Thoughts for the Day, December 3, 2024: Government transparency in Michigan is an oxymoron.
Government transparency
It was a campaign promise by Whitmer in both of her campaigns for governor. The truth of the matter is that neither party wants to pass this legislation. Our legislators like being the 49th worst state in the country when it comes to transparency. Here is what Bridge Michigan said today about the effort to expand the state’s inadequate transparency and ethics laws.
Minority party gripes, and majority party delays may be cemented as a tradition when it comes to legislation on ethics reform and government transparency, which could again stall without action by the end of the year.
There are two facets: One is a nearly decade-long effort to expand Michigan’s open records law to the legislature and governor’s office, which has until now been exempt from any disclosure requirements. The Senate has passed expansion bills but they await a vote in the House.
The other is a package of bills sponsors call the BRITE Act, which would require a cooling-off period before ex-legislators can become lobbyists and require nonprofit “dark money” accounts to disclose ties to policymakers, among other things.
Its Democratic sponsors have characterized the legislation as a modest fraction of the reforms they’d like to see, and the bills have passed out of a House committee chaired by a lead sponsor, but their fate remains unclear.
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A perfect fit
From Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American.
Last night, Jane Mayer of the New Yorker reported that Trump’s choice for secretary of defense, Fox News Channel weekend host Pete Hegseth, had been forced to leave previous leadership positions at the advocacy groups Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America because of serious allegations of “financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.”
Under his direction, Veterans for Freedom ran up huge debt for what appears to have been inappropriate expenses; the group’s donors squeezed Hegseth out of his job and then shuttered the organization. He moved to Concerned Veterans for America.
A whistleblower for Concerned Veterans for America reported that Hegseth was repeatedly so drunk at events that he had to be carried out, and that he once tried to join dancers on stage at a strip club to which he brought his work team. Their report said that Hegseth and other members of his team divided the female staffers in the organization into “party girls” and assault. Another complaint said that at a bar in the early hours of May 29, 2015, Hegseth began to chant drunkenly: “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”
An email from one of the whistleblowers to Hegseth’s successor at Concerned Veterans for America said that “[a]mong the staff, the disgust for Pete was pretty high.” The letter detailed Hegseth’s “history of alcohol abuse” and said he had “treated the organization funds like they were a personal expense account—for partying, drinking, and using CVA events as little more than opportunities to ‘hook up’ with women on the road.”
By 2016, Hegseth was out at Concerned Veterans for America but had joined the Fox News Channel as a contributor. It was during this period that he appeared in October 2017 as a speaker at the California Federation of Republican Women’s convention, where he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman.
There is no doubt that Hegseth will fit in well with Trump’s cabinet, but I am wondering how the generals are going to react to him. What do you think?
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Gratitude Matters
Here are excerpts from an opinion article written in the Detroit News last week by Michael Reitz, Executive Vice President of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It is worth your time.
Gratitude costs nothing and means the world.
A 2023 survey found that the average American adult says “thank you” six times a day, or about 2,200 times in a year. These small courtesies are a good practice.
Gratitude, however, runs deeper than the quick word of thanks you say to the barista or mailman. Researchers have found that gratitude is linked to better health, higher productivity and stronger connections with others.
…Several years ago, I was meeting with Dr. De Hicks, a friend who has studied and written about leadership for decades. In one research project, he studied high-achieving leaders who had maintained success for many years. He then compared those leaders to a different set of leaders who achieved success and then burned out.
The group of high-achieving leaders practiced gratitude daily (81% of them), usually as part of their morning routine.
…“How does one practice gratitude?” I wondered. Then I remembered something my mother taught me: The old-fashioned handwritten note. So I set a goal of sending 100 thank-you notes over the next year.
Writing two notes a week is hard work. I had to activate an internal radar to identify things for which I could express gratitude. Sometimes it felt a little weird. Over time, I learned that gratitude replicates. I sent 100 notes as planned. About half the people I wrote to replied and thanked me for thanking them. The practice of gratitude gave us both happiness.
A few years ago, researchers Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley decided to measure how thank-you letters affected the sender or the recipient. The researchers discovered three things, which they published in 2018.
First, the act of sending a thank-note makes the sender happy. People who participated in the study reported a more positive mood after writing a letter.
Second, the researchers asked the senders to predict how their recipients would feel upon getting an unexpected letter. Then the researchers checked in with the recipients. The positivity they felt exceeded predictions.
Third, not only did the people who wrote letters underestimate how happy the recipient would feel, they also overestimated whether the recipient would feel awkward about getting a letter. This asymmetry often causes people to hesitate before writing a thank-you note, which is regrettable because a thank-you note improves your outlook on life, whether you send one or receive it.
Americans just went through a chaotic national election. In politics, outrage is the coin of the realm. Outrage drives turnout and votes. It gets people fired up. This is why both political parties predicted national doom if the other side won.
Gratitude, on the other hand, says, “Look what I’ve been given — my family, my home, my health, etc. This is a blessing. Let me appreciate the people who helped me along the way. And let me use what I have to help someone else.”
Perhaps gratitude can be an antidote to outrage.
Based on my experience, thank you notes mean a lot to the recipient.
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Do we divide and conquer, or do we unite and grow stronger?
Here are excerpts from an article titled, Six Reasons Why Understanding Each Other is More Important than Ever.
For some of us, the title of this piece may already be irritating — even maddening. If you’re scared about Trump’s election, being asked to understand the “other side” can seem a distant concern compared to your fears of what might happen during his presidency. If you’re glad Trump won, you may be tempted to say, “We’ve won; we don’t need to listen” — or maybe you’re angry about the pushback you see on the “other side.”
As was the case before the election, many of us fear what the “other side” wants and what they’ll do. As we often emphasize, no matter your political beliefs, you can join the movement to detoxify our politics. But we realize that when emotions are high, it can be hard to see that as a priority — and we won’t ignore that fact.
However, we do want to make the case that understanding each other is more important than ever. This is because: When we fail to understand each other, we push each other away and amplify our divides.
Here are some reasons that will help you better understand this point.
1. We have distorted views of each other
2. Arriving at opposing views is easier than we think.
3. Ignoring our opponents’ views drives them further away.
4. Groups are not all the same monoliths.
5. Insults further divide us.
6. Hostility can lead to more extreme beliefs.
With more understanding of each other, we’ll reduce the demand for divisive political approaches. We’ll disagree in better ways. At the very least, we’ll avoid further widening the rifts between us. Despite what our instincts may tell us, seeing the best in each other does not mean abdicating our principles. It’s a strength, not a weakness — one that can even aid political activism.
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Quote of the Day: “I do not know whether I want to go off the grid, or off the rails.” From Julienne Tomatoes Restaurant’s Quote of the Day.
Orchid of the Day: Big Ten Basketball. The conference season starts today. I love college basketball.
Onion of the Day: Hezbollah and Israel for putting the cease fire at risk by violating the agreement that went into effect last Wednesday.
Question of the Day: How are the generals going to act to Hegseth?
Video of the Day: Calls of the Game: A WILD ending gives Detroit a Thanksgiving win over Chicago | Lions vs. Bears
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