Week in Review
City Council, July 17
City Council convened on Monday evening to conduct regular business. Though there were no hot issues explicitly addressed, there were numerous agenda items—both procedural and substantive—worthy of closer investigation. See the meeting packet here.
“Share the Warmth” Update
Hillsdale County’s homelessness industry is hard at work converting the winter-only “Share the Warmth” operation to a full-time un-housedness shelter. If it comes to fruition, we are certain that those experiencing homelessness will flock from across the midwest to the new facility in need of much therapy, a variety of pharmaceuticals, and other “aid” from our local philanthropists. Perhaps Uncle Ted’s sterner proposal warrants a second look?
“Workforce” Housing PILOT Program
The council passed a rezoning ordinance, 7-1 (Paladino against),1 which was the first step to the creation of a subsidized upper middle class (rental) duplex “neighborhood” at the “Three Meadows Subdivision.” In so doing, the council will redirect potential tax dollars to wealthy builders from Portage (Allen Edwin Homes2), who will take advantage of state legislation to build and rent what were disingenuously called “new single-family homes” (duplexes) to relatively high income earners for 15 years with large local property tax cuts.3 A lucrative business! The PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, city staffers argued, has already been taken advantage of by the blighted city of Jackson, so why wouldn’t it also be a wonderful addition to Hillsdale as well?
Though the council is firmly on the side of the PILOT program, the public seemed to be skeptical, some on the ground that building new rental duplexes and subdivisions will mean that fewer residents will be homeowners, and others on the ground that what the city really needs is more Section 8 high-rises. But despite the appearance of fringe partisan opposition to an establishment center, it must be noted that the Section 8 housing activists fall on the same side as the majority of the council. The divide on the question of housing is more truly between (1) those who believe that it is within the City Council’s purview to actively create homes (the disagreement within this group being merely for whom the housing is provided and with whom the city will “partner” to construct the housing), and (2) those who prefer not to meddle in such affairs.
On a partially related note, there was a great deal of chatter about a supposed “master plan” to which the city is bound. . . ? Presumably, the “master plan” is a publication out of the office of Alan Beeker, the City Planner. Further investigation forthcoming.
Airport “Development”
Mackie continued to shepherd airport remodel funding through, emphasizing that the improvements have largely been paid for via airport fuel sales rather than local taxes (outside of federal grants, of course). What he did not mention, except upon further questioning,—and even then only in passing—was that with the Airport Improvement Fund draining, the city appears to be on the hook for thus-far-unadvertised later phases of the larger airport remodel project (new hangars, in particular).
Operations and Governance Committee BPU Board Recommendation
On behalf of the O&G Committee, Councilman Morrisey wrote a letter4 to the Council suggesting that, because the BPU services “3,850 City residents and 2,100 residents of outlying municipalities,” the committee resolved to “recommend, but not require” that the Mayor “appoint subsequent members with a view toward bringing the ratio of City residents and out-of-city residents on the Board more nearly in line with the customer base.” Mayor Stockford continued to adopt an apologetic posture toward those concerned with following laws, but stated that—in the name of prudence—he will adjust the board’s makeup over time rather than immediately replace several members.5
Hendee FOIA Appeal Request
Local resident Joseph Hendee filed a FOIA request recently regarding the city manager’s BPU board correspondence. The request, Hendee argued, was not satisfied in due time; therefore, the $19 that he paid should be refunded. Council grudgingly granted his request.
Public Comments
Missy DesJardin, the proprietor of Hillsdale Community Thrift (where a dozen or so homeless are currently camping), approached the Council with a bizarre “update” on the homeless camp situation. According to her report, someone called in the Michigan Health Department, which gave her a month to clean up, lest she be subject to a daily $200 fine. DesJardin then alluded to more extreme action if the city does not move to give her what she wants, which she left ambiguous. “I’m not saying this is a threat, because this is not a threat,” she told City Council regarding her forthcoming demands. “I’m prepared to do anything that it takes to keep these people off the trails, but if we can’t come to some sort of agreement. . . they’ll have to go somewhere else.” In the words of library board trustee Stephanie Stockford, “a threat is a threat!”
