Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern Michigan“Do As I Say, Not As I Do”: Hillsdale College Is The Ugliest Thing Of All
Saturday , 9, May 2015 LGBT Rights, Same Sex Marriage 13 Comments
A recent mass email sent out by the chaplain of Hillsdale College caused a stir this week. The email, sent by Peter Beckwith, warned, “ugly things are happening in the Supreme Court.” He also stated, “I do not even think we can imagine the effects this could have on our nation, the church, and families.”
Ironic words coming from the college where the former president, George Roche III, had an affair with his own daughter-in-law for 20 years. Lissa Roche shot herself on campus after she found out he was getting back together with his second wife. He divorced his first wife because she had liver cancer. An excellent example of a Christian family that knows the real meaning of marriage.
Another icon of virtue at Hillsdale College is the larger than life statue of the late conservative Prime Minister of England, Margaret Thatcher. Before she was known as the ‘Iron Lady,’ she had another nickname – ‘Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher’ – for cutting a program to provide milk to elementary-age children at school. While she privatized public services and considered using the military to stop miners’ strikes, she also used her office to halt a police investigation of an English diplomat suspected of molesting children.
From 1974 until 1984, the activist group known as the Paedophile Information Exchange, or PIE, was a network of high-profile people in British government and business who shared child pornography between members. They published a newsletter of book and movie reviews, articles, and photographs of clothed children. The members of PIE wrote about their fantasies of having sex with children and shared them with each other. In 1978, police investigations into PIE led to members being charged with sex offenses, except for one. He was known by PIE members as “Mr. Henderson,” but eventually his real name was revealed – Sir Peter Hayman.
Hayman, a former MI6 employee, was High Commissioner to Canada when police began investigating his activities in PIE. In 1981, the investigation suddenly stopped and Hayman was never charged with any sex crime. He died in 1992. Only a couple of months ago, it was finally revealed why the police investigation suddenly stopped: Margaret Thatcher used her office to stop the investigation. Thatcher was well aware that members of her government were also members of PIE, as a 37-page file of documents on that very subject were unsealed and made public this past winter in London.
There are two statues of Margaret Thatcher on this earth. One is in Parliament House in London, and the other sits on the campus of Hillsdale College. A college now actively involved with promoting for-profit charter schools across the United States. The irony of the chaplain of Hillsdale College urging prayer to stop the US Supreme Court from ruling that consenting adults who happen to be the same gender must be stopped from getting married because it’s immoral – well, only the kind of people who support Hillsdale College would fail to see the irony.
At Hillsdale College, married people having sex with members of their own family, and grown adults sexually molesting children are acceptable within their conservative Christian narrative. Same sex marriage? That’s immoral, and must never be allowed. When it comes to “ugly things”, Hillsdale College needs to collectively look in the mirror to see the ugliest thing of all.
Morel Fever Is Here: Mesick Mushroom Festival
Friday , 8, May 2015 Community, Environment Leave a comment
Morel mushrooms began to pop out of the ground in the past week up north. So far, they’re slow and few due to lack of rain. Soaking rain in the southern part of Michigan hasn’t made it here at all. That’s keeping the morels from coming up the way we like. It’s also making Northern Michigan dangerously high for fire danger. Campfires or burning of any kind are banned. The Up North Progressive’s success so far has been so-so. Dry forests don’t encourage mushrooms to fruit.
Mother’s Day weekend means it’s time for the Mesick Mushroom Festival. Beginning today and through the weekend, people come to Mesick to hunt for morels. There are many other activities happening beginning Friday evening through Sunday morning including concerts, mushroom hunting contests, sporting events, and concerts.
What kind of morels are people in Mesick finding this weekend? Here we find black morels. They come up a little earlier than the white or yellow morels, and they’re smaller. They’re also harder to find, so starting with these mushrooms makes it easier to find the white ones later. White morels can be found as late as early June. Memorial Day weekend is a good time to go looking for them. There is a third morel called half-free that the Up North Progressive has only found in Kalamazoo. If you want to hunt for white morels in Kalamazoo, Blanche Hull Nature Preserve usually has good hunting.
