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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Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Republicans, Taxes

Blowback

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Rhodes Image 1aRetired U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven W. Rhodes got just a bit too clever in his latest ploy to stampede the Michigan Legislature. He is trying to ram a $ 720 million bail out for the Detroit Public Schools through the Legislature, but wound up creating a labor relations firestorm. He even managed to grievously damage the prospects of the bail out in the Legislature. As always, it is the DPS students who are suffering the fallout.

Judge Rhodes, the DPS ‘transition manager’, sent out an email on Saturday telling all and sundry that DPS would have no money to pay teachers after June 30th. He urged Michigan lawmakers to “act thoughtfully, but with the urgency that this situation demands”. The Detroit News later reported:

Rhodes, who warned over the weekend the district would run out of money June 30 and stop making payroll for employees who get paid over the summer, urged employees, parents and others Monday to press lawmakers to pass the rescue plan.

Rosen ImageThis is a reprise of the successful panic tactics he and his buddy U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen developed to force acceptance of the phony Detroit bankruptcy Plan of Adjustment. This effort, celebrated by Michigan’s nitwit media, left a smoking, $ 491 million crater in Detroit’s post bankruptcy finances. Mayor Duggan has been reduced to chiseling money from demolition contracts. Don’t forget that the $ 720 million bail out plan also turns total, absolute DPS control over to Mayor Duggan and his crack team of demolition contract negotiators. Out of the frying pan and into the fire we go.

This is how Michigan’s devious elites now get what they want, when they want, from an embarrassingly slow and cantankerous constitutional government process which they despise.

Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

Some boys goes up the trail for pleasure,
But that’s where you get it most awfully wrong;
For you haven’t any idea the trouble they give us
While we go driving them all along.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy

“Glaring Example Of The Jim Crow Of The North”

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Former Tribal leader appeals for pedophile rights in his last court statements.

Obama’s champion of Northern Michigan describes his conviction on child sexual assault in a way that suggests HE is the victim of racism and bigotry. The former Tribal Chair of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians wasted no opportunity in placing the blame for his predicament.  From UpNorth Live:

Bailey was sentenced to 25 to 50 years after being found guilty in Grand Traverse County of two counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct back in April.

….Bailey also went on to reference having two all white juries convict him of his crimes.

“To me it’s the glaring example of the the Jim Crow of the north,” Bailey said.

Quite obviously, the Jury plotted his fall from influence and subsequent persecution.

That or the civilized world isn’t yet ready for the complete normalization of those child-adult complex relationships.  Maybe the next time the DSM is revised, pedophiles can have their day as well?

The world is changing very rapidly indeed.

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Michigan Politics

Oppose Aggression, Oppose HB 5574

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About NAP

About the Non Aggression Principle (NAP)

I’d like to thank Jason Gillman Jr. of RightMI who co-authored this piece with me.  He and I are of one mind on this topic as we share the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP) as a core value of our lives.

About the authors…

So, I’m a huge gun guy.  As a former President of Michigan Open Carry, Inc. (MOC) and the person who has held that office for the longest period of time, my creds on guns speak for themselves.  But what brought me to advance gun freedom in the first place?  My passion for human freedom and liberty.  I must respect this drive foremost.  That is why I am opposed to HB 5574.  I believe that in order to have our (gun owner’s) rights respected, we must also respect the rights of others, even if we don’t agree with how they are being exercised.

Likewise, Jason’s credentials on guns are beyond reproach as well.  Aside from Tom Lambert and myself, I’d be hard pressed to put my finger on someone who has done more in the last 5 years to advance open carry in Michigan other than Jason.  Jason is presently (and has been for about 2 years): A member of MOC’s Board of Directors, Assistant Legislative Director of MOC, Deputy Treasury of MOC, and MOC’s IT Director.  The man has sacrificed and continues to sacrifice a lot of time and energy for the cause.

About the topic…

HB 5574 of 2016 is a legislative proposal that is supported by many gun owners.  HB 5574 would prohibit employers (private sector and public sector) from banning employees from keeping firearms locked in the employee’s vehicle in the employer’s parking lot.  Employers who fire employees for keeping a gun in the employee’s car parked on the employer’s parking lot would be forced to rehire the fired employees.

Our rights end where someone else’s begin…

It’s an old cliche, but it hold true here.  Your right to move your arm freely stops where my nose starts.

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Michigan, Michigan Politics

Real LIFE Event

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daviddaleidenDavid Daleiden, Who Exposed Planned Parenthood’s Harvesting and Selling of Aborted Baby Body Parts to Speak at Pro-Life Event, Friday, April 29th in Ann Arbor.

Ann Arbor, MI. The young man responsible for producing undercover videos that caught high-level Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting and selling of aborted baby body parts will be the guest for a Citizens for a Pro-Life Society fundraiser, Friday, April 29th, at Christ the King Parish, 4000 Ave Maria Drive, Ann Arbor, MI.

Doors open at 6:30. The event also features a concert by well-known musician Eric Genuis.

In the last 10 months David Daleiden has become one of the most high-profile, controversial figures of the pro-life movement as a consequence of videos he produced through the Center for Medical Progress. www.centerformedicalprogress.org In these videos, first made public in June 2015, Planned Parenthood executives and staff members discuss the harvesting and sale of aborted baby body parts–body parts made available to biologics companies such as Stem Express.

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Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Part Time Legislature, Proposal 15-1, Republicans, Taxes

Forensic Audit – Now!

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Rhodes Image 1aRetired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven W. Rhodes, now the Detroit Public Schools’ ‘Transition Manager’, just let another financial whopper out of the bag. Detroit Public Schools received about $30 million in U.S. Department of Education reimbursements for the pensions of grant-funded employees, but failed to forward those federal funds to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System. So DPS owes MPSERS $ 30 million dollars, give or take. They are ‘negotiating’.

