After years of GOP creating fake scandals, here is a real one.
TREAT AS SUCH
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has said he didn’t know about an uptick in deadly Legionnaires’ disease around Flint until this year, but newly released emails show a Snyder aide had been warned last March.
Snyder’s office said the agency that has already accepted blame for much of the Flint water crisis dropped the ball on the Legionnaires’ disease issue and nobody told the governor about it. The Michigan Democratic Party has now called on Snyder to resign.
“He’s made the leap formally in his email that the uptick in cases is directly attributable to the river as a drinking water source — this is beyond irresponsible, given that is his department that has failed to do the necessary traceback work to provide any conclusive evidence of of where the outbreak is sourced,” Wurfel wrote.
Rick Snyder’s Office Was Warned Of Deadly Legionnaires Outbreak, Did Nothing
If you haven’t heard about the situation in Flint, Michigan, where the town’s drinking water has been contaminated with lead and other chemicals, you have really been living under a rock.
This is a major health issue, a major political scandal, a major “blaming you, not me” scenario.
Flint, Michigan has a population of roughly 100,000 residents.
Of these, roughly 10,000 are children.
They all have been exposed to water contaminated with corrosive materials and lead.
Many times, songs are vehicles of expression for the people.
I found this video through Michael Moore‘s Facebook page.
I’m sure the “King of Pop” wasn’t thinking about Flint, yet, how “right on target” are this song’s lyrics.
To make matters worse, it seems that Flint isn’t the only city with major water problems.
It seems it could happen anywhere where community policies are driven by greed.
The Flint water crisis is a drinking water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, United States that started in April 2014.
After Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (which was sourced from Lake Huron as well as the Detroit River) to the Flint River, its drinking water had a series of problems that culminated with lead contamination, creating a serious public health danger.
The corrosive Flint River water caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of lead. In Flint, between 6,000 and 12,000 children have been exposed to drinking water with high levels of lead and they may experience a range of serious health problems. The water change is also a possible cause of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the county that has killed 10 people and affected another 77.
In 2011, the Governor of Michigan took over the city of Flint, a majority-African American city where almost half the population lives below the poverty line. He installed an un-elected “financial manager” to run the city for him.
In 2014, the Governor decided to switch Flint’s drinking water system from the Great Lakes to the toxic Flint River.
This is for the 102,000 men, women and children of Flint who are still being poisoned and lied to.
The one to first brake it and continue investigating the horror that the citizens in Flint were exposed to was Rachel Maddow.
In true form, her special reports and follow up made the story a concern for mainstream media which had ignored the poisoning of a city of 100,000 + citizens in the name of saving money for the state.
The Flint water crisis is an ongoing drinking water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, in the United States
In 2014, the City of Flint switched its water supply from the City of Detroit (which had supplied it for nearly half a century) to the Flint River. The move was an effort to save costs. It was viewed as a temporary fix prior to an ultimate switch to a permanent Flint water supply, which would be provided after the Karegnondi Water Authority‘s construction of a pipeline from Lake Huron, thereby eliminating Flint’s long-time dependence on Detroit city water.
After the change in water source, the city’s drinking water had a series of issues that culminated with lead contamination, creating a serious public health danger. The corrosive Flint River water caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of lead. As a result, between 6,000 and 12,000 residents had severely high levels of lead in the blood and experienced a range of serious health problems. The water change is also a possible cause of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the county that has killed 10 people and affected another 77.
On November 13, 2015, four families filed a federal class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit against Governor Rick Snyder and thirteen other city and state officials, and three separate people filed a similar suit in state court two months later. Separately, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Michigan Attorney General’s office opened investigations.
On January 5, 2016, the city was declared to be in a state of emergency by the Governor of Michigan, before President Obama declared the crisis as a federal state of emergency, authorizing additional help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security less than two weeks later.
When the city of Flint, Michigan, wanted to cut costs, they switched water systems. But that decision had big consequences, leading to the poisoning of the water and the declaration of a state of emergency.
~~Flint Water Crisis: Michigan Officials Request Federal Aid~~
~~Published on Jan 15, 2016~~
As if the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, wasn’t bad enough, health officials are now investigating a spike of severe pneumonia cases – possibly linked to the toxic water.
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
Three government officials – one from the City of Flint and two from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality – resigned over the mishandling of the crisis, and Snyder issued an apology to citizens.
It Is What It Is 