VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

The Mental Evolution of the Black Race is key.

Essay

The Tea Party and Corporate America

By Ms. Anonymous

Its 3:47am, Tuesday, August 14, 2012, something’s on my mind.  21st Century Politics in America.  What are the politics that affect my everyday life?  I live in a country bitter against me and my race for no surface reason.  And, even that can be resolved.  In any event, there’s something greater going on in America.  I sent a tweet to writer Eugene Robinson sometime ago, and in it I asked:  America never loved me, being of African descent and slavery and simply being a woman, but when did America stop loving itself?  

From here my writing could go in any direction, like helping others, who like me need to understand that the Mental Evolution of the Black Race is at crucial moment for we must change our Thought Waves to a Higher Frequency, the Human Race calls for us to raise our Thoughts for the occasion.  And, I know the process toward that goal, and it is quite simple, but I will do that at another time.  More important now, America is an impediment or an obstacle that stands in the way of American progress, politically and otherwise, and that impediment or obstacle puts America at risk of not Moving Forward, in my opinion.  What is that impediment, that obstacle, I believe, THE CHRISTIAN EVANGELICAL RIGHT WING REPUBLICAN PARTY, better known as, the Tea Party.  

Have you asked yourself who they are, where did they come from, what do they think, when and how did they take over the Republican Party and why are they so hell bent on their it’s my way or the highway attitude?  Are you telling yourself what do I care what this writer thinks?  I say to you, you should care what I think.  You should care what you think and I should care what you think.  More importantly, right now, right now, WE ALL NEED TO CARE WHAT they the CHRISTIAN EVANGELICAL RIGHT WING REPUBLICAN TEA PARTIER’S THINK because they don’t care what you or I think as long as our thinking is different from theirs.  

The Far Right Wing branch of the Republican Party includes a number of evangelicals, evangelicals who have church members that are Corporate America and they along with church leaders, in my view, are the power behind the New 21^st century Republican Party.  They control not only the Republican Party, they control the U.S. Congress and they have enough power in the U.S. Senate to filibuster any attempt made by Democrats who have the majority, to improve life in America.  They’ve blocked every attempt made by the Democrats and the President whose party is the majority, because their intent is to destroy America and the Middle Class.  They’ve blocked the Democrats and the President who have proposed bills that could potentially put millions of unemployed American workers to work, at every phase.  Or, if they compromise which is rarely, they place abortion reversal related stipulations within the bill. 

Because they also hold several key political positions at the State level, and with Corporate America’s support behind them, I believe, the Tea Party, if allowed to stay in power, will succeed with their plan to destroy America and our way of living.  Because of their political strength and with Corporate America’s support behind them, America has become more racially, culturally and financially divided and in some cases dumber as a Nation. Why?  I believe, that while we slept as a Nation, mired in Frank Schaeffer Sr.’s interpretation of the Bible and how he, thought “Jesus” would want us to live, according to Frank Schaefer Jr., “[they] were calling for civil disobedience, the takeover of the Republican Party, and even at overthrowing our “unjust pro-abortion government [U.S. government].”(293)  

The Far Right Religious right’s mission to destroy America began long before 1973.  In any event, this year’s vote for the President and the over what party will control both Congress and the U. S. Senate, depending on the results, could change America as we know it.  And, you do know what?  I’ve had the pleasure of being introduced to one of the Elect who helped found THE FAR RIGHT WING REPUBLICAN PARTY who along with others that are responsible for America’s financial, political and racial divide.  Continue reading →

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (at podium) announces state takeover of Detroit, the world’s larges Black majority city outside of Africa. Mayor Dave Bing (r) and new EFM Kevyn Orr stand at attention during press conference March 14, 2013.

                                                                                                                                                            UBS, which sold Detroit predatory $1.5 billion POC loan, involved in LIBOR  

LIBOR interest rate-rigging scandal “dwarfs any financial scam in history”

City Council to decide on Jones Day restructuring contract

March 16, 2013

(VOD–this is the first in a series of stories on Snyder’s EFM takeover of Detroit. More details on events later.) 

Detroit’s new EFM Kevyn Orr of Jones Day law firm addresses media March 14, 2013.

DETROIT – Detroit’s newly-appointed “Emergency Financial Manager” Kevyn Orr was virtually speechless when VOD asked him what he would do about banks like UBS AG and others involved in the global “LIBOR” interest rate-rigging scandal, as it relates to Detroit’s gargantuan debt load of more than $12 billion. 

“This dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets,” Andrew Lo, Professor of Finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said about the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) case.

LIBOR fraud has resulted in over $800 trillion in profit to banks and lenders world-wide, at the expense of municipal and other government services, as well as peoples’ needs.

VOD cited to Orr the fact that UBS loaned the City of Detroit $1.5 billion in 2004 in a predatory “pension obligation certificates” scheme, before the global economic meltdown of 2008. The city later defaulted on the loan twice, causing its debt ratings to plunge and interest rates to skyrocket. Because of the defaults, the city’s income from state revenue-sharing and from casino taxes is now funneled through a trustee, USBankcorp, to ensure payment of the debt. 

Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor;s presses City Council to approve $1.5 billion POC loan from UBS during meeting Jan. 31, 2004. Also shown (l to r) former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings, then Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams. UBS just paid $1.5 billion after admitting fraud in the LIBOR scandal; Standard and Poor’s faces a $5 billion fraud lawsuit by the USDOJ./ Photo by Diane Bukowski.

UBS AG just paid a fine of $1.5 billion to the U.S. Justice Department, admitting to fraud in the scheme. 

“‘I’m aware of those things,” was Orr’s only response to VOD’s question about LIBOR and UBS, during a press conference held by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing loyally standing by, on Mar. 14 at Snyder’s Detroit office in the Cadillac Building.

Protester outside EM press conference Marcy 14, 2013 calls on city to confront banks.

One trader has said LIBOR interest-rate rigging has been going on since at least 1991. Exposure began as early as 2005. 

“The Bank for International Settlements estimated that outstanding interest rate contracts linked to Libor were valued at about $450 trillion in the second half of 2009. Nearly all 2008 subprime adjustable rate mortgages in the U.S. were similarly pegged to Libor, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland report,” a recent USA Today article said.

VOD has discovered why Orr was didn’t say anything more about LIBOR during the pres conference.

Jones Day Managing Partner Stephen Brogan in Saudia Arabia in 2012 to open another of its many offices in that kingdom.

Orr hails from the world’s third largest law firm, Jones Day, which has been tapped to be the city’s re-structuring advisor (if approved by City Council). Jones Day has over 2500 lawyers, 828 partners (of which Orr is only one), 35 offices across the globe, and gross revenues of $1.6 billion in 2011. Founded in Cleveland, Ohio, it is now based in Washington D.C. Its managing partner is Stephen Brogan.

Orr said he has left the law firm and that it has “firewalls” in place to prevent conflicts of interest, but did not disclose the firm is up for the costly city contract.

Orr’s bio on the Jones Day website says, “Kevyn Orr has practiced in the areas of business restructuring, financial institution regulation, and commercial litigation since 1984.” It says he was part of the team representing Chrysler LLC as well as other corporations in bankruptcy proceedings, and that he defended URS/WGI against USDOJ claims.

Jones Day itself has acted as advisor to most of the LIBOR banks, Those include UBS Limited, a subsidiary of UBS AG, as recently as August, 2012, well after the LIBOR scandal began breaking.

Jones Day client banks involved in LIBOR scandal.

From the Jones Day website:

“Deutsche Bank, HSBC Bank, UBS Limited, and BBVA underwrite £500 million public offering by PepsiCo 

UBS CEO Sergi Ermatti

August 2012 –Jones Day advised Deutsche Bank, AG London Branch; HSBC Bank plc; UBS Limited; and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., as underwriters, in connection with the public offering by PepsiCo, Inc., a leading global food and beverage company, of £500 million (US$791.2 million) of 2.500% Senior Notes due 2022. The Notes are expected to be listed on the NYSE. 

“UBS, Jefferies, Baird, Needham & Company, and Natixis underwrite $77 million IPO by Sequans Communications 

April 2011- Jones Day advised UBS Limited; Jefferies & Company, Inc.; Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated; Needham & Company, LLC; and Natixis Bleichroeder LLC in connection with the $77 million initial public offering of American Depositary Shares on the NYSE by Sequans Communications S.A. . . .” 

 Along with UBS, Deutsche Bank and HSBC Bank are among 13 banks sued by the City of Baltimore and dozens of other municipalities, labor unions, financial funds, and individual investors across the U.S. in a mammoth federal multidistrict litigation matter in Manhattan federal court, in addition to investigations being conducted by governments across the world. 

