Friday, March 1, 2013

The Hostile Takeover Of Detroit

Last April, news was coming out of Michigan that the corporate owned Republicans in that state had set it up so that Governor Rick Snyder could declare a fiscal emergency for any local government and put impose fiscal martial law:
As bad a shape that Flint is in, it is a garden center compared to Benton Harbor, Michigan. Benton Harbor is the first victim of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's new law allowing the state to disregard all elections and the Constitution by declaring financial martial law. As we have seen for the past 62 days in Wisconsin, the good people are in an uproar over this egregious stripping of their rights. There are numerous complaints about this being a union-busting measure. (In fact, the "controller" for the Detroit Public School System has already stated he will use this law to hammer the unions there.) This is very well probably true, but I can't help but note that coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, the population of Benton Harbor happens to be more than 92% African American, making me wonder if this could also be the rebirth of Jim Crow.
Now, the unthinkable is about to become a horrible reality with the next victim of this hostile takeover being Detroit:
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will officially declare a financial emergency for Detroit on Friday, paving the way for a state takeover of the city, a state government source said on Thursday.

At a forum in Detroit, the Republican governor will endorse the February 19 findings of a six-member review team that concluded the city's dire financial situation constituted an emergency, according to the source, who asked not to be identified.
The article goes on to point out how this atrocity is rigged from the get go:
If the state decides to appoint an emergency financial manager, that person could decide the city's only course for survival would be a bankruptcy filing in what would become the largest municipal bankruptcy in the United States.

The emergency manager would be officially chosen by a state board composed of the state treasurer, budget director, and licensing and regulatory affairs director - all of whom are Snyder appointees.
Snyder has publicly discussed qualifications he would seek in the manager and has said he had a short list of candidates for the job.
What it really is all about is that the Republicans are really upset that there is money going to public sector workers and poor people, many of whom are minorities. To these corporate sockpuppets, this is simply unacceptable. That money, in their singularly obsessive way of thinking, should be going to give the wealthy more tax breaks.

In order to make that happen, they are now about to shred any vestiges of democracy by usurping control of a city, removing the elected leaders and imposing martial law, regardless of what the citizens want.

This is simply unconscionable.

At the time that this fascist law was crafted, I pondered whether Scott Walker could or would do that in Wisconsin, with the likeliest target being Milwaukee.

Who'd have ever thought that it was Chris Abele that would prove to be the greedier, more power-hungry fascist?

4 comments:

  1. No one should be surprised -- they steal electons with gerrymandering and then even need secret proprietary closed voting systems that cannot be verified to "win" office.

    Until people organize boycotts of the propaganda machine and its advertisers and then demand free, open, fair, verifiable, and transparent elections we will see more of this -- much more.

    And we will see walker in the white house if the criminality behind his ascent to power does not bring him down.

    Will that happen to a klansman of the Walker/Bush family -- even one from the poor side of "herb" walker? Not likely -- prescott bush, george herbert WALKER bush, george WALKER bush were not held accontable for much higher crimes and treasons.

    If we don't take meaningful action -- dur furher walker happening.

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  2. I remember reading some time ago about the Koch brothers trying to privatize a bridge in Detroit that most traffic uses between the US and Canada. They sent out some kind of post cards telling people they had to leave their homes, that they were being foreclosed...they will do anything to move people from one place to another without regard for laws or humanity, yet people stand with Walker and these Republican brown shirts. I remember a bill being talked about a couple years ago where Walker was asking for, to declare emergency managers here, but it didn't go anywhere because WI wasn't in dire straits, but NOW he's creating the financial demise in our state, so don't be surprised to see this kind of legislation coming soon...with his brown shirts following suit.

    I really don't understand this because these officials live here along with their families, do they not think their families and friends need clean water, local foods, and great educations to feed the body and soul?

    Republicans are beyond dumb, they stand their ground for gun laws, but not clean water? dumb.

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  3. One of the more obscene possibilities is the sale of Belle Isle public park to private investors, who will create a Libertarian paradise.

    http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130112/BIZ/301120319

    "As the broken city thinks big and radically about its future, a developer is stepping forward with a revolutionary idea: Sell the city's Belle Isle park for $1 billion to private investors who will transform it into a free-market utopia.

    The 982-acre island would then be developed into a U.S. commonwealth or city-state of 35,000 people with its own laws, customs and currency.

    City officials are likely to reject the plan. But on Jan. 21, supporters including Mackinac Center for Public Policy senior economist David Littmann, retired Chrysler President Hal Sperlich and Clark Durant, co-founder of Detroit's Cornerstone Schools, will present the Commonwealth of Belle Isle plan to a select group of movers and shakers at the tony Detroit Athletic Club.



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  4. How do people not vet these guys? Rick Snyder ran Gateway Computers into the ground and sold it to the Chinese, outsourcing everything all the way. Scott Walker has never held a paid private sector job in his life and has sucked off the teat of the government that he professes to hate. Rick Scott was convicted of Medicare fraud, and John Kasich was a typical Republican hack house member who accomplished little. And don't forget self made by marriage Ron Johnson. The fact that any one of these incompetents was elected to high office confirms A) that corporate media propaganda works, or B) the electorate is made up of morons, or C) Combination of A and B. The whole thing just floors me that these people can even get voted in. They make Bush II look like a competent and educated leader.

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