Oakland County To Detroit's EFM: No To THE DWSD Pig-In-A-Poke

Okaland County has formally announced they won't be the sucker in the regionalization of Detroit Water and Sewer Department.

Regionalization in this context appears to mean let Detroit reap the benefits of both its past use of the DWSD for corruption to enrich its politicians and for a future benefit of annual lease payments and the suburbs get stuck with all the costs such as deferred maintenance and pensions.

Thankfully the head of Oakland County, Brooks Patterson said no.

The Detroit News: Detroit area water authority talks hit cutoff

The whole article is worth reading to see the games Detroit is playing in this DWSD leasing arrangement. The games include not disclosing the financials; nor the actual expected and differed maintenance amounts for work that needs to be done on the system; putting the counties on the hook for pensions for personnel; and most especially for the extra 700 workers Detroit had already have stated aren't needed to run the system but will only be retired in 2022.

In other words, Detroit wants the surrounding counties to pay for all the undone maintenance that's not been performed for years while Detroit ran the system, and on top of that to pay 700 excess workers to go sit in a playroom and collect checks for the next 8 years - nice work if you've already got it.

I'm glad Patterson is keeping Oakland County far away from this mess and not being the sucker at the table.

Detroit's Democrats have ran out of their people's money and now they're trying to find another source of other people's money, and fast before the whole house of cards completely caves in.

A Supposed Bargain For Detroit's DWSD Pig In A Poke?

Detroit's EFM, Kevyn Orr, has recently come down in his asking price for the suburbs to "lease" the Detroit Water a Sewer Department.

Previously,he was pushing them to pay $9 Billion for a lease on the water department.

He's now down to offering the lease for $1 Billion.

The deal would still keep the city the titular owner of the water department and the suburbs would pay $47 million a year in lease payments and in return get equal spots on the Water Board to oversee operations.

The Detroit Free Press: Suburban leaders cautious on regional water authority proposal

No kidding they're cautious. The EFM a few months back tried to take them for nine times the current offer, and the current offer doesn't disclose all the details of what really needs to be done to fix and maintain the water department after its been used as a political slush fund and featherbedding unit of the corrupt Detroit administrations for years.

Even at a better price, Orr is still trying to offer it as a Pig In a Poke:

Oakland and Macomb counties have been demanding updated financial details from the city on the department’s operations, as well as engineering studies that would outline expected maintenance and repair costs. Without that information, it’s impossible to agree to a lease payment, Hackel said.

In a regular deal, the financials would be provided up front to the prospective buyer would know what they're getting into. That they're not being given this information suggests that Orr wants to sell the DWSD off to them before the reality of the situation is shown and the cat is out of the bag.

The suburban executives are darn right to be cautious and insist on full disclosure before proceeding, especially given Detroit's duplicitous track record.

My bet is the financials reveal a shambles, display there's tons of outstanding required deferred maintenance, and that if the suburbs accept the latest offer, We're going to be hosed.

EFM Trying To Fleece Suburbs To Benefit Detroit

The Emergency Financial Manager of Detroit you must remember is a Democrat, and as a Democrat his first thought is to grab for other people's money to get revenue after decades of squandering of monies in a now broke Detroit due to corruption and mismanagement.

The Detroit Free Press: Suburban leaders blast plan to lease water, sewer assets for $9B

Suburban leaders are blasting a plan by Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr to get customers across the region to pay the city as much as $9 billion over 40 years to lease the assets of the Water and Sewerage Department.

For those not up to speed on the Detroit Water and Sewage Department that EFM Orr is now trying to lease to the Suburbs for $9 billion let's recap: This is the same entity that was used as a political slush fund and source of no-bid contracts by Detroit's politicians, most notoriously Kwame Kilpatrick and friends, This was a department that has been sticking it to the suburbs with rate increases for featherbedding and passing the money to other Detroit departments while critical infrastructure was not properly maintained.

And now he wants to lease it, deferred maintenance obligations and all, to the same suburbs that have been getting the short end of the department's operations this entire time in exchange for the suburbs paying Detroit 9 Billion dollars?

Oh, hell no.

