Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Warning: You are about to enter the Twilight Zone.
Imagine, if you will, that you live in a state where a governor wields extraordinary power over its residents. Imagine, if you will, that your governor has the legal
authority to appoint an “Emergency Manager” to oversee the local government in the town where you reside. Imagine that the monetary compensation for the Emergency Manager of your community has no cap. Imagine that your Emergency Manager declares that there’s a financial emergency in your town and then takes over control of it. Imagine that the Emergency Manager can break contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services—and can also fire duly elected public officials who serve your community. Imagine, if you will, that the Emergency Manager empowered by your governor to run your town has the right to dissolve your school district and to disincorporate your town. AND imagine that you and your fellow residents have no say about what is going on! Just imagine how you might feel if you lived in a state where that kind of thing was going on. Well, the people who live in Michigan may not have to imagine much longer.
Who, you might ask, will be responsible for transforming the state of Michigan into a Rod Serlingesque otherworldly undemocratic Twilight Zone right here in the United States? Why, Governor Rick Snyder and his bold band of Republican state legislators–that’s who. In January, Governor Snyder called for “Emergency Manager” legislation—and the Republican state legislators were more than happy to comply with his request.
This all seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? I’m not making it up. Karen Bouffard of The Detroit News reported the following: Legislation that would allow emergency financial managers to throw out union contracts and overrule elected officials in financially distressed municipalities and school districts was approved Wednesday by the state Senate. Similar legislation passed in the House in February, and the two chambers are working on a final version to send to Gov. Rick Snyder.
In an article published in The Michigan Messenger, Eartha Jane Melzer wrote:
Under the law whole cities or school districts could be eliminated without any public participation or oversight, and amendments designed to provide minimal safeguards and public involvement were voted down.
An amendment to require Emergency Managers to hold monthly public meetings to let people know how they are governing was rejected by Senate Republicans, along with proposals to cap Emergency Manager compensation and require that those appointed to run school districts have some background in education.
Critics say that Republicans are manipulating concerns about budget problems in order to consolidate power by undermining unions.
According to E. D. Kain: Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all – whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that.
Mark Gaffney, Michigan State President of the AFL-CIO said: This is a takeover by the right wing and it’s an assault on democracy like I’ve never seen.
Do you agree with Mark Gaffney? Do you think what’s going on in Michigan is an assault on democracy?
SOURCES
Rachel Maddow Exposes Michigan Republicans Secret War On Democracy (Politicus USA)
Michigan Governor Plays Fast and Loose with Democracy, Invokes Radical New Powers (Forbes)
Michigan Republicans Use Budget Crisis to make Outrageous Assault on Democracy (AFL-CIO)
Michigan Senate passes emergency manager bills (Daily Tribune)
Emergency managers bill sweeps toward final approval (The Michigan Messenger)
Conyers: Emergency Manager bill ‘raises serious constitutional concerns’ (The Michigan Messenger)
Financial manager bill passes Michigan Senate (The Detroit News)
Michigan bill would impose “financial martial law” (CBS News)
Of interest to this legal community, Scott Walker and his merry henchmen have passed legislation that blogger NoMoJoe calls “Killing Granny in Wisconsin.”
An excerpt from NMJ’s story:
Full story here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/26/960358/-Killing-Granny-in-Wisconsin
OS,
You are right. Mr. Harris was right on target.
JBH: You may be getting the hang of it. Your last comment was on point, concise, brief and readable. Now just keep it up in that vein and we will do just fine. Also, good on the union aspect. Thanks.
Otteray Scribe 1, March 26, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Since Scott Walker’s push to destroy the unions in Wisconsin, some university faculty are jointing a union.
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Scott Walker persuaded me to join AFSCME (Illinois Retirees Chapter 31) and to walk around the Wisconsin Capitol Building with other union members.
Walker may yet help build up unions far beyond his wildest dreams.
Having often been threatened by the tyranny of the majority, I really welcome Maury’s resistance to mindless groupthink.
Since Scott Walker’s push to destroy the unions in Wisconsin, some university faculty are jointing a union. This is turning into a throwdown, and I have a feeling Scott Walker may have an even more interesting life in coming days.
More detailed account here, from the Front Page at DKos.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/26/960110/-Wisconsin-universities-form-unions-despite-Scott-Walkers-union-busting
Did someone mention corporate taxation?
Let’s take a look at how those poor corporations are being taxed to death, shall we?
Let’s take a look at General Electric and their U.S. tax “burden” for 2010 . . .
“The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.
Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.”
Yeah. We’re regulating and taxing those po’ ol’ corporation right out of business. In Venal Delusional Fantasy Land.
To continue the theme started by Tony and Mike, here are some of the manual labor jobs I’ve had:
Construction
Electricians Apprentice
Lawn crew
Landscaping
Roofing
Bouncer
Stocker
Warehouse laborer
I’m going to have to agree with my fellow liberals and say that on the topic of labor, liberals and liberalism, you’re just as wrong as you about everything else, Maury.
