Let Detroit and the rest of Michigan's brokest cities go bankrupt

The emergency financial manager approach is clearly just too fraught with politics and brinksmanship and the governor and the legislature (both past and present) simply lack the fortitude to stand up to the charges of undemocratic meddling in local affairs and racism and act for the common good. Lansing should just let Detroit go under.

Sooner or later these cities are going to have to face reality and see what they're in for when they don't pay their bills. When creditors, pensioners, employees, et. al. don't receive payment these cities will then end up in federally run Bankruptcy Courts like it or not. Being tenured federal judges the bankruptcy courts can then sort it all out without all the politics and drama of Michigan's EFM process.

"I don't care how you did things in California"

When I lived in Renton, WA back in the 00's I often saw a bumper sticker that read: "I don't care how you did things in California". Suburban Seattle was then awash in economic refugees from the Golden State then. Sadly, many had moved to Washington and then immediately started agitating to make over  the Evergreen State into another California. Now it appears that another wave of ex-Cali's are headed outward. Of course they sure aren't gonna come here, but they are gonna end up somewhere. Word to the wise.

Guns Don't Kill People; Dangerous Minorities Do

Good point. Some timely observations from the SBPDL blog. And, sad to say, they are most likely correct observations about how things really go around here. Minus out the violent crime hotspots here in Michigan (Detroit, Flint, etc.) and this place would have the same crime stats as as a civilized social democracy like Sweden.

Word of warning to the stoners at EMU; Pot is still illegal

Kind of amazing that this even needs to be said. The campus cops will arrest you for having and smoking that stuff.

Finally! A product the Chinese wanna buy from Michigan!

"...[M]uskrat pelts are in high demand by the Chinese. The lust for fur on the other side of the globe is driving the price of the 'poor man's mink' -- the lowly muskrat -- higher and higher." *

Who'd have thunk it?

* "Michigan muskrat trappers enjoy boom as demand for fur grows" [Detroit Free Press]

Michigan family of eight lives "off the grid"

They live in an old Amish farmhouse over by Grand Rapids. Wood stoves for heat and cooking, no electricity. They do have a smartphone though. Heh. [Grand Rapids Press]

Attention media big-shots: You can put a show on cable but you can't make us watch it

Ex-Michigan governor Jenny Granholm has a temp talk show gig on Al Gore's Current TV channel now through November 2012 it has been announced.

"The premise [of her show]" says Detroit News columnist Laura Berman, "is that Granholm's inside knowledge of campaign strategy and communications will enable her to provide insights into the process — and the mayhem — that aren't easily understood from outside."

Whatever. As a hugely disappointing two-term Michigan governor and recent migrant to California I seriously doubt that Granholm has that much "insight" to offer viewers on national politics and I fully expect that the ratings she gets will reflect that. The Gore Channel must be really, truly, hard-up for media personalities if they're taking her on, even as a temp.

Michigan AG Schuette sure is an obstructionist jackhole ain't he?

The Detroit Free Press reports that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette wants to prohibit UM grad students from unionizing. Why does he even care about that? The reasons the AG gives are kinda obscure at least to me. Schuette has also begun an all-out war against government employees having same sex employment benefits and the "medical" marihuana law. For one  in that same sex couples cannot legally marry under Michigan law denying them a benefit that is available to heterosexuals seems unfair. As to the medical marihuana law that was passed by plebiscite  in 2008, (as a work-around for people who wanna get  high without risking being arrested), AG Schuette has taken it as his mission to overrule the legislature's and the people's decisions on these two issues. It's hard to see why other than just blind arrogance the AG has tried to thwart their decisions. Go figure?

Herman Cain to speak at Hillsdale College tonight; To what end though?

What he is going to talk about the announcement does not say. Cain refuses to discuss the accusations of sexual harassment or philandering made against him and unfortunately for him that seems to be all that the media want to ask him about. Given these problems I doubt that Cain will still be a viable candidate by the time the Michigan Republican primary takes place although Cain may still be on the ballot.

Jack Lessenberry: "An Emergency Manager could be what Detroit needs"

Whoa. Lessenberry is and has always been a pretty standard  progressive Democrat for as long as I have been reading him and so I never expected to hear this opinion from him. Ever. But now we have.

"Detroit government is terribly broken and dysfunctional", says Lessenberry, "in a way it has so far proven impossible for elected leaders to repair. The basic problem is this: What was once a prosperous city of nearly 2 million people is now a largely dilapidated and shrunken one of barely 700,000 mostly very poor people.

In addition to vast debts and a current budget deficit, the city has a social services and public employee sector built for a larger, richer city, and can no longer sustain it. Especially not in the face of massive revenue cuts from the state."

Sad but true. 