Where to find them depends on whether you have a known location to hunt them every year. Scouting out new areas can be fun, but you’re not guaranteed to always find them. Morel locations are closely guarded secrets.
The weekend forecast for Northern Michigan promises a chance of rain and thunderstorms. Mushroom hunting for morels will depend on how much rain we get. Depending on whether it rains or not could make it a lean weekend for morel hunters. Good luck!
Voter’s Rejection of Proposal 1 About More Than Taxes
Wednesday , 6, May 2015 Nerd Problems 15 Comments
In 2011, Rick Snyder talked about shared sacrifice and raised taxes on poor people, the elderly and the middle class. He slashed spending on schools and gave corporations a big tax cut because they’re the “job creators.”
What do we have to show for this shared sacrifice? Crumbling roads, shuttered schools, “emergency management,” eliminated services, and outsourcing to private companies that provide service best described as criminal. After 5 years of Rick Snyder and the Republicans in Lansing in control, this state is a mess. Meanwhile, the Michigan legislature spends way too much money on luxury offices and strips the school aid fund to build a rich people’s playground in downtown Detroit.
Where did Michigan’s tax dollars go that Republicans thought we wouldn’t notice, and vote to increase taxes on ourselves? That is the most contemptible thing of all. Our government is too scared to do their jobs and come up with a real way to fund new road repairs, so they thought they would blackmail us into doing it to ourselves. We certainly haven’t had a governor in Lansing in years. Snyder had his hired goon, Richard Baird, running the state for him. Now he’s too busy with getting the rest of the nation to notice him to care what’s happening in Michigan. Elections have consequences. If more people had bothered to vote in November, we wouldn’t be stuck with the Nerd now.
The people of Michigan are fed up with Rick Snyder and his regressive taxes on the middle class, the poor, and the elderly. Our governor and state legislators need to go back to Lansing and do their damn jobs. Business doesn’t want to move to a state with roads in the condition Michigan roads are in. Business also puts the most wear and tear on roads. Make the businesses who got the tax cuts in 2011 pay more to fix the roads.
Of course, every time Snyder doesn’t get his way he retaliates by doing something even worse. We voted down emergency managers and he passed a new law so he could keep them. We tried to protect unions in the state constitution and he retaliated with Freedom to Freeload. Tonight we’re celebrating because we collectively told the Nerd to stuff it, but tomorrow the roads are still wrecked and who knows if anything will be done about it.
Polls open at 7:00. You know what to do.
Michigan Republicans Adopt Resolution Demanding SCOTUS Respect States’ Rights: Anti-Marbury v. Madison Edition
Monday , 4, May 2015 LGBT Rights, Same Sex Marriage Leave a comment
Straws, meet Clutching.
Right-wing religious authoritarians in the United States are terrified because they know the end of treating same sex couples as second class citizens no longer is a matter of if, but when. Their ability to discriminate against people of the LGBT community makes them cry out they’re the ones being discriminated against. As the weeks to the Supreme Court’s decision draws closer, the voices of the religiously intolerant grows louder.
While some submit petitions to the court demanding Justices Ginsburg and Kagan recuse themselves, another sells online restraining orders to send to the Court and members of Congress demanding they rule or vote in favor of denying gay people their civil rights. There are predictions of plagues, fireballs from heaven, droughts, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes due to some imaginary sky alien from above punishing America for including another group of people into the legally married fold that should have never been excluded.
Congressman Steve King of Iowa sponsored a bill in the House co-sponsored by Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg that would strip federal courts of their ability to rule on any case relating to marriage. Tossing everything you learned and forgot in high school civics class won’t stop the courts doing what they’re supposed to do. It’s a clear sign of how desperate the religious right have become to stop something they have no control over with radical ‘legislate from the bench’ bills like this.
