It Was No Frenzy Island: Neanderthals & the Nerd (Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island)

The rogue elements comprising the Americans for Prosperity (AFP/Koch Bros. Political Arm) had a bodacious and oversized party on Mackinac Island last Saturday night after the Mitt Romney speech at the Biannual Republican Leadership Conference. Loud, crowded, and a must-be-seen-there event, the AFP bash (with a live band) topped off the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the Nerd's first island confab.

In nearly every conference event there were mentions of Right-to-Work, crack downs on unions/collective bargaining, bashing of teachers and other public servants, no new taxes, and lots of talk about rolling back taxes e.g. personal property taxes. Any mention, however slight of these topics brought out the hooters, hoopers and the clappers were especially loud and bodacious, over-powering and dominate. Any mention of breaks for business brought on swoons and loud applause.

The plaid-shirted ordinary folk, who are the core of the ill-defined Tea Party, the anti-brain bucket ABATE bikers with oiled leather, colorfully patched vests, were noticeably absent. Gone too are the long hair, long, ankle length gingham-dressed fundamentalist women folk with suckling babies. The aggressive independent Libertarian, Hillsdale College crowd and Alumni were, however, everywhere present.

What had the greatest potential to excite the Neanderthals was raw red meat; finding it in the presentations and in the standard speeches was hard, like picking over old, stale offal. The Nerd, Governor Rick Snyder, wants a cap on outward shows of incivility-blame-laying and extraneous and counter-productive partisan exaggerations and accusations.

To the Nerd's credit, he wants to stay focused on results and achievements toward what he has set out as the "doable" goals of his plan. In his Friday night speech he emphasized this point to the sound of one hand clapping.

The Nerd doesn't support the Neanderthals and their voracious appetite for carrion and bloodletting, raging politics. Flying flint spears and crude arrows of personal media attack-ad assassination were left to be mentioned off center dinner stage, at pundit/spin doctor panels.

In spite of the Nerd's savage legislative attacks on the poor, the public service providers, and the old/retirees on pensions; Rick Snyder persisted in his low key, CEO (self-defined) manner.

The Nerd has a set of goals and is ready and anxious to get on with the next pre-planned project: his new health and wellness proposals. Snyder is convinced emphasis on reducing the fat on the belt lines of Michiganders will result in "real savings" in the future.

The Neanderthals are seething at the Nerd's health concepts and are ready to cannibalize the Nerd's proposed health and wellness program. They see it as egregious government overreach to wipe out "individual responsibility" The grunts, the snorting, and hoof-to-ground (dust-up-hove-pawing) were everywhere-the undertow.

The Nerd has suggested, received, and signed into law; a "$400 million dollar assessment on health insurance claims" which is designed to relieve the corporate insurance companies of a "6% use tax on Medicare managed care" organizations-the "broad-based claims assessment" tax. The NEW TAX will be on everyone (little people) who have a health care claim. It's a classic case of shift and shaft. TeaPublicans are being besieged with legislation addressing those laws and regulations, taxes that defeat and confound their previous outrage and anger. Snyder has thrown them some "pickin's," some scraps. But the cave dwellers want more.

What are the TeaPublicans to expect, their TP supporters, being Neanderthals, they were purposefully chosen by Dick Morris and the Brothers Koch to lead the sheep to slaughter, to effect obfuscation and confusion, paving the way for the more ambitious and all-pervasive AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC) to sweep the bill writing slate with pro-corporate "put-and-take" bills they are pressing into pro-business legislation across America.  

To Morris and handlers, Neanderthals are simply "tools."

With the Neanderthals in tow, it is intended there will be little resistance; after all the TeaPublicans control the entire apparatus of Michigan governance and see no limits to their power and ability to do as they wish.

So after Snyder's homily, Chief Justice Robert Young, Henry Payne (See "MACKGOP: YOUNG GIVES 'EM RED MEAT") took to the podium with a zip-lock bag of bits and kibble, freeze dried red meat, intent upon getting the thrust and plunge spear carriers tuned up in a warpath frenzy. Henry Payne's plaintiff pout, "It was a stark contrast to a governor who never mentioned Obama's name once in his speech."

However, it was then too late to make Young's desired impact; to get the Neanderthals to chant and stomp. The main act was over. The dinner guests were sliding back their chairs and deep in yuck-yuck. Young was drown out with meet-and-greet, and the exit sounds of attendees rushing out, headed to Cuban cigars and Jack Daniels in the big tent at the Grand Hotel's Jockey Club-the sponsored late-night past-midnight bash.


Original.

Larry Kudlow Inveighs Against New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Assessment of Riot Potential in America & Robert Laurie in "London a prelude to Detroit"

Response to Robert Laurie and Henry Payne in the Michigan View / Detroit News August 13, 2011 in "London a prelude to Detroit"

National Review's Kudlow calls Bloomberg's assessment of riot potential in American cities "irresponsible and incendiary" and by that same standard then, heavy condemnation of Hank Payne's set piece (8/13/11) showing London riots and featuring Robert Laurie's essay prominently on the Michigan View Home Page (which infers the potential for similar incidents exist in Detroit) deserve condemnation; this editorial license and treatment of a very explosive subject is likewise both "irresponsible and incendiary" especially given Detroit's historic low threshold for racial mayhem and riot. Such page composition by Payne must be called "beyond the pale." Such recklessness rarely meets with a good end.

This SCREEN SHOT is the IMAGE and CAPTION that appeared on the Michigan View (Detroit News) on August 13-14, 2011:




Lacking sufficient human sensitivity, Hank Payne has shown the temerity to discount and diminish the testimony of US Rep. Hansen Clark as to the 1968 Detroit Riots - Detroit Rep. Clarke was quoted in The Washington Post:

"When I was a kid, I saw the [1968] riots firsthand, saw stores in my neighborhood burned to the ground, saw a man murdered when I was 9 years old," writes Clarke. "My mother sent me away to prep school to get me out of the neighborhood. Right after I went, my friend that used to help me academically was robbed in our neighborhood. Thrown in the trunk of a car overnight. When he got out, he was fine, physically; mentally, he was never the same. So, I'm able to go on to Cornell and Georgetown Law School, and he's never worked a day in his life. I'm one of the few guys still alive from my neighborhood -- literally."

Robert Laurie, August 13. 2011 in "London a prelude for Detroit" on the Michigan View August 13, 2011, in the article, Laurie penned these words linking London's riots to potential riots in Detroit, at the time of the rioting in London, England:

"An impotent, underequipped, police force has been overwhelmed by gangs of angry miscreants and now seems almost content to sit back while thugs torch the city.

"Hundreds of thieves, some as young as nine years old, have taken to the streets, smashing windows and grabbing anything they can get their hands on. Buses, buildings, even entire blocks have been engulfed in flames. While some have tried to pin the source of the outrage on the police themselves, the true cause lies exactly at the point where left wing doctrine and class warfare collide. Fortunately, it's all taking place 3,700 miles away."

Sadly, London is a scene that could easily play itself out on the streets of Detroit. And to his credit Mayor Mike Bloomberg warns of the ever present danger - Beware he shouts!

"Monday night, during a BBC interview with Leana Hosea, one woman succinctly summed up the rioter's motivation: 'It's the rich people," she said, "the people that got businesses, and that's why all of this is happening, because of rich people. So we're just showing the rich people we can do what we want.'

"It was pointed out that this woman was destroying her own neighborhood; that the people who owned these businesses were her neighbors. That didn't matter. All that resonated was the fact that someone, anyone, possessed more than she did. Be it money or property, there was someone with more. In her vacant, vacuum sealed, mind, that simple fact gave her the right to take - or burn - whatever she and others pleased."

