Tea Party Pot Bellies: Michigan's Tea Partiers - What's in their Kettle?

Whistling from their ears, full of steam piped in from the boilers of Koch Petroleum, these angry men and women are pawns of the first order.

Dunces with dulled intellects and greedy with selfish desire to hold on to what little their corporate masters, have deigned to allow them to retain of all their years of work, labor, and endless toil, "Steamed" Tea Party Pot Bellies are in a manipulator's manufactured rage. It's actually one of the saddest stories to be told; it spells out how the public can be conned, hornswoggled, beguiled, into working exactly against what has always been in their best interests, futures, and well-being.

Centers of Civil Discourse Drown Out: American conversation on local concerns in the
corner of the hardware or general store replaced by Big Media and AFP Money
(General Store in Haysi, VA National Archives 1938)

The Michigan TeaPublican (Tea Party Republican) Super Majority back inside the Capitol, all comfy in their leather swivel chairs, faces lit by taxpayer provided laptops, saw an opening to their advantage. True to form,
GOPer's took the easy path: stick to the Corporatist scripts and rad right discipline: Put the burden of revenue off on children, the elderly, the pensioner, the poor, the public servant. By all means protect the business and corporate community!

If only these Republicans strove to serve the real needs of the public as much as they pride themselves in being errand boys/"buds" to business!

What a nunce Snyder is! Says he was "hired" by Michigan to be their "CEO"! Find that in your state constitutions, you uber-strict constitutionalists. It's not there.

Michigan Americans for Prosperity Propaganda Troupes for Senior Citizen as Shock Troops:
Michigan TP'ers at AFP / Mackinac Sponsored Rally in Lansing, MI April 14, 2011 (DailyKos)

Taking a reach-back look at the Lansing Capitol Rally of the Michigan Chapter of Americans for Prosperity (led by Scott Hagerstrom) last spring, one sees photos of row after row of ball capped, balding older white males, supported by carefully placed courtesy folding chairs. They are angry and frustrated waving provocative signs to prove it's just right to be ginned up for projecting anger and blame on someone else and advantage the Rovian Backroom Boys. Steampotters are ripe for backing the blacklash, then when their handlers have taken all the advantage they can, Tea Party Pot Bellies will be toast!

Staring at the ongoing effects of the worst economic catastrophe of our time, the ruinous, failed Bush regime and its unbearable and destructive rampage of eight years (misdirected wars, unprecedented debt, and unequal taxation) was bad enough; not seeing a clear way out, still forced to confront the seemingly intractable flaws and effects of G.W. Bush cataclysm, has left the worried public to sip the bitter dregs resulting from his bad judgment.

Steampotters are forced to stare at a resultant, potential economic and political collapse worldwide. That's too much for a potbellied TeaPartisan under duress and stress. They're ready for a brawl. But with whom? Their neighbors, their grandchildren, the first responders? The cause of their troubles which has them in a kink? They are supporting the very Corporatist interests that have been eroding their nest eggs and killing their democracy. How odd!

Steampotters are damn mad at the demise of their retirement assets stolen by Wall Street and speculators, the trouble their children are enduring, and the loss of their home equity value-stripped as it was in the Bush Bust of 2008. THEY NEED SOMEONE TO BLAME. They are ready to led by the Kochs MEGA-cash-campaigning. As chance would have it, Koch Brothers had shipped in that unsavory character, Dick Morris - and didn't fetish Dick strut his stuff?

Steaming potbellies are addicted to Right's Noise Machine and Rupert Murdock's pap-and-slap
Actually more than 70% of Republicans with cable access watch FOX News exclusively. Nothing satisfies an angry depressed curmudgeon more than more anger and depression. Bad news fuels fear, resentment and aggression.

As dailies, such as the Detroit News and the Grand Rapids Press, slide down the waste pipes, FOX News enriches itself and its Machiavellian owner. An alien with "bought" power and influence. It's a place of influence and profit FOX and Rupert do not deserve.

This is possible because of these same gullible discontents-the more they are depressed the more they want someone else to ante up and bear their far share of load. Many citizens from out the past paid for the infrastructure that was the life-long support of these Tea Party Pot Bellies-now whiners and malcontents.