A resident from the Baw Beese neighborhood alerted the City Council as to nefarious activity taking place near Sandy Beach late at night. One would hope that, following this description, Police Chief Scott Hephner would ensure that the matter is taken care of.
Empathy & Support at Kroger
Your local Kroger is proud to inform you that it is “bringing diversity to the table” in support of both “Women’s History Month” and “Pride.” It is almost as if the chain disdains its customers. . .
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, July 25, 9:00 AM: County Board of Commissioners meeting.
External Links
“The false electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan.” AG Dana Nessel commits elder abuse as Democrats continue to fortify the 2020 election.6
“We urge President Biden to restrain MAGA justices immediately by announcing that if and when they issue rulings that are based on gravely mistaken interpretations of the Constitution that undermine our most fundamental commitments, the Administration will be guided by its own constitutional interpretations.” Harvard Law’s Mark Tushnet7 undermines the public’s faith in the integrity of our Supreme Court and the separation of powers, but unlike John Eastman he’s never worked for Trump, so he’ll be fine.
“I grew up in a very white, very rural world, and the library let me know other lives were possible. . . . I was also a queer girl who lacked the language to explain the feelings I had deep inside of me. Yet at the library, I encountered some of the first people who seemed at all like me.” A certain Emily St. James, writing in the New York Times.
“Nobody understands that more than you, our nation’s librarians. In a very real sense, you’re on the front lines — fighting every day to make the widest possible range of viewpoints, opinions, and ideas available to everyone.” Using what Wesley Yang calls “the Borg’s stupidest copypasta,” President Barack Obama encourages librarians in their efforts to corrupt the youth. Yang is right about the language, but this is the way the regime validates its minions.
“According to [the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights], when parents voice concerns about the age-appropriateness of books containing sexually explicit content, it can ‘[create] a hostile environment for students’ under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race discrimination at schools that receive federal funding, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibit discrimination based on sex.” Jonathan W. Pidluzny, writing at The American Mind.
“It’s a terrific, very strong tool. We haven’t had to use it in recent past because we haven’t seen book bans for some decades, but it’s very much in conversation now. We are very eager to use that tool . . . We have recently entered into a resolution agreement with a school district based on a hostile environment that we were concerned had followed from removal of books from classroom library shelves, and we are investigating other cases of that type now.” On cue, Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“Where state or federal law requires schools to permit transgender students to share otherwise sex-segregated facilities (such as bathrooms or locker rooms) with students of the opposite sex, parents should be given the right to opt their child out of using such facilities, and the child should be given access to alternative facilities that promote the child’s privacy and safety.” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Department of Education has issued model policies concerning the rights of students and parents in VA public schools.
“The bottom line is that empty appeals to ‘rights’ will not and, indeed, cannot sufficiently address the decidedly moral battle—a metaphysical crisis—emerging, just as rights talk was inadequate to solve such divisions the last time our states were so evidently divided.” Timon Cline follows up his review of Dr. Kevin Slack’s War on the American Republic by arguing that “parental rights” will not save us.
“I came to Tennessee partly because I wondered how similar it might feel to Poland and Hungary, where for the past decade I’ve been warily observing the decline of democracy and the rise of the one-party state.” Anne Applebaum takes a break from fomenting WWIII to warn that rural Republicans are dangerously non-magnanimous in victory.
“And — and our policies — whether they’re diversity, inclusion, and equity; or whether they’re about transgender individuals who qualify physically and mentally to serve to be able to do it with dignity; or whether it’s about female servicemembers — one in five — or female family members being able to count on the kinds of healthcare and reproductive care specifically that they need to serve — that is a foundational, sacred obligation of military leaders.” NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby articulates the regime’s priorities during a White House press briefing (video) in response to the House’s rejection of abortion tourism in the National Defense Authorization Act.
