The Invisible Primary is up and Running

Democratic party has 30-40 folks testing the waters for a presidential run. Personally, my choice will not be made for at least a year. However, of the names mentioned so far, three are on my not list. Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. This is not to say I don’t think any of these three would not be an excellent president. This is to say they each had their swing at the piñata and missed, time to send in a fresh player.

My real excitement comes from watching the other side of the aisle. What the hell are they going to do? No telling what position the cult leader will be in come election time. Take my word for it, he will not be in jail. America does not operate like that. He may be an active candidate, he has been campaigning constantly since the last presidential election.  Based on his state of mind, we may see him resting peacefully in a care unit somewhere.  

We are sure there are many working behind the scenes on a replacement should he be either taken down or remove himself. The vice-president has entered the field of questionable characters as the Mueller probe continues. Will the party seek out another cultist or will they search for what used to be a republican candidate?  In either case who will it be? 

Send me your best guesses I would be glad to share them and your thoughts here.More later, carry on my friends, carry on!

Lame Ducks Frantically Flapping Their Wings

Lansing Michigan’s lame duck legislators are frantically engaged in efforts to overturn the will of the voters. 

As of this writing they have introduced almost a dozen bills aimed at watering down the results of Novembers election. 

Everything from cutting back on earned sick pay to reducing powers of democratically elected officials. (Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General)

SB 1254 is an attempt to put the selection of the redistricting commission in the hands of the legislator versus the secretary of state as it is written. Doing this would most likely provided more of the same. Call your senator and politely ask them to vote no on this bill. Then call your governor and politely ask him to veto this bill if it passes.

SB 1248-1252 Campaign finance and Election oversight. This package of bills would move oversight of elections and campaign finance to an appointed commission much like the federal elections commission (FEC) and out of the control of the secretary of state. The FEC consists of 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans. They cannot agree on anything so, nothing gets done. We do not want this in Michigan. Again, call senators and politely ask them to vote no on these bills. Followed by a call to governor requesting a veto of said bills.

Will not list the other bills, but will have list handy if you need it. Just send email request.

Here are some links to help you contact your elected officials…

State Representative… http://house.michigan.gov/mhrpublic/frmFindaRep.aspx

State Senators… http://senate.mi.gov/fysbyaddress.html

Governor Snyder… governorsoffice@michigan.gov(517)373-3400

Edited to add this link for more information on what’s going on in Lansing. 

http://freep.mi.newsmemory.com/?publink=0854c090c&fbclid=IwAR1Z8GZwXwoHkoiiE2UUgmdfEWeHidJAlFAYKz6w75XayYZycyUqyf2qe7w

Sorry bout the wonky post, here is a sorry joke to help you handle it.

Instead of “the John,” I call my toilet “the Jim.” That way it sounds better when I say I go to the Jim first thing every morning.

Perspectives and values

One incident concerned an employee who I respected for his talents and his attitude. He was capable of performing any job in the department and had the attitude to do so with no complaints; a utility player so to speak, a worker that every department supervisor cherishes. This man did however have one flaw; he tended to work only 4 days a week. If he showed up on Monday you could be pretty sure he would not be there on Friday.

The company did not like this, rightfully so, the benefits provided to employees were based on a 40-hour work week. So, one day I sat down with this man and after praising him for his work and his attitude I asked him why he only works 4 days a week. His response was “Because I cannot make it on 3.”

The second case also involved a good employee who took an unexpected day off. The day was October 16, 1995. He was back to work the next day and I talked to him. Using what I thought was a positive approach I told him “glad to see you here today but, we needed you here yesterday also.” He replied “I attended the million man march in Washington D.C. yesterday and they needed me more.” Again, my eyes were opened to a different perspective or was it a value?

An old timer working for me, maybe 80 years old. He got sick and missed a couple weeks work.  Upon his return I sat with him in the office and suggested he may want to consider retiring what with his advanced age and recent illness. He told me his wife had died 15 years ago, his children were all grown and living on their own. He gets up every morning comes into work, has breakfast with his buddies and solves the world’s problems over coffee. If I didn’t do that why would I get up?

Had another employee that was what we called hungry. If there was overtime available he would jump on it. We had rules to follow to share overtime but he was always first in line.

One Saturday he came into the office and sat down and made this request. “Hey boss, my wife wants me to ask you if I can have tomorrow off. It’s my 65^th birthday and she made a cake, the grandkids are all coming over, she is making it a big deal.”

I replied “well hell yes you can have it off.” He then asked to use the phone and quickly dialed his wife. He said to her “I asked him and he said no.” 

He had complied with his wife’s wish and asked me for the day off, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up a double time Sunday.