Other Jones Day clients involved in LIBOR scandal

Other citations from the Jones Day website: 

“Barclays, BNP Paribas and UBS complete $1 billion public offering of 4.875% Global Bonds due 2015, Global Benchmark, SEC Registered 

Barclay’s CEO Bob Diamond

November 2005 – Jones Day assisted Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas Securities Corp and UBS Limited in connection with the public offering by Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank of Global Benchmark, SEC registered of $1 billion 4.875% Global Bonds due 2015. Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank is a financial institute organized under the public law of the Federal Republic of Germany.  .  .  .

“Deutsche Bank, UBS and Nomura underwrite $1.5 billion global bond public offering by Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank

October 2004 – Jones Day represented Deutsche Bank AG, Nomura International plc, and UBS Limited as lead underwriters in connection with the public offering by Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank of Global Benchmark, SEC registered $1.5 billion 3.65% Global Bonds due October 20, 2009 . . .” 

Barclay’s was the first bank British regulators went after in the LIBOR scandal, with investigations beginning in 2005, according to a BBC article. 

Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackerman.

One of the emails cited in the investigation included the following: “Hi Guys, We got a big position in 3m libor for the next 3 days. Can we please keep the lib or fixing at 5.39 for the next few days. It would really help. We do not want it to fix any higher than that. Tks a lot.”  Barclays Bank trader in New York to submitter, 13 September 2006.

“On 27 June [2012], Barclays admitted to misconduct,” said the BBC article. “The UK’s FSA [Financial Securities Administration] imposed a £59.5m penalty. The US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) imposed fines worth £102m and £128m respectively, forcing Barclays to pay a total of around £290m.”

Barclay’s CEO Bob Diamond and Chairman of the Board Marcus Agius later resigned, and after a criminal probe, three Barclay’s traders went to prison.

Chase Bank CEO Jamie Dimon.

On its website, Jones Day also lists as clients Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley Realty (a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase),  J.P. Morgan Chase, and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Commercial Services, all defendants in the U.S. LIBOR class action lawsuit.

Other well-known banksters serviced by Jones Day include Lehman Brothers Holdings, LLC, what is left of Lehman Brothers. That company’s collapse began the global meltdown of 2008. Its accounting firm Ernst & Young has been advising the City of Detroit on financial matters since 2011, at the same time being sued by the states of New York and New Jersey for misrepresenting the company’s financial situation.

Also included is Goldman Sachs, now advising the Detroit Board of Water Commissioners on the current plan to transform the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department into two authorities completely disconnected from the City of Detroit.

VOD sent the following email to Kevyn Orr asking him for his response to these allegations, but has not yet heard from him:

Mr. Orr, this is Diane Bukowski, editor of The Voice of Detroit, online at http://voiceofdetroit.net. You may or may not recall that I asked you during the Governor’s press conference March 14 what you would do about the banks’ role in Detroit’s debt crisis. I specifically brought up the LIBOR scandal and the fact that UBS, a defendant in LIBOR litigation which has so far paid $1.5 billion in fines for interest-rate rigging, holds one of Detroit’s largest debts, the $1.5 billion Pension Obligation Certificate loan approved by City Council in 2004.

You stated you were “aware” of the situation, but did not answer my question regarding what you planned to do about it. Since we spoke, I have researched Jones Day clients, and found that Jones Day has represented the following clients in various deals, clients who are defendants in LIBOR-related cases:

This illustation was not included in email to Mr. Orr.

1) UBS Limited, a subsidiary of UBS AG.
2) Deutsche Bank
3) Barclay’s
4) Bank of America
5) Citigroup
6) Morgan Stanley Realty (a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase)
7) J.P. Morgan Chase, and
8) the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Commercial Services, a subsidiary of RBS.

From my research. I do not see that Jones Day represented these entities in the LIBOR litigation. However, the deals in which Jones Day represented these banks range at least from 2004 through 2012, a period during which the LIBOR scandal was emerging and finally blew completely in 2012. One trader has said in published material that LIBOR interest-rate rigging has been rampant since at least 1991.

DWSD service area

The City of Baltimore, various other municipalities and counties, pension funds, investors like Charles Schwab and numerous other entities are involved as plaintiffs in the LIBOR litigation.

You have indicated in published reports that City of Detroit assets such DWSD and Belle Isle are on the table to resolve Detroit’s alleged financial crisis.

Questions:

1. Are you planning to research, from your study of Detroit’s books, how much the city may have lost due to criminal LIBOR-related deals with UBS and other institutions cited above, which involved interest-rate rigging? Do you plan to join Baltimore and other municipalities in seeking redress from these banks?

Wayne County homeowners lined up to get help from United Community Housing Coalition at foreclosure hearing several years ago.l

2. Many of these same banks have been involved in predatory lending practices in Detroit and other cities with large populations of color. As a result of foreclosures and evictions during the last period, Detroit has lost over 250,000 residents. I see by your bio on the Jones Day site that you have helped write several documents related to TARP, so you are familiar with the fact that TARP was supposed to allow homeowners to negotiate affordable monthly payments, which has been done in only a small percentage of cases. Do you plan to pursue restitution from the banks and mortgage companies involved for the resulting destruction of a large part of Detroit’s tax base?

Chrysler Detroit Axle RIP.

3. You are most well-known as a participant with other Jones Day partners in the Chrysler bankruptcy and the creation of the Fiat-led “New Chrysler.” You therefore must be aware that Chrysler closed two plants in the Detroit area as part of the bankruptcy: the Sterling Heights plant, and the Detroit Conner Avenue plant, and moved production from its Detroit axle plant to Port Huron, MI. Chrysler along with the other auto companies has shut many more plants in the Detroit region beginning with the historic closure of the Chrysler Hamtramck Assembly Plant, better known as “Dodge Main” on Jan. 4, 1980. These plants were generally moved to the South or overseas. These closures decimated Detroit’s tax base both in terms of corporate taxes as well as individual taxes from Chrysler workers. Do you plan to seek restitution from Chrysler or any other automaker for the resulting loss of revenue to the City of Detroit?

4. Given the above issues, can you recommend hiring your former long-time employer, Jones Day, as Detroit’s “restructuring” consultant?

5. Is this hiring of Jones Day not a conflict of interest for you as Detroit EFM?

Thank you kindly for your prompt responses to my questions. Please feel free to correct any errors of fact. My story will likely be going to press today, but I can publish your responses in a follow-up story as this is the first in a series.

Related documents and articles:

Amended LIBOR class action complaint 12 23 11

Wikipedia: Libor scandal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18671255

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/03/12/grand-theft-of-detroits-water-dept-imminent-water-board-mtg-wed-march-13-2pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/24/u-s-banks-scrutinized-in-libor-scandal-probe/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/17/group-sues-for-detroits-debt-documents-state-review-team-leaks-negative-findings/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/28/detroit-city-council-6-collaborators-in-war-on-people/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/19/ubs-admits-fraud-in-1-5-billion-libor-rigging-settlement/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/10/state-blitzkriegs-detroit-to-get-deal-with-wall-street-will-council-stand-up-at-meeting-dec-11/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/27/detroit-dwsd-debt-shows-wall-street-never-loses-on-bad-swaps/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/23/detroit-cut-2-billion-pension-bond-deal-with-ubs-one-of-banks-sued-by-baltimore-others-in-libor-scandal/ (copies sent to Mayor Bing, City Council members)

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/20/libor-scandal-could-turn-ugly-as-cities-begin-to-sue-banks/

Sandra Hines demands state pay Detroit the money it owes, outside press conference announcing Detroit EM March 14, 2013.

By Joseph Kishore

WSWS.org editorial

March 15, 2013 

DETROIT — With the appointment of an emergency manager on Thursday, Detroit became the largest city in US history to be taken over by the state government. The new manager, bankruptcy lawyer Kevyn Orr, will have vast powers and one essential task: to carry out a brutal assault on the jobs and living conditions of the working class.

Michigan Gov. RIck Snyder announces appointment of Kevyn Orr (in rear) as Detroit EFM March 14, 2013.

What is taking place in Detroit has national and international significance. The Financial Times of London cited one person involved in the discussions on the imposition of a financial manager as saying, “This will be the best case study of what it means to restructure a city.” In an editorial, the newspaper called for “radical–and unpopular–action” to address Detroit’s financial woes, a position shared by virtually every mass circulation newspaper in the US.

The “restructuring” of Detroit is a euphemism for a slash and burn policy of destroying city jobs, cutting wages and pensions, gutting social services from sanitation and firefighting to health care and education, and handing over city assets to private bankers and speculators. The very social forces responsible for the city’s present state are utilizing the crisis of their own making to step up their plundering of public resources and further redistribute the wealth from the bottom to the top.