And so Laurie expressed his grave concern over the potential of incendiary irrational and hostile mayhem coming to Detroit. He knows there are cuts in city services, reductions of police and firefighters, schools being taken over and closed, an EFM with dictatorial powers that cancel out local voters franchise (reversing voters rights), and huge budget shortfalls. This writer knew that there are thousands of hungry children, 80,000 vacant homes, and human misery and despair on an epic scale. To riot, he thinks, seems almost unavoidable, a foregone conclusion.

Laurie uses this grave warning to segue into a diatribe against liberals and Democrats and thus gets MIView Editor Payne's home page center pictorial coverage for his rant:

"London Daily Mail columnist Max Hasting put it, 'Years of liberal dogma have spawned a generation of amoral, uneducated, welfare dependent, brutalized youngsters.'"

Laurie continues:

"Tragically, here in the States, we're doing exactly the same thing." -'The rich aren't paying their fair share...'"

(See the analysis of current Black Family income at the end of this post)

Laurie postulates further:

"In Detroit, where politicians and union leaders love to fan the flames of classism, we've seen this kind of violence before. It first reared its head in the 1967 riots and resurfaced later, repeatedly, during the tenure of Coleman Young: a man who specialized in exploiting racial and financial divides."

There is another side to the potential inflammatory conditions; it's a story Laurie didn't use to further his specfic points; It is related by Mario Loyola, "HOUSTON, WE HAVE A SOLUTION:, The National Review, Sept. 19, 2011.

On a Saturday night in June of 1943, amid the crowds on Belle Isle, riot broke out. Writes NR's Loyola:

"(W)e'll never know for sure. There seems to have been a confrontation between a white sailor's girlfriend and a black man, which led to a brawl. As contradictory rumors raced through the city, the conflagration spread. By the time federal forces interviened to impose law and order, three days later, dozens of people had been killed, mostly blacks, and millions of dollars of property destroyed, mostly in the poor, black, inner city neighborhood of Paradise Valley."

According to Loyola, "Detroit's fall can be traced to the race riots of 1943."

Recounting the back story Loyola continues:

"As early as the middle of the 19th Century, Detroit had emerged as a leader in the Great Lakes maritime trade. It was perfectly positioned to capitalize on the Industrial Revolution, and soon was home to major industries producing machines producing machine tools, maritime steam engines, and horse carriages-the business in which William Durant, founder of General Motors, made his first fortune. Standardization of parts meant that many were interchangeable and could be used for a variety of things. When the gasoline engine was developed, Henry Ford put together his first automobiles largely from readily available components."

"The rise of machines led to the explosion of industry and a huge demand for unskilled labor. Between 1900 and 1930, Detroit was the fastest growing city in the world. But soon especially in the years after World War II, machines began to replace a lot of that unskilled labor. The ranks of unemployed swelled-especially among blacks. In the 1950's and 1960's, large populations of idle young black men became the mainstay of neighborhoods such as Paradise Valley. Crime quickly became epidemic."

We are all acutely aware that this is not the end Detroit's racial tension that continued to build in its inner core, culminating in the explosive riots of 1967; A police raid on an unlicensed bar led to melees and rioting, killing and burning which spread for blocks. "Most of those arrested were black and the mostly black crowd became enraged and began looting. With all the velocity of sudden combustion, the violence turned into one of the worst riots in American history" writes Loyola. The riots greatly accelerated "white flight" to the suburbs. He concludes:

"Detroit's transition to a majority-black city (the population is now more than 80% black) occurred just as welfare programs of the Great Society started to destroy the black family."

While Mario Loyola is entitled to his opinion, there is obviously more than enough detail and movement behind what he has revealed in this National Review article about the radical outsourcing of manufacturing, social and wartime stresses to make other more nuanced conclusions than those of the author-which suit the ideological stance of the National Review.

Just mouthing the assumed 'truth" that the government programs destroyed the black family structure is the common dime store wisdom and the source of endless whiskey talk. The broader picture is much more complex and perplexing, too vexing for the average man on the street. Anyone with a workable solution is not featured; the city has failed, governments-federal, state and local-have failed, businesses have lapsed, the churches, leadership, and social charities have failed.

Little or nothing, but the welfare of government sustains these souls of God's creation... we detest that reality. Take away all of that government welfare, or even the portion that as Gov. Snyder and the TeaPublicans have recently removed and see things get worse, much worse.

The "unacceptable" is the only acceptable until our society's enlightenment and compassion returns. There are at least 500,000 people unemployed in Michigan, and we know for sure they are not all black and residents of Detroit! So get real.

Yet, these same race-tinged conclusions recur over and over on the pages of the Detroit News and associated blogs. Such diatribes feed the stereotypical conclusions made by Loyola, as he continues:

"The Great Society was not merely an enormous disincentive to completion and self-reliance; (pet themes of the Libertarian / Ayn Rand crowd) it also disincentive marriage by supplying income that mothers used to depend on their husbands to provide."
(parentheses added)

Pray tell where were the "unskilled jobs" that could provide for a black man making up a family of three during the historic decline of jobs and industry in Detroit to be found?

Mario Loyola picks up on the standard view from the Detroit News pages:

"Detroit has entered the 21st century with perhaps the most deeply uneducated city labor force in the developed world. The results are predicable: Michigan's statewide unemployment rate of 10.9 is among the highest in the country, and Detroit's is even higher: It approached 30 percent during the depths of the recession. According to Bill Johnson, a reporter for the Detroit News, the city has become 'an assembly line for criminals.'"

Facts are Stubborn Things
An April 2011 study conducted by the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute entitled 'The State of Working America's Wealth," found that roughly 25% of all American households had zero or negative net worth in 2009. For black households, the figures are, as expected, more bleak:

"THE EPI FOUNDS THAT IN 2009 NEARLY 40% OF BLACK HOUSEHOLDS HAD ZERO OR NEGATIVE NET WORTH. AND FINALLY - AND WORST OF ALL, IN MY VIEW - THE STUDY CONCLUDES WITH THE FINDING THAT IN 2009 THE MEDIAN NET WORTH OF BLACK HOUSEHOLDS REACHED A DEVASTATINGLY SCANT $2,200 (DROPPING FROM $10,000 IN 2006), WHILE THE NET WORTH AMONG WHITE HOUSEHOLDS WAS $97,900, OR 45X THAT OF BLACK HOUSEHOLDS. STOP AND THINK ABOUT THIS FIGURE FOR A SECOND...$2,200???"

THE QUESTION ARISES ABOUT POSSIBLE RIOTS & THE PLIGHT OF BLACK DETRIOT - WHO ACTUALLY CARES?

Eugene Robertson knows:

"Government can reach them. But according to today's Republican dogma, it must not."

The response of Michigan's TeaPublicans under Rick Snyder: Cut the poor's lifelines even shorter, rip holes in their safety nets!

Warnings about human tragedy and loss have gone out across the state; the Michigan Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops has made a pointed appeal. MICHIGAN'S 7 CATHOLIC BISHOPS URGE STATE LEADERS TO REMEMBER NEEDY. The Bishop's letter stated:

"It is a well-known fact that a very clear indicator of the moral strength of any society is in the way its neediest citizens are treated. As such, budget priorities are significant moral choices.

"The bishops said they have "serious concern" about the budget proposed by Snyder.

"In particular, the bishops said they're concerned about the proposed elimination of the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit, the creation of a 48-month hard deadline for public assistance, and the elimination of assistance programs for those with past drug-related offenses."

****

Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

-- Robert Frost

FOOTNOTE: Things are never just as critics would picture. On Page 42, The National Review, 9.19.11, placed a picture captioned: Detroit, June 21, 1943, purporting to be an actual photograph of the '43 riot in the story. Look closely, among scores of individuals pictured. One will have a very, very hard time finding a black person in the melee.

How's that for starters.


Original.

