America will face Riots, Marches, and Revolution

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States worry overcrowded prisons case could impact entire nation

California’s 15-year legal battle over inmates’ health care heads to U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday

By David G. Savage and Carol J. Williams / McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Published: November 29. 2010 4:00AM PST

WASHINGTON — The suicide rate in California’s overcrowded prisons is nearly twice the national average, and one inmate dies every eight days from inadequate medical care.

These are just two indicators cited in the 15-year legal battle over whether the state’s prisons are failing to provide humane medical care for 165,000 inmates.

On Tuesday the problems of California’s prisons will move to a national stage, when the U.S. Supreme Court hears the state’s challenge to an extraordinary court order that would require the prison population to be reduced by one-fourth in two years.

That could mean releasing or transferring more than 40,000 inmates, state lawyers say.

The case is not just of interest to California.

Lawyers for 18 other states, including Illinois, Pennsylvania and Virginia, joined in support of California’s appeal, saying they feared a ruling upholding the prison-release order could trigger similar moves across the nation. “Real-world experience” suggests that releasing a large number of inmates would “inevitably place innocent citizens at much greater risk,” they said.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials call the order from a panel of three federal judges “the most sweeping intrusion into a state’s management” of its prisons ever handed down by a court. They see an activist panel — composed of two federal district judges and a federal appeals judge — “using the guise of providing health care” to order a restructuring of the state’s correctional system. They also argue that the forced release of prisoners would threaten the public safety.

Defenders of the judges’ order cite Schwarzenegger’s own words in 2006 declaring that California faced an overcrowding emergency in its prisons. They also say the state is exaggerating the impact of the order.

California locks up many prisoners for repeat petty crimes or for technical parole violations, even though they are not considered dangerous or violent.

“California has people in prison who wouldn’t be in prison in any other state,” said former Bush administration Solicitor Gen. Paul Clement, who represents one group of state prisoners. His brief cites comments from a former Texas prison director who said he was surprised and disturbed by the overcrowding in California’s prisons.

Supporters of the judges’ order also emphasize it does not require a wholesale release of inmates. For example, the prisons could free up space by relocating some inmates to county jails, private prisons or out-of-state facilities. In addition, some nonviolent inmates could be released early.

“We’re sending 80,000 people to prison each year for two to three months — parole violators who are going from their home communities to sit in reception centers where there is no rehabilitation, no health care, no drug programs,” said Michael Bien, lead attorney in the case brought on behalf of prisoners deprived of mental health care.

“This is the kind of thing that everyone knows doesn’t do anything for public safety,” Bien added, “These men and women come back home after a couple of months having been exposed to much more dangerous people. If they weren’t dangerous before, they are now.”

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The Noise Remains the Same as 1858

By John Galt
November 3, 2010

Thankfully, the farce is over.

Unfortunately for the American people, the noise remains the same and that sound they hear is of putrescence, a Senatus of arrogance which once again will proclaim with fanfare to the citizens of the nation that they will work towards compromise and then ignore the will of the masses. The United States has become a larger version of the PIIGS, where debt was once seen as a low risk proposition and deficit spending to pacify the populous a way of life. Unfortunately for the world, this sow is dying and the actions of the electorate have insured that the screeching, squealing, and agonizing death of this whorish system will bring freedom back from the brink of the light and into eternal darkness.

The nation split, as it always does, between the coastlines, as the great flyover country screamed for change, but the protected elites of both parties within their power centers insisted that they knew better, thus insuring a divisive systemic gridlock. The “new” paradigm is nothing more than a reprint of the old newspapers of yesteryear where American citizens thought they were getting a massive new group of idealists and instead received only a taste as the old money bought off the same willing group of dupes to extend and pretend the big delusion. The hope of the Tea Party movement was realized in many of those states where corruption was finally held in check yet once again in the Eastern and Pacific coastal states, the desire to be permanent serfs of a Satanic statist model insured the aristocracy retained their grip on Lady Liberty’s throat.

Nancy Pelosi may not be Speaker of the House in the next session, but her ability to inflict massive damage with the implementation of the Marxist agenda as revenge against those souls who dared reject her colleagues is now all but assured. During the next seven weeks, as I have been warning, the most dangerous group of initiatives will be implemented in parallel with the acceleration of social unrest. Benefits long implied will be denied. Organizations who face losing their comfortable position at the suckling source will begin the process of disrupting our daily activities. The party of the extreme left will now toss its lot in with the radical revolutionaries to profit for one last sixty day period, padding their fleeced financial gains with permanent pilfering programs designed to enhance the power of the Executive Branch as long as their man is in a position of power.

Do not let your hopes be totally dashed but understand that we are not living in normal times. In 1858 it was the hope of the abolitionists and proponents of states rights that a compromise would be reached to avoid the impending conflict which was rapidly approaching. Foreign powers then, as now, held strong interest in segregating America into economic blocs to be positioned against itself, insuring a new nation consumes its own soul and preventing the ascendancy into world power. The modern era has allowed the same malicious mendacity whereas their purchase of our debt and exportation of our manufacturing base only provides the illusion of our independence, obfuscating the enslavement of the citizenry to a world banking system of dependency. Thus as during that time, the nation split into regional factions with the unity of our purpose divided by the prospect of profiteering at the expense of the average man or woman. Then, as now, a prescient quote from Abraham Lincoln during the Illinois Senatorial Debate of 1858 applies to our current era of corruption, malfeasance, and suicidal surrender to the willful and wanton slothfulness provided in the protections of quasi-capitalist socialist state:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

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Madison County to Evict Man from his Camper on 38 acres

Updated: Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010, 11:39 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010, 10:25 PM EST

• By: Brad Edwards

MADISON COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) - 72-year-old Dick Thompson isn't sure if he wants to fight or give up.

"I want to get the hell out of here right now — too much hate," Thompson says one minute.

"I think it's a bunch of bull," he says another, vowing to stay.

Thompson faces eviction from his 38 acres in Madison County. The county lawyer tells 24-Hour News 8 it's because Thompson is breaking too many rules, laws and ordinances; Thompson has no water, no sewer and no electricity in his recreational trailer that he calls home.

"I'm a country boy," explains Thompson. "I just want to be left alone."

Thompson is mighty fine, thank you very much — along with his dog, Ace, his horse, Fritz, his bird, Sunshine, and many more.

The eviction papers state go-time is “Nov. 30 at noon,”' though no one came — not yet.

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9 Shocking Examples of Black Friday Violence – Is This a Foretaste of the Economic Riots We Can Expect When the Financial System Collapses?

It seems with each passing year the madness on Black Friday gets even worse. This year, there were reports of fights and rioting from coast to coast. It was estimated that over 180 million U.S. shoppers headed for the stores on Friday, and whenever you get that many people together there are going to be problems. But just how crazed ordinary Americans are getting over saving a little bit of money is deeply disturbing when you really start thinking about it. If people will go this wild just to save 40 percent on a television set, then what in the world are they going to do when they have been without food for a couple of days? If Americans will act like psychotic animals just to save 50 bucks, then what in the world will they do when they have lost everything and are desperate to survive?

