The Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission continues to forget that one of the driving forces behind their approval by the voters was the hope and need for transparency. Unfortunately, they are listening to their lawyers and not providing the transparency that is needed for them to establish credibility for me and many others. Per the multiple sources, three news outlets and the Michigan Press Association filed suit Tuesday in the Michigan Supreme Court to force Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to release records they say should be public. The emergency complaint from The Detroit News, Bridge Magazine and Detroit Free Press seeks recordings from an Oct. 27 closed-door session and several confidential memos submitted to the commission on the basis that the state constitution requires the commission to conduct all business in public and to publish “all data and supporting materials” used while preparing the redistricting plans. “We made every effort to convince the redistricting commission to follow the law and, unfortunately, all of those attempts failed,” said Gary Miles, editor, and publisher of The Detroit News. “As the first independent citizens redistricting commission, this group will set the precedent for decades. That precedent must be for openness and not secrecy.” It should not be coming to this.
President Biden on Wednesday set in motion a plan to make the federal government carbon neutral, ordering federal agencies to buy electric vehicles, to power facilities with wind, solar and nuclear energy, and to use sustainable building materials. In a series of executive orders, Mr. Biden directed the government to transform its 300,000 buildings, 600,000 cars and trucks, and use its annual purchases of $650 billion in goods and services to meet his goal of a federal government that stops adding carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2050. I am all in favor of protecting our environment and eliminating our dependence on foreign oil. It is something that should have started in 1973 after the first oil embargo. However, this announcement feels nothing more than a political statement to satisfy a group of voters. If this country is serious about protecting the environment, it needs to pass laws and standards that cannot be undone by the next president. If I haven’t learned anything in the last 20 years, I have learned that executive orders mean nothing past the term of the president who put them into place.
I love the term “carbon neutral”. In the simplest form, it means that for every CO2 molecule I put into the air, I must do something that takes an equivalent amount out of the air. I have always wondered how one measures how much I put into the air to know how much I need to take out. And what goes into the calculation. Does my breathing count? Thus, for every breath I take I must make sure I have a plant in my house to offset my breathing. Or is breathing excluded? Do I only consider the cars, appliances, and other such things I use which emit CO2? If I take an airplane trip, do I have to offset my portion of the CO2 the jet omits, or is that someone else’s problem? We have people who cannot agree that the earth is warming or that Trump lost the election, when the numbers are relatively straight forward. How the hell are we ever going to agree on a way to measure carbon neutrality? The truth of the matter is that I don’t care about measuring it. I am just going to be responsible and do my part to take care of the planet as best I can.
Political support is so fleeting. Just ask President Biden. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in her strongest public remarks to date about President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for employers, said Monday that the requirement is “a problem” for her and state government, according to a published report. The Daily News in Greenville reported Whitmer as telling business leaders in Montcalm County that she had the same concerns as some of them that the mandate, if enforced, could lead to workers, including those in state government, walking off the job. “We’re an employer too, the state of Michigan is,” Whitmer was reported as saying. “I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees. That’s why I haven’t proposed a mandate at the state level. Some states have. We have not, we’re waiting to see what happens in court.” Let me get this right. This is coming from a governor who put this state in lockdown and was lock step with Biden during his presidential campaign on Covid-19 protocols and approaches. Yet, now when our state is recording the highest number of deaths and hospitalizations in the country, she has problems with Biden imposing mandatory vaccine requirements because it creates a problem for her state government employees. In the world of politics, the only question that matters is, “What have you done for me lately?”
What are you doing today to stop violence? What are you doing today to expand mental health services for those in need? What are you doing today to make sure your guns are not are accessible to minors in your household?
Stay Safe. Social Distance. Wear your mask when indoors in public places. Schedule your vaccine and booster.
Orchid of the Day: To all the healthcare workers who continue to fight their way through this 4th surge which is fueled by the unvaccinated. I really do not know how the healthcare workers keep it together.
Onion of the Day: The Michigan Independent Citizen’s Redistricting Commission. I feel like I need to give them a permanent onion for their lack of transparency since late October.
Quote of the Day: “We made each other look great. It was awesome.” Brandon Johns, U of M basketball player following last nights record breaking performance at Nebraska in which Michigan won 102-67.