The blog discusses current affairs and development of national economic and social health through unique idea generation. Consider the blog a type of thought experiment where ideas are generated to be pondered but should never be considered definitive as a final conclusion. It is just a pathway to understanding and one may equally reject as accept ideas as theoretical dribble. New perspectives, new opportunities, for a new generation. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”—Thomas Jefferson
Let me say that being a light Right conservative in today's world is not easy as there are pressures to conform to more robust perspectives. If you are a divergent thinker you can often see the validity of perspective of both sides but then get caught into the political encampment. Some will see you as not far right enough and others will see you as too far right. No matter these differences, there is one thing that should not be politicized and that is our laws and law enforcement.
Regardless of if you are the farthest of all far right perspectives or the farthest of all left perspectives we should agree that we need our laws to apply universally and we need our police to act with integrity. I believe, that if we get down into the weeds of the discussion even most police officers would like to improve their functioning and get better at protecting the public.
(Personally, while there are good and bad police. Most of the problems don't come specifically from them but the toxic environments in which they sometimes work, the wishy washy political perspective, and a general lack of awareness and proper oversight by our courts. Its not fair to put all of the blame on police as 80% are doing the right thing but the 20% who are staining the shield have little boundary control and dominate some of their department perspectives. The same as when they violate our core national laws.)
That requires vision by our leadership and often they are so busy arguing that they forget how important policing is to protect the public from criminals as well as ensure they do their jobs with integrity. I hope someday these leaders will come to see the value in honest and thoughtful policing. We should always reach for the lofty so as to create the right perception of improvement.
In theory they would agree but in their ability to actually truly create that environment I'm not sure they are 100% sure they know what they are doing. I believe anyone in this changing time would struggle to know where the right path may lay. However, we should know what the wrong path is and that is providing immunity for any crime committed by officers.
(Not all of our politicians, academics and scientists know what to do. It is a discussion but what can't continue is the allowing of poor behaviors based on our ability, or lack thereof, to manage the system properly. We are not enforcing our shared laws in some areas for social, racial and religious affiliation. It's a federal and international crime in some incidents.)
Even if these crimes are against the very nature of human development, freedom of speech and freedom of religion we are confused why we would want to avoid allowing them to continue. Just like I have seen an extremism leaning clan circumvent and violate our laws without accountability, I have seen a failure to uphold our laws with appropriate checks and balances. Its called a default (At least from a minority perspective where the application of laws are sometimes highly subjective.)
(Even with the Capital Riots and the potential for public execution of our politicians if the extremist mob turned down one hallway versus the other doesn't seem to faze the idea that extremism is a universal problem in every culture, race, and religion but we have a very ethnocentric approach to dealing with it which makes us blind to the problem and to the solutions.)
Situations like this have long term consequences when we fail to enforce the greater national laws on these rogue elements and those that profited from shadow behaviors. It is just a sign of rot and decay and the lack of perspective on what it means to be an American in today's society. It sets up the American and "American" systems as separate that should instead be fused into one.
(I believe that time is coming with big data that will force us to recognize how poor some of our decisions have been and with luck those who failed to step up to the plate when they were called to stand up for our central values. As with all things, its mixed.)
Here is how I see the new conservative and more modern politician. Wise enough to understand the subjectivity of the sometimes ridiculous and manipulative arguments brought forward for political gain. They put the American people first above their own needs. They truly want to build a great nation and avoid slipping to #2 due to lack of ability to work with all societal stakeholders. Support our Constitutional rights and protects freedom of religion (Not just one religion) as central to our national existence (As a full and shared identity of diverse people).
The modern conservative should more free market but fair and free market that is not manipulated by large business or political interest groups. Basically, we need leadership development. I guess its the same for Democrats. We need conservatives that go back to the root of conservatism which includes effective use of government to achieve more with less in a way that limits the need for such a large foot print, reducing taxes by ensuring we are using tax resources wisely, standing for freedom of religion (a free nation of religious practice), and encouraging general values and performance in society through freedom of speech.
(These are just ideas. They are also not popular and sometimes violently opposed through political and ethnocentric violence. We are just at that spot where the path forward looks like we need real solutions to real problems and both sides of the political perspective own that. Let me be the best friend of our local police and help them help themselves manage officers with bad behavior. I can do that fairly and honestly and supported by research on how certain crimes may be given a free pass. How to challenge corruption and create the context so these department heads fulfill their sworn oaths and duties. Especially the ones to our flag and the people who value it's hard won words. "liberty and justice for all")
Jobless claims bump up to 264K which is 22K higher then the previous week. The numbers are the highest since November of 2021. Changing economy and changing nature of jobs might be at work. Watching the unemployment rate gives us an opportunity to see the happenings of the labor market as a general resource and input of the economy.
What these numbers indicate is a slowing but it appears the market is relatively still healthy. There will likely be some adjustments in the markets as the economy heads to a new normal. No one has defined what that new normal looks like yet but eventually it will find an average.
It should be remembered that the economy is different now and COVID pushed the system 10 years forward in digital and remote development. Likewise, jobs will be shifting so we should expect the unemployment rates to flux during those transitions.