James Madison & the Topsy-Turvy American Corporatocracy

A founding statesman, James Madison's, bold statement: He believed that one purpose of government was "to reward the best and punish the worst."

A flawed and degenerate political system has created the antithesis of Madison's positive, hopeful statement thusly: The purpose of government has been so countermanded and undermined by corporatists and godless Libertarian (ala Friedman & the Cult of Ayn Rand) who hold forth "freedom and 'takings' for me, blessings on "me, my son John, his wife and my wife, us four and no more" - damn all others."

We now have a government that is being rudely taken over by an aggressive corporatist coup, best represented by the sub-rosa work of the Rad-Right: the American Legislative Exchange Council. Now then, it is now evident that the rapid expansion and overweening power of Corporate Controlled Democracy (sans Citizens United/SCOUS decision) is headed into chaos, that being A.L.E.C.'s GOVERNMENT IS HERE TO REWARD THE WORST OUTCOMES FOR CITIZENS & PUNISH THE HARDWORKING, LAW ABIDING AMERICAN CITIZEN AND WORKER.

CASES IN POINT: OHIO, WISCONSIN, MICHIGAN, AND A LONG LIST OF OTHER STATES UNDER AN A.L.E.C. SIEGE OF "PUT & TAKE" CORPORATE GENERATED AND PROMOTED SELF-SERVICE VIA STATE LEVEL BILL INTRODUCTION AND ADOPTION.

Footnote to Citizen's United: Peruse this WIKI list of video 'hits' spun out by David N. Bossie, et.al.:

• ACLU: At War with America
• America at Risk
• Battle for America
• Blocking 'The Path to 9/11'
• Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration
• Broken Promises: The UN at 60
• Celsius 41.11
• Fire From The Heartland: The Awakening of the Conservative Woman
• Generation Zero
• Hillary: The Movie
• HYPE: The Obama Effect
• Nine Days that Changed the World
• Perfect Valor
• Rediscovering God in America
• Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage
• Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny
• We Have the Power: Making America Energy Independent

Take note of this: "Rediscovering God in America, Rediscovering God in America II, Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny, We Have the Power, and Nine Days That Changed The World were hosted by the married couple Newt Gingrich and Callista Gingrich."


Original.

Who Assigned Gentleman Joe (Haveman) TeaPublican Slop Jar Duty?

Getting Joe Haveman R-Holland to carry the TeaPublican slop jar is a real feat of denigration. Joe is a good guy; a congenial straight arrow. Now he's labeled himself as a kill-the-teachers-association-by-any means-possible meanie - The kind of kid who loves to be the heavy on the top in a brutal pig pile on the school yard.

Haveman is one of many ethnic Dutch-Hollanders-in the Holland area-who are the decedents of highly religious/ conservative immigrants to the area mid to late 19th Century. In earlier times when they were the broken English speaking common labor, they were for unions and for collective action. Over time, however that changed.

"How strong the opposition to union membership was in the Christian Reformed Church is evident from the fact that, despite the decision of 1916, synods of the Christian Reformed Church were forced to face the issue again and again until the relatively late date of 1954, when the matter was finally decided. Even at that late date, A SYNODICAL STUDY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED THAT SYNOD DECLARE MEMBERSHIP IN THE CIO-AFL SINFUL. But, as Swierenga relates in (his book) Dutch Chicago, "so many church members in Chicago, Patterson, Detroit, and other big cities belonged to these unions that the synod rejected the committee report"
(Robert P. Swierenga, Dutch Chicago: A History of the Hollanders in the Windy City, Eerdmans, 2002,pp. 644, 645)

It is well to remember that there is also this historic, signal labor incident to recall:

"The good beginning of the Christian Reformed Church regarding labor union membership was in Chicago, always a stronghold of the Christian Reformed Church. IN 1886, ALL THREE HUNDRED DUTCH REFORMED WORKERS AT THE PULLMAN WORKS IN ROSELAND CROSSED PICKET LINES TO HELP BREAK THE STRIKE"
(Robert P. Swierenga,  pp. 640, 641).
(emphasis added -  See related article)

Sympathy for the working man was replaced by the clannishness and stick together efforts that worked to the advantage of many of the Dutch who become middle class successes such as Haveman - a project manager for a large construction firm prior to election to the Michigan House of Representatives.

What was done today, September 15, 2011 by the passage of Haveman's bill to curtail the ability of the teachers professional association to have access to payroll deduction of association dues is but one of many recent and so-to come bills passed to "pig pile" on the Michigan Education Association in an attempt to quell their ability to participate in the right to regress of grievances and the privileges accorded them in the signing of legislation by Gov. George Romney, giving educators a fair and responsible voice in their profession, the terms of employment and professional improvement so necessary to a progressive and effective teaching cadre and excellence for students.

In carrying the unsavory slop jar for the Mackinac Center and other teacher haters such as Betsy DeVos, Haveman has lowered his image. Many of us were convinced that a man like Joe Haveman might be the re-visitation of the kind of statesman we once had in Western Michigan, a Paul Henry. Joe may repent. But having led the charge for the Out-of-State Corporatists owing A.L.E.C. Joe has sold his honor for the miserable job of slop jar duty.

The hope of the Kill-the-M.E.A. crowd is that teachers will be silenced and their influence will be diluted by any means legislated, to the point that they will have no voice in Michigan lawmaking and elections, thus be at the mercy of the TeaPublican marauders who are "sacking" the state of its ability to provide service and education for the children of our future.

A Teapartisan crowd of rowdies are using government to push highly partisan advantages: Their M.O. - take from others all they can.

The list to "take from" is extensive: Nurses, Firefighters, Local Police, Social Workers, the Poor, State Classified Workers, Michigan State Police, M-DOT personnel, the retired, Teachers and Public School Employees, and many, many more.

Original.

Nolan Finley: Maniacal Warmonger?

Response to Nolan Finley in "Bombs instead of bells on 9/11" on September 11, 2011 in the Detroit / Mackinac News.

Is Nolan Finely a warmonger? Or is he truly a thoughtful , sane person? We would like to think the latter. But, when we are fed his diatribe about bombing 3,000 places to avenge the more than 3,000 lost on 9/11 one is put to wonder. (Finley: Bombs instead of bells on 9/11, 9.11.11).

Let's take a quick review. The 19 hijackers/suicide pilots who mounted the 9/11 attacks were mostly Saudis and a few Egyptians . To follow Finley's logic the United States should have bombed Riyadh or possibly Mecca. There are so few significant targets in Saudi Arabia other than oil wells, pipelines, oil storage tank farms, and such. As for Egypt; should we have bombed Cairo, Alexandria, the Aswan High Dam, or for full effect how about the Sphinx or one or two of the great pyramids.

Just what did the vengeful, let's-get-even, Finley, man of our collective opinion, have in mind?

For an editor with readership amongst a significant Middle Eastern/ American population as large and nearby as greater Dearborn; what is the proper way to state or recite one's personal, decade's-long angst, the kind that Finely is confessing he's feeling? Bomb 3,000 separate targets in the Middle East?

The very thought is irresponsible and unworthy. No great paper should allow itself to project such a terrible proposal, even if it be maniacal fantasy or fantastical. We have been denied photo journalism showing the heinous disfiguring carnage and slaughter of our bombing and white prosperous warfare events on the local populations- so called collateral damage-victims. What we have seen, that which is very limitedly available, is utterly disturbing and repulsive to every human instinct, sense, and emotion. And Finley would have more of the same?

We went to war. Two wars. Two wars we are still engaged in conducting. We did terrible things to prisoners. We lied to the world via the United Nations about Iraq. We have been involved in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in the war zones. We have two men, a former president and a vice-president who dare not travel abroad for fear of being "Pinocheted" arrested and tried in the World Court as war criminals.

