Flint Water Crisis Timeline

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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 9:24 am

be a good little boy Mr. 57 and go back to your playpen where you belong

Depraved Indifference Toward Flint
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDJAN. 22, 2016

The 274 pages of emails released under pressure on Wednesday by Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan show a cynical and callous indifference to the plight of the mostly black, poverty-stricken residents of Flint, who have gone for more than a year with poisoned tap water that is unsafe to drink or bathe in. There is little doubt that an affluent, predominantly white community — say Grosse Pointe or Bloomfield Hills — would never face such a public health catastrophe, and if it had, the state government would have rushed in to help.

At every juncture when state officials could have avoided or reduced the harm in Flint, they ignored public pleas and made every effort to dismiss the truth.

The newly released emails show that members of Mr. Snyder’s administration consistently mocked and belittled the complaints of Flint residents and the evidence gathered by independent researchers. Outrage is the only sensible response to this man-made disaster, in which inexcusable decisions, by the state and emergency managers appointed by Mr. Snyder to oversee the city’s finances, led to corrosion of the water pipes and high levels of lead in the water and the blood of city residents. Thousands of children were exposed to water with lead, which could cause long-term health and developmental problems.

As President Obama said during a visit to Detroit on Wednesday, “I know that if I was a parent up there, I would be beside myself that my kid’s health could be at risk.” He called the fiasco “a reminder of why you can’t shortchange basic services that we provide to our people.”

The emails are only those sent to or from the governor, not those sent between members of his administration. That is unacceptable. He needs to release every email that might shed light on how this calamity developed, and who was responsible. Even Wednesday’s limited release shows an appalling lack of urgency in responding to Flint’s water problems and a determination to blame the city for the crisis.

For example, various emails showed that state officials dismissed one group of critics as being an “anti-everything group” and accused others of trying to turn the issue of children’s exposure to lead into a “political football.” Virtually everyone in the city knew that there were problems with the Flint River water, which smelled bad, was an odd color, caused skin rashes in some people and led to several advisories from the state to boil the water before drinking it.

Flint’s City Council voted 7 to 1 in March 2015 to “do all things necessary” to return to purchasing clean water from Detroit, only to have the emergency manager at the time veto the measure as “incomprehensible” because he considered the water safe and believed it was more important to save money than to respond to the pleas of Flint residents.

Governor Snyder has repeatedly sought to strengthen his power to appoint emergency managers, even after voters in a statewide referendum...
tdom 30 minutes ago
It doesn't surprise me that there wasn't much in the Snyder emails, because that fits with his governing status of bye-stander to a right...

To mention Bernie Sanders' efforts on the behalf of the people of Flint and NOT mention that he is a leading presidential candidate is a...

Although state officials insisted that their data showed no serious lead problems in Flint, the released emails suggest otherwise. They reveal that the state’s Department of Environmental Quality ignored warnings from an expert from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, who said in early 2015 that the state was testing the water in a way that could profoundly understate the lead levels.


Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and demonstrators in Michigan have called for Mr. Snyder to resign. Several state officials have already resigned, including the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality and his chief spokesman, and the governor’s chief of staff and chief spokeswoman.

State and federal investigations are underway to dig more deeply into how this disaster happened and those responsible for it. Once more is known, other resignations are likely to be in order.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 9:54 am

EPA issues emergency order over Flint water crisis, administrator who oversees Michigan resigns

By Mark Berman January 21 at 8:11 PM

Take a look at the key moments that led up to Flint, a city of 90,000, getting stuck with contaminated water. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)
The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday evening that authorities in Michigan had failed to properly respond to an ongoing crisis involving lead-poisoned water in Flint, Mich., saying it would begin testing the city’s water and ordering an independent review of what happened.

In addition, the EPA announced that Susan Hedman, the agency’s administrator who oversees Michigan, had resigned in the wake of the crisis. Hedman offered her resignation effective Feb. 1 and Gina McCarthy, who heads the agency, accepted it, the EPA said in a statement.

McCarthy wrote a letter to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) saying that the EPA was “deeply concerned” about the the response in Michigan. She said that there had been some progress being made by city and state officials, but decried “inadequate transparency and accountability” when it comes to the results of water testing and other actions.

Outrage has mounted in Flint over lead that seeped into the city’s water supply, an issue that has sparked heated criticism and questions about why it took so long for local concerns about the water to be heeded.

