ACHTUNG: The following is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

“No man, woman or child is safe as long as the State Legislature is in session.” — James Wasserman

The dirty tricks in Lansing are hiding in plain sight these days with a lame-duck State Legislature that’s doing its damndest to overturn the will of the people from the Nov. 6 general election.

Perhaps the most astonishing shenanigans are shown in the State Senate’s 26-12 vote along party lines to blow away a minimum wage initiative and extension of sick leave benefits, both of which serve poor and middle class working stiffs.

The GOP’s egregious offense is that lawmakers last September halted a grass-roots voters’ petition campaign that gathered enough signatures to put the proposal on the ballot. Legislators adopted the plan in September to take it off the ballot, but now are rolling back the proposal’s provisions.

This reminds me of State Rep. Mary Whiteford’s comments in a candidate forum in October that sometimes the legislature needs to serve as a check on balance on the will of the people. Indeed. So this means we certainly don’t live in a democracy.

Regardless of the pros and cons over increasing the minimum wage from $9.25 to $12 an hour, this ugly development is nothing but an end run around the peoples’ right to decide.

“Let the will of the people be heard.” — Albert Parsons, 1886

On another front, the Michigan Legislature has seen introduction of a bill to make growing marijuana at home illegal, despite the state-wide ballot passage, in another effort to make it difficult, if not impossible, for people to obtain a substance that’s supposed to become legal Dec. 6. The will of a lawmaker trumps the will the people.

Furthermore, though residents overwhelmingly approved an anti-gerrymandering proposal, state lawmakers already are making it difficult to determine who will serve on a bipartisan panel to draw district boundaries.

Not to be outdone, despite 2-to-1 approval by voters, the GOP majority in Lansing is proposing to change voter-approved same day voter registration to two weeks before the election. They say it’s to help the clerks and election officials. How about helping the unwashed masses of voters?

“We don’t work for you guys. You’re supposed to be working for us.” — Ward Weiler, longtime watchdog, to the Barry County Board of Commissioners

Then comes news that a prominent Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill to end the 40-year old 10-cent bottle deposit law, which was so successful in reducing litter in Michigan that Republican Congressman Paul Henry introduced a bill to expand the process to nationwide.

For those who have short memories, it wasn’t that long ago that Gov. Rick Snyder and the GOP-dominated Legislature passed a Right to Work law tin lame duck session o further hurt unions. They accomplished that in less than 24 hours, but for eight years couldn’t find a way to fix the roads, even though the GOP had huge majorities in the House and Senate and owned the governor’s chair and the courts.

Connect the dots. You will understand the unpleasant conclusion that the State Legislature in Lansing, which includes Reps. Whiteford, Steve Johnson and State Senator Tonya Schuitmaker, care not a whit about the wishes of the people who foolishly elected them.

“And we elected ‘em again and again.” — Tom Paxton

Former President Jimmy Carter not long ago asserted that the United States no longer has a functioning democracy. It’s run by an oligarchy.

Mr. Carter is right. And what are we going to do about it? Keep voting in the same bozos?