MI battle of PTB and Citizens is Being Watched by World

[grannyfranny100]

As the bankruptcy of Detroit gets challenged in court, the world watches. Its downfall could be mirrored in other U.S. cities near you. It is a battle between bankers and everyday folks who challenge the unconstitutional actions of Gov. Snyder as he spearheads efforts to bankrupt the city and privatize it. http://www.globalresearch.ca/forces-...-court/5351205

Governor Rick Snyder must be feeling reelection jitters a year early. He simultaneously opened a reelection website and major media buy against Mark Schauer who is challenging the uber-rich hold on MI.

If you google Mark Schauer, the results already feature a paid ad for Gov. Snyder. Obviously Gov. Snyder thinks he can buy another election....

"Rick Snyder’s economy has produced one of the nation’s worst unemployment rates, falling wages, increased poverty, and a shrinking middle class. Gov. Snyder has raised taxes on senior citizens’ retirement earnings and on low-income working parents. He has also made deep cuts to education, leading to widespread teacher layoffs and higher tuition costs, which amount to a hidden tax on middle-class families. Additionally, Gov. Snyder’s divisive “Right to Work” law has failed to create jobs."
http://markschauer.com/on-the-issues/

The crony capitalists may own D.C. but we must fight to save our states!

[ghostrider]

the thing they all miss is , the working public having no extra money because of high prices and wage freezes cannot buy cars, yet they keep building them ... sad ... detroit used to be hopping ... My wife is from flint MI , now it's almost a ghost town ... you can buy a home there for dirt cheap ... people just don't realize how bad it is in michigan ... My heart goes out to detroit ...

[PHARAOH]

Posted by grannyfranny100 (here)
As the bankruptcy of Detroit gets challenged in court, the world watches. Its downfall could be mirrored in other U.S. cities near you. It is a battle between bankers and everyday folks who challenge the unconstitutional actions of Gov. Snyder as he spearheads efforts to bankrupt the city and privatize it. http://www.globalresearch.ca/forces-...-court/5351205

Governor Rick Snyder must be feeling reelection jitters a year early. He simultaneously opened a reelection website and major media buy against Mark Schauer who is challenging the uber-rich hold on MI.

If you google Mark Schauer, the results already feature a paid ad for Gov. Snyder. Obviously Gov. Snyder thinks he can buy another election....

"Rick Snyder’s economy has produced one of the nation’s worst unemployment rates, falling wages, increased poverty, and a shrinking middle class. Gov. Snyder has raised taxes on senior citizens’ retirement earnings and on low-income working parents. He has also made deep cuts to education, leading to widespread teacher layoffs and higher tuition costs, which amount to a hidden tax on middle-class families. Additionally, Gov. Snyder’s divisive “Right to Work” law has failed to create jobs."
http://markschauer.com/on-the-issues/

The crony capitalists may own D.C. but we must fight to save our states!

grannyfranny100, why do you feel the government owe's people handouts? How else could government pay for services without taking from those that have a job to pay taxes in the first place. "Right to work"??? Who believes government can even create jobs? What a mind job!!! Politicians now campaign on the idea they can create jobs???? How do Politicians create anything???

[grannyfranny100]

PHARAOH, thank you for the question. Please don't misread me. Believe me I get more pissed than most folks at government handouts and the entitlement attitude the policies support.

People and Crony Capitalism Welfare

I see too many frail old people continuing to work despite age related ailments when they would likely qualify for disability. They were raised with ethics and values to care for themselves. They would be embarrassed to accept government hand outs.

Steam comes out my ears as I see unfit welfare mothers popping off a second, third or fourth baby to increase their "income" and getting vehicles as government hand outs when many people in their 60-70's are driving old clunkers and worrying about repair costs.

I get mad at these same young women getting special assistance to go to college and they don't last a month. They drop out of college and end up with a free computer for their video games. Meanwhile I see oldsters hobbling to the library to use a computer. They can't afford one and government has closed nearby offices and expect reports to be filed by computer.

Case In Point That Breaks My Heart

I see a young brood mare dumping her herd to the grandma (in her early fifties) to babysit. This particular grandma has been warned by her doctor to get an easier job for the sake of her failing health. She continues to work in a hellishly hot factory 6-7 days a week and babysitting her grandchildren in her off time.

Why? Because the grandma is scared she won't have enough savings to retire and live out her retirement in a trailer. She had an employee funded 401K plan which the company voided by going bankrupt and dumping all the employees. Then they opened up again with some legal slight of hand and rehired the employees. Subsequently, the union reps side with management to save their own jobs. I call this crony capitalist welfare and find it just as revolting has people "entitlements."