“In this context of medical ambiguity and uncertainty in the hyper-gendered context of pregnancy and lactation care, both health care providers and trans patients engaged in precautionary approaches that prioritized potential fetal and infant health and wellbeing (and imaginaries concerning future offspring’s normative development) over adult trans patient health (particularly mental health) and wellbeing in the present . . . shoring up social constructions around binary conceptualizations of sex and sex hormones and was driven, in their explanations, by a focus on attempting to (re)produce normative bodies and people.” According to a new scientific paper, doctors should prioritize the wellbeing of transgender parents over “normal fetal outcomes.”8
“The bail clause does not include the term ‘monetary,’ so it did not cement the practice of monetary bail, however long-standing and prevalent across Illinois, into our constitution.” The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld a state law eliminating cash bail.
“America’s real rulers are not the constitutional officers we nominally elect, and certainly not the American people, whom our understanding of political legitimacy asserts to be sovereign. They are, rather, a network of unelected bureaucrats, revolving-door Cabinet and subcabinet officials, corporate-tech-finance senior management, ‘experts’ who set the boundaries of acceptable opinion, and media figures who police them.” Michael Anton, writing at Compact.
“The core realization one comes to from this book is that we need to accept we can’t live with these people, the five or ten percent of our nation who lead or are most active in supporting the Left. Leaving aside actual war, the best strategy is pitilessly breaking the back of Left capability in every place that we can. In practice, this means mostly on the local and state level, for now at least.” Charles Haywood reviews Christopher Rufo’s America’s Cultural Revolution.
“Any success in talking to American boys or young men means appealing to their most distinctive passion, anger, & that is more or less sedition: Second-class citizens are not allowed to get angry. But the most important reason is this: The smartest young men are cowards.” Titus Techera.9
Farewell
We close with an excerpt from Fr. Francis Bethel’s account of John Senior’s legendary Integrated Humanities Program:
When the professors had taught philosophy directly in their classes, there was little echo in their students’ souls. They soon realized that this lack of response came not simply from the fact that their students had never studied logic or some other preparatory study. The problem was not only ideology, not only bad ideas that hindered their receptivity to what the professors wanted to convey. More fundamentally, the students lacked the preparation of healthy outdoor experience, and of loving familiarity with good literature and poetry. Beauty, the professors found, opened their students’ minds and hearts, making them capable of receiving truth.
Aristotle and St. Thomas teach that the human person, as a union of body and soul, lives an integrated life in which the intellect and will rely on the senses, the imagination, and emotions. The professors recognized that the new generation of students was sensibly and emotionally disconnected from reality. Their technology, their whole environment, pre-internet though it was, cut them off from God’s creation, inclined them toward fantasy. Their basic correspondence to reality, to the true, good, and beautiful, had been blunted. They were not interested in real things, were restless, could not focus.
Before undertaking any high, theoretical study, these students needed to get the feel and attraction for concrete things, to relearn the spontaneous conviction of the existence and goodness of reality. As Senior writes, “No serious restitution of society can occur without a return to first principles, yes, but before principles we must return to the ordinary reality which feeds the first principles.”
Once again, Councilman Paladino shamelessly aped the opinion of Penny Swan, who reportedly expressed many of the same views at a recent Planning Commission meeting.
The duplexes will be rented to those whose “total household income is not greater than 120% of the area median income.” City Manager, Dave Mackie, expects the future employees of Marshall, Michigan’s forthcoming China-linked battery factory to live in these homes. See Packet, 58.
Packet, 64.
As for us, we propose an entirely new slate of BPU Board members, which will consist of essential stakeholders such as Don Jr., John Rutan, Larry Arnn, Jack McClain, and Vladimir Putin.
The wealthy and powerful members of the Transition Integrity Project, who in the ordinary course of their careers have done infinitely worse damage to the republic, remain free.
In his most recent article on the mushrooming victim mindset, Steve Sailer, who was one of the first to warn of the coming of World War T(ransgender), is really predicting the flipside of the designer baby coin: the deliberate design and production of children with increasingly unstable psyches and physiologies. This new generation would validate the neuroses of its “parents,” give warrant to the bio-socialism of the pink police state, and manufacture consent for a transhumanist revolution.
See also Titus’ review of Oppenheimer, which begins: “The last major director we have is Christopher Nolan.”