Hank Meijer is being scrutinized for his campaign contributions, not his $10.192 billion in wealth
On Saturday, MLive first reported that Hank Meijer (Meijer retail stores) failed to include his name on a campaign finance document.
The document and money in question that Hank Meijer contributed was for the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is a GOP Political Action Committee, specifically to elected people to the House of Representatives.
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filled a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which you can read at this link.
MLive cites John Truscott in their story, but they never say who he is speaking on behalf of, whether it is the Meijer family, the Meijer Foundation or Peter Meijer’s campaign. Truscott, who now runs a high powered PR firm,Truscott Rossman, used to be the press secretary for Gov. John Engler.
However, the major omission in this article was any real discussion about the problem of money in politics in general, plus the issue of transparency. Money in politics has always been a problem in the US, but it has only escalated since Citizens United. There is the issue of the huge increase in the amount of money that can be channeled to candidates, which as of this writing is nearing $11 billion for the 2020 election, which is nearly 50% more than what was spent in 2016.
Then there is the issue of Dark Money, which “refers to spending meant to influence political outcomes where the source of the money is not disclosed, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
In this particular case, the entity that was created using Meijer funds, was called Montcalm LLC. Hank Meijer’s name should have been attached to the campaign contributions, according to Truscott, which only amounted to $150,000.
Hank Meijer, along with his brother Doug, is listed as #60 in the wealthiest billionaires, according to recent data compiled by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies.
Between February of 2019 and October or 2020, the wealth of Hank & Doug Meijer grew from $6.8 billion to $10.192 billion, which is a pretty substantial increase, especially considering that the pandemic over the last 6 months has created millions of unemployed people, food insecure people and millions of people facing eviction. The amount of money that Hank Meijer is said to have contributed to the Congressional Leadership Fund – $150,000, is pennies compared to the Meijer family wealth. In fact, Meijer would have to contributed $150,000 a total of 67,946 times to equal their total wealth of $10,192,000,000.
The excess wealth of the Meijer family is not in question here, although that should be what MLive and any other local news source should investigate, in addition to campaign financing. In a world where the wealth gap is at its largest in modern history, we should be having serious conversation about how so few people can accumulate so much wealth, while so many are struggling to simply survive.
Local news once again fails to provide substantive coverage of White Supremacist groups and those opposing them
The local news coverage today of the demonstrations in Allendale, Michigan were indicative of how the news media functions and how it fails the public in terms of providing people with the necessary and critical information to participate in public life.
Look at how MLive framed this story in their headline, Lots of guns, but simultaneous West Michigan rallies by opposing groups stays peaceful.
This headline is not only misleading, it provides no real context. Sure the article, provides perspectives from both demonstrations, those with the American Patriot Council and those with Justice for Black Lives. The article also presents information centering around the person of Ryan D. Kelley, the founder of the American Patriot Council, who has organized anti-lockdown protests in Lansing and Grand Rapids, along with pro-Confederate statue gatherings in Allendale. At several of those events, there were people in attendance that were also arrested in the plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer. The American Patriot Council an Ryan D. Kelley are claiming that they have not connection to those who plotted the action against Gov. Whitmer, but it is clear that at a minimum, the American Patriot Council has created a climate that has nurtured the anti-government actions taken by those that attempted to kidnap the Governor.
However, the problem with the MLive article is that it provides no context for why Justice for Black Lives (JBL) asked for armed security people to come to Allendale on Saturday. The main reason is that JBL heard that the American Patriot Council had invite people from Detroit and other communities, specifically other armed groups to attend their march on Saturday, thus JBL wanted to make sure that people would feel safe by having their own security people in place.
The local TV news stations also played up the whole – there were two opposing views, but no major problems – angle for their coverage. WOOD TV8 focused on Ryan D. Kelley an the calls to have him remove from the Allendale Planning Commission, with a brief mention about demands to remove the Confederate statue in the park.
The online post from WZZM 13 gives a misleading headline, which read, Nationwide Freedom March in Allendale brings out city and county neighbors with opposing views.
The channel 13 story also centers around the controversy with Ryan D. Kelley, with marginal reference to sign and flag differences in the two protests. However, to say that this was a nationwide freedom march is a bit misleading. The American Patriot Council claimed that there were other similar marches happening in a few other communities in the country, but WZZM 13 doesn’t verify this. Also, it wasn’t so much a freedom march as it was a Pro-Trump rally. Lastly, channel 13 stated that both sides “emphasized the same points: faith, government, and the right to freedom of speech.” I’m not sure what was said at the American Patriot Council organized event, but at the Justice for Black Lives event the major themes were on justice, voting, removing Kelley from office, White Supremacy, Colonialism and solidarity.
WXMI 17 was the worst, in that they had information posted about what was going to happen with both protests, with inflated numbers for the so-called Freedom March, and then they sent you a video on the two rallies that was unedited, with little commentary and poor audio.
Once again the local news media has failed to provide substantive coverage of current events and to present information that would expose hate groups. This is a point I made two weeks ago, about how the news media has been complicit with White Supremacists, because of how they have reported on issues over the past 6 months. The coverage of yesterday’s actions in Allendale, only confirms that dynamic.