Last week in Lansing, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for and against the group of four cases including DeBoer v. Snyder, the Michigan House and Senate issued concurrent resolutions urging:
The United States Supreme Court to recognize its limited historic role in a federal system and to urge the states to become proactive in defending their sovereignty against federal overreach.
What is a resolution? It’s something politicians take time out of their day to write, introduce, discuss and vote on that has absolutely no legislative power. It’s how politicians either support or complain about something; and get re-elected because it “looks” like they’re doing something. 22 Republican senators co-sponsored SCR 12, and Lee Chatfield of Petoskey introduced HCR 11. That resolution has 28 Republican co-sponsors, including Todd Courser.
Both resolutions use the same arguments to state their case. They start with number 45 of the Federalist Papers and quote Madison’s statement that federal powers are to be few and defined. They move on to the 10th amendment, describing it as the most sacred of the bill of rights, a shield against the tyranny of federal oversight of the 14th amendment, which according to the resolution, allowed the Supreme Court to “embrace novel legal doctrines” that led to rendering the 10th amendment meaningless. To illustrate how the 14th rendered the 10th meaningless, they cite the 1857 case Scott v. Sanderson, finishing with a quote from Abraham Lincoln about the dangerous precedent Justice Taney set with his ruling. Not only did these fine Michigan Republicans skip Civics, it appears they slept through U.S. History too.
The resolution ends with telling the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize it’s limited role in the federal system, and remember the 10th amendment is like a supremacy clause for the states.
Here is something to consider when people argue the 10th amendment grants sovereignty to the states. It doesn’t. The 10th amendment simply states that the powers not granted to the United States are reserved for the individual states, or the people. What that means is there is a relationship between federal and state levels of government. In fact, the 10th has been used historically to enforce the 14th amendment, not act as a shield against it. Where do our Michigan Republicans get the notion that the 10th amendment grants Michigan sovereignty over the federal government? They’re confusing the 10th amendment with Article II of the Articles of Confederation, which does say:
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
Unfortunately for Michigan Republicans, Article VI of the United States Constitution, the supremacy clause, makes the Constitution the law of the land and rendered the Articles of Confederation moot.
Which means the U.S. Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to hear DeBoer v. Snyder and the other three cases to determine if same sex marriage is protected by the 14th amendment. It totally does. Deep down, religious conservatives all over the United States know the law is on the side of the majority.
The US Constitution is the supreme law of this country. It’s supersedes local ordinances, state law, Sharia Law, the Holy Bible and everything in between. Our secular form of government was designed by our founding fathers to protect the people from powerful religious minorities who along with kings proclaimed their rule came from whatever imaginary sky alien they believed in. In America, we’re ruled by the will of the people. The people are ready to grant equal rights to every American who wants to get married.
Proposal 1 Will Be Defeated 2 To 1 On May 5 Latest Poll Predicts
Sunday , 3, May 2015 Nerd Problems Leave a comment
In an EPIC-MRA poll released on May 1, both likely voters and certain voters answered they would vote no on proposal 1 on May 5 by a margin of two to one against those who plan to vote yes. Proposal 1, if passed, would increase Michigan’s sales tax from 6% to 7%, and trigger ten more bills pending approval that would increase more taxes.
The raise in sales tax would actually be a 17% increase, not the ‘one penny more’ argument some supporters have used to promote a yes vote. This means most Michiganians will see a tax increase anywhere from $250 to as much as $1,300, depending on how many vehicles they own, including boats, off road vehicles, and lawn mowers. There’s also a new tax for electric cars, and license plate fees will no longer decrease with the depreciation value of the car.
