Michigan has become the most undemocratic state in the country. Republican Governor Rick Snyder has taken dictatorial powers and used them not only to take away the people’s right of self government, but to poison them as well, secretly, while taking care of his General Motors benefactors. Michigan earlier became the first state to pass legislation which says that if any drug has been approved by the FDA, then any person who is injured or killed by that drug in Michigan has no rights to seek legal redress against the drug’s maker. Into this miasmic cesspool of a former state comes the Flint, Michigan water crisis, which shows, if it shows nothing else, that government officials care not one wit for the health or well being of their people.
Flint Crisis: The collapse of Democracy
Chris Hedges points out that the crisis in Flint is a subject “far more ominous than lead-contaminated water.” It is emblematic of the collapse of our entire democratic system. We’re all Flintites now, ready to be sacrificed for corporate greed and naked cruelty. It hasn’t been enough, apparently, to soft-kill poison us for the last 70 years with the wonderful poison of fluoride. Read about the CDC murder of Americans and you tell me the CDC has your best interests at heart. First they poisoned the poor black folks. I wasn’t black, so. . .
Compassionate Conservatism
The Flint Michigan Water Crisis, like the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, shows compassionate conservatism in action. It works like this: Conserve the resources of your contributors; to hell with everybody else. And one bad turn always deserves another. Just as the blunders of George W. Bush gave rise to the empty promises and fake left rhetoric of Barack Obama, Flint shows the priorities of politicians serving not their constituents, but their deep-pocketed paymasters in the fields of commerce – energy (oil, nuclear, coal, solar etc.), defense (war profiteers), drugs (Big Pharma), surveillance (“security,” Black Ops, etc.), Biotech, all the sorts of economic “commerce” that helps kill, cripple (physically and/or emotionally, it makes no difference), sicken, or scare people, whatever it takes to help keep us in our places.
A Socialist Candidate for President?
It’s enough to make citizens think that this dysfunctional system, this creaking ship of state has begun to sink. This pointed negligence and disdain for the body politic has led to the country’s first unabashedly “socialist” candidate gaining traction in the polls as a viable Presidential candidate. Bernie Sanders’ standing among likely voters shows just how many, many people are aware of how completely Barack Obama sold out real progressive issues, like cutting the bloated military budget; decriminalizing medical marijuana (Obama’s record in that regard is ambivalent at best); reigning in the out-of-control CIA, as the agency – with cover from its many minions in the press – does the bloody bidding of its corporate masters all over the globe); continuing the Bush administration’s war on whistleblowers (Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all U.S. Presidents before him combined); doing the Bush administration one better (Read: worse) for transparency (Democracy Now! reports Obama’s is the least transparent administration ever). Obama has also used the revelations of people like Edward Snowden, Julian Assuange and Private Chelsea Manning, heroes to all but the no nothings who buy the MSM (read: government) “take” on them to crack down on more of OUR civil liberties at home, granting the NSA even more power to snoop into our emails, internet activities, bank accounts, personal lives.
Sanders is viable because Obama, so many see now, was never anything more than a fake left mannequin. Except his dreadful Obamacare, a giveaway to the insurance industry, Obama has done precious little that could be called democratic in spirit or effect.
So into the miasma of this poisoned political atmosphere comes the Flint water crisis. Why didn’t “those people” have clean water to drink?
Arrest Governor Rick Snyder!
More than 600,000 people have signed a petition to arrest Michigan governor Rick Snyder for knowingly poisoning the people of Flint. The record is clear that he knew exactly what he was doing. Snyder poisoned them by government fiat after deciding they didn’t have the right to govern themselves.
Flint native Michael Moore reports that, “Snyder nullified the free elections in Flint, deposed the mayor and city council, then appointed his own man to run the city. To save money, they decided to unhook the people of Flint from their fresh water drinking source, Lake Huron, and instead, make the public drink from the toxic Flint River. When the governor’s office discovered just how toxic the water was, they decided to keep quiet about it and covered up the extent of the damage being done to Flint’s residents, most notably the lead affecting the children, causing irreversible and permanent brain damage. Citizen activists uncovered these actions, and the governor now faces growing cries to resign or be arrested.”
Poison the children, Gratify the executives
While Flint Children were being poisoned by Snyder fiat, General Motors was given a special hookup for clean water. GM received their clean water after their executives complained to Snyder because his poison water was corroding their Delco car parts being washed on the assembly line. The Governor jumped to help his GM friends, quietly spending $440,000 to hook GM back up to the Lake Huron water. Flint kids, meanwhile, were left on the toxic Flint River water line.
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
According to Moore, Snyder could have spent $100 a day for three months to add an anti-corrosive agent to the Flint water to seal the lead pipes. The governor refused and saved $9,000. Now it may cost more than $1.5 billion to rectify the situation.
Legionnaires Disease increases Tenfold
Flint’s toxic water could lead to many other diseases in the days ahead. Legionnaires Disease has increased tenfold in Flint since the switch from Lake Huron to Flint River water. Legionnaires has stuck eighty-seven (87) people; at least ten (10) have died. No Legionnaires Disease was reported in Flint in the five years before Snyder’s changing of the water lines. At least six other toxins are also being found in Flint’s citizen’s blood, so more health crisis’ could await.
Worthless Real Estate flushed down the river
Would you buy a house in Flint now? Every Flint homeowner is now stuck with a worthless house or property. Moore says that represents a total home value of $2.4 billion. For many people in Flint, their only asset is their home. As for work, who would now move jobs or start a company in Flint? Has Flint’s future just been flushed down that river?
And what about the future of the country? If one governor is allowed to run roughshod over his people by bending the laws of self governance and turning himself and his friends into dictators, what’s to stop the next one from doing it in your state? Wisconsin, we’ve got our eye on you next. Doesn’t your little Republican governor harbor the same sorts of dictatorial ideas?
Read more from Flint native Michael Moore.
