But I want to talk about Charles as far as my opinion on him being a brainiac, which is what Malik said. Yes, and its a great thing. Here is why!
You, Ernest Johnson, Daniel Ferguson III, Gloria Newton and 11 others like this. Charles Brown Well thanks a whole bunch , Tammy Barbour. You are so, so kind. 21 hours ago · Like · 4 Charles Brown Here's one: Occupy the Wall Street dictator before he occupies you Published • Sun, Dec 11, 2011 By Charles Brown
Emergency managers have already replaced the people�s elected officials in majority Black cities around the state and in the Detroit Public Schools and made draconian austerity cuts to public workers and public health, welfare and safety services. This putsDetroit between a rock and a hard place, forcing the mayor and city council to consider harmful cuts, but less than what a financial dictator would make.
Mayor Dave Bing is pushing for privatization of services and asking the city�s public unions to take a 10 percent cut in wages that non-union employees took a couple of years ago. The mayor is also seeking medical benefit and pension cuts.
Some on the council, worried the mounting debt will enable Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to appoint an emergency manager, talk of even greater sacrifices: laying off 2,300 public workers, closing recreational centers and eliminating subsidies to citymuseums, the health department and the Detroit Zoo. Last week, the mayor volunteered himself to be the emergency manager, but that proposal was opposed by all.
Gov. Rick Snyder and the Republican-dominated legislature, to give more powers to the financial dictator than the old law provided, changed the law regarding the appointment of emergency managers. An EM will now usurp the powers of democratically elected officials in order to give priority to financial and Wall Streetinterests over the interests of city workers and citizens� city services.
If an emergency manager is appointed for Detroit, it will result in mass firings and harsh wage and benefit reductions for Detroit city workers. City worker jobs, government jobs, public jobs are real jobs. Losing jobs will add to the city�s deficit because of lost taxes from income and property. It will, of course, put more Detroiters into dire economic straights.
The appointment of an emergency manager to solve the city�s economic crisis would be profoundly un-American and undemocratic. It would be a violation of Detroit residents� right to self-determination.
Who is to blame for this crisis?
Detroit�s financial crisis is rooted in the problems of the city�s automobile-dependent economy. While the auto industry is making a small comeback, it will never be what it was. Hundreds of thousands of good paying auto jobs and the tax base they provided were lost, never to be seen again.
We live in a private enterprise system. This means private business leaders, not public officials, make the decisions that determine the ups and downs of our economy. The tea party and Republican story (pushed 30 years ago by former President Reagan) that �government is big and bad, and free enterprise is lean and mean,� has been exposed in the last several years as a big lie put forward by the system, threatening bankruptcies of the private sector�s largest corporations and financial institutions.
Where should the money come from to fix Detroit�s deficit? The federal government � and I say that without any hesitation. If Wall Street could be bailed out to the tune of $11 trillion (as once reported by the Financial Times; the amount is probably more than that by now), Detroit can be bailed out for $300 million or $400 million or more.
Wall Street banks were more broke than Detroit and they were bailed out by the mythically inefficient public sector, �Big Gov�ment.� Some of that federal money (that they gave the Wall Street banks) is our tax money, money from the people of Detroit.
Importantly, it is not Detroit officials� corruption or incompetence that has led to the fiscal crisis, but the economic and financial incompetence and greed of banks and corporations. Whatever faults they have, these local public officials, largely African American men and women, are no worse than the dozens of white men whoexclusively ran Detroit city government for so many decades.
Detroit�s deficit is also due to the decisions by the private sector to move so much of the former robust Detroit business sector out of the city over the last 50 years. This is another way that the private sector is responsible for Detroit�s plight. As I said, this is a private enterprise system and Detroit public officials have essentially no power over this major trend. They have no authority to start city-owned enterprises that might substitute for the runaway plants, shops and businesses.
This city�s financial problems are not fundamentally due to city officials� bad decisions, but to the disinvestment from and failures of corporate America in Detroit. The last thing the city needs is a �CEO-thinking� emergency manager. It was CEO thinking that bankrupted Wall Street, General Motors and Chrysler.
Given the revenue streams that go straight to Wall Street from Detroit, it is not far off to characterize any emergency manager as a Wall Street financial dictator.
I say, �Occupy� Wall Street financial dictators
21 hours ago · Like · 5 Charles Brown Detroit is Haiti: unforgivably Black
by: John Henry October 21 2009
tags: Analysis, Detroit, racism, auto industry, capitalism, Malcolm X
Time Magazine has decided to zero in on Detroit. It kicked off its project last month with an article headlined "The Death - and Possible Life - of a Great City."
As a lifelong Detroiter and an African American, here's my reaction.
The Detroit rebellion of 1967 had the impact of crystallizing an economic blockade on the city that had then been developing for 15 years, a blockade by the bourgeoisie - big capital - something like that on Cuba.
There was the bullet and then the ballot, a la Malcolm X in reverse: the rebellion and then the 1973 election of Coleman Young as Black mayor extraordinaire. For this, and really for now being 85 percent Black, Detroit is still under economic blockade punishment by the powers that be.
These were the culmination of a socioeconomic historical shift which was marked by segregating of residence based on race through white flight to the suburbs especially beginning in the 1950s, escaping the move toward integration represented in open housing law. (See Thomas Sugrue, "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Politics in Postwar Detroit," and Coleman Young's autobiography, "Hardstuff.")
It was also part of a relative scattering of some main points of industrial production from a concentration in the city of Detroit ( and neighboring Dearborn) to the surrounding suburbs. It was a breaking up of the World War II era Arsenal of Democracy, which had many left-wingers, naturally.
In a way, it seems to have been a shifting of the location of basic production from the Midwest to the South, from the U.S. to other countries, in what gets termed post-industrialism, post-Fordism, restructuring. The concentrated proletarian powerhouse was busted up and racially resegregated, on the typical American model: Black vs. white.
The bourgeoisie cannot really undo what they have done. They are hoisted on their own petard. Detroit is a pariah society in the national media still, as the latest Time article shows. White masses are shy to move back into Detroit, desegregate. The bourgeoisie will not invest in an African town like this, with so few white people to benefit. They must blockade us like Cuba, or Haiti. Like the great heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Jack Johnson, Detroit is unforgiveably Black and Proud.
Wait, I take that back. They will find ways to invest "in" Detroit, but so that most of the local population will not benefit. They will exploit and "skate" - in other words, con and run, get away without being held responsible for their wrongdoing.
So, Time has a cover story saying that poverty in Detroit today is in part due to the rebellion of 1967, cause and effect, politically and economically - case closed.
Actually, it's true. The bourgeoisie are still punishing the rebellion, among other things. Perhaps, Time is making a confession.
Photo: The Spirit of Detroit statue, outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in downtown Detroit. (www.flickr.com/photos/farlane/92665530/) 21 hours ago · Like · 6 Charles Brown CHRYSLER HAS BEEN BAILED OUT TWICE. DO WE SAY WHITE PEOPLE CAN'T RUN CHRYSLER ?
