The Occupy Wall Street Activists & Grassroots Tea Party: ‘Activists Have a Lot in Common’ Finds Support from Grand Rapids’ Crack Business Reporter

Across Michigan there is real movement in an angry population: 'We are damn mad and want to do something to improve the unemployment, lost of manufacturing, the 'senseless behavior of big banks and investors sitting on nearly $3 TRILLION in cash assets outside the market and the economy.'

The behavior of both parties during the 'let's play chicken' with the federal government's credit status and ability to pay its obligation over and against the peppered up focus on the deficits looks more like a political game than a sensible way to run a government.

Hot words reverberate in the dining rooms of local eateries, farm homes, and townhouses: The hot talk centers on the critical issue: "THE FULL FAITH AND CONFIDENCE" of the consumer, the citizen with a need for a sense of direction and security handling their valuable assets and savings. They want to know, 'Is it safe to return to the marketplace, to make commitments, to go to the mall or Sam's Club and do a little discretionary shopping. After all, the entire economy rests squarely on the 'spending' of the average citizen. (Actually millions of pre-teens and teens who spend at the mall during good times, times of prosperity.)

Say What? Spend what?

There are presently, in Michigan, ONE HALF A MILLION UNEMPLOYED OR MORE, SOME ON UNEMPLOYMENT STIPENDS, OTHERS NOW OFF THE ROLLS ENTIRELY. What can these folks spend to jump-start the economy?

How does the fly paper legislative move by Snyder work? The $800 million or so removed by new taxes on pensions and annuity income of pensioners was stolen from those who saved and planned for retirement based on this resource. According to recent information from MIPSERS those pension dollars have a normal turnaround of $6.49 in economic activity when spent by those who earned it.

Now take $6.49 and multiply that by the number of discretionary pension dollars REMOVED FROM THEM BY SNYDER'S GRAND THEFT GIFT TO HIS BUSINESS BUDDIES - say $800 million, and there is ONE ENORMOUS NUMBER OF DOLLARS TAKEN OUT OF MICHIGAN COMMERCE AND ECONOMY. How many factories with how many workers does it take to make up for this GIGANTIC GAFF REDUCING CUSTOMER DEMAND AND SALES?

Nerd-o-nomics has greatly worsened the dirth of demand. Where are the customers? The summarily removal of disposable, discretionary money; to spend that was taken by TeaPublicans from the poor, the retired pensioners, and the elderly has been blown on 'gifting' the Chamber of Commerce business types (without any directives).

The 'Nerd's near $2 BILLION tax shift and other excessive pro-business tactics such as putting stringent limits on health benefits and removing pricing from items at WalMart and other retailers has assured that many businesses will get a 'Tea Party' bonus, but a bonus in tax reduction is predicated on the idea that there is commerce/demand/buying and selling activities upon which taxes are assessed.

Nerd-o-nomics has delivered: No business, anemic demand, lower taxes, but no progress toward recovery. No Jobs. No New Jobs!

The Citizens & Consumers Are Fed Up
What entity, government or individual can be trusted? What media is being honest and forthright about the true state of economic affairs in America?

West Michigan's premiere business editor and reporter has laid out the logic found in the unifing elements between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Writes Rick Haglund:

"Occupy Wall Street, a growing protest against corporate greed, income inequality and a few other things, is spreading across the country."

"Conservative pundits with secure jobs and comprehensive health care benefits scoff at these protests as the unfocused rants of fuzzy thinking left-wingers who want to destroy capitalism. On their website, occupywallst.org, the protesters describe themselves as a "leaderless resistance movement employing the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to restore democracy in America.

They say they are the 99 percent of Americans who 'will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.'  Whether the Occupy movement will jell into a potent force for reform is far from clear. It could disappear as fast as it started."

Haglund concludes with this strong assessment:

"But don't count it out just yet. The Occupiers represent a widespread belief that Michigan and the rest of the country have gone off the rails. The tea party was born out of the same frustration; that America was losing its greatness. But while the Occupy movement blames corporate greed, the tea partiers point their angry fingers at government. The Occupiers are raging against more complex forces, which they probably don't fully understand..."

Another snip:

"I'd bet that many Americans who wouldn't go near an Occupy demonstration share the Occupiers' belief that the economy is rigged against them. Corporate profits are at record highs, yet jobs are scarce. Interest rates are at record lows, but it's tough to get a loan. Many people are working harder than ever, but can't get ahead. Although economists declared the Great Recession over more than two years ago, most Americans still are losing ground.

