Can Governor Rick Snyder Be Indicted Next?
 |
| Photo by commoncause.org |
John A. Smith, Founder/Editor, New York, December 20, 2016 9:54 AM
Four More Former Government Officials Indicted
The governor's office in MI is exempt from freedom of information laws (FOIL), which is a story in itself, and Governor Snyder (R-MI) has used that exemption for everything it's worth. Gov. Snyder has refused to release key documents on the poisoning of people in the city of Flint, MI, for the past 2 1/2 years. Anyone that thinks many incriminating documents of Snyder and his appointed Emergency Managers and staff haven't been destroyed by now are simply not in touch with reality. But Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is still making progress with indictments of former state-appointed Emergency Managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose and former city employees Howard Croft, a public works superintendent, and Daugherty Johnson, a utilities manager, who were the latest to be charged by AG Schuette. That brings the total indictments to 13 as 9 people had been charged prior to the third round of indictments that took place yesterday. The two Emergency Managers can be sentenced to 40 years in prison each, one of them 46 years because he made public statements that the water was safe to drink when he knew it wasn't. The indictments are now at the door of the Governor, will they make it into his office? With those indicted already saying the decisions were made at the highest levels, the Governor's office, he should be. The system of taking away democracy and replacing local politicians with "Emergency Managers" who are picked by, and who only report to, the Governor, is still in effect in Michigan!
 |
| Photo by Fox17 |
The "Midas" Touch - How Gov. Snyder Stole $150M
Michigan Integrated Data Automation System, "M.I.D.A.S." is the name of a computer Rachael Maddow (The Rachael Maddow Show/MSNBC) reported on her show yesterday that was brought online by Gov. Snyder in the fall of 2013. Michigan elected Republican Governor Rick Snyder in 2010, he was a computer executive before then. What MIDAS did was kick all human beings out of the process of evaluating unemployment applications. What MIDAS actually did is turn the problem of unemployed people into money. When MIDAS was brought online it started treating everyone who applied for unemployment benefits like criminals. The automated system erroneously accused claimants in 93% of cases of fraud. Michigan unemployment agency made 20,000 false fraud accusations. Instead of getting their unemployment checks applicants had their applications kicked back to them and accused them of fraud. And when it did that it didn't make it clear that applicants could appeal that finding. People did not know they were even eligible to appeal against the fraud charge. People who did appeal, in 9 out of 10 cases, WON! It's an intimidating system where it tells the applicants that they made a fraudulent application and they could go to jail and have to pay fines. The people accused lost access to unemployment payments, and reported facing fines as high as $100,000. Many people did not only not appeal, not get their unemployment benefits, but were scared and started paying the fines. People who didn't pay their fines had their federal and state taxes garnished. People who were expecting a tax return, instead got a letter saying that because of the MIDAS finding of fraud the state was keeping it. Carolyn Hayes was one of the 27,000 people accused of fraud by the MIDAS system. Carolyn won her two appeals, in fact the state auditor general's report showed that of those that appealed the fraud finding, in 9 out of 10 cases won. This system held onto the money that people paid in fines,and the money garnished, and held from federal and state tax returns. You wouldn't think you can get that much money from poorer people but it did. The account that held money paid in fines and such from unemployment, the Michigan Unemployment Agency Contingent Fund, prior to MIDAS being implemented had $3.1M, in 2011. Now, after MIDAS was implemented, it holds $155M. That's MIDAS, it turns everything into gold, or in this case, money. Congressman Sandy Levin (D-MI-9) has been all over this. Two major lawsuits have been filed against the state of Michigan and has resulted in a "limited review" of this MIDAS catastrophe and what it has done to people. So far, of the money took, unlawfully, 2,571 individuals have been repaid a total of $5.4M from the $155M that they stole from these people who lost their job, filed for unemployment, were told they committed fraud, paid fines, all the while not having any money for food and housing. Because it's Michigan though, Rachael Maddow says, "I believe that because they continue to be the least appreciated, and most radical Republicans in the whole country, they passed a bill this week to transfer $10M of that stolen money, calling it a "surplus" unemployment insurance funds to help balance the state budget. They're probably going to try to use all of it before they are ordered to repay the people they stole it from. You know, the people that lost their jobs, had no money for food, clothing, and housing, were not only denied unemployment benefits, but were told they committed fraud and had to pay fines to avoid jail, were not allowed to re-apply, and had their tax returns taken by the state. Even while the investigations are going on, they pass a bill to take $10M of the stolen money to balance their state budget. In 2013 when MIDAS was being put into use Governor Rick Snyder appointed an "Emergency Manager" to the city of Flint. The "Emergency Manager" law is a democracy stealing law that takes away democracy in that it allows the Governor to totally ignore elections of local officials who were duly elected by the people and appoint "Emergency Managers" picked solely by the Governor and who report ONLY to the Governor. It is still in effect.
 |
| Photo by EcoWatch |
Donald Trump's Connection To The Flint Water Crisis
Ryan Schleeter of EcoWatch reports Flint, MI, still does not have clean drinking water. Now, President-elect Donald Trump—whose campaign stump speech included a crude joke about the city's water crisis—has tapped one of the people responsible for the crisis to join his cabinet.
Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick for Secretary of Education, and her family have a long history of using their wealth to manipulate Michigan state elections and push through "reforms" that undercut local democracy. She's a staunch advocate of privatization measures that shift power from people to corporations—and one of those measures led directly to the poisoning of Flint's water and citizens. Read more.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/us/flint-water-charges.html?_r=0
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-michigan-water-idUSKBN1491XK
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/12/20/schuette-flint-water-charges/95644964/
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Congressman+sander+levin%2C+MI
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/21/flin-d21.html
The MIDAS Touch References
LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency recently finished a review of 22,427 fraud determinations, and 93 percent of those cases have been overturned, according to the UIA. Of those cases, 2,571 people have been repaid a total of $5.4 million.
Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI 9th District) called for the case reviews in May. Read more.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's MIDAS program had a 93% error rate and falsely accused 20,000 workers of unemployment fraud Read more.
Rachael Maddow Reports MIDAS
As if the Flint water crisis wasn't enough, Michigan's unemployment system installed under Governor Rick Snyder flagged a whopping 93 percent of applicants as fraudulent. See video. Read more.WATCH RACHAEL MADDOW REPORT THIS ON YOUTUBE
If This Bothers You, FIND and CONTACT YOUR Representatives, NOW, It's EASY!
How to Find and Contact your Representatives
To FIND, and CONTACT, your State Senators, Assembly-person, and other Local Legislators enter your Address and Zip Code at:
OpenStates.org
(You can also search for “Bills” and “Legislation” that are in the State Legislature and across all states at this site.)
(You can also search for “Bills” and “Legislation” that are in the State Legislature and across all states at this site.)
To FIND, and CONTACT, your U.S. Congressperson enter your Zip Code at:
(You can also search for “Bills” and “Legislation” that are, or were, in the House of Representatives (Congress,) see which Congressional district you are in, and much more about the United States House of Representatives (Congress,) the at this site.)
To FIND, and CONTACT, your U.S. Senators enter your Zip Code at:
(You can also search for “Bills” and “Legislation” that are in the U.S. Senate, and much more about the U. S, Senate at this site.)
To TRACK Congressperson, Senators, Legislative Bills, Voting Records of your Representatives, go to:
Other very useful sites are:
No comments:
Post a Comment
We appreciate hearing your opinions