Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern Michigan
Subversive? But you were sent the link directly. Can’t argue with that logic.
The United States has enjoyed cheaper prices at the pumps for over a month thanks to falling oil prices world-wide. Paying less for fuel means people will have extra cash to spend on other things like holiday meals, parties and gifts.
But while we’re giving thanks and anticipating less money spent at the gas station, the reason why gas prices are so low may have you wondering; Why it’s happening, and more importantly, how long will it last?
That all depends on Saudi Arabia.
Oil prices began to drop earlier in this fall. Some people thought perhaps the United States’ new shale oil boom was the reason, others were curious how it could be happening when one of the larger oil producers in the world, Russia, has been in conflict with Ukraine most of the year. They invaded Crimea, forced annexation at gun point, and currently lead an invasion force into Eastern Ukraine that began in the Spring. As much as it would be nice to think Saudi Arabia is increasing production and exports to drop the price and stick it to Russia and Iran, that’s collateral damage to the real target – The United States.
America’s rapid push into fracking has made the nation a leading producer of oil. Of course, we’re destroying our land, air, and water to accomplish that with an enormously expensive process, but who needs clean drinking water when there are profits in the ground? By the way, are you interested in selling the mineral rights to your land yet?
If Saudia Arabia gets their way and the price of oil drops further, then there will be no profits for the frackers and KXL pipeline pushers. Saudi Arabia’s target is $70 a barrel. That would be low enough to make fracking financially pointless in the United States.
Don’t think this means the oil companies are going to give up. They’re already figuring out ways to drive prices up so the oil companies currently fracking still have a viable reason to stay in business. So far, Saudi Arabia is winning the battle, and the price of oil keeps dropping. If you’re wondering how much a barrel of oil needs to cost to keep America’s frackers in the black, it’s around $100 a barrel. See why $70 a barrel could mean the death of the American shale oil boom? The oil companies won’t be able to afford to stay in business, and we will continue to buy gas made from Middle Eastern oil.
And that’s just the way the Saudis want it.
Dear Michigan Department of Education: Where Is The Embezzlement Investigation On For-Profit Charter School Huckster Steve Ingersoll?
Monday , 24, November 2014 Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 1 Comment
Miss Fortune has a new story that asks the question, just where is the embezzlement investigation on Steve Ingersoll, Smart Schools LLC and Grand Traverse Academy?
Republicans really do believe they are an entitled class of people. They dip their hands into our tax dollars like it’s their own personal piggy bank, then insist they did nothing wrong when they get caught.
Not only did Steve Ingersoll steal money from the people of Michigan, but it looks like GTA may have tried to cover up his crime for him. The Michigan Department of Education has not done their job and Michigan’s public schools are at risk.
No one should ever forget that one of the leaders in the profits before kids charter school movement is Hillsdale College. Their brand of for-profit charter schools which they call, “Classical Education”, is a nice way of saying Christian conservative education that bears little relevance to what students actually need to be prepared in a modern workforce and world. Hillsdale College last year took some much needed criticism university president Larry Arnn commented that the state had come to investigate whether Hillsdale College had enough “dark ones” enrolled.
Larry Arnn’s racist comment is nothing compared to the scandal his predecessor left behind, but personal conduct or horrendous bigotry has nothing to do with running a Christian conservative college, or fostering charter schools around the country.
Or does it?
Downstate near Holly, Michigan, lives a man named Pasquale “Pat” Battaglia. Self-labeled as a Christian husband father grandfather, he wants to open Hillsdale College-style charter schools in Southeast Michigan. Currently, he is working on securing a building to open a school in Brighton and another is projected to open in Warren in 2015. These schools according to him are based on the Hillsdale Academy model, which the college publishes reference manuals for $100 a pop so you too can run a for-profit charter school cleverly disguised as a Christian private school that fleeces public tax dollars.
He’s written impassioned letters on nearby local tea party websites asking people to help him open up new charter schools so he can bring back real education to American children based on what the founding fathers would have wanted.
The letter begins with an obvious dog whistle:
I guarantee to you folks that the kids that we see who are in the process of completely soiling the tenants of our Western Civilization are a products of the government run school systems, kindergarten thru grad school. What do we do?
Apparently write letters with glaring spelling and grammatical errors. That will show people you’re the guy who’s qualified to operate a school.
We can get a clear picture of what kind of person Pat is from looking at his online presence. Remember that bit about kids soiling the tenants of our western civilization attending public schools? What kids could he be talking about?
