Stephen King: Regarding Flint: "Voter's Beware"

[kpete]

Last edited Fri Jan 22, 2016, 11:18 AM - Edit history (2)

Voters beware: When you vote in right-wingers who believe government is the problem,
what you get is--ta-da--Flint, Michigan.

https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/690225020908498945

[n2doc]

1. Problem is, a lot of those voters are probably fine with the outcome

They don't live in Flint. And they don't like minorities anyway. At least if they are the typical republican-voting asshole.

[Siwsan]

2. Lead poisoning didn't discriminate - people of all races and ages have been poisoned

The city of Flint is actually very, both racially and economically. And the down town area is home to branches of The University of Michigan, Michigan State, and also Michigan School for the Deaf, Kettering, Mott Community College and Baker Business College so it is full of students, from all over the world. Many of them living in Flint.

I heard last night that even one of the adjoining cities, Burton, has areas hooked into the Flint water system. Burton is a pretty working class area.

When I was at that rally, on Tuesday night, the crowd was overwhelmingly diverse and pretty much reflected the City of Flint, the State of Michigan and the country, as a whole.

[Yavin4]

18. True. Water is water.

If it's bad in one place, it's bad every where. You have no idea where it will wind up.

[Octafish]

3. Voters had NOTHING to do with it -- other than electing Snyder.

Snyder overruled Flint voters and appointed his own man to govern, an Emergency Manager.

How fascist is that?

[Bluenorthwest]

5. They voted in a right winger, no?

" When you vote in right-wingers who believe government is the problem, what you get is--ta-da--Flint, Michigan."

So King is saying that voting for Snyder got them Flint. He is correct.

[Octafish]

7. Thanks for straightening me out.

Except you didn't.

Ever hear of Andy Dillon? After failing to win the Democratic nomination to oppose Snyder in the gubernatorial campaign of 2010, he was invited by Snyder to serve as State Treasurer.

The memos Snyder released say Dillon was the official who made the call to OK the switch to Flint River water.

Dillon said he thought Flint wouldn't be using the water to drink. Honest.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2016/01/former_michigan_state_treasure.html

[valerief]

11. So Dillon didn't get the Dem nom, meaning the Dems didn't want him--but Snyder did.

Snyder is still at fault along with the voters who voted for him!

[Octafish]

15. Yep. Going from memory, Dillon didn't campaign much for Bernero.

The Freep confirms my recollection:

Ex-rival Andy Dillon slights Virg Bernero

Mich. Democrat leaders: Party is unified

by Chris Christoff
Detroit Free Press,August 7, 2010

House Speaker Andy Dillon was drubbed in the Democratic gubernatorial primary by television ads that portrayed him as a greedy Wall Street raider who opposes a woman's right to choose abortion.

Then he was drubbed by rival Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero in Tuesday's election.

Friday, a visibly relieved Dillon smiled and said he was ready to work for Democrats in the fall campaign.

But he caused a buzz by not endorsing Bernero in front of about 200 Democrats assembled in downtown Detroit for a post-election unity breakfast.

"I want to make certain some of the things I was fighting for are going to be embraced," he told reporters afterward. "Then we'll get there. We don't have to decide that today."

He added, "It's not a slap. We just got done with a campaign. I'm going to take a vacation. We'll sort it out when I come back."

It was another enigmatic move from a politician who has become an iconoclast to some fellow Democrats, scorned by some union leaders as too cozy with business and too frosty with organized labor, and criticized as a legislative leader.

CONTINUED...

http://archive.freep.com/article/20100807/NEWS15/8070314/Ex-rival-Andy-Dillon-slights-Virg-Bernero

Loyalty to the Almighty Dollar is Buy Partisan.

[Skittles]

21. the buck stops with Snyder

as with all repukes, their desire to "save money" ends up costing the taxpayers much, much more

[Octafish]

22. The governor's just-resigned Chief of Staff's wife is the PR guru for Nestle the water bandits.

What a small Buy Partisan world. Deb Muchmore did have the job years before Snyder hired her husband, but the irony and lead remain. The cozy situations also illustrate what a small world it is when it comes to sharing the public loot legal-like.

From saving money to printing it at others' expense, there is plenty of greed to go around in Michigan on behalf of the ultrarich, such as the DeVos and Koch interests. The only thing that's in short supply is integrity.

[Tanuki]

23. "The memos Syder released" is the operative phrase here. Snyder has hired a

professional damage control firm, so I would be skeptical of what information he is selectively releasing at this point.

[brush]

4. Wait 'til the suits start coming in from the lead-poisoned kids

Michigan is going to have hemorrhage money for years to settle the suits that will inevitably come.

[justiceischeap]

6. Baltimore is dealing with this issue

not from water but lead paint in government housing. I forget the percentage but a LOT of the lower-income kids from a previous generation in Baltimore have been exposed to lead paint poisoning.

[MuseRider]

8. I can't believe

this country let this man get away with all he did before this. How on earth could this country let this happen? Replacing elected officials? We knew it would only get worse after that.

Those poor people. Hope those that voted for him learn what it gets you. Spoken from a Kansan, not a bash on them at all. Most here apparently never learn. It seems it is very hard to budge people from their life long party affiliation, even when it gets intolerable.

[brush]

9. I feel for you. Folks in Kansas are suffering from Brownback's mistakes and revenue shortfalls

[MuseRider]

12. Thanks.

I will be long dead before this state is recovered. Sad.

[world wide wally]

10. So, if we can just shrink government down to the point where it can be drowed in a poison

bathtub, then we can rely on corporations to fix everything?
Is that what Republicans hope and work for?

[Proserpina]

13. I'd only go along with it if they actually drowned the Governor in a bathtub

full of Flint water. Then that plan makes sense.

[KamaAina]

14. Flint itself generally votes Dem

It's the people in other, whiter parts of the Mitten that elected Snyder.

[MisterP]

16. unrec: that's actually the sort of fingerwagging that turns people off

if it's a Snyder Pub versus an Emmanuel Dem nobody wins

[Matariki]

17. Been trying to tell my Libertarian/Republican relatives that for years

the end-game of what they want is Somalia

[dembotoz]

19. mr king the is a book in there for ya....please write it

[smirkymonkey]

20. K&R

[reddread]

24. He should leave NAFTA out of it

[Sunlei]

25. State Gov. wanted weak 'the peoples Federal Government' oversight & this is what happens when a

State- "self regulates". People are harmed.