The Family Of Pyramid Scheme Marketeers Plan To Ravage The Treasures Of Michigan Is Becoming A Reality

Last week, European-style austerity landed in America thanks to Michigan’s biggest Pyramid Scheme Marketeers. Austerity washed up on the banks of the Detroit River. Unfortunately, the masses were an army of rabid GOP politicians. All bought and paid for by Dick and Betsy DeVos. The DeVoses made their money by pawning their get rich quick pyramid marketing scheme.

“First, let me assure you that this is not one of those shady pyramid schemes you’ve been hearing about. No sir. Our model is the trapezoid!” – `Million$ for Nothing’ seminar speaker from The Simpsons 

Who Are The Heirs To A Pyramid Scheme Marketeers?

Dick DeVos is the heir and a former chairman of Amway Corporation. DeVos’ father and partner Jay VanAndel pioneered the concept of the legalized pyramid scheme known as multi-level marketing.  They became internationally recognized as Pyramid Scheme Marketeers

Amway convinces people they can become rich by selling knock-off products made in Chinese prison labor camps to their friends and relatives. Then recruit these same people to sell the products. In the meantime, the recruiter and the recruiter’s recruiter a piece of the action.   The DeVoses and the VanAndels soon realized there wasn’t a lot of money to make from their “distributors.” So they decided they could make more money making their distributors buy directly from them.

The DeVos Family Use Their Money To Push Their Politics

 “I know a little something about soft money, as my family is the single largest contributor of soft money to the Republican National Party. I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return.” -Betsy DeVos

You’ve probably never heard of the DeVos family unless you sell Amway or are a high roller in the GOP.  They are the Michigan equivalent of the Koch Brothers.

They are right-wing Calvinists and they have no problem using their fortune to shove their ideology down people’s throats. Their influence even bought Betsy DeVos the Chairmanship of the Michigan Republican Party. Betsy DeVos earned a reputation for being the Veruca Salt of Michigan politics. Betsy DeVos’ influence was also instrumental in securing Blackwater Worldwide a huge Defense Department contract during the Iraq War. Blackwater was owned by her brother Erik Prince.

Every Republican member of the Michigan GOP must still pass the “Betsy Test.”

The Betsy Test is still required before becoming a GOP nominee for the Michigan Legislature.  If you pass the “Betsy Test”, you are assured sufficient funding to beat any challenger.  In return, you must vote for legislation that is written by lobbyists friendly to causes Dick and Betsy DeVos are aligned with.

The Pyramid Scheme Marketeers Finance Right-Wing Policies

Since the late 1980s, the DeVoses have helped finance every neo-conservative ballot proposal or piece of legislation. This includes gutting public education. Betsy DeVos has been instrumental in the proliferation of charter schools. Charter Schools are essentially private schools that receive public funding.

Republican politicians are more than willing to whore themselves out to the DeVoses. After all, you don’t need to spread your legs to be a whore. The Devoses have had their hand in virtually every neo-conservative policy that has crippled the middle class in Michigan. The only failure was Dick DeVos’ $41 million campaign for governor in 2006 which he lost by 14 points to Jennifer Granholm.

The Devos Family Begin The Final Solution Of Michigan’s Middle Class

Last week, the DeVoses began their version of the Final Solution against the working class. DeVos backed members of the legislature rammed through a bill that would  “allow physicians and other health care providers to refuse to provide services to patients when there’s a “moral” or “conscientious” objection, and allow employers to refuse to pay for services on the same grounds.”

A GOP controlled House panel also approved a bill that would re-write the Emergency Financial Manager Act. The same act that was rejected by voters in November. They renamed The Local Financial Stability and Choice Act. The new law would require municipalities in Michigan to do one of four things when in financial duress. They must accept an emergency manager or file Chapter 9 bankruptcy. They also have the option of doing a mediation plan the state describes as a “neutral evaluation process” or a consent agreement with the state.

“As with the rejected law, the manager would have the power to change or cancel contracts, but local officials also could develop an alternative plan provided it generates equal financial savings. Should a local government choose an emergency manager, the state would pay for the manager, and local officials would have the option of removing the manager after one year and with a two-thirds vote of its governing body.”

That Was Only The Warm Up

That was just the warm-up.  On the same day, the GOP Speaker and Governor Rick Snyder ordered the Michigan State Police to lock the public and influential Democrats out of the state Capitol. They passed Right-To-Work legislation in less than 4 hours. They held no committee hearings and no discussion. It was done so quickly that as Susan Demas from MLive observed, “The speed in which Republicans jammed through the most controversial issue in Michigan was stunning. Indeed, it caught most of the national and even state media off-guard.”

“[T]he former Republican gubernatorial candidate has called individual Republican senators and pushed them for a ‘yes’ vote on Right to Work…. DeVos and former Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser [are] making phone calls to Republican senators to assure them that if they faced a recall threat for supporting RTW, they would help to bankroll an anti-recall threat.”

Does DeVos Want To Replace The Black Lawn Jockey On His Front Yard With A Rodin Sculpture?

The financial crisis killed the already financially crippled City of Detroit. It turned once prospering neighborhoods into a Mad Max dystopia.

Neighborhoods are now filled with burned-out shells of stately manors and abandoned factories. But past the horizon of these ruins of Detroit’s glory days lies the prize that shines like a pot of gold under the rainbow. The Detroit Institute of Arts is the prize that Michigan’s billionaires want a piece of.

In the past, the idea of ravaging art treasures from a city teetering on the verge of bankruptcy would be taboo. However, in this New World Order, nothing is sacred when it comes to making a profit. As Laura Berman pointed out in her Detroit News column yesterday, the idea of selling off the priceless pieces of art at the DIA to help pay off Detroit’s creditors is already being floated among the WASP aristocracy.

Across Europe, priceless pieces of art and history are being auctioned off to wealthy Chinese and Western billionaires at fire sale prices to pay off government debt. Anyone who thinks what is happening in Greece, Italy or Spain can’t happen in Michigan or anywhere else in America is kidding themselves.  The only difference is in America, billionaires like DeVos will, as Jimmy Hoffa once pointed out, “Feed ya dogshit and tell ya it’s Cream of Wheat!“