Oh of course he means those kids. What else does he have to say about certain people soiling western civilization?
Not quite as dog whistlely there. It’s okay to hate Muslims openly in western civilization. Being a tea party supporter, what could he have to say about the president and first lady?
Haha! See what he did there? By ‘paraphrasing’ Plato you’re not supposed to know he just riffed on Obama for being inferior to him! Praise Jesus for the Southern Strategy! In fact, throughout Battaglia’s post history, you will see him refer to President Obama as “Potentate O.” That’s because he doesn’t consider the president to be a real president.
As for Battaglia’s opinion of the First Lady:
And finally, here’s an exciting conversation Battaglia had with a scientist about climate change. Guess which side of that debate he’s on?
Heaven help us indeed.
Here’s the problem with the notion the schools we had 200 years ago were better than what we have now. Most children never went to school, and if they did manage to get a year or two of education, it was at a dame school being run in the neighborhood or a few years in a writing school. Only about ten out of every one hundred people graduated from any formal education setting. It was simply too expensive for most people to send their children to school. Is this really what Pasquale Battaglia wants to do to American education? Somehow it seems unlikely, or his for-profit charter schools won’t stay open for long.
Pasquale Battaglia wants to open schools that according to him teach proper “western civilization” values, but in reality would be taxpayer-funded hives of racism that perpetuate hate onto the next generation. School choice is a dog whistle for segregation.
The Indianapolis Star published this cartoon, then pulled it after many complaints.
Because there were no undocumented immigrants at the first Thanksgiving.
Fake Upper Peninsula Fish Shop Part Of Secret Federal Investigation
Saturday , 22, November 2014 Environment Leave a comment
For 14 months the Up North Fish Shop bought and sold fish from local fisherman in L’Anse, Michigan. What people didn’t know until recently is the shop was part of a federal investigation into illegal fishing in the upper Great Lakes.
In a federal search warrant unsealed in court in Marquette, the operation was part of a two year investigation into illegal fishing in Northern Michigan and Northeastern Wisconsin. The fish shop in L’Anse on US highway 41 was set up by the US Department of Fish and Wildlife Management. The operation designed to catch people selling illegally caught fish reported 400 transactions.
The fish being caught illegally included trout, walleye and sturgeon. The US Department of Fish and Wildlife Management says that trout populations in the Great Lakes are very low due to overfishing and lamprey eel infestations.
So far, Michigan and Wisconsin businesses that have been affected by the federal investigation includes Peterson’s Fish Market in Hancock, Beaver Island Fresh Fish Market, and in the Lower Peninsula John Cross Fish Market in Charlevoix. A fish distributer in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin was also raided.
The Justice Department issued a statement on November 5, 2014:
On Nov. 5, 2014 , U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service agents executed search warrants at various locations in Northern Michigan and Northeastern Wisconsin holding wholesaler records of fish taken from lakes Michigan and Superior. The searches are pursuant to an investigation into potential violations of the Lacey Act.
U.S. Attorney Patrick A. Miles, Jr. – the chief federal prosecutor for the Western District of Michigan including the Upper Peninsula – and representatives of the Justice Department Environment and Natural Resources Division are communicating with state, tribal and fed. law enforcement representatives and look forward to working with them as partners in maintaining and safeguarding a healthy fishery.
Given the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further comment will be offered at this time.
The investigation is ongoing and designed to stop the illegal commercial sale of Great Lakes fish.
Whooping Cough Spreads To Other Grand Traverse County Schools
Friday , 21, November 2014 Section 16 Leave a comment
Kingsley Area Schools reported three confirmed cases of Pertussis in their schools, bringing the total number of cases to 34 in Grand Traverse County.
Traverse City Area Public Schools currently has 15 confirmed cases of Whooping Cough spread over six school buildings. School officials have assured the community they have taken steps to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly but preventable disease from spreading further. Most students attending TCAPS are vaccinated.
The Whooping Cough outbreak in Grand Traverse County originated with for-profit charter school Grand Traverse Academy. A high number of cases developed there which forced the school to close for an entire week. Currently, GTA has 16 confirmed cases of Pertussis and 166 possible cases at that school. State records show that nearly 20% of GTA’s enrollment have vaccination waivers in their school files.
The alarming number of Whooping Cough cases occurring at GTA emphasizes the importance of everyone attending school – whether it is a public school or a for-profit charter school – to be up to date on all immunizations.
