"Detroit is Ground Zero for the breakdown of the Blue Social Model."

Says Walter Russell Mead. "The race issue is a red herring", Mead goes on to say, "when it comes to Detroit.  Detroit isn’t broke because it has an African American majority; it is broke because for decades its politicians have spent more money than they had, and because Detroit never figured out how to reinvent itself as it lost its industrial core."

Well that and auto union greed and short-sightedness, a national government hell-bent on destroying the manufacturing economy in favor of financialism, and the obtuse, incompetent, corrupt, African-American "elite" (such as they are) that have run Detroit since 1973.

The Kwamester, despite all he's done (as well as been convicted of), "has forgiven himself" he tells EMU audience

Awww. Forgiveness sure is nice isn't it? Especially when it is extended by the one and only person you really do actually care about. What a narcissist, eh? If this puzzles you consider this. The political class is different from the rest of us you see. Estimates are that the general population is about 4 percent sociopathic but among the political class the rate has got to be more like 99 percent. The only realistic course of action I can see therefore would be this: I wouldn't trust a government office to anyone who desires to have one. Just wanting that power shows they can't be trusted with it.

Case dismissed: A Detroit urban legend finally bites the dust

The rumored but never proven Kwame Kilpatrick-era Manoogian Mansion party featuring strippers & fist fights and supposedly leading to the murder of one of the strippers and which was then covered up by Kilpatrick and which led to an expensive lawsuit against the city of Detroit by the stripper's family is now finally over.

"U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen's decision to throw out a lawsuit", says Brian Dickerson @ the Detroit Free Press, "brought by the children of slain stripper Tamara (Strawberry) Greene will surely disappoint partisans of political intrigue and courtroom melodrama. But it's more than amply supported by the evidence -- or, more precisely, the dearth of relevant evidence -- [plaintiff's lawyer Norman] Yatooma and his clients were able to surface in their epic fishing expedition."

I think the thing that kept this whole pathetic circus act going for all these years is the fact that the Kwamster was such a sleazy character that the idea of of it all seemed entirely possible. These allegations actually needed to be debunked step-by-step and in detail because otherwise this thing would have gone on forever. Actually it will go on forever just like with other events like the 911 Truther movement, Air Force UFO cover-ups, or the JFK assassination amongst the conspiracy theorists and underground historians. They'll no doubt talk about the Manoogian party-murder-cover-up conspiracy by Kilpatrick forever but at least it'll be on their time and their dime and not the taxpayers. Time to move on.

The people have spoken, the bastards.

All your politics are belonging to us!

Primary election results in Ann Arbor are in. All incumbent Democratic council members were renominated and the rest ran unopposed and won by default. And that's it. There was your election folks. About 1200 or so people in a city of 114,000 decided it all for Ann Arbor. And now we, like the good sheep we are, can all go back to grazing until it's time for us to be sheared again. Bahhhh.

Sign of the times: The Gentrification of the Democratic Party

The new gentrified Democratic donkey

Although private sector labor unions are still a big influence on the Democratic Party the policies actually followed by Democrats once in office is distinctly anti-working class. Democratic Party politicos tend to work hardest for policies favored by the gentrified college educated professionals that inhabit the suburban areas. And  if you are a non-unionized blue, pink or white collar working-class stiff the Dems don't do much for you; you just don't have enough clout.

"...California, New York and Washington, D.C. represent progress due to the enlightened social and environmental rhetoric espoused by the media, academics and politicians based in these regions. But in reality,"says demographer Joel Kotkin, who studies these things," this new ruling class seems likely to create an American future that looks a lot like today’s Great Britain, with a significant affluent population concentrated in core cities and some affluent suburbs that lives an exciting life at the top of the world economy, surrounded by a large underclass and a fading middle class."

Modern Democrats will fight to the death to make sure urban, unionized public employees like bus drivers, cops, firemen, teachers and bureaucrats get top pay and benefits, and gold-plated retirements that they can take at age fifty in return for their money and votes. The rest of us peons with no clout get downsized, privatized, out-sourced,  and displaced by immigrants and are then told to shop at Wal-Mart for the best value for our food stamps. I wonder what FDR would say about all this? Wall Street banksters and well connected corporate CEOs are green-lighted to scam the system in every way possible. And then merely wrist slapped and then bailed out if they fail. It's no accident that in recent years as much money from the financier class goes to the Dems as to the Republicans. State socialism for the rich and laissez-faire for the poor.