Ott, Mike (May 11th, 2023). 'US jobless claims filings highest since 2021, but job market remains healthy'. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-business/more-americans-file-for-jobless-claims-but-job-market-remains-healthy/
What I find most interesting about this local system of justice is that they are slow to act on what appears to be crimes against others. Whether elderly, children, the sick, minorities, or anything else they seem to have signed up for the Code Blue "free pass" for what looks like cleansing behaviors. I believe they do not want to investigate these behaviors because they have officers involved and they don't want them to have their lives ruined (I do not want to ruin their lives either, however we have to protect the public and correct obvious dangerous deficiencies and misalignment of values/loyalties. There will be differences between mistakes and intentional mistakes and I believe stakeholders want to know those differences. You have to start with accountability.).
As a side thought. If these department heads are aware their officers are committing crimes and they are aware that they are giving free pass to other crimes because of marriage and close relationships we have a major problem on our hands. While its possible they have been doing this for years, no one ever challenged them and the ones that did may have received retaliatory justice (i.e. the rumor of an underaged intoxicated girl having sex in the back of a cop car that was then stalked by a number officers until she killed herself and named one or more officers in her suicide note. There was kind of another pattern that formed in another situation where officers might have been afraid to get in trouble and used the same stalking/targeting behaviors which might be an indication of the potential truthfulness of that rumor).
It makes you wonder whether these officers and their departments are willing to stand up for our most basic American principles and ensure they are doing things fairly and in the best interest of the public in mind. Some of these officers appear to have chosen their homogenous clan over the principles of our people and in turn were allowed to continue to commit these crimes with awareness of other officers (immunity), the department heads and I suspect higher (It may be possible to build a case all the way up the chain)
Keep in mind that when officials know a crime has been committed and/or is occurring they have a responsibility to investigate and come to an impartial conclusion (Which I do not believe anyone locally is able to make decisions over these issues anymore. As an example a lack of reporting hate crimes). If they fail because they don't want their fellow clan members to be held to account, but are willing to put the outcomes of such crimes minorities and victims of our society, then their role as officers in society has become confused. They have in effect broke an important social contract that ties to our Constitution and core as a nation. It is incumbent on the rest of the system to hold them to account.
Likewise, if there are rogue networks of officers and their clan associates are unconcerned about the Constitution and its protection (I think some of these officers mock civil liberties and rights in their extremist leaning perspectives. Some of their friends have made jokes about my "nigga baby" children and even yelled out "Your father is a bitch" or something similar to my kids. There have been other behaviors that lack of human dignity and devaluing of life. Intentional acts of cruelty that like came from psychopath origins. None of these seem to count in the local system.) they are in the wrong line of business and constitute an unchecked and unmitigated risk. The worst thing we can go do is give officers who don't respect our laws a badge and a gun. Seriously, think about the type of person and personality we need policing. If true, I don't believe we need their kind (There have been other complaints of rudeness and aggressiveness during traffic stops against locals; doesn't appear related to minorities alone. There os a lack of mechanisms for managing the "magical badge" syndrome where weaker personalities and poor values use the badge as a way to project power without respecting where that symbolic power comes from. These are often the root behaviors that lead to clan based corruption we may be seeing here. We need better mechanisms of reporting and ensuring they follow up. Foot dragging and protecting ones social networks seem to take more precedence in some instances than the needs of the community and nation. Thus, because of a lack of meaningful addressing such issues these complaints should be formal and public even if the specific names are redacted. There should be some reporting requirement of officer complaints and determination of any patterns of poor behavior. i.e. multiple complaints about similar thing.)
Without account it is a statement about the what kind of nation and people we are and what kind of leadership we have. Its not the peoples fault we struggle to see the benefit of fair and impartial treatment and/or the universal application of justice within our systems. The people have the right to be protected against those who willfully violate the law. That becomes even more important for public servants. Throw the symbolism of the badge in there and they misuse the respect that is inherent from actions of the hundreds of thousands of officers who care about their communities and actually believe in "protect and serve". Its a good will symbol (We have to make an assumption here that crimes were committed. I believe they were and I would suspect they would say no. However, I think if you say no and it ends up being a big crime later, and they knew it, then I think the penalties should be higher.)
Good officers that care about their communities are an asset and in an noble profession. Extremist leaning and corrupt officers are a liability and should be removed promptly before they damage more innocent people. The system should be capable of recognizing the behavior, acting on it, and removing the risk. That same logic applies to their clan associates and the one's who started the problem. We cannot allow criminal behavior to be unchecked just because of social networks.
Sometimes department heads and local systems don't correct these deficiencies on their own without additional prompting. This is why its not justice to allow department heads to be aware of problems and fail to correct to protect the public. I put together this little chart that is one way to ramp up the pressure moving from no/low crime awareness elements into the more core members of the group to create avenues by which they can report these networks that eventually leads to awareness, leverage and correction.
Btw I support police 100% and Civil Rights 110%. I'm their best friend because unlike their leadership I will tell them when their wrong and have a problem (Like an alcoholic drunk off the feeling of misuse of community given power). I will help them correct like I would with my best friends. We are having a frank discussion and then I'm moving down the path of ensuring OUR American principles and the Constitution are followed wholeheartedly.
