Gov Whitmer In Favor of Blocking Entry Of At Least Some Illegal Immigrants

So long as they are just fish, she's otherwise just fine with illegals coming to and staying in this state.

The Detroit Free Press:  Why stop-work order on Great Lakes carp barrier was suddenly lifted

Work on a more than $1 billion project to deter invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes is set to resume in Illinois, after the Trump administration lifted a stop-work order following a direct appeal from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to President Donald Trump. 

She's in favor of effective barriers to keep invaders out, but again, just for fish. 

Funny, that. If only the invasive carp could just be relabeled as "Undocumented finned immigrants"  she'd be all for letting them flood in.

BCBS Insurance Change Major Threat To Michigan Mental Health Care

Right when we need more mental health treatment in this state, Blue Cross Blue Shield is about to serious mess up insurance and thus the provision for mental health services in this state.

Click on Detroit: ‘Devastating’: Michigan mental health care workers concerned BCBSM billing change could cut access to counselors

BCBS is the big dog in Michigan health insurance coverage, and they run the vast majority of insurance coverage for people in this state.  This change to mental health billing and in essence not covering therapy by limited license practitioners is going to massively reduce the number of eligible practitioners to be able to be provide treatment ,and prevent limited license practitioners from getting paid for hours they do in practice before they are fully licensed. And they can't ever get fully licensed without doing a ton of direct patient hours.

We already have a mental health crisis in this state and not enough practitioners to handle the load, and this is going to make it worse. 

More mentally ill people and everyday people in crisis not getting covered treatment and thus not getting treatment - what could possibly go wrong?

One would think the government might intervene in such decisions,  given BCBS' almost monopoly power in this state, but given the governor we have, don't count on it.

That's because BCBS has Governor Whitmer in their back pocket.  Indeed, that would be an understatement.  Her father was the former CEO of Blue Cross, and that's not the least of the ties.

Heck, she was practically installed as governor by BCBS.

Detroit Metro Times: Blue Cross has given more cash to Whitmer than any Michigan gov candidate in past decade

The Intercept: A Blue Cross CEO Encouraged a Michigan Woman to Get Into Politics. Now She’s Running for Governor and Says Single Payer Is Unrealistic

Don't expect the governor to step in against this destructive coverage decision anytime soon.

When it comes to the Gov's claims about being for "the people" of this state, the people sure take a back seat to the largest insurance company in the state. 

Beydoun: Follow The Money

The Detroit News:  Republican senator wants U.S. DOJ to probe Whitmer's ties to Beydoun

Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt asked the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday to investigate Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's connections to businesswoman and political donor Fay Beydoun.

On May 6, state Attorney General Dana Nessel charged Beydoun of Farmington Hills with 16 felonies, alleging Beydoun had misused a $20 million taxpayer-funded grant 

Well, the money trail is certainly there and it all point to Beydoun heavily investing in Democrats. 

Beydoun gave heavily, as in tens of thousands of dollars to Democrat politicians and political organizations.  Including $10,500 to the Michigan Democratic State Central Cmte (D), Over $7,500 in multiple donations over time to Gretchen Whitmer's campaign coffers directly and another $7,500 to her campaign committee.

That kind of money buys access.

Its not just that politicians can be bought its how cheaply they can be bought.

That roughly 15k in direct contributions to Gov Whitmer and her campaign helped get Beydoun a $20 million dollar grant that she promptly misused.  

Heckuva return on political corruption, that.

Gov Whitmer's Pal Procrastinatingly Prosecuted

As a Michigan Democrat, you can steal from the state, but you're not supposed to be overly blatant about it, or even worse, show highly conspicuous and gauche taste in doing so.

I mean, for Democrats, it's one thing to steal $20 million from the state as a non-profit, but to spend $4,500 of it on a coffee maker and $40,000 for personal furniture? How very déclassée! 

The facts have been known for over two years now, but only now is Fay Beydoun, a prominent Democrat and Governor Whitmer's friend and fundraiser, to whom the governor steered the grant,  getting prosecuted.

Michigan Department of Atotrney General: AG Nessel Charges Fay Beydoun with 16 Felonies for Stealing Global Link International Grant Funding

The Detroit News: Fay Beydoun hit with 16 criminal charges in $20M earmark scandal

The two year delay likely was done to further protect Whitmer from her role in arranging for the $20 million grant, and there are some cracks in the current Michigan Democratic coalition between the progressive-Islamic and the left-but-sane factions that are allowing some of this to bubble up.  