The heart of gold grandmother and mother of this brood mare daughter is too dumb to get a GED even though she has tried three times. She has worked so long that the company uses her to train new hires and to speed up slow lines. But she can't even get a different job at a more humane factory because she lacks a GED.

She is a hard worker and didn't raise her daughter to be such a loser. The brood mare daughter even kept her eldest child out of school until seventh grade, to raise the younger siblings. She was caught and the oldest child had to play catch up in school while the brood mare didn't receive any punishment or have her kids taken away from her. This is just one example of many such stories of people entitlements gone bad.

Old versus Young Entitlements

Look I am not trying to pit the old against the young. I am concerned because the young sure seem to know all the end runs to manipulate the system for what they perceive as "entitlements." You know the type: steal some old person's RX percocet and sell it for $8 a pop or chop the percocets and snort them so they won't be so bored doing nothing. Or work off the books to avoid child support.

The current system was forecasted by a black Ph.D sociologist years ago in the 1970-80s. His premise was if you want to see what the middle class will become in the future, just look at the urban poor of the current generation. The illegitimate child births, the absent fathers, the drugs have all become middle class problems.

As a society we ignored the ghetto problems and now it has infested the very middle class who ignored the plight of the underclass. You know the ones: they dumped their hippie attire and marijuana and opened up brokerage accounts and snorted cocaine.

Defending Contracts not Entitlement Handouts

PHARAOH, I am defending Detroit city employees who had legitimate pension plans, lived modest lives and worked. If they have retired, Governor Snyder already has instituted state taxes on retirement pensions. Now he is trying to delete the city pension and union obligations through a questionable bankruptcy.

Meanwhile he is making sure the bankers get their money from predatory loans while these same bankers don't even pay property taxes on foreclosed properties. Those loans precipitated 100,000 foreclosures and the rush to the suburbs of a quarter of a million people who could afford to flee (the pensioners could not flee because their homes are now worth nothing). This deviousness devastated the income base of the city's budget faster than the city could adjust.

The Crony Capitalist Approach to a Detroit Bankruptcy

Governor Snyder with his emergency manager are not suing over the LIBOR rigged funds, slumlord blight and environmental fines that would help the city. In fact the governor's emergency manager approach didn't even pass a statewide referendum last year and I feel it is illegal. The guy is an appointee not an elected official and has power over the elected city officials. But these days these crony capitalists flaunt their unconstitutional and/or illegal actions. They are confident that we are too dumb downed to notice or care.

The question before the Federal Court is whether the city bankruptcy is even legal. Unfortunately the people standing up for the city in this legal battle are assorted organizations that lack the big buck attorneys to win against the big money people behind the governor.

NWO Government

Governor Snyder and his cohort Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker are political twins. Remember the nonsense in Wisconsin? People picketing as Walker tried to dismantle unions and collective bargaining. A judge ruled that some of the governor's restrictions are unconstitutional and another judge just ruled that the governor's "enforcers" are in contempt. Walker's approach sure mirrors Snyder's fleecing of MI.

I remember a wonderful symbolic show of support for Wisconsin's people by some Egyptians. They placed a long distance pizza order with a Wisconsin shop for the picketers as these same Egyptians were picketing in Cairo. That international show of solidarity was certainly a wonderful gesture of good will!!! Foreigners giving our people more support than we do!

The Koch Brothers and ALEC

People like Snyder and Walker are aligned with the Koch brothers. You know the ones who can afford to pay in 2000, $30 million in fines for its role in 300 oil spills. Such people just get their hand slapped and they don't go to prison.

And by the way are you still buying Angel Soft toilet paper, Quilted Northern toilet paper, Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper, Brawny paper towels, Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups, Mardi Gras napkins and towels, Sparkle napkins, Vanity Fair napkins, Zee napkins? The Koch brothers own Georgia Pacific, too. Vote with your grocery money and skip their products.

The Koch Brothers are now trying to control state governments as the cabals have already turned our Federal government into crony capitalism. The brothers have many institutes and nonprofit organizations such as ALEC.

Michigan's right to work law was promoted by ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council). It's a Koch financed organization that prepares legislative position papers. They push these on dimwitted state representatives to use as templates for state laws. This law is meant to deflate already low wages. Did you know that the equivalent minimum wage of the 1950's would be somewhere in the range of $10-15 today? So are you still patronizing your local garbage burger place or are you petitioning your state government to raise the minimum wage for the only jobs available these days?