A Few Ideas:
Transparency Improvement: Encourage people to report poor acting officers and appreciate good officers so as to encourage appropriate protect and serve perspective. That may also include posting the details of complaints on officers and using that as one metric of encouraging officers to act in good faith. Good or bad officers may also be highlighted in such systems.
Lying and Leadership: If people are lying and if leadership is aware then I think this moves beyond simple criminality because they have in effect accepted that the inherent rights of the American populace is based on their ethnic homogenous clan membership. In other words, they have sworn a loyalty to something else. Reward those who tell the truth and throw out those who lie.
Places to Check for Information:
1. Review arrest records and prior complaints. Look for disparities, patterns, issues of improper coordination, etc. It will depend on whether they are already transparent or they hide this information. Poor departments hide this information while good departments may adjust the information but also ensure the public is well aware of crime stats
2. Check Promotions within Departments. Ensure promotion isn't related to clan membership, race/religion/ethnicity and social affiliation versus actual performance.
3. Determine if they have underreported hate crime stats or if they failed to report hate crimes when it was obvious they should have.
4. Internal complaints, investigations and results of those complaints.
5. Social media critical of officers and see if others felt their rights were violated. I heard there were a number of videos up there. Saw a few about a month ago around Good Friday (It was a day they appeared to have used official government resources to enforce what appeared to be an indication of what religions the local law enforcement system will allow in the area. Something about their values was the impression I got. The ethnic-religious cleansing kind It appeared.)
6. Many many more. We just have to wait and see how this turns out.
A Strategic Thought:
Getting other researchers involved in making an example case out of this might help sort of discover the "truth" behind the situation. Its a risk to do nothing and there should be a way to do this so it can help local police become batter at their jobs, reward those who do well, and remove those elements that are no longer constructive to the modern era (i.e. extremist leaning officers and clan affiliated members. Clan as defined as ethnically homogeneous affiliated group that coordinated in each other's best interested group. While that might be normal such clans can take a dark step when they view others of different races and religions as ultimately dangerous and of lower value then they see themselves. It makes it easy to exploit hate for destructive self gain through one's social networks.)
Two Studies and Their Implications:
The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States: The study helps us understand how important it is for police to work with integrity. The best way to combat corruption is a holistic approach and use of outside interview/investigations. Improvements might include increases in pay, officer rotations, and other behaviors that increase loyalty to the country. The study is more about volatile environments but might be similar to time pressure and risk of also being caught for such behaviors. (In this case perhaps our Constitution and its essential values. We have to assume that they are more interested in taking care of their own and their fellow clan members then they are in protecting the public. If undeterred it may mean certain members are acting in their own self interest and have a formalizable group with boundaries. I can almost sketch some of the potential connections for future review.).
A couple of concerns came up. If there is decisions being made to support one's group, clan, etc. as based in federal violations we might see markers of that in the public. It is possible if there is corruption involved.
I took the following as a quote from the publication.
-Corruption of authority—attaining perks without contravening the law, such as receiving free meals, beverages, and services.
-Kickbacks—money, services, or goods obtained for business referrals promoting a company or individual.
-Opportunistic theft—stealing from people who have been arrested, engaged in accidents, or from victims or deceased persons.
Turning a blind eye—bribes undertaken for omitting a felony, arrest, or seizure of property.
Protection of illegal activities—protecting criminal groups or individuals engaged in illegal practices, such as protection rackets (drugs, gambling, and prostitution rings) in vice areas.
Fixing—undermining criminal investigation or deliberately losing traffic or speeding tickets.
Direct criminal activities—engaging in a crime against an individual or property to attain individual advantage.
Internal payoffs—when promotions, annual leave, and shift allocations are bought, traded, and vended. Adding or planting of evidence—when evidence is planted to frame an individual or group, which is usually within drug cases
Police Corruption: An Analytical Look into Police Ethics The article discusses some of the causes of police corruption and the need to develop officers with character. However, without actually enforcing and expecting that character within their departments, promotions and activities one can say that they are likely to get the opposite. There is a reason why these rouge officers have been doing this for some time, a reason why they have not been held to account, and a reason they participated and/or stood by when different people were victimized.
1. Prudence: the ability to discern between conflicting virtues and decide the best action to take Trust: loyalty and truthfulness in relationships between officers and citizens, fellow officers, and supervisors
2. Effacement of self-interests: without this, officers may exploit their authority to further themselves
3. Courage: the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness
4. Intellectual honesty: not knowing something and being humble and courageous enough to admit it
5.Justice: not in its normal context, but, rather, adjusting what is owed to a particular citizen even when it may contradict what is strictly owed
6. Responsibility: intending to do the right thing, clearly understanding what the right thing is, and being fully aware of other alternatives that may exist; taking responsibility, rather than finding excuses for mistakes or poor judgment
Its a statement of value and who we are. This happens when central values are violated and the institutions step up to certain crimes and behaviors. These were not accidents or small mistakes but according to the indictment look unsophisticated and repeated. That would indicate possible issues in thinking, emotions and choice that lead to a path of taking advantages of others and lying all the way (I have seen similar type of people cause serious chaos and harm for others by just lying over and over.)
