The Rape of Detroit by Republicans of The State of Michigan

By Charles D. Brown

Here is a summary in rough timeline of the rough raping and pillaging of the People
and City workers of Detroit by Wall Street, Snake Snyder and the
Republicans of the State of Michigan who themselves were much more
fiscally irresponsible than Detroit's elected officials:

Circa 2008 and 2009,

-The Wall Street banks are bailed out of insolvency by the People of the
United States , including the federal tax payers of Detroit for
trillions of dollars ( a trillion is a thousand billion; a billion is
a thousand million). The Wall Streeters claim that the whole financial
system is at risk , so even banks that are not insolvent are at risk
and effectively bailed out of failure.

Later some of these banks will
force the bankruptcy of the City of Detroit and demand that they be
paid instead of city workers, pensions and services.
General Motors and Chrysler are bailed out of bankruptcy for tens of
billions of dollars by the People of the US ,including Detroit
taxpayers.

-The State of Michigan is in serious fiscal crisis and irresponsibility
due to what the media terms a "one state recession " in Michigan, GM
and Chrysler failures ,etc.

- President Obama and the US taxpayers , including Detroiters, bail
out The State of Michigan with $7.8 billion (7.8 thousand million dollars)of
Obama Stimulus. Meanwhile , ( and I do mean "mean")
Republicans, including Michigan Republicans, are slandering
Obama to beat the band for the much needed national Stimulus.
Yet, be clear, at the same time,Michigan
Republicans are hypocritically begging Obama for Stimulus money.

-2010 : tea Republicans sweep Michigan state government offices in part
by lying and slandering Obama for the Stimulus and Obamacare; Michigan
voters are fooled big time and sweep in Republicans, including lying
Snyder ,who runs not as a tea Republican; but then proceeds to carryout
the tea party pirates' assault on working people including raping Detroit and
passing a work-for -less law against unions.

-2011; tea Republicans and Snyder juice up the Emergency Manager/ Wall
Street Dictator law preparing to take over Detroit. The essence of
the law is to insure payments of municipal bond debts to Wall Street
bond creditors the top priority of the City's spending over anything
else. It provides for the usurpation of the People's ,voted Charter law and
elected officials' powers by an unelected dictator. It is literally
taxation without representation. It violates the Michigan
Constitution's provision against the legislature imposing local
legislation on a City without a vote of the People of the city.
Snake Snyder takes first steps in finding Detroit fiscally
irresponsible. Refuses Councilmember JoAnn Watson's direct request to
Snyder personally in a meeting with Snyder in his office to pay $220
million owed Detroit from a deal made by former Governor Snake Engler
and Mayor Archer. Snyder's staff explicitly tells him in front of
Watson that the State does owe Detroit the money.

-2012: State escalates fraudulent accusations that Detroit is fiscally
irresponsible and other such terms. The immediate budget deficit is
only $ 200 million or so and would be balanced if the State would pay
the $220 million it owes Detroit , not to mention share some of the
$7.8 billion Obama Stimulus that the State itself was bailed out of its own fiscal
irresponsibility with.

Meanwhile , the yellow journalistic Detroit News and Free Press
( not to mention electronic media) start
running headlines and editorials concerning Detroit's _long_ term
debt, that is mostly owed in five, ten , 20 years, and do not
constitute an immediate fiscal crisis , but nonetheless is lyingly
portrayed as such by those rags and on television.

Negro Mayor Bing is in on the whole conspiracy with Snake Snyder,
MC'ing Snyder's inaugural; volunteering to be the Emergency Manager (
Snyder is laughing at the Negro behind his back on that); hiring the
law firm , Miller Canfield, that had drafted the new draconian
Dictator law for the State to "represent" Detroit's interests ( ha ha)
in negotiating with Snyder on the takeover under the law with a
"Consent" Agreement . while excluding Corporation Counsel Krystal
Crittendon from the negotiations.