Another Democrat-Ruled Detroit-Area Demense Destined For An EFM

Royal Oak Township, with an apt acronym of ROT, is a prima facie example of how a township can be mismanaged by Democrats. ROT is all of a half mile in size and all of 2,466 people and is sandwiched between Ferndale and Oak Park.

Now the ROT may be destined for an EFM as its Democrats running the joint have really run out of other people's money.

There's only one reasons it still exists and hasn't been properly absorbed by Ferndale or Oak Park, and that reason has been discussed before. The other possible reason may be that no other municipality wants it given its chronic crime. corruption and mismanagement.

The Detroit Free Press: Royal Oak Township, plagued by crime, might be next for state control

The best part is that not only has it run out of money to pay for things like firefighting, it can't even account for the hundreds of thousands of dollars it has received:

The state’s key concerns, according to the warning letter, include $300,000 that local officials borrowed in violation of state law, the disappearance of more than $205,000 spent in 2012 and not shown on any budget, and a mysterious $400,000 operating loss in 2012 from the township police fund.

With some of, if not the highest, taxes and special assessments for police and fire in all of Michigan, the township can't even afford to pay for police and fire services, and seems to host more criminals than ordinary decent citizens.

Of course, you can still fit plenty of corruption in half a square mile:

The threat of impending state control is the latest in years of financial setbacks for the small community, which has a long history of waste and corruption. Last year, Squalls’ predecessor as supervisor pleaded guilty to taking a $10,000 bribe; William Morgan is serving a three-year prison sentence.

In short, the rot of the ROT is the result of decades of deliberate Democrat policies and corruption.

With No Help From Detroit's City Council, Belle Isle May Be Saved After All

Belle Isle may finally get out from under its decades of neglect and underfunding due to the misrule of Detroit City Council of this "jewel" of the city.

The Detroit Free Press: Rochelle Riley: Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr committed to Belle Isle as state park

The plan seems to be just about the same plan the City Council had rejected prior to the bankruptcy and appointment of the EFM.

In other words, getting Belle Isle out from under the thumb of these idiots is long past due,

Of course, Detroit City Council President Pro-Tem Saunteel Jenkins (D-Idiot, standing in after the former President of the Council, D-Pedophile resigned in disgrace) had this to say about the deal:

“We need to make sure the rules at Belle Isle make sense for a large urban park because those that need that park and the people frequenting the park will be different than those at other state parks,” she said.

Wow. Just imagine, if you can, a white politician saying that about the people currently frequenting the park and its current use.

RePughdiation In Detroit

The Detroit News: Orr strips absent Pugh of pay, powers

Orr stripped Pugh’s powers and $76,000-a-year salary one day after the highest-ranking councilman failed to meet a deadline to return to work and allegations surfaced of an “inappropriate relationship” with a 17-year-old student he once mentored.

This is the same council president brought in to save Detroit's finances but who let his own condo go into foreclosure. Detroit's voters sure can pick 'em.

Now if Orr will similarly strip the remaining city council clowns of their positions and pay and use the $10.7 million dollars budgeted to the council for things actually needed by the city, Detroit might get a bit further back on track.

While it seems Orr had a policy of "keeping your enemies close" and used kid-gloves with the council to keep them from trying to openly thwart him at every turn, the time for the kid-gloves treament for this clowncil to end is blindingly obvious to all.

Detroit City Clowncil Starting To Abandon A Sinking Ship

Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, Detroit's City Council members are rapidly heading for the exit as the city flounders in default and decay.

First, Kwame Kenyatta resigned, and good riddance.

Next, the President of the City Council Charles Pugh under some very strange circumstances just took a 4 week medical leave of absence with pay after - something not provided for in the City's charter, and for which he's being told by the EFM Orr to either show up and do his job or resign.

Now, President Pro Tem of the City Council Gary Brown, is resigning from the council to go work for the EFM's office as the city's chief compliance officer and make $250,000 per year.

Whether Orr is crazy to bring in a city clowncil member, one of those who created the mess that caused the city to fall out of compliance, as his chief compliance officer is open to question.

Is he crazy like a fox trying to get Brown in to get buy-in and further support from the city, or did he just let a fox into the chicken coop?

Or is this just Democrat city politics as usual where the connected end up with high paying jobs no matter what?

Stay tuned as things continue to get shaken up and shake out in the City of Detroit.

