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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
April 20, 2015
from the Detroit Free Press:
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy today announced felony criminal charges against a fired Inkster police officer who is shown in a patrol car video severely beating a motorist. William Melendez is charged with misconduct in office and and assault with intent to do great bodily harm in the case involving Floyd Dent, an autoworker. A related charge of possession of cocaine -- Dent claimed the officer planted the drug in his car -- was dismissed by Worthy.
.....................
for background:
The Wayne County prosecutor has called a news conference today to discuss two separate beatings by police in metro Detroit.
Prosecutor Kym Worthy says she'll announce this morning whether charges will be filed against the officers.
In January, driver Floyd Dent was repeatedly punched in the head during a traffic stop in Inkster. Dent's head was bleeding from his injuries after he was subdued and arrested by Melendez.
Inkster Police Officer William Melendez has been fired, although his union is appealing. He told WXYZ-TV, "There are always two sides to every story."
Dent's head was bleeding from his injuries after he was subdued and arrested by Melendez. .................(more)
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2015/04/20/wayne-county-prosecutor-beatings-charges/26063075/
Michigan: Inkster cop faces felony charges in beating arrest
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2015/04/20/fired-inkster-cop/26067097/from the Detroit Free Press:
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy today announced felony criminal charges against a fired Inkster police officer who is shown in a patrol car video severely beating a motorist. William Melendez is charged with misconduct in office and and assault with intent to do great bodily harm in the case involving Floyd Dent, an autoworker. A related charge of possession of cocaine -- Dent claimed the officer planted the drug in his car -- was dismissed by Worthy.
.....................
for background:
The Wayne County prosecutor has called a news conference today to discuss two separate beatings by police in metro Detroit.
Prosecutor Kym Worthy says she'll announce this morning whether charges will be filed against the officers.
In January, driver Floyd Dent was repeatedly punched in the head during a traffic stop in Inkster. Dent's head was bleeding from his injuries after he was subdued and arrested by Melendez.
Inkster Police Officer William Melendez has been fired, although his union is appealing. He told WXYZ-TV, "There are always two sides to every story."
Dent's head was bleeding from his injuries after he was subdued and arrested by Melendez. .................(more)
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2015/04/20/wayne-county-prosecutor-beatings-charges/26063075/
April 20, 2015
The TPP: Toward Absolutist Capitalism
Posted on April 20, 2015
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
There are many excellent arguments against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), two of which — local zoning over-rides, and loss of national sovereignty — I’ll briefly review as stepping stones to the main topic of the post: Absolutist Capitalism, for which I make two claims:
1) The TPP implies a form of absolute rule, a tyranny as James Madison would have understood the term, and
2) The TPP enshrines capitalization as a principle of jurisprudence.
Zoning over-rides and lost of national sovereignty may seem controversial to the political class, but these two last points may seem controversial even to NC readers. However, I hope to show both points follow easily from the arguments with which we are already familiar. Both flow from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, of which I will now give two examples.
TPP’s ISDS and Local Zoning
I’m starting with local zoning because I think it’s an issue where “strange bedfellows” on left and right can work together (and so letter writing campaigns and visits to Congressional offices can be organized accordingly). I think it will be very hard to find find a constituency for a foreign corporation determining local land use, and easy to find constituencies against it.
.....(snip).....
In other words, TPP elevates capitalization — the expectation of profit — as a principle to the principles of, say, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of the Rights of Man. And then, government, when it provides concrete material benefits to its citizens, must “compensate” capitalists whenever their calculated, immaterial expectations — capitalization — have been “expropriated.” What a racket! TPP is the biggest enclosure in the history of the world! .................(more)
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/tpp-toward-absolutist-capitalism.html
The TPP: Toward Absolutist Capitalism
The TPP: Toward Absolutist Capitalism
Posted on April 20, 2015
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
There are many excellent arguments against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), two of which — local zoning over-rides, and loss of national sovereignty — I’ll briefly review as stepping stones to the main topic of the post: Absolutist Capitalism, for which I make two claims:
1) The TPP implies a form of absolute rule, a tyranny as James Madison would have understood the term, and
2) The TPP enshrines capitalization as a principle of jurisprudence.
Zoning over-rides and lost of national sovereignty may seem controversial to the political class, but these two last points may seem controversial even to NC readers. However, I hope to show both points follow easily from the arguments with which we are already familiar. Both flow from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, of which I will now give two examples.
