Michigan

A Bad Week For Never Trumpers?

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Been very busy moving the business operations, and actually enjoying some of the finer aspects of our region.

In the meantime, I am still reading, and watching what is going on.  Michiganian Shane Trejo has a fun take on the current administration’s adventures from time to time.   From the Liberty Conservative:

This was a week that reminded Trump voters why they pulled the lever for him last November. While Trump voters were welling with pride over his Presidential achievements, his annoying, desperate detractors from the self-serving obsolete “NeverTrump” conservatives to the vicious radicalized America-hating leftists were left with mud on their faces. The buffoon who was supposed to disgrace the United States is doing the exact opposite. Trump is leading with the pro-Western, pro-nationalist message that is desperately needed in a civilization on the brink of destruction. Trump displayed his expertise again yet again, and the unstumpable nature of this leader is something that future generations will marvel upon.

Read the rest

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion

Independence

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Happy Independence Day.

Celebrate!  Take the family out, and have a great time.   Wave the flag, blow off some fireworks, But proudly give the finger to big government types everywhere.  And don’t limit that last to just a single day in the middle of summer.

Kids in our public schools are not likely taught the truth of the cause of the revolution, but it was not hard to understand, and was spelled out succinctly in the declaration of independence.  Colonists had enough.  They were done with being pushed around.

The king was a schmuck, the power he claimed over the colonies was not earned, not justified, nor could it be respected. So we flipped him the bird, and wrote him a break up letter.

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Opinion

Is the media finally acknowledging something (without actually coming flat-out and saying it)?

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So over the weekend, I’m catching up on some odds and ends like chores around the house, reading several websites and more than few e-mails.

Guess which order I tackled that list in?

Some of them I would categorize as the social ones with jokes and “gotta see this” images &video. Some of them asking me for my $0.02 on goings on. But one of them that stood out was a little bit of both.

A friend of mine sent me a link to President Trump’s Twitter feed where he posted a video of himself clotheslining “CNN”.

If you haven’t seen it yet, all it was, was a quickly done re-edit from Wrestlemania 23’s “The Battle of the Billionaires” which featured a pre-President Trump at the top of the card.

It was a short clip where, after the various “interferences” leading up to it, Trump clotheslines & pummels “CNN” in typical professional wrestling fashion and then just simply walks away.

I smiled, took it for what it was, replied to my friend and went about the rest of my day.

What surprised me, though, was how often I would come across that very same clip again and again, and again, and again…

{Continued below}

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion

Bill Schuette – Jack Of All Trades

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You can say one thing about Attorney General Bill Schuette, he has had a lot of different jobs.

The latest is apparently environmental expert and mechanical engineer.  Acting like those cats in the disaster movies who always seem to have the correct and dire warnings that “something really bad is about to happen,” Schuette has now called for the end to line five.  From the Detroit News:

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Thursday called for the development of a “specific and definite timetable” to close Enbridge Energy Inc.’s Line 5 dual pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac.

Schuette’s comments came as his office, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Natural Resources and Agency for Energy released a long-awaited Line 5 alternatives assessment conducted by an independent contractor.

The 337-page report states the 64-year-old Line 5 could operate indefinitely, but Schuette said he “strongly” disagreed. One viable alternative, he said, would be to construct a tunnel under the straits that could serve a similar function but allow for continuous visual inspection while creating infrastructure and construction jobs.

I suppose we could add “Tunnel Builder” to the resume as well?

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Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Philosophy, Republicans

Ad Hoc Ad Interim

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“If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.” (Winston Churchill, to his private secretary, Jock Colville, on June 21st, 1941, the evening before Operation Barbarossa)

Churchill was well known for being a consistent and vociferous opponent of communism, and had often spoken quite unfavorably about the Soviet Union, and particularly of Joseph Stalin (who was well-known even then as the brutal monster that honest history records). However, in seeking to stop the menace of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Churchill was willing to adopt an ad hoc “enemy of my enemy” approach, and initiated the Anglo-Soviet Agreement for joint action against Germany.