By C.D. Brown
When GM and Chrysler went managed bankrupt for something like $80 billion, nobody said that white people are not ready to be in charge of transnational industrial corporations and, that Chrysler was dependent on free tax money from us; that , as Corporation leader and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney insultingly said to the NAACP convention, to paraphrase, u people want too much free stuff.
Chrysler Corporation has been bailed out twice by the federal government. Congressman James Blanchard road his championing that free stuff for Chrysler to the Michigan governor's chair. But Prince Richard Snyder doesn't want a bailout for Detroit. It is because, unlike Chrysler, Detroit has a Black majority represented in electoral offices running City government.
Mayor Coleman A Young, Black Mayor Extraordinaire, won a loan from the federal government for the City of Detroit to help Chrysler Corporation build the Jefferson North Assembly plant. The federal government can forgive that loan which benefited Chrysler and America handsomely.
Snyder,the Barbarian Governor, doesn't want a bailout for Detroit, thereby speaking against the best interests of Detroit. He should be aggressively seeking a bailout for Detroit, like Governor Christie aggressively sought aid for New Jersey for relief from hurricane damage or Blanchard and Granholm sought bailouts for Chrysler. Detroit has been under economic "hurricanes" almost continuously for 50 years.
Chrysler has been bailed out twice from those storms ! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chrysler). Not only was there divestment from the city proper in capital flight for 60 years, but the auto industry corporations centered in Detroit have been crushed in the world competition as emblemized in Chrysler's two insolvencies. The City of Detroit's elected officials could do about as much about those auto company disasters in Detroit's economy as New Jersey elected officials could do to stop the hurricane. So, city officials should not be scapegoated in loss of powers under Snyder savage dictator law.
As part of the economic hurricanes, the State of Michigan itself , including Detroit, suffered a one state recession (as the monopoly media termed it) in the years leading up to two of Michigan's private auto giants falling into the final insolvencies As a result
the State of Michigan fell into fiscal irresponsibility greater than Detroit's and, had to be bailed out by the Obama Stimulus for $7.8 billion ( See http://www.house.mi.gov/.../ARRA%20Forum%20Dec%202009.pdf
). Then it was not even considered that whites ,who dominate Michigan's governorships and legislatures ( including many who are still there) couldn't run our State, and liked "Federal Welfare and Entitlements", free stuff, to bail them out of their fiscal irresponsibility. Savage Snyder's current budget "surplus" is wholly based on the bailout by President Obama and the Democratic majority Congress of Obama's first term.
Similarly when New York City, New York was in receivership/emergency financial management in 1975, it was not said that white people couldn't run a major city. NYC got a $2.3 billion bailout from the federal government under President Gerald Ford of Michigan when it was insolvent. but it was not even whispered that the white people in charge of NYC liked free stuff. NYC was bailed out when it was insolvent in 1975.
( Bill Summary & Status - 94th Congress (1975 - 1976) - S.2725 - THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z...&; http://en.wikipedia.org/.../History_of_New_York_City...
So, when Detroit has an immediate deficit we should not say Black people don't know how to administer a major city. Since all these other institutions were bailed out, why not bailout out Detroit without any of this " Black people like free stuff"?
There is a long history of government bailout of monopoly private corporations. especially banks and hedge funds based in New York City ( (History of U.S. Gov't Bailouts http://www.propublica.org/special/government-bailouts :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_big_to_fail).
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. History of Chrysler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org Chrysler was founded by Walter Chrysler on June 6, 1925,[1] when the Maxwell Mot...See More 21 hours ago · Like · 5 · Remove Preview Charles Brown WHY THE DICTATOR LAW VIOLATES THE MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION
The Michigan Constitution prohibits the amendment of a city’s charter
unless the amendment is approved by the majority of Electors of that
City ( Article VII Section 22 and Article IV Section 29 ( local acts by the Legislature). Whether an amendment of a Charter is initiated by initiative or referendum petitions , its City Council or the State Legislature, it cannot take legal effect without approval of the majority of the Electorate in a vote.
Article IV Section 29 provides that a 2/3 vote of the Legislature may initiate the amendment of a city’s charter. However, that amendment is not effective if not approved by the majority of the Electorate of the city in question.
The Emergency Manager ("Dictator") law purports to empower an Gubernatorially appointed Emergency Manager to assume and to exercise the charter derived powers of a city’s mayor and city council. However, if an Emergency Manager were to do so, the Legislature and Emergency Manager would amend the charter of the city in question. This act would also be a local law. Such an act of amending a city’s charter is not effective without a 2/3 vote of the Legislature and a vote of approval of a majority of the electorate of the city in question, for a charter amendment is a local act as provided for in Article IV Section 29 of the Michigan State Constitution. An Emergency Financial Manager may not , without violating the Constitution, take and exercise any of a city’s, including Detroit's, executive or legislative or any other charter powers without a vote of approval by a majority of a city’s Electors.
STATE CONSTITUTION (EXCERPT) CONSTITUTION OF MICHIGAN OF 1963 Article VII § 22 Charters, resolutions, ordinances; enumeration of powers.
Sec. 22.
Under general laws the electors of each city and village shall have the power and authority to frame, adopt and amend its charter, and to amend an existing charter of the city or village heretofore granted or enacted by the legislature for the government of the city or village.
Each such city and village shall have power to adopt resolutions and ordinances relating to its municipal concerns, property and government, subject to the constitution and law. No enumeration of powers granted to cities and villages in this constitution shall limit or restrict the general grant of authority conferred by this section.
Article IV § 29 Local or special acts.
Sec. 29.
The legislature shall pass no local or special act in any case where a general act can be made applicable, and whether a general act can be made applicable shall be a judicial question. No local or special act shall take effect until approved by two-thirds of the members elected to and serving in each house and by a majority of the electors voting thereon in the district affected. Any act repealing local or special acts shall require only a majority of the members elected to and serving in each house and shall not require submission to the electors of such district.
20 hours ago · Like · 4 Derek L Forney Charles Brown man you laying it out today....powerful
20 hours ago via mobile · Unlike · 6 Charles Brown Thanks Derek L Forney 20 hours ago · Like · 3
Charles Brown White supremacy surges in Michigan state government By Shields Green
Circa February 2011
Republican Governor Rick Snyder, State Treasurer Andy Dillon and the Republican legislators are ratcheting up for a white supremacist* takeover of Detroit from its people and elected officials as has already been done with the Detroit Public Schools.
They are aggravating the law, empowering an emergency financial manager to act as an un-elected dictator, seizing all the powers of the mayor and city council, who are chosen by the People of Detroit, attack city workers� wages and benefits and take control of all the city�s assets. We can expect that they will dispose of the assets to further enrich suburban and out-state rich people.
The new dictatorial, un-American law is going through the legislature lickity split headed for the governor to sign. They are preparing to steal the vote of the Detroit Black majority.
It is not a surprise that this happens as we celebrate for Black History Month, our first, all-Black Detroit City Council.