I like the way they wrote the quote below. There is a touch of the poetic in it but not so much to make it obvious. Imagery of an entitled person trying to reach a loftier position to make more money. Marching up a staircase and driven by desire. (Its kind of sad if you think about what was going through his head. Why does power and money come to define him? What in his life, psychology/biology would drive him to have this unquenchable need to be special from primarily external validation?)
btw. Notice that you can take things together to create an indictment. Single incidents might be a mistake but repeated incidents are a sign of pathology of behavior. One can often trace back the logic of each one to self gain of our behaviors. i.e. all behavior is goal directed. If one were to put all of these behaviors in a spreadsheet and then analyze their potential benefits and detractors in goal direction it would be possible to map the most likely objective ultimate unstated goal of a person who engaged in a series of certain behaviors. Finding patterns in data and that is what will likely happen with big data as well. We should always be aware that sometimes the ultimate goal isn't self gain. There are a few people in the world who are selfishly unselfishly serving their communities and doing the right things.
This Commissioner Meeting as an important milestone in local government alignment and there has been a shift in the mannerisms that while may not be at first apparent but one can tell that they are drawing a little closer in perspective. There were some acknowledgements on some shared sense of responsibility and some outward adjustments that indicate inner perceptual changes that were important and likely more important in the near future. Some clearing of the air if you will.
First and foremost there was a discussion on the board making decisions in the best interest of the public and there was a discussion on the process by which situations (land annexation) are decided. It is the process that makes the biggest difference. You may read 'Dialogues in Democracy'. It is helpful to conduct activity as transparently as possible to draw in support.
Secondly, we find young people becoming more involved in democracy which could be counter to the trend. As a nation we have suffered from a younger generation that doesn't understand the concept of democracy because we seemed to have fumbled around with the torch a little. We are in a state of transition to becoming something new as a nation and it will have an impact on places like Escanaba as well as other towns across America.
There are some important stats in Endorsing Democracy that we should take heart and think about. We want youth to be aware and we want them to be involved in building out democracy to its next universal stage of development. We want them to contribute even if we as old geezers don't agree 100% in their perception (I tell people this all the time. My generation is the only generation to truly understand when the older chalk board world moved to the digital world. When we are young we had little technology and today we would be hard pressed to recognize all the changes and those changes still to come at a more rapid pace. We are the last of the old, raised in our first years when small family farms were common and no one fathomed a cell phone or had access to the internet. We were the early adaptors of modern tech.) Our goal is to give them something better then when we found it; not the other way around.
You will also find some young activism starting. People are paying attention because this is how democracy functions, its challenges, and its avenues of improvement. It also has triumphs. There are no perfections except in idealism form but moving toward transparency and inclusive governance helps in creating additional democratic engagement.
Lots of stuff going on so watch the video and read some of the notes.
Notes: I try and be accurate but if wrong just post a note and I will correct if it make sense.
-Interviewing new administrator candidates.
-Solar and community issues as it relates to annexation.
-One commissioner talked to Cornell Twp and Escanaba Twp officials and they felt mislead by the petition. A list of issues with the petition. Misrepresentation, dishonesty, and general desire to remove their names. One commissioner might gain from the annexation. A way to let the people vote.
-Another commissioner is starting to investigate/study it but it lands on this board.
-Another commissioner felt there is a strong personal gain for one commissioner and has heard a lot of complaints.
-A fourth commissioner indicated there was information and maps that people could see. The commissioner felt that the signatures are valid and people were not being pressured. Changes moved from county supervisors to county commissioner. Property rights issue. Esc. Twp has had zoning changes. Enforce zoning on some and turn a blind eye on others. Founding fathers and Declaration of Independence and same venue. (I'm a little lost. I think this is a property rights issue.). Indicates the twp opposed the development and in turn cancelled the existing contract with a developer. Wasn't any other developer. They want to stop solar. Solar amendment. They knew about it since 2020. December 2020 was to "lawyer up". Just a few people. Intimidation against land owners. The person who collected these signatures is an honest man. 500 form Esc. Twp. 100 from Cornell Twp. agreed to it. Ad hoc committee that said they are going to not allow owners use their property they want. Regulation is legalized theft. They don't have solar but now we do. You can use solar but not on 10 acres or more. The biggest industry is solar energy in Delta County. (Some people laughed deputy may be asked to step in and remove and/or quiet crowd.) One to two billion investment (That would be cool but I think there is a better way to do this.) Billerud 29 million abatement over 20 years. Feels that we can help solar. People are intimidating people.
(As a side point, I'm not seeing an argument against solar but more about the way in which it is legally created and the transparency in which it is being done. That should be good news for the solar industry that they have support. If we did a shared county/township and tax agreement on the shared property we could probably find a way to rectify this. Large investments can have catered agreements for the land in question. That way no one has to be out taxes, perhaps gain more taxes, and improve the first responder capacity. I would suspect if done correctly, a tax sharing over the property, that Esc. Twp would agree to put in place a letter of agreement with Cornell Twp. Some things to be worked out but I think its possible. Its not up to me, but it is just a perspective.)
