They will rip you to pieces.
UPDATE:
Looting the Pension Funds; All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers
"Detroit attempts to count stray dogs" by Corey Williams | Associated Press, September 22, 2013
DETROIT — Some Detroit residents complain that packs of dogs for years have terrorized various neighborhoods.
Al-CIA-Duh dogs.
So far, there’s been no reliable way to know how many there are, though some have guessed it’s in the thousands....
The more than 30,000 vacant houses and buildings that once were homes for Detroit residents now provide havens and shelter for the animals....
(Blog editor really doesn't know what to say given job-killing government policies and the fraudulent foreclosures by banks)
Detroit became the largest US city to file for bankruptcy protection in July.
Oh, yeah, there is that.
State-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr says the city needs to find dollars to hire more dog catchers.
I heard there was a Goldman mine somewhere nearby.
At least you know where there is a job.
At 8 a.m. Saturday, volunteers fanned out across Detroit’s 139 square miles. At least one team found the animals elusive. The first 90 minutes Barbara Moran and Nicole Ryan spent in a distressed west side neighborhood turned up nothing....
A wild goo... 'er, dog chase?
Tom McPhee, a filmmaker and executive director of the Ann Arbor-based World Animal Awareness Society, whose survey is part of his American Strays research project, a documentary in syndication on the Internet, hopes to use footage from this weekend to produce a feature-length documentary about Detroit’s stray problem. He doesn’t expect results any time soon.
Meanwhile, Jessie Clarke just wants something done about the dogs....
Maybe Obomber could help you out?
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Related: Bucharest debates fate of stray dogs in city
It's the AmeriKan (or western) solution to everything.
Something else the Globe dog dug up in Detroit.
Related: Detroit Declares Bankruptcy
Oh, yeah, that.
"Judge halts suits against city during Detroit bankruptcy" by Bill Vlasic | New York Times, July 25, 2013
DETROIT — A federal bankruptcy judge cleared the way for Detroit’s bankruptcy case to go forward without legal challenges on Wednesday.
The decision by Judge Steven Rhodes of US Bankruptcy Court freezes all litigation against the city during the bankruptcy process and consolidates state-level legal challenges to Detroit’s Chapter 9 filing into the federal bankruptcy case.
The federal bankruptcy court has “exclusive jurisdiction” over the case, he said, adding, “There is no case law that holds otherwise.”
It was a dramatic beginning to the largest municipal bankruptcy case in American history.
The judge was attempting to put to rest a legal spat that began almost immediately after Detroit filed for bankruptcy last Thursday.
On Friday, state Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of Ingham County Circuit Court ruled that the filing violated the state constitution, which protects the pensions of retired public employees.
The city has been expected to seek reductions in pensions in bankruptcy court as part of its broader efforts to reduce Detroit’s estimated $18 billion in debts and other obligations.
Related(?): Massachusetts Secretary of State Galvinizes Lobbyists
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Rhodes also granted a second motion by the emergency manager that extends protection from litigation to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other state officials....
WOW!
******************************
Michael Nicholson, general counsel for the United Auto Workers, said he plans to review the judge’s order with his colleagues and decide whether to appeal, but he says the rulings raise ‘‘serious issues about the relationship of state and federal government.’’
He added the issue is bigger than creditors; it is about states’ rights.
That argument coming from leftist unions? Welcome aboard!
************************************
Detroit has about 21,000 retired workers who are owed benefits — including former office workers at City Hall, police, paramedics, sanitation crews, firefighters, and bus drivers — with underfunded obligations of about $3.5 billion for pensions and $5.7 billion for retiree health coverage.
First of all, we call that STATE THEFT!
Secondly, those were PROMISES MADE that the STATE is NOW BREAKING! That was a SOCIAL CONTRACT, and IF THEY DO NOT HAVE TO OBEY, neither do YOU!
Lastly, the reason states and cities are in such trouble is because the pension funds invested and bought all the bad mortgage-backed securities that they were told were triple AAA rated and then went sour. Wall Street STOLE YOUR PENSIONS!
Chewed 'em up like a dog chews up an old slipper!
There are three lawsuits in state courts challenging the bankruptcy. They mostly focus on a provision in the Michigan Constitution that says public pensions ‘‘shall not be diminished or impaired.’’ Pensions have not been frozen or reduced in the bankruptcy so far, but officials say there are shortfalls in the funds and that payouts could be at risk.
But do you have that debt interest payment worth tens of millions this month? Bank was wondering.