Protester at rally outside EM press conference March 14, 2013.

Exhibiting the ruthlessness that is a hallmark of American capitalism, the ruling class, in the pursuit of its program of social counterrevolution, is dispensing with the trappings of democracy and imposing a bankers’ dictatorship over the city.

The broad consensus within the political establishment for these measures was on display Thursday. At a press conference announcing the decision to appoint Orr, a lifelong Democrat. Republican Governor Rick Snyder stood side by side with Detroit’s Democratic mayor, David Bing, who pledged his support. The formal decision to hire Orr and set his salary at $275,000 was made by the state’s financial board, headed by Michigan Treasurer Andrew Dillon, also a Democrat.

As for the Democratic Party-controlled City Council, it has opposed the appointment of a financial manager on the grounds that it can more effectively impose the sweeping cuts demanded by the banks and auto bosses.

Among the considerations in naming Orr is, no doubt, the fact that he is African American. For decades, the Democratic Party establishment has employed racial politics to divide the working class. To the extent that there has been any opposition to the emergency manager from within the political establishment, it has been framed in racial terms, summed up in the charge that “white Lansing” is seeking to control “black Detroit.” Yet Orr, like Bing, is no less ruthless a representative of the ruling class than Snyder and Dillon.

Detroit is Ground Zero in bankers’ takeover of cities.

Behind these local and state officials stand the Obama administration and the Wall Street financial interests that it represents. The administration views Detroit as a model for its plans nationwide.

The identity of the person chosen to fill the position of emergency manager indicates what is in store for the vast majority of Detroit residents. Orr played a critical role in the 2009 bankruptcy of Chrysler, part of the Obama administration’s restructuring of the auto industry, which was carried out with the full support of the United Auto Workers union. This involved the closure of dozens of plants, the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs, the halving of the wages of newly hired workers, cuts in benefits, and a ban on strikes.

Orr will have a similar agenda for the city of Detroit. Already, Bing and the City Council have imposed a 10 percent wage cut and laid off thousands of city workers. Basic social services have been slashed.

Linda Willis marches with others from Bank of America offices to CAYMC May 9, 2012.

By the end of the month, under a new law passed at the end of last year, Orr will have the power to rip up labor contracts, cut social programs and sell off city assets. The possibility of throwing the city into bankruptcy is being actively considered, since such a move would provide a legal fig leaf for cutting the pensions of current retirees.

The all-purpose justification for these measures is the claim that there is no money to provide for basic social services. The population of Detroit, more than a third of which lives in poverty, has supposedly been “living beyond its means” and stubbornly refusing to make the “hard choices” dictated by the crisis, which is inevitably presented as something akin to an impersonal and socially neutral act of nature.

The “no money” pretext is a lie. The deficit of Detroit stands at $327 million. In comparison, a handful of billionaires in the state have a net worth of $24 billion, close to 75 times the budget deficit. A mere ten percent surtax on the wealthiest nine individuals in Michigan would cover the city’s deficit 7 times over.

Mike Illitch

Dan Gilbert

The Wall Street investors seeking to make a killing off of Detroit’s municipal bonds pull in hundreds of millions or billions of dollars every year. Wall Street giants such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and UBS have extracted more than $474 million from the city in fees related to the sale of debt, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

Among those who stand to benefit most from the emergency manager are Mike Ilitch (net worth $2.7 billion), the owner of Little Caesars Pizza, and Daniel Gilbert (net worth $1.9 billion), the founder of Quicken Loans. Both have been buying up land at bargain basement prices, betting that an emergency manager will “revitalize” the city center.

(L-R) UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, Chairman and CEO of General Motors Richard Wagoner, Chairman and CEO of Chrysler LLC Robert Nardelli and President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company Alan Mulally prepare to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill November 19, 2008 in Washington, DC. The leaders of the “Big Three” Detroit automakers and the head of the union that represents their workers were on Capitol Hill to ask lawmakers for $25 billion to help them weather the recent financial crisis and “retool” for the future. Where’s the bail-out for the people of Detroit?

The Big Three auto companies, to which Obama has pointed as an example of a resurgent Detroit, made over $11 billion in combined profits last year, thanks to the imposition of poverty-level wages. The top executives have awarded themselves tens of millions of dollars.

The fate of Detroit epitomizes the process by which vast sums of money have been accumulated by the financial elite through the dismantling of industry and neglect of the social infrastructure.

Since the crisis of 2008, hundreds of billions of dollars have been used to bail out the banks and push stock prices to record highs. The Federal Reserve prints $85 billion every month, 260 times the deficit of Detroit. This money is handed out to the banks and used to fuel new speculative bubbles.

Cities and states throughout the country are implementing similar measures to those being carried out in Detroit. At the national level, after trillions of dollars in budget cuts, the Obama administration is conspiring with Republicans to slash trillions more from the key federal health care and retirement programs.

Protest in Greece against austerity measures imposed by the IMF banks.

This program of austerity for the working class and record profits for the corporations is international. In Greece, Spain, Italy and other European countries, governments installed by the banks are imposing depression conditions to ensure that national treasuries, bled dry to bail out the banks, are able to pay off major investors and bondholders. Continue reading →

“Policy Makers…cause the darkness:  they created discrimination…perpetrated unemployment…property… the slum or the handy work of a vicious system…Negroes lived in them, but they do not make them any more than a prisoner makes a prison.”       DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Tyrone Travis

By Tyrone Travis

March 14, 2013 

In the March 2, 2013, issue of the Detroit News, staff writer Darren A. Nichols, said “…Detroit’s…collapse…has been decades in the making.” Then, he told us that the fiscal crisis was caused by a “steady loss of population, over estimating revenues, spending more than taking in, borrowed money to pay debt.” 

Mr. Nichols, Governor Rick Snyder and others keep telling us that population loss caused today’s fiscal crisis.  But, intentionally don’t tell us that there are other sources that pay taxes and hire the majority of the population that pay taxes.  The sources are the establishments: manufacturing, wholesale and retail that steadily left Detroit.  Therefore, I make the loss of establishments and their consequences, my focus. 

After World War II, the Federal government of the United State of America faced three (3) major problems:

•  A Trade Crisis,
•  A Cold War, and
•  Immigration – Policies Caused Revenue Shortfall. 

SECTION I. Trade Crisis and the Suburban Policy 

Dresden, Germany after Allied bombing.

During World War II, Western European Countries laid in ruins, as a result of those countries bombing each other’s industry and agriculture.  Those countries spent their dollar and gold reserves buying food, arms, ammunition and other goods from American companies.  When the war ended, there was a persistent imbalance in the International payments. 

At that time, this imbalance was called a “Dollar Shortage.”  ⁽¹⁾  Countries conduct trade with each other, by each having a reserve of the other’s currency.   The primary way countries acquire each other’s currency is through trade – selling and buying good from each other.  Western Europe and Japan had no or very little dollars to buy American goods, and threatened to destroy the trade relationship between capitalist countries and capitalism itself. 

Protester outside Gov. Rick Snyder’s press conference announcing Detroit takeover by EM March 14, 2013.

The Federal government adopted a policy to accept large quantities of imported goods from Western Europe and Japan.  This allowed them to sell goods on American Markets, near duty free, earn dollars and keep trade alive. 

Within the above trade policy, there was a Suburban Policy, where the Federal government adjusted the economy to accept abnormal quantities of imports, by encouraging manufacturing, commercial businesses and majority of the white population to move to the suburbs. 

The Federal government used “…road construction money” ⁽²⁾ , to build expressways that enabled Detroit Auto companies to export capital out of Detroit by building 25 factories in the suburbs between “1947 to 1958 “⁽³⁾ .  

During the middle 1950’s, auto companies start moving their auto operations out of Detroit’s factories to their new factories in the suburbs.  After 1962, manufacturing started closing in Detroit.   The auto companies scattered their plants through-out suburban areas, with the aim of minimizing the impact imports would have on the employment rate in anyone area in the suburbs. 

In 1954: “Northland Center, built by the J. L. Hudson Co., the First Suburban open-air shopping facility, open in Southfield… featuring many local stores, including Winkelman’s, Hughes & Hatcher, Cunningham’s Drugs, Sanders and Himeloch’s”.⁽⁴⁾ In 1954: Eastland Center opens in Harper Woods, J. L. Hudson Co. is the developer, etc.   This clearly showed how commerce was being moved out of Detroit. 

