I suspect that President Obama would have come to Flint anyway, but I think it’s kind of lovely that he’s attributing next week’s visit to the invitation he received from 8 year old Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny, the daughter of Flint activist LuLu Brezzell… I know I’ve said it before, but I’m going to miss him when he’s gone.
As for what Obama will be doing in Flint, a White House official told the Detroit Free Press that he will “hear first-hand from Flint residents about the public health crisis, receive an in-person briefing on the federal efforts in place to help respond to the needs of the people of Flint, and deliver remarks to community members.“
For what it’s worth, our Governor, who just last week promised to drink Flint water for an entire month and then promptly left for Europe without any, told the Free Press that he would not be in Flint to greet the President. “I’ve got a pretty full schedule next week,” he told them from Zurich, Switzerland. “That’s not currently a day I’m scheduled to be in Flint.”
Given that Snyder has probably spent less than 8 hours total in Flint since the news first broke that people were being poisoned, I find that last sentence particularly hilarious. “That’s not currently a day I’m scheduled to be in Flint,” makes it sound as though he’s got plans to be there on the 3rd and 5th, but not just on the 4th. A more appropriate response might have been, “Look, I was in Flint for an awkward, water-drinking photo op a week ago, and I don’t ever intend to return.”
28 Comments
Many people hate Obama.
Obama is trolling Snyder. I applaud this IDGAF move.
I’ve never seen his signature before. Interesting.
Snyder does not give a single shit about the people of Flint. They’re just an inconvenience to him. If he really cared about them, he wouldn’t promise to drink their water and then promptly leave the country without a drop. He has no respect for them. That much is clear.
Seriously. Did Snyder pack up some water to go?
No, he said it wasn’t “feasible”.
The Governor of our State has no time for the President of our Country. Real nice.
Does anyone know what’s on his schedule that day? I’d like to know what’s more important than meeting the President to discuss the health of your constituents.
http://www.readingthepictures.org/files/bagnews/images/bushatwindow1-1.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/r9Y-iYtCeyg/hqdefault.jpg
Huh? We have a crisis that involves poisoning children (and adults). One which is going to take a lot to solve and also fortunately one that has the attention of the President of the United States, so much so that he is going to visit the city and our Governor is “too busy” too see him? WTF?!?
Rick Snyder is too busy saving this sate to waste even a single minute kowtowing to your illegitimate, America-hating, foreign-born president, who, by they way, is only coming here to foment a communist uprising.
I thought Michael Moore’s statement regarding the Obama visit was pretty rough, and pretty valid.
Here’s what Michael Moore had to say.
Source:
https://www.facebook.com/mmflint/posts/10153460597166857
After posting that to Facebook, he then said the following on Twitter.
“Obama’s visit to Flint next week is either a sham or the saving of a hundred thousand people.”
https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/725415624013451264
LOL. I like Moore but he does tend to be overly dramatic. Still, I hope people can look past his hyperbole to see that there are good points there especially about the systemic nature of the problem.
If that 39 number is true, it’s appalling. I think an interview with the local union plumbers bigwig said a team of four could do 2/day, and that he could get hundreds of plumbers in town the next day if someone gave the order.
Nestle stock’s up about 8% since April 2014 if I did my math right.
The city of Madison, Wisconsin has removed all their lead water pipes. It took them 8 years. They replaced all the supply lines and paid half the cost of the pipes in private homes and businesses. Now they no longer have to add phosphate buffers to their water and this is helping to prevent the eutrification of their surface waters. It cost them money in the short term, but will save money and the health of their residents in the long run. Every community should do the same.
My mistake – it took them 11 years and cost 15.5 million dollars. No one in Madison will ever again have to worry about the water lines poisoning their children with lead toxicities. And the water discharges won’t contribute to algal blooms leading to eutrophication of inland lakes. They don’t spend money on the purchase of phosphate buffers or on the manpower to treat the water to prevent the corrosion of any lead pipes.
@ EOS
So if your local government proposed a tax increase or bond issue to help pay to replace lead service lines, would you support it?
Or – instead, would you complain about “big government,” taxes, socialism, etc.?
No, I think the taxes they collect are sufficient to pay for this – that is if they didn’t spend it on non-essential items. It’s cheaper than Water Street and has an outcome that will improve everybody’s life. It’s a better way to spend tax dollars than a clock in the middle of the street, a parking lot on the wrong side of the tracks, a train station for an overpriced train whose schedule won’t facilitate commutes to work, a bus system that keeps expanding even when ridership declines, a public school system that chooses to indoctrinate at the expense of an education, a median in the middle of Michigan Avenue, streetscapes on Washtenaw avenue, salaries for public officials who fail to show up for a single meeting in over 18 months, lifelong pensions for a few years of work from term limited elected representatives. Would you rather have you tax dollars (county level) contribute to the killing of babies at Planned Parenthood or preserve the health and mental abilities of our children? It’s a matter of priorities.
“Would you rather have you tax dollars (county level) contribute to the killing of babies at Planned Parenthood or preserve the health and mental abilities of our children?”
I’m going to go with the anti-Solomon’s choice and choose both.
If you can’t prioritize, then taxes will climb to the level where no one has any disposable income and we’ll all feel the burn/Bern. Socialism is where you get the level of services that the government deems acceptable, regardless of your personal preference, until they run out of other people’s money.
Hasn’t YUCA already been working on removing lead pipes?
I agree a little with EOS in that pipes are the kind of issue that doesnt get prioritized but should. I disagree on the fundamental role of gov’t though and love high progressive taxes.
YUCA has an inventory of lead supply lines, but isn’t in the process of replacing any. No governmental agency has an inventory of what is in private homes and businesses.
I was talking with a man from Ireland recently on an online game. Someone made a comment about how they could pay their entire water bill each month for less than others spend on the game. The Irish man said he didn’t pay anything for water. His government provides it for free.
Free? The middle class in Ireland pay 48% of their income in taxes. Then they pay additional sales tax 23%, a 4% social security tax, excise taxes, and other additional taxes. More than 75% of the money they earn is taken by the government. Yet, the government recently tried to make them pay for their water and the people revolted.
Personally, I prefer to spend my own money and not have a bloated government mismanage it for me.
The Tough Nerd’s calendar miraculously opened up.
Read more:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/05/02/snyder-wants-to-meet-with-obama-in-flint/83815034/
“How can we all work together to make Flint a stronger, better community and address the water issues as much as possible?”
This man is a sociopath.
They know him as the Comeback Kid.