A new study by two former Census Bureau officials, reported last week in the New York Times, found that household income has declined at more than twice the rate since the recession ended than it did during the downturn. While household income declined 3.2 percent between December 2007 and June 2009 - the start and end points of the recession - it fell 6.7 percent from June 2009 to June 2011, the study found.

A new survey by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA, taken earlier this month, found 52 percent of likely Michigan voters believe the state is on the wrong track, while 72 percent think the nation is on the wrong track.

THE STATE LOST NEARLY 6,000 JOBS IN AUGUST. THE STATE'S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HAS RISEN FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS AND STANDS AT 11.2 PERCENT.

Which leads me to this question about the Occupy movement: WHAT TOOK IT SO LONG?"
(emphasis added) 

SEE: "Occupy Wall Street protest a long time coming" October 16, 2011.

Ignore Rick Haglund's analysis at your own peril. Change is coming. Change that is pro-active and productive? THAT POSITIVE TURN IS UP THE GREAT AMERICAN MIDDLE-THE SO-CALLED SILENT MAJORITY - OR NOT.

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Michissippi: A Rotten State of Affairs - A Brief Overview

Michissippi is currently in a rotten state of affairs:

- Over 500,000 unemployed in Michigan - No Snyder Jobs Plan in place. "Nerd"onomics freaks out.

- A "service economy" in a flat spin. Service? Do it yourself, or do without!

- A-blame-it-on-the-victims mentality (Read Henry Payne in "Peters' failed compassion" 10.4.11)

- Henry Payne quotes Rick Snyder for his assertion:

"In fact, as revealed by Governor Rick Snyder... MOST game the system: over 20 percent of welfare recipients are on welfare 11 years or more, 70 percent for 8 years or more. THIS ISN'T A LEG UP - IT'S A WAY OF LIFE." 

ASK: Just where is a "job" for a urban Detroit welfare recipient going to come from in this Michissippian economy?

When you hear the Tea Party rabble cheer and jeer at the mention of capital executions or the cut-off of medical benefits spiked by yells of "Let'm die;" where will the support for heating, food, and sheer survival come from, if we where to follow Payne's support for Snyder's intended (cut them off) course of action? The obvious answer; a reverse migration of the poor to another place. Payne's intended solution: Pick up and leave. Will Hank be throwing in for a "one way" ticket?

- Thinly disguised racial undertow: 80% single mother births in Urban Detroit-evokes the angst and anger that resides in a bigoted heart. "Compassion" applied is here a dirty word as we see in Henry Payne's attack on Congressman Peters for his "compassion."

Sez Payne:

"Living in posh Oakland County, Peters & Co. use welfare as a Cadillac bumper sticker to advertize their compassion. Divorced from the mean streets of Detroit, they never do an accounting of welfare's unintended consequences in destroying the family and creating a permanent underclass that is dooming generations of children to poverty."

Put them out and let them get jobs, this is the Payne mantra.

To which Mayor Bing replies," "'I wish we could have pushed off this decision (Snyder's cut-off of aid to the poor 2/3 of whom are children),' says Bing, fearing the effects of a tight jobs market."

Here is an historic clip about how cutting welfare goes in Michigan: "Who gets welfare? Despite prevailing stereotype, whites, not blacks, collect greatest share of public aid dollars":

"Michigan welfare officials, for example, dumped 90,000 people from its general assistance program last year (1991) to save the state $250 million. Unfortunately, a majority of those clients, as is the case nationwide, are poor Black men living in urban areas with staggeringly high unemployment rates. Many of these men suffer from physical or mental disabilities. Without welfare benefits, they face a grim future."

"The question of who gets welfare is one that society would do well to ponder. As it stands now, poor Black Families are up against the burdens of systematic racism, urban warfare and limited paths leading up and out of poverty. And many working class and middle class Black families are a paycheck away from joining their poorer brothers."

"The welfare question goes to the heart of individual attitudes about race, class, values and beliefs. Those judgments, often made by the power-brokers who shape public policy, rarely coincide with the sensibilities of the poor. HOW THEY DECIDE WHO GETS WELFARE CAN IRREVOCABLY ALTER THE DESTINIES OF GENERATIONS OF IMPOVERISHED PEOPLE."

- Michigan - a failed state - with over 35 radical groups operating in state; this coupled with the resurgence of the lone-wolf Michigan Militia. We are in trouble friends, REAL TROUBLE.