Bankrolling hate and harm: On the Death of Peter Secchia
A few days have passed since the announcement that Peter Secchia has died. The local news media has done what one would expect, they have presented him as someone who loved Grand Rapids and has contributed to this community generously.
Just look at some of the headlines. From MLive, the headline reads, Philanthropist, former U.S. Ambassador Peter Secchia has died. In fact, virtually all of the coverage in MLive, WOOD TV8, WZZM 13, WXMI 17 and the Grand Rapids Business Journal, all use terms like philanthropist, former Ambassador, businessman and community advocate.
The rest of the local news coverage includes a brief history of Secchia, how he came from “humble beginnings”, his ascent in Universal Forest Products, his community involvement and his commitment to the Republican Party.
The local news coverage also included condolences from various organizations that Secchia was involved in, such as the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, the Right Place Inc and the West Michigan Policy Forum. WXMI 17 even included statements from the DeVos family, Mayor Rosalynn Bliss and the Bishop from the Grand Rapids Catholic Diocese.
In many ways I am not surprised by the way these news media has presented Secchia, yet I still find it astounding the level of obedience that local news agencies give to anyone who is a member of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. There is not one bit of critical or controversial information presented in any of the coverage of Secchia’s death. People might say that now is not the time to critically examine who Peter Secchia was and that it would be insensitive to offer any criticisms while his family is in morning. Bullshit. When someone is a public figure, who not only used their wealth to influence power dynamics in Grand Rapids, but used their position with the GOP to push policies that negatively impacted millions, then this is the exact time to sound off.
It is true that Peter Secchia had a foundation and contributed money to numerous projects, particularly to MSU. However, like all philanthropists, we need to ask ourselves how Secchia became a multi-millionaire. Was it simply because he worked hard or does it have anything to do with how he was able to exploit resources and workers during his time at Universal Forest Products? What about the property investment company (SIBSSCO) that Secchia and his sons started in the 1980s? There is no mention of how much property Peter Secchia and his family own in any of the news coverage.
In terms of some of the community projects he has been behind, lets look at the Community Legends Project. The statues that have been erected all over the downtown area were selected by a group of people working with Secchia. The public had no say in any of these, even though they are in public spaces. In addition, many of the statues are of people who have done significant harm in this community, such as Bishop Baraga, Jay Van Andel, and Arthur Vandenberg.
However, the more important critique we can offer about Peter Secchia was is long standing commitment to the Republican Party. Secchia was deeply involve in the GOP for decades, especially in West Michigan, and is sometimes credited with growing the GOP in Kent County.
This means that since the late 1970s, Peter Secchia has been intimately involved in the political party that gave us Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George W. Bush and now Donald Trump. These Republican administrations have all contributed to the following: (Editors note: the Democratic Party has also been responsible for some of these same issues listed below, but since we are talking about Secchia, we will just focus on the GOP.)
- Increasing the wealth gap
- Lowering taxes for the wealthy
- Waging war on working class people
- Criminalizing Black people through the War on Drugs
- Mass Incarceration
- Environmental degradation
- Climate denial and Climate change
- Environmental Racism
- Criminalizing immigrants
- Trade Policies which have caused people to flee their own countries
- Trade Policies that have undermined organized labor
- Waging a war against public sector unions
- Blaming and shaming women for sexual assault
- Perpetuating gender inequality
- Promoting a rape culture
- Violence against the Queer and Trans communities
- Undermining public education
- Expanding US Imperialism
- The so-called War on Terrorism
Of course this is only a partial list, but the point is, Peter Secchia has been intimately involved with the organized efforts through the Republican Party, to do tremendous harm to millions of human beings and the environment.
Here are just two examples. First, Peter Secchia was a huge supporter of the George W. Bush administration and was instrumental in bringing Bush and Dick Cheney to Grand Rapids on several occasions. Secchia had a hand in Bush choosing to come to Grand Rapids just prior to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, despite the fact that some 2,000 protesters greeted Bush as he drove down Michigan Ave.
A few years later, Secchia invited Dick Cheney to speak about the US occupation of Iraq at the Ford Museum, to a invite-only crowd. You can see Secchia and Cheney in the picture here, walking to the Ford Museum before Cheney would address the invitation-only audience.
Then in 2006, Secchia again invite Dick Cheney to speak about the Iraq war. Anti-war organizers found out that Secchia was hosting an gathering at his home in East Grand Rapids. About 25 protesters showed up near Secchia’s home to send a message to Cheney that he and the Bush administration had committed war crimes in Iraq – indiscriminate bombing of civilians, destruction of public infrastructure, torture and looting of Iraqi resources. The indy media group Media Mouse reported on that action in September of 2006.
The second example, is from four years ago, just prior to the 2016 Presidential Election. Peter Secchia spoke at a rally for Donald Trump and was quoted as saying:
“I have a message for the Bushes and Mitt Romney, If you don’t want to support Donald Trump: Shut up! If you don’t know where you are today, you’re a loser.”