EFM Orr to Bondholders: You F-ed Up. You Trusted Detroit.

The Detroit News: Lenders take it on the chin in Orr's plan

Emergency Financial Manager Orr just declared that bond holders with limited and unlimited general obligation debt were now unsecured lenders with the debt not backed by the full faith and credit of the city. In other words, from what was a historically safe loan made to a city backed by its power to tax and obligation to pay the lenders back, the lender now holds a piece of paper they'll be lucky to get pennies on the dollar for.

This is known as changing the terms of the loan after you've already received the money.

The reason for this change - well, according to Orr, the lenders should have known better than to lend money to the City of Detroit, promises and contracts for repayment be damned.

“If you lent money to an insolvent city that has been going insolvent as openly and notoriously as possible since 2000, and you don't have a security interest, then you are an unsecured creditor,” he told The Bond Buyer in a recent interview. “This has been building for decades and decades. They understood the risk.”

This reminds me of a similar situation where a good faith lender gets taken to the cleaners by his debtors.

Yep, same thing, just delivered a tad more politely.

Given his statement, where exactly does Orr think he will find a lender for the City now?

This turns the rules of municipal lending on their head, and expect that the bond markets are going to react and start reconsidering their loans to all troubled municipal debtors as a result and not consider Detroit to be an isolated case.

If you hold any municipal bond funds, it is likely time or well past time to get the heck out, as this "safe investment" now unequivocally isn't.

Detroit Goes Into Default, Bankruptcy May Follow

Either EFM Kevyn Orr is trying to pull off the bluff of the century over Detroit's creditors, or the City is truly screwed - or both,

The Detroit News: Orr says bankruptcy decision could come within 30 days: 'We are tapped out'

In a surprise, Orr announced the city is temporarily stopping debt payments, including a $39 million bill due Friday to conserve dwindling city cash.

“We are tapped out,” Orr said.

In a brief meeting with reporters after the meeting, Orr said the session went well and is intended to provide a clear path of the city’s course of action moving forward.

"If we are able to restructure and get a deal in place, then we start paying on the new regime," Orr told reporters. "We can't continue paying with the debt service we have going forward."

In blunt language, Orr highlighted the root cause of the city’s decades-long path to insolvency and blamed the crisis on financial mismanagement that, if unchecked, will have the city spending 60 cents of every tax dollar on legacy costs such as retiree pensions and health care.

“Detroit’s road to recovery begins today,” Orr said. “Financial mismanagement, a shrinking population, a dwindling tax base and other factors over the past 45 years have brought Detroit to the brink of financial and operational ruin.”

And despite earlier fears, Orr did not propose selling beloved city assets such as the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection or Belle Isle.

The plan calls for shared sacrifice among the city’s creditors, many of whom are being offered less than 10 cents on the dollar. Some unsecured creditors will get less than 10 cents on the dollar for about $2.3 billion in claims that Detroit will soon stop making payments on unsecured debt to save as much as $25 million per month in cash, which will be spent, instead, on essential city services. Employees and vendors will continue to be paid.

The failure to pay the $39 million is one helluva massive default by the city, as is the plan to stop paying to unsecured creditors $254 million each month. Detroit's creditors are paying for the decades-long financial mismanagement of the city's corrupt Democrat leadership. Failure to pay bond holders is a very serious act of default. Indeed, the rating agencies just downgraded the city's bonds to CC which is about as bad as it gets, leaving only grades C and D remaining.

Current and future unsecured creditors - i.e. the city's vendors will have no incentive to continue to do work or provide supplies to the city under these circumstances as they will likely never be paid or at best take a 90% loss on every sale made. That can't bode well for the city's operational stability.

Expect this situation to go downhill fast as this blue state model city's unraveling picks up speed.

EFM Orr Announces What We Already Know: Detroit Is Insolvent

Even as he announced that Detroit is insolvent he instructed creditors that they couldn't bring phones or recording devices to their initial meeting with him.

The Detroit Free Press: Orr to Detroit creditors: Don't bring phones to meeting on Friday

Methinks some ugly back-room deals that Orr doesn't want to get out in public are about to go down.

A letter from Kevyn Orr, the city of Detroit’s emergency manager, tells the city’s creditors to come without cell phones, cameras or recording devices to a Friday meeting to discuss his restructuring plan for the city, the Free Press has learned.

