Tag Archive for Flint Water fiasco

Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Flint Water Fiasco, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Bad Optics = Serious Political Jeopardy

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Proper Prior Political Planning Prevents..............

Snyder ImageOur zillionaire Governor is hitting up the Michigan Treasury for $ 1.5 million to cover the cost of really excellent lawyers who are mounting his criminal defense in the Flint water fiasco. Yesterday, he suggested that the two MDEQ employees criminally charged in the Flint water fiasco will no longer receive State paid legal representation. The State had been paying for outside counsel for Stephen Busch and Michael Prysby since AG Schuette stripped them of direct state assistant AG legal counsel in February.

Apparently, the distinction here is actually being criminally charged. Snyder hasn’t been, but Busch and Prysby just got charged.. AG Schuette could not resist piling on with the same common law misconduct in office felony charge used against Courser and Gamrat, but the actual substance of the statutory charges here are lying and tampering with evidence.

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You Betcha! (13)Nuh Uh.(0)

Cronyism, Fees, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Philosophy, Proposal 15-1, Taxes

Time to Light These Clowns Up

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Someone needs to impress upon the MRP legislative and executive leadership that “NO” means “NO” . . . period.

Roughly nine months ago, We the People of Michigan, by a record-breaking 4-to-1 statewide margin, told our elected nobility in Lansing “HELL NO” on a proposed tax increase, which they’d tried to sell as a road proposal, but which the voting public saw clearly as a political sausage job that produced a cronyist’s grab bag of goodies. Thus, every single county in this state, without exception and in no uncertain terms, clearly delivered a mandate-level message that we are no longer interested in extending the legislature a taxpayer-funded line of credit, until such time as they get their spending priorities in order. You would think that a statewide vox populi shellacking, with a turnout rate typical of the biennial congressional primaries, would clue in the GoverNerd, and the rest of the MRP/MIGOPe professional political establishment, that We the People are done being their ATM.

You would think that . . . but you would be wrong. Six months after that ballot box rejection, while most of us were tucking our children into bed (or monitoring local election results), the lords and barons in the Michigan Legislature essentially told we the proletariat that our opinion is irrelevant, and that “no” really means “don’t ask again” – which, of course, they didn’t – by passing a “road funding” tax package that was nearly identical to the core of Proposal 15-1, less the elements required to force it onto the ballot. In doing this, they flatly rejected the clear will of the people, imposed through legislative fiat that which they couldn’t persuade the electorate to publicly ratify, and took yet another step toward government by aristocracy.

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You Betcha! (31)Nuh Uh.(6)

Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Are there any other “past practices” that we should be made aware of?

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If there is any doubt whether or not the children are responsible enough to have been handed the keys to Detroit. This piece alone should put ANY doubt to rest.

I’ve commented numerous times in the past regarding how I (or any rational-thinking person for that matter), would not (/should not) buy into the Kool Aid that Gov. Snyder & Co. have been doling out is massive quantities pertaining to the Detroit Bankruptcy and subsequent Michigan State Government forced takeover (and more importantly Michigan Taxpayer paid) “turnaround” of Detroit.

To even suggest that DECADES of ingrained, multi-generational self-destructive personal behavior was going to instantaneously disappear simply because a spreadsheet was balanced (sort of) is just naiveté taken to the Nth degree.

Unemployment is still a major problem within Detroit.

So is the marked lack of a stable family structure.

And let’s not forget the woefully under-reported, long-anticipated collapse of the Detroit Public School System.

A new detail came out yesterday that should make everyone’s BP shoot up through the roof (and give you yet another reason to oppose giving the children running ANY level of Detroit government any more of our hard-earned money).

{More below}

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You Betcha! (15)Nuh Uh.(0)

Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Taxes

Oh, if that were only true.

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Jason beat me to the punch on the whole 2016 SOTS speech tonight.

I don’t like to admit it, but I’ll watch it (recorded earlier in the night) just so that I would have something to talk about later in the week whenever the subject came up.

Unlike Pres. B.O.’s SOTU, in which the best description I’ve heard of it so far was 45-minutes of clinical textbook narcissism on public display, Gov. Snyder’s SOTS speeches are a good indication of what tricks the CPA with the MBA has up his sleeve.

Just like Pres. B.O.’s SOTU’s where he references himself so many times, it practically has become a drinking game, Gov. Snyder also has a similar habit as well; and that is to project his guilty conscience on the rest of Michigan over {fill-in-the-blank} cause which inevitably involves the Michigan Taxpayer picking up the tab to assuage this guilt.

This year there will be no shortage of things for him to find for us to pay for: like the Flint Water crisis apocalypse harbinger of the end times situation justifying 15-minutes of relevancy for community agitators like Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore, Sam Riddle, etc.

Wayne County going bankrupt (Oh, where will the Wayne Co. BoC’s next check come from?).

Or maybe, the sudden widespread malady that is causing so many Detroit Public Schools to close due to “sickouts”.

That last one will be interesting because of all of the media exposure over the past several days.

Peeling paint. Falling tiles. Broken plumbing. Dead rodents.

Remind me again on why the City of Detroit stopped doing its job and inspected these buildings in the first place?

IMG_5859

Yep, some plywood, a padlock and a “No Trespassing” sign. Yessiree, this school building is now secure! Feel free to click on the image to better see the building securement. Never mind the missing sheet of plywood over the upper floor window. No one would EVER think about going through there.

Now, if Detroit had just a little bit of money to address this problem all will be well in the world.

I can pretty much guarantee that will be mentioned by Gov Snyder in some form tonight.

If only that were the truth!

{Unfortunate details below the fold}

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You Betcha! (14)Nuh Uh.(0)

All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Hey, wait a minute…why are we doing this again?!?

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If you are gullible enough to buy into Gov. Snyder’s, along with the Michigan GOP’s (working behind the scenes, of course), hype surrounding the “saving” of Detroit through a massive Michigan Taxpayer bailout via the “Grand Bargain“, a little more than a year later you would think things were humming along wonderfully and everything in The D was just swell.

Well, let me be among the first to smash those rose-colored glasses they have been distributing to the masses, knock that cup of Kool Aid in your hands to the ground and show everyone why it all is about to come crashing down…hard…again.

{Continued after the fold}

*** Quick Note: I’ve received a few messages asking me why I referred to EX-Detroit Federation of Teachers President as being “recently reinstated“.

There is an upcoming “hearing” with the American Federation of Teachers next week to consider the matter of his reinstatement. I’ve been told that hearing is nothing really more than a formality at this point, but that he is not currently officially back in his old position.

It should also be noted that the size, scope and frequency of these “sickouts” are next to impossible to orchestrate and coordinate without significant union involvement. So take Steve Conn’s “official” status with the DFT for what you will.***

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You Betcha! (11)Nuh Uh.(0)