History is written by the whiners Is there any hope for the Stimulus? More than seven years after the Recovery Act became law it’s clear to economists that the law improved and possibly saved the economy. But — despite the Herculean or Sisyphean efforts of Mike Grunwald — most people still have no idea what it did. There’s no Hoover […]

If Michigan actually WAS a corporation with Rick Snyder as its CEO, it would have gone bankrupt years ago… Rick Snyder sold voters on the idea that (a) government should be run like a business and (b) that he’s the perfect CEO to do that. We now have ample evidence that government should NOT be run like a business. And, […]

The following essay was written by Mitchell Robinson and is cross-posted on his most-excellent blog at MitchellRobinson.net. Robinson is associate professor and chair of music education, and coordinator of the music student teaching program at Michigan State University. Follow Mitchell on Twitter at @mrobmsu. His essay is reposted here with permission. Enjoy. The news was shocking in its incongruence and […]

Today’s guest post is by Laura Packard, a partner at PowerThru Consulting, a growing national progressive digital consulting shop. Enjoy. With both the GOP and Democratic presidential candidates coming to Michigan this week for their respective debates, I hope some of the larger issues that Michigan (and the country) faces will finally be addressed. Michigan state government has been broken […]

Following an investigation by the office of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, philandering Republicans Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser have had multiple felony charges filed against them today.

“Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Political Suicide” by DonkeyHotey When in doubt, change the messenger Further demonstrating an inability to deal effectively to the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with a powerful neurotoxin, Gov. Snyder took the bold step of replacing his communications director and his press secretary: Gov. Rick Snyder removed his communications director and press secretary Thursday amid the […]

If you’ve been following the Democratic primary closely, it probably seems pretty ugly to you. Charges laced with must-Google terms like “Superpredator,” “mass incarceration” and “productivity’s relationship to GDP” touch on real divisions on policy and a reckoning on race necessary to move the progressive movement forward. While discussions about uterus ownership and “Bernie Bros” suggest to me the overblown […]

It’s no secret that many Republicans in the Michigan legislature want to destroy public education in our state and funnel tax dollars into the coffers of for-profit charter schools. For anyone paying attention, that’s a given. What is surprising, to me at least, is how brazen they have become. Detroit Public Schools is on the brink of bankruptcy. According to […]

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 […]

There’s a court case lingering over the presidential election that could explode in the next few months, and it’s probably not the one you’re thinking of. Yahoo‘s Michael Isikoff reports: This spring, just as the GOP nomination battle enters its final phase, frontrunner Donald Trump could be forced to take time out for some unwanted personal business: He’s due to […]

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 […]