Flint Mich.: Drink lead. Die. The kids too.

[Cyrano]

This is an excerpt from yesterday's rude pundit column. The people of Flint Michigan are drinking imported water because their own drinking water is filled with lead. Imported water is in short supply and the governor of Michigan doesn't give a rat's ass.

Perhaps this excerpt is a vision of the future of a Republican America.

If you go looking for information or updates on the crisis of lead poisoning the water of Flint, Michigan, you'll come across so many stories that make you despair for the treatment of the urban, industrial population in this greatest nation in the history of everything ever. If you're not up on this insane story about the criminal neglect and outright damnation of a poor city, especially its children, by cost-cutting Republicans, Rachel Maddow and her staff have been doing the kind of investigative reporting work that used to be a regular part of our media. If it's too much work to watch Maddow, you can read a quick summary to get up to speed.

The shortest version: budget-cutting, state-appointed emergency managers switched the water supply for Flint from Lake Huron to the polluted Flint River through sheer ignorance and wanton fuckery. By the time anyone listened that the water was poisoned, the chemicals had fucked up the pipes, and they continue to leech lead into the water supply so no one can drink from the faucet. If the state was led by honorable people, they would have lined up and sliced open their own guts with daggers to apologize.

Which gets us to Freeman Elementary School, a pre-kindergarten to sixth-grade public school in Flint and its family fun day, which will be held tomorrow at the school. Of course, it's not going to be just family fun, as a headline from the local paper reveals:



Yes, as the article says, "Children will be able to get their blood tested for lead during a family fun night this week at Freeman Elementary School in Flint." And then, heartbreakingly, "Lead testing is planned for infants up to children six years old, along with water filter giveaways, dance fitness for children, face painting, balloon artist, a free healthy meal, refreshments and raffles."

Think about that. This was supposed to be an event with dancing kids with cat whiskers drawn on their faces, eating healthy food, and winning a damn raffle. Now, it's being used as a chance for parents in one of the poorest cities in the country to see if their state has permanently damaged their kids because that's better than spending a little extra money on water tests or, you know, water safety. And what are they raffling now? Aquafina twelve-packs?

go to: rudepundit.blogspot.com and scroll down to yesterday's entry.

[shraby]

1. People need to go to prison over this. Starting from the top down.

We aren't even allowed to have lead based paint on our walls, window sills, or anyplace because of the harm it does to people.

It's not just a state crime, it is probably a federal crime because the rules on lead in things people use come from the federal government since it is a country wide law.

[randys1]

12. Agreed. How long would help have taken to arrive if these were upper middle class white repubs?

[Cyrano]

13. Maybe this is part of the Gop's

"Final Solution."

Yeah, I'm just being facetious here, but nonetheless ...

Intended or not, the GOP policy of screwing the poor and disadvantaged could end up producing the same result as Germany's infamous "Final Solution."

The idea of an entire American city, Flint, Mich., without drinking water, borders on insanity. And the Republican governor's response to it can be called nothing but evil.

[Siwsan]

2. Snyder's press conference in Flint, yesterday, was a joke

There was one reporter who tried really hard to make Snyder admit that things are a clusterf***, but no luck. The guy is incapable of taking responsibility for anything.

However, he did finally admit that there appears to be a "demand" for safe water, in Flint!

[ViseGrip]

3. And the republican voters there will keep voting for these azzholes! Believe me!

THEY WENT 'RIGHT TO WORK' How....does that happen in an industrial state???????????

The only reason they are getting away with this for now, as far as their economy, is they took the stimulus. it won't last forever.....

[drm604]

4. They've poisoned the people of Flint and apparently permanently damaged their municipal water system

It may cost as much as 1.5 billion to replace the 500 miles of damaged pipes.

They've essentially murdered a city. Flint may not have a usable water system for the foreseeable future.

And it looks like leaders, all the way up to the governor's office, may have covered up or at least dragged their feet about what was happening. People should be going to prison for this, but what are the odds of that?

[Cyrano]

5. I'm drowning in anger, tears, and helplessness

[Faux pas]

6. Smells a lot like

genocide to me.

[Cyrano]

7. Genocide is intentional murder

What's happened in Flint Mich. is murder due to indifference and greed.

It's the ultimate result of Republican "theology." (Not that there aren't some Democrats who ascribe to greed and ignorance.)

[Faux pas]

10. I'm sure you got the gist of what I said.

Oh and btw

gen·o·cide.

[ˈjenəˌsīd]

NOUN

1.the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

synonyms: mass murder · mass homicide · massacre · annihilation ·
[more]

[mikehiggins]

8. The horror

How else can this be described? A generation of Flint kids damaged beyond repair so a scum-sucking GOPuke administration can claim to be saving money.

Snyder and everyone else involved in this should be sent to jail.

[Cyrano]

9. They should be sent to Hell

As a devout agnostic, I don't believe in some mythological "Hell." But right now, I wish I did.

[Cyrano]

11. What you can do from Rachel Maddow's blog

This excerpt is from Rachel Maddow's blog concerning what you can do if possible.

Since we started covering the crisis in Flint, Michigan, where the drinking water has been poisoned with lead, we have received many calls from our viewers about how they can help.


The situation on the ground now is that many people still do not have filters to protect themselves from lead in their tap water. As we reported last night, there is no government-run program for giving bottled water to people who cannot afford to buy it. If you need water in Flint right now, your best choice is turning to one of the local nonprofits that are giving it away. At this point, those nonprofits are running solely on donations.
And that is where you come in. We talked to several of these Flint nonprofits today, and they broke it down for us like this:


1) If you have a truck full of water, you can take it directly to The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, which is serving as a central distribution point.

2) If you have a case of water, you can take it to one of three soup kitchens run by Catholic Charities:

Center for Hope, 901 Chippewa Street, Flint, MI 48503

North End Soup Kitchen 735 E. Stewart Ave, Flint, MI 48505

Owosso Community Closet and Food Pantry 120 W. Exchange St., Ste. 300 Owosso, MI 48867

Catholic Charities also accepts donations online.



3) If you have money to donate, consider the United Way, which has been buying water and distributing it to the soup kitchens and shelters around town.
There are also smaller agencies around Flint that are giving out water. Among them is the Mission of Hope, whose leader, Pastor Bobby Jackson, appeared on our show last night. You can send them financial support or drop off water.

There is also a GoFundMe page for Mission of Hope.

Also in full swing, the Bottles for the Babies program that we covered last week is collecting money for another giveaway.

And the Lansing State Journal recommends a water drive run by Carrie Davis, also through GoFundMe.

We’ll update this list as we hear more.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

[Mnemosyne]

14. KnR! nt

[Octafish]

15. Make the guilty have to drink Flint water.

They POISONED a city.

[First Speaker]

16. I'm a little surprised that Flint hasn't gone up in flames...

...once upon a time in this country, it would have...