The whole attitude is: I've got my "little bit" and I'm scared witless it will be lost to someone else. Their mantra: Me, my son John, his wife and my wife, us four and NO MORE. This kind of self-centered selfishness leaves behind both Christianity and neighborhood democracy.

Given permission to lash out and accost others, goaded on by Svengalis re-pleat with talking point books designed to manipulate and exploit exaggerated blame; as long as it distracts the November voters from the Bush Depression (still in bubble wrap) the danger plays right into the hands of the negativists who inhabit both the Detroit News and the dank dens of the deceitful enemies of public life and service.

Warming the Factories of Manufacturing and the Middleclass: Garland Stove Company's
World's Largest Stove, Postcard Detroit MI 1893 (Michigan Historical Archives)

Amway's Richard M. DeVos Sr. and the Brothers Koch are thought to be Depression proof. However, if they can manipulate the TeaPartisans to do the heavy lifting to lobby to remove regulations, and overturn customer protections, and collective bargaining rights, etc. to greatly benefit them and the other greedy Corporatists - this would be perfect timing.

And to assuage the pent-up anger and the angst tearing at the gut of Tea Potbelliers, what do the current Rad Republicans offer?

Actually Harry Truman laid out the genuine GOP "offers" best:

• Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke.
• They stand four-square for the American home - but not for housing.
• They are strong for labor - but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights.
• They favor minimum wage - the smaller the minimum wage the better.
• They endorse educational opportunity for all - but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools.
• They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine - for people who can afford them.
• They consider electrical power a great blessing - but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.
• They think American standard of living is a fine thing - so long as it doesn't spread to all the people.
• And they admire of Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.

Harry T. enjoyed the blunt truth of strongly brewed black coffee in a big cup, not a steamy tea made with the deadly Kool-Aid of the Koch Bros. subversions, et. al. served up in a Koch Industries-made throwaway paper cup.

On the Reader:
History on the Garland Company Giant Stove and what happened to this Michigan landmark.
Gazette posts on the Americans For Prosperity run Tea Party Rally April 14, 2011 pictured above in "Greedy Bros Koch-Bought & Paid for Visi-Galts: The Randian Libertarian Spawn - Gleefully Storm the Gates of the People’s House in Lansing, MI" and "Americans for Prosperity’s Cotton Head Grump Out, High on Motrin 800, Fizzles.

Related Posts:
In Detroit: Resentment, Malice & Roaring Opportunism Ride a Wave of Harsh Tea Party Ideology (April 2012) - Revisit Occupy Detroit: the Tea Party is Different – Hank Payne’s Myopic View (November 2011) - The Occupy Wall Street Activists & Grassroots Tea Party Activists Have a Lot in Common (October 2011) - It Was No Frenzy Island: Neanderthals & the Nerd (Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island) (September 2011) - Teaparty leader: The More We Pay Attention - The More Hopeless it Can Seem, Political Parties Only Exist to Get and Keep Power (February 2011) - Saint Ayn - Extolling Great Evil - Used As Source of Tea Party Political Punch Lines

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Bipartisan reforms, Mike Bishop Remakes Himself at the 11th Hour

Response to Detroit News Op-Ed "Bipartisan reforms would strengthen state education" on  November 26, 2009 - Note: Bishop Running for Michigan Attorney General.

Mike Bishop's Make-over
Bishop's harsh partisanship has locked him out of any hope of becoming Michigan's next Attorney General. Now he wants his legislative legacy to be Mike Bishop "education reformer." To do so he will attempt to remake himself next week into the warm and fuzzy wonderkin of school salvation.

Quote: 

"Politics should stop at the classroom door when reforming education." Bishop Editorial, 11.26.09 in "Bipartisan reforms would strengthen state education" by Sen. Michael D. Bishop.

Politics are the stock and trade of Bishop et al. Has he stopped nasty politics at the classroom door? No. He's hyped partisanship up. Bishop's figuratively barged in and attacked the teacher, as she attempts to make the day's objectives in the curriculum and attend the ever-present social demands of "her" classroom children, entrusted to her special care. The childrens' parents are annoyed and angered by Bishop's tirades, smoke and mirrors, and give him and the state legislature failing grades for performance.