 In January 14, 1977, issue of the Detroit News, it was noted that “while 278 plants were being closed in Detroit, Macomb County gained 80 plants, Oakland County gained 151 and Western Wayne County gained 30”. 

Chrysler’s Hamtramck Assembly Plant, better known as “Dodge Main,” closed Jan. 4. 1980 despite valiant efforts of UAW Local 3 workers to save it.

Former Mayor, Coleman A. Young, said “…the City of Detroit became abandoned to those who could not leave; it became a repository of the poor, the aged and the Blacks.”⁽⁵⁾ 

Detroiters were prevented from commuting and moving to the suburbs where the jobs existed because of two (2) policies: respectively, the policy that ended mass transit (184 streetcars) that ran from downtown Detroit throughout Southeast Michigan, and discriminatory Federal housing policies which forced the city’s residents to remain jobless in Detroit. 

The aim or results of the above two policies shut Detroit residents out of the suburban labor market, where they would bear the effects of the trade policy – permanent loss of jobs and employment opportunities.  This has been the condition in Detroit for over five (5) decades. 

SECTION 2. Trade Crisis/Cold War, Deteriorated Tax Base and Jobless Crisis 

I reiterate Section I, Trade Crisis and consider it with Section 2, Cold War because both problems that faced the Federal government after World War II were solved by the Suburban Policy. 

“…the auto industry began to decentralize…frightened by the ensuing cold war and the hysteria evoked by the threat of atomic reprisal, began scattering its plants, into the suburbs and into other states far from Detroit.  As a result, the city experienced a steady deterioration of its tax base…“.⁽⁶⁾ 

The income tax returns processed by the Income Tax Division of the City of Detroit, through calendar years 1971 to 2009 indicates that Detroit’s income tax base continued to deteriorate, as establishments left the city, as illustrated below. 

Historically, this country was divided between the independent Free Farmers, in the Northeast, and Slave owning landowners, in the South.  Therefore, the oldest major source of tax revenue was tax on land.   George Leland Bach said “property tax on land and buildings were until World War II the most important single tax source in the United States.” ⁽⁷⁾  During World War II, employees earning wage income, increasingly out numbered farmers, at the same time, income tax actually became the tax base.  In modern day capitalist societies, it goes without saying, the majority of the working age, residents in a given area, 16 to 64 years old must have a job and wage income to pay taxes, etc. 

Detroit’s new EFM Kevyn Orr was among Jones Day lawyers representing Chrysler in its bankruptcy filing. Thirteen U.S. Chrysler plants closed, including 3 in the Detroit area.

The above numerical data on the exporting capital means, when auto companies built new factories in the suburbs, between 1947 and 1958, moved their operations and closed their factories in Detroit. The data on the history of the ever-decreasing employment rates is factual proof that the federal government’s suburban policies have generally eliminated Detroiters from the labor market. 

As a result, the city government budget has had a consistent revenue shortfall, which made it necessary to borrow money to provide basic services for its residents.  From 1973 to 2006, 46 unlimited obligation bond proposals were approved out of 56 ballot proposals in 33 years.  The crisis of Residential Joblessness is the real cause of today’s fiscal crisis in Detroit and this is absolutely not Mr. Nichols or Governor Rick Snyder one-sided population pretext. 

SECTION 3. 1965 Immigration Act/Small Business Administration Policy

Around the middle 1970’s, businessman Michael George, a Chaldean, formed a Metro Detroit Investment Co., which held a federal license and received “government aid to provide financing  for small or minority entrepreneurs in disadvantaged neighborhoods,“⁽⁸⁾  in Detroit.  For 20 years between 1977 to 1997 Metro Detroit Investment existed, “nearly all loans it gave out were to … the Chaldean Community, which dominates… businesses in Detroit” ⁽⁹⁾ and “almost none of the loans went to African Americans.” ⁽¹⁰⁾ 

Detroit’s Grand River, once a vibrant business strip, as it looks today. Many Black businesses have closed across the city.

The Federal government’s 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and the Federal Small Business Administration Policy wiped out the Small Black retail businesses and have driven Black workers from small businesses in Detroit. This act and policy has replaced Blacks with Non-Resident-Immigrants, who pay no Detroit property taxes, no utility tax (for police service), no water/sewerage fees, etc. (VOD: for example, the exploitation of undocumented Mexican workers by Detroit contractors who use them in street construction and public landscaping.)

Declaration for Life 

The crisis in Detroit is residential Joblessness that was created by the Federal government policies.  Emergency Financial Manager, Attorney Kevyn Orr’s, plan to turn around the Budget will be destructive for the residents in the City of Detroit.  Destructive means GENOCIDE. 

The short term interest – all debt owed Detroit by State government and the private sector must be paid to Detroit immediately.  The long term interest – capital investment in full employment for Detroit residents or the Federal Government must face its responsibility for the destructive consequences of its suburban policy on the residents of Detroit by creating a “guarantee income” for Detroiters. “⁽¹⁰⁾

Notes 

1.         “A Trade and Tariff Policy in the National Interest”, by the Public Advisory Board               for Mutual Security, Washington: Feb. 1953. Page 61-67

2.         “Detroit Free Press 2-10-1993 Page 8A (construction)

3.         “The Detroit Almanac, 2001, 2001 by Detroit Free Press Page. 302

4.         The Detroit News Page 7A, May 23, 2009

5.         Ebony Magazine Feb 1974, “If Detroit collapses, the State will also,” by Coleman  .             A. Young

6.         Ibid

7.         Economics – Seventh Edition by George Leland Bach

8.         The Detroit News Page 1 and 9, 12/27/1999

9.         Ibid

10.       Ibid

11.       Where Do We Go From Here – chaos or community, by Dr. Martin Luther     King, Jr.                                                                                                                                         

Sculpture of famed boxer and national Black hero Joe Louis’ fist in downtown Detroit. Tom Barrow is a descendant of Joe Louise. Blacks across the country celebrated in the streets when he won the world heavyweight title.

DETROIT (March 14, 2013)

Protesters swamped Gov. “Rictator” Snyder during Benton Harbor’s annual Blossomtime Parade last year, calling him a “dictator.:

Today is a sad day for the Barrow family, its ancestors and for the city of my birth. Today, conservative extremists, headed by a governor who fooled a majority progressive state, takes the Democracy of my city and I am saddened. Now, over 50% of Michigan African Americans are needlessly under state control. Only the naive will believe it has to do with some kind of fiscal emergency for I know that none truly exists. No my friends, it has to do with Detroit’s assets.

Some reading this post disagree and openly applaud and welcome this take over, not realizing or understanding that it signals your own democratic demise. As the governor takes our city and its assets,

Protesters during Jim Crow era in the South.

I am reminded of the unjust Jim Crow laws from decades ago. Those unjust laws are as much a part of our history as was the unhappy years of slavery and must never be forgotten or disregarded. When we disregard that history and ignore that the ancestors of those who created those unjust Jim Crow laws back then were raised by those law’s creators and are today in many positions of leadership with that same mindset, we are destined for political impotence.

No my fellow Detroiters, you must never stop resisting for now Detroit, we will be given a Master…makes no difference the color of the face in front of you, for behind that face is the true Master. No my fair minded fellow Detroiters everywhere, while I am saddened, I am also angry for we are being falsely oppressed based upon a phony…faux…non-existent fiscal emergency rooted in an unjust law which is nothing short of a Jim Crowesque abuse of law. PA4 was rejected and an unjust successor was created to oppress.

Tom Barrow

My friends, if we did not know why in 2009 the Wayne County Canvassers disregarded 60,000 ballots in a Mayoral contest where only 9,500 would alter the result because case seals had been changed, we should all know now.

Finally, over the next few weeks my family and I shall decide our future in Detroit….for now more than ever we need strength of leadership as Livonia’s Michael Duggan has been sent and he is in the temple, chosen to become Bing 2.0 and complete the take over circle.

Board of Water Commissioners meeting Sept. 7, 2012. (Left to right) DWSD Director Sue McCormick, nine months on the job, BOWC Detroit member Linda Forte, a Comerica bank exec, BOWC chair and Oakland Co. member James Fausone, who was president of an environmental remediation, industrial service, and waste transportation company for three years, BOWC member Macomb County rep. Fred Barnes, who owns his own engineering consulting company and is a West Point graduate, and former BOWC chair Mary Blackmon of Detroit, also head of Wayne County RESA..

 Root cause committee wants regional authority to take control

Long-time water union leader says “Kilpatrick Enterprise” pales compared to plan

Wall Street crooks, including Goldman Sachs, stand to make a killing

 By Diane Bukowski

 March 12, 2013 

DETROIT – The Detroit Board of Water Commissioners (BOWC) is bailing out on the city as a state takeover looms, essentially colluding with Gov. Rick Snyder and Wall Street. They plan to sever the Water and Sewerage Department completely from the city, replacing it with two regional authorities.