Another victory for the "free market": Michigan set to allow bigger, badder, more dangerous fireworks sales

Hey, why should Ohio get all the fireworks bidness, eh? So goes the thinking of the sponsors of this proposal. This is a bad idea I fear but what the hell? And dangerous toys are the most fun right?

Confirming the obvious

After a decade long (and counting) recession a US Census Bureau study finds that Michigan is now much poorer.

ATF say medical marihuna users may not have guns or ammunition

No surprises here really. It's illegal under federal law [pdf] and that's the end of it as far as ATF is concerned. Furthermore in that the feds are the least accountable of the many layers of government we are afflicted with that is indeed that. Congress isn't going touch this issue with a ten foot pole and neither is the administration so unless ATF relents or some federal judge engages in some "judicial activism" this door is shut tight.

My advice to shooters that like to get high is this: Just grow your own, be discreet about it, and leave the feds the hell out of it. What this portends for local stoners with guns around here (especially those with Michigan-issued CPLs) is uncertain.  What is certain, at least to me, is that no amount of permits, licenses, and permissions slips from the bureaucracy is ever going make you free.

Jack Lessenberry says former Michigan governor's book lacks candor, honesty, and insight just like her terms as governor did

But old Jack still thinks her eight-year tenure as Michigan's governor was characterized by indecisiveness and lack of candor and that her book was written for all the wrong reasons.

So why in the world did she write this book, anyway? 

"This [book] isn't for a Michigan audience," says a Lessenberry undisclosed source. "They've got her number. Nobody wants to see her, let alone buy a book she's written. We had eight years of her blowing us away. 'This is for Washington and New York audiences, to keep herself out there, to get speaking engagements and keep her job as a commentator on MSNBC, and maybe add to that."

That is how I see it too.


*

Small measure of justice for Hutaree Militia defendant

The US Attorney's office in Detroit has decided to drop one firearm-related charge against Hutaree Militia conspiracy defendant David Brian Stone, Jr.

Good news for Mr. Stone of course but the underlying fact is that some 18 months have passed since the Lennawee county rifle club's cum terror plotters dramatic arrests and the accompanying propaganda campaign, media circus & photo-op without ever being brought to trial. So now, even if totally exonerated by a jury, they will have been incarcerated for at least two years by the time their trials even begin.

God bless America.

Michigan doctors to be ordered to report all children's BMI to the state government

No choice. Reporting is mandatory on the doctor's part. Just like child abuse or neglect currently are. If a kid is so fat that it really is a honest health issue well then that's neglect and/or abuse and should be reported. But this stuff is just absurd, not to mention intrusive and open to abuse by bureaucrats.

Face time with ex-Governor Jennifer Granholm @ $10 a pop

That's what the ad at the Ann Arbor Chronicle should read. I can't believe that the governor who presided over an unprecedented eight year long decline in living standards here in the Mitten State has enough nerve to try and sell a book detailing her "accomplishments". And I can't believe anyone would willingly pay her extra to have her sign their book after they buy it as well as the ticket to get in either. All the other authors visiting here give free readings and signings at area bookstores. Oh sure you may have to order and/or pay for tickets if seating is limited or it's a famous author who will likely draw a big crowd but that seems like it would hardly be the case with her. The egos these politicians have are just amazing and I don't mean that in a good way either.

Why can't Consumer's Energy and DTE keep the power on?

Every time the wind blows hard enough to blow the leaves around vast swaths of Michigan lose their electricity. More than any place I've ever been other than turd third world countries. Don't we pay them enough for a stable supply? Years ago I purchased a portable fuel powered generator and so this stuff doesn't affect me in a major way any more. But with that said it's still inexcusable for this to happen so often. Fuel prices go up, down, and sideways and all,  but the basic structural necessities to keep the grid up and running reliably seem to me to be pretty well-established and predictable and to be well within DTE and Consumer's Energy's  engineering capabilities as well. So what gives?

Declining school enrollments in Michigan is news?

For some media outlets here in Michigan it seems to be. I wonder where they've been since 2000 or so? With few or no jobs available and unemployment over ten percent (and that's just the bullshit official Washington number) why would a family with kids to raise stay here? And so they leave and take their education dollars with them when they go. Again this is news?

Michigan's mandatory price tag law expires today

As one of his first acts as governor Rick Snyder urged repeal of the law that required Michigan retailers to put price tags on all items on their shelves. Supposedly it's a "less regulation" issue favored by retail business lobbies because, the theory goes, anything that saves businesses money will save consumers money in the end too as these savings are passed on as lower prices.

I personally hate this development myself but I see can see nothing I can do about it except to shop on line, barter and buy second hand more often but which is not always possible or convenient though. As always I ask myself cui bono? Who wants to drag several different items over to the sales counter to do price comparisons or flag down a clerk to make inquiries? Not me that's for sure. Maybe this will all work out well but I kinda doubt it as things stand now. We'll see.