The Black Liberal Boomer Blog

The ongoing war against illegal immigrants by Republican governors in Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, Utah and Arizona is one clear and present indicator of where the Republican strategy is headed, namely toward the creation of  an America where bigotry and intolerance will become the new national anthem. To view an equally integral piece of the strategy that is targeting us 'legal' Amerkans, one need look no further than my home state of Michigan where Gov. Rick "the Nerd" Snyder is successfully implementing his strategy of  suppressing and/or otherwise erasing the vote of  a significant number of his predominantly poor and working class African American population.

Although purposely distancing himself from the Tea Party faction of the Republicans - a smart move - Snyder's recently approved Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) legislation (enabling him to essentially swallow entire municipalities whole without even burping) makes it questionable whether his willingness to keep the Tea Party wingnuts at arm's length should automatically earn him consideration from Democrats as a supposedly 'reasonable' Republican. Currently there are three Michigan cities operating under the iron thumb control of a Snyder-appointed emergency financial manager - Pontiac, Benton Harbor, and Ecorse - and all three of those cities are largely black, poor, and working class. Snyder has also appointed former General Motors executive Roy Roberts, an African American, as the new EMF for Detroit Public Schools. Robert Bobb, the previous (and first) EMF was appointed by the previous Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

From Huffpost:

Emergency managers are currently in place in the cities of Pontiac, Benton Harbor and Ecorse. Detroit's public schools have been run by an emergency financial manager since 2009, when the earlier law put Robert Bobb in charge of the city's schools. Public Act 4 made Bobb and now his successor, Roy Roberts, emergency managers, with even more power over the district.

"When the recent legislation was signed in March to change [the DPS emergency financial manager] to an emergency manager, that just made matters even worse," said Edith Lee-Payne, a Detroit civil rights activist signed onto the suit. "Then the elected school board had absolutely no voice."

The suit comes two days after Snyder and Roberts introduced sweeping reforms that would siphon off the city's worst-performing schools into a special state-run district. That special district, Snyder said, would eventually expand to include low-performing schools throughout the state.

"In my opinion, the [schools] plan is an opportunity to do more privatization -- which is what this legislature would like to see," Lee-Payne said.

Let me say at the outset that Roy Roberts is highly respected, so credit should be given where credit is due.  It was also a slick move by Snyder to employ yet another brother to put a comforting face on the front lines of Snyder's war against the rest of us. I will also confess that when Granholm originally appointed Robert Bobb I was one of those who thought it was the right thing to do because DPS was such an incredible mess that an extremely radical solution was required and I thought this just might be it.

I still believe radical measures will be necessary if DPS is to survive, but converting the EMF approach into a semi-permanent thing while expanding this approach to entire cities is terrifying. Apparently I'm not the only one terrified by this, which is why 30 Michigan residents filed a lawsuit last week on June 22 to overturn the EMF legislation and naming Gov. Snyder as a defendant. Additionally, the Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling for an attack on the EMF legislation  as a blatant attempt to disenfranchise voters.

From MLIve.com

Pontiac being under the control of an emergency financial manager is a small piece of a bigger puzzle to take away an individuals’ right to vote, according to the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

That’s what the controversial pastor told more than 100 people Sunday during a special meeting at Pontiac City Hall, according to reports.

“It is right to have the right to vote,” Jackson said. “It is wrong to take away the vote.”

The failure and dysfunction of Detroit - and other predominantly poor, black areas - is being manipulated by Gov. Snyder and his crew into an opportunity to 'save us' by silencing us while stealing our city from us. I've heard many folks say this was coming down the pike for years and I could never bring myself to believe it because it  seemed to far-fetched. Too much like one of those crazy conspiracy theories.

So maybe this isn't a conspiracy, but whatever you wanna call it, it's happening now in Detroit.  Gil Scott said "we almost lost Detroit", and that was awhile ago. If we don't pay attention, the 'almost' will have to be amended.

You know, some folks are dumb enough to believe that when you shoot yourself in the foot it only affects your foot. Simply put, that just isn't how the body works. I wasn't that good at science in school, but I did manage to learn at least that much just by showing up to class occasionally.

You're probably well aware of the anti-immigrant sentiment that's been gnawing at this country's insides for years, but more specifically I'd like to draw your attention to the efforts by Republican governors in recent months to follow put a choke hold on immigration. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed his anti-immigrant legislation in April after campaigning on a promise to do like Arizona and put that fear and bigotry to good use. Earlier this month, Alabama passed what is considered to be the nation's strictest anti-immigrant legislation.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The 72-page legislation known as HB 56 also touches on issues as diverse as contract law and voter registration. It makes Alabama the fourth state, after Georgia, Utah and Indiana, to follow Arizona's lead in enacting significant statewide immigration laws, potentially mollifying those voters frustrated with Washington's perceived failure to deal with the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

Other states, including California, Florida, Nevada and Texas, have seen SB 1070-style bills fail during this year's legislative sessions, and portions of the Arizona law — including the provision requiring police to check the immigration status of those they stop and suspect are in the country illegally — have been blocked by a federal judge and may land before the Supreme Court.

The American Civil Liberties Union declared its intention Thursday to file a lawsuit opposing HB 56, arguing that it would invite racial profiling and require police to "demand 'papers' from people they stop whom they suspect are not authorized to be in the U.S."

"This draconian initiative signed into law this morning by Gov. Robert Bentley is so oppressive that even Bull Connor himself would be impressed," said Wade Henderson, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, referring to Birmingham's notorious segregationist public safety commissioner from the civil rights era. "HB 56 is designed to do nothing more than terrorize the state's Latino community."

The idea, here, of course, was to chase away those pesky immigrants who are supposed to be stealin' those good American jobs while living off of welfare and carting in all those drugs across the border (they may be pesky but you damned sure can't call 'em lazy). Amerka fer Amerkans, and all that. But then a funny thing happened. Well, OK, maybe it wasn't all that funny to those farmers in Georgia. Because now that the anti-immigrant legislation has passed and Gov. Good Deal has signed off on it, the immigrants, not being stupid, have hightailed it out of  Georgia. This unfortunate development kinda left the farmers high and dry because now they don't have anyone left to harvest the crops. So far the estimated loss to Georgia's farmers is somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million, but it could easily top $1 billion before long. Suffice to say the farmers are kinda pissed.

From Georgia Public Broadcasting:

The Georgia Agribusiness Council estimates the total loss stemming from spoiled and unpicked produce to be close to $1 billion.

And that doesn’t include other crops such as pecans and cotton that will be harvested next.

Farmers have had to leave crops in the field due to a labor shortage they say stems from the state’s new immigration crackdown. Council president Bryan Tolar even if crops get picked, there may not be enough workers to process them.

Oopsie daisy. Yeah, well. That's the kinda thing that happens when you let the little head do the thinkin' there Gov. Good Deal. Especially when that little head is perched squarely on top of your shoulders.