Happy Sinkhole de Mayo

Tuesday , 5, May 2015 Up North Progressive Nerd Problems 1 Comment

Polls open at 7:00. You know what to do.

Michigan Republicans Adopt Resolution Demanding SCOTUS Respect States’ Rights: Anti-Marbury v. Madison Edition

Monday , 4, May 2015 Up North Progressive LGBT Rights, Same Sex Marriage Leave a comment

Straws, meet Clutching.

Right-wing religious authoritarians in the United States are terrified because they know the end of treating same sex couples as second class citizens no longer is a matter of if, but when. Their ability to discriminate against people of the LGBT community makes them cry out they’re the ones being discriminated against. As the weeks to the Supreme Court’s decision draws closer, the voices of the religiously intolerant grows louder.

While some submit petitions to the court demanding Justices Ginsburg and Kagan recuse themselves, another sells online restraining orders to send to the Court and members of Congress demanding they rule or vote in favor of denying gay people their civil rights. There are predictions of plagues, fireballs from heaven, droughts, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes due to some imaginary sky alien from above punishing America for including another group of people into the legally married fold that should have never been excluded.

Congressman Steve King of Iowa sponsored a bill in the House co-sponsored by Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg that would strip federal courts of their ability to rule on any case relating to marriage. Tossing everything you learned and forgot in high school civics class won’t stop the courts doing what they’re supposed to do. It’s a clear sign of how desperate the religious right have become to stop something they have no control over with radical ‘legislate from the bench’ bills like this.

Last week in Lansing, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for and against the group of four cases including DeBoer v. Snyder, the Michigan House and Senate issued concurrent resolutions urging:

The United States Supreme Court to recognize its limited historic role in a federal system and to urge the states to become proactive in defending their sovereignty against federal overreach.

What is a resolution? It’s something politicians take time out of their day to write, introduce, discuss and vote on that has absolutely no legislative power. It’s how politicians either support or complain about something; and get re-elected because it “looks” like they’re doing something. 22 Republican senators co-sponsored SCR 12, and Lee Chatfield of Petoskey introduced HCR 11. That resolution has 28 Republican co-sponsors, including Todd Courser.

Both resolutions use the same arguments to state their case. They start with number 45 of the Federalist Papers and quote Madison’s statement that federal powers are to be few and defined. They move on to the 10th amendment, describing it as the most sacred of the bill of rights, a shield against the tyranny of federal oversight of the 14th amendment, which according to the resolution, allowed the Supreme Court to “embrace novel legal doctrines” that led to rendering the 10th amendment meaningless. To illustrate how the 14th rendered the 10th meaningless, they cite the 1857 case Scott v. Sanderson, finishing with a quote from Abraham Lincoln about the dangerous precedent Justice Taney set with his ruling. Not only did these fine Michigan Republicans skip Civics, it appears they slept through U.S. History too.

The resolution ends with telling the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize it’s limited role in the federal system, and remember the 10th amendment is like a supremacy clause for the states.

Here is something to consider when people argue the 10th amendment grants sovereignty to the states. It doesn’t. The 10th amendment simply states that the powers not granted to the United States are reserved for the individual states, or the people. What that means is there is a relationship between federal and state levels of government. In fact, the 10th has been used historically to enforce the 14th amendment, not act as a shield against it. Where do our Michigan Republicans get the notion that the 10th amendment grants Michigan sovereignty over the federal government? They’re confusing the 10th amendment with Article II of the Articles of Confederation, which does say:

Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.

Unfortunately for Michigan Republicans, Article VI of the United States Constitution, the supremacy clause, makes the Constitution the law of the land and rendered the Articles of Confederation moot.

Which means the U.S. Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to hear DeBoer v. Snyder and the other three cases to determine if same sex marriage is protected by the 14th amendment. It totally does. Deep down, religious conservatives all over the United States know the law is on the side of the majority.