Sharon Levine, an attorney for a union that represents city workers, had urged Rhodes to let those lawsuits run their course. She said there is no federal insurance for public pensions once they are broken, unlike pensions at private employers.
Can there be any more debate that this government serves business? They will bail out private companies that steal pensions, but leave the cop, firefighter, and teacher with an empty palm.
‘‘Our members who participate at most are at or below $19,000 a year. There is no safety net,’’ Levine said.
Given the insane wealth inequality in this nation, that is chump change.
The courtroom was jammed with lawyers representing some of the thousands of creditors as well as rank-and-file city employees and retirees. Some wore T-shirts that said ‘‘Detroit vs. Everybody.’’
Others gathered outside the federal courthouse downtown. Some were city employees who said the governor had illegally taken over control of the city from residents and elected public officials.
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"Detroit gets less aid than Colombia" by Chris Christoff and John McCormick | Bloomberg News, August 01, 2013
LANSING, Mich. — President Obama proposed giving Colombia about $323 million in aid next year, mostly to combat drug trafficking and violence. Detroit, with an 81 percent higher homicide rate, will get $108.2 million.
What more i$ there to type, really?
As Michigan’s largest city entered a record $18 billion municipal bankruptcy on July 18, the message from Congress and the White House was that no new money would be forthcoming.
You certainly recognize the sign language, right?
Yet Detroit’s implosion has rekindled debate over how and whether a federal government that managed to provide more than $700 billion in aid to banks and automakers in 2008 and 2009 should help cities with unsustainable retirement debt, hollowed-out tax bases, and diminished services that endanger the public.
‘‘The consequences for the failure of a whole set of great American cities is not limited to the people who live in those places,’’ said Representative Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Flint, another former auto manufacturing center.
The government did not rescue the predecessors of General Motors, Chrysler, or failing banks until it was apparent their demise could sink the economy. Debt-ridden cities pose a similar threat, Kildee said.
Cities receive a variety of indirect US help: tax breaks on municipal-bond interest, welfare payments, housing programs, and federally funded highways. Direct aid is scantier.
If it's so great why is this country in $uch $hit $hape, agenda-pu$her?
In 2011, local governments got 5 percent of their general revenue directly from federal sources, according to aCensus Bureau report. US aid was 35 percent of state revenue, though some was passed on to cities.
In Detroit, with a fiscal 2014 budget of about $1 billion, the biggest single source of federal aid comes in the form of a $33 million Community Development Block Grant. Other US aid helps fund housing, job training, economic development, health care, and mass transit. Police, who take an hour on average to answer calls, will receive $2 million.
You better buy a gun if you live in Detroit.
Detroit’s homicide rate last year was about 58 victims per 100,000 people. Colombia’s was 32 per 100,000 residents, according to its defense ministry.
Of the $323 million in proposed foreign aid for the South American nation, three-fourths would be for ‘‘peace and security,’’ the State Department says.
Some believe the erstwhile center of the US car industry could use similar largesse. Among them is Steve Rattner, the New York financier who led Obama’s auto industry bailout in 2009, which involved $80 billion in US loans. Though initially unpopular, it proved the right thing to do, Rattner said in an article The New York Times published July 20.
Related: Obama's Rat
Made a nice little ne$t for himself, didn't he?
There is little zeal for that approach in Washington. Even Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat who once served on Detroit’s City Council, said the city should scour existing federal programs for help.
I'm against it because this nation is bankrupt, but it always seems the Wall Street, well-connected corporation, the war machine, or Israel never have to worry about funding.
Representative Candice Miller, a Republican from Harrison Township near Detroit, said there’s no room for a federal rescue.
‘‘Detroit has been battling their fiscal problems for many years due to decades of fiscal mismanagement and public corruption,’’ she said in a statement.
Federal funding for cities peaked during the late 1960s and has been falling since the 1970s, said Tracy Gordon, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. ‘‘I don’t see that changing,’’ Gordon said. ‘‘Just tinkering around with existing grants is not going to make much of a difference.’’
Kildee said the United States should take note of Western European cities that survived hardship with help of national governments. He said Leipzig, an older industrial city like Detroit, lost 20 percent of its population after the unification of East and West Germany.
Have they? Europe's economy is imploding, I don't care what the whoreporate pre$$ says, and it's people are in the streets.
*************************
Richard Ravitch, a Democrat who helped steer New York City out of a 1970s financial crisis, and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker led a 2012 study that concluded state pensions and retiree health-care systems are underfunded by as much as $4 trillion.