This state action is the culmination of many years of out-state takeovers of majority Black Detroit by majority white populations out-state. The DPS takeovers by Governors John Engler and Jennifer Granholm were preceded by the abolition of Recorders� Court, the abolition of city residency requirements for city workers, snatching of Cobo Hall, and federal court takeover of the water department. The majority of white Michiganders also passed a Constitutional Amendment outlawing affirmative action.
The latest colonialist, white supremacist action is done under the phony claim that Detroit is fiscally irresponsible.
This comes from a state that is more than a billion dollars into fiscal irresponsibility; a state that used a huge swathe of federal stimulus money to cover-up its own �fiscal irresponsibility,� all the while with its White Supremacist Tea Partiers denouncing President Obama, who is Black, for providing said stimulus money.
Can you belieive it? In other words, out of one side of the Republicans� mouth, they won the mid-term election by attacking President Obama and on the other side of their mouths. Instead of providing some of the money for impoverished Detroit, they use the $7.8 billion in Stimulus money from Obama
(http://www.house.mi.gov/.../ARRA%20Forum%20Dec%202009.pdf )
to hide their own bankruptcy and then turnaround and move to steal Detroit�s public wealth to enrich their sectors.
The state has reneged on a deal between Engler and former mayor Dennis Archer to pay Detroit more than $200 million (which would balance Detroit�s deficit) while restricting Detroit from raising its income taxes. Thus, the state is forcing the city into an alleged �fiscal irresponsibility� as a shell game to seize the city�s wealth and power.
Both Michigan and Detroit are in difficult fiscal straits, not because of the failings of government, but the failings of private business, finance and industry which have caused Michigan to fall into a one-state depression and Detroit into a 30-year depression.
The People United will not be defeated. Fight the Powers that be!
*We use �white supremacist� rather than �racist� because the white supremacists have reversed the meaning of the venerable sixties rhetorical term �racist� in the public dialogue to use it mainly to slander Black people as �racist� or �reverse racist.�
Hopefully , �white supremacist� will be more difficult to twist. 20 hours ago · Like · 4 Charles Brown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shields_Green Shields Green - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org Shields Green (1836?-1859), also known as "Emperor," was an ex-slave who participated in John Brown's unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry.[1] Though he had a chance to escape capture, he returned to the fighting and was captured with Brown. For their parts in the raid, Green and John A. Copeland were... 20 hours ago · Like · 3 · Remove Preview Charles Brown Anybody who wants any of these sent to them on email or to them directly, let me know. 20 hours ago · Like · 3
Charles Brown Republicans cover up their fiscal irresponsibility with Detroit's money by Charles Brown Detroit has received no bailouts from anybody. However , the State of Michigan used the $220 million (at least) in FEDERAL revenue sharing money that it was supposed to give to Detroit ,and the State used OBAMA FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY (THAT TEA REPUBLICANS BAD MOUTH Obama for ALL THE TIME) TO BAIL THE STATE OUT OF ITS DEFICIT OF JUST TWO YEARS AGO. In other words, the State of Michigan would be broke if it hadn't been bailed itself out with federal money. It should have given some of that money to Detroit, which would keep Detroit out of current deficit. The State is fiscally irresponsible and living on handouts from the federal government. Meanwhile, the State accuses Detroit of being fiscally irresponsible, while taking money that the federal government intended to go to Detroit; and which money would have Detroit out of deficit. The State is covering up its own fiscal irresponsibility with Detroit's money , and using the shortfall that that denial of money to Detroit (money that was for Detroit) to falsely accuse Detroit of fiscal irresponsibility.
The Michigan Republicans are fake, in that they used Federal monies that they claim Obama should not send to the states to bail themselves and their state out of deficit. They accept money that they say they shouldn't get and use it to coverup their own irresponsibility. Hypocrites, spendthrifts and con-men, that's the Republican Party.
Furthermore, a fiscal crisis does not cause a threat to the public health , welfare and safety, the protection of which are the purposes of government in America. It is cutting public employees that causes a threat to public health , welfare and safety. Cutting payments to Wall Street from the City of Detroit's debt service to the 1% would go a long way to abating a fiscal crisis. Use of federal monies for the City of Detroit, monies that were intended to go to Detroit, but hijacked by the State on the way here, would be another big abatement of Detroit's fiscal crisis. These issues would preserve jobs, wages and benefits for City of Detroit workers who service the public health, safety and welfare. Prioritize public welfare over corporate welfare !
20 hours ago · Like · 4 Maurice Badgett So, Soo true! 20 hours ago · Unlike · 4 Maurice Badgett Yet Michiganders for Obama have a question to ask, the Wise one and Friends, 'Would you fight for @ the MDP Convention and then GOTV for Godfrey Dillard for AG, And Tom Borrow for Sec. of State in 2014?
20 hours ago · Like · 4 Tammy Barbour Keep the information coming Charles Brown!!! its like an Emergency Manager Digest! 19 hours ago · Unlike · 4 Minister Malik Shabazz CB this is the info I want you 2 print 4 me next week please!
18 hours ago via mobile · Unlike · 4 Minister Malik Shabazz TB you say that BC erased this off of his post? I don't understand....it doesn't sound like sonethang he would do.... 18 hours ago via mobile · Like · 2 Charles Brown send me your email address Minister Malik Shabazz 18 hours ago · Like · 3 Minister Malik Shabazz My mail is ministermalikshabazz@comcast.net but I can't print anythang @ all right now if you would mail them 2 Barry Ross with explicit instructions 2 print 4 me I will be greatfull...barryross@comcast.net but still mail me 2 cuz there are some pep I might want 2 forward some of the info 2..... 17 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1 Gloria Newton Charles Brown,I said it several times before-you truly are an wise man!
17 hours ago via mobile · Unlike · 3 Gloria Newton Thank you for all that you do. 17 hours ago via mobile · Unlike · 3 Tammy Barbour I love BC. But I always joke with BC that he is my handler, so the EM has him keeping an eye on me so I don't get in too much trouble. LOL. What he explained happened is that KH was saying things outside of the bounds he wanted and so he removed the post, not recognizing that Charles Brown had posted so much valuable information gold.
17 hours ago · Unlike · 4 BC Baron Coleman It was somewhat of a mistake but through some the wonderful dialog the post continued to go south and i got tired of the ignorance from such a simple topic.
I get tired of people who chose negativity as a past time.
I must say Charles Brown is refreshing with his wealth of knowledge, that is always appreciated.
Press on my wise brother. 17 hours ago via mobile · Like · 5 Tammy Barbour Gloria Newton drumroll for all that Charles Brown said could happen has happened. 17 hours ago · Unlike · 4
Tammy Barbour Charles Brown is like the smartest black man on earth. I read some of what he writes and I am like WOW! He be knowing some stuff man that is deep.
17 hours ago · Like · 2 Tammy Barbour I think Charles Brown should make his own intellectual group of super smart black men talking about things. And then if he does, I want to be invited so I can listen in and hear the things he is teaching about. I really hope. 17 hours ago · Like · 3
Charles Brown thank you very much Gloria. I really appreciate your compliment. thank you, thank you, thank you ! 17 hours ago · Like · 4 Charles Brown will do Minister Malik Shabazz 17 hours ago · Like · 2 Charles Brown Thank you BC Baron Coleman. Don't worry about the deletion. I am busy sending it out on this new thread posted by Tammy as all can see up above, and by email to several people. I appreciate your encouragement.