"The genius of our ruling class", says Gore Vidal, "is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return."

Indeed.

Sign of the times: Kwame Kilpatrick redux

Disgraced & imprisoned ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick "writes" a tell-all book (Doug Guthrie, Detroit News)

Remember this headline?

Even given that its been co-written with/by his cousin and has been heavily redacted by his legal team and all notwithstanding it might still be a fun read just to hear him explain the lies and spin he dished out for six years. All the perjury, cronyism, nepotism, incompetence, corruption, no-bid contracting and so forth that Kwame, his family and crew engaged in he says was done in order to "empower Detroiters" whatever the hell that means. I find that kind of stuff from the likes of him unintentionally hilarious. Watching this goof try yet again to spin his way back to a good reputation is like watching a pompous ass strut around with a long piece of toilet paper stuck to bottom of their shoe. Mean-spirited but fun, eh?

You know I may even score a copy of this book just for my personal library and which I could do in good conscience because an arrangement has been entered into by the Wayne county circuit court to sieze the profits (if any) from the sales of the book. Kilpatrick according to the Detroit News story still owes $860,000 in restitution.

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Ann Arbor Chronicle writer concerned about redrawing ward boundaries (Dave Askins)
Worrying about ward boundaries in a city with 100% Democratic Party representation? Who cares?

Los Angeles county bothering property owners over piddling zoning law violations (Michael Cavanaugh, Reason)
Even though they live in near total isolation in the high desert areas of eastern LA county. I'm afraid that California is now so far gone that "Second Amendment remedies" are the only thing that is going to save  liberty there.

Milwaukee cops more scared of being called racist than they are of dealing with rampaging teen mobs (Jeff Wagner, WTMJ-AM)
Do you think the media and police would be reacting differently if this had been a group of 40 white people punching and robbing a group of black people?

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Killer’s return unnerves west Michigan residents
But he's okay as long as he stays on his meds though, so no worries.
Bankrupt Hollywood Video still out to collect late fees on video rentals
One guy had his $2 late return fee snowball into $125 by additional fees added by a collection agency.
Motown legend and ex-Detroit City Council member Martha Reeves admits she's no politician
True enough on several levels.
The fading appeal of Glen Beck
I never could see what his appeal was.
Libya: inside the SAS operation that went FUBAR
Yet another justification for a MYOB foreign policy.
 The Actual Reasons the BATF Smuggled Guns Into Mexico
Incompetence and corruption head the list.
Californian Democrats face the reality of class warfare 
Government employees live, work and retire better than the taxpayers.
Is there a such a thing as a "thug gene"?
That would sure would explain a lot.

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Your tax dollars at work: "A Jackson Community College (Jackson, MI) student who failed more than 20 classes in the mid-1990s is receiving a federal Pell Grant after all."  MLive (Jackson)

Did anyone even notice he was gone?: Detroit city councilman back after five month "leave of absence" Det Free Press

Counter-culture history: How a volatile junkie named Cheetah Chrome survived Cleveland's notorious punk scene back in the day - Detroit Metro Times

LSU's Les Miles not gonna coach Michigan football either - Michigan Daily
After Jim Harbaugh declined the position first. All this kind of reminds me of the search for Lloyd Carr's replacement after he quit in '07. And we all know how well that turned out.

Post-Affluence Anarchy: A Dialogue (Murray Bookchin and Jeremy Brecher) -The Anarchist Library
"By the end of the 1960s, the discontent remained, but much of the opportunity for experimentation had vanished. Students began to knuckle down for grades and eschewed political activity that might get them thrown out of school; dropouts, no longer able to live off the scraps of a booming economy, were forced to look for work and face the problems of any other workers. The romantic exuberance and sense of possibility that marked the 1960s became a matter of history."

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The brothers Levin (Sen. Carl and Rep. Sander) &; Gov. Granholm try to mediate DSO strike -  Det News
Because Detroit has no bigger problems than the recreational pursuits of Detroit's ruling class?

US Attorney says "Detroit's 'culture of corruption' is over" - MLive
Referring to the recent indictment of the Kilpatrick Mob. Whatever. We'll see. Just because you flush a toilet doesn't mean it will stay clean.