Given how the Beydouns are a clan with ties and sympathies with Hezbollah, it'll be an interesting question as to how much of the stolen money went back to Lebanon or was used for propaganda purposes here in addition to Democrat graft.

Interesting political times for Democrats in Michigan.

In Between Her World Travels, Social Media Shows, And Planning To Run For President

Someone might want to remind Gretchen Whitmer that she is still (unfortunately for us) governor of the state of Michigan.

The Detroit News: 'Big Gretch out?' Michigan needs a governor who's still in.

Then again, she may do best running away from her record here rather than running on it.

The results of her governorship makes that rather clear.

In Michigan under "Big Gretch" Whitmer, literacy and education scores have declined,  economic growth has gone down, and yet the state budget has steadily increased by 57% during her term in office, far in excess of the rate of inflation.

Now at $88.1 billion compared to the $56 Billion before she came into office, the budget now spends almost $9,000 per resident of this state. Even worse, it now spends around $21,487 per each and every one of the 4.1 million Michigan taxpayers actually paying for it - and not much to show in results for this excess and excessive spending either.

Gov Whitmer Picking Losers and Supporters Yet Again

A Democrat proposing a tax reduction?  

Well, yes, but more as a political ploy: The Detroit Free Press: Whitmer budget to propose $90M property tax break for Michigan seniors

Now, property taxes aren't levied by the state here in Michgian. This proposal instead allows a favored group of some seniors to pay lower property taxes with the state making up the shortfall to the local governments for doing so - and it would be a property tax credit only.

Not all Michigan homeowners, nor even all seniors, would benefit from such a tax credit which of course will be income adjusted to disappear as you earn more (and likely pay more property taxes), thus benefiting few.

Democrats here really hate broad-based tax reductions where everyone who pays taxes can benefit.  Instead, they like convoluted tax reductions that can benefit their voters and supporters or that sound good but in actuality reduce very little in actual taxes paid by most people in this state - even going so far as to sue to prevent a reduciton int he state's sales tax.

This is more media gaming on Whitmer's part as she pivots towards a higher office and most likely a White House run. 

Yep, She's Going To Be Running

The Democrats so far have a rather thin and likely unelectable nation-wide field of candidates for 2028.

Kamala is just not going to win on a second attempt. 

Walz is neck-deep in corruption. 

Newsom may lead in California but his policies would make even most mid-western Democrats run away. 

Shapiro can't get past the anti-semites in his own party to make it to a VP slot, much less advance in the primaries. 

So it seems our own governor is prepping to throw herself into the ring creating a "social media empire" and laying the groundwork for a run:

The Detroit News:  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says U.S. is 'ready for a woman president'

She's running, bet on it. 

How About NO?

The Detroit News: Whitmer-created task force recommends ban on assault weapons

A group that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created with the goal of making policy recommendations to save lives is urging state lawmakers to ban the possession of assault weapons and large capacity magazines.

How about No there sparky? 

 It's always the same ignorant proposals from Democrats instead of actual measures known to work to curb violence - because that would put many of their supporters in prison where they belong rather than out on the streets committing crimes.

The task force also said devices that convert semiautomatic guns into fully automatic firearms — known as Glock switches — should also be banned. 

Glock Switches already are banned under Michigan and Federal law both.  

That this Task force does not know this leads me to suspect the knowledge and credibility of same and instead to consider that this is yet another progressive task force that knows little about firearms and instead is just pushing the Democrat's agenda.

People proposing regulations on things should not be ignorant of the things they are attempting to regulate, much less try to outright ban. 

The Answer To This Question Is No

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan wants AI jobs and 100% clean energy. But can it do both?

At the same time Michigan's Democrats have required that power generation be from 100%clean  renewable sources by  2040, they now want to add a demand of gigawatts of power form their latest shiny fetish - Data Centers.

The power demand from data centers are daunting:

DTE also plans to provide power for the Stargate campus, OpenAI announced. In an Oct. 30 earnings call, DTE officials said they secured an agreement to power a 1.4-gigawatt data center. For reference, DTE’s Fermi 2 nuclear plant in Newport produces about 1.2 gigawatts of power, enough energy to power a city of a million people, according to the company. OpenAI said the power used for its Stargate campus will come from existing energy supply, and DTE said the data center will absorb electric costs, not local ratepayers.  

Not likely. Especially as the Democrats don't want increase reliable baseline production most especially not with nuclear power.

That one data center will take all of Fermi 2's generation just by itself, forget adding another data center.  They want even more. We're already susceptible to brown outs due to a lack of generation capability here,  and they want to add data centers to add to the load without increasing generation capability.

