How The Flint Water Crisis Emerged

UPDATE BELOW




Please go to the link below:

HOW THE FLINT WATER CRISIS EMERGED

From CNN:

National Guard activated in Flint, Michigan, water crisis:

Snyder activated the state National Guard on Wednesday to assist with the water crisis. Seven guardsmen arrived in the town Wednesday, and up to 30 are expected by Friday, Snyder said in a news release. They will help distribute bottled water and water filters at fire stations and other public buildings, he said. That will allow Red Cross volunteers to go door-to-door to hand out water, filters and testing kits. 

 FEMA announced that it approved Snyder's request for federal assistance, according to agency spokesman Rafael Lemaitre. The governor had asked FEMA to step in to coordinate with other federal agencies. 

 The U.S. Attorney's Office in Eastern Michigan is investigating the water crisis and a class- action lawsuit was filed against Snyder, the state government and the city of Flint.


UPDATE:


Commenter, Ahab, left the link below, which provides more information on the Flint Water Scandal:

Flint Water Study Updates

Wednesday is Trump Hump Day

Mark Salter: 

"Nothing anyone could reveal about Trump could get me to change my opinion that he's an asshole. And not a "yeah, but he's our asshole" kind but rather a cartoon villain, a fake, a cheat, a liar, a creep, a bullying, bragging, bullshitting, blowhard kind of asshole. There have been lots of candidates in the past I've disagreed with, even loathed. There's only one I've wanted to punch in the face as he's doing one of his pursed-lips, chin-tilting Il Duce impersonations. 

 I grew up in Iowa, where people are widely admired for their courtesy, generosity, and modesty, for their un-Trumpness. Iowa was the first state to offer a new home and resettlement assistance to Vietnamese boat people. It's also welcomed refugees from other war-torn and oppressed countries. Until the terrorist attacks in Paris, eight hundred more were expected to arrive in Iowa this year. Most Iowans of my acquaintance are just good people. Yet for months a xenophobic bigot has been leading most polls there and nationally, with his acolyte, Ted Cruz, in hot pursuit. 

I don't believe them. I think they inflate his support. I can't imagine how Trump could appeal to more than a disaffected few who are resentful, misinformed, and misled but unlikely to go to the trouble of participating in a caucus. Mostly, I don't want to believe the polls. I don't want to believe Iowans or any decent person would choose Trump for president. If you regard honesty and humility as virtues, which I think most Iowans do, his ridiculous boasts demand derision. 

He's the business genius who brags about screwing his investors and who has declared bankruptcy as often as some people overdraw their checking account. He sports the world's silliest comb-over and makes fun of other people's looks. He's the tough guy who never served in the military, never risked his life or his interests for anyone other than himself, and disparaged the service of a decorated veteran. 

 He promises to make America great again and rejects the ideals and decency that made us great in the first place. Trump isn't a fascist. 

He just says stupid, offensive things, seems unaware we have a Bill of Rights, and surrounds himself with aides who appear to have graduated first in their class at the Baghdad Bob School of Awesome Ass Kissing. Fascism is an ideology. Self-aggrandizement isn't."

Flint, Michigan...

thought it could save money by poisoning children.

If a fish stinks from the head, then Republican Governor Rick Snyder is a stink-bomb for the ages.





Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Mum on What He Knew About Flint Water



"...while declaring the state of emergency, Snyder wouldn’t say when he became aware of the lead problem in Flint. The governor—who likes to portray himself as a can-do manager—reportedly grew testy when asked repeatedly about his own awareness."

Flint’s drinking water became contaminated with lead in 2014 after switching its supply source from Lake Huron to the more polluted and corrosive Flint River. The move — a cost-cutting measure while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager — resulted in a spike in lead levels in children, which causes permanent brain damage. A recent preliminary report from a task force appointed by Snyder placed most of the blame on the state Department of Environmental Quality and prompted the Dec. 29 resignation of DEQ Director Dan Wyant.

As is often the case in these sorts of situations, city officials denied that the water was unsafe, although they issued a notice that the levels of of trihaolomethanes (TTHM), a group of four chemicals formed as a byproduct of water disinfection, were too high. It got to the point where avoiding tap water became a way of life in Flint. Meanwhile, in September, Virginia Tech University researchers led by Marc Edwards tested water samples from 300 Flint homes and found high lead levels throughout the city. One sample was as high as 13,200 ppb. 