Maury, I have to agree with Tony and Mike. I understand your reference to “swing a hammer” is a metaphor for manual labor or what is often referred to as “scut work.” Sorry chum, been there and done that. Speaking for myself only, I have bagged groceries, helped fish drowning victims out of a lake, been a security officer and other stuff you might find beneath you. You have not had fun until you help drag a body out of a lake after two weeks in the Louisiana August heat. Or pick a motorcyclist’s intestines off a barbed wire fence.
There are many liberals and progressives who know their way around manual labor. To give the lie to your assertion, how about all those union workers who are being screwed over by Scott Walker and his henchmen, helped along by enablers such as yourself? Those workers hardly are the types who ride around in luxury cars, attend the ballet and eat caviar for snacks. Those union people, many of whom were Republicans up until a month ago, are finding out who their real friends are.
@Maury: Mike brings up a good point. I am a liberal, and one of seven children, born in the lower middle class. I worked my way through the my last two years of high school, as a dishwasher, janitor, truck unloader, landscaping laborer, underage barback, whatever, for 30-40 hours a week. At 16 my family moved and I stayed behind to avoid switching from a good high school to an abysmal one; so my father helped me find a minimum wage job and a cheap room to rent. I bought my own food (subsidized by John, the cook at the restaurant I worked at), I paid my own bills and I attended high school full time. Without a car; the kid in restaurant whites walking a mile home at 1 am is me.
I’ll put my shit work up against anybody’s. Swinging a hammer sounds like a nice job compared to scrubbing toilets or grease traps or shoveling up some guy’s vomit and scrubbing the carpet.
In large part it was my upbringing in the lower middle class, and my work beside the least class, that makes me a liberal now in the upper middle class. I empathize with the people that are stuck there and didn’t have the luck to be born with any tools to escape.
I know firsthand it isn’t a matter of them not working hard, because I have worked side-by-side (literally) with decamillionaires and sixty year old janitors, and if hard work for eight straight were rewarded, on average these guys would have to switch places.
I suspect you haven’t done these jobs, Maury, or you would know your stereotypes of the lower class and the food stamp crowd and those on welfare are just the hateful propaganda of the cruelly selfish rich attacking defenseless women and children and frequently people with mental disabilities deficiencies.
It is unconscionable. But you don’t know that, which makes me think it is you that doesn’t understand anything about a full and honest day’s work, or the people that do them.
Brian, once again you miss the point completely. When people are trying to have an exchange of ideas in a civil and connected manner, you and at least one other person post overly long and off topic comments in the middle of the thread, which derails the conversation. It is hard to follow at thread when you have a thousand word, off topic, essay in the middle of a discussion. It has nothing to do with the speed of your scrolling device, since we are trying to figure out where the hell the reply to a question or comment might reside amidst all the dross posted by you and other windbag trolls.
You want to understand non-autistic people? One simple rule. It is not about you. It was never about you and will never be about you. When you can participate in a discussion without derailing it with irrelevant and off topic crap, then maybe you will receive a warmer reception. Until then, you will remain on the margins of social interaction, looking in. You are not a participant in discussions. Your insertions hinder discussion. In that regard, at least Maury the Troll’s comments are relevant to the discussion–at least part of the time.
Funny thing. Perhaps I have a better computer than others have. I can scroll past the thread starter and all 768 comments prior to this one in this thread in about half a second, which does not match my notion of “forever.”
Perhaps time works differently for profoundly autistic people than for others.
Words sure do work differently…
If I am ever to learn to understand non-autistic people, I have to learn to understand them, or I will never learn to understand them.
I am back from Alabama and find the pie fight still in progress. I see that Maury the Troll, whose goal in life seems to be to disrupt conversations critical of Walker the Troll and Koch the Trolls, has elected to borrow a technique from Brian the Troll. Post interminably long and meaningless screeds that no one reads and take forever for scroll past.
To Brian’s credit, he writes his own drivel and does not plagiarize drivel from the likes of Glenn the Troll and others.
“The “vituperation” I received was quite exactly the research data I sought to find, if it happened to exist.”
It doesn’t take research to find out that acting like a disruptive obtuse ass gets you treated like a disruptive obtuse ass, Brian. All it takes is a basic understanding of feedback loops. But since that’s what you were aiming for, I’m glad you got what you found.
Mike Spindell 1, March 26, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Brian,
The vituperation you receive is merely because you produce over-long monologues that are difficult to ignore because scrolling past them wastes unconscionable lengths of time and reading through them is reminiscent of examining the logic in Alice in Wonderland.
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The “vituperation” I received was quite exactly the research data I sought to find, if it happened to exist.
When someone who does not demonstrate accurate understanding of my work directs (sincere) mistaken ad-hominem arguments toward me, I do what I learned worked in similar situations in the past.