ALEC uses "meetings" to wine and dine state legislators and gain control of state governments. The Koch Brothers and Amway owner and MI resident Dick DeVos are bargain shoppers with such political shenanigans. They don't shop at Goodwill for their bargains. Buying up Detroit at pennies on the dollar is more their style. And I bet they have their eyes on a city near you.

Who Has The Power To Kick Start Our Economy?

GHOSTRIDER, you are so right, "the thing they all miss is, the working public having no extra money because of high prices and wage freezes cannot buy cars, yet they keep building them."

And Obama started some old clunker replacement plan so people who couldn't afford a new car could be suckered into a shiny new car loan whether they could afford it or not. That way GM and Chrysler could repay their bail out money. Get it, good guy Obama tricked us. How are you making that car payment? Did you pay extra for a super sound system so you feel like a millionaire? Such buyers just got hoodwinked into deeper servitude.

When Times Were Good

Our country was doing it's best in the 1950's. Child labor and other terrible practices had been ended by healthy unions. A vibrant middle class developed who could buy cars and other consumer goods. Quite a cool trick to make more jobs for returning veterans by enticing women back home. Watch the early TV ads of glorified motherhood and wifedom.

Believe it or not, the uber rich were taxed at 91% during Eisenhower's presidency! That's right, the uber rich paid 91% of their income in taxes. Yet both the rich and the middle class were thriving and the poor could strive to become middle class. Most young people these days don't even have hope of future home ownership just forever college loans that must be paid even if one declares bankruptcy. Servitude, servitude, servitude.

Trickle down economics of the Reagan era ended high taxes on the super wealthy. Now even Warren Buffet admits he pays less taxes than his secretary and said he would support higher taxes on the rich. Did that happen? No? Did you hammer your representatives about it? Did the media even report it so you knew it?

True Job Creation

That has consistently been accomplished by small business people not by big business or the government. Garage tinkers, not IBM, were the start of the entire computer industry explosion. And the only jobs government seems to create are more government jobs like airport security people. Charming, no?

When the middle class is thriving, they create the jobs through small business start ups. Now the middle class is not thriving. Many are toppling into poverty and the Snyder/Walker types are doing their bargain shopping as more and more cities are crumbling.

Creating What We Want Requires Attention

It is our job to be alert and create the society we want. Of course it is easier to wear blinders and ignore all the changes that are going on. After all, gone are the days of the stay-at-home wife/mom. The GDP does not value mom/wife duties enough to add it to the GDP (Gross Domestic product). That tells you how little our society values the care of our next generation. Everyone's plate is too full of work tasks and stay at home wife/mom tasks to pay attention to today's social persuasion and manipulation.

Most folks choose to just "meditate" in front of the boob tube and stimulate their neurons with socially engineered garbage. Does anyone ever wonder why ball players make $30 million a year to entertain us while we intrust our precious kids to an eight dollar an hour childcare person? Just because this is the way it is, does not make it what we should support. Think outside the mental box you live in.

As a society do we value our limited veg out time more than kids? Have you seen Mark Dice asks people to sign a petition supporting infanticide as part of Obama Care? https://youtube.com/watch?v=XoHFWx5JWEk. Obviously these idiots aren't bright enough to become Avalon members but their vote in elections counts as much as yours. And they would vote to allow people to kill their own kids. Are these your values? I think not.

Frankly, I have some friends that I want to stick a cherry bomb up their you know what. They are so happily retired from their 9-5 prisons that all they want to do is galavant around with their new freedom. They sure aren't rich but they sure are frivolous.

If your own spiritual development concerns you as it does most people on this forum, what is normal these days is not healthy. Just wait for what life will be like for your kids. And hope you get dementia when you are old so you won't know what is and is not being done to you.

Don't let these psychopathic political types, these uber rich, push us into martial law when we can still exercise our political rights. By yelling at Congress, we have managed to end or stall WWIII and even Monsanto and their soft kill products have suffered a set back.

If all you want for you and your children and their children is more cable channels per dollar, more and more blood thirsty movies and Milly Cyrus tramp role models for your kids, that is what we are getting.

Spiritually we need to aim higher. Take on an activity that represents who you are and what you want. Don't let people like the Snyders and Walkers in your community thrive on their unprincipled "it's all about the quarterly bottom line" philosophy. The Native American Indians think seven generations ahead and our "chieftains" only have the brain power to think quarterly.

