MSU Interim President John Engler was dismissive of sexual assault claims as governor
People are now taking a closer look at John Engler's record after his appointment as MSU interim president. Only took 24 hours to have it start blowing up in their face. It is being reported that Engler fought and dismissed the investigation of rape and assault of female inmates in Michigan prisons by guards. The women ended up winning lawsuits against the State of Michigan after years of stonewalling. Sounds like the perfect person to lead MSU now. The incompetence of their trustees shows no limits.
January 31st, 2018 at 6:52 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 6:56 PM ^
Get over yourself. It's news, and it's about one of our rivals.
More importantly, it's important.
January 31st, 2018 at 7:03 PM ^
You didn't have to click.
January 31st, 2018 at 7:08 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 9:12 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 9:17 PM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 7:58 AM ^
I'm not really into tacos, but Weed Wednesday sounds like a great idea. Maybe we can all get together and party. A couple of hits of da Pakalolo would take my mind right off the Sparty dumpster (filled with couches) fire.
January 31st, 2018 at 6:58 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:12 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
Because your post and this particular story are so politically loaded. I'd love to respond in detail. But I've been so disappointed in the past with how politically-themed posts get moderated here. I don't think my reply would be well-recieved by the mods.
All that I think I can do is leave you with a down-vote, which I have almost never employed in all my years in and out of MGBlog.
January 31st, 2018 at 7:30 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:39 PM ^
But I think that due to the incompetence at East Lansing, people are able to look past political allegiances to take note of the irony of th story and just the general lack of awareness inside those circled wagons.
January 31st, 2018 at 7:47 PM ^
Please tell me how this post is politically-themed? I didn't realize rape and sexual assault was a political issue. I guess I missed which party endorses rape.
I take pride that this is the first downvote of "all your years" on mgoblog. "Joined: 01/04/2018"
I think you meant "all your days."
January 31st, 2018 at 7:48 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:52 PM ^
I only responded because I was laughing when I saw his mgoboard "Joined date"
January 31st, 2018 at 9:02 PM ^
coincidentally. 06/29/2009, I think. I couldn't tell you how many MGoPoints I had. I was about 25th among the members.
January 31st, 2018 at 8:41 PM ^
It was obviously fed to someone at Bridge by Deb Labelle who is a lawyer and political activist. And of course the UN High Commision for Human Rights getting involved in US politics is always loaded, as it was in Flint and Detroit when activists tried to get the UN involved in water issues.
And no; no political party is "pro-rape." I don't consider that anymore of a serious notion (I know you didn't mean it seriuosly) than I would take seriously the notion that by sending a letter declining the "assistance" of the UN, that John Engler "was dismissive of sexual assault claims as governor."
I'll say this too; my most troublesome "politics" issues on the MGoBoard were never when I was trying to make a political point with a new thread. It was always when someone else created a political thread -- political in the way that fit the politics of a majority of the members -- and I chimed in to say, "Hey, isn't this poitics?"
Just like now.
January 31st, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 12:42 PM ^
... The UN thing is such a red herring that acts as a trigger phrase to insight tribal divisions. It is commonly used by nationalistic groups to dismiss or discredit legitimate arguments that are not aligned with those group's agendas.
Take that entire piece out of this, and you still have a governor who actively worked to limit the ability of the US justice department to investigate serious (and later proven) accusations about the treatement of femaile prisoners by prison guards. He stonewalled, dismissed, and ultimately was proven to be wrong. His actions showed he had zero interest in justice for these women, and complete interest in protecting the "state". This is not political in any way. I fucking voted for the guy. It's just fact.
January 31st, 2018 at 9:16 PM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 12:31 AM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 7:17 AM ^
I didn't say that the topic should not be discussed. What I suggested is that a full-throated examination of the politics behind the story, including the politics of the "United Nations" being involved in civil litigation in the United States, is probably something that won't be tolerated on the MGoBoard, judging from past controversies.
February 1st, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
I assumed that the OP was polticially motivated because I had just finished scorching him for his reckless lie suggesting that Education Secretary DeVos somehow acted inappropriately before, during or after a meeting with then-MSU President Simon:
http://mgoblog.com/content/looking-internally-aftermath-msu?page=2#comment-4904115
He put up two of those posts in different places, both with the same picture, and the same allegation that DeVos-Simon meeting was suspicious. When absolutely nothing about it -- and particularly the result -- was suspicious.
February 1st, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
Thanks, that is some important context that someone just reading this thread (me) didn't have.
When going down the road of talking about politics on here or injecting it into something, just my 2 cents, but at least that would give you some better grounds if in your initial response. Otherwise you're the one injecting politics into it.
February 1st, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
Literally the only referencs to the UN or United Nations on this board are your posts or one person responding to your post saying "who cares about the UN the rest of the stuff is bad."
Yes the article mentions it. But you went out of your way to bring that up rather than talking about the directly on point discussion. This is the issue with politics on this board - people inserting it where it doesn't need to be inserted.
February 1st, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 12:58 PM ^
Deb Labelle is happy to be called an "activist." I think she'd call herself an activist; she's doing ACLU legal work on social/poliotical causes, and she's getting awards LGBT interest groups.
https://www.superlawyers.com/michigan/article/our-prisoners-ourselves/3…
No matter; back to the United Nations. Do you not understand that infamous prison litigation case? John Engler didn't handle it; the state AG's office and outside counsel handled it. For much of the entire history of the prison litigation, Jennifer Granholm was either the AG (beginning in 1999) or governor (beginning in 2003).
No self-respecting Michigan chief executive is going let the United Nations come in and upset your own investigations and litigation management. And that is what the Engler letter was, in that Bridge Magazine story. It was, first and last, a response to the United Nations. It wasn't a letter or a pleading or evidence or anything else in the prison litigation. It was a response to a political stunt that had no meaning in the litigation.
February 1st, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 9:15 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 9:49 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:15 PM ^
This whole thing is making me hate MSU more than OSU, and I never thought that was possible. This is such a disaster...obviously having someone with connections to the school helps in bad situations, but apparently they all have connections to the same bad shit.
January 31st, 2018 at 7:27 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:43 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:44 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 7:37 AM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 7:44 PM ^
making some stupid comment about how he's going to treat this like if his daughters went to school there. He's clueless.
January 31st, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^
he will fit right in there
January 31st, 2018 at 8:27 PM ^
Seriously, no one on BoT at MSU thought to do a background check on Engler's record as governor on sexual assault related issues? How is that possible in this day and age?
I mean if you are going to bring in someone to help correct a culture that has been permissive toward criminal sexual assault and have patterns of coverups and denial of victims rights .... oh wait! MSU BoT is solving 'the problems.' Just maybe different problems from what the rest of us think are problems. We just need Ferguson to tell us about how much else there is going on that is important again.
Attetmps at business as usual in East Lansing. Staggering... beginning to wonder just how far they are willing to go even now to protect their 'winning ways'. Like a dark,corrupt form of "Spartans will".
January 31st, 2018 at 8:37 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 10:16 PM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 7:00 AM ^
February 1st, 2018 at 1:04 PM ^
It shouldn't have taken that long for someone at MSU to dig that up and take a pass on him. I assume they didn't know about this beforehand, and just failed to do their homework. MSU needs to get its collective act together in more ways than one.
February 1st, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^
MSU, that is.
February 1st, 2018 at 1:33 PM ^
As we have seen many times regarding these matters- - talk is cheap and action difficult.
Word of the day: Placation
Synonym: MSU
February 1st, 2018 at 2:40 PM ^