W interupt this lengthy summer recess and return you now to our regularly scheduled program:  the fall session of the Michigan legislature.

     When we last left our band of merry lawmakers, they were ending a six month march and were off to celebrate the 4^th of July and bask in the victories racked up by the new governor and the new GOP dominated house and senate.

     Left behind to lick its collective wounds, and there was a lot of licking goin' on, were the Democrats and their labor buddies who got run over by the Snyder juggernaut.

     It started with the repeal of the item-pricing law which will cost some grocery folks their jobs and it ended with passage of the Emergency manager law which critics contend will end democracy as we know it.

     Along the way there were countless capitol steps demonstrations by this anti-Snyder groups and that and while it made for good TV, it had little impact on what was going on inside the building. One "reform" plan after another breezed through the process with little or no Democratic input or votes.

     It was not all peaches and cream, however, as the new governor got a good dose of political reality when he had to confront ultra-conservative members of his own team.  They were anything but team players when it came to the pension tax and they told him so.

     He made a mid-course correction to secure just enough votes to pass the thing and his much bally-hooed re-invention of Michigan was on it's way.

     So now they return to what?

     The Snyder crowd explained it would use the summer recess to nail down the jello-ey "support" for the Synder bridge between Detroit and Windsor.  Despite his enthusiast support for that, let's just say the jello has not solidified despite the two months of "educating" lawmakers on the subject.

     While the bridge will be a top priority for the upcoming session, it's future in the legislature is in doubt, but the governor will have a Plan B and may go around lawmakers if they stiff him and they just might.

     Slapping new rules on the medical marijuana law will also be front and center along with a host of right-wing GOP social issues which the governor is loathed to confront but will one way or the other.

     So back we go for more Rentless Positive Action from the big guy but the outcome this next six months may not be as joyful as the last.