How political clout beat the public interest: The new Detroit-Windsor Bridge monopoly of Matty Moroun - Det Metro Times
When the ruling class wants something, the stars align themselves to make sure it happens. Qui bono?

Book review: Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962
"Mao’s famine was a consequence of a fantastical initiative, a “Great Leap Forward” into Communism, that he believed would turn China into an economic powerhouse, catapulting over its rivals in the Communist and non-Communist blocs. The idea was to use (and abuse) the country’s massive population—its most awesome resource—to boost agricultural and industrial output. The masses were stripped of private possessions, their homes and villages destroyed, and they were coerced into 26,000 giant “people’s communes” that were organized into military units." - TNR
"You need to break a few eggs to make an omelet" the old saying goes. We saw a lot of "broken eggs" over the years from the Marxist-Leninists but we never saw any omelets. Go figure?

Microsoft forms a patent bloc with Apple, EMC, and Oracle: A monopoly is born!- bNet

Damn "limousine liberals" send their kids to private schools - (Chip Johnson) SF Chron

"When it comes to the public schools, Bay Area parents rarely illustrate the strident, progressive beliefs they apply to most political and social issues. The phrase limousine liberal is not complimentary, but on this issue, it's a glove that fits a little too well. Because whether it's fueled by economic privilege or simply a matter of choice, the rate at which Bay Area parents, regardless of ethnicity, send their children to private schools has historically been higher than most other places in the country, say researchers who have studied the issue." Because even Bay Area progressives want a safe, quality education for their kids, and politics and diversity be damned.

Why I am a Member of the Permanent Opposition - FPR (D.W. Sabin)
Long live the king! But somewhere else, please.

Annals of Democracy, cont'd.

The feds announced yesterday a massive criminal prosecution of the Kilpatrick Mob. What those crooks did by stealing from the long suffering people of Detroit is just plain evil. And to think that those same utterly broke and destitute people not only elected Kwame Kilpatrick a state rep and then mayor, but then, knowing what a fucking crook he was, re-elected him mayor. People deserve the type of governance they get say many cynics. Maybe they're right. It sure seems so in this case.

As emotionally satisfying as it is to see the feds start arresting and prosecuting the Kilpatrick Mob at long last, in the end it really only amounts to closing the barn door long after the horses are long gone. And there's not much prospect of ever getting the money back from these crooks either just to add salt to the wound. And so it goes in Detroit.

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Detroit as an Urban Laboratory: More think-tank style noodling about turning Detroit into several smaller villages with big green "opportunity zones" in between. Maybe. But they'd have to get the SoM and City Hall and all their bullshit out of the way first.

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Detroit's own U.S. Rep. John Conyers' son was caught driving dad's government issued SUV around town while night-clubbing recently. Pretty small beer, as scandals go, but still, John "Congressman for Life" Conyers is just such an ethical and legal mess. And like the rest of the criminal organization known as the Congressional Black Caucus John doesn't give a fuck about how he conducts himself in office since he knows he is never evah gonna lose an election. Maybe, maybe not. Ask  Detroit's soon-to-be-ex-congresswoman U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick about that little bit of conventional wisdom.

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Some thoughts on healthful drinking from Mark Sisson: Go with the red wine or whiskies and forget about the clear liquors, beer, and the rest. Be moderate about it too.

The NYT's review of Sean Wilentz’s book Bob Dylan in America

Democracy as Spectacle: The Messianic Compulsions of our Republic
Some thoughts on American political culture.

Diversity is not our strength no matter what elites tell us.

"How Websites Make You Spill Your Secrets" - MIT's Technology Review


Mexico wary of California proposal to legalize marijuana - Washington Post
I'll bet. There is a lot of money involved here.

Sign of the times...

Ex-Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers is to report to prison on the 10th.
And so a small step toward draining the swamp that is metro-Detroit politics is made. And on a related note a one-man grand jury has been appointed to look into the "Michigan Tea Party" false-flag operation by the Democrats too. Hope & Change!

Sign of the times...

Wheels stolen off Detroit mayor Dave Bing's SUV - Detroit News

Sheesh. A few months back burglars broke into then DPD chief Jim Barren's pad and swiped some of his stuff too. As fun as it is to mock these guys it does show how precarious public safety is in Detroit. Those two live in nice neighborhoods and they still got hit.