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)
RE: Maury, March 28, 2011 at 9:10 am
If some people are poor, why so?
If some people have bad mental health, why so?
If some people are lazy, why so?
If some people do not care to improve themselves, why so?
If some people are not intelligent, why so?
If some people are handicapped, why so?
If some people do not understand some other people, yet mistakenly believe otherwise, why so?
If some people judge other people, why so?
Who knows who is which for sure?
Tony C:
It took me 10 years to get my first degree, and 2 to get my second.
I didn’t have the luxury of a GI bill, it was hard work all the way. And years of delayed gratification. I don’t have any sympathy for people who are poor, most are poor because they have bad mental health, are lazy or just don’t give a shit or care to improve themselves. I worked with them so I know them pretty well.
Some are just not intelligent and some are handicapped and those people should be taken care of, but the rest? Fcuk em, let them work like the rest of us and pay the price for sloth. I don’t owe them a living.
You feed the birds and the squirrels in your back yard and all they do is make a mess of your deck and keep coming back for more. I took the food down and now I have capitalist birds and squirrels making their own living and my deck is back to being clean. Seems to me there is an allegory in there somewhere.
Otteray Scribe:
My sincerest condolences for your loss. May God grant you a peaceful heart at some point.
@AY: As is true in physics, chemistry, astronomy, materials science and computer science and mathematics, It is usually the case that it is easy to find problems, and difficult to solve them. Most sciences have a “shelf” of unsolved problems that have been waiting decades for a good solution, or even one step of progress toward a solution. In my own field, I am struggling with a near intractable problem right now that has been extant for thirty years, and I will produce a solid original step in the right direction, but I will not have slain the dragon. (More of a deep flesh wound.)
I think the other problem is that of entrenched propaganda. I think entrenched interests can be overcome by simple uprising; even in the USA no corrupt politician is going to survive or fake his way past an 80/20 vote against him. They might manage to fix a 53/47 vote somehow, but not a tidal wave.
The problem is getting the 80%, and the issue is the propaganda that people have believed. It will take a great deal of pain (probably financial pain) before people start sacrificing their comfort and entertainment to march in the streets and vote at the polls. What do we get, something like 20% of possible voters actually voting?
I think there isn’t enough pain to make 80% of us citizens actually give a shit about the problems. I also think that is because they don’t realize what is happening, but the relentless propaganda and parade of false targets is an anaesthetic that keeps them from rising up. It won’t work forever, so the question is whether the anaesthetic will wear off in time to save our lives, or will the wounds already be mortal?
If fear mongering leads to war mongering, what leads to fear mongering other than “something” which causes people to distrust themselves and others?
Erik H. Erikson suggested that the first stage of social development is of trust versus mistrust.
If Erikson was “right,” then mistrust may be partly of nurture?
Nature may be hard to change; nurture may be much easier to change?
AY,
Amen.
rafflaw,
I am tired of hearing people not offering solutions…when I was growing up people were always offering unsolicited advice…..so why have we digressed to always pointing out what is wrong rather than what is right…I suppose…saying..why not accentuate the positive and give direction of how change could occur…..
I am reading a book right now…name not to be disclosed…that basically states that the party in charge is controlling by fear and what wrong with the other folks hence fear mongering…..us vs them mentality…. so if we are right they are wrong…enough already….
AY,
Maury and his friends don’t want to improve things because they complain government can’t work so they make sure that it will not work,
Maury, Maury, Maury,
How the hell is gas cheaper in relative terms? Even if you are correct…and you are not about the price of gasoline especially in the south it was between 15 to 25 cents a gallon…It is still a lesser of a per cent than it is today based upon your calculations….Your theory of economics sucks….Move the variable and enjoy your Ipad…
You might have some learning aka skooling but other than that your education appears to be lost….
Other than blast people because you disagree with them….Tell us how you would solve the problem and have a better America…..a model with all of the attenuating consequences thought about…..Kinda of like a strategy when going to war….
As I under stand it….You want Zero business regulations and absolutely no taxation of any sort on anyone….Please proceed to give thought out examples not pot shots when you disagree….even ALEC has a strategy…considering all variables….possible consequences…distractions…oppositions….and then what you hope to gain from it…..
Personally, I was more fortunate than most….My family has been luckier than others…Somehow or another we still saw the need to help other folks… I know some folks that took a cut in income when the market crashed a few years back and dividends were suspended…that was all they had to live on for income…they suffered in there own way….
Give us your best shot…
@Maury: I didn’t pay tuition while working my way through high school; it was a public school.