End of rant. And I thank you if you had the concentration to read such a long post in the era of sound bytes. Good luck to us all.

[turiya]

Cross-posted from another thread...

Detroit: The Latest Bankruptcy Lie

In case you haven’t heard, municipal bankruptcy is now all the rage. When smaller municipal corporations (only corporations can declare bankruptcy) had little resistance as test cases for these outrageous claims of fraudulent bankruptcy and default, the larger municipalities gained the confidence that the financially illiterate cesspool of people as citizens don’t know there heads from a hole in the wall when it comes to the financial reporting apparatus of government. The people were determined to be sufficiently ignorant of even the basic checking account balance of the general fund in their local governments and school districts, let alone the massive collective government investment scam robbing them of the entirety of their wealth, making it reasonable to assume that these municipal corporation’s financial position would likely never be challenged by that clueless mass of the indentured. And so the latest trend of conspiracy and fraud against those debt-slaves continues… this time in the not so great City of Detroit.

Considering its checkered past; riddled with the disappearance of industry to U.S. funded infrastructure economies like Mexico and China, it would seem to the average citizen that Detroit should have done this bankruptcy thing long ago. Of course, the fact that it did not declare its bankruptcy at all was because this municipal corporation has never been bankrupt, and certainly is not anywhere near being able to claim that legitimate legal declaration today.

And yet here it is, making that very declaration…

This is very important because the legal statement of bankruptcy means nothing as a mere “declaration” until a government court makes that determination to cause it to be official. Thus, the obvious conspiracy of a government appealing to government to get government permission to default on its debt should not be lost on the reader; though in general this governance of government by government itself seems perfectly normal to most people – a regulatory body operating in a completely unregulated fashion as organized crime. Inherently, of course, this self-governance and self-regulation by government and its BAR judicial is nothing if not a breeding ground for the worst kind of corruption and greed at the expense of the governed. For the people in their state of fear, entertainment, and confusion are certainly not regulating those regulators…

And a corporate judge of the International BAR Association will decide, not the people being defaulted upon.

— = —

ALIPAC printed the following “facts” facts about Detroit that on the surface are absolutely mind-blowing…

1 – Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, and in 1960 Detroit had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.
2 – Over the past 60 years, the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.
3 – At this point, approximately 40 percent of all the streetlights in the city don’t work.
4 – Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.
5 – 210 of the 317 public parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down.
6 – According to the New York Times, there are now approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit.
7 – Approximately one-third of Detroit’s 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.
8 – Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.
9 – If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
10 – According to one very shocking report, 47 percent of the residents of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
11 – Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit.
12 – Ten years ago, there were approximately 5,000 police officers in the city of Detroit. Today, there are only about 2,500 and another 100 are scheduled to be eliminated from the force soon.
13 – Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.
14 – The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.
15 – Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to “enter Detroit at your own risk“.
16 – Right now, the city of Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident… As Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr noted last week, it took a very long time for Detroit to get into this condition…

— = —

Of course, this article like all others doesn’t mention the legal crime operating behind these horrific scenes and reported in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) – what I have nicknamed the “Achilles Heel” of government. While these facts and figures are certainly important as to the physical state of Detroit, the absence of public information on the actual financial state of that fictional municipal corporation government called “City of Detroit” is never discussed due to the overwhelming lack of exposure and coverage by every news outlet in America about the financial statements required by Federal law for every government entity and corporation in the United States. The greatest open secret in fascist history remains open and secret. In short, these municipalities across the nation in every State have exacted, extorted, and excavated all of the wealth of the people for its organized and collective investment schemes that, not ironically, are only disclosed in the CAFR of government. And collectively the over 230,000 local and state government entities across the nation have been legally required to funnel taxpayer money into investment funds that ultimately never benefit these local or state governments or their people. Instead, they invest in “emerging markets” in countries like Mexico and China – which soon will become the largest economy in the world thanks to the ignorance of the very citizens of the United States that have no idea this has been happening for over 70 years.

One would in general look at the above factoids about Detroit and justifiably assume that the decaying state of that City is a direct reflection of the similar financial state of the government corporation that controls that area. This, however, is patently false – a fallacy built up through media and political misrepresentation.

The true culprit of that misrepresentation is in the form of the hand selected “budget report” that is delivered to the people publicly each year. The people are never told that this “budget” is actually not the original and main financial statement that is created by governments and audited by independent accounting firms. You see, the budget report is nothing but an intentionally dumbed-down version of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), which is filed each year as a requirement of the Federal and State legal codes.