In a letter dated June 6 from Cleveland-based law firm Jones Day, creditors are also told that no group, company or institution is allowed to send more than two representatives and that “proof of identification and affiliation is required.”

According to the letter, from Dan Moss at Jones Day, Orr wants to discuss his restructuring plan for the city with creditors at a Friday meeting that starts at 10 a.m. at the Westin Hotel at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Well, at least they'll be meeting at a very nice hotel, one that is likely quite inconvenient for protesters to access.

The facts however are clear that Detroit is indeed insolvent and either going to go bankrupt or Or will try and get the City's creditors to take some neck-level haircuts.

Orr said the city spends more money than it takes in and is insolvent because it continues to borrow money to pay its bills.

The end result of unchecked corrupt Democrat Detroit certainly isn't pretty, and it's likely is going to become a whole lot uglier.

In Detroit, Art May Get To Imitate The City's Financial Life

Hot on the heels of the art tax levy on Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne Counties to ensure fund the Detroit Institute of Arts after the City of Detroit has been chronically underfunding it in August 2012, comes the news that the Detroit Institute of Arts' collections, since they are owned by the City of Detroit, may go on the auction block to pay the City's debt's should the city file bankruptcy.

The Detroit News: Like DIA, smaller museums fear their assets are in peril

The prospect of the Detroit Institute of Arts losing its collection to satisfy creditors in a municipal bankruptcy is prompting concern at other city-owned venues with potentially vulnerable assets.

This is why the City of Detroit can't have nice things - it squanders them relentlessly, and any further bailout or tax in support of its institutions may just be the continuation of the greatest con game it has run to date.

Now, this may be just a bunch of posturing to get yet a further bailout of the city, a threat of "Bail us out or the Art gets it", or it may be the natural result of letting this corrupt Democrat-controlled city own such shiny baubles without being able to afford them.

Either way, anyone else in the Tri-County area feeling more than a little played over the tax?

At least one Commissioner in Macomb County does: The Macomb Daily: Broken promises — Macomb officials could halt DIA tax

Expressing dismay over false promises provided in 2012 by the Detroit Institute of Arts, Macomb officials are ready to halt the DIA tax money collected in the county if some of the museum’s renowned artwork is sold to pay off the city of Detroit’s massive debts.

A review of audio recordings from Macomb County Board of Commissioners meetings from April 2012 show that DIA officials, ultimately successful at levying a tri-county property tax to rescue the beleaguered museum, repeatedly assured the commissioners that the multibillion-art collection could not be sold off, even if an emergency manager was brought in or the city declared bankruptcy.

The promises from Detroit and its institutions come with expiry dates that kick in right after a check is cashed or a tax approved.

One can only hope that Oakland County's leaders follow Macomb's example and will not stand for their residents being payed for suckers with further wastage of county taxes bailing out Detroit's bad debts.

Detroit Dizzily Dances Round De Drain

As noted by Right Michigan, Detroit is teetering on the edge of Chapter 9 bankruptcy: The Corpse Is Still In The Morgue. Go read it to get a full realization as to how badly messed up the corrupt Democrat dominated city is in reality now that they can't hide the true picture anymore.

Right now, as reported in The Detroit Free Press the EFM is giving it 6 weeks to see if Detroit can be fixed by anything less than filing bankruptcy>

Oh, and the amount of Detroit's outstanding liabilities revealed so far is now up to $15 Billion.

40 years of Democrat corruption and neglect has destroyed a city.

You can read the EFM's Financial and Operating Plan report in all its sobering glory at the Detroit Free Press.

Not A Sharp Move- Al Sharpton Comes To Detroit

Not one to be upstaged by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton is now showing up in Detroit, dipping in and promising civil disobedience over the appointment of the Emergency Financial manager.

Note that both he and Jesse were noticeably absent as the city went down the toilet and both seem to have missed all opportunities to protest Kwame Kilpatrick's corruption and his treating the city like a personal piggy bank. Strange that.

The Detroit News: Al Sharpton, in Detroit to fight EM law, promises 'serious marches'

It's only when the state steps up to fix the mess the city officials have created that Al and Jesse show any interest. Hopefully no one will give this disgraceful clown any more airtime.