By way of comparison, the EPA considers water with 5,000 ppb lead to be hazardous waste. Not long after that, Flint pediatricians found that the percentage of children with elevated lead in their blood had doubled, from 2.1% before the switch to 4%. By October, Genesee County declared a public health emergency, and the City of Flint developed plans to distribute thousands of water filters. Finally, in October, Flint reconnected to Detroit water. 

Ultimately, several Flint residents filed a class action lawsuit, and in December the new mayor, Karen Weaver, declared a state of emergency, declaring that the elevated lead levels had caused irreversible damage to the health of the children of the city. And, finally, long after he should have done it, earlier this week Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency as well.  --SOURCE



"...an email from Snyder’s then-chief of staff to a health-department official was turned over as part of a freedom-of-information request. In July 2015, Dennis Muchmore wrote: 

 I'm frustrated by the water issue in Flint I really don't think people are getting the benefit of the doubt. Now they are concerned and rightfully so about the lead level studies they are receiving. These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we're just not sympathizing with their plight)."

To save money, the city began drawing its water from the Flint River, rather than from Detroit’s system, which was deemed too costly. But the river’s water was high in salt, which helped corrode Flint’s aging pipes, leaching lead into the water supply. 

 The move saved millions, but the problems started becoming apparent almost immediately. The water starting smelling like rotten eggs. Engineers responded to that problem by jacking up the chlorine level, leading to dangerous toxicity. GM discovered that city water was corroding engines at a Flint factory and switched sources. 

Then children and others started getting rashes and falling sick. Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech environmental-engineering professor, found that the water had nearly 900 times the recommend EPA limit for lead particles. As...Alana Semuels noted in a deeply reported feature in July 2015, residents believe the city knew about problems as soon as May 2014. 

Yet as late as February 2015, even after tests showed dangerous lead levels, officials were telling residents there was no threat.


How could this happen in America? Children poisoned by their government?  You tell me, because I can't fathom how anyone involved in this disaster can live with themselves knowing what their actions have done to countless innocent children's lives.


Expert says Michigan officials changed a Flint lead report to avoid federal action

Internal Email: Michigan 'Blowing Off' Flint Over Lead in Water

R.I.P. David Bowie

Every Executive Order Since George Washington

Please note that President Obama has passed fewer executive orders than Republican Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford,  Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. 

The Occupation of Malheur by Armed, Out of State Militia Groups

The hysterics on the far right excuse the unlawful takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge because, according to their presidential hopefuls, news sites, and bloggers, the federal government has no right to own these lands in sovereign states, and the states should be sole owner and decision makers of what is to be done with the land within their borders. An idealistic, but unrealistic notion, since whomever is in charge of a state's government would be able to sell to the highest bidder the precious natural resources of said state (see below). 

The hysterics on the far right think that states' rights mob rule is always in the best interests of any given situation, so we can see why they'd be on the side of the outlaws in this situation. This has nothing to do with "states rights," and everything to do with preserving our country's precious natural wildlife and resources.

The Audubon Society of Portland explains:



Audubon Society of Portland: Statement on the Occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge 

 By Bob Sallinger * Jan. 3, 2016 *

Portland Audubon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect the vast populations of waterbirds that were being decimated by wanton killing by the plume trade. The 188,000 acre refuge represents some of the most important bird habitat on the Pacific Flyway. It is one of the crown jewels of the National Wildlife Refuge System and belongs to all Americans. 

In 2013, the Refuge adopted a long-term management plan developed through an inclusive collaborative process that brought together the local community, tribes, conservation groups, state and federal agencies, and other stakeholders. These stakeholders have continued to work together to implement this strategy which includes one of the biggest wetland restoration efforts ever undertaken.  


The occupation of Malheur by armed, out of state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk. It violates the most basic principles of the Public Trust Doctrine and holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers. 

The occupiers have used the flimsiest of pretexts to justify their actions—the conviction of two local ranchers in a case involving arson and poaching on public lands. Notably, neither the local community or the individuals convicted have requested or endorsed the occupation or the assistance of militia groups. 

 Portland Audubon fought 100 years ago to protect this incredible place. The powerful images taken by Portland Audubon founder, William Finley, of Malheur’s incredible bird populations and the wanton killing that was being inflicted upon them, caused President Roosevelt to make Malheur one of the first wildlife refuges in the Western United States. 