Unicorns and rainbows aren't going to power the Michigan Democrat's data center dreams. Until Dems get serious about power generation, this demand fir shiny hip data centers need to be stopped as it is unplugged from reality.

Get Your Democrat Crony Capitalism Right Here

Once again Gov Whitmer is picking winners and losers, but, mostly losers.

After wasting millions on failed battery plant projects, subsidized to the tunes of millions of Michigan taxpayer 's dollars,  she's now moved on to subsidizing data centers. 

The Detroit News: Massive OpenAI data center planned for farmland near Ann Arbor

What could possibly go wrong?

Hamas Perfidy And A Michigan Connection

So Hamas murdered Ariel (age 10) and Kfir Bibas  (age 4 months) by strangling them to death and then disfigured their bodies, and then to add insult to injury handed over coffins that were locked, stuffed with Hamas propaganda along with the bodies, and did not actually return Shiri Bibas' body, instead putting an unknown woman's body int the coffin (The body of was later handed over Friday night).

Hamas, with Iranian backing, also attempted to carry out a massive series of bombings in Israel, only failing due to setting the timers to 9pm rather than 9 am.

Hamas is yet again violating the ceasefire with these acts and expecting to get away with it, as more and more Hamas terrorists are released to kill again in return for live and dead hostages.

Meanwhile, our own Governor Whitmer of Michigan is busy gallivanting around Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates  on a junket with a Hamas apologist and Hezbollah supporter, Osama Siblani, that she brought along for the visit: 

Washington Free Beacon: He Said He'd Take Jews 'Back to Poland.' Gretchen Whitmer Took Him on an Official State Trip to the Middle East. Details of the trip and who she is meeting on it while hanging out with Siblani makes it even worse.

Words would fail to express the disgust that I have right now for our dear  governor half-whit. 

To be jaunting around with a Hamas apologist as Hamas commits terrorist attacks and continues to hold people hostage is beyond the pale. 

2 More Years

On the upside, we have only two more years of Gov. Whitmer to suffer through.

On the downside that's two more years of lost time and opportunities for her to do more damage to the state of our state.

On the upside, Gov. Whitmer now appears far less interested in governing than she is in travel out of our state and shopping for her next Democrat political post.

The Detroit News:  Where's Whitmer?

Whitmer was on her A-game when she thought there was a chance she could be the vice-presidential pick for a second Biden administration. She couldn’t stay offline or off the campaign trail, buttering up to be in Kamala Harris’ cabinet, once the winds turned that way.

But throughout the past year, she has shown little interest in Michigan’s real needs, favoring her book tour and out-of-state travel over more homegrown issues, many of which beg for her involvement.

.  .  .

Instead, she spent about 25% of her time in the first nine months of 2024 outside the state promoting her book on Martha’s Vineyard, San Francisco, and elsewhere, an amount of travel that exceeded her own past totals. Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist was paid as acting governor for much of that time.

Another significant chunk of time was spent on content creation for her social media presence, which revolved around abortion, her book and Democratic campaigning — not governing. 

Whitmer then left Democrats in the Legislature on their own in lame duck, abdicating any leadership or role in negotiations. She gave lip service to legislative priorities, such as transparency, disclosure and economic development, that she did not see through.

At least she wasn't partying in Ghana on the taxpayer's dime as her city burned, so there's that. 

I suppose we can be thankful as the more she stays away from the state, the less damage she can do. After all this state suffered a lost decade under Gov. Granholm, who has ended up in Berkeley, California and served as Biden's Secretary of Energy, thus doing unto the country what she did unto our state.  

Looks like we will have a lost eight years under Whitmer, and if the Democrats regain power nationally in four years she'll be on her way to Washington to again give the country a taste of the failure (but progressive media star) that she has been at the state level.

Quite The Impression There Gretchen

The Detroit News: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer feeds podcaster Dorito in 'weird' viral video

The video has the governor feeding the podcaster a Dorito chip (What Kamala has claimed is her favorite) while wearing a Kamala Harris / Walz cap, and a rather bizarre expression, to the kneeling podcaster in a rather bizarre tik tok video.

She's now walked back this rather weird stunt and apologized as to how it was perceived, after being called out on it especially as it appears to come across as either some weird dom/sub thing, or a bit of mockery towards communion celebrated by Catholics:

Mediate: Gretchen Whitmer Apologizes For Bizarre Doritos TikTok Stunt After Catholic Outrage

Not exactly a stunt a governor of a state should be participating in, really.