Today Associated Press's Paisley Dodds reports:

"Britain's universal jurisdiction law allows British courts to prosecute foreigners accused of crimes against humanity, no matter where the alleged crimes were committed. The principle of the law is rooted in the belief that certain crimes - such as genocide, hostage-taking and torture - are so serious that they must be addressed wherever a suspect can be detained." 

The Brits have just now chosen to amend this jurisdiction. However, other European countries have not relented on prosecution of war crimes and other crimes against humanity.

What Finley would actually do cannot be determined. He will never have the "red football" nor the power to push the button engaging bombing all of those 3,000 places he dreams need death and destruction in-kind for what happened on 9/11. But Nolan is so brazen as to say: Next time we should threaten "we'll flatten your miserable countries and everybody in them." Finley can't possibly mean Egypt and Saudi Arabia, or does he?

Wake up Nolan; the past is now history. The future is ahead. Mistakes were made. Evil was done in the name of all Americans.

Your daydream of bombing 3,000 targets in the lands of the actual hijackers home countries parallels the game plan aired by Talk Radio's fire breathing blowhard Michael Savage, who would have declared Baghdad's Sunni Triangle a kill zone and "bombed it back into the Stone Age."

We know you Nolan, you're no Savage.

Original.

A.L.E.C. Tool: Randy Richardville announces the next kamikaze attack on public schools

The clearly partisan and aggressive leader of the TeaPublican super majority in the Michigan Senate indicated that he would selectively attack collective bargaining by singling out MEA for a spiteful revenge, the so-called Right-to-Teach design to obfuscate and hinder the teachers from their right to freely associate with one another in a professional association where working conditions, hours, instruction, personal privileges and etc. are negotiated in "good faith" with their local school boards.

TeaPublican Randy Richardville's proclamation was so blunt and out of step with the normal sense of decency and good order that the panelists on Tim Skubick's Off the Record were visibly taken aback and attempted to reason with Richardville.

When the panel attempted to aid Richardville into a more honest, civil concept of what is needed in this present manufactured school funding crisis, to which they openly alluded (it is Gov. Rick Snyder and the TeaPublicans themselves who cut funding, combined the K-12 with higher education to defraud the K-12 system of some $600 million in surplus), Richardville seemed unscathed, he is on a pre-programmed jihad and there is little or nothing short of recall that will stop his radical evisceration of Michigan's public school system.

Nothing.

Absolutely Nothing!

In this same timeframe, Michigan observer and pundit Jack Lessenberry wrote this piece in light of an ongoing and an unrelenting multi-million dollar anti-public education disinformation campaign by Betsy DeVos and the Richard McLellan led hectoring via the Mackinac Center.

Jack Lessenberry:

"Nobody, it seems is happy with public education in the state - how it is working or what it costs. Those trying to run school systems are bitter over continuing state budgets - at the same time they are being held to higher standards and being asked to do more.

"To them, the legislature seems almost in a 'punishment mode,' as one school official put it, seemingly more concerned with reducing teachers' pensions and benefits than in education itself.

"Some school officials honestly believe there is a conspiracy in the legislature to destroy public education and replace it with a system of charter schools and vouchers.

"Lawmakers, or at least the GOP majority, talk as if the schools are in trouble because their employees are still getting "Cadillac benefits" that they can no longer afford in the post-automotive age.

"And members of the public are baffled. "Wasn't Proposal A supposed to fix all this?" asked Janet, a middle-aged woman standing in line at a pizza carry-out in the Detroit suburb of Berkley.

"What happened?"

Richardville Dove Into the Deep Muck
Quick to hop on any opening, former Ann Arbor news hound, Tom Gantert seized on Richardville's targeted vengeance: Right-to-Work-for-Teachers-legislation - designed to further hamper the ability of teachers to act in concert with one another for the good of public education and the children they teach-is vindictive. There will be any number of other "pig pile" legislative bills heaped on public teachers by Richardville and his hate filled TeaPublican legislative Super Majority.

Gantert's report from Capitol Confidential, Mackinac Center's news tabloid stated:

"Richardville also said he didn't support right-to-work for the entire state, saying he didn't think it would "transition the economy."

"Amber McCann, Richardville's spokeswoman, said he was in favor of right-to-work for teachers because teachers unions haven't dealt with the financial problems districts are facing.

"Richardville said any plans to implement right-to-teach was not about taking on the MEA."

"'I don't think taking on any union has anything to do with what our agenda is,' Richardville said.

"Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson called Richardville's comments 'another example of this relentless assault on public education and public educators and teachers' unions that is completely unwarranted.'

"Johnson said it was part of the GOP's strategy to privatize teachers and eliminate the teacher protections unions provide."

Among the comments posted to Gantert's piece "Senate Leader Supports Right to Work for Teachers" on Sept 9, 2011 is this insightful account:

"...(B)ased on my own experience as both a former union member and a former non-union administrator in public service, I strongly disagree with you. Many times I or other union members donated time and/or bent the contract rules because we/they knew the money wasn't there for overtime. Yet, since we/they lived in the community, and were consummate professionals who took pride in their profession, all knew things had to get done and in a timely fashion. As a matter of fact, we used to quip, "I bet you'd never see this in the private sector." Not to mention the active role in problem solving that we/they played that probably saved taxpayers ten of thousands."

Unaffected by schoolhouse reality, the Mackinac Center's Gantert projects and promotes the A.L.E.C./Mackinac Center line:

"Randy Richardville deserves credit for recognizing the damage that forced unionism has done to public schools."

Wholly directed and owned by the Mackinac Center (Heritage Foundation in Michigan) and the American Legislative Exchange Council, Betsy DeVos et. al., just a hapless small time sock puppet, Richardville has no choice.

No choice at all!

Original.

A mighty Meeting of the Minds: Judis & Kirk & Lofgren

In willful disunion sanctified by TeaPublicans, can a sovereign government survive? Are there no limits to endless their rebellion against the proper role and functions of government?

Russell Kirk laid down this the 6th of his Canons of Conservatism: "...innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence."

It is doubtful that Jesus will return to Michigan anytime soon. Yet in the meanwhile, Russell Kirk, the guardian of all things conservative has spoken, he said that Christianity and Western Civilization are "unimaginable apart from one another." and that "all culture arises out of religion. When religious faith decays, culture must decline, though often seeming to flourish for a space after the religion which has nourished it has sunk into disbelief."

Quotes from Russell Kirk Conservative, Michigan's own master philosopher and laureate: 1.) The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, 2.) The Portable Conservative Reader 1982.

Kirk's Six Conservative Canons

1. A belief in a transcendent order, which Kirk described variously as based in tradition, divine revelation, or natural law;
2. An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence;
3. A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize "natural" distinctions;
4. A belief that property and freedom are closely linked;
5. A faith in custom, convention, and prescription, and
6. A recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence.

John Judis reflects on the total lack of "political value" ascribed to "prudence."  He writes:

"Over the last four decades, the Republican Party has transformed from a loyal opposition into an insurrectionary party that flouts the law when it is in the majority and threatens disorder when it is the minority. It is the party of Watergate and Iran-Contra, but also of the government shutdown in 1995 and the impeachment trial of 1999. If there is an earlier American precedent for today's Republican Party, it is the antebellum Southern Democrats of John Calhoun who threatened to nullify, or disregard, federal legislation they objected to and who later led the fight to secede from the union over slavery."

The TeaPublican lack of civility and "prudence", respect for historic traditions and the role of honest advice and consent has raised the question of the sincerity of their religious faith. Or as Russell Kirk proclaims: "...all culture arises out of religion. When religious faith decays, culture must decline, though often seeming to flourish for a space after the religion which has nourished it has sunk into disbelief."