For more than 5 decades, Peter Secchia contributed money to the Republican Party, which means that he funded the hateful rhetoric and the harmful policies of the Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan all the way through the neo-fascist Trump Administration.
This is why the local news coverage of Secchia’s death is dishonest, because it fails to talk about and assess the vicious and harmful stuff the GOP has done to so many people across the world, in the United States and in this community. Therefore, I will not morn the death of Peter Secchia.
Betsy DeVos thinks young people are an unholy mob
It has been six and a half months since the US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has given a public speech. Back in late March, DeVos made some remarks on COVID 19 and education, but began her comments by thanking President Trump for his “clear-eyed leadership during these challenging times.”
Six months later, there have been 221,000 deaths in the US because of the pandemic. So much for clear-eyed leadership.
Once Betsy DeVos decided to leave the confines of Washington, DC, or one of the many DeVos mansions, she chose to go to the most non-threatening place she could find to give a speech, Hillsdale College.
Hillsdale College is an arch-Conservative school that has a long history of promoting free market Capitalism and US global supremacy. One of the college’s former Presidents, George Roche, was on the advisory board of the US affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League. Roche also was vehemently anti-public education and believed that the US government should not be involved in the education of American children.
So, you can see why Betsy DeVos would decide to make her first public appearance in six months at a college that shares the same ideological framework that she does.
DeVos’s speech before the Hillsdale College audience was sort of what you would expect from the champion of the Neo-Liberal Education model. There were standard comments about “school choice” and putting parents in charge of their children’s education. However, there was a an even meaner, nastier, maybe more desperate aspect of Betsy’s speech. At one point she said, Let me suggest we could fix education for so many children in America if we “go Dutch..”
Now, to those at Hillsdale College, listening to DeVos’s speech, the idea of going Dutch might not have been offensive. However, when one considers that a disproportionate number of Black and Latinx public school students in the US, the idea of going Dutch might seem offensive, even ridiculous.
DeVos clarifies her point about what she means to go Dutch, saying:
That means we embrace the family as the sovereign sphere that it is. A sphere that predates government altogether. It’s been said, after all, that the family is not only an institution; it’s also the foundation for all other institutions. The nuclear family cultivates art, athletics, business, education, faith, music, film—in a word, culture. And just as the family shapes its culture, it also shapes its government.
Following her narrow definition of what the family means, DeVos then continues her school choice mantra and more attacks against teacher unions.
About two thirds of the way into the speech, DeVos then shifts gears and begins to trash the idea of Socialism.
Too many today—especially among our rising generation—don’t seem to understand the dangers of such a view. They somehow have come to believe that socialism is the cure, not the deadly disease it really is.
Tragically, it’s because no one has taught them differently. And worse, some have been indoctrinated to believe not in themselves, but in government.
Not only is she trashing Socialism, DeVos is talking shit about young people. I know lots of “our rising generation” from my own first hand experience and I can confidentially say that they understand a great deal about economics and how the world works…….mostly against them.
When Betsy DeVos says, “It’s ignorant to hate capitalism when you don’t really know how communism hasn’t worked. It’s ignorant to hate freedom, when you don’t really know how tyranny hasn’t worked,” how can we possible take her seriously? This is a person who was born into wealth and privilege and then married into even more wealth and privilege. In addition, Betsy reflects her own narrow binary view of the world, by thinking there is either capitalism or communism, and nothing else.There have been countless economic models that humans have used and created, many of which were based on cooperation. Just because Betsy’s family in part of the Billionaire Class doesn’t mean that Capitalism works for everyone.
DeVos, then gets real nasty, saying:
So, the unholy mob thinks our economies need redistributing. It thinks our Constitution needs rewriting. It thinks our families need restructuring. One prominent group was explicit about its desire to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.”
That’s taken right from the old Marxist playbook. It admits the goal is to “[do] away with private property and [educate] children on a communal basis, and in this way [remove] the two bases of traditional marriage.”
When DeVos says “the unholy mob,” she is referring to the hundreds of thousands of people, most Black people, who have taken to the streets over the past several months, demanding an end to police brutality, mass incarceration, and the plague capitalism, which has devastated Black communities.
Betsy DeVos can’t even imagine that the people on the streets are anything other than Marxists ideologues. Living in an ivory tower has prevented DeVos from being on the ground with real people who are not only tired of the lies of Capitalism, they are tired from having 2 or 3 jobs just to pay the bills an pay off the students loans. DeVos would also learn that people all over the US are practicing Mutual Aid, where they take care of each other in multiples ways, including financially. The rising generation is practicing community care, cooperation, and compassion.
As long as Betsy DeVos stays confined to her $40 million yacht, in one of her multi-million dollar homes, in the halls of government, or the ideologically safe confines of Hillsdale College, she will never really understand that most people are struggling to barely survive under Capitalism. They know that the system isn’t working for them and they want something else and are likely to get want they want by any means necessary.