What does this mean?

It means that the budget is merely a reflection of what I call the “creative accounting” that is applied to the audited CAFR report so as to make the budget report appear to be in a state of decay, debt, default, and loss. While the CAFR may show assets of millions or billions in cash and investments, the budget report will be creatively manipulated by this special creative accounting process to create an illusionist “balance sheet” that somehow, incredibly, and magically turns an asset into a liability.

Detroit is of course no exception to this rule. For the decaying state of this city has very little to do with the financial state of this municipal corporation. But the fallacy remains that as the city decays so too does the financial state of its government.

Here is a link to the City of Detroit’s 2012 CAFR:

**Note that this website takes you to the Detroit government (.gov) website.

While I will not go into the full detail of how this corrupt Municipal Corporation of organized crime has gotten to this point, I will just point out the most important factor in determining whether or not this corporation is actually bankrupt – a factor that I guarantee will be ignored by the government court and bankruptcy judge in this case if the people do not finally rise up and demand that Detroit pay its debt today instead of defaulting on it. That factoid is the promotion of its future debt payments as a current liability effecting today’s balance sheet.

The fact is that 99% of the entire structure of municipalities across the nation could be out of debt tomorrow and still have money and investments to spare (be in the black) if it weren’t for the fact that governments enjoy, promote, and profit from the interest (usury) created by debt. In other words, instead of using the money it holds today for services in its investment funds, a government will create a municipal bond and pay that loan off over 20-50 years at interest. Sometimes it is other governments across the nation that are funding those bonds, sometimes banks, and sometimes Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are created in agreement for the loan by private or publicly traded corporations. Ironically, that money that government could have used in lieu of that loan to pay for that service is often invested in such things as corporate bonds – loans to governments, banks, and private and publicly traded corporations. And these bonds are bundled and sold as securities on the bond markets as commodities – debt contracts worth a future value. And the investment scam continues while televisions pump digital airwaves of Stars dancing and Idols singing.

On page 41 of this CAFR we see the illusion blatantly spelled out for us in the basic “Statement of Net Assets”. Of course, this is not the full disclosure of investment fund totals for the City because of other creative accounting within the CAFR designed to minimize those balances shown on this chart, but it shows the scam very well in its full corrupt glory.


The City claims to have over $10.6 billion in liabilities, which it then “balances” against about $10.3 billion in assets. This leaves a “balance” of assets that gets shown to the people of a negative $3oo million dollars.

Just one problem though…

You see, most people would simply consider this balance as the cash balance of the government, having no clue about the investment scam their government has participated in for decades that funnels taxpayer monies out of the taxpayer base and into governments investment funds.

This CAFR is for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, ending June 30,2012.

But it reports for the fiscal year 2012-2013, which will have ended in the month of June this year (2013), the actual current liabilities (due within one year as of June 2012) – which represent debt payments for that fiscal year that would be paid in that 2013 fiscal year ending June 2013. And that “current” debt for the fiscal year only amounts to about $309 million TOTAL.

This means that the other $9.1 billion dollars listed here as “due after one year” is all future debt payments that will basically amount to somewhere around a $300-500 million dollar amortization schedule for the next fiscal year and so on. In other words, for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, Detroit’s actual “current liabilities” are only $300-500 million dollars. The rest of that $9.1 billion still is not due until future payments are made in 5, 10, 20, and up to 50 years in the future!!!

If this is not clear, this means that the over $9 billion in future debt payments to be made has absolutely nothing to do with the financial state of the government today, or even within one year of today.

And yet those payments and future debts are somehow effecting the current balance of today (June 2012)?

Can you say creative accounting?

Can you say FRAUD?

Can you imagine if you told the IRS that you have earned no money this year because you have future debts to pay in 10 years?

You’d go to jail… but this is legal for government!

The trick here is that, as with all municipalities across the nation, by law these governments are able to and encouraged to not include future assets in the form of fees and taxes that will be collected in those future years that will certainly pay for those future debt payments. So here we see that government is claiming a future liability as a current liability, and yet conveniently disregarding the projected future assets it will receive in the future as current assets to balance the future liabilities.

This “creative accounting” trick is used by all governments – BECAUSE IT IS THE RECOMMENDED STANDARD OF PRACTICE BY GOVERNMENT TO FUND THE COLLECTIVE ORGANIZED INVESTMENT SCAM ACROSS THE UNITED STATES!!!

