This is what has been going on

 If a picture is worth a thousand words, this should be worth a million.  These signs showed up in my township the last few days:

The entire text of the proposed ordinance changes are here:  

https://www.raytwp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Proposed-Zoning-Amendments.pdf

All that is missing from the text is the ordinance requiring all those without an approved income, lifestyle, or house value to be removed from the township.  

Perhaps I would be less upset if the eejits hadn't tried to raise my taxes on my garden lot 90%.  Or if they hadn't, oh, told me I didn't really live in the township.   As the old billboard on Featherstone Road in Pontiac read, "A bullet in the head would be more merciful than 20 years of political torture and..." 

EDIT:  I spoke with the township supervisor.  He had the ordinance removed from the proposal at the last meeting and he was not in favor of it.  Unfortunately, this points out another issue in the township -- communication.  Zoom meetings work when you have decent internet, but there are those of us who don't.  I am so grateful that I don't have to fight this battle that I can live with the rest of it.

 

There is no United States of America

 There is nothing quite like being slapped into reality.   Silly me, I believed that it was still possible for a nobody like Abraham Lincoln to be elected president.  I believed that the so-called Land of Opportunity was still that.   If I am self-depreciating enough, I will admit that I actually believed, oh, that there was still justice in this country, even a little bit.

Yeah, I'm dumb.

The court update with my parents, about their grandson (my half-nephew) who has abused them and threatened to kill them is this:  my parents were coerced into signing papers they didn't understand so they are at fault.  MDHHS -- that brilliant bastion of complete stupidity who answers to no one -- claims my dad has early onset dementia, because the nephew's psychiatrist says so -- because the 11 year old boy said so.  If my dad does, then how can they coerce him into an admission that isn't true?

Oh, and the overall goal, besides taking all the money CPS can from my parents, is to put the grandson back in.  Yes, the same one who threatened to kill them, and who held my dad hostage while my mom almost died in the hospital.

The referee, the lawyers, CPS and MDHHS, are all more concerned with making money and getting on the golf course than solving the problem of a child so horribly abused that he never should have been placed with his grandparents.  Except the State of Michigan was more concerned with getting the kids out of the system, and so their facilitator lied -- and was paid a $10,000 bonus.  $5,000 per child.  The Brockitt case was worth $20,000.

As some of you know, my mom almost died in January.  She is not able to walk very well, and frankly, I have been in the middle ground of my parents, as my mom is in denial about what she is and isn't able to do.  She is unable to do very little, and I can't see how she will be able to stay on her own once my dad dies of the stress of this situation.  (No one seems to recall his heart problems, or that his grandson attempted to kill him.)   There are days I don't understand how she can be home at all. 

But hey, there's a lot of people who need to make their money and hurry up to get out onto the golf course.   Maybe we should hang the lawyers, judges, social workers and others who can't be bothered with their jobs.....  but they make too much money.   Must be nice to consistently replace an abuser into the same home, and not be held liable for breaking the law, eh Samantha?  The law says an abuser cannot be placed back into the home.  Must be nice to be able to watch elder abuse occur and not be named as accessory when you refused to stop it, eh Keith? 

"Cut the telephone line and the story's the same."

Michigan -- I have no words...

     Normally I do my best to stay away from politics, but with the genii in Lansing and their 16 bills (20 according to some sources) aimed to destroy so many in Michigan, the time for silence is no more.
     Under the guise of reforming "public pensions," these bills act in a more diabolical manner.  All local control is lost by township, city, municipality, etc to a three-person board (the Local Government Stability Board).  The  members are appointees by the governor and would serve 4 year terms.  The ability of the LGSB to act is broad;  they are allowed to overrule any wavers given out to municipalities by the state treasurer; they determine whether a city or municipality qualifies as a "financial emergency" and can declare so if they do not like a city's plan.  The LGSB meetings would be exempt under the open meetings act.  (edit: and they would be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, even though funded by tax payer dollars.)
     I could continue, but I am getting physically sick to my stomach.
     In effect, a large portion of local control is taken from the local government and given to the state, run by a three-person appointed board, allowed complete secrecy.  I suppose I am very much a child of the 1980s, but does this not smack of a place formerly called the USSR?  It certainly reminds me of the Soviets.  To me, that is more disturbing than the retirement aspect, the alleged purpose of the bills.
     Now to be perfectly honest, yes, the retirement aspect will destroy us.  For quite a few years now, we have been footing 90% of the funds going into Mr. C's retirement plan, from his paycheck.  There is no mention of where the money we have paid in will go, but if I understand the bills correctly, it will not be allowed to remain where it is.  I suppose the "State of Michigan" will take it.
     I haven't had a paycheck to speak of, since the Wonderful State of Michigan completely destroyed my field of chemistry.  (I was recently told by an old friend that he hadn't ever thought about coming back to Michigan since he and his wife would not have jobs here.  They are also chemists.)  I could tell many more stories but this is not the place.  Suffice it to say, since 2003, we have had to rely on Mr. C's paycheck completely.
     I'm not looking for sympathy (which resides between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary, as they used to say at Central Transport,) but I am thoroughly disgusted that any so-called public official can claim to be American and attempt to set up such a plan.  There are plenty of ways to deal with this issue without snatching local control away from local governments.
   
Personal commentary:
     Guess it is a good thing I grew up so poor.  I'll figure out how to re-weatherstrip our 20-some year old windows, and I'll expand the garden.  Glad I know how to patch and sew.  I just hope my kids will never have to learn how a spoonful of ketchup warms the stomach and makes one temporarily forget being hungry.  That's how I made it through college.  Too bad the elected genii in Lansing can't say the same thing.