DeVos money in the 2020 Elections: Part I – Using their companies to buy politicians
The DeVos family has been a major contributor to the Republican Party over the past 5 decades. For example, in the last Presidential Election cycle (2015 – 2016), the DeVos family spent $14 million on campaign contributions.
In this series, we want to look at campaign funding from the DeVos family in the current election cycle, 2019 – 2020. In Part I, we look at campaign contributions that come directly from the companies they own.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, there are two DeVos-owned companies that have made campaign contributions in the 2019-2020 election cycle, RDV Corporation and Amway/Alticor.
Here are some of the campaign contributions from RVD Corporation, which have totaled $4,173,362 for 2019-2020.
- John James $77,600
- Peter Meijer $44,250
- Donald Trump $34,594
- Fred Upton $33,600
- John Bergman $22,400
- Shelley Moore Capito $19,500
- John Cornyn $16,800
- Ben Sase $16.800
- Bill Huizenga $16,800
- Bill Cassidy $16,800
Here are some of the campaign contributions from Amway/Alticor, for 2019-2020, which totaled $2,076,260.
- Bill Huizenga $39,250
- John James $28.505
- Peter Meijer $18,050
- Joni Ernst $17.800
- Mitch McConnell $16,910
- Kevin McCarthy $16,870
- Cory Gardner $16,800
- Martha McSally $16,800
- Dan Sullivan $16,800
- David Perdue $16,800
Now, some of these people are first time candidates, but several have been in office for some time, like Trump, Huizenga and McConnell. We know what kind of awful things these men have done – tax breaks to the wealthiest, perpetuating White Supremacy, maintaining a brutal US foreign policy, perpetuating mass incarceration, deregulating environmental laws, and adopting anti-queer/anti-trans policies.
The DeVos family is everywhere in our community, so the next time you think it’s nice that they gave money for some project, remember they contributed money to the likes of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Also, remember that these numbers are just what they contributed through their companies. In Part II, we will look at DeVos campaign contributions for local candidates.
GRPD Union endorses Congressional Candidate Peter Meijer with campaign contributions
According to the most recent data from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office, the Grand Rapids Police Police Officers Association PAC, which was submitted 10/202020, they contributed $1,000 to Peter Meijer, one of the candidates running for the 3rd Congressional District in Michigan.
If one looks at Peter Meijer’s website, specifically the issues section, it says nothing about Meijer’s stance on policing. However, campaign contributions are not always about the candidate who receives the money, sometimes it’s about their opponent.
Meijer is running against Hillary Scholten. Now, Scholten doesn’t really address policing on her website either , but there are PACs that are running paid ads on various platforms that suggest that Scholten is supported by groups that want to DeFund the Police.
The group behind the ads is the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is a Republic Political Action Committee. You can view the 2 adds they have been running that tries to link Scholten to “rioters in Grand Rapids” and groups that support Defunding the Police, along with social media images like the one above. This campaign is merely trying to play on the fears of White people in West Michigan, which is the same tactics that other GOP candidates having been using to attack other candidates in the upcoming election.
The Grand Rapids Police Police Officers Association does not have any information on their support for Peter Meijer, either on their website or their Facebook page. However, it is reasonable to assume that the cop union is aware of the attack ads against Scholten, specifically the ones around police defunding.
Lastly, the Grand Rapids Police Police Officers Association PAC, also contributed $1,000 to one of Peter Meijer’s opponents in the Primary Election, Tom Norton. Therefore, it seems that the police union in Grand Rapids wanted to give an equal amount to the Republican candidate for the November election. Regardless of the motivations, the Grand Rapids Police Police Officers Association PAC funding of Meijer is consistent with their support of Norton, both of which support the rhetoric an policies of the Trump administration.
West Michigan Far Right Watch for the week of October 10 – 18: American Patriot Council, Freedom Marches and Police Apologists
Welcome to the next installment of West Michigan Far Right Watch, where we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community.
We have 2 new examples to share with you this week. The first comes to us from the American Patriot Council. The American Patriot Council has been in the news media quite a bit lately, with lots of people calling for the founder of the group, Ryan D. Kelley, to resign from his position in Allendale Township, because of his connection to some of the suspects in the plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer. We have argued that the American Patriot Council’s, even if not directly involved in the kidnapping plot, have created a political climate that has demonized and criminalized government officials for their position on the COVID 19 crisis.
The American Patriot Council also has strong ties to the GOP, as we have noted previously, especially the relationship between Sen. Mike Shirkey and Ryan D. Kelley. The American Patriot Council has also not held back on their support of Donald Trump, especially at their rallies. This coming week, the American Patriot Council is calling for freedom marches all across the US in support of President Trump. They are holding one in Allendale on October 24 and another one in Muskegon on the same day, based on the freedom march locator.
It is also important to note that the group Justice for Black Lives will also be hosting an action on October 24th, in Allendale, Michigan, calling for the removal of the founder of the American Patriot Council, Ryan D. Kelley, from the Allendale Planning Commission.
