Yes, This is Fascism

Rachel Maddow and Naomi Klein on the "Emergency Manager" Bill

In Michigan, the governor is pushing a bill through that would grant Governor Rick Snyder the powers of a dictator.

Basically, he can declare a financial emergency for any municipal government or school district, and then he can assign an "Emergency Manager", who could, without any review cancel any contracts (including labor contracts), dismiss elected officials, disincorporate towns, and dismantle school districts.

What's more, the Senate version of the bill allows the emergency manager to be assigned to a corporation, like Blackwater (now Xe) or Halliburton.

There is no criteria for such a declaration, but even if there were, they are also gutting local aid, which pretty much means that they are creating fiscal crises anyway.

Basically, any elected official, and any semblance of due process is to be wiped away, in a bill that really does resemble the Emergency Laws that Mubarak used to rule Egypt with an iron fist for all these years.

This is about a corporate takeover of civil society, and the vesting of near absolute power in the executive.