TPP’s ISDS and Local Zoning
I’m starting with local zoning because I think it’s an issue where “strange bedfellows” on left and right can work together (and so letter writing campaigns and visits to Congressional offices can be organized accordingly). I think it will be very hard to find find a constituency for a foreign corporation determining local land use, and easy to find constituencies against it.
.....(snip).....
In other words, TPP elevates capitalization — the expectation of profit — as a principle to the principles of, say, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of the Rights of Man. And then, government, when it provides concrete material benefits to its citizens, must “compensate” capitalists whenever their calculated, immaterial expectations — capitalization — have been “expropriated.” What a racket! TPP is the biggest enclosure in the history of the world! .................(more)
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/tpp-toward-absolutist-capitalism.html
April 20, 2015
from GreenBiz:
Why Motown is poised to come roaring back
Joel Makower
Monday, April 20, 2015 - 1:11am
I’ve seen the future, and it is Detroit.
That statement may seem audacious for anyone who’s read about or visited the city recently. The storied epicenter of the automotive world — America’s richest city just a half-century ago — has traveled a bumpy road for decades. Since the turn of the century it suffered the financial default of General Motors and Chrysler, the exodus of tens of thousands of residents and businesses, inept or corrupt city officials, exploding debt, a declining tax base and, in 2013, the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy.
Today, the city of 700,000 — down from 1.8 million in 1950 — has 90,000 vacant lots and 70,000 abandoned buildings as well as a 36 percent poverty rate and 23 percent unemployment rate, both the highest in the nation. Motown is, arguably, a city that has run into a ditch.
So, why am I hopeful? There are hundreds of initiatives, from tiny startups to massive public-private partnerships, aimed at jump-starting the beleaguered city and putting Detroit squarely on the road to recovery — not as its former industrial self, but as a hub of innovation. It is a model for how to retrofit a city as a hotbed of sustainability — economic, social and environmental.
That’s my conclusion from a recent visit there to speak at Powering Progress Together, a daylong forum convened by Shell Oil, part of a series the energy company has produced to highlight the nexus of people, mobility and technology in cities. (I also spoke at a similar forum two years ago, in Houston.) ................(more)
http://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-motown-poised-come-roaring-back
Why Motown is poised to come roaring back
from GreenBiz:
Why Motown is poised to come roaring back
Joel Makower
Monday, April 20, 2015 - 1:11am
I’ve seen the future, and it is Detroit.
That statement may seem audacious for anyone who’s read about or visited the city recently. The storied epicenter of the automotive world — America’s richest city just a half-century ago — has traveled a bumpy road for decades. Since the turn of the century it suffered the financial default of General Motors and Chrysler, the exodus of tens of thousands of residents and businesses, inept or corrupt city officials, exploding debt, a declining tax base and, in 2013, the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy.
Today, the city of 700,000 — down from 1.8 million in 1950 — has 90,000 vacant lots and 70,000 abandoned buildings as well as a 36 percent poverty rate and 23 percent unemployment rate, both the highest in the nation. Motown is, arguably, a city that has run into a ditch.
So, why am I hopeful? There are hundreds of initiatives, from tiny startups to massive public-private partnerships, aimed at jump-starting the beleaguered city and putting Detroit squarely on the road to recovery — not as its former industrial self, but as a hub of innovation. It is a model for how to retrofit a city as a hotbed of sustainability — economic, social and environmental.
That’s my conclusion from a recent visit there to speak at Powering Progress Together, a daylong forum convened by Shell Oil, part of a series the energy company has produced to highlight the nexus of people, mobility and technology in cities. (I also spoke at a similar forum two years ago, in Houston.) ................(more)
http://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-motown-poised-come-roaring-back
April 20, 2015
The TPP: Toward Absolutist Capitalism
Posted on April 20, 2015
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
There are many excellent arguments against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), two of which — local zoning over-rides, and loss of national sovereignty — I’ll briefly review as stepping stones to the main topic of the post: Absolutist Capitalism, for which I make two claims:
1) The TPP implies a form of absolute rule, a tyranny as James Madison would have understood the term, and
2) The TPP enshrines capitalization as a principle of jurisprudence.
Zoning over-rides and lost of national sovereignty may seem controversial to the political class, but these two last points may seem controversial even to NC readers. However, I hope to show both points follow easily from the arguments with which we are already familiar. Both flow from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, of which I will now give two examples.
TPP’s ISDS and Local Zoning
I’m starting with local zoning because I think it’s an issue where “strange bedfellows” on left and right can work together (and so letter writing campaigns and visits to Congressional offices can be organized accordingly). I think it will be very hard to find find a constituency for a foreign corporation determining local land use, and easy to find constituencies against it.
.....(snip).....