The Detroit Macarena: Jesse Jackson Promises Protests Against The EFM

Detroit's decline and the appointment of an EFM is bringing all the usual race-card playing suspects out of their holes to assemble at the the hole that used to be the great city of Detroit.

Not to be outdone by the local race-playin' pastors, the doyen of the race card, Jesse Jackson himself has come to town.

The Detroit Free Press: Jesse Jackson calls for mass protest against Detroit's emergency financial manager

“We marched too long and bled too much and died too young for the right to vote to have a governor, whether it’s Gov. Snyder or Wallace or whoever … to take away the impact of our vote,” he said.

Wowza, the philanderer really just compared Gov Snyder to Governor Wallace. Really now? Detroit residents can still vote, but the idiots they vote for to run the City Council can't control the financial side of the city that they've destroyed, nor use the City's funds for their own aggrandizement and patronage slush monies. Too bad.

Jackson warned an audience of about 100 people that the emergency financial manager’s arrival eventually could force Detroiters from their homes. He described a scenario in which rich people buy up acres of neighborhoods, turn them into vacant lots and sell off the property.

Ah, the "they're gonna be stealing our jewels" scare tactic. Had Jesse even looked around Detroit he would have seen the multitude of already abandoned and decaying properties. His claim is pure scare mongering nonsense.

"Detroit cannot be reduced to a rummage sale," Jackson said.

Funny, Jackson's buddy Kwame already did that, and Kwame likely learned how to use civic foundation funds for personal use by Jackson's prior example.

Jackson, who repeatedly used the phrase “emergency czar,” urged Detroiters to protest the emergency financial manager through “a major, mass nonviolent demonstration.” Jackson did not provide specifics of the protest when later asked.

“It’ll be soon,” he said.

Prepare for a clown show folks, bring popcorn.

EFM Is Moving Quick to Try and Stabilize Detroit - But Will His Water Department Proposal Help Or Is It Playing The Suburbs For Suckers?

After a bit of a rough start over some personal unpaid childcare provider unemployment taxes, the EFM, Kevyn Orr, is moving ahead to get Detroit on a more viable financial footing. As to the whole unpaid taxes thing, look he's rich and he's a Democrat that's standard for them. It's easy for him to overlook $16k in unpaid taxes related to some employees, after all he apparently had outside accountants to handle the whole thing, what did you expect?

The Detroit News: Detroit EM eyes regional water system

Newly minted emergency manager Kevyn Orr signaled Friday he is open to finding ways to generate cash from the city's assets like the water system, and may revisit plans to run Belle Isle as a state park.

Orr said he might consider turning over management of the city's Water and Sewerage Department to a regional authority to leverage lease payments and shed billions of dollars in debt from the city's ledger.

This makes sense, at least to a certain extent:

Detroit's $14.9 billion in long-term debts includes $6 billion in bonds for the Water Department that are backed by revenues from water and sewer users in 124 Metro Detroit communities.

By becoming a separate authority with bonding authority, the water system could refinance its debt and use the savings to make lease payments to Detroit of $50 million or more annually, Johnson said.

"That's a way to take $6 billion right off the books, which is a quick win for a new guy like Mr. Orr," said state Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth, who is sponsoring legislation to create a regional water authority different from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department plan.

Of course the usual suspects were quick to dip in:

City residents should be concerned about any plan that affects the city's control over the water department, said the Rev. Charles Williams of the local chapter of the National Action Network, the group that's leading protests against the emergency manager.

"If the emergency manager had serious thoughts about selling the water, Detroiters should be alarmed," Williams said. "It is an asset, and it is a benefit, and it probably will create another hole in our budget that will ultimately lead to bankruptcy.

"There is going to be a community outcry on emergency management itself. We're going to fight this all the way to the very end."

What a maroon. It's an "asset" with over $6 Billion with-a-B dollars in debt.

That's not an asset, that's called a huge liability. For Detroit, having the DWSD was great as it was a perfect location for corruption and feather-bedding, especially as it was mainly the suburban ratepayers who were stuck with the bills for the city's corrupt dealings that enriched the city's democrat powers that be. That may be very well why Williams considers it such an asset.

