I don't know, they seemed to be their usual incompetent self's, since they studiously ignored it all, until a woman complained incessantly, and they woke up and decided to get involved, probably because they sensed danger to themselves...

Exactly! Although the competency of both the people running the plant and those directing it may muddy the water, so to speak...

You, sir, are correct.Too bad we can't ever see that happen...

OA, everything I have read tracks exactly as you have indicated. I think the issue is that this is a perfect example of something created (possibly intentionally or with complete and utter incompetence),by a specific group (party) with their specific agenda (that silly water treatment plant that was never designed correctly). They rigged and pushed and got their way with less than stellar results, meaning now they must blame someone. Soon I expect HillaryBeast to bleat that it was caused by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, and the sheeple all nod and say "yea", and vote for the useless bag of protoplasm. The defense could be for the people to sue the real criminals, but I bet it would be disallowed as you cannot sue the state, politicians or officials, when they don't want too.

Hello nickursis,
Flint is not far from where I live and operate my business. Statist politicians have been killing Michigan with their kindness for so long seeing what has become of the state of my birth makes me sick. The other day I was outraged to hear all the talking heads from D.C. The president had the audacity to imply that anyone who was for smaller government was not giving proper appreciation to government... calling this water problem an example of the importance of government. What!?!? This problem was created by government. There should be more fallout. Many more government heads should roll. There should be no pensions and some should probably be held personally liable. If this water supply was provided by a private sector entity, market forces would maximize responsibility and greatly reduce malfeasance. In the private sector there is more incentive to avoid such things since there is personal liability. Even corporations can be put out of business, but one can never excise all the entrenched bureaucrats and politicians that are responsible. A scapegoat or underling will take the fall at best. Now any mistakes made by government agents, will be made right by taxpayers that had no responsibility. We pay for their ineptitude. The pattern repeats...

The politics are horrible and disingenuous at best on the part of Clinton and Sanders on the campaign trail. They have tried to shift blame to Gov. Snyder and call for his removal because he is a republican target, but he is barely a republican, had little culpability or knowledge of the events compared to other more direct and local Flint authorities (mostly democrats). They are no better than Michael Moore, who showed up to glom onto some free publicity. Despite what Obama or any of the other statists say, this is actually a typical result of government provided services. Our infrastructure, which should be high priority is mismanaged and crumbling while they waste time and money on things none of their business.
Respectfully,
O.A.

Yes. What was once called "The Arsenal of Democracy" is now called the rust belt.

As are many other former manufacturing hubs. All though the union movement pushed a lot of it out. A good lesson for those that would impose a 15.00 minimum wage...

Perhaps now that Flint is a dying city, the residents are considered expendable. No one is beating down the doors to reside there anymore.

One of many, and something that was well isllustrated in AS. The movies did a good job of catching some of it, and in the first few chapters there is no indication of just how bad things were. This is just a revelation of a really bad situation that can quickly become a tipping point with one more screw up..and our leaders seem to have graduate degrees in screw ups. Even Hillary Beast excuses and lies will not cover up scientific data or dying people.

This headline and "crisis" was manufactured to give EPA more power -- when what needs to happen is to abolish the agency as both unconstitutional and unnecessary. Make water service a private business open to competition, and the problem goes away.

That was part of my point. The comparison of Detroit to Tobacco Road is an insult to Tobacco Road. I lived in Michigan for five years and know the good, the bad, and the ugly about Michigan.

The population of Detroit has declined 61% since 1950 when it was one of the largest cities in the US. Michigan had 19 congressional representatives in 1970. Now it has 14. In 1985, people put signs up that read "will the last person to leave Michigan please turn out the lights". All of this and much more is a result of Democrats and Democrat control of the state.

Yes. And Detroit the same. My father-in-law worked at the Chrysler Plant. Now, a shell supported by broken windows.

OOOkay.
I used that symbolically. However, I can't think of another symbol any worse than what Detroit has become. Detroit itself has become the symbol of decay in America

Please don't insult Tobacco Road that way. Where else would you find the sign of the dollar?

There is no way this is a local operator mistake. This is water 101. It is an issue of ph. A system like Flint should have no problem handling it. The science is simple. Any water operator could have told them the approach to take and an entry level engineer could work out the process specifics. Every water operator I have ever known takes the production of clean water personally and is fanatical about it. I do blame the EPA, but would be shocked if they don't use this as an excuse for more control. I would be curious to see the turn over level at the Flint water plant. These operators knew what they were putting in the system. Any that did not already resign I would not trust ever again.

I lived in Flint from 68 to 85 when my employer moved me to Baltimore. I grew up in Iowa and always envied Michigan. It seemed like everything was made there. In 68 Flint still had all the GM plants running fill tilt. I was so proud to be there. In 85 I was happy to get out. In 2005 I took a tour around Flint and was astounded to see all of the GM plants gone. Nothing left but slabs of cement and weeds. Some parts of the city looked like they had been bombed.

A healthy mix of failure of government including government bureaucrats at the Federal, State, and Local level who might reasonably be expected to know about the effect of corrosive chemicals in the Flint River, the nature of the Flint Water System pipes and their lead connections and the additives that should be added in those situations or the switch not made at all. Then there are the local and State elected officials that do not hold these incompetent government bureaucrats accountable for their work or perhaps even ignore their advice for their own purposes. Clearly Flint officials had been looking to get out of the "Detroit" water supply for some time and leaped at this chance... and when it went bad walked away and tried to blame the Governor for not stopping them.

Or the SEC. Or the DEA. they are all the same

Well, how much of all this was Demcrap politics, and how much a personal crusade by someone who did not know what he was doing?

Same as the IRS..seeing a pattern here anyone?

All this ties tgether into how the government has morphed from being a supposed servant to the new master. They pick and choose the offences and violations, rather than work for benifit of all. That is one crux of our whole problems and was what I got out of AS. No one works for us anymore, they all KNOW we work for THEM. Look at HillaryBeast, she personifies this perfectly. I am listening to a book series call Fall of the Galactic Empire by Christopher G. Nutall takes place in the far future (4092) man has spread out, crushed all aliens (they are kept as second class citizens or pets) and the Federation Senate rules all, and has become a "High Society". Revolution comes and an admiral is brought in after a rogue admiral attacks earth, and the senate allows him to win the war for them, and then tries to kill him. He ends up taking them out and becomes the 1st emporer, and then the trouble really starts. Parallels a lot of AS as well as what is going on today.

No, no problem, I enjoy it when we have questions and responses, it usually leads to more looks at different angles of the same issue. There is a lot of tangled webs in everything that goes on today, so your question is completely appropriate. Thanks for the discussion :)

They don't even have a basket. I grew up in prosperous Detroit in the late 40s through the 50s. I left the area in '89. By that time Detroit looked worse than Beirut, and was encroaching on the immediate suburbs where I lived. We got out just in time. As a young man I was proud of my city. Now, it's a joke. It started when an ultra lib became mayor, and from that time on the city was dismantled bit by bit until it is the scarred shadow of what it once was.

During the 1960s Flint and Detroit ranked in the top three for highest per capita income. Now both are basket cases.