The City Council "consents" to
"Consent" Agreement in a 5 to 4 vote, with the threat of imposition of
an Emergency Dictator, who can rape it of all its powers, like a gun
to its head when it "consents". Under the coerced deal, fake boards,paid large
salaries, are imposed over the City Council . Consultants ,
incompetent to evaluate city jobs, are hired at outrageous salaries to
advise the fake state boards to cut City workers jobs and wages , with
that money then paid to the incompetent consultants. Most are white ,
replacing mostly Black people. For example , one city worker was
raped of $70,000 of sick pay from foregone use of sick days over 25
years which she would have collected upon retirement. That's just one
worker.

Negro mayor Bing generally runs the whole city's business and
departments incompetently , such as restoring cuts to the budget that
City Council had made in trying to balance the budget; not providing
bus service;or fixing pubic lighting; spinning the health department
and its money off to a private corporation without City Council
approval; publically going shopping on the east coast with Karen
Dumas, press secretary and chief of staff, etc. ;so that Snyder will
have an excuse to takeover the City as people are rightly protesting
poor services.

On Mildred Gaddis' WCHB radio talk show, State Treasurer Andy Dillon admits that the
State of Michigan owes Detroit the $220 million plus that would take
it out of deficit for that year and prevent the State from taking over
for at least another year. But the State doesn't pay the money. In
fact, at one point the State prevents the City from getting the money
from another loan of tens of millions that would further delay the
basis for it taking over immediately. (
http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/4yourmoney/A-major-twist-in-a-lot-of-Detroit-wrong-turns/7633150)

The State runs a $1 billion
"surplus" itself, which it would not have without the Obama $7.8
billion bailout ,but the State shares none of that with Detroit.
Detroit Corporation Counsel, Krystal Crittendon , asserts that the
City of Detroit may not enter into the Consent Agreement with the
State because of a state law and the City Charter because the State
owes Detroit $220 million. Negro Mayor Bing sends Miller Canfield to
oppose his Corporation Counsel's lawsuit against the "Consent"
Agreement.

The People of Michigan repeal the Emergency Dictator Law in a
statewide ( not just Detroit) referendum ! State law had required the
Dictator law to be suspended and therefore it should not have
continued in being used to rape Detroit during the election process.
But Snyder illegally ignored this and continued the rape of Detroit.
Then after the law was repealed by the People, Snyder , the Republican
legislature and lying Republican State Court of Appeals enacted in
violation of the will of their Bosses in a DEMOCRACY, the People, a
law with the essential same provision of for imposition of an
unelected Dictator, lying that the new law was different than the old
law in that essential provision.

2013 State continues the fraudulent takeover of Detroit forcing the
City Council to recant on several small acts of resistance: refusing
to hire Miller Canfield to represent the City's interests against the
takeover ( ha ha ha), refusing to fire Corporation Counsel Krystal
Crittendon, refusing to giveaway Belle Isle in a deal completely
onesided to the State's interests. The City Council reverses itself
on all these issues. It delays for a couple of weeks finishing the
giveaway of Belle Isle and Snake Snyder in fake indignation uses that
as an excuse to rape the City further by imposing a Wall Street
Dictator. The person Snake Snyder imposes as dictator is literally a
Wall Street lawyer .

The dictator fires city workers further , makes more cuts to wages,
drastically cuts retirees' healthcare benefits. He takes the City
into bankruptcy without a vote of the City Council; and forces the
City to hire his law firm for tens of millions of dollars to represent
the City.
The claims in part are that the City $18 billion in debt. Of course
most of that is not due to be paid for 5, 10, 15 years. $6 billion of
it is owed by the Water Department, which has secure payments from its
customers with no danger of it not being paid.

Snake Snyder and the Wall Street dictator take the retirees' pensions
into bankruptcy , admitting under oath, that they had the power not to
take them in to be threatened with being cut. Thereby he has put in
jeopardy billions of dollars in payments in wages, benefits and
pensions to city workers and retirees, to be stolen and given to
fabulously rich Wall Street bankers , including in bonuses and golden
parachutes even when they had run the banks into the most spectacular
bankruptcy in the history of the world ( no exaggeration) from which
they were bailed out by the American taxpayers including Detroit city
workers and pensioners.