What has happened in Washington is a breakdown of culture, a disrespect for religion, and a terrible "iron hatred" that seems to permeate every GOP partisan act of obfuscation.

Writes Veteran Republican Washington insider, Mike Lofgen has just left the party after near 30 years of service:

"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant."

Here, in part, is Lofgren's analysis of the great danger- present and future - being brought on by the TeaPublican rebellion and it's anti-government putsch which has decimated the party of Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower and now threatens the sovereign success and stability of our nation. Lofgren writes that in his "Manual of Parliamentary Practice," Thomas Jefferson wrote that it is less important that every rule and custom of a legislature be absolutely justifiable in a theoretical sense, than that they should be generally acknowledged and honored by all parties. These include unwritten rules, customs and courtesies that lubricate the legislative machinery and keep governance a relatively civilized procedure. The US Senate has more complex procedural rules than any other legislative body in the world; many of these rules are contradictory, and on any given day, the Senate parliamentarian may issue a ruling that contradicts earlier rulings on analogous cases.

Lofgren:

"The only thing that can keep the Senate functioning is collegiality and good faith. During periods of political consensus, for instance, the World War II and early post-war eras, the Senate was a "high functioning" institution: filibusters were rare and the body was legislatively productive. Now, one can no more picture the current Senate producing the original Medicare "Act than the old Supreme Soviet having legislated the Bill of Rights.

Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. As Hannah Arendt observed, a disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself."

This disorder and brinkmanship in Washington has not derailed the wealth sucking multinationals from having a record, banner year in extreme profits.

What is wrong with this picture?

Ask any A.L.E.C. member why so many unfairly loaded and corporate benefiting legislative proposals (prepackaged Pro-Corporate designed legislation) are getting fast tracked in the midst of our slide into the Great Bush Depression. God forbid.

The TeaPublican dysfunction and lack of "prudence" have greatly abetted and benefited the "takers" who apparently live in a world removed from those of us who work, teach or serve our fellow community members.

Original.

TeaPublicans: Civic Slackers Filled with Obstinacy, Obstruction, Obfuscation

"Extremists' obstructionism in pursuit of "our way or the highway" is no vice."
- Parody of Sen. Barry Goldwater

Eyes Wide Open
The general population is beginning to see the depth of the civic depravity of the TeaPublican agenda and the thrust of the American Legislative Exchange Council so much a part of the threat the Bush economic implosion thrust upon you and I, ordinary Americans. Two well-placed men from inside the GOP have helped us see the corrupt and malevolent nature of current TeaPartisanship:

1.) David Stockman has asserted that Bush and his cabal created a civic crime "Worse Than Watergate." Former Reagan Budget Director, Stockman was in the heart of the Regan regime and understood the guts of the "Cult of Reagan" far better than most. It was Stockman who enlightened the nation that Reagan cultists were willing to use the huge debt that Reagan ran up to control and defeat social spending in America.

Author John Judis writes this confirming Stockman's "worse than Watergate" assertion:
"Over the last four decades, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS TRANSFORMED FROM A LOYAL OPPOSITION INTO AN INSURRECTIONARY PARTY THAT FLOUTS THE LAW WHEN IT IS IN THE MAJORITY AND THREATENS DISORDER WHEN IT IS THE MINORITY. It is the party of Watergate and Iran-Contra, but also of the government shutdown in 1995 and the impeachment trial of 1999. If there is an earlier American precedent for today's Republican Party, it is the antebellum Southern Democrats of John Calhoun who threatened to nullify, or disregard, federal legislation they objected to and who later led the fight to secede from the union over slavery." "Emphasis added"

2.)  Now comes Mike Lofgren. Lofgren ended his career as a Congressional staffer after years as a respected professional staffer for Washington Republicans in both the U.S. House and the Senate and having served on the GOP Senate Budget Committees. From Mike Lofgren' s essay "Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult" on September 3, 2011:

Lofgren:

"It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, THEY WOULD USE THAT FISCAL CRISIS TO GET WHAT THEY WANTED, BY LITERALLY HOLDING THE US AND GLOBAL ECONOMIES AS HOSTAGES."

"...the attitude of many freshman Republicans to national default was 'bring it on!'"

Lofgren:

"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS BECOMING LESS AND LESS LIKE A TRADITIONAL POLITICAL PARTY IN A REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AND BECOMING MORE LIKE AN APOCALYPTIC CULT, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant."

The cultish TeaPublicans around the country have made every attempt to rally the civic slackers, those

Lofgren:

"The only thing that can keep the Senate functioning is collegiality and good faith. During periods of political consensus, for instance, the World War II and early post-war eras, the Senate was a "high functioning" institution: filibusters were rare and the body was legislatively productive. NOW, ONE CAN NO MORE PICTURE THE CURRENT SENATE PRODUCING THE ORIGINAL MEDICARE ACT THAN THE OLD SUPREME SOVIET HAVING LEGISLATED THE BILL OF RIGHTS.

"Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. AS HANNAH ARENDT OBSERVED, A DISCIPLINED MINORITY OF TOTALITARIANS CAN USE THE INSTRUMENTS OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT TO undermine DEMOCRACY ITSELF."

Lofgren:

"A couple of years ago, A REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE STAFF DIRECTOR TOLD ME CANDIDLY (AND PROUDLY) WHAT THE METHOD WAS TO ALL THIS OBSTRUCTION AND DISRUPTION. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

"A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. THESE VOTERS' CONFUSION OVER WHO DID WHAT ALLOWS THEM TO FORM THE CONCLUSION THAT 'THEY ARE ALL CROOKS,' AND THAT 'GOVERNMENT IS NO GOOD,' FURTHER LEADING THEM TO THINK, "A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES" AND 'THE PARTIES ARE LIKE TWO KIDS IN A SCHOOL YARD.' This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s - a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn ('Government is the problem,' declared Ronald Reagan in 1980)."

Lofgren:

"THIS TACTIC OF INDUCING PUBLIC DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT IS NOT ONLY CYNICAL, IT IS SCHIZOPHRENIC. For people who profess to revere the Constitution, it is strange that they so caustically denigrate the very federal government that is the material expression of the principles embodied in that document. This is not to say that there is not some theoretical limit to the size or intrusiveness of government; I would be the first to say there are such limits, both fiscal and Constitutional.

"But most Republican officeholders seem strangely uninterested in the effective repeal of Fourth Amendment protections by the Patriot Act, the weakening of habeas corpus and self-incrimination protections in the public hysteria following 9/11 or the unpalatable fact that the United States has the largest incarcerated population of any country on earth. If anything, they would probably opt for more incarcerated persons, as imprisonment is a profit center for the prison privatization industry, which is itself a growth center for political contributions to these same politicians.

" Instead, they prefer to rail against those government programs that actually help people. And when a program is too popular to attack directly, like Medicare or Social Security, THEY PREFER TO UNDERMINE IT BY FEIGNING AN AGONIZED CONCERN ABOUT THE DEFICIT. THAT CONCERN, AS WE SHALL SEE, IS LARGELY FICTITIOUS."

Lofgren:

"UNDERMINING AMERICANS' BELIEF IN THEIR OWN INSTITUTIONS OF SELF-GOVERNMENT REMAINS A PRIME GOP ELECTORAL STRATEGY. But if this technique falls short of producing Karl Rove's dream of 30 years of unchallengeable one-party rule (as all such techniques always fall short of achieving the angry and embittered true believer's New Jerusalem), there are other even less savory techniques upon which to fall back."

Lofgren:

"This legislative assault is moving in a diametrically opposed direction to 200 years of American history, when the arrow of progress pointed toward more political participation by more citizens. REPUBLICANS ARE AMONG THE MOST SHRILL IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY LECTURING OTHER COUNTRIES ABOUT THE WONDERS OF DEMOCRACY; EXPORTING DEMOCRACY (albeit at the barrel of a gun) to the Middle East was a signature policy of the Bush administration. But domestically, they don't want those people voting."

