Well…if it wasn’t bad enough when our gov here in Michigan, Snyder, conspired in secret with the tea partiers in the lame duck session to jam through the right to work for less legislation and many new abortion restrictions, now he is at it again with a secret group that is supposedly working on “eduction reform”. What kind of education “reform” will it be when reps from ALEC, lobbyists from tech companies, and avowed haters of public education are the only ones on this project? Where are the representatives of parents? Where are the representative of professional educators who live in the trenches and know what does and doesn’t work? None of these groups matter to this idiot thug whose only goal in this whole process is to lower the cost of education by the use of technology that has been proven to have no better outcomes than the normal public education. But, this just doesn’t matter to Snyder and his cronies in the legislature…their two goals are to lower cost so he can give more tax breaks to business and to break the unions that the repubs just hate so much….these guys just hate democracy…why else would they have to meet in secret? Just more of the same of the Koch and DeVos fueled ruination of our state…first in the race to be Mississippi….geez….
Tag Archives: Michigan
Snyder’s toast…
Well…just a short one about the happenings here over the past week or so on the potential matchups for governor in a year and a half….in a recent poll that was just done here…a generic matchup of Snyder against the dems find that he is tied with these generics….and the funny thing is that the people they used on the dem side were almost completely unknown…with more than 70% of the respondents saying they didn’t recognize the names at all…and the dems still tied Snyder…and, as more and more people are hurt by the nonsense this governor has pushed, and the fact that he rolls over to the tp’ers and their nonsense, people are starting to turn against this idiot and his secret agenda that he wouldn’t have dared run on…after all, who the hell would vote for anyone who was promising to raise taxes on the middle class and retirees and handing that money straight over to ceos so they could buy another lake house or Ferrari….I hope we all remember this crap in 18 months and send this “nerd’ back where he came from…geez…
The republicans are just mean bastards…
Well…I am just shaking my head today with the pattern of meanness that is erupting from the repub controlled legislatures across this country…from pinning poor families assistance to how their 8 year old performs in school in Tennessee to the draconian restrictions on womens rights that have happened in Arkansas and other midwestern states, to the new bit of mischief here in Michigan where they have passed a blatantly unconstitutional law that will force those that receive assistance here to pass drug tests and lose their benefits if they fail the tests…no matter that those on assistance actually use drugs less than the general population, these mean bastards are just continuing being the pricks that they are and picking on those that can’t fight back. As I wrote in an earlier post, it is just that these pricks are bullies and love pushing people around…I know they are pushing these new tests saying they will save the state a lot of money…but, before the law in Florida was declared unconstitutional, it was found that no one was failing the tests and it COST the state money to no effect…just because these pricks think poor people should be punished for being poor. I am amazed that they have so much time to pass all of this anti-people, anti-union, and anti-retiree laws but don’t have a bit of time to pass any jobs legislation…oh, other than tax cuts for the rich that they think is the solution to every problem…geez…
More on the Emergency Managers…
Well…tried to get out on the bike but the problem seems to be that the rear gears are just worn out and need to be replaced…but that is not why I’m here…with the imminent takeover of Detroit by the state of Michigan with the naming off an emergency manager, I felt it was time to throw a few more details in about how they have worked in the past. First, let me say that the real intent of these anti-democratic actions by the state and the repubs that are running it is to do one thing…to break the unions and move many thousands of people out of the middle class…it’s as simple as that. Sure, Detroit is in financial trouble but it is from population flight, a deteriorating tax base, and the cutting of state revenue sharing that has hit all of the towns and cities across the state…and the revenue sharing has gone down to give tax breaks to business, the repubs one size fits all of governance…it’s raining, cut taxes, revenue is down, cut taxes, if the sky is blue, cut taxes….all the while never even asking business to prove they are creating jobs for all of those tax cuts. The other bad part of this whole mess is that, when you look at the numbers, the cites taken over by them do not get better….but, you know the repubs think facts and numbers have a “liberal bias” and really don’t pay any attention to them…they just hate democracy so much they have to try to rig the system any way they can and this is just another tool like voter suppression to keep them in power…geez…
Equal rights for all?