In other words, TPP elevates capitalization — the expectation of profit — as a principle to the principles of, say, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of the Rights of Man. And then, government, when it provides concrete material benefits to its citizens, must “compensate” capitalists whenever their calculated, immaterial expectations — capitalization — have been “expropriated.” What a racket! TPP is the biggest enclosure in the history of the world! .................(more)
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/tpp-toward-absolutist-capitalism.html
'TPP implies a form of absolute rule, a tyranny as James Madison would have understood the term'
The TPP: Toward Absolutist Capitalism
Posted on April 20, 2015
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
There are many excellent arguments against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), two of which — local zoning over-rides, and loss of national sovereignty — I’ll briefly review as stepping stones to the main topic of the post: Absolutist Capitalism, for which I make two claims:
1) The TPP implies a form of absolute rule, a tyranny as James Madison would have understood the term, and
2) The TPP enshrines capitalization as a principle of jurisprudence.
Zoning over-rides and lost of national sovereignty may seem controversial to the political class, but these two last points may seem controversial even to NC readers. However, I hope to show both points follow easily from the arguments with which we are already familiar. Both flow from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, of which I will now give two examples.
TPP’s ISDS and Local Zoning
I’m starting with local zoning because I think it’s an issue where “strange bedfellows” on left and right can work together (and so letter writing campaigns and visits to Congressional offices can be organized accordingly). I think it will be very hard to find find a constituency for a foreign corporation determining local land use, and easy to find constituencies against it.
.....(snip).....
In other words, TPP elevates capitalization — the expectation of profit — as a principle to the principles of, say, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of the Rights of Man. And then, government, when it provides concrete material benefits to its citizens, must “compensate” capitalists whenever their calculated, immaterial expectations — capitalization — have been “expropriated.” What a racket! TPP is the biggest enclosure in the history of the world! .................(more)
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/tpp-toward-absolutist-capitalism.html
April 20, 2015
from truthdig:
by Chris Hedges
MINISINK, N.Y.—The affable, soft-spoken dairy farmer stood outside his 70-stall milking barn on his 230-acre family farm. When his father started farming there in 1950 were about 800 dairy farms in New York state’s Orange County. Only 39 survive. Small, traditional farms have been driven out of business by rising real estate prices, genetic manipulation of cows, industrial-scale hormone use that greatly increases milk production, wildly fluctuating milk prices and competition from huge operations that have herds numbering in the thousands.
I grew up in the dairy farm town of Schoharie in upstate New York. The farmers would let me pick through the rocks in their stone walls as I searched for fossils of Crinoid stems, Trilobites, Eurypterids and Brachiopods. I was in numerous cow barns and pastures as a boy. I have a deep respect for the hard life of small dairy farmers. They are up at 5 or 6 in the morning for the first milking, work all day and milk the cows again in the late afternoon. This goes on seven days a week. They rarely take vacations. And their finances are precarious.
When I was in Minisink recently it was the first time I had been on a dairy farm as a vegan. I do not eat meat. I do not eat eggs. I do not consume dairy products. I no longer accept that cows must be repeatedly impregnated to give us milk, must be separated immediately from their newborns and ultimately must be slaughtered long before the end of their natural lives to produce low-grade hamburger, leather, glue, gelatin and pet food. I can no longer accept calves being raised in horrific conditions before they are killed for the veal industry, developed to profit from the many “useless” males born because dairy farms regularly impregnate cows to ensure continuous milk production.
.....(snip).....
The veal industry was created solely to profit from the 4.5 million male calves born and at one time discarded on dairy farms each year. Female calves go into the same system of reproductive slavery as their mothers or, if there are too many, are also sold for veal. When they are only a few days or weeks old, veal calves are chained at the neck and locked into crates so tiny they cannot move and develop their muscles. This makes their flesh more tender. They live in darkness, immobilized in these crates, for three or four months, fed a liquid diet filled with a heavy infusion of chemicals to prevent disease before they are slaughtered.
The animal agriculture industry is an integral part of the corporate state. The corporate state’s exploitation and impoverishment of workers and its poisoning of the environment, as well as its torture and violence toward animals, are carried out because of the obsession for greater and greater profit.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/choosing_life_20150419
Chris Hedges: Choosing Life
from truthdig:
by Chris Hedges
MINISINK, N.Y.—The affable, soft-spoken dairy farmer stood outside his 70-stall milking barn on his 230-acre family farm. When his father started farming there in 1950 were about 800 dairy farms in New York state’s Orange County. Only 39 survive. Small, traditional farms have been driven out of business by rising real estate prices, genetic manipulation of cows, industrial-scale hormone use that greatly increases milk production, wildly fluctuating milk prices and competition from huge operations that have herds numbering in the thousands.