Bishop is after her job with part-timers. He's after her salary with vicious budget cuts, and "no new taxes." Mike is after her award of professional security for excellent performance in her chosen vocation-tenure, and her hard-earned future retirement is at risk under Bishop too.

Bishop is promoting deregulated completion to her classroom with faux public, but elitist charters and actual "private" and "ethnocentric" charters drain away "public moneys." In Holland, Grand Rapids and other places all across the state, charters are imploding the public systems. All to in direct response to GOP plans.

Bishop is generally roughing her up with a constant barrage of rude language about "reform and failure." Of course it's all her fault. She should just do more with less. She should succeed without his co-operation or the GOP's support-a throw back to the Engler Era.

Basics for Bishop
Mike, Let's start with a vocabulary lesson, there is a world of difference between "education reform" and "education revolt," between honest collaborative efforts to work with the public to improve their neighborhood schools and honest critics whose purpose is to preserve and improve public education. Reforms is not to do away with public education altogether. Bishop has thrown in with the much maligned Engleresque elements which are currently attempting a comeback here in Michigan.

Bishop is now trying to recast himself as the savior of the public system while still adamantly resisting any financial additions (new taxes) to augment the sharply cut state school budget. He's willing to sit on his hands while the state becomes a national spectacle again, with perhaps a dozen or more Kalkaska's, as in the early 1990's. Bishop will blame it all on Gov. Granholm, and that's a lie.

What is it Bishop is attempting?

"Reform" or "revolt" Bishop cannot and will not have it both ways.
Bishop lacks the cunning, the acquired knowledge of the intricate rules of the legislature, and the deeper anger that propelled a meanspirited John Engler throughout his "revolution." Bishop is not man enough to fill Enlger's hobnailed boots in this regard.

This statement of Bishop's concepts sounds a theme that perfectly parallels the positions of MEA. Bishop's quote: "When it comes to improving the education of our children, making sure they have top-quality schools and preparing them for 21st-century jobs, we must put politics aside and work together. Now is the time to make real, meaningful reforms to turn around failing schools and increase statewide student achievement."

Improving schools and full funding for the same, is and has been the underlying goal of MEA. But these goals are being countered by radical GOP'ers and the privatizers, and general malcontents-with greedy intent. The Association has been forced to rise to the defense of its embattled membership once again, as it had to oppose and defend the state's children and our neighborhood schools on so many earlier occasions through political means.

Bishop and Obama: The Odd Couple
"Senate Republicans continue to work on several key reforms that fulfill the requirements of President Barack Obama's Race to the Top plan, which makes our state eligible for up to $400 million in additional funding to improve Michigan schools," opines Mike.

Truthfully, Bishop knows the "gift" of Race to the Top fund is a crap shoot at best. It's that it is a gimmick, a cosmetic quick fix that off loads the very difficult work of addressing the real and urgent problems of our inner cities, the poor, and a failing economy with just one year's funding. If Michigan legislate to be in compliance with these R2T requirements there is no assurance we will get one penny, this year or ever. In that respect, its Leave No Child Behind all over again.

A Lansing Shocker
Bishop, the star Republican in the State Legislature, has been forced to throw in with the much maligned Obama Administration and with what GOP radicals on AM radio call the "gangster" elements of Chicago. Former Chicagoan education chief official, Arne Duncan's madcap attempt to trump the failed and rejected Leave No Child Behind fiasco, held over from the Bush era, is his R2T. Now this Duncan's new gimmick, becomes the same material, same page, the same goals for Bishop and State Republicans. A very queer alliance.

Two Men in a Tub: Bishop and Barack
The dangle of a short term, system disrupting, administrative boondoggling, Race to the Top, becomes the latest in PR designed "quick fixes." President Obama will socialize the country, we are told loudly and directly by the Teabaggers, who constitute the raucous peanut gallery for Bishop and his tax-hating friends in Michigan. National groups that have Bishop and company hostages to their ideology on "no taxes."

Now, ala kazam, Mike Bishop morphs himself into a bi-partisan and a collaborative Michigan "co-sponsor" of Obama criteria and programs. Why?

