The following essay was written by Monique Baker McCormick. Monique is the Wayne County Commissioner for District 6 and an Army Veteran. As we approach the holiday season and end of the year, many of us are reflecting on the things for which we are grateful. As a U.S. Army veteran myself, not a day goes by that I am […]

Bill Schuette hasn’t filed paperwork to run for governor in Michigan yet but there are plenty of signs that he’s going to. For instance, he has already raised nearly $1.6 million. But the clearest evidence is that the man who has spent millions upon millions of our tax dollars to promote his extremist conservative views has finally started doing his […]

Last week I wrote about how the campaign of notorious homophobe and anti-worker Republican Gary Glenn had exploited an elderly Korean War vet in an effort to smear Glenn’s Democratic opponent Geoff Malicoat. An “open letter” was sent to multiple media outlets suggesting that horrific anti-veteran comments made on an online forum in 2006 were penned by Malicoat. The letter […]

A letter was recently sent to the Midland Daily News and the Midland and Bay County Democratic Parties (and probably from others) purporting to be from a retired Korean War veteran named William Miller. The letter, titled “Open letter to the Midland Democratic Party and the citizens of Bay and Midland Counties” and sent by email, contains the link goo.gl/idnIMf […]

As you likely know by now, Donald Trump, addressing a group of veterans, let them know that he believes soldiers returning to the USA with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) aren’t strong and “can’t handle” being in combat: When people come back from war and combat, they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen […]

By now you’ve likely at least heard about if not actually heard Khizr Khan’s powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention last week. Mr. Khan and his wife Ghazala lost their son Captain Humayan Khan when he was killed by a car bomb in Iraq in 2004. This Gold Star family had some very pointed words for Donald Trump: Donald […]

Earlier this week, former Michigan state legislator Jason Allen told UP Matters reporter Brittany Denny that he is “troubled” by the recent reports of disabled veterans in the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans suffering under the atrociously inadequate care provided by J2S Group. J2S Group is the for-profit healthcare corporation that was the beneficiary of Gov. Snyder’s privatization scheme that […]

NOTE: Big tip o’ the Eclectahat to Eclectablog reader D. Harvey D. who provided much of the background research and perspective for this post. I’ve already written about the scandal involving the mistreatment of elderly disabled veterans at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans. A report released by the State Office of the Auditor General detailed a scathing laundry list […]

Back in 2011, reports began to emerge that conditions in the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans had deteriorated after part of the staff had been privatized. According to reporting by The Detroit News, “contract workers [were] responsible for incidents in which a veteran suffered a broken neck as a result of improper lifting procedures and another veteran had a gastric […]

Dan Benishek, the Congressman from Michigan’s 1st Congressional District made a pledge when he first ran for that seat that he would only serve three terms. When he recently reneged on that pledge, I sorta shrugged. Republican politicians lying about things isn’t particularly BREAKING NEWS!!! However, when Benishek revealed his supposed reason for breaking his pledge, I got angry. According […]

This is the third in our four part series on women running for the State House of Representatives on Tuesday. I am a big proponent of more women being elected at all levels of government and I hope that this series helps to make that more realistic for these women candidates. Stacey Dogonski is a firebrand and I mean that […]