The fruits of austerity

mac · Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 6:06 pm Post subject:

Just spent a few minutes reading the Safe Drinking Water Act--it was enacted long after I left EPA. Something a conservatve screecher would never try. Efforts to hook EPA into the blame chain remain propoganda rather than reasoning. The structure of the Act is simple: EPA sets standards under the Act, the State's administer them. Specifically, Section 1413 states "a State has primary responsibility for public water systems"

mrgybe · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 5180

mrgybe · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 5180

mac · Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:26 pm Post subject: or

Get out the straight jackets. Mrgybe just can't understand the difference between cause and effect. Why did Flint citizens get exposed to high lead in their water?

1. Flint, like much of the midwest, was hollowed out by policies that favored off-shoring jobs. Republicans and Clinton Democrats cooperated in establishing those policies. Republicans called for letting the auto industry fade into history--while suggesting nothing to replace its jobs.

2. Flint, like many cities, suffers from aging infrastructure, and the anti-government fools that have taken over the GOP refuse to invest in infrastructure--particularly for poor, black and Democratic cities.

3. Michigan elected a governor who touted the ideology of austerity.

4. Michigan gave the governor the authority to appoint someone to manage Flint and bypass most local controls.

5. The party of know nothingism about government, after all, how hard could it be, decided to save money by ignoring the advice of civil servants who know something about water supply.

6. The State environmental agency, under political appointees of the Republican governor, ignored complaints--and then covered up the problems.

After all of those causes, mrgybe is correct--EPA failed to clean up the Republican mess fast enough. Maybe we should actually do something to improve the safety of our drinking water supply? Naw, too expensive.

mac · Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 11:49 am Post subject:

More e-mails are released. Is there any question that electing amateurs to elective office leads to bad results?

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

You guys sound like the candidates in a GOP debate.

mac · Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 12:17 pm Post subject:

Cognitive dissonance or chemo-brain? Or some deeper mental illness?

techno900 · Joined: 28 Mar 2001 Posts: 4161

mac said:

mac · Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:38 am Post subject: d

Flint (and Detroit) are predominately black. Detroit is surrounded by white suburbs--have you forgotten white flight? And the takeover of local political structures has disproportionately disenfranchised black communities. Aren't you glad you asked?

techno900 · Joined: 28 Mar 2001 Posts: 4161

As usual, the point is that both Flint and Detroit have blacks and whites living there. The water issue is bad news for ALL races. To bring race into the issue only pushes the left's racism agenda, when that isn't the issue at hand.