Slotkin Rebuttal???

LOL. Fail Bot. Elissa Slotkin will respond to President Donald J. Trump’s Joint Address to Congress tonight. Senator Slotkin stands…

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The Fly

Thrown together for your amusement/entertainment. From the perspective of a fly on the wall in Lansing. You Betcha! (7)Nuh Uh.(0)

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Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Snyder’s Detroit Bailout “Officially” Hemorrhages Our Money

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Oh, joy… today makes it “official”.

via Crain’s Detroit

Belle Isle in Detroit is set to officially become Michigan’s newest state park.

The state is taking over the city-owned park under a 30–year lease deal with Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr.

On Oct. 1, Orr and Gov. Rick Snyder signed a proposed lease of the island to turn it into a state park; Detroit City Council counter-offered with a 10-year lease proposal, which was ultimately rejected by a state panel.

Included in the announcement of the proposed lease was the promise that the state would invest $10 million to $20 million in the park within the next three years.

The move goes into effect today; it’s expected to save the bankrupt city [cost all state taxpayers] between $4 million and $6 million a year.

REST

At least Billionaire Roger Penske is happy that another of his toy racetracks is receiving the full backing of our wallets.

Bud Denker of Bloomfield Hills is senior vice president of Penske Corporation and executive vice president of Penske Automotive Group and Penske Performance. Denker joined the Penske enterprise after many years with several Fortune 100 companies including Eastman Kodak Company where he served as vice president of brand and marketing development. Since 2006, he has served as chairman of the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and is also active in many Detroit-based organizations including the Downtown Detroit Partnership and The Parade Company.

Pure Cronyism.

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Michigan

PPT ACTION ALERT TODAY MUST-DO

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If you own a business and are paying personal property tax on fixtures, electronics, etc and the aggregate value for those is $80,000 or less, you need to File this no later than TODAY

 

You can download the official PDF by clicking the link or picture above – Fill it out and take to taxing authority!

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Sundays Sanity: Tax-Exempt Entity and Their Billionaires

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For those unaware, the NFL is tax-exempt and also plundering our wallets for a $Billion a year.

Have you ever heard of the old expression, “like placing a diamond on a goats ass” ? Billionaire moochers and looters with their bought off politicians enabling taxpayer funded Flavian Amphitheaters are a good definition of it.

When the Lions and Tigers stadium deal was struck, one newspaper headline headline joyfully proclaimed a “Detroit comeback.” William Clay Ford, Jr., the Lions’ vice chairman, said that being “an integral part of Detroit’s renaissance is an absolute honor of the highest degree.”

And, a short 14 years later, Detroit files for Chapter 9 protection. Brilliant propaganda espoused by, Mr. Bill One playoff win in 56 years Ford Jr., yes?

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Michigan Politics

Crony Capitalism Keeps Rolling along as Michigan Taxpayers Take the Hit

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The new Red Wings Arena has been approved to be stolen from the taxpayers and I mean “all” taxpayers of Michigan not just Detroit because first off Detroit doesn’t have any taxpayers to speak of. Remember Governor Snyder has pledged 350 Million of Michigan taxpayers money to “Bailout” Detroit and the DIA.

The construction of the arena itself would be about 60% publicly funded. No Detroit general fund dollars would be spent; the state (taxpayers) is contributing the bulk of the public investment. Through the “failed” MEDC and Governor Rick Snyder who is an advocate for the deal, which will use “bonds” from the Michigan Strategic Fund one of numerous subsidiaries of the quasi government entity the un-elected MEDC.Arena New Red Wings

A quick refresher course on the definition of “Bonds” where the taxpayers are concerned. The seller of these “Bonds”, in this case the state of Michigan (we taxpayers) are the borrowers, the buyers of these bonds are essentially the lenders. Sounds a lot like a Bank doesn’t it?

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Detroit, Philosophy

Detroit opinion leader makes erroneous comparison between business and government

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Daniel Howes, Detroit News columnist recently published a rambling column discussing the parallels of the Detroit Automakers comeback (as illustrated by their Super Bowl ads) and the city of Detroit and its potential comeback. The column was fairly innocuous stuff until these two paragraphs:

Yes, I know the convenient dodge from those who would prefer to avoid the obvious parallels between running an automaker into the ground and running a municipal government into the ground: government is not a business.

Wrong. Both succeed and fail on the strength (or weakness) of managing reality, dollars and cents, not some mythical ideal that exists only in gauzy memory or an eighth-grade civics class. Neither business nor government can allow expenses to consistently outstrip revenue for too long, cannot charge customers or taxpayers more and deliver less, without inviting serious existential consequences.

So many things wrong with the above paragraphs.

Starting with the most fundamental flaw: business adds value by producing something (a product or service) and creates wealth, government can only take wealth (through the force of law) from one group of people and give it to another, adding no value and creating no wealth.

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Cronyism, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Obsolescence And The Electoral Hereafter

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gates-medcWe’re thinking Michigan’s 104th district representative Wayne Schmidt doesn’t expect to win Michigan’s 37th state senate seat in 2014.

In fact, he might have had that realization for several months now. Perhaps an angel of mercy descended at that time from the polling pearly gates, because it was in September that Schmidt, authored a bill that has yet to make it out of committee. Schmidt appears to be trying to create a quasi-government highly paid position that will be ‘tailored’ for his haberdashery retail management (suit store clerk) background, and  government experience.

“And he’s buying a stairway to heaven …”

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Elections, Michigan Politics, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Look to David Kroll in the 90th District

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Just happened across this little blurb in mLive, and talk about a vicious circle of dysfunction.

A Holland woman who was a Washington, D.C., aide to former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra is running for state House in the 90th District.
….

The seat is currently held by state Rep. Joe Haveman, R-Holland, who cannot seek re-election due to term limits.
….

Garcia said. “With term limits, we can’t afford to have somebody learn the ropes (before they get to work).”
….
Daniela Garcia planned to announce her candidacy for the Republican nomination Friday, Feb. 7, at Alpenrose Park, 4 E. 8th St. in Holland, with Hoekstra in attendance. She joins a field that has five other candidates.
…..

She is the daughter of former Holland schools superintendent Frank Garcia [collected pension age 54].
Garica worked with U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers and during Hoekstra’s last two years in Congress [snip]

Is anything above really something to boast about? Let’s refresh our memories on Pete Hoekstra.

Folks, you have an opportunity for better in the 90th District, and his name is David Kroll.

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Michigan, Philosophy, Rent Seeking

OK, So Lets See The Other Side

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pure-somethingToo often, your local government will have advocates of money-spending that holds out the promise of jobs, or some tangible benefit that can be presented in dollars gained back for the community.

The authors of such fiction typically seek to justify their own positions of employment within that community, and possibly within the government entity itself. Axiomatically however, all of them have a stake in the outcome of the requested spending.  They will be asked for, and then will present metrics, or a presumed study of return on investment (ROI) and typically the elected leadership falls for it hook, line and sinker.

A perfect example was during a consideration of funding for the MSU extension office in Grand Traverse County when I was an elected commissioner.  County commissioners were given plenty of reading materials by the MSU advocates to show us that for every dollar spent we would see a result of $17 in benefit to the county.  The calculations as it turned out were premised on a ‘guess,’ that was then multiplied by a compounding analysis program that is used by MSU intellectuals, that relies on ‘guesses’ for the input variables.

Go. State.   ..  Yay.

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