The US Constitution is the supreme law of this country. It’s supersedes local ordinances, state law, Sharia Law, the Holy Bible and everything in between. Our secular form of government was designed by our founding fathers to protect the people from powerful religious minorities who along with kings proclaimed their rule came from whatever imaginary sky alien they believed in. In America, we’re ruled by the will of the people. The people are ready to grant equal rights to every American who wants to get married.

Proposal 1 Will Be Defeated 2 To 1 On May 5 Latest Poll Predicts

Sunday , 3, May 2015 Up North Progressive Nerd Problems Leave a comment

In an EPIC-MRA poll released on May 1, both likely voters and certain voters answered they would vote no on proposal 1 on May 5 by a margin of two to one against those who plan to vote yes. Proposal 1, if passed, would increase Michigan’s sales tax from 6% to 7%, and trigger ten more bills pending approval that would increase more taxes.

The raise in sales tax would actually be a 17% increase, not the ‘one penny more’ argument some supporters have used to promote a yes vote. This means most Michiganians will see a tax increase anywhere from $250 to as much as $1,300, depending on how many vehicles they own, including boats, off road vehicles, and lawn mowers.  There’s also a new tax for electric cars, and license plate fees will no longer decrease with the depreciation value of the car.

Incentives to vote for Proposal 1 aren’t enough for the majority of voters. The restoration of the Earned Income Credit won’t help nearly enough with offsetting the increased sales taxes, which always make a bigger impact on the poor. The $75 per-pupil K-12 tuition increase will be offset by cuts the state has made that takes more money out of school funding. What many people also don’t realize is it will be 2 to 3 years before their increased taxes actually pay for road repairs, as most of the money the tax generates will go to paying money owed for road repairs already completed.

What’s unique about this election is that people on the far right and the left both intend to vote no on Tuesday. The tea party has a whole list of budget cuts they want to make, including cutting health care for poor children, cutting money from education, libraries, economic development, as well as an across the board 10% in spending for everything. I’m sure the tea party looks forward to more prisoners being released early, and who needs schools and libraries anyway? What’s most ironic is the new tone the tea party has taken with this proposal, saying the poor can’t afford the new taxes, yet they haven’t changed one bit of their ideology when it comes to actually helping the poor.

On the left the problems with Proposal 1 are the hidden language in some of the bills that will be triggered with passage, and the already stated fact that it will be 2018 before any money from the increased tax will pay for fixing roads. K-12 funding language in Michigan’s law will be rewritten to include other institutions. How much money will our public schools actually be getting after the corporations get their fill from the school fund trough? What progressives would like to see is for corporations enjoying their $2 billion tax cuts from 2011 pay more taxes to maintain the roads they put the most wear and tear on. This is the most logical, common sense thing to do, which is why Republicans will never do it.

Unless the election day is in November, turnout to vote is always very small. Snyder and Safe Roads Yes are counting on people staying home so this proposal passes. Voting yes on Tuesday will not make all the potholes and crumbling bridges magically disappear overnight. It’s years before any money will go to new roads, while Michiganians will pay more taxes right away. Too many hidden changes to the law, and Snyder once again wants to increase taxes on the people who can’t afford to pay more. Proposal 1 is likely going down on May 5, and that’s not a bad thing. Rick Snyder is considering a run for president. An overwhelming defeat, especially from your own party, isn’t an easy thing to campaign on.

Jeb Bush Is A Fan of Charles Murray: This Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone

Friday , 1, May 2015 Up North Progressive Candidates, Presidential Primary 2016 Leave a comment

Yesterday at the National Review forum former governor of Florida and GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush mentioned his views on poverty were shaped by author Charles Murray. If you’re not sure who he is, he is the co-author of The Bell Curve, a book many consider to be outright racism disguised as research. What many people still don’t realize is it’s important to look at the people who paid Murray to write this book and their agenda for having books like this written.

The people responsible for paying Murray to write this book is the Bradley Foundation. A conservative foundation based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Bradley Foundation funds many conservative causes and politicians. Naturally,they are supporters of ed reform, vouchers and charter schools. A group they fund with the Walton Foundation among other donors is the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a front group promoting “school choice” cleverly disguised as school segregation.