All of us had better hope and pray that an economic collapse does not happen any time soon, because it is becoming increasingly apparent that the American people are not morally equipped to be able to handle one. Greed and selfishness have become so rampant in America that large segments of the population have totally forgotten how to be any other way.

If the United States ever experiences a really, really bad economic downturn, this nation could very quickly start looking like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina from coast to coast. Most Americans would simply not know how to handle it.

The following are 9 shocking examples of Black Friday violence that should make all of us wonder what is happening to America....

#1 At a Target store in Buffalo, New York the crowds waiting impatiently outside suddenly became a chaotic mob once the doors opened at 4 AM on Friday morning.

One man that was lying on the ground remembers thinking "I don't want to die here" while he was being trampled by crazed shoppers....

#2 Crowds were becoming so violent at a Wal-Mart in Sacramento, California that the police actually evacuated the store early Friday morning.

#3 Three women from West Palm Beach, Florida said that $1,000 in presents that they had just purchased at Best Buy were stolen from their vehicle on Friday morning within minutes of being purchased.

#4 One U.S. Marine reservist that was collecting toys for children was stabbed with a knife when he attempted to stop a shoplifter in eastern Georgia on Friday.

#5 Blogger Lynne Elder-Blau has posted about overhearing police officers describe a huge brawl that erupted this year at one well-known store on Black Friday....

Well, the girls and I were in a popular convenience store in Garden City last night while a store employee and a Garden City Police Department Officer were visiting. They were conversing about a large group of customers who got into a knock-down brawl at a nationally-known variety store in Garden City yesterday morning. Several police officers were brought in to break up the ball of adults who were pulling and tugging at products and actually punching other customers in their faces and stomach areas! We're not just talking about a few people who were involved in this violent non-sense. The officer said that there was a large amount of people involved in this particular altercation. Ridiculous!!!

#6 A 21-year-old woman from Middleton, Wisconsin was arrested when she threatened to shoot other shoppers while waiting to get into a Toys R Us store for Black Friday. The other shoppers had objected when she attempted to move to the front of the line.

#7 The following is video of customers literally tearing apart a store display at a Wal-Mart in Douglasville, Georgia as they pushed and shoved each other in an attempt to grab the best deals....

#8 The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department actually "locked down" a section of a Cerritos, California shopping mall after a wild fight broke out in the food court. There were even reports that some people were flinging chairs at other customers.

#9 At one Wal-Mart in Texas, a near-riot broke out right in the middle of the store as a huge crowd of customers pushed and shoved each other to get a handful of Black Friday deals that were being wheeled out to the floor....

If you want to see even more videos of Black Friday craziness, check out this and this.

Remember, the products that these Americans are fighting over are not free. This is how crazy people are willing to go just to get a deep discount on an item.

So what is going to happen someday when people are desperate for food or shelter?

If this is how people act when the sun is shining, how are they going to behave once a really bad storm arrives?

In America today, fewer and fewer people are treating others the way that they would like to be treated themselves.

Instead of showing others kindness and respect, in 2010 most Americans would seemingly rather trample anyone who is in the way of getting what they want.

So what do you think?

Are Americans becoming more greedy and more selfish or are they basically "good" and "decent" people most of the time?

Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion....

[American Patriot]

Madison County to Evict Man from his Camper on 38 acres

Updated: Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010, 11:39 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010, 10:25 PM EST

• By: Brad Edwards

MADISON COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) - 72-year-old Dick Thompson isn't sure if he wants to fight or give up.

"I want to get the hell out of here right now — too much hate," Thompson says one minute.

"I think it's a bunch of bull," he says another, vowing to stay.

Thompson faces eviction from his 38 acres in Madison County. The county lawyer tells 24-Hour News 8 it's because Thompson is breaking too many rules, laws and ordinances; Thompson has no water, no sewer and no electricity in his recreational trailer that he calls home.

"I'm a country boy," explains Thompson. "I just want to be left alone."

Thompson is mighty fine, thank you very much — along with his dog, Ace, his horse, Fritz, his bird, Sunshine, and many more.

The eviction papers state go-time is “Nov. 30 at noon,”' though no one came — not yet.

Well, Ryan, there you go... get yourself that dirt floor cabin in the woods and see what the hell happens to you in oHIo.

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U.S. Military Prepares for Economic Collapse

Raven Clabough | The New American
07 December 2010

Skeptics who continue to assert that the economic plight of the United States has been overstated need not look further than the Pentagon to find out just how wrong they are. CNBC has learned that the Pentagon is currently playing out “war games” pertinent to an American economic meltdown.

According to CNBC, “The Pentagon is planning for real economic threats to America.”

CNBC’s Business News analyst Eamon Javers explains: “Ever since the crash of 2008, the Defense Intelligence establishment has really been paying a lot of attention to global markets and how they could serve as a threat to U.S. National security interests. At one upcoming seminar that we’re going to see here next month, they’re going to be taking a look at a lot of the issues … [including] the use of sovereign wealth funds to manipulate markets, currencies; nation state economic collapse, sovereign default, nation state instability; U.S. Allies’ budgets, deficits, national security infrastructures.”

Similarly, the Army has launched an operation called “Unified Quest 2011” in which it studies the “implications of ‘large scale economic breakdown’ inside the United States that would force the Army to keep ‘domestic order amid civil unrest.'” The Quest also trains the Army in how to “deal with fragmented global power and drastically lower budgets.”

In October, the United States Marine Corps visited J.P. Morgan to “study markets and the economy.”

Javers concludes, “All different parts of the Pentagon and Defense Intelligence establishment are looking at markets and looking at ways they can present a new kind of threat to the United States. These are the guys whose job it is to think of the worst possible things that could happen.”

According to Wired.com, the Army hosts a Unified Quest every year, which entails “the Army’s chief of staff [instructing] talented mid-career and senior officers and senior enlisted (wo)men to evaluate where the service is falling short-and propose remedies.”

However, the 2011 Unified Quest lends truth to assertions that the United States is indeed not witnessing an upward economic recovery, as so many in our federal government have asserted. Soldiers are being trained in evacuation and detainment as a response to rioting, revealing the possibility that the United States military may resort to martial law in order to maintain order.

Unified Quest 2011 also prepares soldiers to act as diplomats in the event that there is a limited availability of diplomats at combat outposts, or on the streets contending with hungry and angry Americans.

Wired.com writes, “There’s a strong consensus that negotiations ought to be part of the Army’s toolkit — something backed by a ream of recent doctrinal manuals and various short courses in negotiation at the Army’s many schools.”

Blacklisted News explains that the Pentagon’s war games are just one of many examples that show the direction in which the world is headed.

Others include the decentralization of FEMA from a single distribution facility in Washington to 15 regional facilities across the nation.

Blacklisted News also claims, “Anecdotal evidence indicates that the U.S. government has been the leading buyer of freeze dried foods for the last couple of years, and private emergency shelter contractors have reported a shortage in equipment and supplies for building personal-sized bunkers.”