Our second example comes to us from Voice For the Badge (VFB), which we have written about on numerous occasions. VFB made an October 14 post on their FB page, where they express outrage that the City of Grand Rapids would purchase scouters for the downtown area, while making cuts to the police budget, allegedly. The folks at VFB provide no evidence of budget cuts, when in fact there have been numerous instance in the last month where the GRPD has received additional funding and likely funding, such as CARES ACT money through Kent County.
Lastly, the VFB throws some share on this writer, because I dared to call them out on their politics. Here is what Johnny Brann Sr. wrote:
Last and most definitely/without question- least. Jeff Smith/griid I must respond even though every letter I type here is a waste of my time. Following the VFB page and spewing nothing but lies about the VFB and our board. Just want to let you know that you are a part of the problem in a major way. You are a complete opposite of the VFB-we work to unite–you work to divide. Smith-you most definitely do not like law enforcement so DO NOT call them for ANYTHING at ANYTIME.
You will never see his name on the VFB page again. There—More than enough on him.
As is standard with Brann, he provides no clear refutation of my critique of the VFB and he make spurious claims about VFB unifying people, while I divide people. I don’t really see how they unify people, especially after the so-called Unity Rally they held in downtown GR in July.
Brann also suggests that I should not call the GRPD for anything at anytime. The fact is that I don’t ever call the GRPD for anything. In fact, as a member of the Defund the GRPD Coalition, we are encouraging people to not call the cops when there is a conflict, since most of the calls the GRPD does handle are non-emergency calls, based on their own report. A study done by Hillard Heintze LLC, determined that 70% of calls to the GRPD are non-emergency. In addition, one of the recommendations from the study was that the police did not need to hire more officers and in fact, they could have non-police personnel respond to most of the non-emergency calls.
The VFB, however, is less interested in facts and more interested in angry rants and unsubstantiated claims.
In 2018, we wrote a 10 part series on the Grand Rapids Power Structure. We then created a visual depiction of this same power structure.
We continue to write about the Grand Rapids Power Structure, as they continue to wield tremendous influence in the political, economic, social and cultural aspects of West Michigan.
It is important to note that the Grand Rapids Power Structure that we have written about is a small group of people, families, organizations and businesses that make up the .01% of the Capitalist Class. However, there are other people, to use the language of the Occupy Movement, that make up the 1%.
I was reminded of this while writing a piece about the new proposal for an outdoor amphitheater and soccer stadium, which is being promoted by Grand Action 2.0.
In the process of researching the Grand Action proposal, I kept coming across names that I have seen in other places, people who are not the most powerful in Grand Rapids, yet are part of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. These are people in leadership positions with businesses and other institutions that have tremendous saying in what happens in Grand Rapids. We might refer to them as Tier 2 of the Grand Rapids Power Structure, people who are part of the 1%, but are not super wealthy or have their own private foundations. However, if we are to come to terms with how power functions in this city, it is important to name and group these people, which areas they have influence and which entities they represent.
I looked at the following entities – business associations, some non-profit groups and other institutions, all of which play a significant role in making decisions about the future of Grand Rapids, often decisions that involve using public money, which most of us never know about and have no say in. Make no mistake about it, all of these entities are part of a larger system of oppression, a system which maintains the status quo, creates a larger wealth gap and knowingly or unknowingly embraces White Supremacy and other forms of oppression. It does not matter that these groups might promote diversity & inclusion, these are spaces that benefit from oppression and must be dismantled.
Here are the entities that I looked at: Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, The Right Place Inc., Econ Club of Grand Rapids, West Michigan Policy Forum, Acton Institute, Talent 2025, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority, GVSU, Spectrum Health, West Michigan United Way, the Downtown Development Authority,
Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce – Nelson Sanchez (RoMan Manufacturing), Meredith Bronk (OST), Joan Budden (Priority Health), Jeff Connolly (BCBS), Brad Thomas (Progressive AE), William Brennan (Bissell Inc), Beth O’Shaughnessy (Steelcase Inc), Doug Young (Behler-Young Company), Rick Baker (CEO of GR Chamber), Jennifer Baker (Grand Rapids Junior Chamber), Johnny Brann Jr. (Kitchen 67), James Byl (Multi-Automatic Tool & Supply Company), Tom Bylenga (Star Truck Rentals), Alisha Cieslak (Gordon Food Services), Jennifer Crowley (Highland Group), Michael Davenport (Jireh Metal Products Inc), Birgit Klohs (The Right Place Inc), Diane Lawson (GVSU), Lou Moran (Deloitte), Michael Nelson (Amway Corporation), Javier Olvera (Supermercado Mexico, Inc), Ted Vaughn (Tolman’s Wholesale Meats), and Tom Welch (Fifth Third Bank).
