Matt Wuerker for January 20, 2016

From what I have been reading in the news, both fountains have the same polluted source. Brought to all of the current good people of Flint by their current Republican local governments. Governments that should first make sure that such water sources are healthy, and only then seek out reductions of cost in such sources!!!

YOUR tax dollars at work!!

From The Kansas City Star:To save money, the state of Michigan poisoned the children of Flint.

State officials thought so little of the impoverished city and its 100,000 residents, most of them poor and people of color, that they switched the water supply from the pure waters of Lake Huron to the brackish Flint River. Then they broke federal law by neglecting to treat the water with an anti-corrosion agent, which would have cost about $100 a day.

The water’s heavy iron content ate into the water lines, about half of which are made of lead. The water smelled and tasted foul, but state officials said everything was fine, even though a university research team said the lead content was dangerously high.

Finally a pediatrician, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, compared the blood lead levels of toddlers she was seeing with records on hand from previous years. She saw lead levels had doubled or even tripled since the water line switch.

@Robert LandersFlint’s situation is due to the bankruptcy of the city. Emergency managers put in place to attempt to pay off their debts. Stupid error made by attempt to save money on the water system. Don’t make this political by throwing race or parties into it.

Folks? When was the last time you were ever in Flint? So very few white folks there, this is a direct attack on a large black population. The Gov. thought those follks would just sit down like good girls and boys and do what they were told.

And Republicans are still trying to deny that it was Nixon who signed NEPA, the Clean Water and Air Acts, and created the EPA, which led to stricter state laws as well, which Republicans want removed so that the Flint situation becomes “no harm, no foul”.

This is why business needs less regulation – we could all be drinking Water + soon.

Good thing we have 2 political parties who can always be counted on to merge their best policies to give the public optimal benefit?

During the early 1970’s, I distinctly recall driving through Gardner Massachusetts, then home to a number of manufacturers of furniture, and seeing a large rushing stream of PINK, foaming water, cascading down beside the road. The Nixon administration, around that time, established the Environmental Protection Agency. A few years ago, while again passing through Gardner, I went to where I saw that stream 40 years earlier. Clean. Clear.Boston Harbor, and the Charles River are also much cleaner, freer of chemical pollutants (Monsanto’s drain into the Charles was plugged), and less bacteria than before.However, since 1981, the EPA has been under attack, had funding cut, regulations ignored (BP) and assailed by right-wing politicians and PACs. If a republican wins the next presidency, and enough money is funneled down to guarantee a republican majority in congress, I would not be surprised if an effort was made to repeal the EPA act.

Pays Taxes Expects Government to pay their taxes, room and board, entertainment, etc, etc, etc because “they’re owed”.

Or we can just start pointing at the other side and shout he did it! It seems like a series of barely involved emergency managers is not the most efficient way to run a city.

I bet they drank bottled water. If so, what a great evidentiary support for the court case to come (hopefully).