Michigan legislators Caswell, Kurtz, & Lori - all backed by the Mackinac Center travel the "gold brickers' road;" go out of state to New Orleans this week to act, as shills; to do the heavy-lifting for Koch Bros & Amway, as well as over 300 Corporatist CEO's-Fellow Travelers who want INSIDE ACCESS to lawmaking and law abatement/revisions that favor their business operations and bottomlines. Caswell, and Kurtz, & Lori are being set-up to deliver.
The Koch Brothers & Amway et. al. Corrupting BIG MONEY seek a direct pipeline to Michigan Lawmaking and Passage via the American Legislative Exchange Council or A.L.E.C.
In Michigan, no family or elite or uber-wealthy group more clearly illustrate the corrupting power of mega-money and the over-extended, exaggerated POWER AND INFLUENCE IN PUBLIC LIFE than Amway.
A.L.E.C. and the conscious effort of the Amway founders to be "national players" means their use of wealth amassed as the plundering princes of other-people's ambitions and dreams has given them too much "say & sway" in local, state, and national politics. And via the close connection with infamous Blackwater (funded from the same family fortune as that of Betsy Prince DeVos) is deeply enmeshed in dangerous mercenary international conflicts and private spying capers. Erik Prince and family have moved to the Persian Gulf area to avoid legal problems in the U.S..
The towering pyramid of Amway cash from neo-recruits in Asia, (especially China where they work hand in glove with the Red Chinese Government-monitors of their China enterprises) continues to give the DeVos and Van Andel families near limitless cash to blow out and buy-out regional business competition in this "one state depression"; they are rapidly assembling a growing stable of business enterprises that are looking more and more like regional monopolies in select business categories. Grand Rapids is beginning to look more and more like an Amway Company Town.
Knowing this, it is no surprise that Amway's control and influence in and over the Mackinac Center, the Acton Institute, the National Heritage Foundation, Citizens for Traditional Values, the American Federation for Children (AFC), and many more groups and proto-political organizations (all of which) feed into their joint participation with the Koch Brothers in THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL. The Amway goal: furthering undo corporate control over lawmaking and state regulations intended to protect the citizens and consumers and stuffing their swelling coffers. The Middle Class said Betsy Prince DeVos are overpaid. Hence so-called "Right-to-Work" for less is now on the radical agenda of Michigan's TeaPublican super majority for this fall's sessions.
A.L.E.C. is where the clogs that turn law and statutes on the individual state levels (the new battleground of the Rad-Right) allow Amway and Koch Industries et al to possess a megaphonic influence over our lives and those of our children.
Carrying the Poisonous Pollution Bucket for Industry " a pet A.L.E.C. goal: Destroy the federal EPA.
Ranging from fighting the EPA, to protecting the cancer causing asbestos industry from paying damages to victims, to destroying the nation's public schools via prioritization and privatization, to the viral union-busting (that is currently sweeping the country), BIG MONEY/BIG BIZ/BIG IDEOLOGY via "harmless Jeffersonian," principles Not! Big money and heavy influence pressures, are using state legislatures as "laboratories" to undermine and hamstring the federal/national government.
A.L.E.C. IS MOUNTING A SUCCESSFUL "COUP AGAINST MIDDLE AMERICA" and this nation's quality of life. No one family or Michigan entity has done more in this regard than the Amway DeVos'.
It behooves and motivates those who TRULY CARE about the American Commons, to strongly and actively END THIS TAKE-DOWN OF LOCAL COMMUNITY AND OUR MIDDLE CLASS WAY OF LIFE.
So as these three Michigan Legislators start down the "gold brick" road with their corporate handlers and get a new portfolio of CUT & PASTE /CORPORATE SERVING SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE MODELS we wonder:
- Will the Tin Man, Bruce Caswell grow a heart for disadvantaged kids?
"Caswell says he wants to make sure that state money set aside to buy clothes for foster children and kids of the working poor is actually used for that purpose. ... 'I never had anything new,' Caswell says. 'I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was - and quite frankly it's true - once you're out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you , nobody knows where you bought your clothes." -- Wrote Michigan Radio. Caswell took a heavy hit in his role as Ol' Scrooge, he recanted in part. However, Bruce, the Pinch Penny Scrooge ( has acquired a harsh label that will stick with Caswell for the rest of his political life).
- Will Kenneth Kurtz, legislative businessman, get a brain transplant and realize that the reduction of unemployment benefits he voted in (the harshest cuts-to that time-in the U.S.) are reflective of a senseless corporatist ideology that hurts over 400,000 fellow Michigan unemployed?
The current Michigan unemployed are not "day workers" by any stretch of the imagination; many had six-figure jobs with years of advanced degrees and successful vocation...Now, Michigan's hardnose TeaPublicans have cut them lose prematurely-with prejudice.
- Will Matthew Lori, the timorous Lion, muster the courage to rectify the A.L.E.C. sponsored damage his votes to undermine and destroy public service and teachers have created?
Can Rep. Lori even honestly represent his fellow neighbors in struggling rural Constantine displaying such timid compliance to outside influences?
Such questions, while appropriate, will pale in light of the pressure the Mackinac Center and its sister organization, the American Legislative Council, can and do put on such state legislators as this hapless threesome off to cozy up to the Koch Brothers and over 350 other A.L.E.C. corporatist members led by CEO's and their high-powered attorneys; serious men who demand these Michigan Legislators tow-the-line for international/multi-national Corporatocracy; no matter the cost to America's greater good, our commons, and local communities throughout Michigan.
The "educational" A.L.E.C. junkets as the party in New Orleans typically cost $3-$4,000 for each invited legislator? Last year the A.L.E.C. sponsors spent over $300,000 on tag-along-children of attendees (expenses for child care and entertainment services). Who pays the freight?
Perhaps A.L.E.C. errand boys Caswell, Kurtz & Lori will tell all when they return? But don't bet on it!
On the other hand, Michigan Legislators won't be the only ones there, and some of those folks do tell all.
Original Post and Reformatted Post.
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