- The rise of the aristocrat John Birchers: Charles and David Koch ($25 billion each/sons of Fred Koch, founding supporter of The John Birch Society) funders and facilitators of Americans for Prosperity which is currently very active in Michigan with activists Dick Morris, Kyle Olsen, et al who roam the swamp looking for more muck. American for Prosperity (AFP) and the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are having a "pig at the trough" field day with Michigan lawmaking, providing corporatist "plug and play" legislation to be passed directly into state statues. Charles Koch ran for U.S. President on the platform of: "the abolition of Social Security, the FBI, the CIA, and public schools."

- Old "Dirksonesque" John Gizzi, the Detroit News' new "regular" columnist since his recent appearance at the GOP Mackinac Leadership Conference, pontificates on the far, far Right. John Birch is now mainstream at the Detroit News.

- Saul Anuzis, the Human Events' touting leader (former GOP state chair) of the rad-right in organized Republican Politics, continues to eviscerate what remains of the party with his multiple petty power plays.

- Richard Studley & gang at the Michigan Chamber are busy digging trenches and preparing phosphorous grenades in their Right-to-Work hand-to-hand warfare.

- Snyder's' poison pills: Removal of billions of dollars of disposable income from the retired, teachers, service personnel, firefighters and police; this means a huge loss in "demand" for commercial businesses: No customers.

THE SNYDER'S SOLUTION IS THE PROBLEM. NERDONOMICS WILL FURTHER DESTROY CUSTOMER'S PURCHASE POWER. As we go forward, this removal of income will be year after year. WHO CARES IF YOU PAY LESS TAX ON BUSINESS EARNINGS, IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE BUSINESS INCOME (BASED ON DEMAND) UPON WHICH TO PAY TAXES IN THE FIRST PLACE?

- TeaPublican Central Planning - Michigan now operates much as A TOP-DOWN SOCIALIST STATE: Those Teapartiasns, currently in office, know best what the rest of us may do, may earn, and may receive in the way of assistance or opportunity. They tell us how to work, what to earn, and what part of health care "burden" will be ours to shoulder.

- Michigan's local control, local option, and right-of-self determination is now surrendered to a new "friendly" fascist concept: The Emergency Finance Manager (EFM) regime.

- Snyder announces his desire to be a "lame duck" thus leaving the state essentially politically "leaderless" and adrift in the "perfect storm." If the Nerd is tired and despondent now, think about how long it will be before his one and only term is up? That is an economic and leaderless political eternity.


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Hell hath no fury as in a state built by industrious working men and women, good people now scorned and disenfranchised by Michigan Teapartisans

The passage H.B. 4215 et al, dictatorial EFM take over, voter disenfranchisement, 'corporate' direct control of local units of government breaks all previous records for reckless and thoughtless partisanship.

This all sadly grows out of the nasty Engler Revolution and the bad blood Engler engendered.

The giddy 'gotcha trolls' in the News blogs are high with grit in their teeth!

Many villages, towns, fire and police departments, schools and all their sweet children have been summarily turned over to Plunkett/Cooney high powered/high fee attorneys.

Emergencies, not yet declared, will mount up into the hundreds as the Nerdomomics of Tricky Rick unfold. This will include scores of public schools, sent to the dustbin by Rick Snyder's Nerdonomics.

Do the math yourselves.

There are already units in a financial fix. SNYDER'S INTENTIONAL TAX/REVENUE STARVATION of other units who are surviving, but struggling, will led immediately to many more undefined, but certain, declarations of 'finance emergencies.'

The We-are-much-smarter-than-thou GOP State Senators will rue the day they stepped off into this muck. We already know that $470 or more is cut from the neighborhood schools. We are fully aware that revenue sharing back to our communities of our own tax dollars via Block Grants is axed. This situation alone means there will be real trouble locally, real soon.

This is Snyder creative crisis built on a national economic downturn, not the first, but one of many very similar, over the years in Michigan.

Former Gov. William Milliken knows personally the hurt and the struggle of these cyclical events in Michigan. He led the state in pro-active and collaborate ways to overcoming and recovery.

SNYDER AND HIS TEAM OF HARD-HEADED,HARDCORE ENGLERITES HAVEN'T A CLUE They, like Engler, love the political battle and its spoils more than the peace, preferring strife over 'genuine, sincere, honest sacrifice' by all including corporations, the mega wealthy, and businesses-each according to ability.

