In This Issue: Are we losing ground? Had enough? Ready to ROLL?
MCU-SE meets Tuesday night 5/9/2017 in Troy. See you there?
Your support, readership and sharing is making a difference and is much appreciated. We change public policies by changing pubic opinions. Perhaps we have been given a reprieve to restore God and His principles to out great land. We are pleased to work hard to equip you with a digest of key news, information and opinions to share. The work is not done. Please help! Pass this newsletter on to another or copy and share an article. If there is a way you can make it, please join us at MiCPAC as we strategize, network and prepare to win conservative governance.
The federal government should "avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction."
James Madison, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1809 (Thanks, Michael)
"Accept challenges so you can feel the exhilaration of victory."
Conservatives - Are we losing ground? Must we switch to "gorilla" tactics to direct
the troops to weaknesses in the relentless onslaught. We must step up efforts to get
our arguments out there, limited and cogent and aimed at precise targets.
Perhaps we will see you Tuesday night May 9? Let's make plans together!
"Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist." - John Adams
++ Pope John Paul II was shot in Saint Peter's Square On May 13, 1981, just six weeks after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Here, in this exclusive excerpt from the forthcoming book A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century, Dr. Paul Kengor looks at reactions to the pope's shooting from Washington to Moscow.
President Ronald Reagan's diary entry for Wednesday, May 13, needed little elaboration: "Word brought to us of the shooting of the Pope. Called Cardinal Cooke & Cardinal [Krol]-sent message to Vatican & prayed."
There was not much more to do. In moments like this, he had learned well from his mother, you pray.
How sad the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II was. What a potential setback it was. Ronald Reagan had great ambitions to turn back the march of atheistic communism. And the pope was a big part of that plan.
Would the Holy Father survive? Would good prevail?
Going to Notre Dame -
Ronald Reagan's first major public appearance after the shooting of Pope John Paul II just happened to be an address at Notre Dame, a Catholic university named after its patroness, the Virgin Mary-the same Virgin Mary who was the patroness of John Paul II, and whom the Holy Father believed had spared his life the day of his shooting in Saint Peter's Square. A Catholic screenwriter could not have written a better script for the actor-turned-president.
On May 17, President Reagan traveled to Notre Dame to give the commencement address. Fittingly, a commencement is not an end but a beginning, for in this speech Reagan publicly commenced his presidential crusade against atheistic communism.
Reagan laid out America's Cold War challenge: "The years ahead are great ones for this country, for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization. The West won't contain communism, it will transcend communism. . . . It will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written."
No else was making such audacious predictions at the time. Critics would scoff at the president's claim.
The Notre Dame speech was distinctively Ronald Reagan, bearing his personal imprint throughout. Although speechwriter Tony Dolan wrote the original draft, Reagan rewrote the entire address. "Though the archives don't show it," Dolan told me, "the Gipper did a complete rewrite of my draft on this one. And then called me to apologize. Geez."
This highly personal speech drove home Reagan's notion that Americans were part of a larger cause set forth by a higher authority. He drew on remarks Winston Churchill had made during the most ominous days of the Battle of Britain: "When great causes are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty." Reagan had used this quotation way back in October 1964, in his historic "Time for Choosing" speech. He cited it again at Notre Dame to suggest that Americans had a duty to fight expansionist Soviet communism.
MORE
We need forsight and courage today,
the commitment to fight evil and stop the rush towards communisim and socialism that both Parties are pushing with relentless "progressive" actions in the form of
more regulations,
more government spending
and more taxing.
Ready to roll?
click to Join MCU
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven,
and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Cron 7:14
++ Genomics vs. Privacy - One major concern is over privacy and security of genomic data. For instance, policymakers in Washington recently threatened to make genomic data necessarily available to employers. Complicating the privacy issue is the fact that there is no clear legal owner of genomic data; that data was found to be unpatentable and, because it lacks authorship or a creator (legally), cannot be copyrighted.
It seems the only way to have any control over your genomic data is to simply not get tested, keeping that data hidden "in" one's own body. But this defeats the entire point of most modern medical genomic technology.