Murray writes in The Bell Curve:

“The professional consensus is that the United States has experienced dysgenic pressures throughout either most of the century (the optimists) or all of the century (the pessimists). Women of all races and ethnic groups follow this pattern in similar fashion. There is some evidence that blacks and Latinos are experiencing even more severe dysgenic pressures than whites, which could lead to further divergence between whites and other groups in future generations.”

In other words, minorities are genetically inferior to whites, and all women are genetically inferior to men. Murray’s sources and research are flawed eugenics theory, but this didn’t stop the Bradley Foundation from using the book they paid for to shape policy and fund organizations like BAEO. That Jeb Bush admires Murray and thinks this white nationalist is correct in his opinions on poverty and race in America shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. It doesn’t surprise Bush’s fellow conservatives. In fact, many of the politicians shaping Congressional budget policy and changing how the country deals with poverty in Washington D.C. have ties to the Bradley Foundation.

Jeb Bush supports school vouchers, for-profit charter schools and Common Core because the financial backers of school ed reform – DeVos, Bradley, Gates, Walton – all support racially segregated schools. It’s the whole basis for the education reform movement in the United States. If you’re still wondering where Rick Snyder gets his motivation for corporate-based education reform in Detroit and Michigan, look no further.

The Nerd’s Detroit School Plan is Politics As Usual: Detroit Teachers Fight Back

Thursday , 30, April 2015 Up North Progressive Nerd Problems, Section 16 Leave a comment

Today 18 Detroit Public Schools closed for the day as their teachers went to Lansing to protest the Nerd’s announcement of his latest plan to destroy public education in the city. The city’s public schools, after decades of constant attack from politicians and school reformers finally had enough and went to Lansing to let Snyder know they’re not interested in his agenda. The “plan for Detroit schools” is part of Snyder’s political strategy for a possible run to the White House.
Republicans wasted no time spinning the teacher strike, claiming it was the teachers and their union putting politics over children. A common dog whistle of school reformers is they’re turning public schools into for-profit corporations “for the children.” Thanks to Richard McLellan and his scribbled notes from 25 years ago, we now know the destruction of public schools in Detroit has been calculated and deliberate politically fueled plan by the state.
State House Speaker Kevin Cotter was quick to fire off a statement describing Detroit Public Schools’ teachers as “irresponsible” “careless” and “selfish”.

“Today’s careless political maneuvering by the Detroit Federation of Teachers is another example of the selfish attitude that has put the demands of adults above the needs of Detroit’s kids for decades. I am disgusted to see teachers from eighteen schools abandon their kids and their responsibilities. Every time the union acts, the kids in Detroit fall even further behind, including the thousands who will receive no education today.

What irresponsible teachers! They’re only concerned about increased class sizes, decreased funding, fewer support staff, and the outrageous weeks and weeks of high-stakes standardized testing now inflicted on Detroit’s school children. According to Cotter however, they went to Lansing because they wanted a day off.

“Their failed approach has led to empty schools, falling test scores and a mismanaged school district on the brink of collapse. I look forward to the discussion that will be started later this afternoon on how responsible adults can come together and fix the problems created by the so-called educators who chose to take the day off.”

Naturally, these empty schools have nothing to do with the city’s Lansing-inflicted crippling poverty and the Republican push to open for-profit charter schools in the city. The school district’s been under emergency management for 6 years, 5 of those years with the enhanced Nerd model of emergency managers. According to Cotter and the rest of the school reform echo-chamber, it’s the union’s fault the state has corked up revenue for the public school, and most recently shunted money out of Detroit’s education funds to pay for a new Wings Stadium. As for kids missing another day in class, they’re missing far more class time with the weeks and weeks of standardized testing they’re forced to endure for the state.