“The EPA’s previous response to Flint was, frankly, part of the problem,” Henry Henderson, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Midwest director, said in a statement. “This new, more urgent approach shows different thinking from the top, reflects an awareness that the situation in Flint is just unacceptable, and it points the Agency in the right direction. However, we remain very concerned that the people of Flint cannot simply rely on agencies that have to date utterly failed them.”

A day before the EPA letter, Snyder released 273 pages of emails that he said he was releasing to give residents “answers to your questions about what we’ve done and what we’re doing to make this right.”

In these emails, authorities in the state said they felt the issue was being politicized and questioned research showing elevated lead activity. At one point, a top aide said that state officials felt people in Flint were trying to turn the issue “into a political football” and shift blame. A message with background information from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality discussing the water situation acknowledged that Flint had “tremendous need to address its water delivery system.”
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby MinM » Fri Jan 22, 2016 9:56 am

Shocker...
ImageDetroit Free Press ‏@freep 5 minutes ago

Did Snyder release all Flint e-mails? Apparently not.
http://on.freep.com/1Jng5tR @onetoughnerd
Image



This is the timeline as I see it:

■ Snyder with the blessing of his benefactors (The Kochs, DeVos, and other ALEC fronted groups) starts their Chilean-esque takeover of poor black communities in Michigan.

■ Fast-forward to Flint and Snyder's emergency manager floats the idea that they could save a boatload of money by switching Flint from Detroit's water system to taking water from the Flint River.

■ Issues with that water are brought to light but Snyder and his people attempt to bury those findings.

■ The issue becomes such that Snyder can no longer control the narrative with people like Cher and Michael Moore bringing national attention to it.

■ Snyder finally admits to the problem and at first tries to dump it back on the local officials but is ultimately shamed into seeking federal assistance.

The bottomline is that Rick Snyder, and his corrupt as hell attorney general (Bill Schuette), likely had every reason in the world to believe that they could bury this or at least control the narrative. The GOP controls every branch of government in Michigan and thanks to Citizens United and gerrymandering that won't be changing any time soon. Not to mention that most of the news services in the State are totally in the bag for Snyder or at least the idea of Rick Snyder. So in the end, given the federal bailout, Snyder will likely end up skating on this.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Karmamatterz » Fri Jan 22, 2016 10:07 am

"go back to lurking Mr. 57 ...you are a mental midget"

I shall do what I please slad, using lowercase now to denote your intellectual honesty. Go about bossing others around using the weight of your prolific posting.

Having just read the RI posting guidelines isn't name calling against the rules. Just want to be clear as the skin here on some is so very thin and mightily offended.

Pasting a snip of fed law doesn't negate the adoption of psyop terminology and lingo. I know a few Earth Firsters who would personally take offense to the casual use of "domestic terrorism."

Back to Flint. slad, how about this weekend you join me with Burnt Hill and we drive up to Flint with a truckload of water bottles and distribute them for free? We could setup a go fund me page to get donations.if not this weekend then soon...? I would suggest that taking action and lending a hand to the people of Flint would show true compassion on a more practical level than posting pixels.

I bet you would realize while working together I'm a decent fella with a pretty open mind. But I call BS when I see it. Have a good day.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 10:14 am

You should have read there rules before you defamed me..I don't take bullshit from anyone lest of all someone like you

working with someone that thinks it's ok to poison the kids of Flint? are you kidding me?

and don't pretend to know what I do when not posting here..you have no idea what I have or have not done for the kids of Flint....but it is surely not coming here and defaming people you do not know ...have no idea who they are or what they have done for the kids of Flint



casual use of "domestic terrorism." ....I do not use the words "domestic terrorism" casually ...I use them deliberately



true compassion......are you fucking kidding me? is that the true compassion you mentioned when you said it is perfectly fine to poison the kids of Flint?

you can take that true compassion of yours ...elsewhere... for those words are truly just pixels on a page
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 10:26 am

Karmamatterz » Fri Jan 22, 2016 2:14 am wrote:Anybody grow up in Michigan or spend time in Flint? I did, it's an armpit. Am not surprised by what happened at all. If one can set aside the alleged deaths there is a bright side to this. Flint and the county may get a new water system or at least new pipes. Let's be honest, without the disaster nothing substantial would have ever been done to fix the problem.

