Politicizing Flint, aka, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.(2)
Politicizing Flint, aka, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.(1)
https://caucus99percent.com/content/politicizing-flint-aka-i-dont-know-w...
On the fateful day of that then Mayor of Flint Walling, a Democrat, was photographed flipping a switch to change Flint's water source to the Flint River, the emergency manager of Flint was Darnell Earley. I don't know Earley's political affiliation, but I do know that, n the taxpayer's dime, both Granholm and Snyder had awarded Earley other well-paying state positions.
Earley had taken over as emergency manager of Flint only six or seven months earlier, which gave Earley at least a fig leaf rationale for also passing the proverbial buck: Earley claimed that the decision to sever Flint from Detroit's water supply was separate from the decision to use water from Flint River (whatever the hell that may mean). Further, Earley contends thatit was not his place to overrule the alleged decision of his predecessor.
My problem with letting Earley off the hook is that Earley seems to be the one who created that policy about what Earley's place was not. We're not talking here about pouring tea at someone else's home without asking or being asked: How can you have final say over something potentially lethal to an entire to city happening on your watch and, after people are dead or damaged, claim that due diligence was not your forking place) to second guess your predecessor? (Thank Sod Abraham Lincoln was not so damned deferential to James POS Buchanan, Jr.!)
As Earley's immediate predecessor in the position of Flint's emergency manager, Earley's Wikipedia article names one Michael Brown (NOT the Michael Brown of "heck of a job" FEMA infamy), as does a story about Brown's resignation. About his resignation, Brown said that his brain could not be in the job due to mourning his brother and other family issues.
Extrapolating from Brown's own wiki article that Brown had been Earley's immediate predecessor as emergency manager of Flint, however, is weirdly difficult: Although the article clearly states that Ed Kurtz was Brown's immediate predecessor as Flint's emergency manager, it does not, as do most wiki articles, name Brown's successor in the emergency manager position. (Hell, the article even cites "Vacancy" as Kurtz's predecessor, but says nothing about Brown's successor.) Both were wise moves vis-à-vis Brown on the part of whoever edited Brown's article. (It obviously has been edited and none too skillfully.)
For his part, Kurtz opined that his job was "'strictly finance' and 'did not include ensuring safe drinking water.'" Gee, I guess the decision to save money on water by switching sources of water has no relation to anything negative that occurred as a result of the switch.
Some lies sound almost plausible, don't they? What if Kurtz had made the decision to switch water sources and whoever suggested the Flint River as the substitute source had instead suggested unadulterated sewage? Would Kurtz's only reaction have been, "How much will that cost Flint per fiscal year?"
Despite the above, as of January 2019, fifteen officials had been charged, three of whom bad pleaded nolo contendere. Charges remained pending against the remaining dirty dozen, including the self-exculpating Earley. However, neither Kurtz, who, based upon his own comment, seems to have made the decision, nor Brown, who lived with it slightly longer than did Earley, was among the fifteen charged. Neither was was Democrat Mayor Walling nor Republican Governor Snyder, all of which omissions seem questionable to me. (According to a University of Michigan report bore significant legal responsibility, both for the original decision and for allowing the situation to continue after the deadly problem with the water was known.)
In light of the number of victims, including the dead and the children who suffered brain damage, I am confident that you will be relieved to know that Governor Snyder did apologize to the people of Flint a number of times. Ironically, in one of his 2016 apologies, Snyder said(with a perfectly straight face, I assume), "You deserve better. You deserve accountability." I guess one politician's jail sentence and another's repeated apologies could both be considered "accountability," amirite? In any event, Snyder executed executived Michigan until he was term-limited, whereupon he was able to return to the career he had before running for Governor, namely, making gobs of money.
P.S. As I posted yesterday, the first two parts of this now three-part essay began as a brief intro to an essay on a related, but much less grave topic. However, parts (1) and (2) took on a life of their own, leaping out of my keyboard with a rapidity that is very unusual for my drafting. As soon as I reasonably can, I will draft and post the original topic, which is only a snarky fluff. (The title of the first two parts was the title of the original.)
Judging by the number of songs about blame, it seems that those in the popular music field have as much or more proclivity as politicians for passing the buck.
[video:https://youtu.be/E5RDEXpc8OY?t=15]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZ12Lw2aCk]
She doesn't move gracefully, but I doubt many noticed.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBmbsDan5s]
video:https://youtu.be/3XHxtXjcatc?t=1]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqxVMLVe62U]
or even
[video:https://youtu.be/6ACl8s_tBzE?t=41]
(Blame It on My ADD)
[video:https://youtu.be/tgIqecROs5M]
But, whomever or whatever you blame, just
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9me94-Hcik]
(Waters' version was one of three released in 1933. Wikipedia does not say which was the first version. Some youtuber claims that the Guy and Carmen Lombardo version he or she posted was the first. Although I have no reason for doubt (or belief), I preferred to post this one.
Said by no one said in this entirely avoidable tragic saga, even those who, à la one Spiro Theodore Agnew, pled nolo contendere rather than "guily:"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mt5d5hSyv8]
Comments
Surprised the Emergency Managers didn't explore Meth production
as a potential revenue source. I mean, if it's ALL about the money...
They clearly have no issue breaking or bending the law, or even just making it up out of whole cloth.
The profit margin is incredibly high.
Would lower property value, ensuring that the poorest can afford housing.
No possible repercussions, since the emergency manager gets to direct the police.
There is of course the problem with the end clients dying, but as we see with the water... that really wasn't a consideration.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Way to look on the bright side! (-;
About that:
Whenever we have a blizzardish snowstorm or a blizzard, some power lines in the state get blown down and, in the worst weather for it, people with electric heat lose heat as well as light, refrigerated and frozen food, etc., until the power companies get the power going again. Sometimes, that has taken over two weeks. Invariably, some people die, whether from the cold or from whatever alternate source of heat they attempt to use inside their homes, sometimes from fire, sometimes from carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas oven.
Finally, it dawned on me that this could all be averted if cities and towns and/or the state required electric companies to bury the power lines. After all, the cable companies had to do that when they initiated television cable service. And one of my clients tells me he has always invested in utility company stocks because they make him the most money, net of tax. Why hadn't this occurred to anyone else? So, I was about to start a letter writing campaign when another storm hit.
The Governor held a presser, dressed of course in a sweater instead of a suit, because, for some ridiculous reason, that is de rigueur. much like deserter Bush's wearing a flight jacket to board and aircraft carrier and announce "Mission Accomplished". (Exactly how foolish do they consider us?)
During the presser, a reporter asked something about when power was going to be restored, but I didn't hear the question. However, it must have had an element of "Does the state have to just wait around until the power companies finally restore power or can it do something to force them to be faster?" The Governor actually laughed and said, "I don't know; maybe we just make them bury the power lines," obviously, a threat. But, of course, that never happened.
At that point, I realized how stupid I was. Of course, everyone knew the solution. It was just that "public servants" and the utility companies had decided, jointly or independently, that losing a few innocent citizens during every big storm was preferable to forcing utility companies to spend some money over time.
Or course, the utility companies would dig in (no pun intended), unless they could raise rates and politicians don't want the backdraft from raising rates on everyone to save a few "measly" lives per storm. At the time, that was one of the most horrifying realizations about politicians that I'd ever had. Ah, but I was much
olderyounger then. I've since had many horrifying realizations and it's too hard to say which is THE most horrifying.I bet it's the same in many northern states.
Our city in Georgia has most of its power lines buried.
When we lived in Watertown, NY the claim was that power lines could not be buried due to frost heaves.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Off the top of my head, my guess is that some
way of overcoming frost heaves could be found, if anyone had ever made it a priority. (a friend's standard comment in such instances: If they could put a man on the moon.....") And the moon landing was fifty years ago. But, the US was very motivated to beat Russia to planting a flag on the moon (and we had Germany's scientists, esp. Von Braun).
Water pipes have been underground in cold places since they were made of wood. Telephone wires are underground in cold places. So are cable wires, which had to be underground from the jump, at least in cities. So, what I believe the electric companies are really saying is that frost heaves (and digging, time and other things) make it more costly for them to bury their unsightly child-electrocuting, elderly-freezing wires and they'd just as soon do it the faster, cheaper way.
Isn't wind-knocking them on people and property when they are above ground also a problem? How about kids climbing poles, as kids always have, and getting electrocuted? Howe about wind knocking out power in wind chills well below freezing? How about the unsightliness? Why does Southern California have so many above ground power lines, but damned few frost heaves? See all those things are problems, too--for all of us. They are just not problems for the utility companies. So, too bad if it sucks for the rest of us.
Had had government said, when the power lines were first going up, put those damned deadly and ugly things underground or nowhere, they would have found a way by now to cope with frost heaves. It's just that government has not required it, despite having considerable power to regulate public utility companies.
So, it is indeed nothing but a claim, just as you said. But, it doesn't stand up to much analysis and my guess is that state and local government knows it. The real issues, as they almost always are, are corporate profit and the reluctant of politicians to take a risk for something as foolish as public safety and the benefit of the public in general.
Everyone else should suffer and be at risk and be forced to grant utility easements on their own property for the benefit of utility company executives and shareholders. It's the least we can do!
Instead of laughing
Can I just imagine relegating everyone responsible for the Flint crisis to a steady diet of contaminated water while incarcerated in a prison labor camp, promising to return them to their family in a card board box after we cremate their remains upon their inevitable death?
Would that be okay?
[video:https://youtu.be/MTCen9-RELM]
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Of course!
You can imagine that and more.
It's just that I'm stuck with this non-violent thing* and beyond: I've never really wished anyone anyone harm.
*After reading one of Molly Ivin's books, I decided to read all of them. I'm now reading the first, written when Reagan was in office, in which she mocks several things about the way that George H.W. Bush spoke. One of those things was his "thing" thing, namely, saying "thing" a lot. Another was his inappropriate use of foreign languages. Her comment on that: Quel fromage!
Thing is, I don't know if she meant to write "C'est fromage!", which would be too ironic for words, foreign or not. (See? I even felt guilty typing that because, if she did make an ironic mistake--which I doubt--she would be mortified; and I admire her genius so much. I'm obviously beyond hope. So, you do the imagining for both of us.)
Snyder is added to the list now The judge reversed her decision.
He should have always been at the top of the list since it was his decision to dismantle democracy there. Common dreams has the story.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Thank you! He's back in the civil lawsuit. However, AFAIK,
he was never charged criminally.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/michigan/articles/2019-04-01/jud...
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/michigan-ag-explains-why-governor-sn...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/23/flint-water-crisis-gover...
I didn't include civil litigation in the essay, although I probably should have. As I said, it just wrote itself while I was wanting to do something much shorter and much less serious, so, consistent with theme of the first two parts of the essay, Imma pass the buck and blame the essay for not including the civil litigation while it was composing its bad self.