Well…sitting here watching a replay of the Man U match with Real Madrid getting ready for the live one this aft and this neat little tidbit was in one of the papers this morning that could pre-empt the supreme court ruling on Prop 8 from California on gay rights…or at least will be before it…here in Michigan, there is a court case challenging the constitutional amendment that keeps gays from having the same rights to marry and adopt children as the rest of us have…I am getting to the point that I consider this a human rights issue…I could just say “this doesn’t affect me” but that would be wrong..in the US we are all supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law and this amendment singles out gays and lesbians as being a “little less equal” to quote from “Animal Farm”. I feel good that all of the spurious arguments that the gay haters use to try to justify their discrimination are being exposed to the light of day for how ridiculous they are and we are finally going to have the start of real equality in all facets of life for all of our citizens. It’s about time…and, look, I think it’s going to be fun watching the haters on the right go crazy when the vote goes the way of equality…who are they going to hate next? Geez…
A few open threads…
Well…don’t really have a big one for today but I do have a few short open threads that I do want to comment on…
First…why the hell are we talking about gutting social security and medicare when the programs are solvent until 2030? If we can get the repubs out of the way and get to historical levels of growth in the economy, that extends out another 15 years or so…so why are the repubs so adamant about cutting and cutting the things that the middle class depends on to stay above poverty? Especially since these don’t contribute one penny to the deficit…
Then we have more mischief by the repubs here in Michigan where they are going ahead with the plans to rig the electoral vote so they will win the majority of them even when they lose the state…they can’t win on ideas so lie, cheat, and steal…
Then, let’s move on to Oklahoma and the new plans to allow employers to not include birth control in their health plans since in women, it “suppresses their identity and poisons their bodies”…and they are writing this law for the entire state on the request of one quack doctor…what the hell happened to trying to put people back to work?
Okay….that’s all for now…might have a few more for later….
No big topics…
Well…have been thinking and thinking to try to come up with a big topic for the day with no success so I guess I’ll just go on about a few small ones…let’s start with the pope resigning…the first thing that came into my head was “who cares?” Can’t think of a more irrelevant person in the world today…presiding over an institution that has long outlived its usefulness and has devolved into almost a hate group…I mean, did you read his “Christmas” message where he went on and on about how bad gays and lesbians are and tried to justify discriminating against them? The world would be a better place if they would just go away and stop trying to impose the 12th century on women in this country and across the world…and that goes for the rest of organized religion as well.
Okay…new topic…you can see how far the repubs have sunk into crazy with the threat from Lindsey Graham to filibuster the presidents picks for Sec Def and CIA director…let’s put this in context…this has never happened in the history of the country…not once has a cabinet selection been blocked in this manner and I am so tired of the repubs thinking up new ways to screw up the country…
Moving on to Michigan….where are the jobs Republicans? Oh, no jobs legislation? No, nothing but more of the same…raise taxes on the people, cut taxes for corporations, and try to restrict womens rights to control their own bodies….I think you can see the genesis of the malaise that I have been feeling lately with the crap that is going on across the US…and don’t get me started on the extra-legal drone policies that Obama has just released…I think this country has lost it’s collective mind and it’s taking mine with it…geez…
Snyder and the repubs were wrong..again…
Well…with the overtly ideological and political passing of the right to work law here in Michigan, something that these liars said business was asking for, ole Snyder got a surprise at the Detroit auto show this week when he tried to use the RTW law as a reason for companies to move to Michigan…one little problem came up….the businesses that he talked to just didn’t care about RTW and most said it was not a major factor in business decisions. In fact, he was told by some companies that it would make them less likely to move here since it is such a divisive issue and will make labor relations more difficult…so, this whole nonsense is exposed for what it is, just naked hatred of the middle class and unions from the right paid for by the Kochs who don’t give a damn if they hurt the state, just as long as they get their agenda enacted. Geez…
Republican hypocrisy on accountability…
Well…I have been getting ill with all of the crowing our gov here in Michigan has been doing on getting his agenda enacted and the normal repub crap of tax cuts for business on the backs of the retirees here, and their constant mantra of accountability…but the infuriating thing that I have railed about before is that whenever the repubs talk about accountability, it always for the people and groups they don’t like, like teachers, and food stamp recipients, etc. What about accountability for the 2 billion dollars they took out of the people’s pockets and gave to business here? When this idiot pushed the biggest transfer of wealth to the rich in the history of the state, there was nothing in the law that said that this gift had to be justified by any “dashboard accounting” of the number of jobs that were created…just more of the “trust us” nonsense that is the core of the repubs relationship with business. When a basic accounting is done, the estimates are coming in that say that job growth has not been affected one iota by this largess to business…with the majority of the money just going into corporate profits and executive bonuses. So, retirees here in Michigan, you have given up a vacation or a new car, or paying your bills on time just so the repubs you voted for can give that tax money to the already wealthy so they can buy the fourth or fifth car or the new summer home in Harbor Springs….I wonder if they will let you visit it? Oh, that’s right, you don’t have the money for the gas to get there…geez…
Snyder is still an idiot…
Well…it is with some satisfaction that I have been following the plunge in approval ratings of the idiot Snyder here in Michigan and I’m even more heartened with the same happening to the ratings of all repubs here….ole Snyder’s have fallen 28 points in the past two weeks after he screwed the people of Michigan with his stealth approval of right to work here…I have one question for him…if every state is right to work, where is the competitive advantage he is touting? As always, the repubs are leading the race to the bottom for workers while they continue to protect their rich donors….but, this time I think that they miscalculated and we will take back the entire state from them in the next election…we will be motivated and have the boots on the ground with issues that the people approve of…not just the money of the Koch’s and DeVoses….and one thing we have to remember is that all of this lame duck crap they have pulled can be reversed if we take back the legislature…including the 1.7 billion dollar giveaway to business financed on the back of the middle class and retirees….geez…