MORE (Thanks Mari-Ann)
++ Planned Parenthood does NOT offer pre-natal care. Abortion is their game :
Link
++ Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen is headed to the federal bench,
pending Senate confirmation, White House officials confirmed Monday. Larsen, who during the presidential election campaign appeared on a list of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, was nominated Monday by President Donald Trump today to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, the newspaper reported. The 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, handles federal appeals from Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. Larsen, a former U-M attorney and adviser to the administration of former Republican President George W. Bush, was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court by Gov. Rick Snyder in 2015. She won election to the court in 2016. More (Thanks, Catherine and Paul)
Some TAXATION
= THEFT
++ Off FB
Mike Kosnak - R.I.P. Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matthew Weikert 29, Justus Bartett 27, Dave Santos 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew Johnson 21, Zachary Fisher 24, Brandon King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, and Sheldon Tate 27.... All are Marines who gave their lives this week for us ....for our freedom! There's no media for them at all... not even a mention of their names. Please honor them by copying and pasting this post.R.I.P.
Robert Gjonaj Donovic - Butler University is now offering students a new college class/course: "Strategies of Resistance" which includes "Trumpism & U.S. Democracy."
The course description charged the President with "perpetuating sexism, white supremacy, xenophobia, nationalism, nativism, and imperialism."
Liberal indoctrination. Scary!
Donald J. Trump tweet: Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel.
Dave Alan Ryan - Democracy doesn't mean liberty. It means we get what the majority demands.
Joe Blaze - Let me get this straight, you people now accept the very government behavior , without question, that lead to the creation of the united states of America, am I getting that right? The people of the state of Michigan voted down a gas tax and their representatives ignored them, the very definition of TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, and they still consent. I do not consent.
Michigan News and Views
1,000 days of obstruction -
The Michigan Republican establishment abandoning it's platform, principles, promises and supporters with constant spending and tax increases
In the face of losing thousands of students and admitting decreased quality, they are throwing even more money at a broken education system - doubling down on failure. Time to think out of the box and return to principles, or have Dems in charge.
The chart to the right shows
Democrats were more responsible economically in Granholm's last four years. Thank you for right to work, but much has been a fiscal disaster since. There are many Republicans who will NOT vote for an establishment candidate for governor next year. Plan ahead!
.
Granholm
| Snyder &
last term
| Republicans
Dem. House
|
Rep. Senate
|
++
There are 118 non-teaching positions for every 100 teachers in Michigan public schools.
If you put 18 students in a classroom at $14,000 each, that is $252,000 per classroom.
That is more than the income of many small businesses in Michigan providing jobs for several people. If the teacher gets $100,000 (and many do), where is the rest going? The average teacher's salary in Michigan is more than $68,000 for 800-900 hours in the classroom. The average FAMILY income (often two workers at 2,000 hours or more) is just over $42,000. The problem definitely is NOT money. That is the central message we are not getting out. Many millage elections passed last Tuesday, increasing taxes in Michigan. We MUST assert NO MORE TAXES! Cut wasteful spending. Demand the same fiscal discipline in government we must impose on family.
No more sacred cows.
++ Education - a major rip-off in Michigan. It is amazing how many are all convinced THEIR school is excellent and could be better with even more spending. But that is NOT true. Like sheep to the slaughter, they keep passing millage increases despite record state spending and poor teaching results. The BEST school in Michigan is 18th nationally, but the second best is down around # 255. And THAT school has 29 students per teachers whereas the state average is 18.
Michigan, which ranked 15th in spending nationally at nearly $14,000 a student per year, was near the bottom of the pack at 41st in quality, posting a quality score of negative 0.4.
In fact, of the top 10 achieving states in the NEAP, only D.C., Hawaii and Minnesota had higher overall per pupil spending levels than Michigan.
The other seven highest achieving states - Tennessee, Indiana, Florida, Washington, Oregon, Iowa and California had lower per pupil spending levels.
Tennessee, with a per pupil spending level ranked 49th nationally by the U.S. Census Bureau at $8,765, placed 2nd on the NAEP list, with average scores of 21.8.