A lot of people in Michigan look at Flint as a place to stay away from as it's depressing and run down. Bad water has brought light on an area that most could care less about around there. Sometimes things have to UTTERLY fail before they get attention.

Hey SLAD, your sig about domestic terrorism plays nicely into using the psyops lingo perpetuated by the Feds. Nice work there buddy keeping the words domestic terrorists ever present, shows the op was successful. Whoever the clever fucker was that came up with the campaign ought to be pleased.


using the psyops lingo perpetuated by the Feds. Nice work there buddy keeping the words domestic terrorists ever present, shows the op was successful.


Do you think this is something that I would be easily offended by ...think again ...easily offended? Accusing me of being a tool for the Feds???? Accusing me of being so stupid that I would be taken in and doing the work of the Feds?????

Get fucking serious ....those are some serious accusations there buddy ..and I do take them seriously ...very seriously

I think you should stop and reflect on the words you chose to use ...working for the Feds is quite a bit more serious than calling someone a moron
for making that accusation

Is Michael Moore doing the work of the Feds???

I think Moore is definitely more aware of the situation than you ...whoever you are...I'll stand with Moore anytime anywhere


Yea I KNOW BS when I see it

THERE IS NO BRIGHT SIDE TO THIS YOU ******** ***** THERE IS NO BRIGHT SIDE TO 9,000 KIDS BEING POISONED ...NONE....NADA

There's a bright side to poisoning kids? Please expand on this Mr. K ...dig a deeper hole ...if you will..be my guest Mr. Bright Side


JANUARY 22, 2016
Flint And Fallujah
by MISSY COMLEY BEATTIE


I try not to think of Flint, Michigan at night, after I turn off the light to sleep. “Compartmentalize. Don’t think about this until tomorrow,” I say.

In April of 2014 in an effort to save money, the City of Flint switched its water supply from Detroit city water (Lake Huron) to the Flint River, a channel of industrial pollutants. The water wasn’t treated with an anticorrosive—in violation of federal law. This resulted in eroded iron water mains. About half of the service lines to homes are made of lead, lead that began to leach from the lines into the water supply.

City and state officials said no worries. Said everything was fine.

Between 6,000 and 12,000 residents have severely high levels of lead in their blood. Among this number, 8,657 are children and are at risk developmentally. Even after doctors found elevated levels of lead in children’s blood, state regulators continued to maintain that the water was safe.

Lead is a neurotoxin. Its damage is irreversible. It lowers intelligence and leads to emotional lability and criminality.

So far, three officials have resigned over the crisis, a class action lawsuit has been filed against Governor Rick Snyder and other city and state officials, and more lawsuits have been filed. President Obama recently declared the disaster a federal state of emergency.

Snyder has apologized.

Flint is 60% Black.

The above is reportage, words without emotion. Yet I am heartsick. Lead is toxic to the body even in low levels. I think of the consequences of actions to save costs, consequences to the children, their families, and society, the multigenerational influence. Many of these parents live in poverty, yet their children provided hope and promise. Their lives might be better. Now there’s despair, the helplessness of deep loss.

They must be seething with anger.

The Mayor of Flint, Karen Weaver, has endorsed Hillary for president. Weaver said Hillary was the only candidate to reach out and ask what Flint needed.

Hillary’s reaching out and asking are significant of nothing however except perhaps opportunism.

This is fake Hillary, Grandma-will-make-it-better Hillary, on-it Hillary. Real Hillary can be seen in stark contrast, cackling over death, entitled, demanding her due—the coronation. Real Hillary is hollow and untouched by the horrors of war. Domestic and foreign. Indeed, she is war ravenous.

I can’t imagine Hillary’s caring anymore for the residents of Flint than she does the people of Fallujah. Both are casualties of capitalism, battlefields where governments played sickness vs. health and life vs. death with other people’s dreams, other people’s presents and futures.

Heads should roll in Michigan. Heads should roll for the crime that is war. But they won’t.

Some of us walk through our routines with little regard for the desperation of others. Even in the next community or state and most definitely in some country far away. For this we should be ashamed.

Consistently, we are left vulnerable and unprotected by those elected to represent us—these men and women who don’t promote our wellbeing but instead their own power.

I wish I had an answer. I wish I could be more than a complainer, someone with inspiring and effective suggestions for making our world better. No more Flints. No more Fallujahs. An end to war. An end to injustice.