Another commissioner indicated he liked solar but think it could be compromised. Annexation is the wrong way.
Discussion continues that proper right owners have been stripped of their proper rights. Change ordinance and change stuff. The twp. officials made it clear that big part of twp. was set aside for housing. They don't care about farms. They don't want their farm to be restricted. He speaks for Delta County landowners and his township of 7600.
Another says that elected officials and others are complaining about the way in which things are being done. Not against solar but against annexation.
A commissioner doesn't like the comments in the paper and he is trying to protect the public. Some are calling him corrupt but no change has actually changed. This is the first board meeting. His vote is to go to where he feels is best for the county. Vote comes forward on the 16th. Free coffee and convo!! Isn't going to resign but can be recalled.
Another commissioner felt that he will not step down but need to be removed.
Another indicate that 80 emails a day are coming in and asking them to resign and be honorable. No plan on resigning.
Resident brought up administrative fees and lots of costs that are not being accounted for. Wants an answer on the money. Wants any contract from Conservation District should be reviewed.
Resident who did tax bills and said a solar farm is not agricultural but is industrial and taxes on those properties will rise. A lot of issues if you move the lines.
DC Just Facts person was banned. Its the judiciary branch makes the decision on Constitutional infringement. Not board.
No constitutional issues.
Solar company will pay for taxes (Another warning on deputy coming in to control crowd groaning).
Admin report: Invited to participate in event by Delta County Chamber to learn about local state government and opportunities. $15 million to housing development by MEDC. Invest UP focused on shovel ready property and relationship to job growth. Show return on investment. Other criterial.
Realignment of job duties by county clerk.
Conservation District comes on record to say they did not do anything wrong. Went back to 2006. You can watch at 1.20. Home Depot bailed but Menards came in and wetlands became productive in terms of revenue generation. Ok this guy has a great memory. In other words, he has been doing this for a long time. 1.4 million in grants was brought in. (There is this guy I found online called Memory Man. There must be a strategy to this memory skill!) He understands why people are questioning the money the way its written.
Discussion on the planning commission, finance committee and open positions. Commissioner (COM) believes that should follow same process and some concerns of recommendations. Likewise, there was a vote and based on groupings it was voted similarly (This means there are some fundamental ideological differences of the two groups. What I will say is that as long as everyone is working in the publics best interest then things will be decided accordingly. What we don't want to get into is destructive conflicts that don't serve a purpose and don't fix anything. Appropriate disagreements are good as long as they have a greater goal in mind. Its not a specific comment but just a thought.) A person has been nominated and rejected by 3 to 2. Finance committee and public. Wants policy.{1.46} Executive session.
Contract should be reviewed by attorney and legal opinion was sent.
They voted to pay their bills! (Yikes paying bills sticks but its a necessity. Kind of funny Al Pays Bills )
Bullet hole in the plaque for the trail. The trail was used by Native Americans, travelers, traders, soldiers, etc. She needs the dates. It takes time to research out history type stuff. this was an ancient trail. (I love hiking! Great activity. Hiking and life motivation.)
DC treasurer investment report and policy. Investment accounts seek to diversify. Most of it isn't in liquid form. $12 million is a lot but its not that much. Economic developing is a wonderful thing. Having more money and investing that wisely is part of fiduciary responsibilities. We can discuss investment portfolios for local governments but we also, like Escanaba, need to grow revenue. This is also why I encourage the county to follow Escanaba's lead and start thinking about development more seriously. Coordination between Delta County, Escanaba, and Gladstone businesses and government can make a huge difference in the trajectory of this area. Here is something I found on growing revenue sources. '8 Local Government Revenue Generation Sources 2023' It includes business investment (Downtown would be a good place for new small tourism micro manufacturing businesses and housing).
Developer interested to develop 28 parcels.
Review of attorneys. I'm pretty sure the local prosecutor isn't going to be happy. In one of the prior meetings there was a discussion on using outside counsel. Based on the comments brought forward it appears they want council beyond the local prosecuting attorney because they want a more specialized skill set. It was also mentioned that there are issues coming up and I'm curious what that means. While I could see attorneys to deal with investors, infrastructure, etc. this appears to be a different kind of issue. Perhaps there is an internal lawsuit based on real or perceived injury (That is speculative so keep it as a possibility based on what other things happened with positions and roles. Speculative is like "Maybe based on these factors but certainly can be something else."). Another commissioner indicates that he is afraid that if we took on the attorney we could then be sued for a million dollars. Commissioner 2 responds that we don't have to use the attorney but we have used the prosecuting attorney 7,8 X in the past 30 to 60 days. We need direct vote of the board (right now there are two camps so a majority is easy to get.) Wants to pay prosecuting attorney more. Here is something to think about. It may or may not be a good idea, but if someone did something wrong or inappropriate and the county is on the legal hook it might make sense for the county to make the case that the action was the individuals issue in direct violation with county policies (Assuming there was an issue...). The last thing the county would want to do is put themselves in a situation where they have to pay someone else's legal expenses that may or may not be acting in/out of their role within the county. If the nature is grotesque and outside a normal expectation of their role it is possible that the prosecuting attorney could make the case that the primary defendant should be the person who caused the problem and not the county who was also a victim of such behaviors. I doubt it would take away the liability for a case but it would shift liability more into the hands of a violator. (Again, this is speculative by nature.). That might require the a good faith effort to investigate, remove, and/or prosecute bad behaviors (I'm not saying that this would be an issue because the attorney need may be a completely different related issue but just discussion for understanding to ensure we are aware of some of the possibilities.)