Lofgren:

"If Republicans have perfected a new form of politics that is successful electorally at the same time that it unleashes major policy disasters, it means twilight both for the democratic process and America's status as the world's leading power."

(Emphasis added throughout these quotes)


See Also the previsous posting "Our Guides to the Bottomless Pit: Wolfram, Von Hayek, Lewis F. Powell, & A.L.E.C.".

Original.

Our Guides to the Bottomless Pit: Wolfram, Von Hayek, Lewis F. Powell, & A.L.E.C.

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power."
-- Benito Mussolini

Prof Gary Wolfram holds sacred Friedrich von Hayek and his theorems and postulations about economics. ("The most rapid progress toward a coherent and useful aggregate economic theory will result from the acceptance of the problem statement (in economics) as advanced by Hayek" - Robert Lucas).

****

How did we get ourselves into this tangled economic nightmare? The Cult of Reagan.

The real work of the Cult of Reagan has carried its effects into the present economy and the politics behind the "business is superior" legislation involved in the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) national putsch/winner-take-all coup using the various state legislatures to put forward a cornucopia of revisions, repeals, and replacement of items that directly benefit the Corporatocracy now so much in control of American life and economy.

WHERE A.L.EC. AND ITS CORPORATE RUN DEMOCRACY ARE HEADED IS BOTH DANGEROUS AND TRAGIC.

Friends of Wolfram's hero, Hayek, speak:

"Most plans for economic reform in the socialist countries seem to be coming closer to the realization that increasing decentralization of decision-making is needed to solve the problems of rational economic planning."

From Fritz Machlup, "Hayek's Contribution to Economics", Swedish Journal of Economics, Vol. 76, Dec. 1974.

Yet what A.L.E.C. (The American Legislative Exchange Council) is attempting in its nationwide, state by state coup d'état is a precise, centralized system of decision making and legislation, not at that much maligned federal level control and regulation, but at the individual state's level. Centralized and tightly controlled by a cabal of corporations who run and control A.L.E.C, manhandling state legislators caught up its secretive web of power grabbing, regulatory rollbacks, gimmicks and boutique business legislation/advantages.

A.L.E.C.'s Model Legislation Dominance in State Legislatures

Given the homogeny and singularity of A.L.E.C.'s Model Legislation, what is being attempted is a uniform set of laws and system of decision making that is at the various state levels, diversified and separate from the national or federal government, but collectivized and centralized under the aegis of the A.L.E.C. dominance and control of state legislation and lawmaking. This is coup is becoming America's Corporate-controlled-democracy; a new and aggressive "friendly fascism" not like that of the Nazis but more akin to that of Mussolini's régime in pre-WW II Italy. An American Corporatocracy that has many of the characteristics of 1930's Italian fascism.

The real mischief maker/promotionist in the historic directed march to business-run government, by corporations and for corporations, was Lewis F. Powell.

Prof Gary has spent very little time pondering the impact of this very powerful force in the economic policies of first the Reagan reign and subsequently the follow-on which Powell created.

Powell was "corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations" prior to being elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Powell's work in regards to the economy and the practices of corporatist politics was first revealed AFTER he was ensconced as a justice. Powell wrote "a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell's nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The POWELL MEMO, as it is now known, was not revealed prior to his senate conformation for good reason. "It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell's legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell 'might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice...in behalf of business interests.'"

Reagan's Hands Off Policy in Service of Corporations Gets a Jump Start

"Though Powell's memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of:

1. the Heritage Foundation
2.  the Manhattan Institute
3.  the Cato Institute
4. Citizens for a Sound Economy
5. Accuracy in Academia
6. and other powerful organizations.

"Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration's 'hands-off business' philosophy."

****

What impact has this new (focused by business chambers of commerce) sponsored economic/political/social thinking had on the nation?

Plenty.

"Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building..."

These areas of "hot button gripes" have fuel an entire generation of class warfare, or as Pat Buchan put it so indelicately at the Houston GOP National Convention, a Cultural War. Not satisfied with the impact of "cultural war" many rad-rightists have characterized their campaign to achieve ideological homogeny over all other groups and partisan political parties in a stronger, move evocative color: It's Civil War.

The rad-right with many new comers to immense wealth, the Waltons of WalMart, the DeVos/VanAndels of Amway, et al have carefully and abundantly funded the above group of "think tanks" with their coveted 501 (c) (3) take advantage of government tax free advantage in their "educational" activities. Most notable about these rad-right institutions was, and is, "their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building." Progressives and other poltical groups do not have the "sugar daddy" funders that are the underwriters of the rad-right and their implementation of the Powell Memo.

Give the rad-right credit: They are patient, they are focused, they are on script and they know how to take extreme advantage of economic unrest and disaster. Pro-family, community supporting groups lack this kind of control. In opposition to the growing take-over by the Corporatocracy, citizen groups are relegated to: "band-aids and short-term results which provide little hope of the systemic change we so desperately need to reverse the trend of growing corporate dominance."

"So did Powell's political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment "right" for corporations to influence ballot questions. On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers."

A Quick Overview of the Powell Memo drawn as excerpts from Lewis F. Powell's "Manifesto":

THEME: "No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack..." "(T)he assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.."

SOURCES OF THE ATTACK:

• "The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking."

TONE OF THE ATTACK:

• Stewart Alsop: "Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores of bright young men who are practitioners of 'the politics of despair.' These young men despise the American political and economic system . . . (their) minds seem to be wholly closed. They live, not by rational discussion, but by mindless slogans."
• (F)amed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: "It (is) crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack -- not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote."
• All around one can hear criticism of business as usual. To illustrate "here are countless examples of rifle shots which undermine confidence and confuse the public. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as "tax breaks," "loop holes" or "tax benefits" for the benefit of business. As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit "only the rich, the owners of big companies."

"This setting of the 'rich' against the 'poor,' of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics."

The Apathy and Default of Business

• "The painfully sad truth is that business, including the boards of directors' and the top executives of corporations great and small and business organizations at all levels, often have responded -- if at all -- by appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the problem."
• "In all fairness, it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. They have performed these tasks very well indeed."
• "But they (business leaders) have shown little stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics, and little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate."

RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVES
The day is long past when the chief executive officer of a major corporation discharges his responsibility by maintaining a satisfactory growth of profits, with due regard to the corporation's public and social responsibilities. If our system is to survive, top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself. This involves far more than an increased emphasis on "public relations" or "governmental affairs" -- two areas in which corporations long have invested substantial sums."

****

The catastrophic economic collapse brought on by George W. Bush's wars and economic policies has opened the door to "disaster capitalism" as outlined in good part by Naomi Klein and put to good and immediate use at this time as Michigan is in a 'One State Depression' and other states are close behind.

To wit: Disaster Capitalism/Shock Doctrine Explained by Professor of Economics and Public Policy Hillsdale College, Dr. Wolfram:

"As a certain Presidential chief of staff once said, you shouldn't let a crisis go to waste. We have a chance to introduce structural reforms on our educational system, our business tax, our corrections system, and our Medicaid system because the budget problems have forced an examination that would not otherwise have taken place. The budget cuts can best be accomplished by addressing how services are delivered and which services are properly the role of state government. It will be interesting to see how this ends up."
(emphasis added)

Original.

Sen. Phil Pavlov is responding like a Pavlovian Dog: Mackinac Center Gollum & Grand Guide Ken Braun delights in the success of political “Puppy Training”

As outlined by Ken Braun, the rad-right has anti-teacher Phil Pavlov by the short hairs. Pavlov is trained to do the destructive work which his handlers have "puppy-trained" him to do. SEE original Mackinac Center article: "Politician Puppy Training"-  What the tea parties can learn from the dog by Ken Braun Dec 24, 2010.