The kind of EFM turmoil, headed up by corporations and 'firms' handed the undemocratic assignment(granted wages not to exceed $177,000 per year) is the kind of quality of life, culture buster, that drives away outstate investors.

Fancy this, what incoming corporate CEO wants to live in the wasteland this debacle has fueled. Culture to a German Company is equal to capital profits.

Germans get it. GOP'ers don't. The more cunning of the Teapartisan fearing ninnies, that timorous covey of poultry, should not be surprised by the ugly outcomes. The other sheepish, including the clueless newbees, will be stunned and very adversely effected by the collapse of units in their districts. The acrimony and the gnashing of teeth; viewed as the parsimonious landscape of "hell" will be their abode.

The 'real people' are coming for your leather swivel chairs and your platinum promise of State-Funded Health Insurance for Life, and all those other bits and pieces that lured you, the current GOP'ers into public office.

Now you've been elected, you turn on your people; to become judas goats, bitter enemies, to your own district's working families; turning against your own first responders, teachers, and the school children who populate our hopeful futures.

Remember...Dictatorship is Ugly! Hell's fury via angry, offended voters is real.

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The Nation looks on as Michigan’s Ship of State steams for the Rocks with H.B. 4215 & Orders from the Bros. Koch

Dictatorship is "verboten": Snyder's disastrous H.B. 4215 hit National Media attention yesterday; Giving Michigan State Senators one huge last minute pause to reconsider passage.

The nation fully understands the utter folly of Nerdonomics in light of H.B. 4215. If the urgent pleas of firefighters, police and teachers were not enough; now ballooning national attention connecting State Republicans to impending civic disaster unfolds. Michigan became a Ship of Fools.

The national criticism should awaken the floundering GOP, led into this mess by Tricky Rick and his Engleresque advisers. OUTSIDE CORPORATE POWER, YES, THOSE BULLY BOYS, THE KOCH BROTHERS GET THEIR WISHES ON A SLIVER PLATTER IF THE MICHIGAN SENATE VOTES TO ADOPT H.B. 4215. The State of Michigan will be ushered into a long and highly bitter and contentious series of court battles over the dictatorial powers this bill seeks to impose, in a ham-fisted way, upon local units of governance.

Senators you have a chance to stop disaster.

You are there as a means of checks and balances, avatars of common sense. Common sense tells you the thrust of this action is WRONG FOR MICHIGAN. You know that the financial crisis is worsened by the $470 cut to K-12, and the abolishing of block grants to cities, towns, townships, and local units. Who is pushing these harsh cuts that absolutely guarantee that the unprecedented sweep of power vested in the "Emergency Financial Manager" will be widespread and disastrous? Rick Snyder. He's in big trouble. Change course, save him, save yourselves.

It's up to you our Senators. Be warned, correct your course or sail on o' Ship of Fools! Sail on!

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Nerdonomics 102: The Big Lie - "We all Benefit" Says Rick Snyder

The Big Nerdonomics Lie

Tricky Rick sez, "We all benefit" from his Proposed Budget Plan so he will "just keep pounding the positive side of why it has to get done and why we all benefit."

"We all benefit" is the BIG LIE representing the greedy/selfish wishes of pro-Snyder business and such grudging propaganda mills as The Mackinac Center (now organically close-knit to the Detroit News on its new "The Michigan View.") These trolls have ridden a decades' long bitter campaign to this now capitalize on our tragic economic "opportunity" made possible by the Great George Bush creation: Michigan's "ONE STATE DEPRESSION."

These difficult economic times are "perfect" setting the stage for Snyder-led wolf pack to take huge bite out of public sector employees.

Anti-public schools wonks are pitching woo directly to the astro-turf Teapartisans in Michigan; appealing to the baser greed of ill-informed Tea Partiers who have joined the anti-civil curmudgeon, Grover Norquist, (in dutiful service to the greedy selfish elites.)

Norquist bragged he would crudely drown the public's necessary government-shrunken down in size- in a bathtub of red ink. Snyder is helping by riding on the backs of state employees being pushed by Norquist's suggestion into red ink of Snyder's making by going too far with an 86 drop in business taxes which gut state revenue. SEE Fact Sheet on Proposed Tax Changes.

Rick Snyder's cuts in public compensation will directly result in hundreds of millions of fewer dollars making THE ALL IMPORTANT REVENUE CYCLE THAT LOCAL SALARIES AND BENEFITS PROVIDE IN VITAL SUPPORT OF A "NEEDY MICHIGAN CONSUMER ECONOMY."