Other global powers are apparently preparing for “Doomsday” scenarios.

Russia has reportedly been preparing for the development of 5,000 new underground bunkers for the city of Moscow, while the European Union commissioned the building of a “Doomsday Seed Vault” in a mountainside several hundred feet above sea level in 2006.

Additionally, FEMA’s website recommends that American families have emergency preparedness supplies readily available, including food and water, for at least several weeks.

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Government Pentagon Has Been ‘War Gaming’ for Economic Disaster Since Early ‘09

• Posted on December 7, 2010 at 10:09am by Jonathon M. Seidl

While we learned yesterday that the U.S. is preparing its domestic response to a potential economic collapse, the bigger story might be that the U.S. has been playing such “war games” for almost two years.

“The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs — but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.” That’s how Politico reporter Eamon Javers (now with CNBC and who brought us Monday’s report) began an article dated April 9, 2009.

In that article, he describes how the U.S. first began preparing for an economic collapse. “Participants sat along a V-shaped set of desks beneath an enormous wall of video monitors displaying economic data,” he writes.

“Their efforts were carefully observed and recorded by uniformed military officers and members of the U.S. intelligence community.”

The Office of the Secretary of Defense hosted the two-day event March 17 and 18, 2009, at the Warfare Analysis Laboratory in Laurel, MD.

The “game” didn’t end well for the United States: “the savviest economic warrior proved to be China.”

“We were allowed to fight with financial weapons only (stocks, bonds, currencies, gold, reserves, etc.) and no kinetic weapons,” James Rickards, who participated in the game, told The Blaze in an e-mail.

“This was an example of the changing nature of conflict,” Paul Bracken, a professor and expert in private equity at the Yale School of Management who attended the sessions, told Javers. “The purpose of the game is not really to predict the future, but to discover the issues you need to be thinking about.”

“Why would the military care about global capital flows at all?” asked another person who attended the game. “Because as the global financial crisis plays out, there could be real world consequences, including failed states. We’ve already seen riots in the United Kingdom and the Balkans.”

That was in 2009, before European unrest began grabbing headlines weekly.

Those real-world consequences are exactly what the U.S. is preparing for.

And according to a picture we stumbled upon, those consequences include civil unrest over lack of food caused by a financial crisis.

This picture, reportedly released by the Air Force, shows Alaska National Guard troops taking part in a training exercise. According the picture’s caption, “Alaska Army National Guard Soldiers assist Anchorage Police to calm or detain rioters as part of the training scenario of exercise ‘Vigilant Guard.’” One actor is holding a sign saying, “FOOD NOW!”:



“America‘s intelligence community has said the global economic crisis is now the top threat to the nation’s security,” NPR reported in February ‘09. “The downturn could produce political instability and damage the ties that hold countries together. Countries might even be tempted to engage in financial warfare, officials say.”

Rickards was quoted in that piece saying the tempted could include a country such as China. “You can envision scenarios where they launch a financial attack, you know — a Pearl Harbor on the dollar, if you will,” he said. “And those are the things that I think national security professionals rightly think about. But it doesn’t even have to be that. It could just be China acting in its own best interests, in a way that causes interest rates to go up, the dollar to go down.”

Fox Business also reported on the war gaming in ‘09 and laid out a shockingly relevant scenario involving none other than China:

Picture this hypothetical dreamed up by a national security expert obsessed with economic catastrophe:

Angry that U.S. policies aimed at boosting the economy have devalued their $2 trillion of currency reserves, the Chinese decide to stop buying Treasurys just as America tries to finance its massive spending plans.

In response, the U.S. imposes trade sanctions against China, which in turn pushes for a global currency. From there, the U.S. accuses China of manipulating its own currency and things escalate further.

Without a shot being fired, those actions represent a type of unfriendly economic competition that some are very worried about.

At the time, Fox reported that the Pentagon would hold future war games.

That seems to have happened last month as Javers recently reported.

The new war game, called Unfied Quest 2011, “is the Army Chief of Staff’s primary mechanism to explore enduring challenges and the conduct of operations in a future operational environment.”



“Army officials met outside Washington last week for a thought experiment about the implications of a large-scale economic breakdown that would force the Army to absorb significant funding cuts and prepare the service for an increased role in keeping domestic order amid civil unrest,” InsideDefense.com reported on the recent games.

The article says officials chose the global financial collapse scenario because “it was deemed a plausible course of events given the current global security environment.”

“In such a future,” it reports, “the United States would be broke, causing a domino effect that would push economies across the globe into chaos.”

The latest game included a grim outlook: cuts in defense and international relations, fragmentation of power, and consolidation of “common functions, like logistics, training, medical services and information systems.”

But there was one “sliver lining” according to the article: “The Army would have an influx of qualified recruits as the result of an unemployment rate between 25 percent and 30 percent.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Twelve N.J. Agencies (Including National Guard) Join Forces In Effort To Deal With Crime Spike

December 8, 2010

In the wake of what he described as a recent surge in violent crime in Newark, Orange, East Orange and Irvington, acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino has called in the cavalry.
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Laurino said today his office joined forces this week with 11 other agencies, including the State Police and New Jersey National Guard, in an effort to halt the spike, which comes on the heels of large-scale police layoffs in Newark and with cutbacks looming in Orange.

"With the layoff of officers in Newark and Orange, it is important we work together, particularly with border municipalities," Laurino said.

Newark laid off 167 officers — the largest reduction in its force in 32 years — on Nov. 30, and barring any last-minute concessions, the Orange Police Department will lay off several officers in January.

In the past week, there have been five homicides, 11 shootings and six carjackings throughout Essex County, most of them in Newark, said Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office. In the 10 days since the Newark layoffs, six people were shot during one bloody night on Dec. 4 and three people were killed in a 13-hour period on Dec. 6 and 7.

Laurino said his initiative revolves around intelligence sharing and joint investigations between the prosecutors’ offices in Essex, Bergen and Union counties, the State Police, the state Attorney General’s office, the New Jersey National Guard, Essex County Sheriff’s Department and the Newark, Irvington, East Orange and Orange police departments.

Representatives from each agency met with Laurino on Monday.

"Given the changing landscape in terms of resources, we believe these cooperative policing efforts will assist local police departments and the prosecutor’s office in investigating, solving and prosecuting crime in this region," he said.

Though it’s "too early to tell" if the Newark layoffs are directly related to the surge in violence, Laurino said he wants to take a "pro-active" approach to fighting crime.

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura echoed that sentiment.

"Just in case the layoffs have some kind of an impact, we want to address it and make sure the criminals know our army is still bigger than yours," Fontoura said today. "The layoffs obviously have an impact. I was around in 1978 (when 200 Newark officers were laid off) and it had a tremendous impact. We need to let the citizens know we’re here to work with you and keep you safe."

Homicides and shootings in Essex County are normally investigated by detectives from the local police department as well as the Prosecutor’s Office. Under Laurino’s initiative, detectives from several agencies will now be assigned to each case.