All those ridiculous words I wrote on this thread were of the only way I have ever found to do a pro-se cross-examination of a hostile witness (like Buddha Is Laughing?) in the Court of Public Opinion.
The words and their structure had to be so utterly irritating that Buddha Is Laughing would finally disclose the aspects of his personality structure that led him to “attack” me so that, if and when it suits my purpose, the public record clearly contains the data to which I may eventually find referring of some worthy use.
I find no fault with Buddha Is Laughing; yet I find some of the values he appears to espouse are values I observed to be very damaging to some children while I worked at Cook County Children’s Hospital.
How to psychoanalyze someone who may be totally resistant to being analyzed? One method has here been demonstrated.
Why do I bother with this? Because I find that Wisconsin statutes and regulations require me to do it in the public safety interest. Even more, because I am conscientious.
Were I not autistic as I am, I might have access to some sort of “theory of mind” which would allow me to confabulate other people’s intentions and I would not need to analyze people in order to “understand” them.
Certain forms of socially-mandated child abuse (abuse from the brain-biology perspective, not any social perspective) result in children who become adults and abuse their children similarly, such that, from a social, but not biological, standpoint, the abuse is defined as not abuse.
For now, I would contentedly let the matter rest. For now, I have all the research data I can use.
rafflaw,
lol – just for you …
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/149602/powdered-donut-pancake-surprise
Maury,
Actually, I’m pretty good with a hammer and nail. I’m self-sufficient; I can hang a picture, put furniture together, paint, etc. I’m a pretty damned good baker, too. In fact, I’m working with a couple of local deli owners to sell my cupcakes from their storefronts for some extra cash. I’m doing it in the hopes I can bake cupcakes full-time down the line. Italian cooking is a specialty of mine. And, since my ex-husband is a mechanic, I’m pretty good with changing a tire and changing oil.
Your “concern” for my ability to handle a hammer is duly noted …
“but some lessons a young man thinking with his penis just has to learn the hard way if you’ll pardon the pun.”
Buddha,
All to true. Thank God I’ve been happily and monogamously married for thirty years, because as much fun as I had beforehand, there were equally (if not more)as many missteps. I’ve got some great memories though, because as time passes the bitter mistakes fade.
As Maurice Chevalier sung in Gigi “I’m glad I’m not young anymore.”
Here’s an interesting rendition by one of my old favorite singers.
Mike,
Although you’ve mistakenly (?) attributed Gyges comment to me, it is still appropriate as I too worked at a liquor store in college. Deliveries were illegal in Kansas though so that was never an issue. What was an issue though was me being stupid enough to sleep with my boss.
It was my Mrs. Robinson’s moment; the willing victim of a cougar attack.
And to make it extra stupid, she happened to be the owner’s wife. It was the first, only and last time I’ve ever slept with a married woman or slept with a boss and/or co-worker. Not the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, no, but certainly in the Top 5. Not my proudest moment either, but some lessons a young man thinking with his penis just has to learn the hard way if you’ll pardon the pun.
When my mom found out (quite by accident)? She FREAKED. I mean hair on fire Irish lass freaked too. I was seriously worried she was going to spontaneously combust she got so mad at me. I got yelled at for a solid month. My dad on the other hand? When he found out, he just laughed and said, “That’s my boy!” My grandfather was more in the middle with his reaction. He just shook his head and said, “Son, never crap where you eat and never screw where you work.” He was, however, grinning when he said it. That was the lesson I took to heart along with his other bit of country wisdom he imparted: “You have to ask yourself, ‘Is the screwing you’re gettin’ worth the screwin’ you’re gettin’?'” This second lesson paid off many times over the years, but I digress . . .
The pay wasn’t great, the fringe benefits (other than the cost plus 10% discount and the mandatory wine tastings) were absolutely more trouble than they were worth, and the hours were a drag.
It did have one advantage though.
I traded my discount with a guy who worked at a nearby record store. And he got cost plus 5%. That turned out to be a much better relationship than the one with the sex. Certainly a lot less complicated. He was such a cool cat, he even kept giving me his discount after I was forced to quit the liquor store. What a guy!
The odd thing is that even with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, if I could go back in time and relive that episode?
I wouldn’t change a thing except maybe my mom finding out about it.
I learned a lot from that whole boondoggle as annoying, embarrassing and stupid as it was. Wisdom is the mistakes we learn from. In the weight of wisdom gained, in the end, it was a learning experience worth the cost.
Thanks for invoking the stroll down Memory Lane, Mike.
“You’re right, Mike Spindell, I’m a Tea Bagger. I guess that would make you the Tea Baggee.”
Roman $1,000,
The “Tea Bagee” is the one the Tea Bagger performs on. While I cast no judgment on almost anyone’s sexual predilections, I must say that having you lick my scrotum and perform analingus upon me is not a stimulating prospect. Given your political bent I would suggest you find some very, wealthy individual who you could perform your ministrations upon and reach climax with the satisfaction of having pleased your master.