New business, as projected by Snyder's plan will be a long time in start-up, meanwhile Michigan's vital local economy will actually worsen because of his flawed shaft and shift tax plan. This is a risk we should not allow Tricky Rick to impose on us.

Therefore it is not true, as Snyder proclaims, "We all will benefit." However, it's important to note Snyder believes his own BIG LIE.

Tricky Rick:

"I'm an advocate of relentless positive action. I'm not here to pick fights, I'm here to solve problems," Snyder has said. "And the way you solve a problem is just keep on pounding the positive side of why it has to get done and why we all benefit."

Tricky Rick has hidden his savage attack ("just keep pounding") upon teacher and school employees in his advocacy and support to for his H.B. 4215, 2011, which legislatively creates a bitter and acrimonious local fights with school employees-- the "BIG LOSERS"-- even before the "I'm-not-here-to-pick-fights" fight begins under passage of H.B. 4215 fast-tracked; without proper exposure, explanation, and statewide hearings. Should it pass, H.B. 4215 will given immediate effect by the Michigan Senate this week.
3.)Tricky Rick Sez: "If I can solve a problem by being proactive, constructive and working well with people, that's the approach that I'm going to take."

Nothing about Snyder's plan of covert "Cut and Scrap" empowered by H.B. 4215 is pro-active for kids or their mentoring teachers. Snyder will be empowered to act pro-negatively against unions and collective bargaining by pushing down to the individual units:

1.) Severe cuts in revenue, dictated by Rick's decision, give Michigan businesses the largest single business bonanza in tax breaks in the state's History via his Proposed Budget.

2.) Financial Default Will Happen: While forcing local units to do more with less-to the point of impossibility-as with the $470 per student cuts in education.

These cuts, mandated by Tricky Rick, coerces the local school boards to go to its employees and demand huge concessions or else. The "or else" is the imposition of a virtual DICTATOR and destruction of local civic capital-a literal sell off of neighborhood assets.

3.) Everything negotiated in "good faith" prior to the Snyder regime; under the current Michigan collective bargaining rights and agreements are at risk.

Teachers will be forced to give up salary and/or salary and benefits (health care) as the way to balance the Snyder induced shortfall or face the drastic and unprecedented step: Having an "Emergency Financial Manager" appointed by Andy Dillon or a "firm" " high fee, high profile Plunkett/Cooney-tear the district piece by piece to "steal" the desired cuts from teachers and school employees in order to "gift" business. It's Wisconsin only harsher!

Tricky Rick Snyder is starting down the same path as the much hated John Engler and loses all his ability to re-invent Michigan in any positive way, in spite of the great need he recognized for recovery and healing. How Sad!

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When Is Totally Insane Nerdonomics Not Totally Bonkers, Way Beyond Crazy?

Nerdonomics: Gov. Rick Snyder's wide-ranging proposals have made it shockingly evident what's at risk for citizens of this state. 

Many services and essential state functions are dangerously at stake here in Michigan.

Truth be told: Businesses will realize more than a HUMONGOUS 80% DECREASE IN TAXES.

Nerdonomics demands, not a reasonable 10 percent cut, not a generous 20 percent or even half 50% cut; nor does it call for a temporary cuts to tide the state over (WWMD-What Would Milliken Do)"but a FULL 82 PERCENT DROP IN BUSINESS TAXES.

Michigan's Business Tax now generates $2.1 billion in revenue to help pay for vital services such as education, help for abused kids, and public safety, etc. as business' share of civic responsibility.

Under NERDONOMICS THAT WILL PLUMMET to $392 MILLIONS IN FY 2013; first full year of the tax changes are in effect. House Fiscal Agency Director Mitch Bean this week used a different base in his accounting to compute an EVEN BIGGER DROP - 86 PERCENT.

THIS WILL OCCUR AT THE EXACT SAME TIME PERSONAL INCOME TAXES WILL CLIMB A WHOPPING 31 PERCENT. That will not be shared equally. In fact those at the high end of the economic ladder (THE VERY WELL OFF, THE ECONOMIC ELITES, MANY OF WHOM WILL HAVE ALSO SEEN THEIR BUSINESSES SKIM UP TO AN 86 % GIVE BACK FROM NERDOMOMICS) will see the biggest TAX REDUCTION WINDFALL as the income tax rate shrinks from 4.35 percent to 4.25 percent.


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