On the upside to the deal if it goes through, the adults get to be in charge and get to put an end to the corruption and feather-bedding, and the suburbs get some control on the out-of-control rate increases that have been going up constantly to payoff Detroit politicos and connected cronies.

The downside, of course is the regional authority and the suburbs get to inherit the mess, including the 6 billion in debt brought on by corruption and mismanagement, along with what will most likely be revealed as unperformed and deferred maintenance as money went to cronies and not construction. Why the authority (ie the suburbs) would not only want to assume 6 billion in debt but also pay $50 million annually in leasing payments for the water department to the same corrupt city that led it into 6 Billion in debt is rather questionable. Hell, Detroit should be paying the suburbs to take it off the city's hands.

Are the suburbs about to be suckered? Stay tuned.

Detroit EFM Named, Idiotic Traffic Protests Continue

Kevyn Orr, an experience restructuring attorney has been appointed to be the Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit.

As is necessary under the reality of Detroit's racial identity politics, he's black.

Thankfully for Detroit, he's got something more important than his skin color to qualify him for the job -- he's a very competent and capable man and may just be what Detroit needs to pull it out of it death spiral.

Meanwhile, yet more demonstrators were protesting the appointment of an EFM by messing with traffic on the highways: Demonstrators disrupt freeway traffic to protest emergency financial manager

They effectively managed to demonstrate they were idiots but didn't accomplish much else.

Deliberately messing with traffic in rush hour should be a hanging offense, or at least a Tasing lasting as many minutes as the miles under the speed limit they were driving.

Sadly, most of them will just get impeding traffic tickets and be sent on their way. However, quite a few of them are certainly not the sharpest tools in the shed:

[Michigan State Police Lieutenant] Shaw said that last week 10 people were cited for driving under the minimum speed limit, two people were arrested for driving with suspended licenses, three people were busted for having outstanding misdemeanor warrants and a gun was taken away from one protestor whose concealed pistol license had expired.

Like I said, Detroit idiots.

Detroit City Council Hits Stage 3

As predicted, the Detroit City Council quickly reached Stage 3 on the Kübler-Ross model regarding dealing with grief or impending demise:

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit City Council appeals financial manager decision, requests modified plan

In other words, let's have the state let us keep doing what we're doing that got us into this mess, only harder.

Detroit city officials this morning asked the state to agree to an updated, aggressive restructuring plan rather than appoint an emergency financial manager.

The plea was part of an appeal of Gov. Rick Snyder’s declaration that Detroit needs an emergency financial manager.

Detroit officials want a modified version of the consent agreement they reached with the state in April. The agreement laid a framework to fix the city’s financial mess.

“Our position is stay the course, continue the current consent agreement,” said David Whitaker, director of City Council’s research and analysis division. “In my neighborhood, where we grew up, we were taught a deal’s a deal.”

Of course to Detroit "A deal's a deal" doesn't mean what you think it means. Instead in Detroit it seems to mean that the City can breach its part of the agreement, but the state must uphold its end of the deal no matter what the city does.

But the state does not seem inclined to agree to another consent agreement. Frederick Headen, a lawyer representing the state at this morning’s hearing, recalled the city’s legal challenge to the April consent agreement.

“We took issue with the unwillingness of city officials to abide by its terms,” Headen said at the hearing.

Bring popcorn, for as noted in the article, the City Council's and the usual suspects and interest groups' antics aren't over yet.

Meanwhile, The Detroit City Council Goes Through The Stages of Grief Over The EFM

The Detroit City Council quixotically persists in its appeal of the appointment of an EFM, trying to hold onto their positions as the city crumbles under their chronic mismanagement. As they do so, they're going through the classic Kübler-Ross model of dealing with grief and impending demise.

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit City Council ready to fight emergency financial manager decision

"We're not appealing the fact that we have a financial emergency. We know that we do," council President Charles Pugh said last week. "We're not naïve, and we're not out of our minds. But what we are saying is that an emergency manager is not the way to fix it."

It's nice that at least some of the Council is finally over Stage 1 - Denial.

Unfortunately some of them are busily moving on to Stage 2, which is always a crowd-pleaser -

The Detroit News: Watson emerging as leader on Detroit's emergency manager appeal

She's called the consent agreement an "unprecedented right-wing gangster move." She accused the state of wanting to turn Belle Isle into a "playground for the rich." And the prospect of an emergency manager? "Constitutional assault."