Funny how the people who are responsible for the state of public education in Detroit and Michigan are the ones crying foul that some teachers decided to demonstrate their disgust and resistance to yet more reforms that will only make things worse for Detroit Public Schools. Pay attention to this, because Detroit isn’t the only school district that will be suffering from the Nerd’s DeVos-fueled passion to drive another coffin nail into Michigan’s public schools. We need to support the teachers of Detroit Public Schools, and the uphill battle they’re fighting for their schools and for the children of Detroit.

Grand Traverse Academy School Board Needs To Share The Felon’s Responsibility: The Continuing Story of Dr. Steve Ingersoll

Sunday , 26, April 2015 Up North Progressive Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 4 Comments

On March 10, 2015, Steve Ingersoll was convicted in a federal district court on three out of six counts of felony fraud. What’s been happening since then? A lot. The intrepid Miss. Fortune has all the wonderfully dirty details.

  • Steve Ingersoll wants a new trial because he’s still pretty sure charter schools are banks.
  • Also, he’s selling derelict Bay City properties cheaper than dirt. Tax liability included!
  • Meanwhile, the city’s foreclosing on other properties in an attempt to get the unpaid taxes off their books.
  • Ingersoll gets a hearing and a new sentencing date, giving him plenty of time to liquidate as much as he can.
  • Bay City Academy will likely be under new management soon!

Since Miss Fortune is the only one doing any real follow-up reporting on the convicted optometrist, bookmarking her blog may be a good idea.

As the U.S. Attorneys try to file restraining orders faster than Ingersoll can offload evidence assets, what about the for-profit charter schools he used to manage, and manages – for now? Grand Traverse Academy is still in the red $1.6 million dollars, but there is no media coverage or parents up in arms over the mishandling of funds. Meanwhile, in the same Michigan city Traverse City Area Public Schools received plenty of media coverage when former school employee Mary Gillison was indicted, convicted, and now serving a nine month sentence for stealing $50,000. How does one convicted felon manage to receive no media coverage and still enjoys freedom after stealing millions, while another convicted felon gets all the media attention the local news can stuff into their papers?

Here is the difference. TCAPS is a real public school system, which means every penny received and spent must be reported to the state. GTA is a for-profit charter school managed by a privately owned third party vendor, and although the charter school must also report finances to the state, the money that goes through the management company magically transforms from taxpayer dollars to private assets.

The GTA board, according to Miss Fortune, were well aware for years there was a problem with Smart Schools LLC’s handling of management payments, but rather than do their job and hold Ingersoll accountable, they simply relabeled the money to hide what was happening.

This is not unusual with Michigan for-profit charter schools. Last year’s Detroit Free Press exposé into the problems charter school boards have with management companies and authorizers illustrates that often the agencies charged with providing oversight are part of the problem.

School boards of real public schools are elected to their positions. Boards of for-profit charter schools are appointed, and then approved by the authorizers. Lake Superior State University dropped the ball with GTA because according to Michigan law, it’s the job of the authorizer to “ensure charter school boards operate independently of any educational management company involved in the operation of the school.”

The GTA board, both past and present, included Ingersoll’s business partners, the business partner’s extended family, friends, and colleagues. Conflict of interest? Let that fester in your brain as you read this:

Service providers/management companies are accountable to the non-profit charter school boards that hire them. The boards are responsible for setting policy, directing operational and academic performance, and ensuring fiscal stability. Regardless of the type or level of support for which it is contracted, each service provider/management company operates at the direction of the charter school board.

LSSU approves the board, but has no jurisdiction over the management company because it’s a for-profit private corporation. The management company is supposed to be accountable to the board, but when the board is made up of friends and family, just how much direction can the board honestly have? Apparently $3.5 million of taxpayers’ money taken from the school and hidden in financial records as “prepaid” expenses much direction. Mark Noss, Bradley Habermehl, and the rest of the optometrist GTA school board were the ones responsible to make sure school funds weren’t mishandled. Ingersoll has 20 years experience making money disappear and reappear through his various LLCs. It took the Feds getting involved to try and rein him in, and they’re struggling now with his shenanigans in Bay City.