Root Cause Cttee. members (l to r) Special Master David Ottenwess, Council members Gary Brown, Charles Pugh, BOWC chair James Fausone, DWSD COO Matthew Schenk, DWSD Director Sue McCormick.

They will vote on the plan, set forward by the “Root Cause Committee” appointed by U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox at a special meeting Wed. March 13.

Richard Clay

The meeting will take place at 2 p.m. on the fifth floor of the Water Board Building, 435 Randolph in downtown Detroit. Judge Cox, who oversees the sewage side of the department under a 1977 federal consent decree, would then have to approve the action. 

“This is a complete theft of the city’s finest jewel,” said Detroiter and long-time activist Richard Clay. “It represents the completion of out-state efforts to take over the water system that have been going on ever since Coleman Young was Mayor. It should be opposed by the people by all means necessary.” 

For the complete power point presentation of the plan, click on DWSD proposal to control our own destiny.

The  presentation by the Root Cause Committee says in part:

 DWSD WORTH TRILLIONS

WWTP worker on strike Sept. 30, 2012.

DWSD is the third largest water and sewerage system in the country, serving six counties including 40 percent of Michigan’s population. DWSD has $6.4 billion in assets according to its 2012 financial statements. 

The people of Detroit have sunk billions of dollars into bonds to build the system since it was established in the early 1800’s. Adjacent suburbs did not want the expense, so they connected with DWSD.  Current DWSD bond debt, which is an asset to Wall Street bondholders, amounts to over $6 billion. 

In exchange for ceding control of this multi-trillion dollar asset, payment of $35 to $50 million annually is obviously a mere pittance. 

The Root Cause Committee claims the move would prevent the sale of DWSD under either an emergency manager or under bankruptcy. However, the proposal claims the City of Detroit would still own the department, so that argument literally does not hold water.   

 FEDERAL INJUNCTION TO PROTECT CITY ASSETS, NOT TAKEOVERS

 By including what amounts to “ghost” ownership in the proposal, the Committee is also attempting to circumvent the City Charter. 

Mary Shumake, now passed, and others take part in Michigan Welfare Rights Organization protest at Water Board Building. DWSD is BLACK-OWNED by the City of Detroit.

Sec. 7.1204 of the Charter says, “The City shall not sell or in any way dispose of any property needed to continue the operation of any city-owned public utility furnishing water and sewerage service, unless approved by a majority of city voters voting on the question at a regular or special election. 

The proposal says that the city of Detroit would “transfer” DWSD land to the DWA, a clear violation of the Charter if no vote of the people takes place. 

Clay said that to protect the Water Department and other assets of the city, attorneys for the people should immediately file for a federal injunction against the state’s planned takeover of Detroit, citing violations of the Voting Rights Act.

Members of Local 207 picket Water Board Building in rain Sept. 7, 2011.

Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) represents the largest sector of water and sewerage employees. It is currently awaiting a decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on its own legal action. The local appealed Cox’s previous orders which partially separated DWSD from the city and grossly violated union rights. 

Local 207 picket cites Kilpatrick, Ferguson corruption and privatization of DWSD.

John Riehl, a DWSD worker who was the long-time president of Local 207, said the current Root Cause committee move is aimed at making more profit for contractors than former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick ever dreamed of. 

A federal jury convicted Kilpatrick, DWSD contractor Bobby Ferguson, and Kilpatrick’s father yesterday of numerous federal charges involving bribes paid by contractors. Kilpatrick and Ferguson are currently locked up in the Milan Federal Penitentiary awaiting sentencing. They face dozens of years in prison. 

100% PRIVATIZATION, JOB LOSS, RATE HIKES, UNSAFE WATER LIKELY 

John Riehl

“I’m against this authority,” Riehl said. “It is nothing but crazy western Wayne County representatives trying to finish the privatization and destruction of DWSD. It violates the democracy of citizens and workers by having Judge Cox issue the final order. Water rates will be unconstrained by the City Council under the proposal. The BOWC would love to raise rates to give private contractors more money. Higher rates do not mean better service.” 

Riehl said that currently DWSD is bringing in contract workers qualified only for entry level positions, and dropping them into highly-skilled jobs, endangering the safety of the six-county water supply.  Experienced long-time city water workers are retiring in droves, Riehl said. 

He said a likely scenario under an authority would be to sever all current city workers at DWSD, then have them re-apply for their jobs. Nearly all of Local 207’s members are Detroit residents, and most of them are Black. The authority would then be able to reject workers such as those who carried out a heroic strike at the Wastewater Treatment Plant to “save Detroit” last September. 

Striking WWTP worker says EMA failed in Toronto.

DWSD has also hired the EMA group, which is enacting a plan that may cut 81 percent of the current workforce., on a piecemeal basis after the Detroit City Council refused to approve their entire $47 million contract. Under the new structure, the City Council would no longer have a say in DWSD contracting.

A federal Environmental Protection Agency study of the plan, done last year, did not enjoin it, but only indicated that continued EPA oversight would be necessary. 

WALL STREET SLAVERING 

The Root Cause committee claims the proposal would “reduce Detroit’s long-term liabilities by roughly 50 percent,” citing $6 billion in DWSD debt, and DWSD’s share of OPEB (other post-employment benefits), and UAAL (Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability). 

It says that DWSD debt ratings have been negatively impacted by the department’s connection with Detroit. It fails to note that one of the three major Wall Street ratings agencies, Standard and Poor’s, is facing a $5 billion fraud lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice which claims it had numerous conflicts of interest in mortage-backed securities ratings it gave banks.   

Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor;s sell predatory $1.5 billion POC loan to Detroit City Council in 2004. After 2008 crash, Detroit defaulted twice on the loan.

One of the Detroit’s major debtors, UBS, just paid a $1.5 billion fine to the USDOJ for interest-rate rigging related to the LIBOR scandal. 

Standard and Poor’s and other ratings agencies have indeed downgraded DWSD debt, and sent City of Detroit ratings to the lowest sub-basement possible. However, such actions end up profiting debt-holders, because they can charge usurious rates of interest. Such debt is actually an asset to Wall Street banks, which actually pay the ratings agencies. 

WWTP strike: a little child protests attack on her parent’s pension.

So that’s $6 billion worth of assets to Wall Street under the proposal deal. 

The committee’s assertions regarding OPEB and UAAL related to retiree pensions and benefits, imply that the authority may sever its workers from the city pension funds. 

Riehl, who also sits on the board of the Detroit General Retirement System, said that would reduce DGRS holdings by a third. The proposal does not address what bodies it would set up to handle DWSD retirees’ pensions and benefits. 

However, a glimmer of what may lie ahead is included in the following Root Cause slide. 

Goldman Sachs, previously the world’s largest investment banker, is notorious for the $4 billion in profits it made just prior to the 2008 economic meltdown, by “betting” on a collapse in the sub-prime mortage market in 2007.   

Goldman Sachs profited from 2008 meltdown.

Goldman further profited from a $10 billion U.S. Treasury investment in October 2008, as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), although it was not itself in distress. It has since paid back that loan, but how much it made in profits as a result of the loan has not been publicized. 

Tax payments by Goldman Sachs WORLD-WIDE were $14 million in 2008, compared to $6 billion in 2007. The effective tax rate thus dropped from 34.1 percent to one percent. Many critics have said this was achieved by shifting its earnings to 28 subsidiaries in nations with low or not taxes, including 15 in the Cayman Islands. 

Thanks for the (unneeded) bail-out, Uncle Sam. 

Massive protest in Greece against austerity measures improsed to pay off debt to IMF.

“Goldman is being criticized for its involvement in the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis,” says Wikipedia. “Goldman Sachs is reported to have systematically helped the Greek government mask the true facts concerning its national debt between the years 1998 and 2009. In September 2009, Goldman Sachs, among others, created a special credit default swap (CDS) index to cover the high risk of Greece’s national debt. The interest-rates of Greek national bonds have soared to a very high level, leading the Greek economy very close to bankruptcy in March and May 2010 and again in June 2011.^” 

The SEC has also brought a number of “insider trading” cases against Goldman Sachs brokers.

In 2012, Goldman Sachs got into further hot water in Houston when stockholders of El Paso Corp. sued it for conflicts of interest in the sale of their company to rival Kinder Morgan, a natural-gas pipeline operator, for $21.1 billion.  El Paso shareholders said cited conflicts of interest including that fact that Goldman Sachs, a banker for El Paso, owned a 19 percent stake in Kinder Morgan though its private equity group.

