Well…here we go again…the repubs here in Michigan are abusing their power and rigging the system so Flint can’t make sure the state lives up to it’s responsibility to fix the damage done there by the emergency manager and the Snyder administration. As a little backstory, I’m sure you know that cost savings measures put in place by the Snyder administration led to the poisoning of Flint’s water supply and millions of dollars of damage to the water infrastructure there. To ensure that there would actually be a fix in place and not just talk, which is all we have ever gotten from Snyder, the city of Flint filed a notice of a lawsuit that would do just that…that would force the state to fix the damage that was done…but, as always with the repubs here in Michigan, they are rigging the system so that Flint can’t sue by changing the rules that requires that any suit has to be approved by a Snyder appointed board…yeah, that’s right, any suit that would hold Snyder responsible has to go through a new Snyder appointed board…now, how likely is it that any suit would be approved by Snyder’s cronies? It’s just another example of how the repubs here are abusing their power to protect their asses and not the people….we need to vote these guys out of office this fall and start making sure that Michigan has a functioning democracy again…not a third world government run by cronyism and lies…geez…
Tag Archives: Michigan
One little bit of truth…
Well….if you missed it, the Donald gave what could be called an economics speech the other day in Detroit…and, in between the Hillary bad crap, there was just one little bit of truth that came through…ole Trump was going off about how bad the Michigan economy is and how it would be so much better if the dems weren’t running it…yeah, well, Donald…take another look…the dems don’t control anything here in Michigan so of course, the crappy economy is the repubs fault…that wage stagnation is a result of policies that take money from retirees and give it to CEO’s so they can buy another summer home while we struggle to pay our bills….and laws that allow the repub freeloaders to not pay their fair share of taxes, and that allow freeloading union members to reap the benefits of union representation while not paying for that representation…but that is the repub way…bitch about freeloaders and then put policies in place that allow repubs to be the freeloaders while everyone else can go to hell…sad….
Money down the drain in Michigan…
Well…those wonderful, fiscally responsible repubs that are running our state flushed $800,000 of our dollars down the toilet over the past few months drug testing welfare recipients ostensibly to prevent them from spending welfare money on drugs. But, guess what? In all that testing not one person tested positive…and that explodes the repub myth that all welfare recipients are low life drug users…but, that’s not what testing is about anyway…it is just another way for the repubs to punish the poor since being poor, in the repub mind, is their fault and they are beneath contempt….I hope this starts to put an end to this nonsense once and for all…we all should let our reps know that this crap is unacceptable…won’t make any difference to the repubs but we should try…geez…
More corporate welfare in Michigan…
Well…yep you are seeing right, no Trump for today even though he is such an easy target that I could write those with my eyes closed…yeah, I know some of these already look like I’ve done that…but, back to topic….here in Michigan, we have an energy supplier called DTE Energy that supplies gas and electricity to the eastern side of the state and whose job it is to project energy needs and build the needed infrastructure to support those needs…but, it appears that they are stuck in the past with the type of energy that will be needed over the next 20 years. Over the past few months, they have been trying to get the state of Michigan and us taxpayers to pay for a new gas pipeline to bring in gas from Pennsylvania and Ohio..but worse than that, they want us to guarantee that they will make a profit on the line for the next 30 years…nevermind that Bloomberg came out with projections that oil and gas usage is going to plummet over the next decade as more and more renewables come on line….these guys at DTE want to insulate themselves from any downside and make us pay for their bad decisions…oh, and the company that owns the pipeline? A subsidiary of DTE….since when is it fair that DTE gets any and all profits while any losses will be paid for by you and me? This is just the kind of corporate welfare that really irritates me….geez…
Surprise, surprise…
Well…with the announcement of a 480 million dollar shortfall in tax revenues here in Michigan, all I can say sarcastically is surprise, surprise….I just wonder why tax cuts for the rich and business didn’t do what the repubs here had faith it would do…result in more revenue for the state. It isn’t as if they had any examples of the same tax cut nonsense not working in other states….oh, yes they do….look at any state where the repubs are in control and they used faith-based economics…like Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana or Texas where they used the fully discredited theories of Arthur Laffer and his supply side economic nonsense and the same damn thing happened…tax revenues fell drastically putting the budgets of all of those states in free fall so they have all had to decimate even basic services that people pay for….and now we see the same damn thing in Michigan and the repubs here are acting all surprised like there is just no way they could have forseen this happening. But, will they learn from this and rescind the tax cuts for business here that have led to no job creation for the 1.8 billion dollar giveaway to business? Of course not…the repubs are the anti science party after all and economics is a science….I just don’t understand why people keep voting for these idiots when they lay waste to every state they control….I’m shaking my head over that one…geez…
The idiocy continues….