Watson — daughter of a Methodist minister, eldest of 10 children, lifelong civil rights activist — has become the public voice of Detroiters determined to hang on to self-rule as the city faces a prospect of a state takeover this week.

. . .

But for Watson, there's no way the birthplace of the labor movement, the Nation of Islam, the Shrine of the Black Madonna and Motown will be taken over by the state on her watch.

"Someone said to me this week, they cannot believe that Detroit of all cities would be subject to this in-your-face constitutional assault," Watson said during a recent rally. "We must hold true and recognize none of our freedoms were acted easily or comfortably. Nobody is going to come in and perpetuate a right-wing agenda."

Note this is the same angry Jo Ann Watson that cared so much about the City of Detroit that she paid only $68 per year in property taxes for over a decade for her quite large Tudor house as it somehow listed as an empty lot.

A few idiots followed her lead and purposefully blocked traffic on I-75. That's because their claim to have right to vote for a city council (they still will, its just that the council won't be running the show anymore but an EFM after the council's often and consistently demonstrated incompetence) to destroy the city gives them permission to block traffic.

I'm sure we'll see the City Council hit Stage 3 shortly, with some last minute bargaining for a new consent agreement or other deal that leaves them in charge in return for perhaps more oversight or accountability. Good luck with that one considering how they tried to play Snyder and the state with the last consent agreement.

Detroit Mayor Sees Reason, Won't Appeal EFM, The Detroit City Council However....

So Mayor Bing realizes some windmills aren't worth tilting at, and some appeals won't save you from the mess you're in.

The Detroit Clowncil, not so much.

The Detroit News: Detroit Mayor Dave Bing splits with council, won't fight EM decision

[City Councilman] Brown's colleague James Tate said it's unfortunate that Bing's position fuels the perception that the council and mayor cannot work together. Bing's lack of support for the appeal "means nothing," Tate said. "We are just going to move forward."

That's a full on Forward!, right over the cliff of despair, debt, and doom.

And indeed, the Detroit ministers decided to mix a little religion into the politics of this anti-EFM show.

"We pray there will be divine intervention. What council can't stop, legislation won't stop and the court won't stop, almighty God can stop," said the Rev. Robert Smith of New Bethel Baptist Church. "There are so many things we are not in charge of. We ought to at least be in charge of self-determination.

Forget about even parsing the logic of that statement. We'll simply say the sorry saga of Detroit's Democrat rule and its City Council's self-determination (and self-enrichment) has brought the city to the edge of bankruptcy and actual ruin. Apparently the good reverend's solution is to keep in charge the same idiots with their policies and mismanagement that brought it to destruction so they can keep doing it, but harder. Yeah, that'll work.

EFM Announced For City of Detroit, In Response, Detroit's Ministers Amp Up The Racist Rhetoric

Because nothing says racist crucifixion like the appointment of an EFM over a decayed and dying city: The Detroit News: Church sermons: Democracy usurped in Detroit fiscal crisis

The Rev. Charles Williams II during his sermon Sunday likened the appointment of an Emergency Financial Manager to the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Williams read from the Book of Matthew: "'The chief priests and the elders assembled in the palace of the high priest and they schemed to arrest Jesus and kill him.'"

He then added: "The chief priest — Governor Snyder," which elicited a chuckle from about 30 worshipers at Historic King Solomon Church on the city's west side.

After all, no one acts nearly as Jesus-like as a bunch of corrupt city councilors, along with a corrupt cabal of unions and Democrat apparatchiks who for decades have been neglecting and robbing the city blind for their own ends.

The good reverend even went for a nice traditional serving of antisemitism in the sermon, playing to his congregation:

"What Jesus went through reminds me of the current situation in Detroit," Williams said. "He told people 'you don't have to allow the Pharisees to abuse you.' And because of that, they killed him. Those who conspire today to get rid of democracy in Detroit are the same people who conspired to get rid of Jesus."

Yes, he said it.

Credit must be given to Snyder for the foresight to announce an EFM at this time - it's still too cold for the ministers to whip up a decent riot right now.