One critical focused point: Snake Snyder the Thief and Wall Street
shill could have bailed Detroit out of its deficit with money the
State rightfully owed Detroit, and some of the $ 7.8 billion the State
itself was bailed out of it's own bankruptcy by Obama and the American
taxpayers, including Detroiters, AND MONEY DETROITERS PAY DIRECTLY TO
THE STATE IN TAXES. WHAT DO DETROITERS GET FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
FOR ALL THE TAXES WE PAY THEM ALL THESE YEARS. NOT A DAMN THING

• Randa Morris:  It has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility. It's 100 percent political and the 1 percent getting richer from it, that's only the butter on the bread. This will happen in all areas that vote dem in Michigan. EM will happen in all areas of MI that traditionally vote dem. Elected officials will be replaced with right wing puppets who will then pave the way for the robbery of the people.

  
  
 

• 
   http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/wall-streets-war-against-the-cities-why-bondholders-cant-and-shouldnt-be-paid.html
  
  http://www.workers.org/2011/us/banks_destroyed_detroit_0407/
  
   http://peoplesworld.org/state-takeovers-of-cities-and-schools-are-un-american/
  
  

  
  

  

   Woodward Avenue, North of the Fisher Fwy, after a Tiger game... when I say plenty, I mean plenty of drinkin goes on in public, and no one gets ticketed or hassled by police, City or State... But on Belle Isle, where the State of Michigan has seized control as part of a sweetheart deal between Snake Snyder and his appointed Dictator over Detroit,  is another story.... another example of the Tale of Two Cities.
  
  
                                                            
  

  

  
  
   https://www.facebook.com/wxyzdetroit/photos/a.461583946134.248530.80221381134/10152062792691135/?type=1&theater
  
  
   Jewett McCrae Conspiracy indeed! Dave Bing and many others were right in step from the jump, never even trying to manage the City or its departments, he was only a figure head to speak from the script and follow the plan, The City of Detroit helped his Republican butt many times over the years, from purchasing supplies from Bing Steel to Loans from City Employees Penion, his first full term he tried to turn the Penion system over to the state, I do believe the bill in Lansing was sponsored by Mr Cushionberry himself! It was a topic on Mildred show once. They played the people on every front, knowing who would fall for what, and when, so when they their preferred people were in place. And our major news media outlets were never gonna be a problem. And too many people watch & listen to these half or any truth, distortion of facts news outlets Religiously!
  
  
   Victory on Defeat
  
  by Shields Green
  
  APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
  Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
  Memory and desire, stirring
  Dull roots with spring rain
  Detroit has been crucified, but
  Detroit will have resurrection.
  
  The Black Sun always rises.
  White demons are possessing the Souls of Black Folk.
  The question of the colorline is the question of the 21st Century
  as it was of the 20th.
  Workers are disunited on the colorline.
  
  The Barbarian hordes have breached the City 's gates.
  They will rape Black women again on Jefferson Avenue like Jefferson did.
  The bourgeois prince's savages will pillage and rape our Black
  Beautiful Detroit.
  May Day will come again
  Detroit survives despite economic sanctions, blockades ,
  disinvestments
  What would Coleman Young do ?
  Smiles ! Put Victory on Defeat !
  
  ^^^^^^^^^^^
  
  May 25 , 2014 followup articles and events
  
   
  "Changes" ? Like what ? Big businesses invest in Flint ? State gives Flint more of its state tax money back ?
  
  
  

  Editorial: Without changes, the state is setting up more cities to fail

   http://www.freep.com/comments/article/20140525/OPINION01/305250057/michigan-emergency-manager
  Blast from the past:
  Labor Power Blogger: My purpose is to demonstrate, if it is true, that the State of
  Michigan is more fiscally irresponsible than the City of
  Detroit  by the standards of "long term debt" that is now in the
  newspaper headlines.   I want to argue that in dealing with deficits
  in the last several years, Michigan essentially bailed itself out with
  federal moneys especially the 3.8 billion (7.8 billion; 3.8 billion reported here) of Obama Stimulus money and
  also the well known 220 plus million in federal revenue sharing money
  that Engler promised in the deal with Archer.
  
