Well…not sure if you’ve heard what is happening here in Michigan, but I marvel at the repubs that are running the show here…not so much our governor, who seems to have a somewhat level head on his shoulders, but the repubs that are running the house here. Starting with the culture war nonsense where they are trying to overturn Roe v. Wade with a bunch of laws that will further restrict women’s rights…and that will be struck down by the courts as these model laws have been across the country and now, many of these legislators that have been purchased by the owner of the Ambassador bridge, are now trying to get a constitutional amendment that would not allow any infrastructure to be built without the legislature’s approval; even if it is done at no cost to Michigan. I can see a real reason for a part-time legislature if this is the nonsense we get from these people…nothing on getting us back to work, nothing for improving our schools, nothing for anyone but their donors and acting like the only people they represent are the ones that voted for them…and I think that is the problem with this country right now…the repubs don’t give a damn about anyone but their base and only legislate for them…geez…
Tag Archives: ambassador bridge
I’ll grudgingly give it to Snyder…
Well…as you know, I’ve had mixed feelings about our governor here in Michigan, and when I think that he is falling to the right wing nuts in his party he does what he did today…thinking about the people of the state by bypassing the legislature and working on an agreement with Canada and the Federal government to build a new bridge from Detroit to Canada. After the ambassador bridge owner, Matty Maroun, bought enough legislators in his party to stall legislation that would approve the bridge, Snyder proved that he may be the pragmatist that he has claimed to be by using the powers of the governor’s office to move the state ahead…to stop the extortion by the Marouns and to make trade easier between the US and our largest trading partner….and to remove the bottleneck that creates hours of delays for the trucks carrying that trade. So, for today, I’ll say “good job” and keep it up for bucking a big donor and doing what is right for all of the people of Michigan…
A couple of musings…
Well…if you don’t live in Michigan, you’ve probably not heard of the huge controversy we have going on in the East side of the state concerning the new US/Canada bridge that has been proposed to alleviate the congestion at the privately held Ambassador Bridge that connects Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Today’s article in the Detroit Free Press sheds a lot of light on why the Mattouns, the owners of the bridge, are spending so much money on trying to prevent another span being built…a big part being that they own the fuel sales rights on the bridge plazas and have a sweetheart deal where they don’t pay taxes on any of those sales…yep, they make a profit of almost 60 cents per gallon on each and every gallon of gas or diesel sold there, along with the money from tolls. A license to print money that they will fight to the death to protect…no matter what is good for the people of Michigan or the country….just another instance of the rich not giving a damn about anything but their money and power….who allows important border crossings to be privately owned anyway? This is one of only two in the US and needs to be run for the benefit of the country….not just one family.
The other thing that I wanted to talk about today is a neat article by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post this morning where he notes that people are starting to tire of the false choices that the repubs have been presenting to the country that are increasingly framed in the “either/or” and not the “both/and” that the country wants to hear…and the earlier presents a pessimistic view of the countries future that is not how you run a democracy. E. J. goes on to assert that this type of political rhetoric is one of the big reasons why we can’t find compromises anymore….I ask the question: why can’t we have a social safety net and lower deficits? Why can’t we cut government spending and still have the services that the majority of the country expects from government? I think it’s because politicians have gotten lazy and dogmatic and I agree with E.J. again that this type of false choice has substituted for thought and is the real reason that we can’t seem to solve any of the countries problems…geez…