Protesters gather in the Capitol Building in Lansing, MI, to fight for their rights to govern themselves.

Attacks on the working class are stepping up in ferocity.

In Wisconsin, the union-busting bill passed in the middle of the night with no debate and no quorum, using parliamentary trickery.

In Michigan, things are even worse. Newly elected Gov. Rick Snyder has decided he can declare martial law and send his people in to govern towns and school districts with no elected power whatsoever. He can even dissolve cities and towns.

All he has to do is declare a fiscal emergency to set all this in motion.

What’s worse, he’s not the only one who can set it in motion:

The governor can hire a private company to declare financial emergency and take over oversight of the city. So now a private corporation can declare your city in a state of financial emergency and send in its Emergency Manager, fire your elected officials, and reap the benefits of the ensuing state contracts, completely ursurping the power of elected officials — and the voters who put them there.

Of course, it’s easy to create a fiscal emergency when you sign in $1.8 billion in tax breaks for the wealthy and big business and then declare you need $1.7 billion in taxes from the elderly and the poor, and whatever you don’t get back from that, you get from cutting social services.This was a direct transfer of wealth from the poor and working class to the wealthy.

It all just gets more brazen as time goes on. Walker gets away with his strong-arm tactics to kill collective bargaining rights and then Snyder declares dictatorial powers.

This is how facists take power: Create and emergency and then declare you’re the only one who can deal with it.

What’s next, and when does President Obama stand up and call these people out in no uncertain terms?