“Mike” McGee (back to camera) advises Bing et. al. on the consent agreement.

Attorney “Mike” McGee, cited in the slide, is a co-author of Public Act 4, “the dictator act,” which Michigan residents overwhelmingly repealed in Nov. 6, 2012. He acted as counsel to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing during City Council hearings on the disastrous “consent agreement,” and counsel against the city as represented by former Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon in an unsuccessful lawsuit to overturn the consent agreement. That lawsuit cited over $300 million in debt owed to Detroit by the state. 

Treasurer Andy Dillon told City Council members the state would keep paying them if they went along with the takeover.

McGee was also bond counsel for the city, the state, and the state Municipal Finance Authority in negotiating a $137 million state loan to Detroit. State Treasurer Andy Dillon has since doled out the loan in pieces to get the City Council to approve the re-hiring of Miller Canfield, the hiring of Miller Buckfire, and other corporations. Of the original amount, Crittendon, who is running for Mayor, has said that $50 million is still outstanding and was not included in the state Financial Review Team report on Detroit’s finances. 

Later in the presentation, Miller-Buckfire, now owned by Stifel Financial, is included as the appraiser of annual payments to the city. VOD exposed Stifel’s many federal convictions of fraud and pending lawsuits involving entities like the Milwaukee School District, in an earlier article. 

Last November, VOD exposed the fact that City Council President Charles Pugh and Pro-Tem Gary Brown sit on the Root Cause Committee signed a document asking for separation. Both Council members have received extensive campaign finance contributions from DWSD contractors over the last period. 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at Council meeting Jan. 28, 2013.

“Kilpatrick Enterprise Two?” 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said at the time. “This is nothing but a takeover, a power grab for the largest asset the city holds. It would be malfeasance for any elected official to advocate breaking it up, divvying it up.

“There is no drinking water in the country better than ours. DWSD is a magnificent asset, paid for by the citizens, owned by the citizens, and run by the citizens. This is a disgrace before God!”

RELATED ARTICLES:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/24/u-s-banks-scrutinized-in-libor-scandal-probe/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/27/detroit-dwsd-debt-shows-wall-street-never-loses-on-bad-swaps/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/10/state-blitzkriegs-detroit-to-get-deal-with-wall-street-will-council-stand-up-at-meeting-dec-11/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/03/wall-street-state-intensify-attacks-on-detroit-mayor-says-people-not-entitled-to-jobs-to-appear-at-council-tues-dec-4-10-a-m/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/03/wall-street-state-intensify-attacks-on-detroit-mayor-says-people-not-entitled-to-jobs-to-appear-at-council-tues-dec-4-10-a-m/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/11/19/detroiters-outraged-over-top-council-members-complicity-in-ema-water-dept-takeover-hearings-tues-nov-20/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/11/19/pro-tem-brown-in-bed-with-bowc-water-contractors/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/25/dwsd-unions-protest-imposed-cuts-at-judge-sean-coxs-office-oct-25-430-pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/22/dillon-bing-cabal-at-council-demands-action-on-drastic-re-structuring-of-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/20/ema-contract-a-48-m-daylight-heist/

AND MUCH MORE IN THE PAGES OF VOD.

Sandra Hines speaks at Feb. 2011 rally in Lansing against takeovers.

 To print formatted document of this story, click on GRAND THEFT OF DETROIT’S WATER DEPT. IMMINENT.

  VIDEO ABOVE BY ANTHONY WILLIAMS

State ignores provisions of PA 72, which is itself illegal

Robert Davis sues, says Snyder has no right to EFM selection

By Diane Bukowski 

March 10, 2013 

DETROIT—As protesters gathered outside the Detroit Athletic Club March 8, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared inside that he will appoint a Detroit EFM immediately after an appeals hearing by the Detroit City Council, set for March 12, 2013 in front of the state’s chief deputy treasurer.

“The appeal is specifically limited to disputes about the facts,” Snyder said in published remarks.  “And that will be the focus of that. … And I expect to review that fairly quickly, within the manner (sic) of a couple of days.”

Protesters from Rainbow PUSH and other organizations chanted, “Tricky Ricky, you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side,” according to the Detroit News.

Gov. Rick Snyder with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, who said the two are “joined at the hip.:

The facts, ma’am, just the facts, says Snyder.

Well, the facts under Public Act 72 are that the City Council can take the state’s in-house decision on its appeal to state circuit court, and that it is not the governor, but the “local emergency financial assistance loan board” which appoints an emergency financial manager. From PA 72 below:

“141.1217 Appeal; setting aside determination.

Sec. 17. A local government for which a financial emergency determination pursuant to section 15 or 16 has been confirmed to exist by the governor may appeal this determination to the circuit court for the county in which the local government is located or to the circuit court for the county of Ingham. The court shall not set aside a determination of the governor unless it finds that the determination is either of the following:  (a) Not supported by competent, material, and substantial evidence on the whole record. (b) Arbitrary, capricious, or clearly an abuse or unwarranted exercise of discretion.” 

City Council members Brenda Jones, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. and Saunteel Jenkins during session March 4. The Council voted 7-1 to appeal Snyder;’s determination of a financial emergency in Detroit. If Snyder rejects that appeal, they can go to Circuit Court.

Whether the City Council’s attorneys will take this matter to court remains to be seen, but advocates of self-determination for Detroit are certain to press for court action. 

Public Act 72 also says: 

“141.1218 Assigning responsibility for managing local government financial emergency; appointment, qualifications, and term of emergency financial manager; compensation and expenses; staff and professional assistance.

Sec. 18. (1) If the governor determines that a financial emergency exists under section 15, the governor shall assign the responsibility for managing the local government financial emergency to the local emergency financial assistance loan board created under the emergency municipal loan act, Act No. 243 of the Public Acts of 1980, being sections 141.931 to 141.942 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. The local emergency financial assistance loan board shall appoint an emergency financial manager.” 

Robert Davis has sued to stop Snyder selection of Detroit EFM.

Not to mention that Public Act 72 itself no longer exists and everything Snyder has done under that ghost act is invalid. It is listed on the state website under “Items listed on this page have been repealed or changed and are no longer current law.”

Highland Park School Board member and labor activist Robert Davis has filed suit in Ingham County Circuit Court challenging Snyder’s right to interview candidates for an emergency financial manager, saying that this must be done by the “emergency financial loan board” cited in PA 72 above, and that proceedings must be done at a public hearing.  A hearing on his suit is scheduled for Thurs. Oct. 14 in Ingham County Court.

Applicable sections of Public Act 243, which IS still on the books, are as follows:

LARA acting director Steve Arwood.

“141.932 Local emergency financial assistance loan board; creation; membership; powers and duties; approval of actions; conducting business at public meeting; staff services.

“141.932 (4) All actions of the board shall be approved by all members of the board. All meetings of the board shall be conducted at a public meeting held in compliance with the open meetings act, 1976 PA 267, MCL 15.261 to 15.275.” 

Andy Dillon

DMTB Director John E. Nixon.

So, the board should consist of State Treasurer Andy Dillon, acting independently of the department of treasury, the acting director of LARA, Steve Arwood, and the director of DTMB, John E. Nixon. Not that these Snyder appointees will disobey the orders of their commander-in-chief, but there is a PROCEDURE spelled out in Public Act 72 for the appointment of an EFM.

And PA 72 is invalid according to the state itself. So Michigan is outlaw territory.

“Fascist:” Snyder on his way into Benton Harbor, the first victim of Public Act 4, on May 7, 2011. Hundreds protested.

By Anthony Williams

(Williams video of DAC protest v. Snyder,story above)

Thanks to Mr. Williams for the pingback to provide his story to VOD. Please patronize his website at http://www.3angelswatch.com.

March 10, 2013

http://www.3angelswatch.com/the-fight-for-detroit/ 

Protester at DAC March 8, 2013, as Snyder speaks inside.

Many citizens of the city of Detroit are against having an emergency financial manager that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder decided to appoint after a response to a scathing report on the city’s finances from a “Financial Review Team” (FRT) appointed by Snyder, which concluded the city’s Black leaders cannot run Detroit. According to Voice of Detroit.

According to the Michigan Chronicle, The fight is not nearly over for EFM opponents who rallied on Friday, Mar. 8 outside the Detroit Athletic Club where Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was speaking inside.

Rev. David Bullock of Ranibow PUSH spaeks with other pastors including Rev. Charles Williams II of NAN (at his left), Rev.Charles Williams Sr. (top) and Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor(far right) during protest outside Snyder;s mansion MLK Day, 2012.