Right Place Inc. – Sean Welsh (PNC Bank), Mitch Joppich (PwC), Tina Freese Decker (Spectrum Health), Stephen Abbott (JPMorgan Chase), Rick Baker (GR Chamber), Norman Beauchamp Jr. (MSU), Mathew Becker (BDO USA), David Beemer (TerryBerry), Wayman Britt (Kent County Admin), Ronald DeWaard (Varnum Law), Steve Downing (Gentex Corp.), Douglas Dozeman (Warner, Norcross & Judd), Denis Edison (Spartan/Nash), Krista Flynn (Chemical Bank), Anthony Gagliardo (Lake County Govt), John Irwin (Huntington Bank), Jim Keane (Steelcase Inc.), John Kennedy (Autocam), Hyung Kim (Mercy Health, Saint Mary’s), Birgit Klohs (Right Place Inc.), Blake Krueger (Wolverine World Wide), Greg Madura (Alpine Township), Philomena Mantela (GVSU), Michael McGee (Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone), Hank Meijer (Meijer Inc), Andi Owen (Herman Miller), Richard Pappas (Davenport Unn), Matt Paul (DTE), William Payne )Amway Corp), Bill Pink (GRCC), John Porterfield (Comerica Bank), Julie Rietberg (Alliance of Realtors), Garrick Rochow (Consumers Energy), Richard Sorota (Perrigo), Renee Tabben (Bank of America), Jim Teets (ADAC Automotive), avid Van Andel (Van Andel Institute), Mike VanGessel (Rockford Construction), Mark Washington (GR City Manager), Tom Welch (Fifth Third Bank), and Bob Wolford (Miller Johnson).
Econ Club of Grand Rapids – Tina Freese Decker (Spectrum Health), Stacey Behler (Meijer Inc), Natalia Kovicak (Econ Club President), Bob Wolford (Miller Johnson), Bob Herr (Crowe), Justin Amash (Congress), Rick Baker (GR Chamber), Tasha Blackmon (Cherry Health), Rosalynn Bliss (Mayor of GR), Johnny Brann Jr. (Kitchen 67), Meredith Bronk (OST), Joan Budden (Priority Health), Guillermo Cisnero (Hispanic Chamber), Paul Doyle (Inclusive Performance Strategies), Chip George (Comfort Research), Tim Gortsma (Grand Rapids Griffins), Peter Hahn (Metro Health), Bill Heuzinga (Congress), Lynn Jarman-Johnson (Consumers Credit Union), Lynn Jekkals (AON), Joe Jones (GR Urban League), Sandy Jelinski (Lake MI Credit Union), Jim Keane (Steelcase Inc.), Stephanie Leonardos (Amerikam), Scott Lewis (YMCA), JD Loeks (Studio C), Jeff Maddox (Gordon Foods), Rachel Mraz (Merrill Lynch), Bill Pink (GRCC), Bob Roth (RoMan Manufacturing), Carlos Sanchez (Ferris State Unn), Charlie Secchia (SIBSCO), Kris Spaulding (Brewery Vivant), Kevin Stots (Talent 2025), John Truscott (Truscott Rossman), Mary Tuuk (GR Symphony), Mike VanGessel (Rockford Construction), Mark Washington (GR City Manager), and Donna Zalewski (ITC Holdings).
West Michigan Policy Forum – John Kennedy (Autocam), Jim Dunlap (Huntington Bank), Doug DeVos (Amway), Matthew Haworth (Haworth), Jeff Connolly (BCBS), Michael Jandernoa (42 North Partners), Rick Baker (GR Chamber), Ginny Seyferth (Seyferth PR), Johnny Brann Jr. (Kitchen 67), J.C. Huizenga (National Heritage Academies), Diane Maher (DP Fox Ventures), Dan Meyering (Trillium Ventures), Marge Potter (Continental Rail Gateway, Peter Secchia (SIBSCO), Roger Spoelman (Cure International) and Mike VanGessel (Rockford Construction).
Acton Institute – Kyle Bode (Kern Family Foundation), Nathan Bond (Rifle Paper Co.), John Crowe (John Crowe Company), Rick DeVos (Wakestream Ventures), David Durell (George Durell Foundation), Nathaniel Fischer (NF Macro), Leslie Graves (Ballotpedia), Frank Hanna (Hanna Capital), J.C. Huizenga (National Heritage Academies), David Humphreys (Tamko Building Products Inc), John Kennedy (Autocam), Kris Mauren (Acton Institute), Michael Muraski (Kent Manufacturing Co.), and Robert Sirico (Acton Institute).
Talent 2025 – Franco Bianchi (Haworth Inc), Leslie Brown (Metal Flow Corporation), Rhonda Huismann (Crowne Horwath), Fred Keller (Cascade Engineering), John Kennedy (Autocam), Bruce Los (Gentex Corporation), Dale Nesbary (Muskegon Community College), Ginny Seyferth (SeyferthPR), Jim Teets (ADAC Automotive), PJ Thompson (Trans-Matic Manufacturing), and Sean Welsh (PNC Bank).
Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. – Brian Harris, Stephanie Adams (Friends of Grand Rapids Parks), Rick Baker (GR Chamber), Shaun Biel (Spectrum Health), Rosalynn Bliss (Mayor, Grand Rapids), Mandy Bolter (Kent County Commission), Wayman Britt (Kent County Admin), Kayem Dunn (Consultant), Nikos Monoyios (The Rapid), Birgit Klohs (Right Place Inc.), Eddie Tadlock (SMG), Jorge Gonzalez (Start Garden), Jon Nunn (Grand Action), Mark Washington (GR City Manager), Kristian Grant (GRPS), Doug Small (Experience GR), Richard Winn (Amway Hotel Corporation), Bob Herr, and Monica Steimle-App (Rockford Construction).
