Michigan Governor Set to Privatize the State.

Subject: Michigan Governor Set to Privatize the State. Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:39 pm

I'm fucking speechless.

Quote :: Perhaps lost in the Wisconsin shuffle is the story of what exactly is happening in Michigan. Newly elected Republican governor, Rick Snyder, is set to pass one of the most sweeping, anti-democratic pieces of legislation in the country – and almost no one is talking about it.

Essentially, Michigan governor Snyder and his legislature are set to pass a bill that would privatize cities and counties within the state.

Quote :: According to the law, which has already been approved in the House, the governor will be able to declare “financial emergency” in towns or school districts and appoint someone to fire local elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, and eliminate services.
Under the law whole cities or school districts could be eliminated without any public participation or oversight, and amendments designed to provide minimal safeguards and public involvement were voted down.

The governor has also passed a budget that disproportionately affects the lower and middle-classes in order to create the fiscal emergency necessary to invoke the powers that will be passed by the bill above.

The language of the bill, HB-4214, is contained herein (text based format). Additionally, here's an interesting take on the situation.

Holy fuck.

Sporkbender Join date : 2010-01-21

Holy shit. At this point a small part of me is wondering how long it'll be until the Republicans just throw aside all pretense and attempt to transform the US government into a dictatorship.

Quote :: Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all – whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so.

Quote :: whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so.

What the ever-loving fuck. The mind can't even begin to comprehend a world in which that could happen.

Quote :: The governor simply has to declare a financial emergency to invoke these powers – or he can hire a private company to declare financial emergency and take over oversight of the city.

How is that even supposed to work? What the – I mean on what plane of existence – what the fuck?!

Right, that's it. Mass exodus to Europe, people. It's the only way.

Adagio wrote:: Right, that's it. Mass exodus to Europe, people. It's the only way.

You mean Scandinavia, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. Europe has its fascists, too.

I'll take privatizing the NHS for 400, Alec.
I'll take Sarcozy's attempt to raise the retirement age to 62 for 700.
I'll take Angela fucking Merkel for 800.

Didn't know Europe consisted of three countries, none of which are located in Scandinavia.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Care to actually provide some input about what's happening, or are you going to continue to be a....whatever the hell it is you are.

Don't lash out at me just because your grasp of geography is shitty, assface.

Sporkbender Join date : 2010-01-21

OzymandiasBowie wrote:: I'll take Sarcozy's attempt to raise the retirement age to 62 for 700.

Actually—going off-topic for a moment—raising the retirement age is not really as bad as it's made out to be. Think about it: over the years, life expectancy has unequivocally risen. So has quality of life, medical care, etc., so a 62-year-old now is pretty much expected, ceteris paribus, to be much healthier than a 62-year-old forty years ago. So in reality, raising the retirement age is more like keeping it more or less proportional (in terms of how long you'll be healthy and how long you'll live) to what it was previously.

That maybe wasn't so well explained, but you get the gist.

I do concede that the attack on the welfare system definitely exists in Europe too, though. Mass exodus to Scandinavia it is, then.

Where is this world you people live in where Scandinavia isn't part of Europe?

ps OH NO NOT RAISING THE RETIREMENT AGE TO 62!!!!! IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S 65 ANYWHERE AND HAS BEEN FOR DONKEY'S YEARS OR ANYTHING

Sporkbender Join date : 2010-01-21

Oh. Nobody was saying Scandinavia in lieu of Europe, though looking back I can see how it might have seemed so. I read it as Scandinavia specifically within Europe.

(Also: precisely. People are making a huge fuss over raising the retirement age when it's really only logical—especially given the aging population in most places.)

Adagio wrote:

OzymandiasBowie wrote:: I'll take Sarcozy's attempt to raise the retirement age to 62 for 700.

Actually—going off-topic for a moment—raising the retirement age is not really as bad as it's made out to be. Think about it: over the years, life expectancy has unequivocally risen. So has quality of life, medical care, etc., so a 62-year-old now is pretty much expected, ceteris paribus, to be much healthier than a 62-year-old forty years ago. So in reality, raising the retirement age is more like keeping it more or less proportional (in terms of how long you'll be healthy and how long you'll live) to what it was previously.

That maybe wasn't so well explained, but you get the gist.