17 hours ago · Like · 5 Gloria Newton I agree Tammy,he is very wise and if he do get an group I would love to be invited so I can be educated!
17 hours ago via mobile · Like · 3 Gloria Newton Tammy,you are an very wise woman! 16 hours ago via mobile · Unlike · 4 Cammie Robinson Aww!!! BC Baron Coleman I would have loved to read the post too. Why did the post have to be deleted instead of the person that was inappropriate? Or at least blocked.
16 hours ago · Like · 2 Minister Malik Shabazz This is Detroit Love family that's what I'm taliking about us appriciating one another...
Hey CB can I have your autograph? 16 hours ago via mobile · Like · 2 Minister Malik Shabazz Keith Henderson means well family, I know that it doesnt always come across that way but he does I'm convinced of it. We just need to have patience, work with him & love on him 15 hours ago via mobile · Edited · Like · 1
Tammy Barbour Maybe, Minister Malik Shabazzbut thanks to him, all that Charles was explaining is very hard to rewind, he did repost the articles, but he was also breaking them down some in laymen's terms and answering questions. I didn't like what Keith was saying but I was able to move past and ignore because more importantly meanwhile Charles Brown was blowing my mind with explaining things. Charles is like the guru, and his knowledge as an attorney, and the one who understood this with Krystal Crittendon and working at the Law Department is on a whole different level as an EXPERT than somebody sitting on the sidelines being a bully. The whole thing stopped the information that was being delivered and Charles doesn't have all day to sit on the internet and explain finer points of the law and the Detroit charter. He and his time are very valuable and it is a treasure.
16 hours ago · Edited · Like · 2 Ed Strong Wonder why no one is paying attention to this thread. I read what Charles Brown posted today and was very impressed. In all honesty I cannot recollect all the points that he made about the EM system. But if I was on the game show 'Who wants to be a Millionaire and could pick only one answer it would be the alphabets (B & S) which stands for British implemented Slavery practices. No taxation without representation, is what the Colonial Fathers came up with to protect themselves from EM laws that originated in GB.
15 hours ago · Unlike · 4 BC Baron Coleman Malik u r generally a good read of people, that is a quality of urs, I know ur heart and that is a value.
I see how peaceful this topic is and full of knowledge, it is a refreshing read, no attacks, I will leave it at that my friend. U just get tired of bs sometimes. 15 hours ago via mobile · Like · 3 Charles Brown Tammy Barbour Gloria Newton drumroll for all that
Charles Brown said could happen has happened.////// thanks again Tammy and Gloria. However, I must say predicting it all is worthless to us, because I was unable to do anything in unity with others to stop it. Well, let us look forward and see if we can do more in the future to win , win , win ! 15 hours ago · Like · 2 Charles Brown Takes one to know one, Gloria Newton and Tammy Barbour, so obviously you two are brilliant. 15 hours ago · Like · 2 Tammy Barbour Ed Strong smile. You'd be a winner! I think that Charles was in the midst of doing a lot of explaining of what we all know but take for granted because maybe we learned in school or is couched by Snyder in a bunch of legalese to confuse us and steal and he was really breaking it down. I hope that with unity we can stop it now. We MUST boycott the corporations behind this. Its Bank of America, PNC (UBS), Walmart, Amway, Koch Industries, Georgia Pacific, Dykema Gossett, Dow Chemicals who have aided the analysis and the political lobbying necessary to make this happen. I encourage everyone to go to the Michigan Center for Public Policy website and type in Emergency Manager, or Detroit and read their plans and see if it isn't exactly as Charles predicted. Oh yes BC Baron Coleman, and I want our lawyer emeritus Charles Brown to keep going and making it so I can understand better. I don't want him to stop. 15 hours ago · Edited · Like · 2 Charles Brown Two fundamentals of American democracy, law and political ideology have been violated by Governor Snyder, the Republicans of the State Legislature, and the Appellate Courts in the shameful the Wall Street Dictator law, so-called emergency manager laws : 1) the Constitution begins with the words "We, the People" meaning that for America all power derives from the People, Popular Sovereignty. In ignoring the vote of the People of Michigan to repeal PA 4 by referendum, the Republican dominated government violated the Will of the People, their lying claim that PA 436 was a new law to the contrary notwithstanding. A lay person's common sense tells them that PA 436's essence , an unelected dictator who rules taxpayers of a city, is the same the essence of PA 4 and PA 72. So, PA 436 should be invalid. This is unAmerican. 2) Taxation without representation was a central slogan of the American revolution. It was defined as tyranny. That principle is provided in the Michigan State Constitution prohibiting the Legislature or any other state official from enacting local legislation or laws on a city without a vote of the electorate of that city. This is the second fundamentally unAmerican action by the State Republican Governor, Legislature and Appellate Courts. These two principles are perhaps the most fundamental principles that our soldiers reputedly fight to defend from enemies abroad. Marines should be sent in to occupy Lansing protect Detroit's freedoms from our enemies at home in our own state capital. 13 hours ago · Like · 3 Charles Brown And what of the tax money Detroit sends to Lansing Why shouldn' t it be sent back to Detroit to pay for our deficit and for to Detroit city workers to repair Belle Isle instead of outstate people paid to usurp our city jewel ? What is Detroit getting for all the tax money we pay to Lansing ? Name one thing Lansing does for Detroit for the billions in taxes we pay them. 13 hours ago · Like · 2 Sturge Moreland Chatles, please paste your comment that begins "Republicans cover up..." 13 hours ago via mobile · Unlike · 2 Charles Brown This communique is a rebuttal to Laura Berman’s article ( http://www.detroitnews.com/.../With-Belle-Isle-Detroit...) on the proposed lease of Belle Isle by the State ( which in many ways is a gift , not a lease). First, if anybody in this situation is comparable to the Tea Party Republican Senator Eduardo Cruz of Texas, it would be Governor Rick Snyder. Snyder has been carrying out the Michigan Tea Party’s agenda of usurping the fundamental democratic right of people of color to have their elected officials run the City. The proposed Belle Isle deal was agreed to by Snyder and the Emergency Manager, who serves at Snyder’s pleasure. The agreement is hardly an arms length transaction; and the City’s interests are vulnerable to being pushed aside in favor of those of the State. Council woman Watson’s analogy to being taken advantage of by force is quite apt. Governor Snyder is the real demagogue by the prevarications and half-truths he has used to justify Emergency Management takeover of Detroit, of which the Belle Isle gift to the State is just one part (The proposed deal does not provide for the State to pay fair market value to the City, so it is more of a gift than a lease in the legal senses of those words.). The mixed metaphor of “pulpit and hothouse” is a bit overwrought and , again, wrong. Watson merely speaks the truth before God in exposing the sweetheart deal between the Governor and a gubernatorial appointee. The proposed Belle Isle lease specifies no amounts to be allocated by the State to the City of Detroit. A lawyer paid to protect the City’s interests would not meet his or her fiduciary duty to the City if the lease payments amounts are not in _writing_ in the document. Because , the lease lacks these figures, the agreement is more of a gift than a lease. Ms. Berman reveals her contempt for the People of Detroit by her caricature of them as “dug-in” and “clinging”. They’re just living here, trying to make ends meet , and enjoy life some by doing things like making recreational use of Belle Isle. With the imposition of a literal ,not figurative , unelected ruler over the city , usurping the powers of Detroiters to elect those who steward their tax dollars – "taxation without representation is tyranny" in the famous words of the American Revoluton– the