Laurino said he has also assigned two prosecutor’s detectives to the State Police’s Regional Operations and Intelligence Center in West Trenton to analyze data on violent crime that occurs throughout the county.

In addition, State Police and New Jersey National Guard helicopters will provide surveillance of vehicles involved in violent crimes and carjackings, and troopers will help patrol the borders between Newark, Irvington, East Orange and Orange, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the state Attorney General.

Fontoura said that while his officers regularly patrol Newark, he may also establish checkpoints to help stymie a recent spike in carjackings.

Homicides and shootings normally spike in the final 13 weeks, according to national crime statistics. But with layoffs potentially upping the ante, Laurino said he wanted to stop, rather than react to a potential surge in crime.

"This is the time of the year when you do see a spike in crime, around the holiday season," he said. "We just had layoffs. There’s always fear we’re going to be tested."

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Glenn Beck Warns Of Food Riots, Martial Law & Gun Confiscations

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The rules have changed, a 3 dimensional chess game being played against Americas liberties.


The choices laid before us have been crafted to destroy our freedoms, we must now think outside the box to stay free because a Revolution is approaching





Glenn Beck-12/09/10-A



Glenn Beck-12/09/10-B



Glenn Beck-12/09/10-C

[Ryan Ruck]

Chicago Police See Spike In Cop Killings, Assaults

December 4, 2010

The police officer was in full uniform, gathering evidence from a car break-in when someone walked into the garage and shot him and the car's owner in the head, then fired another bullet into their heads as they lay on the ground.

The brazen, daylight slaying last week of Officer Michael Flisk underscores what Chicago police have been saying for months: They are increasingly confronting people willing to attack them even as overall violent crime in Chicago continues to fall.

Five police officers have been killed in the line of duty this year — the most in at least 25 years. A sixth police officer was gunned down as he sat in his vehicle while off-duty just a few days before Flisk's death. Add to that, the number of reports of batteries on police officers has nearly tripled in just over a decade.

In 2009, there were just under 3,300 reports of battery on a police officer, more than twice as many as were reported in 2002 and nearly triple the number reported in 1999.

Police say the most dramatic jump came after the process of reporting the batteries was fully automated in 2004, when it became more accurate. But between 2007 and 2009 the number of reports climbed from 2,677 to 3,298 — a 23 percent increase — and this year the number is on pace to climb well past 3,000 again.

"There is a lack of respect for the police, a lack of fear of the police that's getting worse," said Officer Nick Spencer, a 17-year-department veteran. "They see a cop, and they just don't care anymore."

Police, activists and even some former gang members point to other explanations, from the drop in the number of police officers on the streets to changes in the structure of gangs that has led to increased violence among the city's estimated 100,000 gang members.

Officers routinely return to their station with stories about rocks and other debris pinging off their squad cars as they respond to calls or being confronted by crowds that no longer disperse just because an officer tells them to. Also, the sound of gunfire that used to stop whenever they arrived at a scene now continues long afterward.

Superintendent Jody Weis said there was "no indication whatsoever that there's any group of folks or gangs targeting our officers."

But he has said many times in the last several months that criminals are becoming increasingly brazen, and clearly he has been baffled in recent months by people who don't hesitate to take on a police officer.

"I simply cannot understand how a person can have such a total disregard of life and for those who keep order on the streets that he can attack, disarm and then shoot and kill a uniformed officer in broad daylight," he said after the July slaying of Officer Thor Soderberg as he was walking out of a police station. "This savage act defies all human value."

It was a similar story when off-duty Officer Thomas Wortham IV was shot and killed when he tried to stop a group of men from stealing his motorcycle.

"He identified himself as a police officer and they still killed him," Spencer said.

Another officer, Michael Bailey, was shot and killed while washing his car outside his home after returning from working the overnight shift, where he was assigned to protect Mayor Richard Daley's home.

The department has about 1,000 fewer officers than the 13,500 it had as recently as March 2008, according to the police union. As the department scrambles to cover the city — more officers are riding alone in squad cars, dubbed "rolling coffins" by beat cops — there is a growing concern that the uptick in violence is linked to the smaller force.

"The criminal element sees there are fewer police officers out there," said Lt. Robert Weisskopf, head of the Chicago police lieutenants' union. "Criminals go where there's no pressure on them . . . and the easier it is, the more bold they will become."

With Weis saying more than half the homicides committed in the city this year involved gangs, police say they have no doubt that many of the assaults and at least some of the police slayings were committed by known gang members — including the 19-year-old parolee charged with killing Flisk.

"They feel like they can get away with a lot more," said Phil Cline, Weis' predecessor, who said he noticed during his tenure that gangs seemed to have less and less fear of police. "When you think of a 19-year-old gang banger murdering an officer processing a crime scene, it's unbelievable."

Some of that escalating violence, police say, may be due to changes in the gangs.

Lt. Thomas Waldera said gangs are far less structured than ever because many gang leaders have been sent to prison — resulting in less organization and control among members who are not only more likely to attack rivals but members of their own gangs.

Former Vice Lord gang member Reginald Berry, who spent 18 years in prison for murder, said the gang hierarchy that was in place when he was locked up had all but disappeared by the time he got out in 2006.

"All these young guys are taking the law into their own hands; every little kid's got their own little gang and they won't let up on one another," Berry said.

Waldera said those gang members don't seem nearly as concerned about the police as they once did.

"They're not afraid of us at all anymore," he said. "Most are not stupid enough to fight it out with the police, but there is something going on."

[American Patriot]

Wow.

[American Patriot]

Well, my friends... it is with great sadness and unbelief that I am about to post the following article.

I grew up in Detroit, for a portion of my life. I was born there in 1957, and lived there until I was about 6. I moved to Kentucky and lived there until 1968. During the Cuban Missile Crisis my Dad woke us all up in the middle of the night one night and put us in a car and headed to Kentucky for a few weeks til things cooled off. Later, we moved there for a few years.

I went to three High Schools in that city. Cass Technical High, Finney and finally Edwin Denby HS.

In October of 1976 I left the place, barely ever looking back, and knowing full well that the city wouldn't change, merely get bigger and meaner. The following article CONFIRMS this thread is going to come true.

If Detroit - a city built on cars and transportation can fall because of the Socialism of this country (NAMELY UNIONS I MIGHT ADD) then every city is in danger, and urban living is suspect.

the following is something that upsets me - because my home town is now falling down and nearly gone. Bankruptcy isn't far behind.

Detroit Is Halting Garbage Pickup, Police Patrols In 20% Of City: Expect Bankruptcy In 2011

Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis | Dec. 13, 2010, 7:23 AM | 4,928 | 41

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Mike "Mish" Shedlock

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Mike "Mish" Shedlock Mish is an investment advisor at Sitka Pacific Capital. He writes the widely read Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.






Detroit has been bankrupt for years. It simply refuses to admit it. Detroit's schools are bankrupt as well. A mere 25% of students graduate from high school.


