Wait wut? You thought Jan Brewer was smart? lol
This is just a continuing wave of things that so many extremist republicans are trying to do across this country. I had linked these in another thread but it is relevant to this post as to the censorship and anti-democratic policies that are happening.
Benton Harbor Take Over The Secret War on Democracy
Last night on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show, Maddow explained that Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder is pushing a bill through that will give ultimate governmental power literally to corporations, thereby using shock doctrine tactics to create a dystopian government.
Synder’s bill not only goes after collective bargaining rights, but does in fact seem to represent the Republicans’ final solution to killing democracy by enabling the replacement of elected officials, dissolving entire city’s government and handing them over to corporations. Snyder calls his “budget bill” a “shared sacrifice,” but it gifts corporations with 1.8 billion in tax breaks while hitting citizens with harder taxes, including seniors and other vulnerables, and cutting essential services to an already suffering region.
If you think Republican governors across the country are using fiscal crisis as a pretext to do stuff they otherwise want to do, this is something I don’t think I would have ever believed Republicans even wanted to do, but this is what they are proposing. This hasn’t gotten much national attention, but please check this out.” She described the threat to democracy in Michigan, “Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget in Michigan is expected to cut aid to cities and towns so much that a lot of cities and towns in Michigan are expected to be in dire financial straits. Right now, Gov. Snyder is pushing a bill that would give himself, Gov. Snyder and his administration, the power to declare any town or school district to be in a financial emergency. If a town was declared by the governor and his administration to be in a financial emergency they would get to put somebody in charge of that town, and they want to give that emergency manager that they just put in charge of the town the power to, “reject, modify, or terminate any contracts that the town may have entered in to, including any collective bargaining agreements.”
The bill also has the power to suspend or dismiss elected officials, “This emergency person also gets the power under the bill to suspend or dismiss elected officials. Think about that for a second. Doesn’t matter who you voted for in Michigan. Doesn’t matter who you elected. Your elected local government can be dismissed at will. The emergency person sent in by the Rick Snyder administration could recommend that a school district be absorbed into another school district. That emergency person is also granted power specifically to disincorporate or dissolve entire city governments.”
In the case of Benton Harbor they then proceeded to take over the public radio forcibly and then shut it down and tried to sell it on Ebay which got them into big trouble. The idea here was to silence the radio for airing complaints and dissent about what was happening to their town.
Quotes from posters: "it removes democracy and the separation of powers, just for starters. Of course, the “constitutional conservatives” don’t appear very concerned about the rule of law these days."
I’ve never “replied” before this, so please forgive if I do this wrong. Three points:
1. I would think that this power grab goes against taxation without representation.
2. In essence this is martial law, so I would think whomever takes over a town would have to do so backed up by mercenaries such as Eric Prince’s lovelies. Are you aware of how many guns and rifles people own out here in the Michigan hinterlands? Will the Second Amendment, held to dearly by the ruggedly independent folks of Michigan, be summarily suspended by this bill too?
3. I worry that most of the resources and infrastructure–water, power, roadways,etc. would be co-opted by the corp.
I live on the Muskegon River, I have a deep well, will the corp. be able to suspend my water rights and cap my well, or drill for natural gas on my land, or seize my crops, or take my cattle?
Is There Something In The Water In Arizona??