State is indeed acting like an evil invader. In usurping Detroiter’s fundamental rights of self-governance, and seizing and diverting to non-Detroiters our City jobs, wages, benefits, assets, property and many other things of value, the Governor represents interests other than those of Detroiters and citizens of other Democratic strongholds throughout the state. Evidently, Ms. Berman is ignorant of the fact that the City paid for several years ago and has a Master Plan to revitalize Belle Isle. All the State of Michigan has to do is return to Detroit some of the tax money Detroiters pay to the State. Then the Master Plan we have for Belle Isle can be executed by the City itself. What has the State of Michigan done for the People of Detroit in recent twenty years ? Not much. Which is why many Detroiters have very little trust in the State’s promise to "improve" Belle Isle for Detroiters without written amounts in a binding legal document. Many suspect the real plan is to change the demographics of those who enjoy it. And Detroiters do enjoy Belle Isle as it is today, although no one would mind improvements pursuant to the Master Plan already developed. In summary, Ms. Berman’s column misses the mark badly in her thoughts about the proposed Belle Isle deal. In fact , her little verse is pretty much the reverse of the truth, " before God". Charles Brown Detroit 13 hours ago · Like · 2 · Remove Preview Charles Brown .S. News > February > State takeovers of cities and schools are un-American State takeovers of cities and schools are un-American Print Email to a Friend by: John Henry February 21 2013 tags: economy, education, privatization, Republicans, national flint520x300 DETROIT - Michigan's state takeovers of cities and school districts have been very harmful to the public's interests. The Detroit Public School District had about a $90 million surplus when it was self-governing, before it was taken over by Republican Gov. John Engler more than a decade ago. When the state pulled out, DPS had a deficit of tens of millions. Now, after two emergency managers, the deficit from Engler's mismanagement remains, dozens of schools have been closed, and charter schools have taken much of the funding. The students are worse off than before the state started taking over. It seem to be more than incompetence on the part of the state government It is as if the state is purposely trying to destroy education for Detroit's children. Emergency managers were appointed between 2000 and 2002 by Engler in the cities of Hamtramck, Flint and Highland Park to prevent them from declaring bankruptcy. All these managers eventually left, but all three cities are back in the red. Highland Park's city services have been cut significantly. The failure of the state takeover is illustrated by the fact that last fall, DTE, which runs the public lighting system under privatization, removed 1,400 of a total of 1,900 street lamps as a way to cut its monthly costs. Benton Harbor, Mich., had an emergency manager appointed in 2011. Since then the city operating deficit, list of unpaid bills and pension plan deficits have increased significantly. In Detroit, Michigan's current Republican governor, Rick Snyder, has really been running the city since the winter of 2012. It is Snyder who can't or won't turn Detroit's finances around. The most important evidence of this is that, with the threat of imposing an emergency manager, Snyder ordered Mayor Dave Bing to negotiate concessions with the city unions Bing did, and the unions gave tens of millions of dollars in concessions. Then Snyder told Bing not to accept the concessions he had ordered Bing to negotiate! Those concessions, it was said at the time, would have "turned Detroit's finances around substantially." Thus, any lack of progress is Snyder's responsibility. It is clear that Snyder did not improve Detroit's finances on purpose, so that he can institute an emergency manager to control Detroit's bankruptcy; minimize the forgiveness of its Wall Street bond debts; and put the burden on city workers' wages, benefits and pensions. He is perpetrating a fraud on the people of Detroit. Conclusion: State of Michigan takeovers of cities and school districts have done more harm than good to the public's health, safety and welfare - and protection of public health, safety and welfare is the only purpose of state government. The Republican-controlled state government's excuse for the takeovers is that it is seeking to serve these public purposes - so it should cease and desist from the takeovers. The state's takeover actions and laws violate the fundamental American liberty of the right not to be taxed without being able to elect those who steward one's tax money in the government coffers. This is one of the main American liberties our troops defend. The state takeovers are profoundly anti-American. Photo: Just one of many boarded up houses in Flint, Michigan. Direct state control over the town has not solved economic problems. Flickr 13 hours ago · Like · 3 Charles Brown ON THE WALL STREET RAPE OF DETROIT I'm somewhat confused...WHY use the casino revenues to pay off the swaps instead of making good on pensioners and other key debts? Am I not getting something? This is confusing had to read it a couple times.//// You are right, but Snyder, Orr and the "City'" lawyers, who are really Wall Street bond bank's lawyers, are actually agents of the Wall Street banks with the swap predatory loans to Detroit, not lawyers genuinely or vigorouslsy fighting for the City and pensioners. Snyder and Orr's main purpose is to steal as much from the City and city workers and pensioners for the banks as they can. They are thieves.That is not an exaggeration. They are looters. Liars and cheaters. You are right but they are so wrong it is astonishing. The whole purpose of the Emergency Manager law is to shield Wall Street municipal bond banks from sharing in the pain of a city's fiscal crisis. I know that sounds too evil to be true, but it is and it is why what is happening now is happening. The EM law's preamble says that its purpose is to protect the State of Michigan's bond rating, and the only way to do that is to give first priority to Detroit paying Wall Street municipal bondholders before City workers or for provision of services to the People of Detroit. Instead of the EM boondoggle law, fiscal crisis should mean cities go into bankruptcy where bond debts would be forgiven. So, the State of Michigan, Governor, Legislature, Courts, as craven agents of Wall Street , passed the emergency manager law to cut as much as possible from everything but Wall Street bond debt payments. It cuts city services and protection of the public health, safety and welfare; and city workers' wages, benefits, jobs, pensions; and sells everything of value such as Belle Isle or the Water Department BEFORE Wall Street municipal or city bond holders are cut at all. The EM law is an avoidance of bankruptcy law, because in bankruptcy the Wall Street bondholders get cut. Even worse, the EM law has set it up that the Governor , through the EM becomes a dictator over the City and runs the bankruptcy , perpetrating a fraud that they are representing the interests of the City and not the Wall Street banks. They are foxes guarding the hen house in a big way. They committing are unarmed robbery, tres grand larceny in broad daylight, on television, but of course the whole media is in on it with them , so they don't expose it but rather cover it up and say it is not what it is constantly on the air and in print, and help to put it over with years of lying propaganda and yellow journalism. 