I see positivity among our young, their enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders, the belief that change is a possibility. And I feel old, a malcontent—someone whose impulse is to wag a finger and say, “Remember the Obama craze, all the exuberance you expressed then. You’re going to be disappointed again.”

I don’t have solutions, except to get to sleep. This requires forcing my mind to shut out tragedies until the next morning.


Hillary in Blackface: The Blaxploitation Politics of Identity Democrats
by Patrick Walker / January 21st, 2016

When I consider what Hillary Clinton is likely to say in a presidential debate, I having one guiding principle. Namely, that electing her U.S. president is rationally indefensible, so her appeal to voters will inevitably involve lies or sleazy diversionary tactics. Such was my prediction for Sunday night’s presidential debate, and I was hardly disappointed.

But the nature of the candidate, and the timing and venue of the debate, should have alerted me more clearly to the nature of the forthcoming sleaze. As the pin-up girl for identity politics, debating in largely black South Carolina on the eve of Martin Luther King Day, Clinton decided to play the racial identity card—a “blaxploitation” move designed to keep black voters on Democrats’ corporatist plantation.

Now, of course, it was totally fitting (and given the timing and venue, politically obligatory) that all three candidates’ introductory remarks should pay tribute to Dr. King, a morally heroic exemplar for Americans of any race. But for “Sistah Hillary,” that was only the start of her evening’s blatantly racial appeal—an appeal that honored King’s pigmentation vastly more than his principles.

For the lion’s share of Clinton’s night was spent schmoozing blacks over her unequalled love for first black president Barack Obama, to the exclusion of considering at all whether his presidential agenda, while undoubtedly pleasing to plutocrats, could have more greatly profited actual black people. (The Black Agenda Report a very worthwhile black leftist publication, apparently begs to differ from Sistah Hillary on this subject; consider, for example, BAR’s rather scathing appraisal of Obama’s legacy.) And also to the exclusion, apparently, of remembering her own 2008 campaign’s racist dog whistles against that same Barack Obama. But hey, the chance to wax distantly indignant—an identity-liberal specialty—over the genuinely reprehensible water crisis in Flint, Michigan (a black-majority city) gave Clinton a chance to drown out 2008 with a more decorous sort of dog whistling, and Hillary’s whistle was certainly up to the task.

To sum matters up, Sistah Hillary decided to debate in blackface. And while Clinton’s political-correctness police, her identity-politics brownshirts, will predictably scream racism (or sexism) over my precise, if acerbic language, no Democratic debate tactic could more deeply insult—or undermine—the legacy of Dr. King than Clinton’s Orwellian minstrel show performance.

Now, in describing my talk of “blackface” and “minstrel shows” as precise, I of course realize I’m way off base in one particular respect: Clinton’s intended audience. Whereas minstrel shows performers donned racially demeaning blackface to regale white audiences, Sistah Hillary assumed her own racially demeaning blackface to seduce black ones. And while the demeaning of blacks is the one factor Clinton’s minstrel show had in common with earlier ones, I can only devoutly hope such identity-politics minstrel shows soon have something in common with historical ones: that both are tabooed by society as racially insulting farces. For identity politics is itself a farce, and far more often than not a cynical attempt to hoodwink the identity groups whose interests it supposedly exists to protect.

Let’s face it: identity politics routinely harms its political client groups—in four crucial senses. First, it demeans identity group members, denying their often vast individual differences and their ability to think in broadly human categories that transcend group identity. To anyone familiar with MLK’s life, it’s obvious that his success depended crucially on his simultaneous ability to self-identify as an American black and to reason in universal moral categories that utterly transcended his identity as a member of any particular nation or race. Second, it’s manipulative, encouraging identity group members to think in terms of racial, ethnic, and gender identities—for their manipulators’ purposes—when in fact it might be far more beneficial for them to think in terms of others ones, say as victims of economic injustice. Third, it enflames the “us vs. them” racist, sexist, or xenophobic hostilities from which they already suffer, needlessly angering poor whites, who feel their own very real problems neglected amidst the canonization of approved identity groups and their own demonization. Last but hardly least, it frequently stymies the human development of identity group members, subjecting them to the low expectations of officially recognized victims while sparing them the constructive criticism that’s essential to individual growth.

