Research & Analysis

Cronyism, Part Time Legislature, Research & Analysis

What is Young Americans for Liberty Hiding About Brian Calley’s Part-Time Legislature Campaign?

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A week ago, I was able to break national news regarding the involvement of the Young Americans for Liberty in Brian Calley’s part-time legislature campaign. The article caused an immediate stir, and elicited a caustic response from the YAL national leadership.

Although I was hoping for YAL to take responsibility for what they had done and at the very least ensure that they would be more careful when signing on to future campaigns, I realize that Washington D.C. organizations do not typically operate in that manner. Transparency is a four-letter word inside the Beltway, and although “liberty” may be in the organization’s title, YAL is clearly not immune to the sinister machinations of the swamp.

For the record, I have spoken to various YAL groups throughout the state of Michigan, and maintain a solid rapport with certain chapter leaders. Additionally, I help administer the Oakland County chapter of Campaign for Liberty, and I serve on the board of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Michigan. So it is not in my personal interest to see liberty organizations be disgraced. Far from it, in fact. Nevertheless, every organization needs to be held accountable and exposed if it is engaging in shady or possibly illegal behavior. In my opinion, an organization should be held to a higher standard if it carries the banner of liberty. My article demonstrated with facts how YAL activists and resources were funneled into a campaign to rehabilitate the deservedly poor reputation of one of the worst big government Republicans in the state, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Research & Analysis

The Fox Guarding The Hen House.

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Easter eggs hidden all over the place. What's a poor chicken to do?

The MEDC is off the hook corrupt.

I know we have expressed issues before with the cronyism going on with the MEDC and its failures of transparency and effectiveness.  Picking winners only works for ..the winners.

Its not hard to recognize unadulterated failure when we see it. If a person is hungry for the truth, its right in front of us.  One need only look at hangar 42, RASCO, overpaying Film credits by 42%, and A123 just to whet the appetite!

But certainly, the MEDC provides a lot of high paying jobs for otherwise failed business leaders and political partisans.  No way in hell will it willingly surrender the family secrets and threaten the taxpayer goldmine.  Indeed, no dog and pony show of ‘allowing’ bids for outside agencies to measure it’s (the MEDC’s) effectiveness will ever meet the threshold of honest brokering.

Not without some pressure anyhow.

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Democrats, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans, Research & Analysis

Money Well Spent

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Michigan students at the bottom of the educational assessment list.

V.I. Lenin: Our National Dream Realized!
USSR Education Poster, 1950

Michigan schools are demonstrating unbelievable performance levels.

perhaps not in the way one might like, however.  From the Freep:

“A new analysis of results of a national educational test shows Michigan students have continually made the least improvement nationally of scores since 2003.  

..

That analysis comes less than six months after the release of the Michigan’s Talent Crisis report by Education Trust-Midwest that found Michigan’s students are falling far behind their peers across the nation. The ETM report found that Michigan is in the bottom 10 states for key subjects and grades, including early literacy. “

Surprising?

Oh wait, they probably need more money.  Everyone knows that the amount of money spent per child is closely linked to student performance. More from the article:

” Jacob, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said there is no single explanation of the Michigan rankings.

“I believe that there are a number of factors responsible for Michigan’s weak performance: a lack of adequate state and local funding for schools, the highly decentralized nature of governance that makes it difficult for the state Department of Education to develop coordinated reforms, the lack of regulation and accountability in the charter sector, and the economic and political instability that have plagued Detroit and other urban areas in the state,” he said. “

Whoop, there it is.

With a bonus.  Bigger control from centralized government, ignore the failing ‘regular’ schools, and put the hammer on the charter schools..

Comrade.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Research & Analysis

Michigan’s Energy Senate Bill 437/ VOTE NO!

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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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Cronyism, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Research & Analysis

Legally Enabling Theft

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Multiple vulnerabilities and loopholes leave Michigan voters exposed to election fraud.

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this – who will count the votes, and how,” (Joseph Stalin, circa 1923). Often this quote is loosely interpreted as, “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”

Donald Trump has made clear in multiple speeches that he is under no illusion about being up against a rigged system, and that we cannot expect to correct such a system by relying on the trustworthiness of those who rigged the system in the first place. No, in order to reform a corrupted system, a critical mass of known trustworthy people must be placed inside the system, which often requires overwhelming the system at the ballot box. The problem with doing so is that we are required to rely upon a process where, in spite of clearly demonstrated key weaknesses and vulnerabilities, those charged with protecting the integrity of the process insist upon blaming the messenger rather than correcting the problems.

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Liberty, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy, Research & Analysis

Neither Austerity Nor Rebuilding Are Guaranteed

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How do the current crisis period and the current presidential election impact each other?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” (attributed to Margaret Mead)

Insofar as I have been able to research, historical consensus is that the American Revolution began with the Stamp Act Congress (October 1765), and ended with the ratification of the Bill of Rights (December 1791). This twenty-six year effort to secure independence from the British Crown, and establish a free and independent republic (America’s original “crisis period”), was unique in the entirety of human history. By this I mean that, rather than simply swapping one set of rules for another, or one set of political leaders for another, the patriots of America’s founding generations created, from scratch, a nation dedicated to and based upon the proposition that every man and woman stands equal before the law, and has a God-given and inalienable right to a life of Liberty and Justice. Yet, the sum total of soldiers, sailors, statesmen, sages, and shopkeepers who pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause that established the freest and most prosperous nation ever known – made most of the sacrifices, did most of the work, and made nearly all of the major decisions – amounted to merely three percent of the total American population of the time . . . evidence for the credibility of what historians refer to as “The Law of The Vital Few.”

In contemporary America, every economic, social, and political trend seems to indicate that the United States are already in the fourth crisis period of our national history. Given this, the question seems fair to ask: Where now are the sages, statesmen, investors, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs . . . and even leaders . . . who will guide us through not only this crisis, but also the austerity and rebuilding that will surely be needed once the crisis has passed? More importantly, would we know how to recognize such producers and leaders when they arrive?

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Conservative News, Elections, Michigan, Republicans, Research & Analysis

The Winner of “Survivor: Cuyahoga” is . . .

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Donald Trump isn’t the republican nominee, and Ted Cruz hasn’t been mathematically eliminated . . . yet.

At roughly noon on May 4th, after running fourth in a three-man race for seven consecutive weeks, John Kasich finally suspended his presidential nomination campaign (raising the obvious question of, “What the hell took so long?”), leaving Donald Trump as the “sole survivor” of what was originally an eighteen-candidate republican field. And, go figure, before Cinco de Mayo was in the books, various talking heads and keyboard pundits were acknowledging, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, that The Donald was now the presumptive republican nominee. However, to channel L. P. Berra, this campaign ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and despite a certain well-circulated AP report, a certain critical milestone hasn’t yet been tallied into Trump’s column, and so June 7th is still going to matter . . . very much.

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