Incentives to vote for Proposal 1 aren’t enough for the majority of voters. The restoration of the Earned Income Credit won’t help nearly enough with offsetting the increased sales taxes, which always make a bigger impact on the poor. The $75 per-pupil K-12 tuition increase will be offset by cuts the state has made that takes more money out of school funding. What many people also don’t realize is it will be 2 to 3 years before their increased taxes actually pay for road repairs, as most of the money the tax generates will go to paying money owed for road repairs already completed.
What’s unique about this election is that people on the far right and the left both intend to vote no on Tuesday. The tea party has a whole list of budget cuts they want to make, including cutting health care for poor children, cutting money from education, libraries, economic development, as well as an across the board 10% in spending for everything. I’m sure the tea party looks forward to more prisoners being released early, and who needs schools and libraries anyway? What’s most ironic is the new tone the tea party has taken with this proposal, saying the poor can’t afford the new taxes, yet they haven’t changed one bit of their ideology when it comes to actually helping the poor.
On the left the problems with Proposal 1 are the hidden language in some of the bills that will be triggered with passage, and the already stated fact that it will be 2018 before any money from the increased tax will pay for fixing roads. K-12 funding language in Michigan’s law will be rewritten to include other institutions. How much money will our public schools actually be getting after the corporations get their fill from the school fund trough? What progressives would like to see is for corporations enjoying their $2 billion tax cuts from 2011 pay more taxes to maintain the roads they put the most wear and tear on. This is the most logical, common sense thing to do, which is why Republicans will never do it.
Unless the election day is in November, turnout to vote is always very small. Snyder and Safe Roads Yes are counting on people staying home so this proposal passes. Voting yes on Tuesday will not make all the potholes and crumbling bridges magically disappear overnight. It’s years before any money will go to new roads, while Michiganians will pay more taxes right away. Too many hidden changes to the law, and Snyder once again wants to increase taxes on the people who can’t afford to pay more. Proposal 1 is likely going down on May 5, and that’s not a bad thing. Rick Snyder is considering a run for president. An overwhelming defeat, especially from your own party, isn’t an easy thing to campaign on.
Jeb Bush Is A Fan of Charles Murray: This Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone
Friday , 1, May 2015 Candidates, Presidential Primary 2016 Leave a comment
“I like Charles Murray books…which means I’m a total nerd.” — @JebBush #NRISummit15
— National Review (@NRO) April 30, 2015
Yesterday at the National Review forum former governor of Florida and GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush mentioned his views on poverty were shaped by author Charles Murray. If you’re not sure who he is, he is the co-author of The Bell Curve, a book many consider to be outright racism disguised as research. What many people still don’t realize is it’s important to look at the people who paid Murray to write this book and their agenda for having books like this written.
The people responsible for paying Murray to write this book is the Bradley Foundation. A conservative foundation based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Bradley Foundation funds many conservative causes and politicians. Naturally,they are supporters of ed reform, vouchers and charter schools. A group they fund with the Walton Foundation among other donors is the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a front group promoting “school choice” cleverly disguised as school segregation.
Murray writes in The Bell Curve:
“The professional consensus is that the United States has experienced dysgenic pressures throughout either most of the century (the optimists) or all of the century (the pessimists). Women of all races and ethnic groups follow this pattern in similar fashion. There is some evidence that blacks and Latinos are experiencing even more severe dysgenic pressures than whites, which could lead to further divergence between whites and other groups in future generations.”
In other words, minorities are genetically inferior to whites, and all women are genetically inferior to men. Murray’s sources and research are flawed eugenics theory, but this didn’t stop the Bradley Foundation from using the book they paid for to shape policy and fund organizations like BAEO. That Jeb Bush admires Murray and thinks this white nationalist is correct in his opinions on poverty and race in America shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. It doesn’t surprise Bush’s fellow conservatives. In fact, many of the politicians shaping Congressional budget policy and changing how the country deals with poverty in Washington D.C. have ties to the Bradley Foundation.