Yet, in spite of hints and threats from mayors and budget commissions, and in spite of common sense talk of bankruptcy, Detroit has not pulled the bankruptcy trigger.


In a futile attempt to stave off the inevitable one last time, Mayor Bing's latest plan is to cutoff city services including road repairs, police patrols, street lights, and garbage collection in 20% of Detroit.


Bing to Cede 20% of Detroit to Gangs and Homeless
City officials suggest this will not shrink the size of the city. Perhaps it won't shrink Detroit on Google Maps. However, Bing's plan would effectively surrender 20% of the city to gangs and the homeless.


Would you want to live in one of the gang war-zones that his plan would create? Would you want to live in a bordering neighborhood or in a bordering city?


Regardless of your answer, Bing's plan cannot and will not work and I believe Detroit will, sometime in 2011, file for bankruptcy. If so, expect massive turmoil in municipal bonds.


Less Than a Full-Service City
The Wall Street Journal discusses Bing's plan in Less Than a Full-Service City

More than 20% of Detroit's 139 square miles could go without key municipal services under a new plan being developed for the city, with as few as seven neighborhoods seen as meriting the city's full resources.
Those details, outlined by Detroit planning officials this week, offer the clearest picture yet of how Mayor Dave Bing intends to execute what has become his signature program: reconfiguring Detroit to reflect its declining population and fiscal health. Yet the blueprint still leaves large legal and financial questions unresolved.
Mr. Bing's staff wants to concentrate Detroit's remaining population—expected to be less than 900,000 after this year's Census count—and limited local, state and federal dollars in the most viable swaths of the city, while other sectors could go without such services as garbage pickup, police patrols, road repair and street lights.
Karla Henderson, a city planning official leading the mayor's campaign, said in an interview Thursday that her staff had deemed just seven to nine sections of Detroit worthy of receiving the city's full resources. She declined to identify the areas, but said the final plan could include a greater number.
"What we have found is that even some of our stronger neighborhoods are at a tipping point with vacancy," Ms. Henderson said. "Vacancy adds to blight and blight is a disease that takes over the whole neighborhood. So the sooner we can get those homes occupied, the better for the city."
Officials bristle when their efforts are described as downsizing, saying their aim is to repurpose portions of the city, not redraw its borders. "We will not be shrinking the city," Ms. Henderson said. "We are 139 [square] miles and we'll stay that way."

Repurpose or Abandon?
Of course the Mayor's office did not say they would abandon sections of the city to gangs. But how the hell can repurposing as described above possibly mean anything else?


What's next? Barbed wire? Oh wait a minute, Detroit already has tried that. Razor-wire too. Here's a picture of Detroit's clearly abandoned repurposed Michigan Central Train Depot.

Image: AP

Image courtesy of the Journal and the AP.

Detroit's Tax Collection Process
The Detroit Free Press points out Detroit botched Packard plant tax collection
The City of Detroit has failed for nearly four years to send property tax bills to the owner of the Packard plant, costing the city badly needed cash.
At 3.5 million square feet, the plant is by far the largest derelict property in Detroit.
It wasn't until the Free Press began making inquiries last week that the city's assessor's office returned the property to the tax rolls -- with an assessed value of nearly $1.6 million. The change came nearly four years after a Michigan Supreme Court decision prompted the city to surrender the century-old plant to Bioresource, a company whose last listed corporate representative is a convicted drug dealer.
Last week, less than 18 hours after a reporter questioned why the property was listed as city-owned, the assessor's office changed its status to "taxable." The property's assessed value ballooned from almost nothing to nearly $1.6 million.
Robin Boyle, professor of urban planning at Wayne State University, said the error underscores "just how challenged the city is in dealing with the fundamental task of title, control, oversight and follow-through" with property throughout the city.
"To me, that is a fundamental problem that leaves Detroit in a consistently weakened position. It can't even do the basics," Boyle said. "This is a huge piece of real estate, and yet, there's still confusion."
Although only one tenant remains on the property, the plant is not entirely neglected. Scrappers prowl it for metal. Graffiti artists decorate its walls. Someone perched TV sets atop pillars standing at least 15 feet tall.
And it can all be yours for $13 million.
David Wax, senior associate with Burger Easton & Co. in Farmington Hills, has listed the property for sale for a couple of years. He said there was a good deal of interest before the world economic crisis and before steel prices collapsed, making the Packard plant less attractive to buy and then demolish for its metal.
"For 13 years it's been vandalized, raped, burned, stripped of anything of value," Wax said. And on any given day, he said, you can hear "people with hammers and cutting torches cutting steel out of the building."
Packard Closeup Images
The Business Insider has fantastic set of images of the beautiful $13 million Packard property. Here are a couple of those images.

Image: flickr


Image: flickr

Now that the building has been put back on the active tax rolls to a convicted drug dealer, this is the sequence of events I imagine would transpire were Detroit to stay on its existing path using Bing's plan as the roadmap.

1. Detroit will send a tax bill to Bioresource
2. Bioresourse will not pay the bill
3. Detroit will reacquire the building in a tax sale with no bidders
4. In a couple of years Detroit will realize it once again owns the building
5. Detroit will repurpose the Packard plant with the same success as depicted in the Michigan Central Train Depot image.

Detroit Schools Bankrupt
Flashback July 24,2009: The Wall Street Journal reports Detroit’s Schools Are Going Bankrupt, Too

Now’s the time to cast off collective bargaining agreements and introduce school choice.
‘Am I optimistic that they can avoid it . . . ? I am not.” That’s what retired judge Ray Graves said this week when asked whether the Detroit public schools, which he is advising, would be forced into bankruptcy. Facing violence, a shrinking student body, and graduating just one out of every four students who enter the ninth grade on time, the city’s schools have been stumbling for years. Now they face a seemingly insurmountable deficit and are expected to file for bankruptcy protection at about the time that students should be settling down in a new school year.
As embarrassing as such a filing would be, it also may be the only thing that can force the kinds of changes Detroit schools need—as the financial turmoil is just the latest manifestation of a system in terminal decline.
Detroit is like many urban school districts—large, unwieldy and bureaucratic, with a powerful union that makes the system unable to adapt to changing circumstances and that until very recently had an indulgent political class that insulated it from reform. That insulation came in two forms. The first was neglect. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spent several years distracted by a scandal stemming from his affair with a staffer. He resigned last year, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to four months in jail. Had he been an effective mayor, he might have also been a powerful advocate for students.
The other insulating force was a conscious decision to wall off Detroit from charter schools. In 1993, Michigan’s legislature made it difficult to create new charters in Detroit by declaring that only community colleges could authorize charters for primary and secondary schools in “First-Class Districts”—defined as those with more than 100,000 students. Detroit was the only First-Class District. In 2003 the state, under pressure from the Detroit Federation of Teachers, turned down a gift of $200 million from philanthropist Robert Thompson that would have established 15 charter schools in the city. Those charters are needed today.
The net result has been a school system that’s been coming apart as the teachers union has dug in its heels. In 2006, the union illegally went on strike, killing a plan to force teachers to take a pay cut to balance the system’s books.

