Pat Colbeck has this up at Lets Fix Stuff. Has the Whitmer administration has been assisting the communist Chinese in subverting our election processes?
“..During the PIT brief, Catherine and Gregg revealed how they discovered that Konnech’s Poll Chief software enabled the transfer of 1.8M poll worker records to servers managed by Chinese Communist Party intelligence agents. In addition to putting the personal information of U.S. citizens in the hands of a malicious third party, the transfer of this data indicated that Chinese intelligence agents had access to sensitive information regarding elections in the United States. ..”
MEDC money awards and accolades scrubbed (but still available) from the initial PR posts, but are backed up just in case the archives are scratched as well.
It’s true, why not turn our government bureaucracies into full blown business incubators? Buy a number of corner buildings, land, ready spaces, and turn em into a new 7-11 chain, tux shop conglomerate, or CBD syndicate. Then, turn em over to someone willing to fill out the paperwork, stand on a stage with a governor, and swear allegiance to the bureaucracy and our sacred Eco-Dev Central!
the MEDC is having a birthday. In fact it is apparently ready to graduate from simple cronyism, to full blown Fascism. Government determining which component of the economy it will promote with taxpayer money is certainly bad, but when it actually does the site work? From Crains:
Are there are some areas outside of your control and domain that you think we ought to be focused on as a state in order to improve our chances to land the next company from San Jose?
The one that’s in our domain that we have started doing some work on — working with our local partners — and that’s having ready sites. Whether it’s just raw acreage that has the right infrastructure available in terms of electrical capacity, water and sewer. …
We are not a state that has a lot of available spec buildings — the 180,000-square-foot size buildings that have been built speculatively by developers that we can immediately turn to a prospect and say here’s a building you can move into in 60 days. We’re doing some work in that space both on the spec building side … as well as on the raw land site improvement to help get us better prepared or ahead of the curve to take advantage of some of the opportunities that are out there.
Well, that didn’t take long to cast sunlight upon the Progressive Left’s wealth redistribution scheme.
If approved by the Republican-controlled House and Senate, Whitmer’s proposed 45-cent motor fuel tax increase would occur in three separate 15 cent tax hikes on Oct. 1, 2019, April 1, 2020, and Oct. 1, 2020.
The first two tax hikes would increase the tax by 30 cents and bring in an additional $1.26 billion during the 2019-20 fiscal year. But documents submitted by Whitmer as part of her executive budget recommendation on Tuesday indicate that the net increase to transportation funding will be just $764 million in 2019-20 fiscal year.
In other words, $499.2 million — an estimated 40 percent of the $1.26 billion gas tax increase in 2020 — would not go to roads. Instead, it would replace current transportation budget dollars that would be redirected to pay for other state government spending.
I’ve advocated for a tax increase to fund road repairs, and Whitmer reportedly will call for a 45 cents hike in the fuel tax. That will be painful for motorists, but necessary. Michigan has neglected its infrastructure for so long that there’s no painless fix. The hike will give Michigan the highest per-gallon fuel costs in the Midwest, but we have to do it.
Wrong, dummy, we already ARE the highest per-gallon in the Midwest.
As for the rest of this nincompoop’s idle drool about legacy costs, Proposal A, education and other adult age socialism, well, that’s what happens when local leaders cater to public sector unions for endorsements to the offices they sought, of which, the much ballyhooed Freedom-To-Work Act never even came close to addressing.
There must be a class in our taxpayer subsidized higher education system that trains government employees for subsiding business ventures that cannot survive on their own. A preparation of sorts for the most productive work in Michigan state government.
A123 systems, LG Chem, etc.. Energy is the hot topic, but renewable energy has gotten a stake of the treasury in the past few years.
And to date, it has never been completely debunked as being a future solution for diminished resources.
That’s OK actually. Under certain circumstances, renewable options provide ways to solve all manner of the issues. Lawn lighting, roadside signs, or limited use for the cabin in the woods, all of which can be effectively served with solar, or other off-the-grid generation
Easter eggs hidden all over the place. What's a poor chicken to do?
The MEDC is off the hook corrupt.
I know we have expressed issues before with the cronyism going on with the MEDC and its failures of transparency and effectiveness. Picking winners only works for ..the winners.
But certainly, the MEDC provides a lot of high paying jobs for otherwise failed business leaders and political partisans. No way in hell will it willingly surrender the family secrets and threaten the taxpayer goldmine. Indeed, no dog and pony show of ‘allowing’ bids for outside agencies to measure it’s (the MEDC’s) effectiveness will ever meet the threshold of honest brokering.
Running the gamut from man eating roads to bald face lies, Michigan politics is a ‘special’ place. RightMi.com highlights certain aspects of our system by bringing certain aspects not typically examined by the mainstream to the forefront. With writing from folks in all parts of the state, we have been able to add perspective not found elsewhere. Please enjoy, be active, and keep coming back!
Coming out of 2014, that session’s legislative knuckleheads carved out a wonderful political battle extending right up to a special vote May 5, which was soundly defeated 80 to 20. Add to this the cost of the special election that could be as high as $10,000,000, and the resources necessary on both sides to fight it.
“But, I’ve also heard that very same sales pitch before (going back at least several decades, in fact), and have been very disappointed by the outcome each and every time.”
And he was hardly wrong in hedging his optimism as disappointment has once again begat the theme with the political class we have learned to trust so implicitly. <sarc=off>
The ‘safe roads’ nonsense was replete with payoffs to just about every single constituency, and the majority GOP legislature made sure that those ‘po folk’ would get their due if the tax hikes would pass.
The PowWow happened, and we promoted, then reported on it. The Mackinac Center made an unexpected decision to withdraw from the opportunity to reach 400 or so Michigan activists. Apparently, Dave Agema, a white haired old veteran ‘racist’ (seen on the right with one of his ‘mortal enemies,’ Pastor Phil Smith) was too overwhelming and politically incorrect that he might rub off in some way. We gave them a “bad doggie” award and moved on. (I still love you guys.. just don’t do that again, OK?)
Now that guy was the real deal. He offered an inspirational speech (click the link above), and was later used as an example of concern about the lack of will by a couple of ‘tea soldiers’ to fight in Michigan’s legislature. Though with a couple of highlights, the powwow takeaway in the end, was less than stellar from the perspectives of attendees and some organizers.
(10)Nuh Uh.
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