But that's our governor for you, when she's not killing the elderly with bad Covid decisions, she's all class (not) and ever eager to take a poke at those who don't get behind the Democrat party line.

The University of Michigan Pro-Terrorism Encampment

So, this is the main sign up at the University of Michigan pro-Hamas encampment:

 It says "Long Live The Intifada"

Note this is not the Dearborn campus, where it would be rather expected, instead, it is the main campus at Ann Arbor.

Intifada of course is the Hamas (and Fatah) campaign of terrorist bombings, shootings, and knifing attacks against Jews in Israel of which the October 7 attack was a part.

Note well they are praising the Intifada. 

To praise the Intifada while at the same time as claiming they are all for a ceasefire is disingenuous at best, and almost but not quite material support for terrorism at worst.  Makes the students useful idiots at best, with a strong sprinkling of progressive and Islamist fellow travelers.

We will note that Gov. Whitmer has so far still failed to condemn the Dearborn chants of Death to Israel and Death to America, and has now decided to do a "fine people on both sides" bit in regards to the University of Michigan - because she wants the Islamist votes for the Democrats, and she apparently equates people calling for global terrorism to be the same as those calling for Hamas to release the hostages they took on October 7 - including Americans still in captivity. 

Rather pathetic on her part.

Michigan Greenies Begin To Realize They Need Nuclear Power

The Pallisades Nuclear Plant should never have been shut down to begin with, but Michigan's Democrats wanted it shut down as "nukes bad".

The Democrats then realized that if they're going to go to an electric car heavy transportation grid and cut out coal power generation at the same time, their renewable project was not going to be able to cut it and provide reliable power in the face of increasing demand. Do recall that Governor Whitmer was all for shutting it down until she claimed to be against doing so at the last minute when it was too late to prevent the shutdown so she could be on both sides of the fence.

So we get:

The Detroit News: Palisades nuclear plant gets $1.5B federal loan in bid to reopen, a national first

It should never have been shut down in the first place, and Michigan is going  to need more nuclear power generation, not less, if the Democrats persist on getting rid of reliable baseline power and replacing it with  unreliable solar and wind that can't meet the demand.

Michigan State Bailout - Palooza!

Our dear governor just rescued a bunch of Democrat constituencies from their series of poor choices, at the expense of everyone other taxpayer in the state.

The Detroit News: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approves money for Highland Park water deal, school debt relief

She just gave out over $134 Million of state money to bailout some key Democrat institutions:  Most notably $30 million to The City of Highland Park as a reward for its decision to not pay its water bill for decades, and for school systems also in debt due to overspending, mismanagement, and corruption.

The bills Whitmer signed also direct the Michigan Treasury Department to pay off $42.2 million in debt owed by Ypsilanti Community Schools, $31.3 million owed by the Muskegon Heights School District, about $18.4 million owed by the Pontiac City School District and more than $10 million owed by Benton Harbor Area Schools.

The money for Ypsilanti's school district includes $19.4 million to pay off the former Willow Run Community Schools' outstanding school bond loan fund balances or the school loan revolving fund balance. The Willow Run district merged with the Ypsilanti school system in 2013.

The spending bills also pay off $12 million in debt owed by the former Inkster School District, which a Republican-controlled Legislature dissolved in 2013.

Note these were all run into the ground by Democrat governance. Nothing is given to the school boards who properly managed their finances, nor to communities that actually paid their water bills, just more bailing out of Democrat-run, profligate spending government entities.

It has still never been explained where the money Highland Park collected from its residents for the water bills, and which it never paid to the water authority, actually went. Nor are we likely to ever get an answer, nor should we expect an accounting for these other communities' debts and what the money was actually wasted on.

Michigan Democrats: Public Schools Can't Be Graded F if We Stop Grading Them

More importantly, getting rid of the grading system make it harder for parents to see how their schools are doing.

The Detroit Free Press: Bill to repeal A-F public school ranking system headed to Whitmer

Note that this bill will not improve education in any way, it simply removes an easily understandable  reporting system for people to understand how their public schools and the teachers are performing.

Apparently, it's bad to give schools an F as it is a "punitive label" and their feelings might be hurt.  

Let's not make it easy identify continuously failing and under-performing schools but instead hide their failure and keep on keeping on. After all, teachers are, and the teacher's union is, a core Democrat constituency and covering for Democrat failure is the Democrat way.

