Poisoned Kids: I blame ALEC
by Primo Encarnación
What the hell happened in Flint?
Water that was warned to be unsuitable for human consumption predictably corroded aged lead pipes, causing dangerous levels of lead to be ingested by some people in Flint, MI. The water may have also carried legionella, the bacteria that causes legionnaire’s disease, and may have been responsible for at least one death. That’s the basic facts. Everything beyond that is not nearly so cut and dried.
Contrary to popular belief, there is a long, long list of people who knew and did nothing, who knew and should have done more, who didn’t know but should have or who just plain didn’t want to know. Chief among the culprits is Governor Rick Snyder, whose maladministration of the state of Michigan includes the incredibly unAmerican coups of the democratically elected governments of cities like Flint and Detroit – whose bankruptcies endangered “innocent” creditors – in favor of personally appointed “emergency” managers. The chain of events that led directly to poisoned children began during this period when their parents were disfranchised.
But the chain of events that led to this chain of events stretches much further back into history the GOP would prefer remain murky. The Michigan DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality – so-named without a shred of irony) was implemented back in the 90s under Republican Governor John Engler, as a carve-out of power from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Via a series of executive orders, Engler transferred all responsibility for clean air, water and soil from other bureaucracies in the state and handed it all over to a group of people whose mission was the exploitation – not the protection – of those resources in a way that benefitted business. Inherent in that mission is the continued availability of these resources for business purposes, which is what Republicans mean when they say “conservation.”
Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm attempted to undo this when she re-combined DEQ and DNR, but as soon as Snyder got in, he ripped them apart again, and reconfigured Michigan government to make it “business friendly” once more. And he named as his director of the DEQ a man whose background is in “economic gardening” which is based on bad economics and has nothing at all to do with gardening. In fact, its tenets read like a how-to manual for raping the people and their land.
And this is the entire raison d’etre behind the last 40 years of GOP “governance.” The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a non-profit started to create and promote conservative legislation which would transform states into business-friendly enclaves in defiance of Federal attempts to save humanity, especially the EPA. Legislation like that establishing the DEQ has spread like kudzu among the states infested by the Illiterati. It PRETENDS like it’s trying to save the environment, but actually does the opposite.
And what young state legislators were early ALEC-acolytes? Many names you’d recognize now: Walker, Kasich, Boehner, Mitch Daniels, and… Michigan Governor John Engler, the true father of the Flint Disaster.
When the director of the state agency tasked with keeping your water safe is actually a business wolf in environmental sheep’s clothing… When anti-democratic ideologies find human life to be an inconvenience to the liberty of property… When state and local government are unable to meet their basic life-safety functions due to inane anti-tax policies… When your legislature sends big wet kisses to big donors without regard to the health and welfare of actual voters…
When people in America die because they don’t have clean water…
When government has poisoned children…
You can be sure ALEC has been there.
And one more point: Our current President put foward a bill SIX YEARS AGO to revtalize and rebuild our infrastructure… like old water pipes. The Republicans in Congress said NO! They’ve been saying no since Reagan.
Remember Flint when you vote later this year.
1The Kochtopolus has its tentacles everywhere. ALEC is one of their tentacles.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bv7-uBUh-9o/VqMAglLEscI/AAAAAAABY5w/hZmfdtDGJ5o/s640/2%2Bben%2Bsargent%2BAustin%2BAmerican-Satstesman.jpg
As JAKvirginia, we need to vote. And, we need to try to bring 6-10 first time voters to the polls with each of us. We need numbers in 2016 to beat back the snacilbupeR scourge.
2Thank you, Primo, for all the background.
3At one point Flint water tested at 13,200 PPB (parts per billion) more than twice EPA’s standard for toxic waste. Safe lead in water is about 12 PPB. BTW, Tilphousia is one of the Greek Furies. Her name means dreaded vengence. If only they could be called down on the politicians who fatten their purses with the bribes and payoff from PACs at the expense of those they swear an oath to protect.
4Who needs scary terrorists poisoning our water and food supplies, when we have our very own Republican governments as wholly-owned subsidiaries of the robber-and-poisoner barons?
We need to share this information with all the easily-frightened voters to remind them that the real danger to their families is not Middle Eastern refugees or Spanish-speaking farm workers. ALEC: bringing you lead poisoning and Legionnaires’ disease, not to mention salmonella, E. coli, potholes, bridge collapses, floods, and yep, Snowmageddon.
5Two thumbs up.
6Bravo, Primo! Thank you for calling out all the guilty parties and including ALEC. This should scare the bejesus out of all the voters living in their Republican paradises. Can’t happen here? The hell you say! People don’t matter, poor people really don’t matter…
7Please everyone get out and vote, for yourownsake, for your neighbors, for your kids and grandkids, for the planet. We all need to pay attention!
Polite Kool Marxist, I’m not at all sure that’s a tentacle considering what it is used for.
8It just got more horrific: Detroit water co. offered to the powers that be – 6 separate times – to sell water to Flint ….at a MUCH cheaper price than pulling from Flint’s toxic river…..which screws up Gov Snyder statements that they chose toxic sludge river water because it was cheaper than what could be purchased from Detroit’s water company. There is a document trail now brought up as evidence of it all.
An e-mail obtained by Motor City Muckraker shows the deal would have saved the city $800 million over 30 years, which was 20% more inexpensive than switching to the Karegnondi Water Authority.
http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2016/01/23/gov-snyder-lied-flint-water-switch-was-not-about-money-records-show/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork
9I just wish, somewhere in their oaths of office, all US state and national level executive branch personnel would be required to state they were bound to the protection and the welfare of all persons under their jurisdiction.
Oh wait.
They are?
10Jeb Bush says the real problem is those pesky regulations. After all, if we stop setting standards for whether water is safe to drink, the problem goes away, right?
(/snark)
11Having been the person who took water samples for our small (about 50 houses) rural community-owned water system for about 10 years, I’m utterly appalled by this. Our little company was more tightly regulated than any city seems to be.
12This whole thing with the snacilbupeR and Flint simply enrages me. What kind of sociopathic/psychopathic monsters willingly cause thousands of children to be brain damaged? I can’t comprehend such creatures . . . .
13Old Fart – what you never hear is they drop a word very quietly into the middle of that:
“…bound to the protection and the welfare of all ({[corporate]}) persons under their jurisdiction.”
14Thanks for the background leading up to the current RKlan betrayal. They should all be financially responsible for the health and welfare of all the citizens of Flint. That’s my definition of business friendly.
15I would say that Gov. Snyder is truly a DEQ-Head, with apologies to Momma.
16Wingnuts love children…………until they are born live at which time wingnuts lose all interest in the health and well being of kids………………………until they are old enough to be sent to die for Korporate Amerika in some far off land or executed for crimes committed because of a lack of proper upbringing.
Snyder’s AG appointed a special prosecutor to co-chair investigation to see if Flint,Michigan is similar to Benghazi and if they can blame Obama and Clinton for telling Snyder to stand down when he was itching to solve this problem hisownself.
17ALEC was here.
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