It's not micro-second instantaneous Wall Street stealing, but a kind of long term slow motion stealing.
So this is not a fully researched thesis or anything, but what is happening in Detroit reminds me so much of what happened over the years in East Palo Alto, California
What seems to me to be the beginning steps to an ongoing land grab. Benton Harbor and Jean Klock Park. Land that was for the people, the commons, that was finagled out from under them by the republicans, the Rick Snyder's privateers, for an exclusive golf club
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That happened then
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This is happening now in Detroit
@ minute 1:20 activist Monica Lewis Patrick is going door to door to help people; providing information of their rights. Also Ari Melber talks to activist Lee Gaddies.
The water shut-offs are selective. Some corpos owing huge amounts remain on line.
In other areas, water is, (and has been for a long while) flooding out of broken water lines that were not shut down; wasting water and ruining the homes in the areas.
..and this sure seems like a long term effort by the GOP privateers to drive out the non-whites using the usual tricks. 'Gentrification' is the "nice" way to spin it.
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Thom Hartman video on some history: https://www.youtube.com/...
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Reverend Al Sharpton speaks with MWRO's Maureen Taylor (video): https://www.youtube.com/...
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Just one more video; Reverend Al Sharpton of Politics Nation @ MSNBC and leader @ National Action Network with more information and interviews with community activists: http://www.msnbc.com/...
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I remember watching this happen over time in East Palo Alto, Ca. It was something I didn't understand that well or notice at first growing up but watched and then did notice over the years. The insidious degradation of a town.
There was a stark divide going back to the red-lining institutionalized into the G.I. Bill in 1940's & 50's.
Highway 101. It divided the west side of the highway; Palo Alto, Stanford University area from the poorer, mostly non-white neighborhoods on the east side of Highway 101.
I used to drive University Ave down through Whiskey Gulch to get to East bay Rd where all the auto wreckers were when I was building cars and trucks. Over time I watched as resources were cut off, homes and store fronts got boarded up. Water shut off. Land prices plummet and is scooped up for pennies on the dollar.
One of the tell-tale signs of this takeover I've noticed after it is well under way is: A Home Depot & other stores by the same corporate ownership go up before the surrounding property values rise. They bulldoze the homes and small businesses and put up the Home Depot which sits alone, sometimes for a couple of years, just before the 'gentrification' begins without the people who once lived there. They have been displaced one way or another. And it is not just the "free market" forces. It is systematic degradation. You can see it, but it takes years of observing to see it play out.
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So it is very inspiring to see people rising up in Detroit including NN14 activisvism making waves on this. Such good work fighting back against this corpo land, asset grab; a shrinking of the commons; peoples civil rights stolen including the right to vote by a party of corpo shills subservient to a tiny minority that holds the kind of wealth, that when researched was and still is gained by hook or crook as we're seeing unfold in nearly every story I've investigated.
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Note: This theory of mine; that what is happening in Detroit; that acquiring stealing the land is the goal here is just my opinion. I believe in the years to come Detroit property will be much sought after.
If the developers have their way with Detroit, all the empty lots, boarded up homes and closed down businesses will be swept way along with the people who have lived there for generations. This seems to me to be how "conservative" movement and their corpo GOP shills operate. If it works in one state (and with some tactics like personhood laws - even if it doesn't - see: ALEC) the GOP will do it again and again until they are stopped
• starve the areas of resources - and to list all the many resources is hard to pin down because there are so many things that add up to keeping a community vibrant, the list is long. But there are the obvious cuts like..
• cut police/fire and other public protection
• close down schools and hospitals
• cut off basic services - like water
Iow's' cause the "blight" until the property value tanks and people give up trying to live with services cut, with little police (or even antagonistic police) or fire protection. Then when the price is right (wing) the developers take over.
I forgot one important step. Emergency manger takeover. Eliminate democracy.
Actually I left out a lot of important steps and probably got some things wrong too, so this is far from the last word on this; just my own observations on this.
And why I compared it to East Palo Alto California.
I'd bet that this scenario or some version is in the works right now for Detroit and in many places around the country with as many versions of similar stories as there is land that big corpo developers decide it is their right to steal.
But I also think that this is not written in stone. Big money "interests" and what they plan for the rest of us doesn't have to be - not is we hold it together and unite against them and stop them
- imo
Kudos to Eclectablog and all those for the excellent work going back years on this
And thx for stopping by
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* stealing is my opinion and not based on laws that imo are another method the "supply side" moneyed in$erests get away with what they extract from our shared land, our labor and our civil rights including our right to an equal voice in our government