I do concede that the attack on the welfare system definitely exists in Europe too, though. Mass exodus to Scandinavia it is, then.

Exactly. Everywhere else in Europe (well, most of the fully industrialized parts, anyway) with the exception of the Scandinavian region, the attack on the social safety net is being perpetrated.

I don't agree with you regarding the raising of the retirement age. What about the elderly holding on the the jobs at the detriment of the young adults just starting out in the workforce?

Jesus fucking Christ, Snyder. Congratulations. You've made Scott Walker look good.

Cyberpunk future, here we cooooooooooooome -grabs my neon green goggles-

Anybody read It Can't Happen Here?

Lady Anne wrote:: Anybody read It Can't Happen Here?

I haven't, but I've heard it referenced with increasing frequency in the past few weeks. Time to trek down to the library before that's privatized, too.

Verandering wrote:: Cyberpunk future, here we cooooooooooooome -grabs my neon green goggles-

So are you the rigger or the street sam?

I'm guessing street sam.

Sporkbender Join date : 2009-06-17 Age : 40

Lady Anne wrote:: Anybody read It Can't Happen Here?

Haven't read it... yet. I think I just found my Spring Break read.

Actually, with the Texas gang rape story, the fanatics making claims about everything happening in Japan, the rep advocating for eugenics, and this thread's topic, I was thinking The Handmaid's Tale. It's become an increasingly plausible story in the last decade or so.

Sporkbender Join date : 2009-06-10 Age : 35

Since I'm planning to move out of Michigan ASAP I haven't been paying much attention to local politics, but now I know why I've been asked to sign a petition to recall this guy by one of my friends on FB. I mean holy hell I have never heard of anything this fucked up.

I honestly don't even know what to say. I knew this state was too Red for me, but the fact that this is going through... I didn't think that kind of insanity was possible.

Sporkbender Join date : 2009-07-19

Knight wrote:: Since I'm planning to move out of Michigan ASAP I haven't been paying much attention to local politics, but now I know why I've been asked to sign a petition to recall this guy by one of my friends on FB. I mean holy hell I have never heard of anything this fucked up.

I honestly don't even know what to say. I knew this state was too Red for me, but the fact that this is going through... I didn't think that kind of insanity was possible.

All kinds of insanity are possible when there aren't enough locals paying attention to what's going on in their politics.

Shitgobbling pissdrinker Join date : 2009-07-21

Verandering wrote:: Cyberpunk future, here we cooooooooooooome -grabs my neon green goggles-

Dude, they're breaking up the state into fiefdoms.
Toiling in the fields here we cooooooooooooooome -grabs my pitchfork and rags-

OzymandiasBowie wrote:: I'm fucking speechless.

So am I.

This guy is just BEGGING to get hauled before the Supreme Court.

rae wrote:

Verandering wrote:: Cyberpunk future, here we cooooooooooooome -grabs my neon green goggles-

So are you the rigger or the street sam?

I'm guessing street sam.

You guessed right.
Quick, pump the industrial / techno body music / darkwave / noize!

bvvt bvvvvt bvvt bvvvvt

Holy. Hell.

Join date : 2010-08-08

Cyberwulf wrote:: Where is this world you people live in where Scandinavia isn't part of Europe?

ps OH NO NOT RAISING THE RETIREMENT AGE TO 62!!!!! IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S 65 ANYWHERE AND HAS BEEN FOR DONKEY'S YEARS OR ANYTHING

That's far from the worse it can get, I live in Spain and our retirement age was raised up to 67 last year. Protest against it was really faint and scattered.

But yeah... aren't the citizens form Michigan doing anything about this? I don't know exactly how the legal hierarchy goes in the States but can't someone question this law on the basis of human rights? Or is the misinformation that bad?

Sporkbender Join date : 2009-06-11 Age : 133

Ozy, there's not much that can be done right now, because it hasn't passed yet. I'm not even sure there's a final form ready to go right now. [Variations have been approved by the two houses, but they then need to iron out the differences between them, revote on the new version, and send that to Snyder for his signature.] Once there's something to sue over, then the legal challenges can begin.

Chris91 wrote:

OzymandiasBowie wrote:: I'm fucking speechless.

So am I.

This guy is just BEGGING to get hauled before the Supreme Court.

Too bad the Supremes won't do shit about it. Sorry, I'm being cynical.

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