Members of the National Action Network and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, whose local leaders said Gov. Rick Snyder’s decision to appoint an emergency financial manager represents a blow to civil rights and voting rights of African Americans in the nation’s largest city with a black majority, according to Detroit Free Press, led the protest.

“According to the Daily Press, the city of Detroit is citing a $14 billion mountain of debt, $327 million budget deficit and other issues, a state-appointed review team submitted a report to last month to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

City councilwoman Joann Watson said,” Many people here have their lives connected to the blood of the city, and they will never say die.”

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at session March 4, 2013.

At the rally, mayoral candidates Krystal Crittendon, the city’s former Corporation Counsel, and Tom Barrow, an accountant and financial expert, stressed that even under Public Act 72, there is no legitimate financial or legal reason for the takeover. According to Voice of Detroit

Crittendon earlier sued the state to void the Consent Agreement, saying “the state of Michigan owes Detroit over $300 million, including $224 million in revenue-sharing dollars.” The state itself is currently running a large surplus but has refused to provide financial help to Detroit, even withholding most of a $137 million state loan the city took out in April, to force the city to agree to Treasurer Dillon’s conditions. According to Voice of Detroit.

Detroit community leaders and residents have called on U. S. President Barack Obama and the entire nation to join them in their battle. They blockaded a city freeway March 7, stressing the need to affect commerce, and have been rallying throughout the city. They say they plan to educate and organize the city’s people, particularly the youth, by taking the battle to its neighborhoods, According to Voice of Detroit.

Aiyana Jones; aunt Krystal Jones (r) weeps as the child’s grandmother Mertilla Jones (in hoodie) speaks at rally outside Frank Murphy Hall March 8, 2013. Other family members are (in front of Mertilla, Aiyana’s mother Dominika, and (rear) Aunt Dee Dee Williams and grandfather Jimmie Stanley. At left are Aaron Petkov and Ron Scott.

By Diane Bukowski 

March 9, 2013 

DETROIT – The family of Aiyana Jones said after a hearing March 8 that while they are glad Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway refused to dismiss charges against Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley for killing the 7-year-old child, justice has not been served. 

Charles Jones with his only daughter Aiyana Jones before she was killed by Detroit cop.

“Because he has a police badge he can walk free and go home to his children,” Aiyana’s grandmother  Mertilla Jones. “But my sons Charles and Norbert are in jail for crimes they did not commit, and two of my sisters have died from the effects of grief since Aiyana was killed. Charles has been locked up for two years and can’t see his six little sons, and they miss him.  Every time we come to court for hearings we have problems getting in the courtroom and are abused by the police.”

Weekley, of Grosse Pointe, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm in the death of the little girl. He was the lead man in a military-style raid on the little girl’s home. One cop threw a “flash-bang” grenade through the front window of the flat on Detroit’s east side  shortly after midnight May 16, 2010.  Seconds later, Weekley stepped inside the door and shot Aiyana in the top of the head as cameras from A & E’s “First 48” reality show rolled. The little girl was sleeping with her grandmother on the couch in front of the window. 

Charles Weekley as “Brain” on previous A $ E Show Detroit SWAT.

Weekley, who starred as “Brain” on The First 48, was earlier involved in another case where he shot two family pets to death in front of young children during a similar invasion.

During the hearing on a defense motion to dismiss charges for lack of sufficient evidence, Judge Gray Hathaway said she said read thousands of pages of documents related to the case. She said they were not decisive for either side, and set a jury trial, which is listed with dates of both April 8 and May 29, 2013 on the court’s website.  

She also ruled that the jury could watch an actual demonstration of the use of a “flash-bang” grenade during trial proceedings. Weekley’s defense attorney Stephen Fishman has said that Weekley was disoriented when the grenade went off.

Protesters marched in front of courthouse before press conference. Aiyana’s aunt Krystal Jones is at front.

This was the Weekley’s eighth pre-trial hearing since Nov. 2011. Judge Gray Hathaway has said repeatedly in court that Weekley’s case is tied not to that of his previous co-defendant, A & E producer Allison Howard, but to that of Charles Jones, Aiyana’s father.  She said  she is waiting for Jones and his sister’s fiancé Chauncey Owens to be tried before Aiyana’s admitted killer goes to trial. 

Jailhouse snitch Jay Schlenkerman, a six-time felon and woman beater, testifes against Charles Jones at preliminary exam last year.

Jones was charged with first-degree murder one and a half years after a separate incident during which JeRean Blake, 17, was killed, two days before police stormed the Jones home. Police leaked Jones’ name to the daily media within a week of Aiyana’s death, claiming he gave the gun to the shooter in the Blake case. They were evidently trying to  justify the invasion of the Jones home, for which they did not have a warrant. But court records show that no one except “jail-house snitch” Jay Schlenkerman has confirmed that.

Jones’ next pretrial hearing is set for April 29, 2013. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt has rescheduled that hearing several times, after barring Schlenkerman’s hearsay testimony against Jones. An appeals court overturned Judge Skutt’s ruling, and the State Supreme Court has not yet decided whether they will hear Jones’ appeal of that opinion. 

Aiyana’s grandmother Mertilla Jones weeps as she shows the child’s photo after earlier hearing Oct. 29, 2012.

The brief hearing March 8 was disrupted outside the courtroom by cries of grief and anger from family members who were not allowed inside, including Aiyana’s aunts Krystal Jones and Dee-Dee Williams, and her grandfather Jimmie Stanley. At least eight deputy sheriffs came to the courtroom to keep them out, and later packed the freight elevator with them as they left.

For the first time, many of the seats in the courtroom were occupied by uniformed police officers. There was sufficient seating for family members left outside. This reporter was threatened with expulsion after bringing that to the attention of the sheriffs. 

 “You did not see my niece’s brains all over the porch,” Krystal Jones wept during an impromptu press conference and rally outside the court afterwards. “My brother has been locked up for over two years. He’s not even allowed to grieve for his only daughter. They refused to give him medication to help him sleep until we insisted.”

Asst. Prosecutor Robert Moran is prosecuting both Weekley and Charles Jones.

Mertilla Jones said the family still objects to the fact that Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran is prosecuting both Weekley and Charles Jones. Previous hearings 

Members of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Inc. helped the family organize the turn-out. 

Noting that one Black person is killed by law enforcement officials every 36 hours in the U.S., according to a recent study, Aaron Petkov called for justice for the Jones family and put their extraordinary ordeal into a broader contect. 

“Police harass and terrorize Black communities–often in the name of a war on drugs-a senseless campaign that not only systematizes racial profiling, but stupidly wastes resources on imprisoning young Black men,” Petkov, of the ISO, said. “Those resources could be put into schools, healthcare, after school programs, local employment, rehabilitation centers, and so on.” 

He said the real criminals laying waste to Detroit and calling for an emergency manager are Wall Street banks and corporations.

Artrell Dickerson

Killer cop Kata-Ante Taylor.

Ron Scott of the Coalition against Police Brutality said that not only Weekley, but the entire police team which raided the Jones home, along with those in command, should be charged with murder. The cop who ran the little girl’s body out of the house before family members could hold her in her dying moments was Kata-Ante Taylor, who shot 18-year-old Artrell Dickerson to death in an incident outside the Cantrell Funeral Home in 2007. Witnesses at the scene said that Taylor shot him in the back twice, as Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office confirmed. But the witnesses told this reporter that Taylor shot Dickerson in the back as he lay on the ground, already wounded.

Aiyana Jones’ family and supporters demand justice for the little girl and her father Charles Jones outside the Frank Murphy Hall after hearing March 8, 2013,

On March 7, dozens of Detroiters conducted a blockade of southbound !-75 beginning at Eight Mile. Here they are stopped by state troopers close to downtown, pulled over and ticketed, but their point was made. SAY NO TO AN EFM! INTERRUPT COMMERCE!

State Governor Snyder to appoint emergency manager next week

Residents fight back, call on nation for support 

By Diane Bukowski 

March 8, 2013  

State cops pull cars protesting EFM over near downtown March 7, 2013.

DETROIT – Detroit, the world’s largest Black-majority city outside of Africa, is battling for its right to self-determination and home rule. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced March 1 that he will appoint an “emergency financial manager” (EFM) to take control of the city’s assets, land, finances, services, workers, and residents. 

Sources say the appointment will come in the latter part of next week. 

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder

Snyder called his action a move for “a bright and shiny new future” for the city. It was a response to a scathing report on the city’s finances from a “Financial Review Team” (FRT) appointed by Snyder, which concluded the city’s Black leaders cannot run Detroit. The team represented corporations such as Miller Buckfire, now part of Stifel Financial, and Pricewaterhousecoopers, which face lawsuits for fraud across the nation and the globe. 