 

This is What Happens When A City Doesn't Pay Its Bills For 10 Years

The City of Highland Park decided it was going to refuse to pay its water bills for 10 years, claiming it was being overcharged.  

That didn't stop them from using the water all that time, collecting payments form the city residents, and racking up $24 Million with an M in non-payment.   Other municipalities in the region were getting soaked with Highland Park's unpaid bills through higher water rates to their residents.

Now the Piper (of water) has demanded to be paid:

Since the ruling, Highland Park officials have said the bill will financially sink the city. The majority Black city has a population of 8,900 residents, a per capita income of $19,401 and a 41% poverty rate in 2021, according to the Census Bureau. The estimated $24 million tab, the exact amount with interest is still being determined, is two and a half times larger than the $9.6 million Highland Park collects annually in property tax revenues.The Detroit News: Highland Park mayor: City in state of emergency

Yet another Democrat-run city, now hoping for a state-level bailout for its profligate actions. They certainly could have escrowed their water payments over those 10 years, but they apparently spent it on whatever corrupt local units of government spend stuff on, and now they have to come up with the money - or get bailed out.

So of course our dear Governor Whitmer instead of having them responsibly handle the situation of their own making,  suggested the city should be bailed out: 

Whitmer's office for months has suggested that GLWA could help solve the debt issue by tapping a $25 million state clean drinking water grant that the Democratic governor and Republican-led Legislature approved last year. Whitmer's office didn't immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

So instead of using that grant money for the purpose that it was appropriated for - ensuring clean drinking water for the region (kinda an important use of the funds, yes?), the governor wants to use it to bail out a Democrat scofflaw city that failed to pay its water bills for 10 years.

So the politicians and city that messed this up for 10 years should face no consequences and should be bailed out for their failure. That's Michigan under Whitmer for you.

Whitmer: You Can Still Move Up A Grade If You Ain't Readin Gud

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan 3rd grade reading law no longer requires students to be held back

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill Friday that strikes from law a requirement to hold back third graders who fail reading proficiency test.

Hilariously, she's selling it under the guise of  "parent's rights to decide what's best for their children" rather than kids being held back a year for being unable to read to grade level. Yes, really. After all, she otherwise would have to sell it by admitting that students in poorly performing school districts aren't getting the instruction they need from MEA-teachers union members in how to read.

Whitmer sure can't have that. Much better they be advanced not fully prepared to the next grade, and make it someone else's problem.

A report from Michigan State University's Education Policy Innovation Collaborative found that in the spring of 2022, nearly 6% of third graders received test scores that made them eligible to repeat the grade under the reading law. The report also found that school districts that mostly instructed students remotely during the 2020-21 school year recorded the highest share of students flagged to be held back another year.

Oh gee, that was the year Whitmer closed schools for Covid, now wasn't it?  Funny how that happens.

Michigan Democrat Crony Capitalism

In another part of the effort to spend down the budget to prevent the income tax cut (if she can),  our Governor is giving money away as fast as she can.

One might have used to believe (if you were the gullible sort) the Democrats when they said they were against big business. 

 Au contraire, they like big corporations just fine - especially when they toe the government's line, and even more so when the company in question has a nice symbiotic relationship with a Democrat-supporting union. The spending in this case is for an electric vehicle battery plant site, because, of course it is.

The Detroit News: Whitmer signs $1.3B spending plan, directing $630M toward private Ford development

"Today, I’m proud to sign a supplemental package that will create 2,500 good-paying jobs in Marshall, improve infrastructure, grow our healthcare workforce, and so much more!" Whitmer said on social media.

So for the 2,500 "good-paying jobs" she boasts about, the state of Michigan is giving, in this one extra appropriate alone, a $650 Million subsidy, which  equals $252,000 per job.

The total of $1.6 Billion in local and state subsidies for this project means each and every one of those "good-paying jobs" jobs is subsidized to the tune of $640,000.00 in tax dollars for each and every job.

You know, we could save the state some money by just giving $500,000 each to 2,500 people in Marshall and tell them to have a good time. Heck, let's instead  give $1 million of taxpayer money  to 1,250 random people in Marshall and announce how Michigan has gained over a thousand new millionaires this year - that'll make the news and make everyone think the Michigan economy is just rockin'.

Good-paying jobs indeed - if you mean the government paying a corporation for them, with your tax dollars.

Imagine what your own business could do with a subsidy of $640,000 for every job you have - or even just the latest appropriated amount of $252,000 - especially after weathering the storm of Whitmer shutting this state down and forcing small businesses to close.