Well…with the passing of the anti LGBT bills across the south and the reactions to this undisguised hate towards these people, you would think that legislators in other states would think long and hard about enacting that hate in their states. But, no, the idiocy continues and has spread to Michigan with, you guessed it, the repubs here proposing the same kind of legislation here in reaction to the state board of education starting to formulate policies that would protect LGBT students here. What the hell is is with these folks? Why do they seem compelled to use their control over the government to hurt people? That is the modern repub party folks….scream about the federal government taking control over the states and then use the power of the state to take away local control that they love in any other circumstance. Look, you know that I point out this hypocrisy on a regular basis, and you are probably tired of hearing it…but people need to be aware of the damage the repubs are doing to this country….and vote to stop it…geez…
Snyder tries to shift the blame for Flint…
Well…with the hearings going on in congress about the screwups that led to Flint residents being poisoned with lead…we see the typical repub response from our governor Snyder that it was the “bureaucrats” in his administration that were responsible for the crisis…of course not him, even though he knew a year before he acknowledged it that there were problems in Flint. But, the most sick thing was his trying to shift the blame to the EPA, basically saying that they should have known that Snyder’s administration was poisoning people in Flint and should have stopped them…imagine what that would mean for criminal defendants if this crap was allowed to excuse this behavior….a murder suspect could just say “hey, you guys didn’t stop me from murdering so it’s not my fault…it’s the fault of the bureaucrats in the police department….” And, as you know, these guys are so big on “personal responsibility” until it gets down to them…then, anyone and everyone is responsible but them…especially the government…the repubs on the committee again tried to have it both ways, too, saying that the EPA should regulate more what states can do…when, just a week ago, they were complaining that the EPA is destroying the economy by too much regulation and the states should be able to do what they want without interference from the EPA. Typical repub behavior that killed people and put thousands at risk…but they never have any responsibility for it..even when they control the entire government of Michigan…what a bunch of liars…geez…
Michigan feels the “Bern”
Well…it was an interesting day yesterday in Michigan politics where Bernie beat Hillary by 4 points to win the Michigan primary. That was really a surprise given that the last poll in the race had Hillary ahead by almost 20 points and the pundits had written him off…weeks ago…but, one of the things that they didn’t count on was the record turnout on both the repub and dem side of the aisle….one of the biggest surprises was the makeup of the win for Bernie with many more people of color breaking for him that anyone predicted…that, along with an overwhelming win in the youngster vote put him over the top….not sure what that is going to mean with Hillary so far out ahead in the delegate count, and with her winning Mississippi….Bernie is still a long shot but he is pulling her back toward the traditional dem platform instead of the repub lite that she has been selling…better for the country for sure….go Bernie….
A little politics…and more….
Well…it’s primary day here in Michigan and I’ve been out to vote…how about you? I know that the primaries are normally not too important, but this year there is a real choice on our side…even though Hillary is supposed to win today, I still went out and voted for Bernie….have like the guy since I heard him talk many years ago and his ideas line up better with mine than anyone elses do….it looks like Drumpf is going to win on the repub side but they are all so unlikable that I really just don’t care who wins on their side….I will do an update when the results are in tomorrow….oh, I was going to combine this one with one about the bike but being one behind, I think I’ll do the bike one on it’s own…so, this WAS a little politics…but just a little….more later…
This is what running government like a business does…
Well…you would think that the idiots in charge of Lansing would learn from their abject failures…but no, they are repubs who never learn anything. One of the mantras we hear all the time from these folks that it will be better if we run government like a business…it will save money…greedy unions have to go, etc…but the results are clear to see…from the Flint water crisis caused so that the emergency manager could save 100 dollars a day and look good to his cronies in the Snyder administration, to the privatization of food services for the state’s prisons that rewarded big donors to the repubs with profit while they fed prisoners food that was spoiled and had workers that smuggled drugs into the prisons….to the latest outrage of the veterans home in GR where the union aides and nurses were canned so they could give the contract for patient care to a private company that repeatedly failed to take care of the patients there…patients who are military people..yeah, the ones that the repubs supposedly revere but not if they cost anything. The system worked perfectly fine with some of the best care in the country until the repubs again privatized services there…but the real goal was to do whatever they could to gut public sector unions…and patient care be damned if they could save a couple of million dollars. This is the problem with running government like a business…it just isn’t one! And the bottom line mentality does not work unless you don’t give a damn about any outcome except cutting costs…and cutting costs doesn’t work all the time in business…we had a saying in my business days: you can’t cut your way to growth and profitability….but to the idiots running this state, it’s the only thing they know…geez….