beginning today residents and community groups from benton harbor michigan will begin occupying the p.g.a. professional golf association later this week the p.g.a. will host a seniors golf tour tournament in benton harbor michigan a city that was taken over by one of governor rick snyder's financial manager cronies you might remember those guys they're the ones paid a quarter million bucks to take over a city and get its fiscal house in order that means firing all the local acted officials then getting to work trimming down budgets cutting back on public services like police and firefighters breaking union contracts and selling a large chunks of the commons like parks and utilities off. the crony corporations are part of the hostile takeover of benton harbor the financial manager even put up a local radio station for sale on e bay he also sold off twenty two acres of the local public park without the say of voters to a corporation that would develop it into part of a luxury golf course called harbor shores that golf course boasts membership fees of five thousand dollars a year a price tha

last wednesday we told you about how residents and community groups in benton harbor michigan plan to occupy a senior p.g.a. golf tournament was being held in that city their plans to occupy the event were in response to governor rick snyder's possible takeover of the city and his appointment of a financial manager for that city who has the power to fire all the local if elected officials trim down budgets cut back on public services like police and firefighters break union contracts and so of large chunks of the commons like parks and utilities to crony corporations and fat cats reverend david alexander bullock president of the detroit chapter of rainbow push and president of highland park michigan and he joined us on this show last wednesday to talk about the early stages of the planned protest i understand you were in benton harbor today for the occupy the p.g.a. protests what was the turnout like and what was the protest like was a peaceful. the protest was peaceful again we are about the tactics of violent resistance to state occupation and emergency management in michigan it was

cities like flint, pontiac, and benton harbor, michigan, have already been saddled with it. labor says this is more extreme than anything in wisconsin. that's because the law busts up collective bargaining agreements. its anti-democratic. it's another template for radical governors everywhere to follow. but citizens collected more than 200,000 signatures for a referendum to be put on the ballot in november. they got 40,000 more than what they needed to get on the ballot. but the state board ruled the petition invalid because it did not use the correct font size. petitioners say that they used the right font size and that they say that the decision to vote against certification was politically motivated. the michigan court of appeals will soon rule on this issue. a valid petition would immediately stop the implementation of public act 4 until the november vote. and there are a number of cities that are on the list to be taken over very soon. let's turn to tom hartman, my friend, author, and radio talk show host extraordinariary and journalist. great to have you with me tonigh

fighting back incredibly well and as i was born and raised in michigan and i'm just astounded by this in places like the chorus benton harbor flood like we've had on this program three times now over the last year one of the city council members of our bridges telling the story of this right this is this is not only was it was a. arguably illegal and highly unconstitutional action but it also looks like there's an undercurrent of hey we want that park you know that's on the waterfront so that we can hand it off to a buddy developer who's a big republican donors i mean just all this weird stuff going on with this thing what cities in danger. take it over next if rick snyder keeps you know annoying little little dictators will detroit is in danger right now there's a what they're calling a consent agreement in place in detroit and the consent agreement is a middle middle position between democracy and emergency management and so what has happened now is the city of detroit is actually being run by the state but the city council and mayor agreed to it and the terms and reasoning for that agreement was that we have to do this s

. >> if you want to help detroit, flint, benton harbor, saginaw, if you want to help the cities in michigans deal with foreclosure. 90,000 foreclosures in the city of detroit. that's 90,000 forced evictions in the last three years. so if you look at 300,000 people leaving one city, you're seeing the tax base leave. this city is not in financial strain because of mismanagement, because people are incompetent. that is not the right analysis. we have to deal with foreclosure, insurance redlining. and so what the state should be doing is helping to -- the federal government, county government and state government to reinvest in these cities. we -- michigan is a manufacturing state. really, really a one-industry state. so as the automotive industry, we saw manufacturing meltdown. we saw plants go from michigan to mexico. that's trade policy. this is not incompetence. >> is democracy the problem? is it just that the bad people of detroit are making bad choices when they vote? when they put people in charge of running their city? could detroit somehow be an oasis in michigan, if only its elected o

michigan on them. you know like benton harbor. >> emergency managers. >> emergency managers who come in and run your fiscalto be both the birth and the death of democracy. >> well, this point about the death of democracy is an important one. even though i said the eu is a democratic project. it doesn't feel like democracy to greece, greece is at the whimsy of its creditors and they, what's happening is you are seeing a democratic, a democratic rebellion. which if you say to people we're going to impose horrible misery on you, would you like that? people go to the polls and say, we do not like that, no thank you, we will vote for whoever says we don't like that. and the biggest party that's gained is the left party, serisa that says we're not going to take the terms of this deal. i want to play nigel ferage a member of the a euro-skeptic party. giving his articulation of the skeptical case of what the currency union and the eu is doing. take a look. >> the eu "titanic" has now hit the iceberg. it is a european union of economic failure. of mass unemployment, of low growth, but worst of all, it's an eu with

michigan story that nobody else is touching. >> well, you were the first one that got on the benton harbor story. and it has just snowballed, city after city, and there are a number of cities right now that are on the docket, and these folks have done everything they possibly can to get this vote going in november, but of course it's the technicality of the font size. that shows you how determined that opposition really is. >> that's right. thanks, man. and thank you at home for joining us this hour. we've got a big show this hour. the top elections official in any state is usually called the secretary of state. now, that can be a little bit confusing, because at the federal level, the person who has the title secretary of state is hillary clinton. and she's not at all in charge of elections. she's in charge of something totally different. but at the state level, the person who has that same title, secretary of state, is usually the person who in that state is in charge of voting. in that charge of elections. well, in the great state of indiana, the republican secretary of state this year, a man