Bishop is Cornered, Out of Wiggle Room.
Between now and the Christmas Break, Bishop and Wayne Kuipers R-Holland-architect and proud instigator of the 2007 state budget shutdown-will join with Democrats to bring on revolutionary changes in the education community.

How are the GOP "reforms," in the spirit of anti-MEA reprisal, being rushed into law by Bishop? At the last possible moment, the old, old legislative trick. Just how are they going to actually save money? That remains to be seen and realized.

First of all, to begin 2010, there is far less money because of the shenanigans of Bishop and pack.

Pretty Boy Bishop Has a Change of Heart
In a Tartuffian stroke pretty boy Bishop says he "looks forward to continuing to work" with certain (until now despicable "tax and spend" house Democrats and even Gov. Granholm to "keep education a top priority and put our kids first." What a hoot !

The Mackinac Center is in full glory. At this moment they are the handbook/ playbook for both radical Republicans and now, glory be, disoriented Democrats. What a coup d'état!

Take a look at the radical proposals that are involved in "Bishop's Revolt:"
1. The "Texas 2 Step" (alternative methods to get a teaching position used in Texas perennially to off-set severe teacher shortages due to poor pay and conditions) proposed by Bishop. He attempts to bring into the classroom career professionals or others from specific fields where they have been prior to such things as retirement or lay-offs/unemployment, and give them fast tracked un-certified positions as instructors-replacing teachers certified and presently employed.

2. This lowering of professional standards expresses a total lack of understanding of modern instruction-it is a direct and unwarranted attack on the state's premier colleges and universities where aspiring teachers enroll, receive 5 years of costly and intensive training, undergo other testing, qualifying, and certification requirements to work for 4 years as probationary instructors before being accorded a secure teaching job.

These new teachers are saddled with large student loans(with hefty interest rates and payments) and are required to return for much further university training.

Now Bishop says let a math temp come in, part-time and take the class. It's cheaper. Bishop's bottom-line is to bump out that new teacher who will have tenure, a retirement, and benefits.

Where will that (teaching techniques and learning psychology, and methods-less, unprepared) part time teacher be after class is over? Rushing to his/her car to get to a class at another school in order to earn a living, far from mentoring or assisting the student after hours or after class, and non-participating in the over all environment of the school or the community activities centered there.

3. The idea of creating a new "chief educational officer" or "czar" with special powers to alter contracts or make judgment calls about what is at fault in a system labeled a "failing school" is likewise laced (deep in the details) with items intended to radically change the school environment-not necessarily for the good of kids or their teachers.

Save money: Save a Dime Spend a Dollar
These are but a few of the "revolutionary" concepts that abound in the minds of the Mackinac Center's robotrons in the state senate: Mike Bishop, Wayne Kuipers, and Alan Cropsey.

These coldhearted Lansing Republican pols intensely hope to push through reprisals and untested revisions as a counterweight to the strong and intelligent protests of educators, business people and parents across the state who are stunned by the impervious indifference they have shown to the public school. They are not working to fund the budget short-fall with all the tools in the box. How cleverly they attempt to deceive! They believe that they have worked a real money crisis into an "opportunity" to savage the teachers and diminish the environment and education of our precious children.

With the up-coming elections, MEA has a clear and urgent picture of Who's Who-committed to championing and supporting the public school and our children and who isn't. One out of every fifteen votes cast in statewide election comes from the MEA family of voters.

All of the major GOP candidates for governor have pledged themselves to advance "right-to-work-for-less" agendas. One, Mike Bouchard, has proudly declared that he is the "first" of the group to pledge/covenant with the national group, Americans for Tax Reforms, "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," swearing to fight "any or all efforts to increase taxes." It's expected all the others follow Bouchard's example.

The role of Governor Granholm in the current crisis remains yet to be clarified and confirmed. What result will come of her various efforts? Efforts which seem at this point ineffective, is uncertain at best.

Truth be told: Michigan Governance is in Disarray
However, just a dollar a day in new revenues from Michigan taxpayers would keep the schools afloat and give the legislature time to ferret out the kinds of experts and advice needed. They can call in from all quarters solid plans as to how, rationally and factually, we together can tackle the valid concerns about educational.

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