Which means all the state leaders are criminals.
Cuts in state aid threaten basic municipal services, and politicians lack courage to make hard decisions, Ravitch said. But ‘‘there’s no way Congress is going to do anything significant’’ to help Detroit, he said.
Because tax money has to go to the wealthy and banks.
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Related: Slow Saturday Special: Chaos in Colombia
So when does that come to Detroit?
Don't worry, Boston, that will never happen to you.
Related:
"Banks, bond insurers, employee pension systems, and others standing to lose big if a federal judge declares Detroit insolvent are expected to file their objections to the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history. Monday is the deadline for creditors to file eligibility objections to Detroit’s bankruptcy petition — marking the beginning of legal challenges for those hoping to recoup all or most of what Detroit owes them."
The Globe dog then stopped barking about it.
And look what pile the dog left:
"A November election between Mike Duggan, the former chief executive of Detroit Medical Center, who is white, and Sheriff Benny Napoleon, who is black, would present the possibility that Detroit, a city where more than 80 percent of residents are African-American, could elect its first white mayor in four decades."
You forgot all about the bankruptcy, didn't you?
"Fugitive held after brazen escape from Detroit courthouse" Associated Press, September 10, 2013
DETROIT — A convicted carjacker escaped from a downtown courthouse Monday afternoon after allegedly using a plastic comb to stab a sheriff’s deputy, but the man was apprehended hours later, according to the Wayne County sheriff.
Dozens of officers fanned out across Detroit to search for Abraham Pearson, 25, also known as Derreck White, who will now face 11 additional charges related to his alleged attack and escape.
Abraham with an alias, huh?
Related(?): Serial Stabber is an Israeli
Pearson was being escorted to court for a long prison sentence for carjacking and other crimes when the attack happened, authorities said.
He repeatedly stabbed Harrison Tolliver in the neck, took the deputy’s uniform, ran from the courthouse, and carjacked a minivan, police said. The vehicle eventually was abandoned blocks away on the city’s east side. Tolliver’s injuries were not considered serious.
How did he take the uniform? Strip him? Wouldn't the thing have had blood on it?
Does THIS STORY STINK or what?
Looks to me like "someone" LET ABRAHAM LOOSE!
Some schools were locked down during the manhunt....
Ah, MORE MIND-MANIPULATING CONDITIONING of the kids!
Defense attorney James Howarth said Pearson’s mental health was an issue. He spent months at a state psychiatric center before being found competent to face trial.
Here we go again! So what prescription pharmaceuticals was he on?
Howarth said Pearson reported a history of hallucinations, and he wondered if mental health played a role in the escape.
‘‘In his right mind he would not have done this,’’ Howarth said outside the courthouse. ‘‘In the year I have known him, he has never showed the slightest symptom of being dangerous. . . . It may have been a final act of desperation.’’
And like an alcoholic, he will never do it again -- so says his apologist.
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Related: Dog Day Afternoon in Detroit Courtroom
You're out of order!
"Detroit to get $21m penguin center" by Mike Householder | Associated Press, September 19, 2013
ROYAL OAK, Mich. — The Detroit Zoo will be home to the largest center in the United States dedicated to penguins, thanks to the most substantial private donation in its 85-year history, the zoo announced Wednesday.
Construction on the $21 million facility will begin in March and is expected to open in late 2015, said Ron Kagan, the zoo’s executive director and chief executive.
‘‘We don’t think there is anything comparable,’’ Kagan said at a news event that featured a 3-D film and ‘‘snow’’ that fell on attendees. ‘‘To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest . . . facility that is entirely dedicated to penguins.’’
The 24,000-square-foot center is being made possible, in part, by the biggest private donation in the zoo’s history, $10 million given by Stephen Polk and his family. Polk is vice chair of the zoo’s board and a longtime executive with automotive information provider R.L. Polk & Co.
This as the city is crumbling around him and cops take an hour to answer calls.
Kagan said the zoo still needs to raise $8 million to reach the $21 million total.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Charitable Po$t
The exterior of the center will look like an iceberg. Inside, visitors will have the opportunity to see the seabirds ‘‘deep dive’’ in a chilled 310,000-gallon, 25-foot-deep aquatic area. It is something that can’t be seen anywhere else, the zoo said.
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They are even getting a new ice rink at taxpayer expense.
And that takes us back to the top of this post, doesn't it?