-Unprofessional comment. Rules are bent if it makes some feel good or follows an agenda.
-One concerned about a packet commissioner brought forward of concerns. Another commissioner then stated they didn't care about these concerns and then went to vote. The taxpayers sign your document. She believe they have been hired to represent ALL of us. She used ALL a number of times. She indicated padded wallets, self interested, get back at people, election campaigns, etc. The word ALL was used again. The caps is the emphasis.
-Issues with Zoom and doesn't feel that they are taking care of ADA. Also concerned about rules of email people and what about criticism of the county. It stifles free speech.
-Do not want annexation. People of Escanaba Twp don't want it. 60 people at meeting to have their signatures removed. They were misrepresented and lied to and upset. No benefit for either twp. A letter Oct 12 2020. to one of the Comm the development from Esc. Twp. indicating while the taxable value goes up they are not interested in the facility and asked if it is possible to annexation and would be more likely to approve solar facility. (I'm not opposed to the facility but would like big things like this to be thoroughly seen, discussed and approved/denied transparently on facts)
The planning commission hired someone with no experience as a recording secretary. (I wonder if that allow for a printed agenda/minutes to be posted by the county? ) 20 questions on how to improve property but was run out of meeting.
-One board member interested in solar farm for long time. Doesn't like annexation. Felt that other people's property rights are being impacted. Packet information should be known by comm. Replace them at ballot box. Solar system temporary jobs (Maybe construction jobs). Vangehoven hills thing???(I might have wrong name. What is this?)
Group on Delta County Citizens for Ethical Leadership. They feel like they want to remove people from positions of power. They are not a silent group. We are actively ensuring removing some members from the board for not serving the public.
You can gain more information about this group on their Facebook Page. They seem like a motivated group. Democracy does rely on our ethical leadership and people willing to encourage that transparency. I like what they have below because they are showing people you can challenge and do so in a polite and reasonable way (Hopefully. That looks like the intent on the page.) 400 current members.
1 Local Politics Only Our group is focused on local politics only. Please keep National politics out of our conversations.
2 Be kind and courteous
We're all in this together to create a Welcoming environment. Let's treat everyone with respect. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required.
3 No promotions or spam Give more than you take in this group. Self-promotion, spam and irrelevant links aren't allowed.
4 No hate speech or bullying Make sure everyone feels safe. Bullying of any kind isn't allowed, and degrading comments about things like race, religion, culture, sexual orientatio…
5 Bipartisanship Everyone has their own political ideology and that will be respected. This group is for everyone across the political spectrum as local issues impact …
-Concerned on accounting and handshake deals.
-Soil and erosion and want to know who will manage those contracts. Who does the accounting books for the park. Would like to see who manages the accounting for the books and he believes and has heard there is a conflict of interest with who does those books. (You may be interested in this insightful perspective on Parks and Recs Accounting) {3.12}
-Wanted to clarify a few things. Hand shake are contracts. Conservation district is a contractor. Should not take more then is allowed $200 K is accounted for and $240K {3.15}
-Feels that commissioners are being blindly followed. Feels that some commissioners are being respectful and some are not. Concerned with overall behaviors on different venues and including social media. Using terms like Liptards (I think I got it right. I have no idea what that means. I went and looked it up. There is Liptards and Libtards. Its hard to tell which one.) and RINO. ( What is this word "RINO" that people hurl at each other with such enthusiasm? Republican Increasing New Opportunities? We should be doing that for the next generation. Same for Democrats. RINO-DINO spirit of building a great nation! Sorry probably a dumb idea. 😲 💨). She wants the word tard removed (I agree. Keep things as business acumen as possible.).
Heard one of the contractors say in a few meetings I could have taken it all. $3.5K to 75K. Would like to see the attorney's opinion. Mention of a $500K missing. Want to know what happened with the money?
She felt that the recording secretary didn't have the experience. She was interested in learning as being a secretary and wanting to know more on how to do it. I work for the county. Not planning commission.
-8-12 full time jobs and local contracts. Was contacted by solar company. Can only see building but not windmills. No one every buys local farmer stuff and the solar would help them use their land. I do agree with helping and supporting local farmers. We should have a better venue for farm to table. I wonder if we could have better venues for someone to coordinate places to sell our local food under a county brand (They do that in Italy with wine), offer in store purchases at local stores, and weekly deliveries. Even if they are bigger farmers coordinated marketing can make a big difference.
-Letter 1: The annexation forcibly would dissolve Escanaba Township. Believes others were deceived and falsification of reasons. Wants the annexation dismissed.
-Letter 2: Feels her ADA was violated and we need an attorney general opinion on this. Blatant conflicts of interest. 1 week notification. It appears that the withdrawal of applications shows that. Short term rental issues are need. Houses rented out are hotels and not houses.