Sistah Hillary’s sympathetic minstrel show demeaned African-Americans in all these crucial senses. Above all, it demeaned Martin Luther King himself, diminishing to a black plaster saint a challenging, racially transcendent moral hero—a fearless, unsparing social critic whose very stature renders white Hillary Clinton and black Barack Obama moral pygmies by comparison. Instead, Hillary—an honorary “sistah” because her uterus gives her a share in the common pool of identity victimhood—wrapped Dr. King and Obama (and implicitly herself) in the same morally blind mantle of identity sanctity, never considering that King himself might object deeply to the moral company he was being forced to keep.

Indeed, Clinton and Obama—but not Dr. King—seem very much cut from the same cloth: a type black Ivy League professor and public intellectual Adolph Reed frequently encounters among his ambitious minority students, who feel racial or gender justice is fully satisfied if it grants unlimited scope to their personal ambitions. Hillary’s shattering of the gender glass ceiling is as likely to be as much a victory for women generally as Obama’s shattering of the racial one was for blacks: an ideal chance for identity hero worship but almost nothing else. MLK, who selflessly fought his whole life for the poor and dispossessed of all races and genders, was certainly cut from different cloth.

Humbly as he might state his objections—based solely on moral principle and not any sense of diminished personal dignity—compelling evidence suggests Dr. King’s objections to keeping moral company with Obama and Clinton would be considerable. Adolph Reed notes, in the link I just cited, that the overwhelming majority of blacks are working class, and would benefit (perhaps more than any other group) from any measure that substantially benefits the working class; MLK, in fighting for the poor generally, obviously knew that. It’s impossible to believe King would endorse the devil’s bargain, made by Obama and both Clintons, to abandon economic justice for workers for the sake of focusing on identity politics and the enrichment of Wall Street donors. Nor is it likely King, a fierce critic of the Vietnam War and U.S. imperialism, would have endorsed Bill Clinton’s genocidal sanctions against Iraq, Obama’s illegal, murderous drone strikes and failure to prosecute the Bush war criminals, or Hillary’s creation of a failed state in Libya and arms sales to human-rights-violating nations after they donated to the Clinton Foundation. It’s also unlikely King, had he known of climate change and its dire effects on the world’s poorest and darkest-skinned nations, would have approved of Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy, or Hillary’s global push for fracking that top climatologist James Hansen described as “screwing your children and grandchildren.”

Nor, finally, is it fathomable that King, as a lifelong servant of truth, would have approved an especially shameful instance of Hillary’s deceit—one occurring at the very debate she launched by paying lip service to his memory. Above all when the sleazy deceit, as documented by Truthdig editor Bill Scheer, served specifically to unjustly transfer blame to Bernie Sanders for Bill Clinton financial policies that had horrendous effects on blacks. And when those policies themselves served, unsurprisingly, to put Wall Street in a very favorable frame of mind to donate to Hillary’s upcoming Senate campaign. As Scheer notes, Hillary shamelessly accused Bernie (unlike her) of having voted for the deregulation of the financial markets, when in fact this was a Bill Clinton policy buried in an omnibus bill Bernie, like the rest of Congress, was blackmailed into voting for just to keep the government operating. A policy, moreover, strongly endorsed by Hillary’s current chief economic adviser Gary Gensler, whom Bernie, aware of having been played, later opposed when Obama nominated him to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It’s richly ironic—and extraordinarily sleazy—that Gensler would advise Hillary to call Bernie for voting (under duress) for a pernicious policy of which he himself was chief architect.

And Gensler was likewise part of the set of Bill Clinton economic advisers who called for repeal of Glass Steagall. As Scheer writes, “That repeal, as well as preventing any regulation of the toxic mortgage packages and swaps that still hobble the world economy and wiped out the fortunes of black and brown people with particular severity [emphasis mine], is Bill Clinton’s horrid legacy, and it is one that his wife now attempts to blame on Bernie Sanders.”

In short, it’s not inconceivable, taking a long view of history (including climate devastation in poor countries), that identity liberals donning blackface will ultimately have a more pernicious effect of the lives of black people than the KKK. One can only applaud the efforts of educators like Adolph Reed, the writers of the Black Agenda Report, or Cornel West to pierce the veil of identity liberalism and take up the real critical legacy of Martin Luther King.

Patrick Walker is an activist author and co-founder of Revolt Against Plutocracy, originators of the controversial Bernie or Bust pledge. Read other articles by Patrick.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:23 am

ya'll what to see some real honest to goodness on going fascism? Not some intellectual bullshit

In fact, Flint’s water had been fine under non-colonial, elected government. It was supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewage Department from Lake Huron and was treated.