I joined the military out of high school, and after surviving that unscathed (and even during that) I was entitled to the GI Bill, which paid enough for my tuition. In graduate school my tuition was paid by scholarship, and grad students get paid a little over minimum wage to work as tutors, graders, lab monkeys, practicum leaders and research assistants. Which is enough, if you can stand to live hungry in a hovel, or give up sleep to take odd-jobs or night work.
If you had the self-discipline necessary to postpone gratification, which you apparently do not, then you would understand those of us that can suffer in poverty for eight or ten years in order to escape it forever. And perhaps you would have developed some empathy for those people around you on that journey that would never escape it, no matter how hard they worked.
Mr. Scribe,
My sincerest condolences to you and your family….. Please sir do hurry back….when the time is right….
OS I am very sorry for your loss. My deepest condolences.
Maury, I just got word that my seventeen year old grandson has died after a long battle with cancer. I do not have the time or emotional energy to argue with a nitwit.
Good day sir. Bless your heart.
Dr. Scribe:
If the airline business was regulated how do you know your friend would have gotten the routes he would need to be successful? And how do you know in a Laissez Faire market the big airline would have even worried with him? The airline industry is not totally deregulated, it is not a totally free market.
And yes I know exactly what the terms I am using mean. Apparently you do not.
What you suggest above is Fascism whether or not you want to believe it or understand it to be such. And if you consider that to be modern liberalism then I say modern liberalism is fascism.
Mike Spindell:
I guess if tuition was paid for you could do it. 272/week would be more than enough even now to cover a room and food.
So good for you.
But the other stuff you are wrong about and you certainly seem to have a fixation with analingus. Is that some sort of leftist fetish of which I am unaware?
Probably so, lefties seem to kiss a lot of government and multinational business ass.
“Otteray Scribe is a real honest to god Fascist by his own admission.”
Schmuck,
You’re not fit to perform analingus on him, but then there’s nobody that would want you to, except the Doms you idolize.
Maury, the most impressive thing about your comments are your mental gymnastics. Anyone, millionaire or not, should be able to start a business without the multinationals who have tens of billions in reserves from predatory business practices. What is fair about a guy sinking several million into a venture that benefits many people in his area, only to have a gigantic corporation come in and undercut his prices to the point it drives him out of business. We see the same all over the country. To oppose predatory business practices an advocate meaningful regulation that encourages competition does not make one a fascist. Once again, you have no idea of the meaning of the terms you throw out.
“you guys make me laugh, putting yourselves through school with jobs making 40/week. No way you did. You all got grants and loans or your parents paid for it, hopefully you paid back your loans.”
Schmuck,
You only dig yourself in deeper the more you bleat your ignorance and lack of empathy in public. You are right about one thing though. both my Bachelors and Masters were gained via full tuition scholarships, based on merit, not need. As to need though both my parents were dead by the time I was 18 and there was no one around to live with or to support me. I did that as I said for $32.50 and tips. Lived in a small furnished room, with a bath in the hall. No TV, just a transistor radio. As for Colleges being affordable back then that is true but not by much, but the back then was 1962 to 1966. I couldn’t have afforded it unless worked two jobs.
“The money you made went for beer and women. You cant pay your way through college flipping hamburgers at McDonalds or working at a liquor store”
I only wish I had had parents to pay my way but that was not the case you insensitive lout. While I did have girlfriends, something you probably lacked and lack, I couldn’t afford to sit around drinking beer with them since I worked until 9:00 six nights a week.
Now you on the other hand Mr. Conservative Ass, probably did have Mommy and Daddy paying for their “widdle Maury boy.” As far as business goes I’m sure whatever you do was secured via your family and or their connections. You’re far too stupid to have built anything on your own. I suspect your business model is Donald Trumps: Inherit 1/2 of Brooklyn real estate from Daddy and expand in a burgeoning housing market Naturally he’s gone bankrupt 3 times. In character and business acumen the only difference between you and him is that he is probably better looking and has gotten laid.
See, underneath your bravado and BS I suspect you’re really a college sophomore sucking on your parent’s tit and holding office in the Young Republican’s Club. Your real envy of us
lefties is that we have satisfying sex lives and are better looking. Don’t worry sonny, your pimples will go away sometime, even if it won’t make you that much better looking.
Hey Buddha:
Otteray Scribe is a real honest to god Fascist by his own admission.
Dr. Scribe:
so you are for government helping millionaires with their business ventures. That is what it sounds like to me. So you are actually a fascist and not a liberal as you have said.