Collective Bargaining has Morally and Fiscally Bankrupted Detroit Schools
Read that again. Under pressure from the Teachers' Union, Detroit turned down $200 Million. That was in 2003 dollars. Wow. No doubt the union "did it for the kids".
For more on the appalling behavior of Detroit's teachers' unions please see Detroit Public Schools (25% graduation rate) teachers unions opposing highly qualified volunteer teachers.
It is time to kill collective bargaining for public unions, every one of them, and nation-wide, not just Detroit.

Detroit Bankruptcy Looms
Flashback April 6, 2010: Detroit Bankruptcy Looms with Deficit of $446 Million in Budget of $1.6 Billion

Detroit has hit the end of the line. It's budget deficit is between $446 million and $466 million (28% to 29%) of $1.6 billion with few ways other than drastic cuts in wages and benefits to address the problem.

If unions will not give in (and they won't), Detroit Faces Bankruptcy.
With that introduction, inquiring minds are diving into the Citizens Research Council report on The Fiscal Condition of the City of Detroit

The Economic Base
The deterioration of the economic base of the city has accelerated. There were an estimated 81,754 vacant housing units (22.2 percent of the total) in Detroit before the recession; that number increased to an estimated 101,737 (27.8 percent of the total) in 2008.
The average price of a residential unit sold in the January through November, 2009 period was $12,439, down from $97,847 in 2003. Remaining businesses and individuals are challenging property tax assessments on parcels that have lost value and, in some cases, cannot be sold at any price.
More than half of employed city residents work outside the city limits; the metro area has the highest unemployment rate of the 100 major metro areas in the U.S.

Detroit Should Embrace Bankruptcy
The only legitimate solution for Detroit is to shed pension obligations, privatize everything it can including the fire department, and dump unions contracts en masse. Since those items can only happen in restructuring, Detroit should openly embrace bankruptcy.

Detroit Warns of Bankruptcy as It Prepares Bond Sale
Flashback March 5, 2010: Detroit Warns of Bankruptcy as It Prepares Bond Sale

Detroit, the largest U.S. city whose debt is rated below investment grade, warned investors of the risk of bankruptcy as it prepares to sell $250 million of bonds to help close its budget deficit.
The city told bondholders in a March 2 preliminary offering statement that while it hasn’t taken steps to reorganize under Chapter 9, it may have few other options if its financial condition worsens. Detroit officials also detailed the steps they would have to take should bankruptcy become necessary.
“If the city’s financial status were to deteriorate further the city’s options to improve its fiscal health may be limited,” Detroit said in the statement. Bondholders “should not expect that their rights to payment and remedies will not be adversely affected by filing under the bankruptcy code.”
“We are still in a financial crisis but insolvency isn’t on the horizon or on the agenda at this time,” Mayor Dave Bing said in an e-mail from his spokesman, Dan Lijana. The total deficit this year is estimated at $280 million.

Bing Still Pretends - How Long Can It Last?
For reasons unknown, Bing just cannot do what is right. He will not come flat out and say what everyone in their right mind knows - that Detroit is fiscally and morally bankrupt and so are its schools.
Instead, on December 10, 2010 Detroit Borrows $100 Million for Police and Fire Headquarters.

Detroit, whose population has dropped by half since 1950, borrowed $100 million to turn the MGM Grand Casino’s former site into a headquarters for the police, fire and emergency-services departments.
The city sold so-called Recovery Zone Bonds authorized under the U.S. economic-stimulus plan, borrowing at 4.55 percent, the city said in a press release today. The bonds, with the longest term maturing in 2035, were sold through the Michigan Finance Authority by investment banks led by Siebert Brandford Shank & Co., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“The financial markets believe in what we’re doing to bring fiscal responsibility back to Detroit,” said Mayor Dave Bing, in a prepared statement today.
So-called recovery zone bonds were included in the economic-stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama last year to help expand the economy of areas with poverty and unemployment. They’re a type of Build America Bond that comes with a 45 percent interest subsidy rather than 35 percent rate under the Build America program, which expires Dec. 31.
The bonds were rated A1, or fifth highest, by Moody’s Investor’s Service and AA-, or fourth highest, by Standard & Poor’s.

BABs Set to End December 31, 2010
Note the ridiculous rating of those bonds by Moody's and by Standard & Poor’s. If the Federal government is backing those bonds, then they are AAA. If not, they are junk. There is no in-between.
Thankfully, the extremely ridiculous Build-America-Bond program will expire on December 31. When it does, no one in their right mind will lend Detroit money, and that at long-last will mean "lights out" for Detroit.
A new Republican governor takes over in Michigan next year, complete with a new Republican legislature. I believe Governor-Elect Rick Snyder will be amenable to fixing what ails Detroit and numerous other cities in Michigan.
Should Mayor Bing not seek bankruptcy assistance, I propose for Governor Snyder to force Detroit into bankruptcy. It is the only hope Detroit has. Mayor Bing is clearly in over his head.
Governor Snyder would be a hero if he can turn Detroit around, and outside of bankruptcy that appears impossible.
Thus, forced or not, I believe Detroit will file bankruptcy in 2011, the state will accept it, and public unions will be forced to accept massive concessions in bankruptcy court.
Look for massive turmoil in the municipal bond market as a result.





Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/detro...#ixzz181gwHkj9

[vector7]

Detroit Is Halting Garbage Pickup, Police Patrols In 20% Of City: Expect Bankruptcy In 2011

Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis | Dec. 13, 2010, 7:23 AM | 5,291 | 42

Mike "Mish" Shedlock Mish is an investment advisor at Sitka Pacific Capital. He writes the widely read Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

Detroit has been bankrupt for years. It simply refuses to admit it. Detroit's schools are bankrupt as well. A mere 25% of students graduate from high school.

Yet, in spite of hints and threats from mayors and budget commissions, and in spite of common sense talk of bankruptcy, Detroit has not pulled the bankruptcy trigger.

In a futile attempt to stave off the inevitable one last time, Mayor Bing's latest plan is to cutoff city services including road repairs, police patrols, street lights, and garbage collection in 20% of Detroit.

Bing to Cede 20% of Detroit to Gangs and Homeless
City officials suggest this will not shrink the size of the city. Perhaps it won't shrink Detroit on Google Maps. However, Bing's plan would effectively surrender 20% of the city to gangs and the homeless.

Would you want to live in one of the gang war-zones that his plan would create? Would you want to live in a bordering neighborhood or in a bordering city?

Regardless of your answer, Bing's plan cannot and will not work and I believe Detroit will, sometime in 2011, file for bankruptcy. If so, expect massive turmoil in municipal bonds.

Less Than a Full-Service City
The Wall Street Journal discusses Bing's plan in Less Than a Full-Service City

More than 20% of Detroit's 139 square miles could go without key municipal services under a new plan being developed for the city, with as few as seven neighborhoods seen as meriting the city's full resources.