The tragic events of Dr. Steve Ingersoll and his 20 year adventure into education and creative financing illustrate why for-profit charter schools in Michigan will never be real public schools. There is too much rampant fraud, mismanagement of funds, and authorizers more than willing to ignore the problem while management companies bleed Michigan taxpayers dry. Everything that is not supposed to happen according to Michigan law Steve Ingersoll got away with. LSSU will never revoke the charter, and the Michigan Department of Education is powerless to do anything. For-profit charter schools in Michigan are parasites – helping themselves to the resources and provide no benefit. At least put the state-wide cap back in place before more can open.

Too much to ask? It’s a rhetorical question, no need to answer.

AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! @onetoughnerd ‘s Running For President!!!

Saturday , 25, April 2015 Up North Progressive Nerd Problems, Presidential Primary 2016 3 Comments

Michigan Women’s Music Festival Ends After 40 Years

Thursday , 23, April 2015 Up North Progressive Community, LGBT Rights, Michigan Women Leave a comment


Since 1976 in a secluded wooded setting in Northern Michigan women from all over the world gathered to share space and music at the Michigan Women’s Music Festival. This haven for lesbian and feminist folk began for the purpose of creating women or womyn-only space where lesbian feminist issues could be discussed in a safe and free community. It was with shock that an email from founder Lisa Vogel arrived with sad news.

I am writing to tell you that the 40th Festival will be the last Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. The spirit of this community will live on forever, the friends and family we have found on the Land are eternal. Everything we have created together will feed the inspiration for what comes next. It’s possible that I will come back with something else, or that other sisters will take the inspiration of the Michigan community and create the next expression of our Amazon culture. What is true for me is that now is the time to bring this 40-year cycle to a close, stepping out on joy at our most incredible anniversary celebration.

This is a great loss to not only the festival attendees, but to those who know about the festival and never had a chance to go. The experience the women who were fortunate enough to attend would come home with them, and they would create their own microcosm of womenspace. The local community of Hart where the festival took place will miss the business the festival brought to the region.

The festival over the years has dealt with increasing pressure from the trans community to allow trans women to come to the festival. MWMF organizers did not welcome trans women because they wanted to preserve the space for women who were born female. The rationale for maintaining the fest as women born female makes sense to women born female, because it was a place where women could unplug and freely express being a woman without outer constructs limiting them. It’s extremely powerful when you experience it for the first time.

When the news spread, the trans community exploded with celebration that they had brought down MWMF. The language used on the internet is the most anti-woman rhetoric seen in a long time, and it’s shockingly abusive and vindictive to see how much they hate women born female. In short, the trans community very clearly demonstrated why they’re unwelcome at MWMF.

It’s a shame to never have the chance to go, especially when one lives so close by. The stories from women who did go were wonderful, and often brought up thoughts of, “perhaps someday.” Someday will never happen for many women; but hopefully the energy and spirit of the Michigan Women’s Music Festival will manifest in some other way in the future.

Earth Day Every Day

Wednesday , 22, April 2015 Up North Progressive Environment Leave a comment

Making Government Accountable 501(c)(4) PAC Formed: Guess Who Wants To Be Nerd In Chief

Monday , 20, April 2015 Up North Progressive Nerd Problems, Presidential Primary 2016 1 Comment

Snyder spokesperson Jarrod Agen told the Associated Press that a group of Snyder’s inner circle created a tax-exempt PAC to raise funds for Snyder to tour the country starting next month after the state votes against raising the sales tax. With that defeat over his head, Snyder will likely want to get out of the state for a while and pretend he’s doing a good job by talking to people who don’t live in Michigan and have no idea who he is.

There’s only one reason anyone would raise money to travel around in May of 2015, and that’s because you’re talking about running for president in 2016. In fact, there’s an unconfirmed rumor Snyder will make an announcement about that in the next few weeks.

