonstrate rising probability of Michigan winning it for Trump!
Donald Trump Jr. is now coming to town!
With this level of activity in Michigan, its hard to imagine we are no longer in play.
Grab your friends, family, and anyone you know and get them active. This is the year we start to take government back from the Cronyist cabal that manipulates policy from both sides of the partisan aisle.
Stopping first at Michigan State University in East Lansing and then going to Grand Valley State University in Allendale. Below are the details of each event:
49 Abbott Road
East Lansing, MI 48824
Doors Open: 11:30am
Event Begins: 12:30pm
Register for tickets here*
GVSU Russel H. Kirkhof Center
South Campus Drive (Building 18)
Allendale, MI 49402
Doors Open: 2:30pm
Event Begins: 3:30pm
Register for tickets here*
*Tickets are required for admittance
And don’t worry.. Brian Calley won’t be there to spoil the fun.
(3)Nuh Uh.(0)
The 20 year Regional Transit Authority, 1.2 mil property tax plan is on the ballot in four Southeastern Michigan counties, on November 8th. The public doesn’t seem to realize that this property tax will be imposed on all four counties, even if one or more of the counties reject it. A big change from past millage requests specifically designed to shove this tax down anti tax Macomb County’s throat. Michigan’s tax-and-spend establishment really wants this tax to pass.
The RTA master plan is $ 1.22 billion in new fare revenue, $ 3.1 to $ 3.3 billion in new property taxes, and $ 1.7 billion in new Federal & State subsidies. A grand total of $ 6 billion, more or less. Let’s say that the relatively modest increase in vehicle revenue miles provided by the RTA master plan – 32% – doubles their ridership. That $ 6 billion cost, divided by 78,327 new passengers, equals $ 76,602 per passenger over the 20 year period. You could buy every one of those 78,327 new riders a new car and pay for their fuel and insurance as well. Instead, RTA will treat them to the urban mass transit experience.
Urban buses and other mass transit vehicles have a special ambiance with their diverse ridership and high level of maintenance. This experience is enhanced by the faint aroma of pepper spray, plus the full array of odors you would encounter in a hospital emergency room during an overwhelming disaster – except for disinfectant. Bus scheduling allows those too poor to visit a casino or play online slots at Wizard Slots the opportunity to gamble daily on punctuality at their workplaces.
Why riders are unwilling to pay 20% of the cost of mass transit, and why mass transit funding has to be extracted from taxpayers using the threat of foreclosure. On top of this, mass transit advocates have to raid road funding and vehicle registration fees to deliver their ‘service’. No free market economics here, despite strong support from the Chamber of Commerce types.
(8)Nuh Uh.(0)Nope, this sort of thing NEVER happens in elections.
I’ll have to admit, I liked last night’s Presidential Debate…most of it.
Unlike the previous debates where the “expert” journalist moderators quickly lost control of things and the topic firehosed everywhere (except for the question being asked), Chris Wallace did a fair job of keeping a handle on things.
The media blacked out Wikileaks story was mentioned early on, in which Clinton tacitly acknowledged the authenticity of them during her answers.
Clinton digging a bigger hole for herself by claiming the Russians had a hand in the release of internal e-mails that democrats never thought would ever see the light of day (and did she forget that “donation” to the Clinton Foundation for Uranium Mining Rights???).
We certainly cannot forget the next generation of terrorist attacks her in America due to her ill-conceived “asylum” program from Syria. Break out the tissues while she spins a tale of woe on the “migrants”. OABTW, how anyone can really “vet” someone’s record, when there is no government to contact regarding said record?
Nope, absolutely positively nothing to worry about here!
And then there was the end (no, this doesn’t have to do with a song from “The Doors”)…
{More below}
(7)Nuh Uh.(0)Hillary's Plan to Loot Your 401k Account
International Business Times and Yahoo Finance just posted headline stories on the plan created by Hillary’s Wall Street masters to loot your future retirement savings. Today’s voluntary 401k savings plans will be replaced by mandatory retirement taxes on all private sector workers – and their employers – which would be turned over to Wall Street hedge funds for investment:
Hillary Clinton And Wall Street: Financial Industry May Control Retirement Savings In A Clinton Administration
By David Sirota and Avi Asher-Schapiro, IBT, 10/19/16 at 12:50 AMWhile Hillary Clinton has spent the presidential campaign saying as little as possible about her ties to Wall Street, the executive who some observers say could be her Treasury Secretary has been openly promoting a plan to give financial firms control of hundreds of billions of dollars in retirement savings. The executive is Tony James, president of the Blackstone Group.