No, Gov. Snyder, Flint’s water wasn’t poisoned by “Government”: It was by your Appointee
By Juan Cole | Jan. 21, 2016 |

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
Perhaps it is inevitable but it is a shame that some people are gaming out how to profit politically from the lead poisoning of the children of Flint, Michigan (pop. 99,000). In the state capital, the Establishment is trying to blame the crisis on “government” or “bureaucracy,” to reinforce the Reaganite message that government is the problem, not the solution.
In his state of the state address, Gov. Rick Snyder said that the people of Flint had been let down by their government at all levels, city, state and Federal. State workers were furious, perceiving that the governor had in effect blamed them for the debacle.
In fact, Flint’s water had been fine under non-colonial, elected government. It was supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewage Department from Lake Huron and was treated.
But Snyder’s rather arrogant state government delights in using the prerogative established in Michigan law to take over a city and set aside its elected officials. In highly racially segregated Michigan society, this measure typically entailed white politicians from the center and west of the state being appointed by the white, Republican governor to take over cities with a big African-American and working class population, with the Victorian implication that the latter couldn’t properly govern themselves.
So Snyder staged a coup in Flint and appointed a city caretaker,or Emergency Manager, one Ed Kurtz, depriving the citizens of their voting rights. And Snyder’s appointee decided that a little money could be saved by switching the city’s water source from the Detroit Water and Sewage Dept. to the local Flint River. DWSD complained bitterly about Kurtz setting the two cities against one another.
[Emails just released admit that the decision was ultimately signed off on by then State treasurer Andy Dillon, but I can’t imagine he initiated the policy:

]
Flint River is full of highly corrosive chemicals and would have needed to have a purification plant operating for it to supply safe tap water. But since the whole policy was to save money, the small amount needed to put in water purification was not spent for that purpose. When the corrosive waters of the Flint River flowed through the city’s old, lead pipes, they ate into the pipes and released lead into the drinking water.
It is really bad to drink a lot of lead. It is especially bad for children. It can affect intelligence, cognition, self-control– for the rest of their lives.
Even when evidence began getting back to the state that there were high levels of lead in the bloodstreams of Flint children, nothing was done, what with all the money being saved on water and all.
So this is a story of arrogance and then stonewalling and foot-dragging. It is a story of how democracy was set aside in favor of a kind of colonialism, where the governor appoints an unelected viceroy. It is a story of how technocrats from Lansing thought they knew what was best for locals. It is a story of Neoliberalism, of exalting the market as a golden calf that must be worshiped even if the people have to be sacrificed to it. Reducing the cost of government by appeal to market ways of saving money has been taken to the point where it sickens the people being governed; they just aren’t the important element of this equation.
But what is really interesting is the language around these dire mistakes. Many news reports have said with a straight face that “the city” of Flint switched the source of water to the Flint River. But while the Flint mayor went along with the Emergency Manager, it was Kurtz who was the decision-maker here.
The “city” of Flint had been overthrown in a coup and wasn’t in a position to make such decisions.
Then in his address, Gov. Snyder said that Flint had been failed by “government.”
But “government” did not make the decisions here. Snyder’s appointee did. Elected
government of a local sort was abrogated by Snyder. Now he is blaming “government” for doing a bad job.
Government in fact generally does a good job, and is as efficient or more than most large corporations. Moreover, unlike the private sphere, government is typically responsive to the voters. Except where it has been set aside.
The GOP in Lansing is therefore trying to spin their own mistakes as the mistakes of ‘big government’ or of ‘the bureaucracy:’
“Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-Olive Township, used the speech as an opportunity to push for government reforms, saying in a prepared statement released after Snyder’s speech, “Bloated, unresponsive bureaucracy does not meet the needs of our citizens.”
Senator Meekhof needs to understand that Flint needs more and better government now, not less. The city’s pipes have to be re-done. And its children will need special medical care and education measures for years.
What Flint needed was not a slimmer government but the right to make its own decisions via its own elections. Government was not the problem– the penny-pinching of an appointed viceroy was the problem.
Government *can* be the solution to some problems, and must be in this instance.
——-
Related video:
RT America: “Blame game in Michigan: Flint officials try to manage water crisis”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwtUzVu7byc
Last edited by seemslikeadream on Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby 82_28 » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:30 am

Alright, time to lay off karma matters. If you want to take me on go for it. But time to lay off. Thanks.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:36 am

blame everyone else Mr. IamaDomesticTerrorist Snyder says



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji1Oz-Yianc
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:42 am

Democracy didn't fail -- it was stolen.



