And So It Begins

Days away from the Iowa Caucus, Donald Trump has yet one more truth-is-definitely-stranger-than-fiction moment when he hands the microphone to Sarah "The Verbinator" Palin. 

Why would anyone with half a brain in their tuchus give that woman a microphone, much less a podium? Really? 

If you haven't listened to her hippy-hoppy rant, skip the video and read it. Really. Everyone in this country needs to actually read what she had to say. And then everyone gets to wonder why anyone in their right mind would let her talk out loud. 

But they do. There is a whole party of peeps who want to her what she has to say. They believe what she has to say. And they will vote accordingly. 

Some people think that voting does not make a difference. If that was truly the case, why do both parties work so hard to suppress voter turnout with gerry-mandering? It does matter. And if you think it doesn't, here's a textbook example why and how it does: Flint, Michigan. 

Here's the short course:

[Governor] Snyder appointed Ed Kurtz to be Flint’s second emergency manager and Kurtz selected Jerry Ambrose to be the city’s chief financial officer. Both men were tasked by the Republican governor’s administration with restructuring the city’s government to save money after it was in danger of becoming insolvent. One cost-saving measure considered was to quit buying municipal water from Detroit.

In a civil deposition not reported until now, Ambrose testified under oath that emergency manager Kurtz considered a proposal to use the Flint River, discussed the option with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and then rejected it.

In 2014, Ambrose was deposed in a civil lawsuit brought by retired Flint municipal workers against the state over severe cuts to their health care benefits. Attorney Alec Gibbs questioned Ambrose about the water decision (a year before Flint learned it was being poisoned).

“There was brief evaluation of whether the city would be better off to simply use the Flint River as its primary source of water over the long term,” Ambrose said. “That was determined not to be feasible.”

“Who determined it wasn’t feasible?” Gibbs asked.

“It was a collective decision of the emergency management team based on conversations with the MDEQ that indicated they would not be supportive of the use of the Flint River on a long-term basis as a primary source of water,” Ambrose answered.

“What was the reason they gave?” Gibbs asked.

“You’ll have to ask them,” Ambrose said.

How could the river that was rejected as Flint’s permanent water source in December 2012 suddenly become suitable for consumption a mere 16 months later?

And who actually made the disastrous choice to start using the previously rejected river as the city’s temporary water source?

Howard Croft, the former director of public works for Flint who resigned in November 2015, asserted more than four months ago in a videotaped interview with the ACLU of Michigan that the decision to use the dangerously corrosive river came directly from the Snyder administration. 

In the interview, Croft said that the decision to use the river was a financial one, with a review that “went up through the state.”

“All the way to the governor’s office?” the ACLU of Michigan asked him.

“All the way to the governor’s office,” Croft replied. 

01.24.16 8:00 PM - THE DAILY BEAST 

This was not an accident. This was a deliberate game of roulette. Governor Snyder and his appointees were playing Russian Roulette with the people of Flint. He was told the water was unsafe, but he permitted the switch-over. What was his motivation? Follow the money. The Flint River option was cheap. No way would this question ever be asked in Grosse Pointe. 

Tap water in a Flint hospital on Oct. 16, 2015.JOYCE ZHU / FLINTWATERSTUDY.ORG

The deeper we dig into this polluted and terrifying well, the clearer it becomes that the managers of Flint and the state of Michigan are not merely Republicans, they are anarchists. Their concept of small government is really not government, simply a hierarchy of feudal war lords appointed by despotic masters in an attempt to disregard the purpose of government....which is, at its most fundamental level, a system devised to protect the inhabitants of a given geographic area. The decisions made for Flint were despotic and knowingly destructive. At the same time, the Clown Cavalcade may be pretty vociferous about Daesh and carpet bombing Syria, but have you heard any of them talk about the murder of our own citizens by polluted water intentionally sent through the tap? Even into hospitals?

One might extend that same model to the Clown Cavalcade itself. They knowingly and willfully preach the destruction of social safety nets in favor of sink-or-swim survival tests. One must ask "who's next?" after the demise of the lower economic strata. When your worker bees are sick and unable to work for you, will you be able to manage without them? Where is the responsibility to the tax payer? After all, we do pay taxes with the expectation that we get something in return. 

The Flint River debacle is not an isolated incident. Porter Ranch in California. Fracking and the removal of waste water. This stuff is happening coast-to-coast, and We, the People, have a communal obligation to speak out against the destruction of our own nation. 

You get the government you deserve with every new election. If you vote for candidates who dismantle your public services, then you must be prepared not to have any. And that is a choice we all get to make. You can vote for a Trump or a Cruz and you will get their vision of American, complete with an entirely new poverty class. 

It's all very short-sighted. And the worst part is, the people who would be hurt the most by this evisceration of the social service system are the ones cheering on Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Fiorina, and the rest of the clowns. 

Makes you also wonder about the education system in this country. 

Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Pay attention to the topics. That's a big hint for who cares about this country.