Chris Doherty should be in prison.

Wait until Walker hears about this in Wisconsin.

Hey, Doc!~ Great line.

Teddy!

This is all part of the long term Republican/ALEC/Koch/Norquist plan to destroy America and turn it into a corporate feudalist banana republic. At the state and local level, Grover ha gotten his wish and is one by one drowning their governments in the bath tub. Sadly, this asshole mayor pretends to be a Democrat.

They do lock people up for contempt of court. Can’t wait to see how the judge responds to this. He will have LEA and jail facilities available to him that are not under the mayor’s control.

So does Rahm, and he’s gonna be delighted to hear about this. It’ll come in VERY handy in Chicago.

It’s a Pair-a-Docs!

Yes, and good thing, too. This kind of behavior is beyond the pale for an elected official, and it needs to be nipped in the bud pronto.

Why can’t the judge have him locked up until he complies or files bankruptcy.

Having read the linked article, it appears that the city council is also deserving of opprobrium, having gotten into a pissing match with the mayor and not being willing to back down or compromise, which put them into a position where they simply do not have enough money in the bank to cover their operating expenses. This is symptomatic of a larger national problem caused by the repeated refusal of Congressional Republicans to allow passage of bills to aid states and municipalities hurt by the Bush recession.

I’ll believe that the city council shares blame, and I hope the citizens of Scranton vote out the lot of them at their earliest possible convenience.

The judge certainly can lock him up for contempt, but if you read the linked article, it seems that the city literally does not have enough money in the bank to make the payroll.

My big question is how all of them let it get to this point. It surely must have been evident for quite a while that they were coming to this point and I simply do not see how they could simply let it go without acting to avoid disaster.

If the unions sue for breach of contract, they are thugs. The city can abrogate their contracts without risk of moral hazard, just like the banks and the corporations, because power makes you immune to moral hazard. If the unions kick up a fuss, it’s class warfare and communism (or socialism this year) and a reason to bring out the National Guard.

Well, it’s like Stalin and the Pope (source of the “how many divisions?” quote). The judge and what army? Can the judge command the loyalty of the marshals in the county court, to arrest the Mayor and the City Council?

Will the GOP Governor invoke emergency powers, like they’ve done in Michigan?

“Can’t cover payroll” was never an excuse for not paying employees in private industry, that I can recall. Is it an excuse in the public sector? I think not.

I can only suppose that they all decided to indulge their egos, greed, and/or ideologies rather than consider the common good like they’re supposed to.

If nothing else, the judge has the court bailiffs, who are LEA and can arrest people. He is a county judge and can also send sheriff’s deputies to do it,

True, but if the money is not in the bank and they cannot get a loan (as the article indicates), I am not sure what they do. The whole problem is that it never should have gotten to this point in the first place. I certainly hope the mayor and council are forgoing their salaries during all this.

Oh, look, in the libertarian paradise to our south, called Florida:

Worst TB Outbreak in 20 Years Kept Secret
JACKSONVILLE —

The CDC officer had a serious warning for Florida health officials in April: A tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville was one of the worst his group had investigated in 20 years. Linked to 13 deaths and 99 illnesses, including six children, it would require concerted action to stop.

That report had been penned on April 5, exactly nine days after Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill that shrank the Department of Health and required the closure of the A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana, where tough tuberculosis cases have been treated for more than 60 years.

Public Health? What’s that?

Rick Scott should have been in prison a long time ago.

(no offense to Colorado firefighters, who got parades as they arrived home from their work saving Rocky Mountain homes, but this picture was simply too cheese- and beef-cakey to miss out on. There’s lots of firefighters on their calendar, and I tried to find one to meet everyone’s taste tonight.)

They really are running to be the poster child (as in “Wanted Dead or Alive”) for bad Republican governance, aren’t they?

If only for Medicaid fraud.

A little something for everyone there. ;-)

Gonna take my outrage and crawl into bed. Peace out, y’all!

Night sleep well. I am going to wait a little longer, until things cool down a bit. We are finally getting a bit of what the rest of the country has been having. It was 90 yesterday and 97 today (still 87). supposed to get to 100 tomorrow and be over 90 for the next week (which almost never happens here).

singin’, bye, bye miss american pie.’

peas!

So much for ‘the Rule of Law’…! *gah*

Aloha, Teddy, it seems every day brings further tales of woe…!

Grover is having his way with us. Imagine he cums every time he reads a story like this. I certainly hope that all the brain dead and deluded fools who keep electing his acolytes are enjoy the fruits of his labors, as they watch their house burn down, granny die of a heart attack, or get mugged because the city or state can no long pay for emergency services.