DPS officials knew of this funds misappropriation in December 2015. Judge Rhodes knew “in March 2016”. Before or after the Michigan Legislature got suckered into passing HB 5296 and HB 5385, the DPS emergency bailout and purported financial review commission?  HB 5296, the $ 48.7 million emergency DPS bailout, cleared the Michigan House on 17 March and the Michigan Senate on 24 March. Governor Snyder signed it as Public Act 54 on 12 April.

Did anyone in Lansing know that 60% of the PA 54 DPS bailout was headed straight to the MPSERS?

If so, why did they not share this little detail with the rest of the Legislature and the public prior to the passage of HB 5296?

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80th District Special Election (2015), Conservative News, Democrats, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Part Time Legislature, Republicans

Irony

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Lansing City Hall & Court ComplexMichigan House Speaker Cotter just lost a round in the Courser/Gamrat felony criminal case preliminaries. Ingham County District Court 54-A Judge Hugh B. Clarke Jr. ruled Friday it would be “patently unfair” for Gamrat’s and Courser’s attorneys to not have an opportunity to question Cotter in their defense:Judge Hugh Clarke, Jr.

“Without answers to these questions, the Court cannot adequately balance the rights of the Defendants against the right of the Speaker to be free from being compelled to testify,” the order states.

“To make this decision, the Court believes an in camera hearing with counsel for the Defendants, Speaker Cotter and his attorney is warranted. This procedure would allow the court to properly balance the interests of the Defendants against the privilege sought to be accorded Speaker Cotter.”

Speaker Cotter has been claiming immunity under Public Act 27 of 1984 in Judge Clarke’s courtroom:

“AN ACT to provide immunity from civil action to members of the legislature of this state for acts done pursuant to duty as legislators; to prohibit members of the legislature of this state from being made parties to contested cases or other administrative proceedings for acts done pursuant to duty as legislators; and to provide for certain exemptions from subpoenas.”

Specifically Speaker Cotter is claiming immunity from a subpoena ad testificandum under the third section of PA 27 of 1984

MCL 4.553
Subpoena as to statements made by legislator
Sec. 3.
A member of the legislature shall not be subject to a subpoena for any matter involving statements made by the legislator pursuant to his or her duty as a legislator.

The issue here will be that the legal action against Courser and Gamrat in Ingham County District Court 54-A is a criminal action, specifically a felony action, not a civil action. Speaker Cotter is claiming immunity under a statute which pertains to civil actions, not criminal actions.  Michigan’s legislators have no constitutional or statutory relief from subpoenae in felony matters.

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Michigan Politics

Textbooks Teach History, They Don’t Make History

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derya

By Derya Taskin – President of the Turkish Institute for Progress

Tomorrow, the Michigan State Senate Education Committee will take up HB 4493. HB 4493 would turn Michigan’s social studies and world history textbooks into a political playground. The disputed history of an international tragedy that took place over a hundred years ago should not be settled in Michigan schools.

While the Michigan Legislature is working to rewrite history, it is important to look back at history on the issue. Not one international court has recognized the 1915 tragedy was a “genocide.” In fact, 173 countries, the United Nations, and the European Court on Human Rights High Commission agree with that the 1915 tragedy was not a “genocide.”

What did Armenia’s first Prime Minister state about the 1915 tragedy in his 1923 manifesto?  He said that “when the skirmishes had started the Turks proposed that we meet and confer.  We did not do so and defied them.”

I am the President of the Turkish Institute for Progress, an organization formed to provide a forum for dialogue in pursuit of peace and cooperation between Turkey and the international community. It is crucial to reference facts in historical context so we can work together to look forward toward the next 100 years, inspired by the promise of renewed Turkish-Armenian relations under the true spirit of cooperation.

Unfortunately, the Armenian lobby is refusing to consider the historical facts in promoting legislation like HB 4493, only trying to score political points and embarrass the Turkish people. What the Armenian lobby doesn’t point out is that the Armenian community of the time took up arms against their own government, lured by Russia’s promise of an independent nation. During the conflict, 2.5 million Turks, Kurds and Arabs also lost their lives.

Today, the Russians are the puppetmaster once again as Armenia is one of Russia’s closest allies as Armenia hosts two Russian bases. Putin continues to utilize Armenia as a proxy to grow influence in the region and as former Deputy Chief of Staff to the NATO Secretary General James Foley stated in a recent Time article, Turkey “faces a burgeoning Russian military buildup across its border in neighboring Armenia, while simultaneously being squeezed by Russia’s military intervention across its border with an imploding Syria.”

With the future of the Middle East evolving on a daily basis, Turkish-U.S. relations are critical to regional security and the management of regional crises. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq have become salient issues of international security; the rising tensions in Iran and Saudi Arabia have added additional complexity to the situation as more regional instability presents itself.

Beyond international security, Turkey has also become an indispensable U.S. trade partner, constituting a large and growing market for United States exports. In 2015, Turkey was identified as Europe’s third-fastest growing economy, and Turkey does over $700 million in business with Michigan.

If the Michigan State Senate wants to weigh in on the 1915 tragedy, they should join the Turkish Institute of Progress in asking the Armenians to engage in a dialogue with the Turkish people about what happened and let the facts speak for themselves.

By voting to support HB 4493, the Michigan State Senate Education Committee will only impede pursuit of peace and cooperation between Turkey and Armenia and at the same time, it will be embarrassing an important ally in the fight against terror and an indispensable U.S. trade partner.”

You Betcha! (2)Nuh Uh.(14)