-Admirable commissioners and thank you for taking the negative public comments. People only want democracy if its their way. Child or mother were being harassed and attacked and no one said anything.
-Comm stated he talked to different people and apparently the annexation may land on the county board shoulders. Well my opinion is that this is not Santos Method on Congress and I do not believe that you can have all of these questions, accusations of misrepresentation and people trying to remove their names and leave that to a simple board decision. You may have lawsuits such as the one brought forward by Escanaba Twp you may also get one from Cornell Twp and maybe even one from the state. It depends if they feel that the decision appeared to be misrepresented. I'm not opposed to the solar farm and can see some of the benefits but this is a community decision. The only thing board members should do is provide information and let people to make a decision on it. One doesn't just represent people who agree with them.
-Honor flight. Queen voyages is having an open house. Highland Internet Riber cutting (I don't know what this is. It think its Highline Internet) Fire signs. Would like the commission to answer questions from the public.
-Comm went to meeting. A nice commissioner award. Great and congrats.
-CS Lewis, “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”
-We can discuss Zoom on next meeting.
-The offer for coffee is still up. No lattes! Working on self reflection. Sincerity to the table. You have the right to say it, even if I don't like it. Different meetings.
Its important to start with some context. For a long time I had hoped we could avoid having people potentially go to jail (Not knowing the full scope of participation and behaviors). The officers involved didn't stop for 4+ years (I will have to look up the exact date.) and the people who started this didn't just mature overnight and do the right thing. Another person was hurt. Thus, it becomes a moral duty to stand up to such people and their aggressive approaches so as to ensure the local justice system understands their role in society and that they learn to hold people to account at the beginning. For those who started these problems and enriched on these issues, I think there should be some accounting as well.
There is a lot to this story and I'm not sure all the different actors involved know all the other behaviors by other people who became involved (They still engaged so its a problem. That is important to understand to improve in other locations). Either way, I avoided direct challenge because I cared (Yep I'm an empath so I have a caring strain. Interesting study on ProSocial Reasoning in this small demographic. Its sort of true I think. Sometimes people do things that while I understand why they do them, I cannot understand why they are so unaware of where those thoughts and choices come from. Its like they don't know much about themselves and proclaim to know about others.). I recognize sometimes people can be bigots and they can be destructive so I had encouraged them to get help before they hurt more people. However, because they know a few police officers and they are seen as locals ( ethnically, religiously, cultural, socially similar) they were given a free pass (I'm local too but because I have a Muslim sounding name and black kids so I will be targeted. It opens up a can of worms on the local system. I am familiar with how these corrupted systems work when challenged so let us see what the next tool might be. In one incidents they tried to set people up on Good Friday as a sign their religious beliefs will be enforced through local systems. It would be nice if they just fixed their problems but so far over this time I haven't seen it.).
If it was a single incident we might be in a different place. "Fine, no problem a one time event of ignorance". The problem was, it wasn't just a one time event of ignorance. It seemed to morph into a larger more coordinated targeting among a lot of people. It was a "We don't want people like you in town" issue (More of why I say that with the rumor spreading, ostracizing, intimidating, attempted gaslighting and much more. Beyond Steven King creepy and I bet most of these people feel they didn't do anything wrong. That is how hate works, it provides its own justifications for things through the hate narrative. Narratives like this have created atrocities in history by minimizing the immorality of harm on others unrelated to anything they may or may not have done. Remember the Tulsa Massacre where mob mentality ended in a dangerous and destructive path. Wise people de-esculate as much as they can but they are not obligated to sugar coat dangerous behaviors. Its just one of those things we think is in the past but can come back to haunt us over and over without meaningful change.)
The people who started this know the initial officers involved and I would say are more than close friends. As these were more senior leadership in one police department it became quite apparent the culture of the department was toxic (That isn't all, most or any within that department would be influenced by that toxicity.) In my humble opinion that department needs a lot of work to make sure they are not harming the public (I think its possible to poll the culture and make incremental positive change. There are metrics we can use and we can discuss and apply it to them. We are going to explore what some other researchers have done to bust these systems and see if we can sort of apply them to this situation.)
The issues they launched kept spreading to the point I was almost shot once and my kids were pulled over 2X in what appeared to be an attempt to create collective intimidation. (I'm confused as to how these officers goes from A to Z and skip all the steps unless there is a level of extremism, prior bad behavior and justification through rumors. You don't just pick a minority family and go after then like that. BTW the officer that nearly shot me I believe was a descent guy but the rumor mill prompted him to be afraid of us. The rumors started in bias and self gain in what appeared to be an attempt to enrich and deflect prior crimes. In hindsight I'm more than a little sure.)