Those details, outlined by Detroit planning officials this week, offer the clearest picture yet of how Mayor Dave Bing intends to execute what has become his signature program: reconfiguring Detroit to reflect its declining population and fiscal health. Yet the blueprint still leaves large legal and financial questions unresolved.

Mr. Bing's staff wants to concentrate Detroit's remaining population—expected to be less than 900,000 after this year's Census count—and limited local, state and federal dollars in the most viable swaths of the city, while other sectors could go without such services as garbage pickup, police patrols, road repair and street lights.

Karla Henderson, a city planning official leading the mayor's campaign, said in an interview Thursday that her staff had deemed just seven to nine sections of Detroit worthy of receiving the city's full resources. She declined to identify the areas, but said the final plan could include a greater number.

"What we have found is that even some of our stronger neighborhoods are at a tipping point with vacancy," Ms. Henderson said. "Vacancy adds to blight and blight is a disease that takes over the whole neighborhood. So the sooner we can get those homes occupied, the better for the city."

Officials bristle when their efforts are described as downsizing, saying their aim is to repurpose portions of the city, not redraw its borders. "We will not be shrinking the city," Ms. Henderson said. "We are 139 [square] miles and we'll stay that way."

Repurpose or Abandon?
Of course the Mayor's office did not say they would abandon sections of the city to gangs. But how the hell can repurposing as described above possibly mean anything else?

What's next? Barbed wire? Oh wait a minute, Detroit already has tried that. Razor-wire too. Here's a picture of Detroit's clearly abandoned repurposed Michigan Central Train Depot.


Image: AP
Image courtesy of the Journal and the AP.

Detroit's Tax Collection Process
The Detroit Free Press points out Detroit botched Packard plant tax collection

The City of Detroit has failed for nearly four years to send property tax bills to the owner of the Packard plant, costing the city badly needed cash.

At 3.5 million square feet, the plant is by far the largest derelict property in Detroit.

It wasn't until the Free Press began making inquiries last week that the city's assessor's office returned the property to the tax rolls -- with an assessed value of nearly $1.6 million. The change came nearly four years after a Michigan Supreme Court decision prompted the city to surrender the century-old plant to Bioresource, a company whose last listed corporate representative is a convicted drug dealer.

Last week, less than 18 hours after a reporter questioned why the property was listed as city-owned, the assessor's office changed its status to "taxable." The property's assessed value ballooned from almost nothing to nearly $1.6 million.

Robin Boyle, professor of urban planning at Wayne State University, said the error underscores "just how challenged the city is in dealing with the fundamental task of title, control, oversight and follow-through" with property throughout the city.

"To me, that is a fundamental problem that leaves Detroit in a consistently weakened position. It can't even do the basics," Boyle said. "This is a huge piece of real estate, and yet, there's still confusion."

Although only one tenant remains on the property, the plant is not entirely neglected. Scrappers prowl it for metal. Graffiti artists decorate its walls. Someone perched TV sets atop pillars standing at least 15 feet tall.

And it can all be yours for $13 million.

David Wax, senior associate with Burger Easton & Co. in Farmington Hills, has listed the property for sale for a couple of years. He said there was a good deal of interest before the world economic crisis and before steel prices collapsed, making the Packard plant less attractive to buy and then demolish for its metal.

"For 13 years it's been vandalized, raped, burned, stripped of anything of value," Wax said. And on any given day, he said, you can hear "people with hammers and cutting torches cutting steel out of the building."

Packard Closeup Images
The Business Insider has fantastic set of images of the beautiful $13 million Packard property. Here are a couple of those images.


Image: flickr


Image: flickr

Now that the building has been put back on the active tax rolls to a convicted drug dealer, this is the sequence of events I imagine would transpire were Detroit to stay on its existing path using Bing's plan as the roadmap.

1. Detroit will send a tax bill to Bioresource
2. Bioresourse will not pay the bill
3. Detroit will reacquire the building in a tax sale with no bidders
4. In a couple of years Detroit will realize it once again owns the building
5. Detroit will repurpose the Packard plant with the same success as depicted in the Michigan Central Train Depot image.

Detroit Schools Bankrupt
Flashback July 24,2009: The Wall Street Journal reports Detroit’s Schools Are Going Bankrupt, Too

Now’s the time to cast off collective bargaining agreements and introduce school choice.

‘Am I optimistic that they can avoid it . . . ?

I am not.”

That’s what retired judge Ray Graves said this week when asked whether the Detroit public schools, which he is advising, would be forced into bankruptcy. Facing violence, a shrinking student body, and graduating just one out of every four students who enter the ninth grade on time, the city’s schools have been stumbling for years. Now they face a seemingly insurmountable deficit and are expected to file for bankruptcy protection at about the time that students should be settling down in a new school year.

As embarrassing as such a filing would be, it also may be the only thing that can force the kinds of changes Detroit schools need—as the financial turmoil is just the latest manifestation of a system in terminal decline.

Detroit is like many urban school districts—large, unwieldy and bureaucratic, with a powerful union that makes the system unable to adapt to changing circumstances and that until very recently had an indulgent political class that insulated it from reform. That insulation came in two forms.

The first was neglect. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spent several years distracted by a scandal stemming from his affair with a staffer. He resigned last year, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to four months in jail. Had he been an effective mayor, he might have also been a powerful advocate for students.

The other insulating force was a conscious decision to wall off Detroit from charter schools. In 1993, Michigan’s legislature made it difficult to create new charters in Detroit by declaring that only community colleges could authorize charters for primary and secondary schools in “First-Class Districts”—defined as those with more than 100,000 students. Detroit was the only First-Class District. In 2003 the state, under pressure from the Detroit Federation of Teachers, turned down a gift of $200 million from philanthropist Robert Thompson that would have established 15 charter schools in the city. Those charters are needed today.

The net result has been a school system that’s been coming apart as the teachers union has dug in its heels. In 2006, the union illegally went on strike, killing a plan to force teachers to take a pay cut to balance the system’s books.

Collective Bargaining has Morally and Fiscally Bankrupted Detroit Schools
Read that again. Under pressure from the Teachers' Union, Detroit turned down $200 Million. That was in 2003 dollars. Wow. No doubt the union "did it for the kids".

For more on the appalling behavior of Detroit's teachers' unions please see Detroit Public Schools (25% graduation rate) teachers unions opposing highly qualified volunteer teachers.

It is time to kill collective bargaining for public unions, every one of them, and nation-wide, not just Detroit.

Detroit Bankruptcy Looms
Flashback April 6, 2010: Detroit Bankruptcy Looms with Deficit of $446 Million in Budget of $1.6 Billion

Detroit has hit the end of the line. It's budget deficit is between $446 million and $466 million (28% to 29%) of $1.6 billion with few ways other than drastic cuts in wages and benefits to address the problem.

If unions will not give in (and they won't), Detroit Faces Bankruptcy.

With that introduction, inquiring minds are diving into the Citizens Research Council report on The Fiscal Condition of the City of Detroit

The Economic Base
The deterioration of the economic base of the city has accelerated. There were an estimated 81,754 vacant housing units (22.2 percent of the total) in Detroit before the recession; that number increased to an estimated 101,737 (27.8 percent of the total) in 2008.

