Benton Harbor, MI Story On The Rachel Maddow Show 4/18/2011

[travelingtypist]

Run time: 08:45 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-420LU_Of0   Posted on YouTube: April 19, 2011 By YouTube Member: BiGgDrE5000 Views on YouTube: 252   Posted on DU: April 19, 2011 By DU Member: travelingtypist Views on DU: 3533

 
Devastating indictment of the intended-but-not-reported results of the Michigan fiscal martial law.

[donheld]

1. A foot in the door

They get away with it in Benton Harbor, it will escalate to no end.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. K&R! Oh, I saw this! What a heartbreaker!

It sure made me furious and I hadn't even heard of this town before tonight.

Thanks for posting!

[emlev]

3. Please post any actions of resistance you hear about!

This must not stand.

[freshwest]

4. Listened to this on Thom Hartmann call-in show. It involved Whirlpool Corp., nonprofits turning...

Public property into private by allegedly helping poor people with new housing. The raze their homes and then turn the land over to the wealthy. The theft of the water utility was detailed as well by one of the community's elected officials whose post along with others were eliminated. People being run off the land and communities destroyed. A process that has been going on with the complicity of 'nonprofits' nationwide, but not as blatant and wholesale as this. And the kicker is, they did it all legally.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. That's what Rachel said and that's what's infuriating.

These are all poor folks, with an average annual income just over $10,000. What can they possibly do in the face of this? Reminds me of the "eminent domain" story on "60 Minutes" a few years back. Unconscionable.

[freshwest]

12. Yes, she did, but Dennis Knowles has been fighting in the trenches for years on it.

The details were so similar to political shenanigans I've seen up close, but citizens were unable to stop them, even with some of the best arguments, professionals, personal efforts, tons of organizing and protesting. All the impacts on the communities, the people affected and environment were disregarded in the end.

It was a very disillusioning experience and a failure of the democratic process. Community meetings became just chances to vent and nothing was mitigated. More harmful to people was the fact that If don't support the ballyhooed improvement, you are shouted down for either discriminating, not being for the environment, people having jobs, etc. People's civil rights became moot when the social services were privatized, the environment was forgotten as the land and water were savaged, and there were less jobs than before, but more McMansions in gated subdivisions.

There is permanent damage caused to the sense of community and democratic ideas and process because these front groups pose as a good thing, they talk about civil rights, the environment, helping people, making jobs, etc. Then when the property, be it real estate as in park land or public service jobs to private contractors, they suddenly disappear. As soon as it's all said and done, the theft is finalized and people are shoved aside.

It's dirty and personal and it's in cities, counties and states. It's primarily the developers doing this, but also in the cases that I saw there were foreign corporations taking the land. Even though the taxpayer had paid for whatever it was, and there was nothing wrong with the ways things were, and there were very good reasons for keeping things as they were and no outcry for change. So the companies brought in their own marketers and consultants to convince the state.

They crushed small businesses, ran people off their land with zoning, and did it all with great arrogance and listened to no one. I'm sure all legislatures enacted similar laws since September 11th and now they are being implemented for profit. While trust, diversity of ways of living and generations of relationships have been destroyed like clear cutting.

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Thanks for the background, though it's certainly disheartening.

What this needs is more publicity. I'm glad that Rachel's covering it, but these folks need a hero to take up their cause. They don't have resources or influence, so they need somebody who does.

This is so damn depressing because it's so incredibly unfair. I'm sure that the developers are behind it, but they must have everyone who's official in their pocket. As for the environment, this plan takes a pristine piece of nature and paves it over.

This actually sounds similar to a "Law & Order" I saw last night, where every official in the town was corrupt and the people had no recourse. But, with this, I'm afraid of how it's going to end.

[dotymed]

11. Legally? The "Golden Rule"

He who has the gold, makes the rules.
America reminds me of the USSR during it's last death throes.


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,<72> that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

[Enthusiast]

6. Randian philosophy coming to fruition.

"You ain't seen nothing yet." Remember those words by Ronald Reagan. I believe this kind of thing is what he meant. Now our own party is going along with this criminality.

[Casandia]

7. Here's some protest info...Will post more when I hear it.

Time Wednesday, April 27 · 12:00pm - 3:00pm

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Location Benton Harbor, Michigan

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Created By Heartland Revolution

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More Info On Wednesday, April 27th there will be a march/rally in Benton Harbor, Michigan in response to the usurping of the rights and democratic process of their city government and their citizens by empowering a non-elected Emergency Financial Manager to take over the day-to-day operations of Benton Harbor.

We will start at the Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce located at 38 West Wall Street and then march to City Hall.

We need your help to get the word out to make this protest huge in numbers.

Thank you,
Heartland Revolution

[travelingtypist]

8. This is awesome.

Thanks for posting. Hope you can spread the word far and wide.

[freshwest]

13. Thank you so much!

[Shadowflash]

9. This is the line in the sand

that proves the whole tea party movement is bullshit.

They name the movement after a protest against taxation without representation and drone on about less government and local control but, when all these principles that they are supposedly fighting for, are all wrapped up in one issue we hear nothing but crickets from them.

This just proves that the whole movement is fake astroturf and are not, at all, interested in ANY of the principles that they constantly spout off at the mouth about.

[JJW]

10. Sieg heil, mein Fuhrer!

This emergency bill is just like Hilter's enabling act of 1933 that transformed the world's strongest democracy into an evil dictatorship.

[freshwest]

14. Yes, it's a tradition to eliminate all the dissenting voices in government to fascism.

[tinwi]

16. Wisconsin governor overturned MIlwaukee laws too

Why don't the city's mayors do with state law like the governors are doing with federal law (or their own state constitutions). Ignore them. Do like Van Hollen (AG WI) declare the federal health care law non-applicable to Wisconsin. Benton Harbor why should you have to listen to Snyder? There is no heirarchy of laws in this country anymore, so make your own, throw the emergency managers out on their rears!

[democracy1st]

17. kick