Their behavior has led to a lot of loss of the community, and I suspect to a lot others. Let us peel back the band aid and see what we find (At least as long as I'm allowed and of course and in context to other intimidation tactics that might get worse. I think those behaviors alone might indicate even bigger problems that I tapped into. Let us see not that we are removing the veal.) If they knew me, took the time to know me, or my kids, none of this would have gone this far. Yet its here and I don't really care what they call me and my kids. This is part of the hate narrative. I call it writing checks they can't actually cash with truth or moral conscious. They are in the wrong on this and likely history and this is a direct challenge to those who I believe violated multiple state, federal, and international laws. It is also challenge to those who would give a free pass for such behaviors and/or not report their fellow officers. (If this is ok, then we are not free. That also doesn't mean I want anyone to go to jail, but some probably should.)
There is a lot to this and there is a lot of work I need to do on this to sort of justify and understand the full breadth of events that have occurred. I'm doing this in honor of two victims those officers and what appears to be extremist leaning friends didn't think about. If they do not have some accounting and reforming it would be dangerous and derelict of duty. As a polite person I will be kind and positive and constructive in my dialogue. We have to fix these dangerous behaviors to ensure we don't hurt more and we respect those who may have been victims in the past (They didn't just invent it this time. It means there are some who are given a free hand to abuse our other fellow citizens.). Its the responsible thing to do (Responsibility is an interesting word. Let us talk about that later as well)
Learning Opportunity
I've learned a lot of lessons in my life and I think I should share some of the things I have learned because they are helpful to others. Furthermore, it is a learning opportunity to understand how corruption might work and how it might not work. If we can find ways to bust corruption using publicly available information that would be interesting. It also helps to ensure that certain values are not well suited to community building. Hate is a destructive force and we should take from that tempest and learn from it. They use this method in other places. Its called Reverse E Learning.
Avoiding Names
At first I'm going to avoid using names because there is always that chance I'm misinterpreting something but also because no one should know what I'm talking about (My opinion is invalid as a extremist group target, a flight of insane fantasy, so there is nothing to respond to, no reasons to park a car outside my house, follow me home, pull over my kids, spread rumors, or all the other stuff. Unless there is much more to this story.). For example, I thought one guy was a participant based upon what I heard in the community but he was not. He still may be guilty of the other things but those are just rumors. For the most part I think it was the other officer that catalyzed the bigotry into what appears to be coordinated ethnic-religious cleansing. I guess if push comes to shove we can use names if necessary but in general its immaterial to what can be learned from this situation for other people, agencies and lower class/caste Americans subject to similar behaviors (The people we often forget about and our politicians often ignore. We call them the 'little people'.).
Let me leave you with a couple of thoughts on third world corruption and first world failures. When these situations happen and they are unable to correct we do need to fix it. It would be immoral on my part to not create the pressures needed for them to solve this problem. Do their duties and protect the entire population and not just their friends or people who they believe are like them (i.e. their clan). While there are many in our country who do not believe in human rights and a unified society there are many I believe still do. Democracy will stumble if we do not stand boldly against hate and their supporters (Be truthful and not reckless. Its about improvement). These are my American principles.
“The Spirit that prevails among Men of all degrees, all ages and sexes is the Spirit of Liberty.”
Universal values and universal application of law is necessary for the good moral health of our society. It is not something we are doing very well at in our present condition. We have some issues we need to overcome and we are dropping the torch. Not all bad and not all good.
Until we begin to see each American as having value and having certain social contract guarantees we will not see fair or universal treatment. It will always be less and justice will be subjective in some places and systems. A sort of fleeting idealist concept.
To me, treating people as though they have value and not judging people by race and religion are an important part of building trust within our institutions. Not engaging in corruption to help one's friends is also another criteria of a trustworthy system. Following up on such behaviors would be another. So on and so forth but we do know this already.
I cannot say everyone believes in our central American ideals. I have seen people rage, enrich, spread dangerous rumors, clans coordinate in aggression, take advantage of the sick and dying, and commit crimes to ensure that opinions (more important fundamental rights) such as these are not expressed publicly or realized.
We do a lot of talking about freedom speech, freedom of religion, and other freedoms. Its mostly talk by most people. The one's who actually believe in that are more rare. They don't need to please their social networks or follow lower order value systems. They strive to be good stewards of public trust and their roles.
While I cannot tell you if our justice system will change enough to protect and value all Americans I can say that its not because millions upon millions of people didn't hope it would. We just never had the political capital to make many worthwhile changes. So until there is a change of the moral compass of our leadership we will continue to see crimes committed, uninvestigated and given a free pass for what appears as third world justifications.
I'm a proof in pudding guy (I'm not rigid I can say I wait, think and let the truth unfold. It may unfold in a different direction then I expect but that is based on mixed positive and negatives experiences that appear to be accurate. I have met so many good officers but also some bad ones so I cant say precisely their values. It's a mixed bad.). It looks like it is what it is and the truth is not a pretty one. There may of course be another proof but I'm like that half of Americans that sort of wonder if what is being said actually has a level of merit or its just election rhetoric and talk. The later often seems more important.
(That also brings forward an idea proposed by a study that people are beginning to trust the general collective conscious as a societal system when compared to individual, group or institution to hold our central values and laws sacred. I guess that makes sense because our institutions function within that collective will but sometimes struggle with the basics of application. Not all systems and of course not all officers and people but enough to make it somewhat subjective and inconsistent. We should work to bring them into alignment and reward those within that system that have steadfast values.)
