Flint's water issues

[Bojack Horseman]

He deserves to be impeached over this whole thing. In 2012, the voters repealed the emergency manager law and so Snyder and the Republicans passed a new one with an appropriations bill attached, so that it couldn't be voted on. Every bill, from abortion restrictions, to right-to-work, to gay adoption discrimination, to the elimination of straight-ticket voting always has an appropriation attached so that the obvious majority of voters can't get rid of it democratically.

Despite his claims otherwise, Snyder and his administration knew damn well that the water was full of lead, and instead of doing anything about it, he decided to play the old climate change argument that "all the scientists are biased and out to get me" and allowed the poisoning to continue. He still refuses to accept responsibility for the fact that he is directly responsible for the deaths of ten people (and counting) and the lead poisoning of thousands and thousands of people. There is no remedy other than impeachment, and despite the fact that he'd be succeeded by his Republican lieutenant governor, the legislature won't act.

I can guarantee you that if it had been Mark Schauer in charge, the Republicans in the legislature would have run him out of Lansing before you could even say the word "impeachment."

[Bojack Horseman]

How did all of this happen, without folks flipping out at the time? Who was supervising this manager? Was there any oversight? Having a situation where there is no effective oversight, and break mechanisms, is a formula for things going very wrong.

People were flipping out, it's just that Flint had a self-serving Joe Quimby style mayor who just liked seeing his face on TV every night who thought that complacency was the way back to sovereignty. Not to mention the Snyder administration covered up every study and did not listen to the people of Flint who were bringing gallon jugs of brown water that had come out of their tap to the town hall meetings. Most people didn't really have any idea how bad it was. They were just complaining about dirty water and in fact Dayne Walling, the self serving mayor, actually said that he drinks the water and it tastes just fine. Their cries went unanswered until fairly recently when the Snyder administration realize that it couldn't deny that there was letting the water anymore and their cover up was exposed. That's Walling was thrown out of office. Karen Weaver is a psychologist who took a leave from her practice and ran for mayor on her own initiative, as she'd never considered running for office before.

[Bojack Horseman]

How did all of this happen, without folks flipping out at the time? Who was supervising this manager? Was there any oversight? Having a situation where there is no effective oversight, and brake mechanisms, is a formula for things going very wrong.

Synder.

He is plainly a criminal and should be charged for 10 murders by neglect.

Snyder's probably not personally making decisions about water treatment plants. But whoever was should be indicted with some variety of gross negligence at least.

Just like Nixon didn't break into the hotel, they both covered up the crime and misled the public to believe otherwise.

[Bojack Horseman]

How did all of this happen, without folks flipping out at the time? Who was supervising this manager? Was there any oversight? Having a situation where there is no effective oversight, and brake mechanisms, is a formula for things going very wrong.

Synder.

He is plainly a criminal and should be charged for 10 murders by neglect.

Snyder's probably not personally making decisions about water treatment plants. But whoever was should be indicted with some variety of gross negligence at least.

True.  He just makes an easy scapegoat because people hate the emergency manager law and because he's a Republican.  I can guarantee that if a Democrat governor had appointed an emergency manager before this happened, that Democrat would get a free pass.

Don't give me that. Snyder and his administration misled the public. They ignored studies and told people that these studies were wrong that showed lead in the water. Knowing how the Legislature is, Schauer or even Granholm would have been run out of office so fast your head would spin.

[Bojack Horseman]

I don't know - even without mass lead poisoning, voters have very poor memories. If Snyder is smart he could bury this under endless committees and then blame some fallguy; and by next election that time the governor poisoned everyone will be a distant foggy memory.

That is true - I think it depends on how the situation develops between now and the end of 2016. At the very least, Democrats have a good narrative to set for 2018: "Failed Republican policies literally poison Michigan". In this case, from what I know, I think for once this actually is quite literally a failure of Republican policy. They pushed through a bill requiring oversight in the form of emergency managers, which was repealed via a veto referendum, and then they passed a new one resulting in basically the same situation except they added funds appropriation to it to make it veto-proof.

State Republicans repeatedly went against the wishes of the citizens, and the result was poisoning an entire city's water supply with lead. I guess it would be foolhardy to think Democrats will coast into office in 2018, but I think they are now better positioned than before to break the hold Republicans have had on Michigan for over 2 decades.

Not only that, but the candidates planning to run for the GOP nomination are all bozos anyway. Bill Scheutte has just gone on one right-wing crusade after another as AG, and being the second-in-command  of the Dave Agema wing of the Republican Party won't get you in office, as Terri Lynn Land found out. Other than him, there's Candace Miller who's yet another homophobic "family values" bigot. Their field is looking worse than the 2016 GOP lineup. I think Macomb County executive Mark Hackel is the best guy to carry the Democrats to victory, personally.

[Bojack Horseman]

It could give them the lower chamber of the state legislature this year if the Dem wins nationally and they play their cards right.  People need to be put on trial for this prior to 2018.  Who initiates it and who fights it will determine how the end game plays out.  It does give national Democrats a rare opportunity to reach moderates on the environment when they have been stuck backing stuff that feels out of the mainstream/low priority to many over the past 4 years.  Lead poisoning is a real and scientifically indisputable harm and if national Republicans dismiss it or fight this too hard it will look very bad for them. 

That is true. I forgot to consider their legislative elections in 2016. However, now that you bring that up, wouldn't them winning the chamber in 2016 sort of be useless for 2021's redistricting? The maps for Michigan's state house are rigged for the GOP and I can't help but feel like in 2018 they would swept back out. Not sure if potential gubernatorial coattails would be sufficient in this case.

I honestly think that no matter who the President is, we're going to elect a Democratic Governor here in Michigan in 2018, for the same reason we overwhelmingly elected Gary Peters to the Senate in 2014: the Republican candidates are bozos and you've got this kind of political ammunition.

[Bojack Horseman]

lol the residents of Flint are apparently still being charged full price for the privilege of poison water.

My aunt's bill was $97 last month for lead-filled, chock full of chemicals water that's totally unusable.