Given much of the recent hullabaloo regarding a badly-needed grassroots initiative having been likely co-opted, by a moderate opportunist apparently seeking a means to advance his political ambitions, and given that I have personally stood directly in the path of those ambitions at least twice in the past seven years, what I’m about to say is going to sound exceedingly strange, but I’m going to say it anyway.

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Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking, Sports, Taxes

Battles of the Lower Depths in Detroit

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Eastern District of Michigan U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith ruled on June 19th that Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority can issue $34.5 million in bonds to pay for the relocation of the Detroit Pistons basketball team to the new Little Caesar’s Arena. The Judge’s ruling rejected arguments that the eventual use of school tax money to repay these tax increment finance bonds violates Detroit residents’ constitutional and statutory right to vote on a school tax money diversions.

Judge Goldsmith’s ruling denied Robert Davis‘ and D. Etta Wilcoxon’s motion for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order in their lawsuit against the Detroit Downtown Development Authority. The Judge said the plaintiffs did not establish the need for an emergency injunction. The Judge politely neglected to mention that Robert Davis was sentenced in the very same Eastern District U.S. District Court to an 18 month Club Fed vacation for stealing $ 200,000 from the Highland Park School District in 2014. Mr. Davis should still be on probation for this minor peccadillo.

One complication here is that the tax monies being diverted are not those of the current Detroit Community Public School District, but rather those of the legacy Detroit Public School District which was reduced to zombie status last year in the DPS bailout. Is the old DPS really a school district today, or just a financial entity? The Detroit Community Public School District is a near bankrupt ward of the State of Michigan that won’t receive any Detroit property tax revenues until the legacy DPS district debts are paid off. No one alive today will live to see that.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Elections, Fees, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Part Time Legislature

Political Self Perpetuation

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Representatives Steve Marino, Tommy Brann, Julie Calley, Kimberly LaSata, and Jim Lilly have just introduced six bills, HB 4745 to HB 4750, to increase filing fees for various down ballot political offices across the State of Michigan by 50% to 300%.  These are the fees prospective candidates can pay to get on the ballot in lieu of filing nominating petitions.

As you might expect, the highest (300%) filing fee increase proposed applies to candidates for State Representative (and Senator).

The kicker here? The filing fee is also no longer refunded to the runner up.  So running for political office in Michigan just became more expensive exclusive.

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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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Michigan

Proud?

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Sometimes we just have to stop and shake our heads.

Should visitors to Traverse City feel comfortable any longer  about the safety of their families/children in our public restrooms?  Not because of dysfunctional little boys who think they are girls, or ..the other way around.  Not because of a special rights law, or ordinance that the Traverse City government is forcing upon business owners. (which is already being done in other ways)

But because there is now there is being broadcast, by official proclamation, a sense that a gender neutral bathroom scheme is the thing to do in our newly enlightened culture; that there is a need to allow men and women, women and boys, men and girls to take care of nature’s business and perhaps discuss the issues of the day in a unique side-by-side.

From the Ticker:

Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution Monday stating Traverse City will make an effort to provide gender-neutral bathrooms within city buildings and encourage other community businesses or organizations to provide at least one gender-neutral restroom in their place of business.

…

Mayor Jim Carruthers noted the resolution was referring to “single-stall occupancy, lockable bathrooms,” which could accommodate a wide range of users, including single parents with opposite-sex children and individuals with disabilities. “We’re not talking about talking a public restroom that has multiple stalls and just all of the sudden letting mixed genders go into that,” Carruthers said. Werner confirmed, however, with City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht that the resolution allows individuals to use public restrooms based on their personal gender identity or expression, which Trible-Laucht affirmed.

Confirmed.

Read the rest, (it’s short) and then check back on the comments often.  Already there are folks who are “Proud” of this commission’s actions.  They are “proud.”  Let that sink in.

In the meantime, we’ll just let the authorities sort out the expression of the day, OK?

Oh, and maybe let visitors guess which of our local bathrooms might contain a ‘surprise’ guest.

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