Republicans are thrilled that Detroit has filed for bankruptcy. Because - for the GOP - the fall of Detroit is a talking point goldmine. Over the past year , the American public has started to wake-up about the total failure of austerity both here in the United States, and across the Atlantic in Europe. So the chance to blame the decline of a great American city on Democrats, workers , African-Americans and big-government is an opportunity the Right doesn’t want to miss.

Conservatives like Neil Munro and Sean Higgins hope that maybe - just maybe - if they can convince the American people that big bad unions and Democrats are to blame for the death of Detroit, then they can get them to forget that conservatives have destroyed this country with 30-plus years of Reaganomics and voodoo economics. Union-bashing is bad enough - but there’s another, even uglier dimension to the GOP’s Detroit meme. The Motor City is eighty-five percent African-American. In fact, it has the highest black population - percentage wise - of any major city in the United States. So when Republican pundits and politicians talk about “mismanagement” and “bad governance”, what they are actually saying is that black-people aren’t capable of running a city.

Blaming minorities for social problems is a tried and true Republican tactic. Reagan had “welfare queens” and the air-traffic controllers. The modern GOP has Detroit. However, it wasn’t unions or black people that bankrupted Detroit - it was decades of pro-corporate and anti-middle class free-trade policies that gutted the city of its industrial core. Over the next few weeks, you’ll hear a lot of hand-wringing from conservatives in the media about how Detroit is a sign of things to come and how this is what happens when you give Democrats, workers and “disorganized people” (that’s right-wing doublespeak for African-Americans ) control of a big city. But remember, the Republican solution for Detroit is just more of the same: gutting social services.

This is disaster capitalism. It's an opportunity for wealthy white speculators to experiment with all of their austerity dreams. And if that comes with a chance to demonize poor people, black people, and unionized workers - well - that’s just the icing on the cake.

-Thom

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Monday's Daily Stack

In for Thom today for part of the show, Dr. Mike Newcomb (The Mike Newcomb Show) 1480 KPHX, Phoenix, AZ

Hour One: Gun group to buy new gun for Zimmerman?!
- Ian Millhiser, Think Progress

Article: "Ohio Gun Group: ‘We’re Buying Zimmerman A New Gun’" by Ian Millhiser.

Article: "Obama: If Trayvon Martin Was Armed Could He Have Stood His Ground?" by Igor Bobic .

Article: "Video, Transcript: President Obama's Remarks on the Trayvon Martin Case, Race in America".

Article: "Ted Nugent: Liberals Turned Detroit Into ‘Bloodsucker Excuse-Making Hell,’ Like ‘Mugabe Did To Africa’" by Evan McMurry.

Article: "A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold" by David Kocieniewski.

Law: "Commodity Futures Modernization Act", 2000.

Hour Two: Bribery, cover-ups and illegal testing...not just in the movies
- Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio

Article: "Sex, Drugs, and Bribery: Pharma group accused of using cash and sex to generate $1.5bn in Chinese sales" by RT.

Article: "Leaked memo reveals big pharma’s strategy to combat regulators who want drug trial results published" by Ian Sample.

Article: "Germany to investigate Western pharm companies over ‘human guinea pig’ drug trials" by RT.

Law: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999).

Site: "Free Speech TV".

Site: "RT".

Site: "Guardian".

TV: "Ring of Fire" on Free Speech TV.

Site: "Americans for Safe Access".

Bill: "H.R. 689: States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act" by Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D-OR3].

Article: "H. L. Hunt" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Japan Election: Shinzo Abe Hails Landslide Win" by Sky.

Article: "Corporate-owned life insurance" by Wikipedia.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Article: "TRNS News Notes- Monday, July 22" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- Tuesday, July 23" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Royal baby: Kate gives birth to boy" by BBC.

Article: "Federal judge to decide if Detroit bankruptcy filing legal; hearing Wednesday" by Chad Livengood, Mike Wilkinson and Darren A. Nichols.

Article: "Detroit bonds drop, judge seeks to halt bankruptcy filing" by Nick Carey.

Article: "Mike Lee: Republicans Will Shut Down Government To Block Obamacare" by Nick Wing.

Article: "Report: Big banks meeting with agencies 14 times more than reform groups" by Julian Hattem.

Law: "Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act", 2010.

Hour Three: Latest on North Carolina's Moral Mondays
- Ari Berman, The Nation Magazine

Article: "North Carolina's Moral Mondays " by Ari Berman.

Book: "Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics" by Ari Berman.

Article: "Art Pope" by Wikipedia.

Article: "GOP leaders agree on $20.6 billion NC budget" by Michael Biesecker.

Article: "How the GOP Is Resegregating the South" by Ari Berman, January 31, 2012.

Article: "North Carolina On Cusp Of Passing Worst Voter Suppression Bill In The Nation" by Scott Keyes.

Article: "W.Va. State Police shooting unjustified, Kohler family says" by Travis Crum.

Article: "Car dealer withdraws request to stop morning-after pill coverage" by Kate White.

Article: "What You May Not Know About the Zimmerman Verdict: The Evolution of a Jury Instruction" by Alafair Burke.

Site: "Dead Peasant Insurance".

Movie: "Capitalism: A Love Story".

Movie: "Roger and me".

Article: "New Low: These 14 Republicans Gutted Food Aid While Giving Themselves Farm Subsidies" by Sarah Jones.

Article: "Pope Francis urges global leaders to end 'tyranny' of money" by Nick Squires.

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "Fla. woman Marissa Alexander gets 20 years for "warning shot": Did she stand her ground?" by Julia Dahl.

Article: "Trayvon Martin’s Mother Speaks Out With Sharpton At Rally Outside NYPD: Sharpton Organized Nationwide Rallies Throughout Saturday" by CBSNewYork/AP.

Article: "No, Obamacare Won’t Raise Insurance Premiums In Indiana By 72 Percent" by Sy Mukherjee.

Article: "Indiana says health plan costs will spike to $570. That’s not the full story" by Sarah Kliff.

Article: "McDonald’s workers strike after air-conditioner fails, colleague hospitalized" by Nicholle Buckley and Larry Mcshane.

Hour Two: What does communism have to do with the Zimmerman verdict?
- Erik Rush, World Net Daily

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