The average price of a residential unit sold in the January through November, 2009 period was $12,439, down from $97,847 in 2003. Remaining businesses and individuals are challenging property tax assessments on parcels that have lost value and, in some cases, cannot be sold at any price.

More than half of employed city residents work outside the city limits; the metro area has the highest unemployment rate of the 100 major metro areas in the U.S.

Detroit Should Embrace Bankruptcy
The only legitimate solution for Detroit is to shed pension obligations, privatize everything it can including the fire department, and dump unions contracts en masse. Since those items can only happen in restructuring, Detroit should openly embrace bankruptcy.

Detroit Warns of Bankruptcy as It Prepares Bond Sale
Flashback March 5, 2010: Detroit Warns of Bankruptcy as It Prepares Bond Sale

Detroit, the largest U.S. city whose debt is rated below investment grade, warned investors of the risk of bankruptcy as it prepares to sell $250 million of bonds to help close its budget deficit.

The city told bondholders in a March 2 preliminary offering statement that while it hasn’t taken steps to reorganize under Chapter 9, it may have few other options if its financial condition worsens. Detroit officials also detailed the steps they would have to take should bankruptcy become necessary.

“If the city’s financial status were to deteriorate further the city’s options to improve its fiscal health may be limited,” Detroit said in the statement. Bondholders “should not expect that their rights to payment and remedies will not be adversely affected by filing under the bankruptcy code.”
“We are still in a financial crisis but insolvency isn’t on the horizon or on the agenda at this time,” Mayor Dave Bing said in an e-mail from his spokesman, Dan Lijana. The total deficit this year is estimated at $280 million.

Bing Still Pretends - How Long Can It Last?
For reasons unknown, Bing just cannot do what is right. He will not come flat out and say what everyone in their right mind knows - that Detroit is fiscally and morally bankrupt and so are its schools.
Instead, on December 10, 2010 Detroit Borrows $100 Million for Police and Fire Headquarters.

Detroit, whose population has dropped by half since 1950, borrowed $100 million to turn the MGM Grand Casino’s former site into a headquarters for the police, fire and emergency-services departments.

The city sold so-called Recovery Zone Bonds authorized under the U.S. economic-stimulus plan, borrowing at 4.55 percent, the city said in a press release today. The bonds, with the longest term maturing in 2035, were sold through the Michigan Finance Authority by investment banks led by Siebert Brandford Shank & Co., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The financial markets believe in what we’re doing to bring fiscal responsibility back to Detroit,” said Mayor Dave Bing, in a prepared statement today.

So-called recovery zone bonds were included in the economic-stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama last year to help expand the economy of areas with poverty and unemployment. They’re a type of Build America Bond that comes with a 45 percent interest subsidy rather than 35 percent rate under the Build America program, which expires Dec. 31.

The bonds were rated A1, or fifth highest, by Moody’s Investor’s Service and AA-, or fourth highest, by Standard & Poor’s.

BABs Set to End December 31, 2010
Note the ridiculous rating of those bonds by Moody's and by Standard & Poor’s. If the Federal government is backing those bonds, then they are AAA. If not, they are junk. There is no in-between.
Thankfully, the extremely ridiculous Build-America-Bond program will expire on December 31. When it does, no one in their right mind will lend Detroit money, and that at long-last will mean "lights out" for Detroit.

A new Republican governor takes over in Michigan next year, complete with a new Republican legislature. I believe Governor-Elect Rick Snyder will be amenable to fixing what ails Detroit and numerous other cities in Michigan.

Should Mayor Bing not seek bankruptcy assistance, I propose for Governor Snyder to force Detroit into bankruptcy. It is the only hope Detroit has. Mayor Bing is clearly in over his head.

Governor Snyder would be a hero if he can turn Detroit around, and outside of bankruptcy that appears impossible.

Thus, forced or not, I believe Detroit will file bankruptcy in 2011, the state will accept it, and public unions will be forced to accept massive concessions in bankruptcy court.

Look for massive turmoil in the municipal bond market as a result.

[American Patriot]

LOL@ Vector.

Beat ya!

Nyah!

[vector7]

Whoops, I didn't see that.

It was a long article...too many paragraphs to get spaced just right.

[American Patriot]

Yeah. I know. I didnt even bother trying to fix my copy. Oh well.

Duplication is fine. We're all hitting the same substance.



What worries me the most is that WE, a bunch of relatively "untrained" (and perhaps unwashed masses) can figure this shit out, and the government can't or more accurately won't - and will never tell the public what is coming.

They WANT this crap to happen to give them utter power over all of us.

I used to think it was a bunch of bullshit. Now, knowing the things I DO know... I can't say that any more.

[vector7]

What worries me the most is that WE, a bunch of relatively "untrained" (and perhaps unwashed masses) can figure this shit out, and the government can't or more accurately won't - and will never tell the public what is coming.

They WANT this crap to happen to give them utter power over all of us.

I used to think it was a bunch of bullshit. Now, knowing the things I DO know... I can't say that any more.

We maybe in the calm before many storms.

[vector7]

The Left working for the Chaotic Good...Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste
This is a continuation from this show:The rules have changed

Glenn Beck-12/13/10-A



Glenn Beck-12/13/10- B




Their next battle is taking over the media
Glenn Beck-12/13/10-C

[Ryan Ruck]

A Year Later, Detroit Transit Center Filthy

City officials urge people to keep $22.5M facility clean

November 24, 2010

One year after the Rosa Parks Transit Center opened, the downtown bus terminal is so filthy that city officials are appealing to the public to help keep it clean.

Bathrooms are closed. Sinks and toilets are flooded. And homeless people are "using the restrooms as their home," bathing and washing their clothes in the 24-hour facilities, said Lovevett Williams, director of the city Department of Transportation.

"This is not just a DDOT facility. This is a facility for the 130,000 riders we service every day," Williams said. "We need people to pick up their trash and be mindful of flooding."

Staffers for City Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown recently made three unannounced visits to the $22.5 million center that opened in July 2009. In each case, it was "in terrible shape in each instance," according to a memo Brown sent Mayor Dave Bing on Monday.

"To have Rosa Parks' name on it and not keep it clean is despicable," Brown said Tuesday. "It opened a little more than a year ago with great fanfare, with architectural detail that's unparalleled to anything in this city. We are going to relentlessly follow up to make sure citizens get a clean Rosa Parks Transit Center."

Detroit rider Jacqueline Rice said the bathrooms are usually a "mess," with "tissue everywhere and toilets stopped up." Another resident, Sam Bostick, said he's taken time to clean the facility at Michigan and Cass avenues.

Williams said cleaning crews work from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and more help is on the way. The city is working with Project Helping Hands to get the homeless into shelters. The department also is nearing lease deals for two restaurants — Tasty Dog and Louisiana Gumbo — that require City Council approval.

"It's going to change the people that come through the center," Williams said.