So what is the true financial position of the government of Detroit?

It can pay off, if it chooses to, all of its future debt today with its current assets.

Of course, this would mean that the interest charges on that future debt and bonds would not be accrued in the future and therefore would not be paid out, bringing the actual total liabilities due today (without future interest charges attached) significantly down it total, since by paying off that future debt today no interest would be charged for anywhere from the next 10-50 years.

For an in depth explanation of this creative accounting trick and how you can identify it on your own municipal CAFR, see my research here: http://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2...very-city-usa/

And check this out to see where your tax dollars really go: http://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2...-by-taxpayers/

And so here we stand, another high profile municipality pretending to bite the dust while hiding its real wealth under false accounting principles that are allowed at the very top level of the federal government. Detroit City will act upon the purpose of its incorporation by utilizing the “limited liability” function of that privilege – a privilege once only granted to honorable men who sought to improve and strengthen all men, not just themselves. And this protection of government called incorporation now protects crime instead of the people who are harmed by that crime. For all of government is naught but a limited liability corporation collectively organized in harming the people.

— = —

At this point it has been reported that the Detroit government is tearing down up to 350 abandoned homes and buildings per day in that city. Its plan is to create a “model” Agenda 21 city; a green city; one that is built towards the sky with compartmentalized condo housing instead of sprawling out from its center where land may be enjoyed by single family dwellings. This re-imagining of city life will become a beacon of the future of “smart growth” and the “smart grid”, matching lifestyle and technology to create the perfect Orwellian fit for those who love to love their biometric servitude and love to be on camera. It will be a model city built on retracting individual rights in lieu of the collective good of the citizenry as is laid out in the U.N.’s Declaration of Human Rights that has all but usurped the constitution of the United States – this is the future of Detroit Rock City and likely a city near you…

The economic fallacy that growth equals a good economy ultimately and ironically requires the destruction and pestilence we see in Detroit. And so, in order to grow the new city, the old one must be destroyed to make way for the ever-growing economy. It is in the best interests of the government corporation and its investment scheme for this to happen. And even more frightening to contemplate is that bridges, roads, tunnels, buildings, sewers, water, electrical, and other infrastructure is more profitable in decay for that investment scam than it is as a well-maintained infrastructure. Destruction and decay requires investment and promotes growth. This is the model of government and its “economy”.

Detroit is not bankrupt. It has created the illusion of bankruptcy by such common financial trickery as pension pre-funding – where future debt payments must be paid in advance so that government can invest that taxpayer money instead of using it to fix up the broken City. Congress used this same trick to make it appear that the Federal Post Office is broke, while in really it just created legislation that forced the post office to borrow money from government and corporate sources to pre-fund the Federal Pension funds instead of paying the normal contributions over time. In other words, government is forcing itself to pay future liabilities today – which just happens to have the good-for-government and bad-for-the-people side effect of creating the unnecessary illusion that bankruptcy is needed. And so government is now the largest defaulting entity in history. And the people blindly support what they don’t understand, allowing that fraudulent government machine to place the responsibility for its actions upon the backs of those people in the form of sheer usurious debt, while laughing all the way to the bank.

Imagine such greed and opportunity that would make men in the public trust force the bankruptcy of a city just because they don’t want to wait to receive their pension payments by taxpayers in the future. While this would seem counter-intuitive (destroying a city to support city employee pensions), the truth is that this is just business as usual. For government is not in the business of helping people. It is a financial mega-corporation with branches in every square mile of the United States – with investments in the entire world economy.

How many times do I have to say it…?

Government is nothing but the organization of crime. For a government that creates, adjudicates, enforces, and exempts itself from its own laws is thus lawless – a mafia above its own prescribed laws. When the law is lawless, there is no law.


–Clint Richardson (realitybloger.wordpress.com)
–Saturday, July 20th, 2013

turiya

[grannyfranny100]

turiya, thank you so very, very much for adding such insightful info on the sleight of hand accounting magic of government. OMG, Detroit will be the first Agenda 21 city! I knew Agenda 21 was on the future agenda but I never dreamed it is happening now and just as Trans Pacific Trade Agreement is about to roll out, too. Maybe I need to buy a TV so I can avoid being aware of what is coming! This is gruesome to put it mildly.

[kcbc2010]

1) Mark Schauer is as much of a tool as Rick Snyder. Don't get caught up in the idea that one side is automatically (or somehow magically) better than the other just because they have a different party label or they aren't uber-rich. He's been in Dem politics for years. He knows how to play the game and is a part of the Dem political machine. Don't fool yourself into thinking he's going to be some sort of savior. He's not.