I grew up in the dairy farm town of Schoharie in upstate New York. The farmers would let me pick through the rocks in their stone walls as I searched for fossils of Crinoid stems, Trilobites, Eurypterids and Brachiopods. I was in numerous cow barns and pastures as a boy. I have a deep respect for the hard life of small dairy farmers. They are up at 5 or 6 in the morning for the first milking, work all day and milk the cows again in the late afternoon. This goes on seven days a week. They rarely take vacations. And their finances are precarious.
When I was in Minisink recently it was the first time I had been on a dairy farm as a vegan. I do not eat meat. I do not eat eggs. I do not consume dairy products. I no longer accept that cows must be repeatedly impregnated to give us milk, must be separated immediately from their newborns and ultimately must be slaughtered long before the end of their natural lives to produce low-grade hamburger, leather, glue, gelatin and pet food. I can no longer accept calves being raised in horrific conditions before they are killed for the veal industry, developed to profit from the many “useless” males born because dairy farms regularly impregnate cows to ensure continuous milk production.
.....(snip).....
The veal industry was created solely to profit from the 4.5 million male calves born and at one time discarded on dairy farms each year. Female calves go into the same system of reproductive slavery as their mothers or, if there are too many, are also sold for veal. When they are only a few days or weeks old, veal calves are chained at the neck and locked into crates so tiny they cannot move and develop their muscles. This makes their flesh more tender. They live in darkness, immobilized in these crates, for three or four months, fed a liquid diet filled with a heavy infusion of chemicals to prevent disease before they are slaughtered.
The animal agriculture industry is an integral part of the corporate state. The corporate state’s exploitation and impoverishment of workers and its poisoning of the environment, as well as its torture and violence toward animals, are carried out because of the obsession for greater and greater profit.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/choosing_life_20150419
April 20, 2015
by Wolf Richter • April 16, 2015
“Come down to Houston,” William Snyder, leader of the Deloitte Corporate Restructuring Group, told Reuters. “You’ll see there is just a stream of consultants and bankruptcy attorneys running around this town.”
But it’s not just in Houston or in the oil patch. It’s in retail, healthcare, mining, finance…. Bankruptcies are suddenly booming, after years of drought.
In the first quarter, 26 publicly traded corporations filed for bankruptcy, up from 11 at the same time last year, Reuters reported. Six of these companies listed assets of over $1 billion, the most since Financial-Crisis year 2009. In total, they listed $34 billion in assets, the second highest for a first quarter since before the financial crisis, behind only the record $102 billion in 2009.
The largest bankruptcy was the casino operating company of Caesars Entertainment that has been unprofitable for five years. It’s among the zombies of Corporate America, kept moving with new money from investors that had been driven to near insanity by the Fed’s six-plus years of interest rate repression. ...............(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/16/bankruptcies-soar-across-corporate-america-not-just-oil/
Bankruptcies Suddenly Soar Across Corporate America, Worst First Quarter Since 2009
Bankruptcies Suddenly Soar Across Corporate America, Worst First Quarter Since 2009by Wolf Richter • April 16, 2015
“Come down to Houston,” William Snyder, leader of the Deloitte Corporate Restructuring Group, told Reuters. “You’ll see there is just a stream of consultants and bankruptcy attorneys running around this town.”
But it’s not just in Houston or in the oil patch. It’s in retail, healthcare, mining, finance…. Bankruptcies are suddenly booming, after years of drought.
In the first quarter, 26 publicly traded corporations filed for bankruptcy, up from 11 at the same time last year, Reuters reported. Six of these companies listed assets of over $1 billion, the most since Financial-Crisis year 2009. In total, they listed $34 billion in assets, the second highest for a first quarter since before the financial crisis, behind only the record $102 billion in 2009.
The largest bankruptcy was the casino operating company of Caesars Entertainment that has been unprofitable for five years. It’s among the zombies of Corporate America, kept moving with new money from investors that had been driven to near insanity by the Fed’s six-plus years of interest rate repression. ...............(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/16/bankruptcies-soar-across-corporate-america-not-just-oil/
April 19, 2015
(Crain's Detroit) Starting Monday, crews will begin installing a curved track around Campus Martius in downtown Detroit as part of the $140 million M-1 Rail project.