One would think that the Cops might take offense with the depradations…! 8-(

Obama only had both houses of Congress and the Presidency and rather than focusing on the economy he instead spent his time on a corporate welfare bill (Obamacare) – the state the economy is Obama’s and the Democrats as they could have done things, but they instead felt like rewarding healthcare corporate lobbyists was the most important issue facing the country.

Will the Mayor and Council be paid minimum wage, too? Or are they unpaid?

And on the south Central Coast of lovely California, we’re having prolonged June gloom…. foggy and cool. Don’t need heat or AC…..and that is a good thing.

I anticipate that many, many American cities will be going bankrupt in our near future. But we’re still able as a country to spend $1 million per year/soldier (or contractor?) to continue to nation-build Afghanistan.

Lining the pockets of the corporatists.

‘scuse me, I think I’m going to be sick now.

Yes, contempt,surely. Otherwise, as said, a very very bad precedent.

Is this mayor cutting his own salary? This situation is really asking for trouble. I can’t imagine that firefighters and police officers will put up with this indefinitely.

Oily Bomber is also keeping his Fat Cat Intel/MIC lobbyists mighty happy too…!

The only smile in this post.

That’s weather you’re having, though; not climate.

We had a pretty cool summer until the last week, but now somebody cranked up the thermostat to broil. There is no doubt that the problem Teddy highlights is spreading and will impact a lot of states and municipalities around the country in the near term. As you say we can spend billions on unnecessary wars, but not a dime on saving our country. We are truly, royally fucked.

On that cheery note, I think I will toddle off. It is cooling down nicely now (an advantage of living at higher altitudes) and I am going to try to get some sleep. Take care all.

Uh-hunh. Pull the other one now.

Wouldn’t it be a shame, if all those $1/4 million dollar Armored vehicles that DHS has shipped out to all the Local Yokels, and they couldn’t field anybody to drive ‘em…? ;-)

“Can’t cover payroll” was never an excuse for not paying employees in private industry”

Having been in exactly that position I can tell you the state of Texas’ response: I should have been laid off the minute the owner realized there was not enough cash flow to pay me.

I hung in there, took what payment I could get and together we have come out of it intact. This was a small company and I trusted the owner.

As for the workers in Scranton, I suspect they are in the same boat minus the trust in the boss.

Are they big enough to become homeless shelters?

Maybe the armored vehicles can circle and provide an encampment for the families of police, fire fighteres, teachers. And maybe all the guns and such can be rallied for next year’s 4th of July event.

All at once, San Diego style!

I just keep thinking about the introduction to Mad Max, when they talk about the Oil Wars, and the world spiraling downward. It seems like the dystopia we are headed for, or perhaps, in.

“… he instead spent his time on a corporate welfare bill …”

Which is coming apart at the seams with each passing day.

One of the things that strikes me is that I know Obama had a bunch of Blue Dog Dem senators to deal with……but even at that time, I kept thinking that I sure wished he’d had just a bit of LBJ in him. But he didn’t and we’re all going to pay and pay and pay.

I find it tragic that the rabid Climate Change Deniers in Congress, is voraciously shutting down all of the DoD efforts at sustainable energy for any and all the various posts, most notably here in Hawai’i, a large scale wave generated power system that was projected to supply all of MCB Kaneohe…! The same place that Obama likes to throw hoops at when he’s back in the Isles…!

Well, the Obama hoops alone is reason enough for the GOP to kill THAT program, right?

*heh* They are a petty and vindictive enough crew, to do so…! ;-)

Edit: DARPA is none too pleased tho…!

Public Radio covered this story this weekend. It sounds as though the mayor is a reasonably Progressive individual who wants to raise some taxes to pay for city services, and the City Council has dug in their heels and refuses to do so (I got the impression that they had taken the Norquist pledge). The mayor has used his power to reduce the pay of the Council members, as well as his own, to the minimum wage and is forced to reduce all employees pay also in order to make payroll. Scranton has been losing population since WWII, so this is the culmination of the long decline, exacerbated by the recession and the weak recovery. Bankruptcy may be inevitable, and my guess is that numerous cities and counties are going to be in deep difficulties if the Federal government doesn’t step in to shore them up, at least until the economy improves. Snowball’s chance in h

Harrisburg, the capital of PA, has already declared BK. I wonder what held up that process in Scranton?

Teddy, a very interesting topic. I wonder, too why they haven’t declared bankruptcy.

Just a note about Detroit and the emergency manager: the legislature passed an emergency manager law and it was signed by the governor last year. The idea was to keep cities out of bankruptcy. Most people are now saying it won’t work for Detroit. City government is too dysfunctional.

Insurers gain the most from firefighters’ efforts. They should be picking up the tab 100%, homeowners insurance notwithstanding.

Has the Mayor and city council cut their pay to minimum wage, also? Just wondering.