13 hours ago · Like · 2 Charles Brown I said the following to Judge Steven Rhodes : I am concerned that our attorney's, Jones Day firm, have a financial conflict in representing us in negotiations and settlements with Wall Street municipal bond firms. Also, the State of Michigan and its agents ,the Governor and Emergency Manager, have financial and fiscal conflicts with the City of Detroit. Therefore , I am concerned about their ability to fulfill an attorney and fiduciary duty to the City in representing us in bankruptcy. I believe there have been no other municipal or Chapter 9 bankruptcies with Emergency Manager type laws usurping the City Charter, approved by the People of Detroit, and usurping the powers of elected representatives, including the powers to file bankruptcy under Chapter 9. My study of bankruptcy law to this point informs me that the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution is given special deference because of the direction of the first Supreme Court decisions on Chapter 9 to do so. _Ashton v. Cameron County Water Improvement Dist. No. 1_; _United States v Bekins_ 304 U.S. 27 (1938) The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the _people_ (emphasis added -CB). The Tenth Amendment reserves powers ,not only to the States but to the People. I urge the court to consider the legal theory that our rights to no taxation without representation through our City Charter mandated elected officials are Tenth Amendment U S Constitutional rights reserved to the People of Detroit, rights that I respectfully ask the court to uphold in Detroit's Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Detroit's Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Respectfully submitted. Charles Brown end of statement ^^^^^^ Supplementary thoughts: Most if not all of the monies being divided up in the bankruptcy are monies paid to the City of Detroit as taxes by the people of Detroit. They pay the taxes with the premise or promise that the monies will be stewarded by people they elect and can vote out of office. I am specifically saying that one of the powers reserved to the People of Detroit by the 10 Amendment ( and by the 9th , which was coupled with the 10th in the debates on the Amendments when they were passed; the 9th is exclusively concerning the rights of the People).is _the power to elect those who steward those monies in bankruptcy; to elect those who write the Plan in bankruptcy._. The EM law usurpation of this power is a violation of the 10th Amendment. The interests of the People of Detroit and the State of Michigan are in conflict. The Governor is an elected official, however, he was not elected by the People of the City of Detroit to steward their taxes paid to the City of Detroit, as fiduciaries protecting the interests of the People of Detroit. Also, the Governor represents people from outside Detroit who have not paid taxes to Detroit, nor a significant portion of the monies at issue in bankruptcy.. The very Emergency Manager law, PA 436, states that it is enacted especially to protect the _State's_ bond rating from fiscal crises in municipalities in the State . The State has an interest in Detroit prioritizing paying the municipal bond firms to protect the State's bond rating. over paying pensions and other creditors. It also has an interest thereby in paying municipal bondholders in priority over paying to promote and protect the public health, welfare and safety of the People of Detroit through city services provided by city workers, paid decent wages, benefits and pensions. The Michigan State Constitution has a provisions against enactment of local laws , amending municipal charters, without votes of the electorate. This is a State law reserving powers to the peoples of local municipalities with respect to elected representation and fiduciary stewardship of taxes they pay to their municipal government. Just as the Tenth Amendment provision on powers reserved to the States is given special attention in Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy because municipalities are creatures of the State; so should the Tenth Amendment provision on powers reserved to the people be given special attention in Chapter 9 bankruptcy , because of the powers of home rule and self-governance reserved to_ those who pay the taxes_ of the municipality. The Emergency Manager law create a conflict between these reserved powers to the state and people that is probably not present in most Chapter 9 cases. The Tenth Amendment gives equal weight to both the State and peoples' reserved powers. The 9th Amendment reinforces the argument here on behalf of powers reserved to the people. In sum, 1) Our attorneys and EM are conflicted ; 2) The powers reserved to the People of Detroit by the 9th and 10th Amendments have been disregarded and violated. 13 hours ago · Like · 2 Charles Brown http://peoplesworld.org/financial-dictator-would-rob.../ Financial dictator would rob Detroiters of their vote » peoplesworld peoplesworld.org DETROIT - A receivership or appointment of an "emergency" financial manager by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is hanging over this city's head, based on the phony claim that its deficit poses an "emergency" for the public health, welfare and safety. The financial manager could usurp the powers of the may... 13 hours ago · Like · 2 · Remove Preview Charles Brown pinion > Financial dictator would rob Detroiters of their vote Financial dictator would rob Detroiters of their vote Print Email to a Friend by: John Henry March 22 2011 tags: economy, African Americans, jobs, civil rights, Michigan DetroitJoeLouis2 DETROIT - A receivership or appointment of an "emergency" financial manager by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is hanging over this city's head, based on the phony claim that its deficit poses an "emergency" for the public health, welfare and safety. The financial manager could usurp the powers of the mayor, City Council, pension board, and the City Charter. The essence of this would be profoundly un-American and undemocratic. It would be a violation of Detroit residents' right to self-determination. In the larger historical view, the financial power structure that controls Detroit's economic investment and development is responsible for the long-term economic depression that has afflicted Detroit as it has become a majority Black, and proud, and disproportionately poor urban location. There has been a financial and investment blockade on Detroit by the private sector. Now the same financial power structure that for the last 35 years made Detroit what it is economically stands in the shadows as certain mouthpieces of money in Michigan state government threaten that the city may have to submit to receivership. Detroit did not become overwhelmingly Black because Black people planned to take it over. No, it was by default, from the long-term process, confirmed by social science experts, of out-migration of many whites to Detroit's surrounding communities. (See Thomas Sugrue's "The Origin of the Urban Crisis" and Coleman A. Young's "Hardstuff.") To this day, at least one official in Oakland County, north of the city, holds office based on opposition to integrating greater Detroit 40 years ago. My point is, it has not been Black people who made the Detroit metropolitan area the most segregated in the country (according to the last Census). The out-migration of economic wealth and investment by the financial power structure has created this out-migration, or "flight," of the population of this area. People must have jobs in our society. There is no other way to survive. People follow the jobs. People in Detroit need jobs and income. Detroit's fiscal stresses are rooted in the job deficit and the business deficit. The people of Detroit also have the right to the democratic election of their own leaders. This principle was proven in the election vote on ending the state takeover of the Detroit Public Schools board several years ago. America owes the majority Black population of Detroit equality of citizenship, which means the right of self-determination and self-governance, especially with regard to the financial matters of its city government. This is irrefutable, given the history of the struggles of Black people in the civil rights movement in America. Drawing on this historical context, Detroiters demand that any accounting of their own government, any assessment of the city of Detroit's fiscal health, be made based on the following issues: * Down through the years, returns to city residents in public services and funding do not equal the federal and state taxes Detroiters have paid. We say federal and state governments owe Detroit because we have not gotten full value for taxes paid to them. * We think the tax breaks given to municipal bondholders on Wall Street should be shared with Detroit, which sold them the bonds, providing the tax breaks based on Detroit's municipal status. This must now be given back to Detroit in a substantial forgiveness of current bond debts. * Finally, the state of Michigan, under former Governor John Engler, made a deal with Detroit under former Mayor Dennis Archer: Detroit would reduce its income taxes in exchange for revenue sharing from the state to the city. The state has not lived up to its end of this bargain. It has cut revenue sharing to Detroit. This reversal