Go out and do something super"nasty for your " control", your TeaPartisan corporate/Chamber handlers/rad-right wingnuts. When the bell rings salivate, bite, and submit destructive legislation just as DeVos's American Federation for Children (AFC), the Waltons, Heritage Foundation, Heartland Institute, and the Koch Brothers (Cato, Americans for Prosperity, etc): demand when they pull an elected official's choke chain.

Doggone if State Senator Phil Pavlov isn't the "best of show", the boneheaded Doberman has an aggressive/negativist attitude; Let's go get a pound of teacher flesh.

In "Michigan Bill To Privatize Public School Teaching Sparks Concerns" on Sept 2, 2011 Joy Resmovits writes:

"Michigan state Republicans said this week they are preparing a package of bills to privatize public school teaching -- eliciting concerns about working conditions and trading academic quality for cost effectiveness.

"The legislation prepared by state Republican Sen. Phil Pavlov, who chairs the state Senate's education committee, would allow private, for-profit companies to compete for teaching jobs in public schools and would limit the power of teachers unions in seeking compensation packages.

"But few specifics are known about the bill package, which has yet to be officially introduced. And Pavlov isn't divulging much more -- for now.

'I don't mean to be vague about this,' Pavlov told The Huffington Post. "I can tell you everything on Wednesday (9/7/11)."

Pavlov did provide a general outline of the plan, but with minimal details.

'This package of bills will increase choice in many facets in Michigan in a way that has been necessary for long,' Pavlov said. 'We want a large comprehensive choice package that includes the expansion of charter schools and dual enrollment, to really put more opportunities in front of parents and students in Michigan.'"

In a one state "depression," Michissippi can hardly wait to find out what "bone of contention" this "puppy trained" Pavlov will trot out to the Michigan Legislature to please his "handlers" and "controllers." The destruction of public education for partisan revenge, and for the purpose of lining the pockets of J.C. Huizenga's Heritage Academies, Michelle Rhee's radical program, et. al.

Taken together this regressive movement constitutes a viral civic evil, it entails the beginning of end for our American Freedoms and way of life. That is freedom from the Koch Bros. American Legislative Exchange Councils coup d'état placing the Corporatocracy in charge of everything public and part elements of the grand "commons" so much a part of American life heretofore.

"A coup consists of the infiltration of a small, but critical, segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder."

Wake up Michigan. A corporatist coup d'état is underway. Your way of life, as you know it will be changed forever if the Corporatocracy (Corporate controlled democracy) they represent should succeed. Our moonfaced Nerd, Rick Snyder, is helpless amid this blitzkrieg of reprisals and instructional destruction/devolution.

There are those who get it, and get very well. From Michigan blogger Eclectoblog on Daily Kos:

"When you have done nearly all there is to do to hurt teachers, what remains? It's simple, really. Outsource their jobs. Privatize the actual education of our children."

"School districts could hire school teachers through a private company, expanding a privatization program already allowed for lunch workers and bus drivers, under legislation being prepared by the head of the Senate Education Committee."

"As part of a significant education reform package sponsored by Senator Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair), schools could privatize their instructional services, giving district a way to avoid the perceived high-dollar packages pushed by the teacher unions.

"'I look at it as offering options, 'Pavlov said. 'If there is something out there that can offer school officials the same options at a lower cost, schools need to take a look at that. It needs to part of the conversation on reform.'"  

Eclectoblog concludes thusly:

"We really are going over a cliff in Michigan. The main questions remaining are whether or not we can hold on long enough to vote these idiots out of office in 2012 and how much damage they can do to our society until we do." 

This posting drew hundreds of comments in support.

Mackinac Center for Public Policy Director Ken Braun details his Puppy Training/political control mechanism:

"Almost everyone loves puppies, at least until they start making messes on the carpet. With every puppy comes the responsibility of training it to become "man's best friend." The same can be said about legislators. WHILE THEY ARE, OF COURSE, NOT DOGS, THEY DO NEED TO BE TRAINED IN ORDER TO BE TURNED IN TO A VOTER'S BEST FRIEND. While most go to Lansing or Washington to do the right thing, MANY WILL END UP MAKING MESSES that result in less liberty."

"Training legislators, as with training puppies, must be done with care and common sense. Puppies don't learn to bark before going outside because their masters have set an example by peeing in the backyard themselves. That type of 'communication' would just confuse a puppy (to say nothing of the neighbors). INSTEAD, AN EXTERNAL SYSTEM OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS IS USED TO GUIDE THE PUPPY TOWARD DOING THE RIGHT THING."

"THERE'S A LESSON IN THIS FOR TEA PARTY GROUPS WHO SEEK TO COMMUNICATE THEIR CONCERNS TO POLITICIANS. YOU DON'T NEED TO EXPLAIN THE PRINCIPLES OR SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE TO GET YOUR POINT ACROSS. INDEED, THIS IS OFTEN THE LAST THING THAT WILL WORK."

(emphasis added)

Russia's Dr. Pavlov accomplished a number of studies:

"Further work on reflex actions involved involuntary reactions to stress and pain. Pavlov extended the definitions of the four temperament types under study at the time: phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine, and melancholic, updating the names to "the strong and impetuous type, the strong equilibrated and quiet type, the strong equilibrated and lively type, and the weak type."
-- Wikipedia

What type of temperament types does Sen. Phil Pavlov represent on Dr. Ivan Pavlov's scale?

Outside Michigan, people are becoming highly aware, and are catching on, as to the drastic anti-American heritage uprising the TeaPublicans are fomenting as ideological/fear-filled Mackinac Center, et. al. "puppy trained" Pavlovian dogs.

Ken Braun, Michigan's "Pavolvian "puppy trainer" and and leader of Michissippi's march into regression advocate, is the MacCen's Gollum: "Where would you be without me, gollum, gollum? I saved us! It was me! We survived because of me!"

Original.

“Queen” Elizabeth: Betsy DeVos, nouveau-riche, anti-social queen of mean

Perhaps Betsy DeVos and the Detroit / Mackinac News would favor Labor Day renamed, to be called: ROBBER BARONS DAY.

Michigan workers are overpaid says mega-wealthy scion ""Queen Betsy" (Elizabeth Prince DeVos). Queenie is the very personification of the havoc and damage which can be done with huge grudge money that is targeted and directed in a heavily ideological manner. A benefactor such as Andrew Carnegie (stately Carnegie neighorhood Libraries across the country; "2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929",  Betsy is not!

Bold Contrast from "The Nouveau Riche and the Noblesse Oblige":

"Bono & Angelina Jolie have refocused the light on the dark areas of the world and are leading us in the charge back to the side of compassion and righteousness."

Betsy DeVos, by contrast, has been moving in a steady anti-righteous, anti-social direction. She has taken the charge from the late Milton Friedman, with whom she is enthralled, into the direction of radical individualism: Free to Choose, was the Friedman bible. "Queen" Elizabeth is hiking the same god-less path as Ayn Rand, who authored that tiny tome, The Virtue of Selfishness.

Queenie Elizabeth would be shocked to learn that her activities to enlarge her wealth by profiting from privatizing public schools and riding her wave of personal power and influence are anti-Jesus:

Jesus spoke this parable:

"The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops."

This I will do: I will pull down my barns and build larger...There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods in enlarged storehouses. Thus the rich man will hoard his goods. Here is the beginning of his folly; to "hoard" his surplus instead of "using it" for the good of men. " 

"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' That night his soul was collected by God."
--Luke 12:16-20

THE ROUTE OF THE TRULY COMPASSIONATE AND THOUGHTFUL RICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN 'NOBLESSE OBLIGE"

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests "noble ancestry constrains to honorable behavior; privilege entails to responsibility". Being a noble meant that one had responsibilities to lead, manage and so on. One was not to simply spend one's time in "idle pursuits."