Jeb Bush supports school vouchers, for-profit charter schools and Common Core because the financial backers of school ed reform – DeVos, Bradley, Gates, Walton – all support racially segregated schools. It’s the whole basis for the education reform movement in the United States. If you’re still wondering where Rick Snyder gets his motivation for corporate-based education reform in Detroit and Michigan, look no further.
The Nerd’s Detroit School Plan is Politics As Usual: Detroit Teachers Fight Back
Thursday , 30, April 2015 Nerd Problems, Section 16 Leave a comment
Today 18 Detroit Public Schools closed for the day as their teachers went to Lansing to protest the Nerd’s announcement of his latest plan to destroy public education in the city. The city’s public schools, after decades of constant attack from politicians and school reformers finally had enough and went to Lansing to let Snyder know they’re not interested in his agenda. The “plan for Detroit schools” is part of Snyder’s political strategy for a possible run to the White House.
Republicans wasted no time spinning the teacher strike, claiming it was the teachers and their union putting politics over children. A common dog whistle of school reformers is they’re turning public schools into for-profit corporations “for the children.” Thanks to Richard McLellan and his scribbled notes from 25 years ago, we now know the destruction of public schools in Detroit has been calculated and deliberate politically fueled plan by the state.
State House Speaker Kevin Cotter was quick to fire off a statement describing Detroit Public Schools’ teachers as “irresponsible” “careless” and “selfish”.
“Today’s careless political maneuvering by the Detroit Federation of Teachers is another example of the selfish attitude that has put the demands of adults above the needs of Detroit’s kids for decades. I am disgusted to see teachers from eighteen schools abandon their kids and their responsibilities. Every time the union acts, the kids in Detroit fall even further behind, including the thousands who will receive no education today.
What irresponsible teachers! They’re only concerned about increased class sizes, decreased funding, fewer support staff, and the outrageous weeks and weeks of high-stakes standardized testing now inflicted on Detroit’s school children. According to Cotter however, they went to Lansing because they wanted a day off.
“Their failed approach has led to empty schools, falling test scores and a mismanaged school district on the brink of collapse. I look forward to the discussion that will be started later this afternoon on how responsible adults can come together and fix the problems created by the so-called educators who chose to take the day off.”
Naturally, these empty schools have nothing to do with the city’s Lansing-inflicted crippling poverty and the Republican push to open for-profit charter schools in the city. The school district’s been under emergency management for 6 years, 5 of those years with the enhanced Nerd model of emergency managers. According to Cotter and the rest of the school reform echo-chamber, it’s the union’s fault the state has corked up revenue for the public school, and most recently shunted money out of Detroit’s education funds to pay for a new Wings Stadium. As for kids missing another day in class, they’re missing far more class time with the weeks and weeks of standardized testing they’re forced to endure for the state.
Funny how the people who are responsible for the state of public education in Detroit and Michigan are the ones crying foul that some teachers decided to demonstrate their disgust and resistance to yet more reforms that will only make things worse for Detroit Public Schools. Pay attention to this, because Detroit isn’t the only school district that will be suffering from the Nerd’s DeVos-fueled passion to drive another coffin nail into Michigan’s public schools. We need to support the teachers of Detroit Public Schools, and the uphill battle they’re fighting for their schools and for the children of Detroit.
Grand Traverse Academy School Board Needs To Share The Felon’s Responsibility: The Continuing Story of Dr. Steve Ingersoll
Sunday , 26, April 2015 Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 4 Comments
On March 10, 2015, Steve Ingersoll was convicted in a federal district court on three out of six counts of felony fraud. What’s been happening since then? A lot. The intrepid Miss. Fortune has all the wonderfully dirty details.
- Steve Ingersoll wants a new trial because he’s still pretty sure charter schools are banks.
- Also, he’s selling derelict Bay City properties cheaper than dirt. Tax liability included!
- Meanwhile, the city’s foreclosing on other properties in an attempt to get the unpaid taxes off their books.