has hurt Detroit's fiscal situation. Declaring a public emergency because of a fiscal deficit is a fraud. A fiscal deficit does not endanger the public health, safety and welfare. The powers-that-be are using this lie as a cover for robbing the people of Detroit of their vote and their assets, and robbing city workers of wages, benefits and pensions. In a protest rally at the state Capitol in Lansing this month, state Sen. Coleman Young quoted founding father Patrick Henry, saying, "Give me liberty or give me death." United Auto Workers President Bob King said the struggle against the tea-Republican Party attacks on the people of Michigan will be responded to by a struggle all the way to November 2012. We in Michigan will follow the lead of our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin. Photo: The famous sculpture of Joe Louis' fist, in downtown Detroit. The photographer calls it "a symbol of the strength of Detroit and its people." ktpupp CC 2.0 13 hours ago · Like · 2 Charles Brown The Tea Party is UnAmerican: A City budget deficit does not cause an emergency to the public health, welfare and safety by Shields Green The Michigan Dictator bill rationalizes imposing a dictator on cities and towns based on an alleged emergency to the public health , welfare and safety due to a budget deficit. However, a municipal budget deficit does not remove critical city services from the People, the citizens , the Electors. The deficit or fiscal stress causes a threat to the revenue streams that Wall Street sucks like blood as a vampire from the working class' wealth, but not to the well being of the great mass of the People. A moratorium on payments to Wall Street on municipal bonds would go a long way toward keeping full pay , benefits and pensions to city workers and retirees. Realistically, it is these city workers who keep the PUBLIC HEALTH , WELFARE AND SAFETY, NOT WALL STREET BANKERS AND HEDGE FUNDS. These government jobs are jobs. Real jobs. When we say we need jobs, jobs, jobs, to cut government jobs is an insane as cutting taxes on the rich and giant corporations , where the money is , to cut the deficit. A moratorium or substantial forgiveness ( a Jubilee) on mortgage foreclosures and payments would keep tens of millions of dollars in the hands of the working class in the Detroit Metropolitan area, Detroit, Macomb, Oakland and Monroe.. It is to keep the People's money flowing to Wall Street and the Big Banks that the State of Michigan, the Governor , who is the real Dictator in the Dictator law, tells the Big Lie that he must impose himself as a tyrant on the City , through his agents the State Treasurer and an socalled Emergency Manager ( There is no emergency to the pubilc, but to the monied classes looting us) It must tell this Big Lie to justify the UnAmerican act of stealing a City population's fundamental democratic privileges to choose on its own the officials to control the City's wealth, assets, wages, benefits and pensions, all that is valuable to the People's municipal corporation. The State is training a corps of financial gestapo, all imbued with the money drunk philosophy of business accounting, Wallstreet technical minions to shift wealth from the working masses and their local government to the finance capital and Big Business. This was the purpose of taking over the DPS when there was billion dollar bond sale years ago. This was the purpose in imposing the Dictator on DPS more recently: to take the People's money and give it to private enterprises, and crony capitalists. The DPS dictatorship is a pilot program, a test of the reaction of the People of Detroit as to how they will react to a dictatorial seizure of the City government. There have bee insufficient mass protests against the DPS dictatorship to deter a dictatorship over Detroit. So, the Powers-that-be are moving quickly to seize Detroit. Only a protracted mass movement from the Bottom up of militant protest, state initiative and referendum petitions and votes, recall petitions and votes, of the Governor in the first place, and 2012 election votes with a tremendous increase in voter turnout , in Detroit in the first place, will stop the fascist, unAmerican attack from the tea-Republicans and their Wall street and Big Business masters. See you at the protests at the Capitol and in Wall Street's face. All Power to We, the People ! We are one. Speak Power in the Streets ! Carry on ! Vote Democratic. 13 hours ago · Like · 2 Charles Brown there you go Tammy Barbour 13 hours ago · Like · 1 Charles Brown Tammy Barbour what was that you said about the EM talking some bs about an old British law on Trustees ? Your response to him was right on. 13 hours ago · Like Charles Brown Here it is Sturge Moreland Republicans cover up their fiscal irresponsibility with Detroit's money by Charles Brown Detroit has received no bailouts from anybody. However , the State of Michigan used the $220 million (at least) in FEDERAL revenue sharing money that it was supposed to give to Detroit ,and the State used OBAMA FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY (THAT TEA REPUBLICANS BAD MOUTH Obama for ALL THE TIME) TO BAIL THE STATE OUT OF ITS DEFICIT OF JUST TWO YEARS AGO. the State of Michigan fell into fiscal irresponsibility greater than Detroit's and, had to be bailed out by the Obama Stimulus for $7.8 billion ( See http://www.house.mi.gov/.../ARRA%20Forum%20Dec%202009.pdf In other words, the State of Michigan would be broke if it hadn't been bailed itself out with federal money. It should have given some of that money to Detroit, which would keep Detroit out of current deficit. The State is fiscally irresponsible and living on handouts from the federal government. Meanwhile, the State accuses Detroit of being fiscally irresponsible, while taking money that the federal government intended to go to Detroit; and which money would have Detroit out of deficit. The State is covering up its own fiscal irresponsibility with Detroit's money , and using the shortfall that that denial of money to Detroit (money that was for Detroit) to falsely accuse Detroit of fiscal irresponsibility. The Michigan Republicans are fake, in that they used Federal monies that they claim Obama should not send to the states to bail themselves and their state out of deficit. They accept money that they say they shouldn't get and use it to coverup their own irresponsibility. Hypocrites, spendthrifts and con-men, that's the Republican Party. Furthermore, a fiscal crisis does not cause a threat to the public health , welfare and safety, the protection of which are the purposes of government in America. It is cutting public employees that causes a threat to public health , welfare and safety. Cutting payments to Wall Street from the City of Detroit's debt service to the 1% would go a long way to abating a fiscal crisis. Use of federal monies for the City of Detroit, monies that were intended to go to Detroit, but hijacked by the State on the way here, would be another big abatement of Detroit's fiscal crisis. These issues would preserve jobs, wages and benefits for City of Detroit workers who service the public health, safety and welfare. Prioritize public welfare over corporate welfare ! 13 hours ago · Like · 2 Charles Brown Charles Brown http://washingtonindependent.com/.../michigan-republicans... Michigan Republicans sought stimulus funds, argued money would generate jobs washingtonindependent.com Michigan Republicans sought stimulus funds, argued money would generate jobs washingtonindependent.com Newsweek reveals a series of newly released documents from the Department of Energy that shows all of the Republican members of the Michigan congressional delegation seeking stimulus funding for projects in the state on the grounds that such spending would create jobs — despite frequently claiming t... 13 hours ago · Like · 2 · Remove Preview Charles Brown http://www.crainsdetroit.com/.../michigan-gets-more-than... Crain's Detroit Business www.crainsdetroit.com Michigan gets more than $3.8 billion in federal stimulus funds | Crain's Detroit Business www.crainsdetroit.com Daily news and features from crainsdetroit.com and from the weekly newspaper Cra...See More 13 hours ago · Like · 2 · Remove Preview Charles Brown Hear me now the State would have to have waited at least another year to take over. State Treasurer Andy Dillon admitted on Mildred Gaddis' show that the State owes Detroit $220 million answering a question I gave Mildred to ask him. Engler and Archer made a deal that Detroit would cut its taxes if the State would give Detroit revenue sharing money. Detroit's taxes have remained cut. Michigan renigged on $220 million plus of the revenue sharing money to Detroit. If the State had paid the money, Detroit would not have had a deficit at the time the State used the deficit to take Detroit over under the emergency manager law. Hear me now the State would have to have waited at least another year to take over. There were also overstatements of the deficit by the State even without the $220 million. So, the State would not have been able to claim "fiscal stress" and takeover. 