One of the new noble, Betsy's "idle pursuits" are evil and destructive of community and democracy.

Betsy alone is a singular and special threat to the future of our great nation. Like all idle rich, Betsy has far greater responsibilities and societal obligations than she is willing to own.

Emanuele Corso, writes in his piece "Public education and the tentacles of profit":

"Privatizing public education is one potential source of new wealth being explored by the other-reality people. Achieving control of the public education system that has existed, for better or for worse, in the United States for more than a century requires operatives appointed to governmental offices of education willing to carry out the (PRIVATIZING) agenda... Why not start the takeover process with politicians who could use a little financial help with their campaigns provided by "foundations" dedicated to the (mislabeled concept of the) preservation of democracy?"

This take-down of public education is the clearly defined self-appointed task "Queen" Elizabeth has taken on; aided and abetted by unbelievable betrayal and loads of inherited money. To gain power, influence, and control Betsy needs mega-money at her personal disposal to direct and implement the privatization and parochiaid voucher schemes she promotes. Her campaign's successes have the huge potential for a source of "major" new money and profit for her and her ilk to carry on more anti-public/common good warfare.

To augment Betsy's anti-public school goals DeVos is allied with the Waltons, the Bros. Koch, the Chambers of Commerce, and Michigan's Mackinac Center. Here's a partial rundown from the afore mentioned article: Public education and the tentacles of profit:

"The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) sponsored model bills aiming to privatize public education, eliminate teacher's unions, and make American universities adhere to the right wing and libertarian viewpoint. From the Nation series on ALEC and the Koch connections:

"The Kochs have given ALEC contributions exceeding $1 million-not including a half-million loaned to ALEC when the group had financial problems. The Kochs' mistrust of public education can be traced to their father, Fred, who ranted and raved that the National Education Association was a communist group and public-school books were filled with 'communist propaganda...."

Interestingly ALEC was behind the scenes in Wisconsin in the education fight. Read this article by Dr. William Cronin.

The contravening truth: Privilege bestowed on Wealth, in a democratic nation, must be balanced by duty towards those who lack such privilege:

"In ethical discussion, (noblesse oblige) is sometimes used to summarize a moral economy wherein privilege must be balanced by duty towards those who lack such privilege or who cannot perform such duty. Finally, it has been used recently primarily to refer to PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE RICH, FAMOUS AND POWERFUL, NOTABLY TO PROVIDE GOOD EXAMPLES OF BEHAVIOUR OR TO EXCEED MINIMAL STANDARDS OF DECENCY."
(emphasis added) -- Wikipedia

Writer John Ralston Saul (particularly known for his commentaries on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good) lays the axe to Betsy's platinum sugar plum tree:

"Indeed you can usually tell when the concepts of democracy and citizenship are weakening. There is an increase in the role of charity and in the worship of volunteerism. These represent the élite citizen's imitation of noblesse oblige; that is, of pretending to be aristocrats or oligarchs, as opposed to being citizens."

Betsy DeVos views her efforts to champion social, religious, and educational apartheid via her work on her front group The National Federation for Children as a noble and a chartable endeavor. Not so!

"The term Noblesse Oblige also serves as a warning to those taking part that they are not to use their power and influence for selfish personal desires ...lest they be 'removed from the game,'" summarizes Wiki, in a summary which fits completely the parable included above, as told by Jesus.

"Queen" Elizabeth's "charity" always comes with a barbed hook, and a large dead weight. The long trail of incivility, chicanery, misinformation, political dirty tricks, and reprisals in her anti-community efforts belie her "charity" and expand her image as a serious one track ideologue with an anti-public angst and ambition.

The "new man" in "Queen" Elizabeth DeVos' life is N.J. Gov. Chris Christie!


Original.

TeaPublican/ALEC Tenure Reform: A Michissippian Throw-Back, Let Workplace Harassment Roll

"It was with that first class that I became aware that a teacher was subservient to a higher authority. I became increasingly aware of this subservience to an ever growing number of authorities with each succeeding year, until there is danger today of becoming aware of little else."
-- Marian Dogherty, Teacher, Boston, 1899

Take Me Back to Ol' Time Bossism, Let Workplace Harassment Roll

The changes in the Michigan Teacher Tenure legislation done by a greenpea legislature (where where about a quarter of the elected have not sought or received a degree beyond a high school diploma) have taken the profession back to the days of the late 1800's when Marion Dogherty penned these observations and assessment: "It was with that first class that I became aware that a teacher was subservient to a higher authority. I became increasingly aware of this subservience to an ever growing number of authorities with each succeeding year, until there is danger today of becoming aware of little else." -- Marian Dogherty, Teacher, Boston, 1899

TeaPublicans have been trying their darnedest to heap reprisal and retribution on the teachers and their choice to associate together in a coordinated effort to raise teaching standards and give the profession a solid basis for participation in the act of teaching, employment perimeters and a kind of professional codetermination" in educational policy (This collective bargaining act-with local contracts, creates agreed parties who work together) The giving of the right to collective bargaining legislation was signed into law by Republican Gov. George Romney).

Teachers teach, it the thing which they alone do. It's egregious and wrong that the TeaPubican rabble of Michigan has turned back the clock and chocked the pendulum (in order to serve the interests of the American Legislative Exchange Council the Chamber of Commerce and a myriad of supporting subgroups across America such as: the public school hating Mackinac Center here in Michigan and the notorious and divisive promoters of educational apartheid, Dick and Betsy DeVos and the Amway Clan, not to diminish the anti-public school subversion of the WalMart Waltons, and "for-profit freelances such as Michelle Rhee.)

The archaic power to hire and fire teachers "at will"( the 19th century industrial model) has been restored to administrators; who have been saddled with a overweening unnecessary demand, in revised law, to "evaluate" teachers on a intense schedule, in a not-so-hidden effort to weed out the "ineffective" amongst them. We all know the bottom lines: Increased intimidation and control, and replacement of experienced teachers with high salaries with newbies with much lower. The ability to conduct short term rollovers of staff is put in place. None of this assures anything less than the gradual erosion of educational achievement in Michigan.

This undefined term "ineffective" so hastily passed by anti-teacher foes, and now left to insider, smoke-filled legislative caucus/committee action, to flesh out and delineate what that term of choice "ineffective" may mean and how the process of "removing" those instructors whom a non-certified administrator SUBJECTIVELY DECIDES TO RELEASE or DEMOTE, takes form is yet to be decided. The entire question regarding "due cause" goes back to the"right-to-fire-at-will" process/setting observed by Marion Dogherty, Boston, 1899, a teacher is meant to be subservient and docile: "I became increasingly aware of this subservience to an ever growing number of authorities with each succeeding year, until there is danger today of becoming aware of little else."

Dealing with disruptive bullies and students lacking concern for their own educational progress-in this new Michissippian throw-back atmosphere-is a tough assignment; it takes teachers back retrograde to those ruffian times of "Let's get our teacher fired." This same tenor now exists in the adversarial relationship between administration and teachers; codified and put into law under the recently legislated tenure reversals imposed by Michigan Republicans.

If this be REAL education reform: Let's give up WiFi and limit ourselves only to the telegraph! Teachers will be judged on their proficiency-with slate and chalk.

Forced by Landrum/Griffith Act, co-authored by Sen. Robert Griffith-R of Michigan, teacher professional associations were constrained and forced to act as part of the more traditional frame/definition; a "union." New federal regulations were put in place that dictated changes that made the teaching profession more synonymous with "rank & file" industrial unionism than with the American Bar Association or the AMA.


Original.