Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern Michigan
Finally, the midterm election is over and you know what that means – the news can stop screaming about ISIS and Ebola 24/7. That will be a relief, because the constant barrage of YOU’RE GONNA DIE OF BEHEADING BY TERRORISTS WHILE YOU’RE SHITTING BLOOD was really becoming tedious. I know for a fact I am not going to die of Ebola or from a terrorist attack, but that didn’t stop the news from reporting about it leading up to the election.
And it was important to report about things that scared the bejeezus out of us no matter how disingenuous it is to play on people’s fear. This country has real problems, but if there’s a chance they could get fixed, then people wouldn’t be scared to death all the time and they might want things – like jobs that pay a living wage, health care, decent public schools, stupid stuff like that. Don’t you know a black communist Muslim gay terrorist is in the White House?
Another thing we now know about the Republican Party is they can cynically sabotage a functioning government and be rewarded by people frustrated by the lack of a functioning government. Republicans in Washington run this country into the ground out of fear and loathing and spite? By all means we need more of that to stop the gay communist black Muslim terrorist in the White House.
What we have guaranteed tonight is two years of absolutely nothing getting done that needs to get done, and two more years of being terrified of a man who has spent the past six years doing nothing but good for this country.
23 Reasons I Will NOT Be Voting For Rick Snyder and Neither Should You: Sithlord Snyder-Free Edition
Monday , 3, November 2014 Nerd Problems 4 Comments
This list is courtesy of Mark Sleep. Please share.
- 1.8 billion in tax cuts to businesses that had to be made up elsewhere.
- (3) secret funds whose donors were unknown and what they were for.
- EFM change that gave dictator like power to an unelected official. When voters voted against it they changed the law slightly and passed it again but tacked an appropriations bill on it to make it referendum proof.
- Huge pay raises to some people
- Huge cuts to public schools
- Pushing to privatize schools
- Pushing to privatize services
- Cuts in revenue sharing to cities and communities.
- Right to Work law that let’s non paying members freeload off dues paying members (An attempt to destroy unions and weaken their finances and ability to voice workers concerns thru the political process)
- Taxing pensions
- Cuts to the Earned Income Credit
- Cuts to the Homestead Property Tax credit
- Passing most laws under “Immediate Effect” in violation of State Constitution
- Petty paybacks against teacher’s union
- Violating State Constitution by not protecting Detroit employee pensions
- Secret Right Hand Man Richard Baird
- Reduced Unemployment weeks from 26 to 20
- Passed smaller Minimum Wage hike in order to stop a petition drive to put a Minimum Wage increase on the ballot.
- Weakening bargaining rights for pubic sector unions bypassing laws that place limitations on bargaining and benefits.
- A.L.E.C and Dick DeVos controlled
- Gerrymandering of voting Districts
- The Aramark food service fiasco.
- Suspicious State furniture contract to relative.
Courtesy of Mark Sleep
Listen To EMU Regent Jim Stapleton Tell The Dirty Rotten Truth About The Origin of the Education Achievement Authority
Monday , 3, November 2014 Nerd Problems, Section 16 7 Comments
It seems fitting to know now that the first meeting to discuss the governor’s concept for the EAA was at a restaurant called “The Chop House.” The EAA most certainly lived up to being a horrific chop house of children and their education.
This recording was made on September 22, 2014. Eastern Michigan University Regent Jim Stapleton revealed to faculty and students the facts about a meeting that took place with the governor and several other members of his inner circle in April of 2011 to discuss a new school district called the Education Achievement Authority. Stapleton admits that what was pitched to him and Roy Wilbanks on that day and what actually happened are two completely different realities. You can listen to Jim Stapleton tell a group of EMU faculty what happened:
In this eight minute clip, Stapleton starts out describing how the first meeting to discuss forming the EAA went down. Stapleton and Wilbanks sat down with Rick Snyder, Richard Baird, a representative of the Eli Broad Foundation, Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, and attorney and charter school/school voucher snake oil salesman Richard McClellan. Richard Baird pitched the idea of a new state-wide school district to the two EMU administrators, then talked about how this was a political decision, and that of all the public institutions in the state, the governor believed EMU was the right fit for this project.
Stapleton also describes the decision to not share this with anyone else in the University administration, and when he went to Roy Roberts, the emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools, to talk to him two days after that meeting with the governor, Roberts had never heard anything about it.
There is much regret in Stapleton’s account and how it has impacted the College of Education at EMU. He tries to lay blame on everyone, until a faculty member at the meeting tells him there is no way he can blame them.
What it came down to was money. Wilbanks and Stapleton thought the state would funnel money into EMU, and the university would have another school district to place student teachers. None of those things happened. The EAA never became a state-wide district, it’s remained in Detroit and the children who are placed there are not getting the education they were promised.
But, Rick Snyder wanted this to move quickly. By July of 2011 there was a press conference announcing the EAA. And we all know what happened after that.
From the very beginning the EAA was a failed experiment pushed by people with no background in education and have no business establishing school districts anywhere in Michigan. Non-education people making education decisions always means disaster and the ones who suffer of course are always the children. It’s time for Detroit Public Schools to abolish the EAA for good. On November 4 we can remove Rick Snyder so he can’t harm our school children with his steak house rush job any more.