13 hours ago · Like · 2 Sturge Moreland What is going on with your posts Charles Brown, that won't allow me to copy them? 13 hours ago via mobile · Like Charles Brown Not sure Sturge Moreland. I'm going to bed, but if you remind me tomorrow , I'll send them to you by email. 12 hours ago · Like · 1 Ernest Johnson Hmmm...is this you? #thenephewtommyexperience Photo: Hmmm...is this you? #thenephewtommyexperience 10 hours ago · Like Sturge Moreland Ok 10 hours ago via mobile · Like Charles Brown 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 Victory on Defeat What would Coleman Young do ? Smiles ! 6 hours ago · Like · 1 Charles Brown The link for this is above,but I print the full text here, because this is one of the best ones. Opinion > Financial dictator would rob Detroiters of their vote Financial dictator would rob Detroiters of their vote by: Charles Brown March 22 2011 tags: economy, African Americans, jobs, civil rights, Michigan DetroitJoeLouis2 DETROIT - A receivership or appointment of an "emergency" financial manager by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is hanging over this city's head, based on the phony claim that its deficit poses an "emergency" for the public health, welfare and safety. The financial manager could usurp the powers of the mayor, City Council, pension board, and the City Charter. The essence of this would be profoundly un-American and undemocratic. It would be a violation of Detroit residents' right to self-determination. In the larger historical view, the financial power structure that controls Detroit's economic investment and development is responsible for the long-term economic depression that has afflicted Detroit as it has become a majority Black, and proud, and disproportionately poor urban location. There has been a financial and investment blockade on Detroit by the private sector. Now the same financial power structure that for the last 35 years made Detroit what it is economically stands in the shadows as certain mouthpieces of money in Michigan state government threaten that the city may have to submit to receivership. Detroit did not become overwhelmingly Black because Black people planned to take it over. No, it was by default, from the long-term process, confirmed by social science experts, of out-migration of many whites to Detroit's surrounding communities. (See Thomas Sugrue's "The Origin of the Urban Crisis" and Coleman A. Young's "Hardstuff.") To this day, at least one official in Oakland County, north of the city, holds office based on opposition to integrating greater Detroit 40 years ago. My point is, it has not been Black people who made the Detroit metropolitan area the most segregated in the country (according to the last Census). The out-migration of economic wealth and investment by the financial power structure has created this out-migration, or "flight," of the population of this area. People must have jobs in our society. There is no other way to survive. People follow the jobs. People in Detroit need jobs and income. Detroit's fiscal stresses are rooted in the job deficit and the business deficit. The people of Detroit also have the right to the democratic election of their own leaders. This principle was proven in the election vote on ending the state takeover of the Detroit Public Schools board several years ago. America owes the majority Black population of Detroit equality of citizenship, which means the right of self-determination and self-governance, especially with regard to the financial matters of its city government. This is irrefutable, given the history of the struggles of Black people in the civil rights movement in America. Drawing on this historical context, Detroiters demand that any accounting of their own government, any assessment of the city of Detroit's fiscal health, be made based on the following issues: * Down through the years, returns to city residents in public services and funding do not equal the federal and state taxes Detroiters have paid. We say federal and state governments owe Detroit because we have not gotten full value for taxes paid to them. * We think the tax breaks given to municipal bondholders on Wall Street should be shared with Detroit, which sold them the bonds, providing the tax breaks based on Detroit's municipal status. This must now be given back to Detroit in a substantial forgiveness of current bond debts. * Finally, the state of Michigan, under former Governor John Engler, made a deal with Detroit under former Mayor Dennis Archer: Detroit would reduce its income taxes in exchange for revenue sharing from the state to the city. The state has not lived up to its end of this bargain. It has cut revenue sharing to Detroit. This reversal has hurt Detroit's fiscal situation. Declaring a public emergency because of a fiscal deficit is a fraud. A fiscal deficit does not endanger the public health, safety and welfare. The powers-that-be are using this lie as a cover for robbing the people of Detroit of their vote and their assets, and robbing city workers of wages, benefits and pensions. In a protest rally at the state Capitol in Lansing this month, state Sen. Coleman Young quoted founding father Patrick Henry, saying, "Give me liberty or give me death." United Auto Workers President Bob King said the struggle against the tea-Republican Party attacks on the people of Michigan will be responded to by a struggle all the way to November 2012. We in Michigan will follow the lead of our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin. Photo: The famous sculpture of Joe Louis' fist, in downtown Detroit. The photographer calls it "a symbol of the strength of Detroit and its people." ktpupp CC 2.0 6 hours ago · Like Tammy Barbour Hi, this is my favorite quote of Charles: The whole purpose of the Emergency Manager law is to shield Wall Street municipal bond banks from sharing in the pain of a city's fiscal crisis. I know that sounds too evil to be true, but it is and it is why what is happening now is happening. The EM law's preamble says that its purpose is to protect the State of Michigan's bond rating, and the only way to do that is to give first priority to Detroit paying Wall Street municipal bondholders before City workers or for provision of services to the People of Detroit. Instead of the EM boondoggle law, fiscal crisis should mean cities go into bankruptcy where bond debts would be forgiven. So, the State of Michigan, Governor, Legislature, Courts, as craven agents of Wall Street , passed the emergency manager law to cut as much as possible from everything but Wall Street bond debt payments. It cuts city services and protection of the public health, safety and welfare; and city workers' wages, benefits, jobs, pensions; and sells everything of value such as Belle Isle or the Water Department BEFORE Wall Street municipal or city bond holders are cut at all. 3 hours ago · Unlike · 1 Tammy Barbour ^^^^^ Let's please all keep this in mind. ^^^^^ 3 hours ago · Like Tammy Barbour Charles Brown you asked about Kevyn Orr referring to British common trustee law after Al Sharpton went off on him. I love that MSNBC kind of set Orr and Snyder up, then Al turned around and Bam. But yes, I was explaining on Malik's show last week that Kevyn Orr should realize that we have a fourth of July every year, an Independence Day, to celebrate our Declaration of Independence from Britain. So why in referring to some European Legal Institution which was used to attain or strip land from one to give to another seems to be nothing more than a dictatorship to steal the money for the banks made to sound dandy by saying it was done in Britain. Who cares! We are independent from them. But Engler (whose name refers to England) and Granholm (who is from Canada a British colony) both were appointing Emergency Managers. My question is, isn't this America?
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