It is a plan that proponents say could help millions of Americans — but could also enrich another constituency: the hedge fund and private equity industries that Blackstone dominates and that have donated millions to support Clinton’s presidential bid.
The proposal would require workers and employers to put a percentage of payroll into individual retirement accounts “to be invested well in pooled plans run by professional investment managers,” as James put it. In other words, individual voluntary 401(k)s would be replaced by a single national system, and much of the mandated savings would flow to Wall Street, where companies like Blackstone could earn big fees off the assets. And because of a gap in federal anti-corruption rules, there would be little to prevent the biggest investment contracts from being awarded to the biggest presidential campaign donors.
(13)Nuh Uh.(1)Michigan republicans have a bad habit of making national news for all the wrong reasons.
According to Article IV, Section G, Paragraph 1 of the Bylaws of the Michigan Republican State Committee, “The Chairman shall have the power to declare vacant the seat of any officer who refuses to support the Republican nominee for any office within the State of Michigan.” That’s the language, and it’s straightforward. If you’re one of the officers specified in Article IV, Section A of those same bylaws, then you support the republican nominees, up and down the ticket, or else risk immediate termination . . . end of discussion.
That paragraph is something that a certain lady, whom I still consider a friend, should have considered before shooting her mouth off, knowing the cameras were rolling, last Friday.
(14)Nuh Uh.(5)
At the behest of Michigan Republican Party State Committee Member Matt Hall, it has been announced on multiple news outlets today that Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel has removed MRP Grassroots Vice Chair Wendy Day from her position due to comments made on Fox 2 Detroit last week regarding her unwillingness to support Donald Trump for President.
Citing party bylaws (and the teachings of Saul Alinsky), Mr. Hall claimed that her refusal to support ALL Republican party candidates on the ballot necessitated her removal from the position.
Mrs. Day issued a statement which can be read here.
It’s too bad that those bylaws are limited to only certain republicans?
I cannot help but think what would happen if they were applied to him, this guy or even these guys?
Just something to think about…
(5)Nuh Uh.(1)And Who Else?
Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds was charged with bribery Thursday, in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan. Rizzo Environmental Services allegedly paid Reynolds $ 50,000 – $ 70,000 in cash for his vote and influence on an $18 million, 10 year garbage collection contract. Reynolds is also alleged to have received free legal services from a Rizzo connected attorney in his divorce case.
Reynolds is a Hillary supporter, a gun control supporter, and an environmental supporter. Now living proof that you don’t need a gun to commit a serious crime. As you read about this case, ask yourself why not one article mentions his political affiliation. Were he a Republican, his affiliation would be in every headline. Reynolds is an AFL-CIO toady now running for Clinton Township Supervisor in the November 8th General Election. The Metro Detroit AFL-CIO scrubbed their endorsement of him this morning, but they can’t change history:
The Free Press reports that the “FBI’s years-long investigation is expected to trigger criminal charges against numerous politicians in towns and cities across Macomb County who engaged in pay-to-play schemes with various developers and businesses. The Clinton Township case, sources said, is just the tip of the iceberg and numerous more charges will follow.”
Rizzo Environmental Services is under contract in a lot of communities outside of Macomb County in Michigan. Who else have they bribed?
(8)Nuh Uh.(0)Brian Calley's New Job.
Brian Calley eliminated any chance he might have of becoming Governor a couple of days ago.
In the fearful snit drummed up by #NeverTrump GOP operatives, Clinton, and the complicit media, Calley led a few other usual suspects in asking for the GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to step aside. Calley smelled the end for Trump, gambled and rolled snake eyes on the come out. He jumped out in front of the Trump Train and yelled stop!
“The latest revelations about Donald Trump and his past make it impossible for me to maintain support of him,” Calley said in a statement released exclusively to The Detroit News. “This is not a decision I take lightly because I still believe that a Hillary Clinton presidency represents a disastrous alternative.”
Calley called on Trump to step aside and “allow a replacement to provide the kind of option America could believe in.”
Apparently, trains don’t stop for has-been politicians.
(17)Nuh Uh.(1)41st Place Among the States
You have probably read the Mackinac Center’s excellent works on Michigan’s government finances, much of which they release through Michigan Capitol Confidential. Top quality analyses, but parochial in the sense that they don’t place Michigan’s government finances in the context of the other American states. An Illinois 501(c)(3) organization, Institute for Truth in Accounting does, and has come up with a useful metric – taxpayer burden – by which you can rank Michigan financial status relative to the other states. No accounting degree necessary.
Suffice it to say, you will not be reading any of Truth in Accounting’s work in Michigan’s nitwit, cheerleading media.
(11)Nuh Uh.(1)