  http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090518/FREE/905189987/michigan-gets-more-than-3-8-billion-in-federal-stimulus-funds&template=printart
  
  
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yel6yuVHzs
  
  
   From JOURNALIST ACTIVIST TANGELA HARRIS:
  
  https://www.facebook.com/notes/information-detroit-ii/the-andy-dillion-meeting-with-joann-watson-and-tom-barrow/466281103507952
  

  The ANDY DILLION meeting with JOANN WATSON and TOM BARROW

  June 2, 2014 at 2:02pm

  DETROIT BANKRUPTCY
  

  The ANDY DILLION meeting with JOANN WATSON and TOM BARROW

  March 4, 2013

  
  Important information about Detroit and the bankruptcy
  The Andy Dillion meeting with Joann Watson and Tom Barrow reveals the reason why Detroit was placed in bankruptcy by Governor Snyder. The meeting provides an insight into the planning by Governor Snyder and Andy Dillion for the Emergency Manager and the Bankruptcy filling in Detroit.
  
  THE MEETING
  On Monday, March 4, 2013, Michigan State Treasurer, Andy Dillon, acting on behalf of Governor Snyder, summoned each member of the Detroit City Council to one-on-one private meetings. Each Council member was allotted 30 minutes to name four “sacred” things that they did not want the EFM “to touch” in return for their cooperation with a state appointed Emergency Financial Manager (“EFM”).
  
  DETROIT CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
  City Council leaders Charles Pugh and Gary Brown went together and of those who went at all to their meeting did so alone and without benefit of staff or advisers. Recognizing that such a meeting with the State Treasurer was of great importance to the City, the Honorable JoAnn Watson enlisted Citizens for Detroit’s Future’s President, Tom Barrow, an expert in municipal finance and accounting, and asked that he accompany her to query the Treasurer on her behalf. The Treasurer was informed by Ms. Watson that she would attend and will have someone with her. No names were mentioned and her meeting was set to be the last of the gatherings.
  
  DETROIT CITY COUNCIL MEMBER INVITES AN EXPERT IN FINANCE
  Upon arrival, Councilwoman Watson and Barrow were greeted by Andy Dillon, Treasurer of the State of Michigan. Councilwoman Watson explained that Barrow was her adviser in this matter. Treasurer Dillon proceeded to explain that the purpose of the meeting was to seek Councilwoman Watson’s support for the EFM asking what four things she would like to go untouched by the EFM in return for her cooperation.
  
  JOANN WATSON ASK ANDY DILLION ABOUT THE MONEY THE STATE OWES TO DETROIT
  Barrow was never so proud to be a Detroiter then at that meeting as he watched Councilwoman Watson refuse the bait in every form in which it was advanced. Councilwoman Watson then proceeded to ask for the money owed to the City of Detroit by the state under and agreement between the Archer Administration and then-Governor John Engler to hold Detroit’s State Revenue Sharing constant in exchange for Detroit’s promise to lower its personal and corporate income tax rates (which Detroit did).
  
  ANDY DILLION REFUSES TO PAY WHAT IS OWED TO THE CITY OF DETROIT!
  Mr. Dillon dismissively retorted said that that agreement was “not enforceable”, to which Barrow explained that “oral contracts are enforced everyday and this one is in compelling need of such enforcement” except that in this circumstance the city’s Mayor simply lacks the will to seek such enforcement.
  
  TOM BARROW QUESTIONS ANDY DILLION
  When Ms. Watson then invited Barrow to initiate her more specific and technical line of inquiry, Barrow began by asking for specificity to his queries on behalf of the Councilwoman. The following is a paraphrasing of that exchange.
  
  Treasurer Dillon’s tone, inflection and manner made it exceedingly clear that Detroit will have an EFM appointed and that actually any appeal would be futile as the railroad is already running.
  
  TOM BARROW QUESTIONS ANDY DILLION
  Barrow began by asking what the basis was for the EFM and was told it was “to correct the balance sheet” and “the long-term legacy debt”. Stating that his response was vague, Barrow asked exactly what that meant and whether he was speaking of the city’s “$12 billion debt” referred to in news media accounts, which Dillon confirmed.
  