Portland Audubon calls upon the local, state and federal authorities to once again protect this incredible place for the amazing wildlife that live there and to preserve this natural heritage for current and future generations. Portland Audubon greatly appreciates the outstanding federal employees that staff the refuge, as well as members of the local community who have rejected this occupation. 

We hope for a safe, expeditious end to this armed occupation so that the myriad of local and non-local stakeholders can continue to work together to restore Malheur in ways that are supportive of both the local ecology and the local economy—the occupiers are serving nobody’s interests except their own.



From Stonekettle Station:

Stonekettle‏@Stonekettle

You know you're a badass Tea Party patriot when your militia takes over an unprotected bird sanctuary

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12:01 AM - 3 Jan 2016

How Germans View Americans

Sunday Science Blog

Paleogeography

Here's Some Stupid for Saturday

T-GOOPERS ACCUSE PAUL RYAN OF "TURNING MUSLIM" BECAUSE HE GREW A BEARD

T-GOOPERS LABEL SPEAKER RYAN A MUSLIM BECAUSE:  BEARD.

"Paul Ryan’s 'Muslim beard' is only the beginning.The birthers who believe President Obama is a secret Muslim now have successors in bearders who think GOP House leader Paul Ryan is also a Muslim because of his newly sprouted facial hairs. This might be seen as a sign that the American right has finally crossed the border into looney-land. Yet this sort of paranoid conspiracy theory has a long history, ranging from those who argued that Abraham Lincoln was 'part Negro' to the theory that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was Jewish."  --Jeet Heer  




The T-Goopers have been yelping about President Obama being a Muslim because, well, that's who they are, and everyone except the Goopers knows that to be exceptionally stupid. 

But T-Goopers can and do out-stupid themselves on even that slab of idiocy. How? Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has grown a beard, so, in their looney universe, that means he's turned MOOSLIM!  I'm not making this up. That's their mentality

If you have a beard, you're definitely a Muslim (but Obummer never grew a beard!) Consistency is not in their lexicon, but lunacy runs deep in it.

It's the same mentality that keeps neo-fascist Donald Trump ahead of all the other TeaPublicans in the polls.

If you have a beard, you're definitely a Muslim!

Oh Noes! Sarah!  You too?!!!!!

QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! On To 2016!

I've written about how wrong the right wing news outlets and bloggers have been about this past year in Mr. Obama's presidency.  Despite the T-GOP's hold on Congress, they've done very little to disrupt President Obama's penultimate year in office, and it's a good bet they'll do even less in 2016, try as they may to stop him from enacting Shari'ah law, putting Texans in FEMA camps, and confiscating everyone's guns. But we're sure they'll continue to look for amazing information in Hawaii on President Obama's birth certificate.

PM Carpenter's post on President Obama's 2015:


"… he restored diplomatic relations with Cuba; he reached a nuclear agreement with the otherwise incorrigible Iranian government; he is well on his way to securing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord (hardly the working-class disaster deemed by some); he successfully defended the Affordable Care Act before a dubious Supreme Court; he has contained ISIS, notwithstanding Republican hysterics that we are doomed to slave under Sharia smuggled into the republic by a Muslim-loving, America-hating chief executive; and he passed a budget — one not particularly to my liking, but passing any budget through this unspeakably torpid Congress is nothing short of epic. Best of all, President Obama has given congressional Republicans a nasty case of the political shingles. Try as they might to triumph, they keep losing to a lame duck. There's an operatic beauty to it — the amplified pseudoconservative frenzy, that is — that just gets better and better. Here's to an even more splendid 2016."

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Acyrologia

Make America Great Again!

WHAT THE WORLD LOOKS LIKE AFTER WATCHING FAUX NOOZ

The Incomparable Aretha Franklin

Sings to Carol King at the Kennedy Center Awards Evening.

Amazing woman.

Wednesday is Trump Hump Day

The Trumper has warned Hillary Clinton that if Bill campaigns for her, all bets are off and his sexual history is fair game.  

We can't wait to see the Trumper's glass house shatter into a thousand shards as the media reports on his adulterous affair with Marla Maples , 17 years his junior, while he was still married to Ivana. 