Downtown Development Authority – Richard Winn (Amway Hotel Corporation), Jermale Eddie (Malamiah Juice Bar), Jen Schottke (ABC Western Michigan), Rosalynn Bliss (Mayor, Grand Rapids), Greg McNeilly (Windquest Group), Luis Avila (Varnum Law), Jim Talen (Kent County Commissioner), Kayem Dunn ( Consultant), and Diana Sieger (Grand Rapids Community Foundation).
Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority – Steve Heacock (Grand Rapids Whitewater), Birgit Klohs (Right Place Inc.), Charlie Secchia (SIBSCO), Floyd Wilson (Cancer & Hematology Centers of Western Michigan), Rosalynn Bliss (Mayor, Grand Rapids), Lew Chamberlin ( West Michigan Whitecaps), and Richard Winn (Amway Hotel Corporation).
Grand Valley State University – Victor Cardenas (Novi City Manager), Randall Damstra (RDV Corporation), Elizabeth Emmitt (Spectrum Health), Susan Jandernoa, Mary Kramer (Crain Communications), John Russell (Consumers Energy), Meagan Small (Deputy City Manager of Wyoming), and Kate Pew Wolters (Steelcase Foundation).
Spectrum Health – Robert Roth (RoMan Manufacturing Inc), Melonie Ice (Grand Valley Medical Specialists PLC), Dick DeVos (Windquest Group), Tina Freese Decker (Spectrum Health), Stephen Boshoven (Farmers Specialty & Foremost Brand), Steve Ender (GRCC), Daniel Hopp (Whirlpool Corp), Michael Jandernoa (42 North Partners), Mehmood Khan (Life Biosciences Inc.), Gloria Lara (Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance), M. Ashraf Mansour (Spectrum Health), William Payne (BP Ventures), Michael Todman (TMA Limited), Michelle Van Dyke (West Michigan United Way), and Sean Welsh (PNC Bank).
West Michigan United Way – Robert Kaminski (Mercantile Bank), Bill Pink (GRCC), Mary Command (Williams Group), Doug Young (Behler-Young), Jamykal Badger (DTE Energy), Shauna Bagin (UAW), Ovell Barbee (Spectrum Health), Michael Bohnsack (Bohnsack & Associates, LLC), Renwick Brutus (Achievement Resources, LLC), Khumbo Croft (Gordon Food Service), Tim Duflo (Deloitte), Greg Hahn (Crowe), Teresa Hendricks (Migrant Legal Aid), Kris Kurtz (Metro Health), Terry Lenhardt (Steelcase), Ryan McLean (Bissell), Jamie Mills (JRM Holdings, LLC), Juan Salaza, Gwen Sandefur (Spectrum Health), Yvonne Trupiano ( Spartan/Nash), and Tim Williams (Meijer).
Now, this is not an exhaustive look at the Grand Rapids Power Structure, but it does provide us with a clearer idea of what people and entities make significant decisions about what happens in Grand Rapids – politically, economically, socially and culturally. These groups make decisions with little public input and they often use public money to fund the projects they are making decisions about.
Since everyone like visuals, here, on the right, is a visual for the people and organizations that make up Tier 2 of the Grand Rapids Power Structure.
There has been plenty of examples of how COVID Relief funds coming from the federal government have gone to bailout the fossil fuel industry and other corporations, while millions of people are unable to pay their rent or provide food to their children.
In Kent County, there was also a significant outcry from the community, when the Kent County Commission gave the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce the power to determine which businesses get CARES Act funding, instead of allowing real community input on how those relief funds could best be used.
Now the Kent County COVID Relief Subcommittee has decided to re-direct CARES Act funding to the Grand Rapids Police Department, in a variety of ways. At their October 8th meeting, the COVID Relief Subcommittee agreed to provide funds for “public safety” expenses incurred in May and June of this year. What this means is that Kent County is providing funds to the GRPD and other area police departments to cover costs due to the uprising on May 30th and the immediate aftermath of massive police presence in downtown Grand Rapids.
In addition, the Kent County COVID Relief Subcommittee has allocated $500,000 to the City of Grand Rapids to cover costs to pay for gun detection technology, which will likely result in the the GRPD having a contract with ShotSpotter.
The members of the COVID Relief Subcommittee, which is made up of Republican and Democrats from the Kent County Commission, voted unanimously to approve these allocations.
The push to get the gun detection technology was primarily being pushed by Commission Womack (D), who is the the county commissioner that represents the southeast part of Grand Rapids. You can listen to what he has to say beginning around the 28 minutes mark in the video from October 8.
The Kent County Commission will be further discussing all of this at their next meeting on Thursday, October 22nd.