The political coup behind the Flint water crisis
Contaminated water in Flint, Michigan
National Guard troops have been deployed to help Flint, Mich., residents affected by lead-contaminated water. The plastic bottles contain home-testing kits. (Ryan Garza / Detrot Free Press)


Scott Martelle Scott MartelleContact Reporter


The poisoning of the people of Flint, Mich., is a failure of government at its worst, and the finger-pointing will turn into a blood sport. There already are calls for the state’s governor, former Gateway Computers executive and venture capitalist Rick Snyder, to resign, and some are urging criminal investigations into the motives and knowledge of those who let Flint residents, including young children at elevated risk, drink lead-contaminated water.

There is plenty of blame to go around (there's a good overview here). Snyder on Wednesday released emails connected with the crisis, and they reveal state officials’ utter disregard for the problems evolving in Flint. And once it was apparent the issue wasn’t going to trickle away, they began calculating the political implications. One thing the emails make clear: The state government's abject failure to confront a clear crisis in a responsible, effective way.

So why was this the state of Michigan’s responsibility and not that of the elected leaders of the city of Flint? Because Snyder had trumped local decision-making by installing an emergency manager under a controversial state law that allows the governor to usurp democracy. And like many issues of inequity in Michigan and nationwide, there’s a racial component -- it's been invoked primarily in the state's poorest and blackest cities.

The undermining of democracy began in 2011, when the Michigan Legislature adopted Public Law 4 to grant the governor the power to declare a financial crisis in local governments and appoint an emergency manager to make all financial decisions -- which are the underpinnings of everything a city does. Once the manager was appointed, the elected representatives -- council members and mayors -- lost pretty much all authority to make any decisions at all. And it empowered the manager to void contracts, including those with labor unions.

Democracy didn't fail - it was stolen.
Michiganders, not surprisingly, were aghast and killed the law through a 2012 ballot initiative. The legislature’s response? It passed an even more draconian version of the law and embedded a budget appropriation in it, which under Michigan law meant it could not be overturned by referendum. So the elected representatives went directly against the expressed will of the people of the state of Michigan.

'I let you down,' Michigan's governor says of drinking water crisis

And it was the emergency manager appointed under that new law in 2013 who made the bad call in Flint that led to the lead poisoning of its water supply (the issue was brought to light by Curt Guyette, an investigative journalist working for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan).

Cause and effect between the emergency manager law and the Flint crisis? Not necessarily. But among the warning signs that all was not right with Flint’s water were complaints by residents that it tasted funny and was causing problems. Those kinds of complaints usually end up on a mayor’s desk, or in public comment sessions at city council meetings, where the people who make the decisions are accountable to those who are lodging the complaints.

In Flint, the decision-maker was accountable not to the people of Flint, but to the governor who appointed him.

So where is that emergency manager, Darnell Earley, now? Snyder placed him in charge of the Detroit Public Schools, where teachers have resorted to sickouts to draw attention to the appalling physical condition of buildings and classrooms, including mold infestations, vermin, broken or inadequate heating systems and other basic maintenance problems that have been ignored. Low pay and limited raises, plus more looming state-directed reforms, have led to resignations, early retirements and a teacher shortage.

As in Flint, under the emergency manager system there's no one to be held politically accountable. Democracy didn't fail -- it was stolen.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:46 am

Lead poisoning will affect the children of Flint.... FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES......but apparently that's quite alright and down right a helpful solution to the problems of Flint...so say apologists for Gov. Rick Snyder




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rANFeSn2ZSo

Rick Snyder Knowingly Poisoned City Of Flint Michigan



It isn’t often that a state of emergency is declared over a disaster that is 100% man-made and intentional, but that’s exactly what has happened in the city of Flint, Michigan. As residents in the city struggle to find drinkable water, the National Guard has been deployed to help distribute bottled water to residents.