18 Real Things Donald Trump Has Actually Said About Women





Oh my! The Trumper changes his mind as often as he changes his wives!


Buzzfeed uncovered the 2008 blog post written by Trump where he endorsed Clinton for president or vice president. In a post published on March 13, 2008, Trump wrote, “Hillary Clinton said she’d consider naming Barack Obama as her vice-president when she gets the nomination, but she’s nowhere near a shoo-in,” wrote The Donald about the heated Democratic primary in 2008. “For his part, Obama said he’s just focused on winning the nomination, although at least one member of his team said Clinton would make a good vice-president. (I know Hillary, and I think she’d make a great president or vice-president.)”

THANKS OBAMA! Oh, Wait...

END OF YEAR WINGNUT PREDICTIONS UPDATE BELOW


We mean "Thanks GEORGE W. CHENEY!"



"While the Republican presidential candidates use every bit of ideological gymnastics to somehow pin the rise of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) on President Obama, the former commander of U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lt. General Michael Flynn dropped an incredible bombshell in an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel: that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was in a United States military prison in 2004 – and released because he was deemed 'harmless.'


 Nothing more perfectly illustrates what a colossal failure the George W. Bush Administration was. While Bush was busy torturing Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards in a desperate and barbaric attempt to rectify his intelligence failures, the mastermind who would found the Islamic State was in their clutches the entire time. Flynn went on to describe how the Bush Administration’s knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 and their catastrophic invasion of Iraq went on to create the colossal quagmire that is the Islamic State."


The T-GOP candidates for the presidency call Mr. Obama feckless, but they're talking about the wrong president. The Feckless One, George W. Cheney, released Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as bad as or even worse than Osama bin Laden. 


ISIS leader al-Baghdadi was released by Bush in 2004, not by Obama in 2009


"... social media was overrun by a story originally reported by the Telegraph in Britain in 2014. The paper reported that Baghdadi was held in U.S. custody until he was released in 2009 under the leadership of Barack Obama. 

Right wing news outlets like Fox News and Red State continued to promote the story, as it has once again gone viral on the internet. 

 The article in the Telegraph was quickly debunked, however, by Politifact, who revealed that the story was not about Baghdadi, but rather a different terrorist known as Abu Duaa. 

The Pentagon also confirmed this, saying that Baghdadi was held in U.S. custody from Feb. 2004 until Dec. 2004, during the presidency of George W. Bush. 

Despite the rhetoric coming from conservative media, the Pentagon has no other record of Baghdadi being held by the U.S. since that time."



The people who so eagerly swallow the misinformation spread by fright wing news outlets and blogs are the same people who support the Trumper, the demagogue who tells his easily fooled supporters everything they want to hear. Fact check? That's for weenies! Trumpsters like to hear lies and misinformation


UPDATE:

ANOTHER YEAR OF FAILED RIGHT WING PARANOID PREDICTIONS

President Obama's Successful 2015

As 2015 comes to a close it's important for us to review the major, successful battles President Obama won.  

Well done, Mr. Obama, you have another year to go, and we hope you continue winning more battles:

"Same-Sex Marriage Legal. In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, same-sex marriage is now legal. The fight over same-sex rights has been the biggest civil rights cause of the last thirty years, and the most significant hurdle has now been cleared, just three years after President Obama became the first major party candidate to support it. 

Obamacare Wins Another Supreme Court Case. The right’s latest attempt to derail the Affordable Care Act, the King v. Burwell case in the Supreme Court, was laughable on its face. It argued that a missing word in the law was grounds on which to dismantle it. But you never know when a case is in the hands of the conservative members of the court. Luckily, Chief Justice Roberts again sided with the left of the court, and the law survived another attack. More proof that the Supreme Court is amazingly important with regards to the upcoming election. 

EPA Pushes Clean Power Plan. You know a plan is good for the environment if major poluters and Republicans hate it. In 2015 the Obama administration’s EPA released their Clean Power Plan which will regulate carbon emissions while pushing for more solar, wind, and other clean tech. Oh, and President Obama got China and the world to agree to new cleaner standards. 

FCC Pushes Net Neutrality. President Obama said network neutrality – which forces Internet providers to treat traffic equally instead of giving megacorps a leg up – was his top FCC priority. And in 2015 the FCC voted to regulate broadband internet like a utility, along party lines with a Democratic majority. 