   ANDY DILLION ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS
  Using a standard finance technique, Barrow then proceeded to parse that debt seeking specificity, asking on behalf of the Councilwoman whether the EFM intended to renegotiate the Bond Debt currently being held by the banks. The Treasurer explained that that was not the reasoning, in short, “No”. Puzzled, Barrow then asked if the EFM would be renegotiating the Revenue Bonds securing the Water Department’s Sewerage Fund and was again told “No”. He then asked would the EFM be renegotiating the Revenue Bonds securing the Water Fund itself and was told “No”.
  
  ANDY DILLION BACKED INTO CORNER..MORE TRUTH IS COMING OUT
  After explaining that was the entire city’s formal long-term debt, Barrow asked if the state was really concerned about the future pension costs and Dillon confirmed that the purpose of the EFM was to cut the city’s future health and pension costs. Astonished, Barrow stated that future costs do not put Detroit in a “Financial Emergency” today and asked why state officials had not made this stated real purpose clear so that the Mayor and Council would approach city workers and retirees respectfully and negotiate a solution. The Treasurer sat quietly and did not respond.
  
  ANDY DILLION AVOID ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS
  The Treasurer then proceeded to present the “Financial Review Report” and explain that General Fund borrowings in the past were revenues in the General Fund. Barrow explained that Long-Term borrowings can never be revenues in a municipality’s or a School District’s General Fund. Rather, such Debt over a period of years is properly accounted for in the Long term Debt Group of Accounts, referred to as the Debt Service Fund.
  
  ANDY DILLION CONTINUES TO AVOID THE QUESTION
  The Treasurer repeated his claim and Barrow emphatically disagreed that such accounting treatment by the state is improper under Governmental Accounting Rules. Barrow proceeded to explain that Long-Term borrowings are only depicted in a General Fund’s analysis of “Sources and Uses” in reconciling the General Fund’s Fund Balance so as to effectuate a debt defeasment (pay off prior city losses by issuing Long-Term debt). Barrow explained that such borrowing is never revenue of a General Fund according to Governmental Accounting Standards. The Treasurer disagreed.
  
  REFERENCE SUPPORTS TOM BARROW'S QUESTIONS
  [Note: Please refer to Page 43 f the City's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report certified by KPMG wherein Long-Term Bonds were issued to defease prior period's deficits. In that report, the City of Detroit issued $251 million of "deficit defeasement bonds". In the Revenue Section note that there is NO revenue from a Bond Issuance as Dillon treats it. Also note that in the "Other Financing Sources (Uses)" Section, where the General Fund Fund Balance is reconciled, "Sources" include the $251 million to defease the General Fund deficit].
  
  THE CITY OF DETROIT HAS PAID BILLS ON TIME, SAYS ANDY DILLION
  Councilwoman Watson then asked and the Treasurer confirmed that the City of Detroit has not missed any bond principal payments; has not missed any bond interest payments; has not missed a payroll; and has not failed to pay any obligation. The Treasurer also agreed that all of that was true.
  
  THERE IS NO SHORT TERM CRISIS!
  Finally, the discussion turned to current cash requirements as that is the stated reasoning for a state takeover. Barrow asked about the $137 million borrowed in November 2012 explaining that in the 2012 Audited Financial Statement’s “Subsequent Events” footnote, $79.5 million went immediately to defease the prior year’s short-term tax anticipation notes leaving $60 million of tax anticipation notes in the state’s bank account and held on behalf of the City of Detroit. Barrow’s unstated reasoning was to determine whether there was a short-term cash crisis necessitating a “Financial Emergency”.
  
  ANDY DILLION ADMITS THE CITY HAS CASH!
  Barrow then queried the Treasurer as to how much of the remaining $60 million has the city drawn upon since November 2012 and was told none…ZERO! This admission alone made it clear that the City has adequate operating cash. He then informed the Treasurer that the KPMG audited financial statement’s footnotes revealed that Detroit had a $66.5 million reduction in state revenue sharing last year as a result of the state’s prior depressed economy but that the current economy has improved dramatically and that revenue sharing would be expected to increase in the 2013-2014 fiscal period and Mr. Dillon agreed. Barrow further indicated that such increased state revenue sharing would increase the 2013-2014 fiscal period’s cash flows. The Treasurer also agreed. The Treasurer further agreed that the city’s General Fund has had operating surpluses for a number of years except for “Transfers Out”.
  
  DETROIT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
  Based on these revelations, the discussion turned to the city’s “Transfers Out” as shown in the General Fund [which drains the General Funds excess revenues] in an effort to determine which transfers an EFM will address that the city itself could not. The Treasurer indicated that it will be the subsidy to the City’s Transportation (D-DOT) and Lighting Departments (Public Lighting).
  
  After explaining that D-DOT is not intended to make a profit but provide a needed service, it was clear that a decision had implicitly been made to transfer D-DOT to the recently created Regional Transportation Authority effectively removing all revenue and superintending control from the City of Detroit.
  
  THE REVIEW TEAM ASSIGNED BY GOVERNOR SNYDER
  With the allotted half hour up, Barrow then told the Treasurer, in no ambiguous terms, that in his opinion, the review teams’ accounting was flawed, that a city meeting its obligations makes no clear case for a “Financial Emergency” or an abrogation of a city’s democracy rendering its elected officials powerless.
  
  CONCLUSION
  Afterwards, Barrow reviewed the meeting with Councilwoman Watson and explained that he was now convinced, more than ever, that by misusing accounting rules and using flawed reasoning, the “financial emergency” is contrived so as to enable an appointed Detroit EFM to privatize the city’s bus system; to privatize the city’s public lighting system; to bust the city’s unions by privatizing clear city functions and thereby lay-off Detroit’s work force destroying thousands of city households under the phony guise of right-sizing. Moreover, State officials, without informing the duly and democratically elected officials of the City of Detroit of the real reason, seek to impose upon current workers and pensioners changes in health care and benefits to their detriment even as the City has already taken its one-time losses by getting out of the “credit swaps” and “derivative” markets (the financial instruments that caused the mortgage crisis).
  
  STATE TAKE OVER BY GOVERNOR SNYDER 
  Finally, the fact that $60 million of the $137 million of tax anticipation notes remains unused as of today, March 6, 2013, and without factoring in hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollected business and property taxes and million of dollars in television rights from sporting venues due to the City by entities which are fully collectible and by not factoring in anticipated increases in State Revenue Sharing, makes clear that the City of Detroit indeed has no immediate justification for a crisis and makes the need for a state takeover a well-orchestrated contrivance.
  
  
  

  In Brief

  New Report Values Detroit Institute of Arts Collection at $4.6 Billion

  • by Mostafa Heddaya on July 9, 2014
  • 3

  
  

  One of Diego Rivera’s “Detroit Industry Murals” at the Detroit Institute of Arts (1932–33) (photo by cdshock/Flickr)

  A new valuation of the 66,000-item collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has found it to be worth between $2.8 and $4.6 billion, the Detroit Free Press reported. However, the assessment, carried out by New York–based Artvest Partners at the behest of the City of Detroit, cautions that a forced sale of the collection would only realize a fraction of its value, netting an estimated low of $1.1 billion. The report further warns against the financial alternatives recommended in the previous valuation, carried out by Christie’s auction house last year, which suggested the collection could be used as debt collateral, among other possibilities. The Christie’s report appraised the city-owned portion of the collection, comprising 2,773 artworks, at $454–867 million.
  A spokesman for Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr told the Free Press that the conclusions of the Artvest report question the practicality of recent creditor demands to reconsider the value of the collection, with an eye to liquidation. “It’s one thing to say in the abstract that the art is worth billions, but it’s another thing if you look at the factors if you actually tried to sell it,” the spokesman said.
  According to the Free Press, which was provided with a copy of the not-yet-public report, Artvest — a “financially-focused art advisory firm” — was paid $112,500 for the assessment, and its staff will be remunerated as expert witnesses at trial or depositions at $6,000 per day, with the expense split between DIA and the city.