The crisis actually began about 18 months ago when Republican governor Rick Snyder made the decision to balance the city’s budget at the expense of the health and safety of residents of Flint. The governor and his appointed “budget experts” decided to save the city some money by switching their water supply from the city of Detroit’s supply to the Flint River, and according to Occupy Democrats, this river was known to be both highly polluted and carried an unusually high salt content. The high salinity of this water caused the city’s pipes to begin eroding, which then leached lead into the city’s water.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:57 am

too bad the kids didn't have the choice to drink clean water....but let's not blame the kids or make their poisoning the solution to Flints problems..ok?

Governor Snyder Proclaims January 24-30 "Michigan School Choice Week"
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Karmamatterz » Fri Jan 22, 2016 12:55 pm

You continue to make false accusations and assertions. You're waaaaay off target. It's easy to spot when you imply I think lead poisoning is somehow acceptable. Get a grip. You seriously think poor water quality would have been properly addressed without the catastrophe? That entire part of Michigan has been polluted for years. The glass half full is that MAYBE a new system can be deployed. Your anger doesn't justify in correct assumptions and assertions.

It's funny on RI when people are challenged they get visceral and want 100% compliance that you have to agree with everything copy and pasted. There is no room for rational debate it would seem. Better to get all pissed off and offended and scream that a contrarian viewpoint means you're a fascist, want to poison kids etc... It's no surprise so many have left this board.

I would love to read what you've done OFFLINE for the people of Flint. Please share, in all seriousness.

My perspective on life is more to take action than play the blame game. It's obvious the gov royally screwed up. What can individuals do to help others right now that is offline? You think I jest about a go fund effort and bringing people water?

Activism requires action, I've been quite active in my local community helping others and have done my fair share of boots on the ground protest marches. One thing about RI that has struck me for the years I've lurked is the lack of action based efforts. I have followed some of Riddlers efforts, props to him. Maybe I don't lurk enough to know what others on RI are doing offline. It would be awesome to put in the effort to jointly work together.
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby Burnt Hill » Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:02 pm

82_28 » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:30 am wrote:Alright, time to lay off karma matters. If you want to take me on go for it. But time to lay off. Thanks.


Why are you inserting yourself here 82-28?
Don't you think slad can handle this herself, as she very well is?
What do you mean by " If you want to take me on go for it."?
Since you haven't offered any viewpoints on this thread that I can see, aren't you just being a bully?
Its condescending to slad if you think she needs you to ride in on your white horse and save her from Karmamatterz(who may be a woman, I don't know?).
Go ahead and defend her pov by offering further insight to the situation if you will, that's fine.
But you are not a moderator, and your attempt at being chivalrous comes off as nearly misogynistic.
And more importantly, it invites more non-productive dialog.
Such as mine.
:wink
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Re: Flint Water Crisis Timeline

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:08 pm

Karmamatterz » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:55 am wrote:You continue to make false accusations and assertions. You're waaaaay off target. It's easy to spot when you imply I think lead poisoning is somehow acceptable. Get a grip. You seriously think poor water quality would have been properly addressed without the catastrophe? That entire part of Michigan has been polluted for years. The glass half full is that MAYBE a new system can be deployed. Your anger doesn't justify in correct assumptions and assertions.

It's funny on RI when people are challenged they get visceral and want 100% compliance that you have to agree with everything copy and pasted. There is no room for rational debate it would seem. Better to get all pissed off and offended and scream that a contrarian viewpoint means you're a fascist, want to poison kids etc... It's no surprise so many have left this board.

I would love to read what you've done OFFLINE for the people of Flint. Please share, in all seriousness.

My perspective on life is more to take action than play the blame game. It's obvious the gov royally screwed up. What can individuals do to help others right now that is offline? You think I jest about a go fund effort and bringing people water?

Activism requires action, I've been quite active in my local community helping others and have done my fair share of boots on the ground protest marches. One thing about RI that has struck me for the years I've lurked is the lack of action based efforts. I have followed some of Riddlers efforts, props to him. Maybe I don't lurk enough to know what others on RI are doing offline. It would be awesome to put in the effort to jointly work together.



I don't want 100% compliance .....what I don't want is to be called a Government Agent


apparently you don't lurk enough...RI is NOT a political action website....I go other places for that...and if you think I am going to tell you anything about my private life you are more dense than I originally thought. Go do your good deeds.... anybody can write that shit....I know what I do and I don't need to come here and plead for accolades or acceptance....or to be accused of working for the Federal Government


Better to get all pissed off and offended and scream that a contrarian viewpoint means you're a fascist, want to poison kids etc... It's no surprise so many have left this board.



oh so now who's making up shit?
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

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