Republicans With Bad Ideas: Michigan Electoral Vote Edition
Wednesday , 19, November 2014 Candidates 5 Comments
Of all the stupid ideas Michigan Republicans want to consider for the 2016 election, it doesn’t get much more obtuse than splitting electoral votes based on how people vote in congressional districts. Republican Pete Lund’s House Bill 5974 according to him would make Michigan more competitive and popular for presidential candidates. He thinks by splitting up the number of electoral votes a candidate can win, it will make them want to come to Michigan, and the state will be more relevant in the 2016 presidential election.
Pete Lund couldn’t be more wrong.
Lund’s electoral vote splitting bill would actually have the opposite effect and only an idiot can’t see the reason why this is such a bad idea. Don’t see the problem? Fine, let’s make it easy and use a sports analogy.
When people compete for a grand prize, they don’t expect to only win part of it. People want to win all of the prize. Do we cut off a piece of the Stanley Cup and give it to the losing team?
Hell no we don’t. Nobody is going to play hockey all season, make it to the playoffs and knock off every other team to only get PART of the Stanley Cup. Can you imagine what that NHL board meeting would be like if someone suggested they could make professional hockey more competitive by splitting the championship prize between the winner and loser? You can’t imagine it because no one in their right mind would suggest it.
Pete Lund and other Republicans have delusions of making Michigan more competitive this way. They believe that by splitting Michigan’s electoral votes so that the winner gets only some of the state’s votes, that will make the state more competitive, the candidates will want to spend more time stumping in the state, and then Michigan will be more relevant in the general election.
Here’s the problem with that cunning plan: Presidential candidates know they need to win as many electoral votes as possible to make it to 270 and win the White House. Depending on whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, you know there are key states that you have to win to gain enough electoral votes. These states are unpredictable election to election. One year the people may vote Republican, the next they will vote Democratic. That’s why they’re called swing states.
If these candidates know out of Michigan’s 16 electoral votes the best they can do is 12 because the other guy is going to get 4 for being the loser, what’s the point of spending that much time in the state when other states award you with all of their votes on election night? Michigan becomes irrelevant. Presidential candidates spend less time here and more time in other states where it’s still winner take all.
House Bill 5974 is not about making Michigan more enticing in a national election. The purpose of this stupid idea is to figure out a way to make sure a Republican wins more electoral votes in Michigan even if the Democratic candidate wins more popular votes. The Nerd said he would veto this bill if it makes it to the governor’s desk, but you can’t trust Snyder with anything he says. He likes lying to the people of Michigan too much when it suits him.
The Michigan Republican Party understands the importance of winner take all, at least at the primary level. In 2016 the Republicans want to hold their primary on March 15. The reason for this is to take advantage of new Republican National Committee rules which sets when states may hold primary elections where the Republican primary candidate who wins the election gets all 60 Michigan Republican Party delegates. Funny how Republicans seem to understand well enough that winner take all will make the state more competitive, but want the exact opposite for the general election in November because it will make the state more competitive.
Stupid people with a really stupid idea. But then, it came from the Republican Party.
3,548,319 Reasons For-Profit Charter Schools In Michigan Must Be Eliminated
Monday , 17, November 2014 Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 Leave a comment
That’s how much money Dr. Steve Ingersoll stole from Michigan taxpayers when he embezzled $3,548,319 from Grand Traverse Academy.
Miss Fortune has the letter the for-profit charter school’s attorney sent to Ingersoll demanding he pay that money back immediately in June of 2013.
Ingersoll was indicted for felony fraud by a federal court in April of 2014.
This is only one man who has stolen money from the state and the federal government. There are currently 232 for-profit charter schools operating in Michigan leaching your tax dollars away from public schools. The Detroit Free Press exposed more management companies also living large off of the state with money that is supposed to educate our kids.
The new chancellor of Rick Snyder’s failure of a school district, the EAA, is being paid $325,000. A judge just ruled the state doesn’t have any responsibility to provide a quality education to Michigan children. That means more free market garbage perpetuated by the school profiteers who don’t give a damn if your children can read or not.
Are you sick of this yet?
Winter Storm Warning For Northern Michigan
Monday , 17, November 2014 Community, Environment Leave a comment
The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids issued a winter storm warning for 1 pm this afternoon to Tuesday, 9 pm for the following counties:
Charlevoix
Cheboygan
Lake County
Mason County
Oceana County
Otsego County
Heavy snow accumulations of 1 inch per hour with winds up to 25 mph will create hazardous driving conditions and wind chills near zero. Give yourself extra time to reach destinations. If you can stay home during the storm, do so. Stay safe everyone. Winter is back early again this year.