Indiana, with a per pupil spending level ranked 26th nationally at $11,583, placed 3rd, with average scores of 14.7.
Florida, with a per pupil spending level ranked 42nd nationally at $10,031 was 6th, posting average scores of 11.5.
The Governor's education commission admits QUALITY IS DOWN after increasing the budget about $1.5 Billion a year over the last six years, even while losing thousands of students. is doubling down and demanding more money to continue the same train wreck.
We had hoped this year, the Legislature would get a hold of this and stop increasing spending. But the pending budget increases it again. How can CONSERVATIVE legislators be confused on this?
++ Good money for more bad performance - WASTE! House Roll Call 87 on 2017 House Bill 4313: Appropriations: "Omnibus" education budgetPassed 60 to 47 in the House on May 2, 2017. The House version of the K-12 school aid, community college and university budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1, 2017. A separate budget bill authorizes the rest of state government spending (House Bill 4323). This bill would appropriate a total of $16.324 billion, of which $1.838 billion is federal money. Of this total, $14.309 billion would go to K-12 public education, compared to $14.161 billion approved last year. Another $1.619 billion is for state universities, compared to $1.582 billion the prior year. Community colleges would get $395 million, the same as last year.
++ Where's the best city in Michigan to start or expand your small business? The nation? According to a new study by WalletHub, the personal finances website, it's one in the same: Holland, Michigan, the lakeside tourist destination in the western part of the state.
With a population of just 33,000, the town topped a study that examined the business-friendliness of 1,261 small cities.
"We've had a long-term culture of entrepreneurialism, mainly because we had to," said Craig Hall, a Holland-based entrepreneur, and investor, in an interview with Inc. "It always seemed that all of the resources went to Detroit, so we had to create our own opportunities."
The study examined 16 variables, from "access to resources" to "business costs."
A slew of Michigan cities made the list:
Southfield (59); Dearborn (89); Bay City (92); Portage (109); Wyoming (115); Eastpointe (135); Farmington Hills (164); Madison Heights (168)...Mount Pleasant (244) - One of shortest work weeks in average hours, 1257th;...Battle Creek (286) - Among the worst in accessible financing at No. 1156; East Lansing (624) - One of shortest work weeks in average hours, 1261st....Read the full report Here
WHEN POLITICANS or PARTIES TAKE FAVORS AND DELIVER LEGISLATION, IT ISN'T A MATTER OF WHAT THEY ARE, BUT MERELY THE PRICE.
Legislative Accountability!
It is OUR responsibility to know the issues and the players, and to inform others so that we Change Policies by changing public opinions! Check back in the next issue. Get briefed at MiCPAC
Project Kirk is designed for us to better understand the true precepts of conservatism and what Kirk called "The Permanent Things." Russell was the writer that Reagan, Goldwater, Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. and so many others read and referred to as the founder of modern conservatism. Share his wisdom with others
Dr. Russell Amos Kirk left this life on April 29, 1994. It is fitting MiCPAC was scheduled April 29 in his memory.
Biography
Dr. Russell Kirk once served as Justice of the Peace for Morton Twp., Mecosta Co., MI. - back when it didn't require belonging to a Bar to use wisdom in settling the Law.
"Dr. Kirk, have we any hope?" the President asked... The two men gazed through a window to the scene being enacted outside the White House gate and throughout Washington. It was April, 1972 and the Capital was flooded with many thousands protesting...the war in Vietnam...
Russell Kirk finally spoke: "That depends upon public belief, Mr. President. Despair feeds upon despair, hope upon hope...But if most people say, 'We are in a bad way, but we have the resources and the intelligence and the will to work a renewal" - why, they will be roused by the exigency to common action and reform. It is all a matter of belief." (Thanks, Jim Person, Jr.)
Michigan is in trouble. Neither of the major political parties rule with conservative principles. We CAN change that!
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke was among scholars, philosophers
and historians who Dr. Russell Kirk knew and respected,
is for good men to do nothing." "Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair." "The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse." "One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good."
Please join MCU and help us fight for less government and lower taxes. It is a wise investment in the grass roots, enabling the tools and guidance needed for victory
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