Also, Rick Snyder isn't a clone of Scott Walker. He'd have less problems with conservatives if he was. That's just Dem talking points. Jon Stryker, the Ilitich's and other Dem families can easily go toe to toe w/the DeVos's. Don't sit there and pretend that Dems are just poor people and don't have millionaire/billionaire financiers, including people from Wall Street to Silicon Valley and K street. Neither NYC or SF is known for voting conservative.

I politely ask that people take a few steps away from the Kool-aid and realize that neither party has the average person's best interests at heart and are flush with corporate and cash.

2) None of us like that Detroit has gone bankrupt, but seriously, what was the alternative?

People want to act like Detroit is a victim in all this, but Detroit's leadership failed the city for years. I'm sick of people pretending that there aren't serious issues that need to be addressed in the city and that somehow, magically, they were going to get bailed out by someone outside the city. It's judgment day. The bills are due and they aren't able to be paid.

People wanted to act like it was going to be the 1950's and 1960's forever. Newsflash - life moved on, regardless of peoples illusions/delusions.

Realizing that there's a battle between the PTB and the people is just the first step.

You are only feeding the PTB if you think Mark Schauer is worth supporting as a candidate and you are still interested in fighting political battles as the parties would like you to.

Until you are willing to root out the elitism in the Dem party, please don't act like somehow things are going to change within your party or our political system. It's not.

People are pissed that the Republicans are tearing each other apart these days, but you know what, we are calling out our elites and telling them that we aren't interested in playing their game and trying to play a different game. A lot of us don't really care who we piss off anymore. It's very liberating, but also very messy.

3) As a Michigander and Metro Detroiter, I have a vested interest in what goes on in my state/Detroit, but rumors of a "battle royale" have been greatly exaggerated.

[grannyfranny100]

kcbc2010, another great viewpoint and person who cares. Thank you.

[araucaria]

I have a little experience of corporate income statements - nothing very much, but enough to see straightaway what was wrong with these 'net assets' without the explanations. This makes me wonder how they expect to get these figures past anyone who is not themselves corrupt and/or totally incompetent, or is that not a problem?

[camper]

As a Michigander myself, I don't understand how the State has taken control of Detroit' when the citizens of Detroit voted it down last year. Of course, I don't know how with all the unions here that we became a right to work State ether???

[grannyfranny100]

Camper- howdy neighbor. Someone pointed out the Snyder comes out of a business background and not out of public service. In business, he is use to doing what he feels is right for his business. Mark Schauer comes out of a public service background. He understands that he must build consensus for the benefit of all our citizens and not just his wealthy buddies. http://markschauer.com/

[Lifebringer]

I see 40 years of stagnant and unfair wages for the workers working longer hours for less pay, then in competition with illegal immigrants in construction where poor whites and skilled African Americans and other legal minorities waited for tolerance in the work place to be hired, only to have the tax cuts for hiring illegal labor cut them off at the knees. I've worked with both. I see NAFTA that competes with free for profit prison labor, taking the money saved and keeping it while having no rehabilitation programs that can skill these men to have a chance. The 3 strikes felony law, that keeps people from taking care of their children with a job. I see a bunch of selfish people, blinded by party bumper slogans, that don't stand a chance in HEAVEN.

The moral of that story is; "Nobody grows up and wants to be poor and disrespected in a welfare office for food stamps if they work. I myself am eligible, but I'd prefer to see who really goes down there. And it's mostly NOT AA.
WE do have pride, and if there wasn't discrimination in hiring, high college fees, or jobs in our communities that hire us, there wouldn't be a need to still pick on the poor.

Think the world doesn't see this?

You really are blind.

PS I see a President that I've voted for that is hogtied to change anything, including these stupid pot, or 3 strikes in a lifetime laws? Do you see him asking for fairness only to be slapped in the face again. So, another 8 years on top of the 45 years of unfairness and NOBODY but God to change it. Glad he loves me.

[Lifebringer]

Gerrymandering, raising the bar, changing the rules, CHEATING may ring a bell.
Vote for a cheat and get cheated. Hell a snake has always been a snake, some people just like testing the bite, but America is full of those bites when they hire the snakes.

Soooooo....stop hiring corporate snakes/wolves/inhuman monsters, EVERY Election that reflects the ego/selfish side of the party's elite.