Workers Get Overtime. The Labor Department released a rule that would see workers who earn below $50,440 per year become eligible for more overtime. 

U.S.- Cuba Relations Restored. President Obama re-opened relations between the United States and Cuba and while it will take congressional action to lift the ineffective embargo that is in place, the U.S. embassy in Havana has been re-opened after decades of hostility. 

Military Combat Jobs Opened To Women. President Obama ordered Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to open up combat jobs in the military to women. If women are strong and capable enough to defend their country, an arbitrary gender decision will no longer get in the way. 

Keystone XL Pipeline Killed. President Obama put the nail in the coffin of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. The conduit with gallons of pollutant will not pass over American soil." --h/t Addicting Information


The Paris Agreement marks the culmination of years groundwork laid in the aftermath of a failed attempt at achieving a previous global agreement at a 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen. Countries settled on a bottom-up approach allowing each nation to submit its own plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rather than trying to agree on a one-size-fits-all strategy, greatly simplifying the job of negotiations. 

 Leadership from the U.S., China and India also played a key role in facilitating the agreement. All three countries have acted as road blocks in past attempts to achieve climate deals, but in the lead up to this conference each made strong commitments to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions and to contribute to a positive discussion in Paris.


TeaPublicans react to President Barack Hussein Obama's accomplishments JUST FOR 2015:

Sunday Science Blog

Donald Trump's War on Truth

Donald "I'm Gonna Be Grrrrrreat!" Trump speaking with Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, went on one of his usual factless rants about the so-called “War on Christmas” and how this anti-Christmas spirit is undermining religious liberty:


"Well, Tony, I can, tell you this, that religious liberty is very important to me, and I see more and more, especially, in particular, Christianity, Christians, their power is being taken away."




The braying jackass who has beguiled his easily duped supporters, claims  that Christians' "power [is] being taken away," but offers no evidence whatsoever for this claim. Just making stuff up is the Trumper's  trademark, and he's won the prize for being the biggest and most consistent liar of 2015.

The entire United States of America just enjoyed a federal holiday based on Christianity's god. No other religion that is practiced in the USA gets that sort of respect and privilege.  So I'd say that's a pretty big chunk of POWER that Christians enjoy. The Trumper doesn't deal in facts or reality, and his supporters lap up whatever bucket of horse crap he feeds them.

But let's examine this inane and wholly made-up FAUX NOOZ and now the Trumper's claim that there's a war on Christmas.  Let's look at who were the original people who waged a REAL war on Christmas.  

They were Christians:


The original Christian founders of colonies here in the USA banned Christmas: 

 "All Christmas activities, including dancing, seasonal plays, games, singing carols, cheerful celebration and especially drinking were banned by the Puritan-dominated Parliament of England in 1644, with the Puritans of New England following suit. Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and the Plymouth colony made celebrating Christmas a criminal offense, according to 'Once Upon a Gospel' (Twenty-Third Publications, 2008). 

 Christmas trees and decorations were considered to be unholy pagan rituals, and the Puritans also banned traditional Christmas foods such as mince pies and pudding. Puritan laws required that stores and businesses remain open all day on Christmas, and town criers walked through the streets on Christmas Eve calling out 'No Christmas, no Christmas!' 

 In England, the ban on the holiday was lifted in 1660, when Charles II took over the throne. However, the Puritan presence remained in New England and Christmas did not become a legal holiday there until 1856. Even then, some schools continued to hold classes on December 25 until 1870.

Christians waged the original war on Christmas, not atheists,  not agnostics, not other religious sects."



The braying jackass continued:

"But, you know, the Christian, every year, you just see it more and more. You know, you go from one thing to the next to the point where it’s not politically correct to say ‘Merry Christmas’ to anybody or you go to stores and you don’t ever see the word ‘Christmas’ anymore.

You don’t see that term anymore, Tony. One of the things I always say, and I say it lightheartedly but I mean it, it’s actually not supposed to be so lighthearted, and I get standing ovations, especially in Iowa and certain places, is we are going to start saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again. Because you go into these stores and you don’t see anything having to do with Christmas and it’s disgraceful, frankly, as far as I’m concerned, and that’s the way it should be and I feel strongly about it.

December 25, 1642

And here's one of our family's favorites we read every Christmas: