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Facing Calls to Resign and a Pile of Lawsuits, Snyder to Address Flint Crisis

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#26

To respond to your points:

  1. There are laws against malfeasance (illegal or dishonest activity by a government or corporate official) and misfeasance, (improperly performing a legal act with the improper performance resulting in injury or harm to the plaintiff–mainly used in civil suits) but you must find a prosecutor or litigating attorney with the guts to prosecute those suspected of such. Don’t hold your breath on that one.
  2. “The labor movement” should be defined–do you mean union members, working adults, anyone of legal voting age? The presumption is that when someone is voted into office they are entitled to hold the office for the term to which they were elected. Yearly votes of confidence for all federal, state, or local officials would get expensive which would play right into the hands of those whose “golden rule” is that he who has the gold (IOW the wealthy oligarchs and their hired toadies) makes the rules.
  3. The election of Labor Department posts would make them subject to the same problems as those under your second suggestion.
    A solution that would go a long way towards solving the real problems you address would be for people to turn off their TV’s, and haunt government deliberations on everything from the public utility commissions and school boards to city councils and county commissions.
    However, despite our many probl;ems of misgovernment, no serious consensus exists for such vigilant action. We, as a people, would rather burp with our beers and watch professional sports or “reality” TV, or engage in some other time-wasting distractions provided by the oligarchs to distract and waste the time of the citizenry.
#27

If Snyder doesn’t go to jail this will happen again. But maybe in your neighborhood. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. That phase is so true. Injustice is like a snowball. It will only get bigger.

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#28

Apparently Lamonte doesn’t just shill for nuclear power, he protects Power, in general.

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#29

Add that to the TPP and the article showing how Turkey’s “leadership” is taking aim at all academics & intellectuals who challenge State Policy & Power… and the idea of consolidating power into unconscionable hands, unanswerable (not to mention unaccountable) to the public intensifies.

It’s called a “conspiracy theory” even when evidence in support of its aligning metrics is breaking out all over.

#30

Your prose rivals your poetry.

I very much resonate with your explanation for how the matter gets framed to the Republican–business, fundamentalist Christianity & militarism are sacred–base…

And speaking of slanted framing, Amy Goodman has two self-described Feminists on her program (Democracy Now) today. One of them says she will back Hillary.

Oh, and this professor also calls herself a Socialist and says she will back Clinton!

Gerald Celente is a fiery, somewhat Libertarian, but nonetheless savvy fellow and he said he predicts Hillary will win because women will vote for her.

I find it refreshing that Rose DeMoro and Katrina Vanden Heuval (not to mention, myself) don’t feel that way. However, one of Ms. Goodman’s two guests thinks it’s more important to get a woman into that seat.

This is the thinking that looked to the symbolic meaning of a Black President.

However, as Obama’s performance–no matter how often words like “vision” and “achievements” are used to repackage Bush policies–shows, if the individual acts as a mere token and sustains or advances the interests of the 1% (or what Vandana Shiva aptly defines as Patriarchal Capitalism); then obviously, the outer wrapping does NOTHING to advance the interests of most people.

One of my neighbors came by to beam about Donald Trump. And she’s very active on Facebook.

I made a little noise about Bernie Sanders but this is one of those people who home schools her one child and the child wants to go to Bob Jones University.

I just don’t think one can penetrate into the dense levels of delusion promulgated by this particular community. Unfortunately, it is a HUGE demographic.

I just finished reading Barry Lynn’s book, “God and Government.” To me… it’s chilling.

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#31

And here again is the most regularly used Talking Point trafficked on this site.

As if lots of people aren’t fighting lots of issues.

This ploy is used to turn the matter of some very significant malfeasance coming from individuals sitting in empowered positions… into the matter of those poor slobs who come home exhausted from jobs that steal their lifeblood and give them a very limited existence.

As if the relative access to decision-making and policy setting is equal or equivalent on “both sides.”

Once again, the Page and Gilens Study proves that the policies put into motion seldom reflect what majorities want.

I suppose after TPP makes it through the covert political pipelines, you’ll blame average people for that, too.

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#32

This is all disconcerting, of course. But doomed to collapse on itself like a dwarf star. One hopes the nebula will not devour the entire planet with its huge suck.

Wanting a woman in the WH so badly that one would settle for someone who so completely represents the patriarchy sounds pathologic to me… but then, if I say that, it makes me likely to be called all manner of sordid anti-woman epiteths (epiteths? epitaths? whatever)… the die hard corporacratic must-be-given-a-pedestal-and-a-sash dames of the big house have already established that (no matter how many women in third parties are available to them and voted for by me)

Always good to see your stuff out there. Thanks!

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#33

Epithets.

i’d like to write the epitaph for the deep state…

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#34

You regularly push the boundaries of quality gymnastics around here, but in this masterpiece, you might have outdone yourself. Yay!
Here’s your argument: “Oh come on, hewas only going to poison them temporarily! Sheesh. Alarmists!”

You’re a quality cat, Lamonte.

#35

This is a smart political move by Snyder. It may give him the time he needs to scheme. This proposed monitoring will only be used to lessen his liability.

#38

Well no. The Flint River was turned into a sewer by GM and other Corporations.

They were allowed to do that by governments that failed to represent the people and sided instead with the Corporations just as the government is bad crowd wish for.

Flint is an example of Corporate power manifested through a bought and paid for Government rather then one of people power which manifests itself through Governments that represent the people.

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#41

This is what you get from tea party (koch) politicians which are half of congress.

#42

By the way: In the Katrina Vanden Heuval article in CD today (no comments section there yet)she said: “The state health department is also looking into whether an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that has killed 10 people in the area is connected to the water crisis.”

Ridiculous.

The same so-called austerity program that gave the state its emergency manager dictates (after being voted down twice by the electorate) has also rendered the public health systems in Michigan a disaster. Be prepared for a complete under accounting and minimization. One would hope, related to the size of this debacle, that the Health Dept.'s process and outcomes will be closely monitored by some wily investigative reporter (do they exist any more?)

The spin so far is that this was a Natural Disaster, like Katrina. Desperation has given this poor dupe of a puppet governor, paid for and strung up by the likes of the DeVoses (and probably a trail to the Koch’s nefarious super secret money laundering operation) a bizarre way to escape criminal responsibility: It was an act of God.

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#43

Sure, just add a bit of anti-corrosive and toxic stew is good for you. Drink up!

#44

No, most of us here have read numerous articles on this crime and we know the full story. Your projections, dissemblings, and pandering to power don’t change that.

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#45

Thank you Poet for your reply.

On point 1) it appears to me that we are making the same point.

On point 2) & 3) we agree that the wealthy have too much power and that workers are significantly unrepresented. I agree that we are subjected to much propaganda, though more and more people are turning off their TVs. Mostly what we are not doing is talking with our neighbors, and as long as we are not doing that we will not be reaching any serious consensus except those that are delivered to us by propaganda.

While I suggest that structural changes might improve things you point out that elections and votes of confidence would get expensive. I see your point but corruption and lack of representation in government do become rather expensive to the working class too. Bad government is expensive. Not being represented in government sooner or later gets quite expensive.

On your point 2), the presumption that when someone is voted into office they are then entitled to hold office for the term to which they were elected. I am certain that Governor Snyder and most all other politicians expect this entitlement. However there is another presumption. That is the presumption that the representatives will consult and represent their constituents, all of their constituents and not just the wealthy and the ones that somehow agree with what the wealthy want them to agree with. I doubt that you are claiming that the first presumption is more important than the second presumption, or even as important.