So what is Snyder going to tell people around the country about Michigan and what he’s done to the state as CEO? I’m sure Republican voters want to hear all about him expanding Medicaid in the state, and implementing Common Core. Of course, there’s this sales tax increase vote coming up on May 5, but it’s a good bet he will probably not win that one. Dodging the “I’m a Republican and I raised taxes” never goes over well with the GOP voter base. Cutting $2 billion for corporations in taxes while raising taxes on poor people and old people will go over well with Republicans. Freedom to Freeload should also make Republican voters happy, because anything that makes the middle class and poor people poorer are things they like.

The big issue the religious fundamentalists will judge Snyder on is his stand on LGBT rights and same-sex marriage. While the state’s Attorney General Bill Schuette spends taxpayer money preparing for the Supreme Court case, Snyder quietly refused to challenge a judge’s order to recognize 300 marriages that took place in 2014 when the ban was lifted for 12 hours. You need to know the Nerd had no problem denying health benefits to domestic partners of same sex couples. Still, not being anti-gay enough might be a problem for him.

But then, there’s all of the other stuff that’s happened in Michigan these people will never hear about, like cutting a billion dollars from the education budget and raising taxes on poor people, old people and the middle class to pay for those corporate tax cuts, or the secret NERD fund that paid for his personal Общак, Richard Baird. Skunkworks, and Kevyn Orr’s luxury suite at the Cadillac Hotel he was barely ever in.

One thing Snyder will talk about is the “success” of the Detroit bankruptcy. First, Snyder lied about not putting Detroit through bankruptcy, then did it anyway. He also lied about an emergency manager for the city. The land grab between the pizza guy and the Quicken Loans guy in downtown Detroit you will never hear about, or that Snyder’s raiding the School Aid Fund to pay for a new Red Wings Stadium complex in midtown. People having their water shut off while businesses like golf clubs and sports stadiums owe millions for water usage and don’t pay won’t be mentioned either. Detroit is being turned into a rich people’s playground while the residents of the city are pushed away from the downtown area.

Emergency managers. This is something Snyder doesn’t talk about, but some parts of the state are still suffering under them. These people earn six figures, are only answerable to the governor and sell off the assets of the communities they’re forced on into private ownership. Flint has undrinkable water now thanks to an emergency manager. Benton Harbor’s public beach and park is now owned by an exclusive club for the wealthy. Detroit’s public school system has an oxymoron of a malignancy called the Education Achievement Authority. Snyder wants to spread this cancer statewide to the rest of our public schools. The fact about emergency managers is not one has accomplished any of the official goals they are set with when they get the job of depriving a community of their civil rights. Every city, township, or school district strapped with one of these emergency managers are still in the same bad financial shape as before, and Snyder appoints another one to replace them so they continue accomplishing nothing but receiving a large salary.

If Snyder is in your state and he mentions Aramark (highly unlikely), just know thanks to him our prison food service, once well-run by union employees is now a source of constant scandal. Along with bad food, Aramark employees also serve up drugs, sex, and contract hits, as well as rotten food, maggots, food nibbled on by rats and literal garbage.

The 400,000 private sector jobs Snyder loves to brag about are mostly union jobs saved by President Obama with the auto bailout that happened before Snyder was governor. We do, however have some of the worst roads in the state thanks to corporations not paying taxes to fix the roads. Instead, Snyder wants to raise taxes on the rest of us so those corporations can have new roads to destroy and not pay to maintain.

Listening to Rick Snyder talk is like a constantly annoying sound in the background that eventually makes you sick to your stomach. He has terrible speaking skills and it’s rumored he goes through hours of prepping before any public speaking. He literally sounds like the nerd he likes to call himself, because he’s an accountant and he used to be an executive for Gateway Computers, the popular computer company he helped run into the ground. If he’s looking for the millennial vote, bringing up that bit of history won’t do him any good.

Snyder’s chances are very slim he will ever be considered in the same tier of candidate as Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz or for some reason, Scott Walker, but always remember there is the veepstakes to win. Many candidates are actually in the race not to be president, but to be vice president. Either way, getting Snyder out of Michigan would be a happy event for the people of this state. Run Nerd, RUN!