The 2015 construction schedule, expected to be the busiest so far, will also include rebuilding parts of Woodward Avenue and freeway overpasses around downtown, M-1 Rail Chief Operating Officer Paul Childs said Thursday. The rail line, which will extend 3.3 miles from Detroit's riverfront to the New Center area, is scheduled to begin running next year.
In a media briefing Thursday, M-1 officials outlined expectations for this year, including the Michigan Department of Transportation’s rebuilds of Woodward Avenue and the I-94 and I-75 Woodward Avenue overpasses, the Penske Tech Center and track construction.
A phased construction process on lower Woodward Avenue —between Gratiot Avenue and Larned Street —is to begin Monday. It will not prevent use of Campus Martius, officials said. As the custom specialty track is installed, one lane will remain open around Campus Martius Park at all times, and at least one of the four streets surrounding the park (Michigan Avenue, Fort Street, Cadillac Square and Monroe Avenue) will remain open. ........................(more)
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150417/NEWS/150419864/m-1-rail-construction-begins-at-campus-martius-on-monday
Detroit: M-1 Rail Construction Shifts to Campus Martius
(Crain's Detroit) Starting Monday, crews will begin installing a curved track around Campus Martius in downtown Detroit as part of the $140 million M-1 Rail project.
The 2015 construction schedule, expected to be the busiest so far, will also include rebuilding parts of Woodward Avenue and freeway overpasses around downtown, M-1 Rail Chief Operating Officer Paul Childs said Thursday. The rail line, which will extend 3.3 miles from Detroit's riverfront to the New Center area, is scheduled to begin running next year.
In a media briefing Thursday, M-1 officials outlined expectations for this year, including the Michigan Department of Transportation’s rebuilds of Woodward Avenue and the I-94 and I-75 Woodward Avenue overpasses, the Penske Tech Center and track construction.
A phased construction process on lower Woodward Avenue —between Gratiot Avenue and Larned Street —is to begin Monday. It will not prevent use of Campus Martius, officials said. As the custom specialty track is installed, one lane will remain open around Campus Martius Park at all times, and at least one of the four streets surrounding the park (Michigan Avenue, Fort Street, Cadillac Square and Monroe Avenue) will remain open. ........................(more)
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150417/NEWS/150419864/m-1-rail-construction-begins-at-campus-martius-on-monday
April 19, 2015
Bankruptcies Suddenly Soar Across Corporate America, Worst First Quarter Since 2009
by Wolf Richter • April 16, 2015
“Come down to Houston,” William Snyder, leader of the Deloitte Corporate Restructuring Group, told Reuters. “You’ll see there is just a stream of consultants and bankruptcy attorneys running around this town.”
But it’s not just in Houston or in the oil patch. It’s in retail, healthcare, mining, finance…. Bankruptcies are suddenly booming, after years of drought.
In the first quarter, 26 publicly traded corporations filed for bankruptcy, up from 11 at the same time last year, Reuters reported. Six of these companies listed assets of over $1 billion, the most since Financial-Crisis year 2009. In total, they listed $34 billion in assets, the second highest for a first quarter since before the financial crisis, behind only the record $102 billion in 2009.
The largest bankruptcy was the casino operating company of Caesars Entertainment that has been unprofitable for five years. It’s among the zombies of Corporate America, kept moving with new money from investors that had been driven to near insanity by the Fed’s six-plus years of interest rate repression. ...............(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/16/bankruptcies-soar-across-corporate-america-not-just-oil/
Bankruptcies Suddenly Soar Across Corporate America, Worst First Quarter Since 2009
Bankruptcies Suddenly Soar Across Corporate America, Worst First Quarter Since 2009
by Wolf Richter • April 16, 2015
“Come down to Houston,” William Snyder, leader of the Deloitte Corporate Restructuring Group, told Reuters. “You’ll see there is just a stream of consultants and bankruptcy attorneys running around this town.”
But it’s not just in Houston or in the oil patch. It’s in retail, healthcare, mining, finance…. Bankruptcies are suddenly booming, after years of drought.
In the first quarter, 26 publicly traded corporations filed for bankruptcy, up from 11 at the same time last year, Reuters reported. Six of these companies listed assets of over $1 billion, the most since Financial-Crisis year 2009. In total, they listed $34 billion in assets, the second highest for a first quarter since before the financial crisis, behind only the record $102 billion in 2009.
The largest bankruptcy was the casino operating company of Caesars Entertainment that has been unprofitable for five years. It’s among the zombies of Corporate America, kept moving with new money from investors that had been driven to near insanity by the Fed’s six-plus years of interest rate repression. ...............(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/16/bankruptcies-soar-across-corporate-america-not-just-oil/
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