On my point 2) yes I mean the unions. Who else in the 99% of our society is organized enough to organize and run an annual nationwide vote of confidence of our representatives. What other group in our society has better potential to organize the working class? Who better to organize a vote on Labor Day and discuss working class issues? Who better to push for recognition of the international Labor Day, which would have some potential to improve world wide worker unity. Who better to call and organize a nationwide strike if an angry public votes a clear vote against a significant number of representatives should that clear vote be ignored? How clear a vote would be needed before a general strike would be supported by We, the People in order to get our decisions respected? An amendment to the constitution is not needed for the unions to run a Labor Day vote of confidence in our representatives, nor to get the results respected.

It seems to me that we got into the current mess in part because the wealthy made structural changes to the system that gave them even more significant advantages over us. I am suggesting that we need to reverse those changes and we need to make well thought out structural changes in the system to restore some balance, and we need to make structural changes that will make it far more difficult for the greedy and advantaged to game the system.

#46

The cost to add a 90 cent part to ignition switches was deemed “too expensive” By GM.

The cost to clean water used by Industry in plants along the Flint River was deemed “too expensive” by Corporations that used it as a wastewater dump.

Added up these were all “negligible costs” but that is exactly what happens when “Government is run like a business” and that is exactly what My Snyder was doing. There are going to be many more Flint Michigans as the Corporate state dictates the regulations they want to Government.

When private individuals accumulate masses of wealth and “Control the means of production” as dictated by Capitalism then they will blackmail that same Government with dictates such as “These regulations get in the way of us making PROFITS”.

When those same Corporations fund think tanks that preach Libertarian Gospel indicating Government the problem and Government shoul dbe run like a Business, then you get Flint Michigan.

When people claim that this another example of how “Governments fail again” than those people have drank the Corporate Koolaid and it as Toxic as the water out of the Flint River and that can not be treated at “negligible cost”.

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#47

Well said!

#50

The first part of your entry is spot-on. What’s happened in Flint is precisely what happens when ideological cronyism is used to make appointments to head government offices and agencies.

Harry Truman was a stubborn Missourian. Trouble with him was that he allowed politicians to dupe him into going along with the idea that America needed to be transformed into a national security state.

When it comes to trying to spread the blame for the poisoning of Flint’s Residents amongst local City officials, several problems arise. First and foremost, it was Snyder himself who deliberately circumvented the duly elected City officials of Flint and replaced them with a “Manager” who screwed the pooch.

Second, it was Snyder who selected and appointed the political hack placed in charge of regulating and ensuring the safety of Michigan’s municipal water supplies.

Third, by erroneously displacing the blame from whence it rightfully belongs (Gov. Snyder and his policies) it reduces the possibility of enforcing justice and ameliorating the suffering of the victims.

Fourth, Flint is far from being the only city that has failed to invest in maintaining critical infrastructure systems. It’s virtually impossible to identify a single major city in America that has invested the tax revenues required to upgrade their municipal water distribution system in the manner in which you suggest.

Fifth, even if Cities do upgrade all the water mains in their jurisdiction, that still leaves all of the older privately owned homes constructed prior to 1960 (???) that used the same type of lead that would be damaged by the treated water Snyder’s appointees ordered to be pumped into the Flint system.

Finally, since it takes cash to replace pipe, Flint is hindered to a much greater degree than the city in which you live when it comes to having tax dollars available for public works projects. Flint’s tax base began eroding long ago when GM began shipping its manufacturing overseas and to “right to work states.” That led to declining property values and tax revenues. Then came the migration of skilled workers who left the area and moved to other parts of the country in search of work from which to support their families. This led to a further downward spike in the local economy and a cash strapped municipality.

There’s probably plenty more things that could be said. The fact is that Flint had a safely operating water distribution system until Snyder’s minions screwed things up. Even with Katrina, it took a hurricane to lay the groundwork for the ensuing disaster an the manner in which the idiots in charged made things all the worse. In Flint, it was a simple matter of enforcing the ill conceived right wing backed legislation that gave the heartless bastards free reign in screwing the community.

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#51

Where are the feds?Looks like he & his cohorts are getting away with it.Wheres the accountability? Heads must roll! We cannot afford to let them off the hook.We let Bushies off the hook for war & torture & a long list of crimes.Now they have cart–blanch.