[Lifebringer]

How do you think they will get the Canadian Oil Sands down to the gulf, if they don't take one of the northmidwestern states connecting the countries for trade. Start at the top, then work your way down with the "racially biased drill baby drill" property owners and Coal on the land people that aren't geologist. Cuccinelli in VA cut a deal with oil companies for gas, and he's keeping a percentage of the product retrieved on the market, and the people who owned the land, got nothing. He hoodwinked them, just like Bob McDonald/aka Governor Rolex Porche rider, are thick as thieves w/OIL/Coal and Gas. WE are lucky that McCauliffe recognized the wind potential on the east coast states that can generate energy that's cleaner. Our James River could use some cleaning with all the sewage going in.
Can't eat the fish, why fish?

Mercury in the vaccines, fish, and antibiotics on unlabled foods from other unregulated countries.

What a world.
Rolling craps with what they want in our bodies these days. Agenda 21 depopulation is on.

God help US.

[grannyfranny100]

Lifebringer, I can not totally understand everything you have known and experienced first hand. I do remember some years ago, one journalist doing a story where he became a food stamp recipient and reported about that experience on TV news in episodes as he tried to make it through the month. He was shocked and shocked his audience. Perhaps our elected officials need to experience first hand such trials and tribulations as part of being a representative- a sort of shock sensitivity training. Make them apply for unskilled construction work as an ex convict!

Unfortunately our country's best years were after WWII but blacks didn't gain the benefits of whites during the economic expansion even though they served our country admirably. And now it is going to get worse if Obama is successful at signing the Trans Pacific Partnership which will give control to multinational corporations over current national governments. Frankly, I think he has been a sell out puppeteer for the oligarchs who run things behind the scenes. I am not sure how much he truly wants to help the disadvantaged. He started that program for old clunker cars but all that did for the poor was get them car loans they couldn't afford while the car companies had more profits to repay their bail outs.

As a black Phd. social scientist pointed out in the 1970-80s, if you want to see what will happen to the next generation of middle class kids, observe the current ghetto generation. He has been right over the years.

One guy in Baltimore who got out of the ghetto has started an amazing program to mentor and guide dead beat dads and x cons and reunite them with some of their children. The kids are thriving and the dads are growing in their own self esteem, too. Until he came along all the helping programs have been oriented to the women and children. Now they have Baltimore Responsible Fatherhood Project (BRFP). You might want to check it out and if you are a MI resident suggest it to http://markschauer.com/ for inclusion in his ideas if he is elected to be our next governor.

If anyone should be sensitive to the underclass conditions, black pro athlete should be. Instead they seem to get into a power trip with their outrageous salaries. A few, a very few, have used their money to afford more opportunities to the underclass. Sorry I don't follow sports so I can't name names but most of them are retired from pro sports and set up foundations to help.

I think a woman in CA set up a program for kids to see their dads in prison with hopes that such bonding might help the guys when they get out. Ideas are out there if only we could get the past corporate minded politicians.

I think there are lots of caring people in low paying social work positions but they can only do so much with existing program constraints. The most the rest of us can do, is try to find candidates for office who are open to new ideas.

[grannyfranny100]

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer renewed his call for full transparency from Gov. Rick Snyder’s secretive NERD Fund, http://www.secretivesnyder.com/

Last month, Governor Snyder’s office disclosed that the NERD Fund is spending $4,200 a month paying for Orr’s lodging at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in downtown Detroit and flights back home to Maryland on weekends. The reimbursements are made in addition to Orr’s $275,000-a-year state salary to oversee Detroit's bankruptcy proceedings. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...ates-NERD-fund.

Why should you care? Donor names to 501(c)(4)s are not required by the IRS yet these donors may have a vested interest in the outcome of Detroit's bankruptcy proceedings. The governor is either being disingenuous to claim he doesn't know who donated to that fund or stupid and will take any free money no matter the source. Either approach isn't what I want in a Governor.

Here is a perspective on 501(c)(4)s: "In the wake of Citizens United, and with the realization that 501(c)(4)s could be used like bagmen for anonymous political bucks, applications for social welfare status at the IRS almost doubled in the years 2010 to 2012 – from 1,735 to 3,357. By the time November 2012 rolled around, those so-called social welfare organizations had poured more than $300 million into the election. According to the investigative journalism group Pro Publica, 84 percent of that money came from conservative groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity." http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/30/the...l-that-wasn’t/

Sounds like the kind of gamesmanship of D. C. politicians and we don't need that in Michigan.