We are now less than two days away before the 2014 midterm election. Absentee ballots are coming in with reports of very high returns similar to a year we would be electing a president. This is good news, as it’s a fact that when more people vote, Democratic Party candidates win.
Which is why it’s very important that if you don’t vote by absentee, then you need to make sure to know where you vote and make the effort to go there on Tuesday, November 4. There could be lines, but that’s okay, as long as you are in line by 8:00 pm election officials at the precinct are required by law to allow you to vote. You will need your driver’s license or state picture ID to vote. Make sure you have your voter registration card too.
Once you have your ballot and you’re ready to vote, you will have many names to choose from. Most will have their party affiliation next to them, but judges and school board candidates are non-partisan. Contact your local county Democratic Party headquarters if you have questions. They will be more than happy to help you with selecting the right candidates.
Here are the candidates suggested by Up North Progressive:
Governor and Lieutenant Governor
Mark Schauer and Lisa Brown
Secretary of State
Godfrey Dillard
Attorney General
Mark Totten
United States Senate
Gary Peters
United States House of Representatives
District 1 – Jerry Cannon
District 2 – Dean Vanderstelt
District 4 – Dr. Jeffrey Holmes
District 5 – Dan Kildee
Michigan State Senate
District 25 – Terry Brown
District 33 – Fred Sprague
District 34 – Cathy Forbes
District 35 – Glenn Lottie
District 36 – Joe Lukasiewicz
District 37 – Dr. Phil Bellfy
Distric 38 – Christopher Germain
Michigan State House
District 70 – James Hoisington
District 97 – Mark Lightfoot
District 98 – Joan Brausch
District 99 – Bryan Mielke
District 100 – Mark Balcom
District 101 – Tom Stobie
District 102 – John Ruggles
District 103 – James Cromwell
District 104 – Betsy Coffia
District 105 – Jay Calo
District 106 – Robert Kennedy
District 107 – Jim Page
District 108 – Grant Carlson
District 109 – John Kivela
District 110 – Scott Dianda
State Board of Education
Pamela Pugh Smith
Cassandra E. Ulbrich
Regent – University of Michigan
Mike Behm
Kathy White
Trustee – Michigan State University
Faylene Owen
George Perles
Governor – Wayne State University
Marilyn Kelly
Dana Alicia Thompson
Justice of the Supreme Court
Richard Bernstein
Bill Murphy
Justice of the Supreme Court (Unfinished)
Deborah A. Thomas
Ballot Proposals
Proposal 1 – NO
Proposal 2 – NO
There will also be county commissioners, county road commissioners, local school board members, and district and circuit court judges to vote for. In these cases, it’s best to get in touch with the local Democratic Party office and ask who they suggest or endorse. In the 51st Circuit Court for instance, The Mason County Democratic Party endorses Paul R. Spaniola. Many of the county Democratic parties have pages on Facebook where you can ask questions.
Make sure you get out and vote on November 4. We need every vote to win and start Michigan back on the road to recovery after four years of failed GOP control of our government.
7,431,648 people Are Registered To Vote In Michigan
Friday , 31, October 2014 Uncategorized Leave a commentWhat are you doing to get them out to vote on November 4?
Fear is a powerful motivator. Words, actions and intentions we would never consider reality become perfectly normal when reacting to what scares us. Among friends, even those who are highly educated, the irrational fear that makes people accept what is simply not true is even less understandable.
The Democratic Party in Michigan worked tirelessly this election to educate people on what our Republican-dominated state government did to us over the past four years, and what they have every intention to do if they win next Tuesday. People with the capacity for rational thought got the message, but there are still a group of people who don’t seem to get it, no matter how much evidence or facts are presented to them. You may call them low-information voters, Fox News watchers, tea party, or something much worse.
No amount of facts or proof, even if you have first-hand knowledge will penetrate the irrational wall of fear that surrounds people. Only one person in this country has died of Ebola, but that doesn’t stop low-information people awash with fear from making death threats against health care workers returning from Africa showing no symptoms and testing negative for the disease.
In Michigan, irrational fear motivates low-info tea party members in the state. They even use a terrified animal as their banner on Facebook.
A brief overview of the issues they’re using to motivate voters is typical: Fear of minorities, same-sex marriage, women exercising their constitutional right to choose their own health care, Ebola, immigrant children, and the irrational notion that Sharia Law will ever be something we need to worry about. We already know what they think of the Affordable Care Act.
All of these concerns which the tea party considers most important have one thing in common: There is not one shred of evidence that any of these issues are real problems in the United States or Michigan. Being afraid of them is enough.
As frustrating as it is, talking to these people in the state of fear they live in is useless. They will never listen to you or your mountain of evidence nor appreciate how rational you are when you attempt to explain the truth. Facts don’t matter for these voters, their fear leads them. Understanding how much recently became apparent when a dear close friend accused me of trying to control her thoughts, “because that’s what you Democrats do.” In 2012 we called this fear the bubble. In 2014 there are thankfully fewer people inside the bubble, but for those who are still there, it’s what they take with them to the polls this Tuesday.
And that is why we can’t be apathetic this year like we were in 2010. It’s vital that people who are well informed and know what’s at stake if Republicans win four more years in Michigan get out and vote on November 4. Halloween has nothing on the angry, fearful, low-information voters who will vote next Tuesday.