“Detroit of all cities,” City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said at a public hearing March 6. “Detroit is the center for Black national pride, the home of the Nation of Islam, and the Shrine of the Black Madonna. Many people here have their lives connected to the blood of the city, and they will never say die.” 

Detroit, the birthplace of the Nation of Islam in 1930, needs its own Million Men, Women and Children March. Shown here, the NOI’s Mllion Man March Oct. 16, 1995.

The Detroit City Council voted March 6 to appeal Snyder’s declaration, at a hearing conducted by Snyder or his designate, to take place March 11 in the state’s capital, Lansing. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing refused to join them. 

If the Council loses, it can appeal to the circuit court. However, the body’s majority has colluded with both Snyder and State Treasurer Andy Dillon since 2012, meeting with them in secret in Detroit and Lansing. They passed a draconian “consent agreement” last April that gave the power of the city’s elected leaders to a “Financial Advisory Board” and Snyder-appointed officials, agreed eventually to turn over many city assets including the fabled Belle Isle, and trashed union contracts. 

NO EFM blockade reaches Davison Freeway March 7, 2013,

Detroit community leaders and residents have called on U. S. President Barack Obama and the entire nation to join them in their battle.  They blockaded a city freeway March 7, stressing the need to affect commerce, and have been rallying throughout the city.  They say they plan to educate and organize the city’s people, particularly the youth, by taking the battle to its neighborhoods.

Rev. David Bullock of Rainbow PUSH calls on Pres. Obama and AG Holder to intervene to save Detroit outside-federal offices March 7 2013.

“Detroit is Ground Zero,” said the Rev. David Bullock of Rainbow PUSH at a rally outside the Detroit offices of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at the conclusion of the freeway blockade. “If they get away with this attack here, they will come to the rest of the nation’s Black cities.” 

Snyder has appointed emergency managers almost exclusively in Michigan’s majority-Black cities. Rainbow PUSH and the National Action Network are calling on Holder to investigate whether the governor’s actions violate the National Voting Rights Act. An earlier appeal to Holder by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit), made in Dec. 2011, was ignored. 

Councilwomen Brenda Jones and JoAnn Watson at NO EFM rally March 6, 2013, Councilman Kwame Kenyatta was ill.

Snyder appointed the FRT under the provisions of Public Act 72, which the state’s website says is “repealed” and “outdated,” after Michigan voters overwhelmingly repealed the hated Public Act 4 at the polls in November. 

 “There exists irrefutable evidence that EFM’s imposed by the state of Michigan and municipalities and school districts predominated by people of color have not solved financial deficits,” Councilwoman Watson declared earlier. “EFM’s have actually increased deficits, deepened fiscal crises and de-stabilized governmental infrastructures, while robbing citizens of assets, services, access to decision-making, voter representation and accountability.” 

Tyrone Travis and former School Board member Marie Thornton at rally against EFM March 6 2013.

During the March 6 rally, one resident demanded, “If an emergency manager comes to town, arrest him and put him in the Wayne County Jail with the rest of the fellows.” Long-time activist Tyrone Travis and many others demanded, “Take it to the streets,” particularly to the city’s impoverished youth. 

Attorney Jerome Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW Coalition against Foreclosures said,
“The emergency manager laws’ sole purpose is to guarantee the city’s debt payments to the same racist banks which drove 250,000 people out of Detroit through predatory lending and foreclosures, at the expense of necessary services for the people. Detroit paid $600 million in debt to the banks last year. It’s time to take our city back from the banksters who are calling the shots.” 

The global bank UBS AG holds one of the city’s largest debts, a predatory $1.5 billion loan taken out in 2004 before the global economic collapse of 2008. The U.S. Department of Justice just fined UBS $1.5 billion for interest-rate rigging related to the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) scandal. 

Wall Street ratings agency Standard and Poor’s sent a representative to the Detroit City Council table to push the UBS loan. Standard and Poor’s now faces a $5 billion fraud lawsuit brought by the USDOJ, but neither UBS nor Standard and Poor’s are being forced to pay reparations to Detroit. 

At the rally, mayoral candidates Krystal Crittendon, the city’s former Corporation Counsel, and Tom Barrow, an accountant and financial expert, stressed that even under Public Act 72, there is no legitimate financial or legal reason for the takeover. 

Rally to save Belle Isle Sept. 22, 2013. BELLE ISLE IS BLACK LAND!

“Just because a city is economically depressed does not mean we do not have the right to self-determination,” Crittendon said. “People owe us money and they must pay it. We stand on the shoulders of thousands of others, many of whom faced down police dogs and the lash of the whip.” 

Crittendon earlier sued the state to void the Consent Agreement, saying the state of Michigan owes Detroit over $300 million, including $224 million in revenue-sharing dollars. The state itself is currently running a large surplus but has refused to provide financial help to Detroit, even withholding most of a $137 million state loan the city took out in April, to force the city to agree to Treasurer Dillon’s conditions. 

Mayoral candidates Tom Barrow and Krystal Crittendon joined forces at rally against EFM March 6, 2013.

After Crittendon declared that she could not ethically recommend the Council vote for the state’s demands, calling them extortion, she was ousted from office. 

Councilwoman Watson has compiled other figures showing that major corporations among others owe Detroit $800 million in taxes and other fees. 

Barrow took part in a meeting with Councilwoman Watson and Dillon earlier in the week, to defend the city’s handling of its finances. 

Speakers line up at rally against EFM March 6, 2013.

“After reviewing the city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the Financial Review Team report, and other documents, I find that the State of Michigan is using misdirection and a contrived financial emergency,” Barrow said. “I wholly reject the existence of such an emergency in either the short or the near term.”

May 7, 1963: Birmingham Police arrest Parker High School student Mattie Howard in front of the Carver Theatre. Youths became an integral part of the civlil rights movement when the Children’s Crusade began on May 2. The plan was for college and high school students to demonstrate, but many came with their younger brothers and sisters. Howard’s arrest came during Day 6 of the Children’s campaign. Photos of her arrest appeared in several publications outside of Alabama. (Norman Dean, Birmingham News file)

He declared earlier, “In the spirit of Frederick Douglass, I call upon my fellow Detroiters, activists and citizens alike, to let’s meet to plan our actions to combat this abrogation of democracy. It may require civil disobedience in the name of all Americans who love freedom and democracy; it may require us to choose economic targets to boycott; strategic locations to disrupt; facilities to protect symbolically, and a plan of communication to our nation to show our outrage.”

The attack on Detroit comes in the wake of the legislature’s conversion of Michigan to a “Right to Work” state in December. Many at the time called on the state’s unions to conduct a general strike in protest, but that has not happened. 

Sitdown at GM plant in 1930’s.

The United Auto Workers was born in Detroit and Flint, another majority-Black city which has been under an EFM since 2008 But the union’s reaction to the pending takeover of Detroit has been virtually nil.

It issued a statement declaring, “The governor’s announcement last week of his planned appointment of an emergency financial manager for Detroit was disheartening to say the least. Frankly, it is further evidence of his intent to erode democracy for the citizens of Michigan in general, and the city of Detroit in particular.” 

Some UAW members participated in protest against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker when he came to Troy, MI, but protests have not stopped the devastation of Detroit, the poorest city in the country. It’s time to “disrupt commerce” as UAW workers did in the 1930’s.

It called for no action whatsoever, let alone a general strike, to defend the interests of at least half of the state’s Black residents who have been disenfranchised, as well as public workers who stand to lose their jobs and pensions under emergency managers. 

Earlier, it took no action on behalf of tens of thousands of Michigan families Snyder permanently cut off public assistance in 2011. Neither did Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH, who told this reporter that an economic boycott of the state in response was out of the question. 

Campaign against PA 4 EM law succeeded.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 25, which represents most municipal workers, led the campaign to repeal Public Act 4 and is currently active in pursuing a federal lawsuit against its successor act. However, when workers at the city’s mammoth Water and Sewerage Department, which serves six counties, struck Sept. 30, 2012 to protest an ongoing takeover of the department, Council 25 representatives sabotaged the strike, passing out a federal judge’s “back-to-work” order on the picket lines and telling workers to return. 

During the March 6 rally, however Local 207 secretary-treasurer Mike Mulholland, one of the strike’s leaders, said, “We fought back against the takeover of Detroit’s largest department, hoping the rest of the unions would grab it and spread it. They did not, but there will be other opportunities. Imagine what would have happened if the rest of the union movement had walked out when we did.

DTE Energy owes millions to the City of Detroit.