Slotkin's Motives

Some folks .. even on the right had a concern with Mike Roger’s former National Security influence and connections. To…

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Detroit, Michigan

They’ll Find the Money

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Somewhere.

There is a $460 Million unexpected shortfall in the Michigan Budget.  The Free Press reports:

The budget gap is the combined result of a revenue shortfall of about $330 million for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, plus higher Medicaid caseloads that are expected to cost the state about $130 million more than estimated, Budget Director John Roberts told journalists after the conference at the Capitol.

The added strain comes as the Legislature is already grappling with tens of millions of dollars in extra spending requests related to the Flint drinking water crisis and a major financial rescue that’s proposed for the Detroit Public Schools.

Oh yeah..

The Detroit Public Schools.

Gee, we never saw that coming.

 

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Republicans

If we can convince you that smoking is good and get you to eat for breakfast what we want you to, then we can definitely get you to support this.

by  • 

Take a good look at the picture below.

Edward Bernays Image

He’s going to factor heavily in this post (and more importantly, what YOU can do to protect your pocketbook).

{Continued below the fold}

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Cronyism, Detroit, Elections, Michigan, Taxes

Save The Children!

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school-926213(Reposted from JasonGillman.Com)

The Michigan House just voted to give the Detroit Public Schools a $500 million bailout and the State Senate wants to give $800 million.

104th State Representative and incumbent Larry Inman explains it away as a necessary evil. He suggested on the Ron Jolly radio program Wednesday morning, that lawyers warned house leadership that if they didn’t do something, the courts would take over, and it could be far worse. He referenced the Michigan constitution, and its requirement on the legislature to provide funding for the schools.

My guess is that he did not ask the question of the attorneys advising the house “what might happen if every school district subjected the taxpayers to the same challenge?”

YES, the state is supposed to provide an education. The legislature is supposed to “maintain and support a system of elementary and secondary schools.. ” In fact, From the state constitution:

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Executive Mayhem in Oakland County: Theresa Antionette Gives Second Helping of Cake After Delegate Slaughter

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Yesterday, the Oakland County GOP Executive Committee (EC) met for the first time since the delegate allocation count was slaughtered by the arbitrary dictate of Chairwoman Theresa Mungioli. This meant that 503 spots were cut for the August 2016 election, and now hundreds of engaged delegates are going to be disenfranchised during an important Presidential election year. The people who will be tasked with ensuring Republican victory in November have been effectively slapped in the face.

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Cronyism, Democrats, Flint Water Fiasco, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics

Same As It Ever Was

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Flint Water ImageDemocrats have been screaming about Republican leadership’s failure on the Flint water issue.

While we have no overreaching love for the governerd, who brought us expansion of Obamacare, lost our insurer of last resort, broke the law for his ‘roads’ funding boondoggle, and still hands out money like its not his own, it was not Rick Snyder who put lead in the pipes of Flint.  He took credit for the failure of his bureaucracy to properly assess a fast developing public health issue, but he surely did not cause the problem.

Was it the bureaucracy itself?  Yes.  Decades of poor decision making by those who have by hook or crook made their life’s work to be the decimation of ‘Buick City.’  Poor planning and perhaps a little power mongering graft?  From Reuters:

“Henderson’s lawsuit alleged that Mayor Karen Weaver ordered her assistant and a volunteer to redirect donors from a local fund set up to help families affected by the water crisis to her political action committee instead.

The lawsuit charged that the city employee was “specifically directed” to instruct people “step-by-step” to donate to the mayor’s “Karenabout Flint” fund through its website, rather than the Charity Safe Water/Safe Homes fund through the city’s website.

Sure thing.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans, Taxes

Because giving them even more money has always solved Detroit’s problems.

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Hold onto your wallets because the fun is set to begin again tomorrow.

Last week the Michigan House, in response to the temper tantrum thrown by the Detroit Federation of Teachers (which to be fair, was in response to the gross ineptitude of one Judge Steven Rhodes), passed yet another in a long line of “life preservers” to the failed Detroit Public School district.

Despite having been “locked out” by administration (seriously, that is what the DFT was using as a speaking point on every local talking head show last weekend), things went back to normal by Wednesday.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept of how calling in sick en masse is somehow the equivalent of being “locked out” from your place of employment…but I digress.

Unlike the bailout proposed by the Michigan Senate, the House package is about $200-million lighter than the Senate’s, and is choked so full of poison-pill provisions that it is guaranteed to cause even more problems.

 

Bus roll over

“Not to worry! With a little elbow grease and some friendly verbal persuasion, we’ll have you upright and humming along the road in no time,” our relentlessly positive Gov Snyder allegedly remarked about the latest DPS bailout.

{More below the fold}

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Elections, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy, Religious Freedom, Republicans

So Its Trump

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trump article openerIts been a personal quest to stay out of the presidential contest debate to whatever extent possible.

Now the nominee is clear. Though not surprising today, it was not the person most folks would have predicted in July of 2015.  In fact it was likely that even Donald Trump thought he could roll for a while, be outrageous, and then get back to business as usual.

The more he stretched credibility however, the more he appealed to those looking for the ‘not normal’ in politics.  Many, whom we might describe as angry and disaffected with politics-as-usual, found his antics refreshing and (in some strange way) appealing. They see in him a willingness to confound convention and ‘normalcy’ in the body politic; “normalcy,” being a condition which has proven inadequate for our nation, and has created a slow road to some bizarre and unrecognizable dystopian squalor.

At the same time, those who created this environment through passive aggressive politics and (even worse) outright compromise of principle, have been freaking out.  The #NeverTrump brigade was born and now faces a conundrum with an impending Hillary presidency.  ‘Moderates’ who give in to the liberal agenda frequently, screamed “He’s not a conservative!”

As-if conservatism was ever really important to them.

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Michigan

Maybe Someone IS Paying Attention?

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One of the biggest complaints (not exclusive, however) we have had with the MDoT is it’s mishandling of warranty needs.

I believe they want to make sure we see something being handled.  From The MDoT Pravda:

I-75 warranty repairs north of Grayling start Monday

COUNTY:Crawford

HIGHWAY:I-75

CLOSEST CITY: Grayling

ESTIMATED STARTING DATE: Monday, May 9, 2016

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE:  Friday, May 20, 2016 (weather dependent)

PROJECT:

Contractors for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) will be making warranty pavement repairs and sealing cracks on 5.5 miles of northbound I-75 from north of Grayling Exit 254 to north of Hartwick Pines Road Exit 259. This work will be done at the expense of the contractor.

Project map: http://bit.ly/1TtKJjH

TRAFFIC RESTRICTIONS:                     

This work will require lane closures with traffic shifts.

The next project might be to figure out what to do about THIS.

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Firearms, Michigan

Arming Our Defenders

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glennGary Glenn posts this:

ACTION ALERT! — Urgently need your immediate help on two fronts:

I learned today that the House Military and Veterans Affairs Commitee will hold a public hearing this Thursday, May 5th, on House Bill 5376, legislation I introduced — in response to the Islamic terrorist attack which killed five unarmed U.S. military personnel at a recruiting office in Chatanooga — to require that at least one soldier on duty be armed at all times at every National Guard facility in Michigan that’s accessible by the public.

HB 5376 is cosponsored by eighteen Republicans and eight Democrats, including every member of the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee of both parties with one exception, a new Democratic state representative who was elected in the March 8th special election and wasn’t in office when I gathered cosponsors.

Read full bill and list of cosponsors: http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2016-HB-5376

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