- Ingersoll gets a hearing and a new sentencing date, giving him plenty of time to liquidate as much as he can.
- Bay City Academy will likely be under new management soon!
Since Miss Fortune is the only one doing any real follow-up reporting on the convicted optometrist, bookmarking her blog may be a good idea.
As the U.S. Attorneys try to file restraining orders faster than Ingersoll can offload evidence assets, what about the for-profit charter schools he used to manage, and manages – for now? Grand Traverse Academy is still in the red $1.6 million dollars, but there is no media coverage or parents up in arms over the mishandling of funds. Meanwhile, in the same Michigan city Traverse City Area Public Schools received plenty of media coverage when former school employee Mary Gillison was indicted, convicted, and now serving a nine month sentence for stealing $50,000. How does one convicted felon manage to receive no media coverage and still enjoys freedom after stealing millions, while another convicted felon gets all the media attention the local news can stuff into their papers?
Here is the difference. TCAPS is a real public school system, which means every penny received and spent must be reported to the state. GTA is a for-profit charter school managed by a privately owned third party vendor, and although the charter school must also report finances to the state, the money that goes through the management company magically transforms from taxpayer dollars to private assets.
The GTA board, according to Miss Fortune, were well aware for years there was a problem with Smart Schools LLC’s handling of management payments, but rather than do their job and hold Ingersoll accountable, they simply relabeled the money to hide what was happening.
This is not unusual with Michigan for-profit charter schools. Last year’s Detroit Free Press exposé into the problems charter school boards have with management companies and authorizers illustrates that often the agencies charged with providing oversight are part of the problem.
School boards of real public schools are elected to their positions. Boards of for-profit charter schools are appointed, and then approved by the authorizers. Lake Superior State University dropped the ball with GTA because according to Michigan law, it’s the job of the authorizer to “ensure charter school boards operate independently of any educational management company involved in the operation of the school.”
The GTA board, both past and present, included Ingersoll’s business partners, the business partner’s extended family, friends, and colleagues. Conflict of interest? Let that fester in your brain as you read this:
Service providers/management companies are accountable to the non-profit charter school boards that hire them. The boards are responsible for setting policy, directing operational and academic performance, and ensuring fiscal stability. Regardless of the type or level of support for which it is contracted, each service provider/management company operates at the direction of the charter school board.
LSSU approves the board, but has no jurisdiction over the management company because it’s a for-profit private corporation. The management company is supposed to be accountable to the board, but when the board is made up of friends and family, just how much direction can the board honestly have? Apparently $3.5 million of taxpayers’ money taken from the school and hidden in financial records as “prepaid” expenses much direction. Mark Noss, Bradley Habermehl, and the rest of the optometrist GTA school board were the ones responsible to make sure school funds weren’t mishandled. Ingersoll has 20 years experience making money disappear and reappear through his various LLCs. It took the Feds getting involved to try and rein him in, and they’re struggling now with his shenanigans in Bay City.
The tragic events of Dr. Steve Ingersoll and his 20 year adventure into education and creative financing illustrate why for-profit charter schools in Michigan will never be real public schools. There is too much rampant fraud, mismanagement of funds, and authorizers more than willing to ignore the problem while management companies bleed Michigan taxpayers dry. Everything that is not supposed to happen according to Michigan law Steve Ingersoll got away with. LSSU will never revoke the charter, and the Michigan Department of Education is powerless to do anything. For-profit charter schools in Michigan are parasites – helping themselves to the resources and provide no benefit. At least put the state-wide cap back in place before more can open.
Too much to ask? It’s a rhetorical question, no need to answer.
AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! @onetoughnerd ‘s Running For President!!!
Saturday , 25, April 2015 Nerd Problems, Presidential Primary 2016 3 Comments
Norm Coleman just told reporters at @RJCHQ spring mtg in Vegas that MI Gov @onetoughnerd said he's running for president.
— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) April 25, 2015