Then on Tuesday, October 13, the Grand Rapids City Commission discussed this matter, particularly during the Committee of the Whole meeting in the morning. You can see in this first slide, that the issue of the “costs incurred” to public safety are listed, with little honest discussion. Let’s face it, there was an uprising on May 30th, where the GRPD and other area cops used force to repress any public resistance, firing weapons into the crowd, which resulted in cops cars getting destroyed. Then in early June, the City imposed a curfew for tow days, brought in the Michigan National Guard and threatened to use violence for ongoing protests against police brutality.
The information on the gun detection technology was discussed during the GR City Commission meeting of the whole, with initial information being presented by Officer David Kiddle, who made it clear that the were looking at purchasing ShotSpotter. His presentation begins at 1:02:00 in the video at this link and in the screenshot below.
Officer Kiddle provides a brief overview of what the ShotSpotter technology will do and how there is an “urgency” to get this technology to address the rise in gun-related violence in Grand Rapids. Kiddle did not acknowledge that ShotSpotter doesn’t prevent gun violence, it only allows the cops to respond more rapidly to where gun shots are fired. Another major omission was how the ShotSpotter technology uses audio and video technology, which also means it provides addition police surveillance of the public, which is highly problematic, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out on their site.
At this point, nothing has been decided, so there is time for the public to weigh in on this matter at upcoming Kent County and Grand Rapids Commission meetings. We have the opportunity to reject more funding for cops and push for any CARES Act funding to go directly to individuals and families that are faced with possible evictions, health care needs and food insecurity matters, just to name a few. ShotSpotter does not prevent violence, but it does give the police more weapons to monitor the public, which is just the opposite of what so many are demanding around police accountability, and more directly through national and local calls to Defund the Police.
COVID cases spike in Kent County: Sen. Mike Shirkey, Herd Immunity and the bewildered herd
Last week we wrote a post about the state GOP’s reaction to the Michigan Supreme Court ruling, which determined that Gov. Whitmer had over-stepped her authority during the COVID 19 crisis.
The legal challenge to Gov. Whitmer’s executive orders specific to the COVID 19 crisis was initiated by the far right think tank, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has received lots of funding from several of the DeVos family foundations over the years, was responsible for making Michigan a Right to Work State, plus they have pushed for lots of other austerity measures and worked to undermine public sector unions for several decades.
On October 10, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, while addressing a crowd at a rally organized by the Pastors Alliance (a group of conservative/reactionary Christian), said this about the COVID 19 crisis:
“I just simply don’t believe we need to continue to have the oppressive mandates that we’ve had. There’s no business that I know of that will put their customers, their employees, their patrons, their families at risk.
Nobody should be misled here or of the opinion that you can keep it from spreading – it’s going to spread, so we just do the best we can. I’m also a big believer that there’s an element of herd immunity that needs to take place.”
When Sen. Shirkey uses the phrase herd immunity, he is essentially saying that a certain percentage of the population is expendable, and therefore allowing them to die from COVID 19 is acceptable.
For a more clinical explanation of “herd immunity”, see the definition presented by the Mayo Clinic:
Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.
Often, a percentage of the population must be capable of getting a disease in order for it to spread. This is called a threshold proportion. If the proportion of the population that is immune to the disease is greater than this threshold, the spread of the disease will decline. This is known as the herd immunity threshold.
What percentage of a community needs to be immune in order to achieve herd immunity? It varies from disease to disease. The more contagious a disease is, the greater the proportion of the population that needs to be immune to the disease to stop its spread. For example, the measles is a highly contagious illness. It’s estimated that 94% of the population must be immune to interrupt the chain of transmission.
Ok, so lets look at the data to make some determinations about herd immunity in Michigan, specifically in Kent County. Looking at the data from Access Kent, we can see that currently there have been 136,465 COVID cases reported in the State of Michigan, with 6,898 deaths. In Kent County (as of Oct. 12), there have been 10,636 cases of COVID, with 169 deaths. There has definitely been an increased in the number of new COVID cases in Kent County, as you can see in the graphic above.
One argument for the spike in case for Kent County is that there is more testing. More testing is a good thing, but it shouldn’t be an argument against any concern for increased COVID 19 cases. Another argument is that more and more of the area has opened up, meaning more businesses have opened, education systems have opened and more and more people are out in public with too many people not taking masks and sanitizing seriously enough…….what we might call a herd mentality, where leaders minimize the COVID harm, so their followers minimize the risks.
In Walter Lippman’s book, Public Opinion. he referred to the public as the bewildered herd that should be governed by a specialized class of people, since the public was not really capable of making policy decisions, like those centered around COVID 19. Sen. Shirkey embraces the same kind of thinking, as do most politicians, that the public is not really capable of making important decisions about policy.
Now, there is still so much we do not know about this virus, but we also shouldn’t accept the notion that certain lives are expendable, even when we apply the herd immunity principle. No ones lives should be expendable and especially the masses of people who are already vulnerable because of pre-existing health conditions, those who are hurting financially, and those that are also facing horrific systems of oppression like White Supremacy.
