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Flint Water Quality – Michigan Taxpayers Are Going To Pay For It

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Amateur Chemistry, MDEQ Lies, All Around Government Incompetence, Social Justice Warriors => Everything Goes Wrong

Mad Chemistry Image 1
Usually, when the words ‘Flint’ and ‘lead poisoning’ are used in the same sentence you get a mental image of homicides by gunshot. Likewise, in Michigan, ‘amateur’ and ‘chemistry’ conjures up images of an illegal meth lab fire. Now, however, we have allegations that the City of Flint’s amateur drinking water chemistry is causing high lead levels in children.  This story has exploded over the last week and, as usual, the ignorati in the main stream media and Michigan politics are clueless.

Flint’s emergency financial manager switched the city’s drinking water source to the Flint River in April 2014, an attempt to save the ruined city $ 30 million a year – the vigorish being extracted by the pirates at the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department. The same extortion which motivated the Detroit suburbs to create the Great Lakes Water Authority. Using river water was an intermediate step, with the ultimate goal of Flint joining the new Karegnondi Water Authority and resuming Lake Huron sourcing after the new KWA pipeline is completed in 2016.

Unfortunately, Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz did not realize that river water would require much different preparation than the Lake Huron water they had been supplied by DW&SD. He rose in life as the leader of a business school, not as a chemist. It doesn’t appear that Flint Water Treatment Plant’s staff water chemists had a clue, either. Comments made by Governor Snyder at the presser for his Supreme Court nominee Joan Larsen suggest he was neck deep in this decision and also completely oblivious to the technical issues.

Flint residents protested immediately, complaining of poor taste, foul odors, and turbidity (lack of clarity). Much of this unrest was part of a long term drive to oust the emergency financial manager running Flint, the paramount goal of the city’s social justice warriors. It didn’t help that Ed Kurtz raised water rates about 50%, emulating DW&SD’s obscene fees on top of maximum taxes piracy. Public outrage has increased in Flint ever since. Genesee Circuit Court Judge Archie Hayman enjoined Flint’s water rate hike, throwing Flint’s finances back into disorder. Since Judge Haymen’s order was left in place by the Appeals Court and went into effect, Flint water collections have dropped by $ 1.75 million a month.

In all fairness to EFM Kurtz, part of his rate increase was intended to replenish $ 15.7 million which had been transferred from the Flint water fund in 2007 to pay a sewerage overflow settlement. However this entire situation was almost certainly an attempt to quickly balance Flint’s books and wrap up emergency financial management. Lansing was certainly sweating EFM Kurtz to conclude Flint’s restoration in order to shut down the social justice warriors before our 2014 election.

So what is happening here, technically? Will Detroit water fix Flint’s problems? (Hint: No)

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Democrats, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans

Smooth move there, Bonehead!

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"You resigned dude! I don't know what we're doing here?"

Last night, Fox 2 Detroit aired a very interesting “Let It Rip” featuring host Huel Perkins, a VERY unusually reserved Charlie Langton (I have not seen him this quiet for so long…ever), Charlie LeDuff (who was on his “A” Game last night), and disgraced ex-Michigan Representative (and now candidate for Michigan 82nd District) Todd Courser.

The interview went much better than last week’s “Off the Record” where Tim Skubick uncharactisticly put on the kid gloves and lobbed softballs, while Chad Livengood was strangely absent from the panel.

As I alluded to above, LeDuff got in more than a few good questions for Courser (I won’t spoil them if you haven’t clicked on the link to last night’s show above).

I will save everyone some time by mentioning that the first segment is the only one featuring Courser. The “Let It Rip – On The Road” segment dealt only with the made-up Ben Carson kerfuffle from last week’s Meet the Depressed.

‘Nuff said…for now.

 

 

 

 

You Betcha! (3)Nuh Uh.(0)

80th District Special Election (2015), Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Removing The People’s Voice

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Can Two Wrongs Make a Right?

Recall by constituents would have been a more appropriate option in the Todd and Cindy debacle.

In the hours leading up to what finally happened, deals were likely made that will hardly resonate later as good policy decisions.  “get your merry caucus of non voting dems to do their job, and I’ll make sure you get  …,” the highly probable statement from house speaker Kevin Cotter to house minority leader Tim Greimel.  Greimel apparently held out for the ‘investigation’ carrot as well.  Democrat Floor Leader Singh implied this after Roll Call 295, when he motioned to send the entire matter back to committee.

The House Democrats wanted – and got – more than just a couple of scalps. Their blackmail was effective because all of our representatives were bone tired after 13 plus hours of ‘Rule 32’ imprisonment and ready to go home for the weekend.   A Michigan State Police investigation of this sorry situation will almost certainly embarrass House leadership far more than the behaviors of Representatives Courser and Gamrat. They made mistakes, but weren’t sufficiently connected or protected politically to extract themselves once exposed.

Apologies NOT accepted.

Gamrat believed she and her lawyer and all involved understood that it would be ‘censure, not expulsion’ if she prostrated herself in a very public mea culpa. Three hours of intense discussions between her, the House Majority counsel, and her own attorney fleshed out what she considered conditional admittance. According to Gamrat, Hassan Beydoun, Majority Counsel, told her “we can control our side ..” when sealing the ostensible censure deal.

Gamrat says the House leadership did not want to go all the way through removal. Leadership did not want to own an expulsion, which would encourage voters to examine other Lansing shenanigans. Approached multiple times by different legislators and implored to resign, Cindy Gamrat refused. She says the pressure was beyond intense. Gamrat’s resolve held all the way out to 4 AM when it became clear that the House leadership could not, or would not ‘control their side’.

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You Betcha! (47)Nuh Uh.(7)

All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Humor in Michigan, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics

Does EMU Have a Guilty Conscience?

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Ivory Tower Finances in Michigan: No Pocket Left Unpicked, Other People's Crumbs for the Students!

Greed Image 2
In June, the EMU Board of Regents unanimously voted a 7.8% increase in tuition for students. Their new tuition rate for Michigan residents is $ 10,417.00 per year. This $ 754.00 annual increase – about four times the rate of inflation – was justified on the grounds that EMU’s tuition was thirteenth among Michigan’s major public universities. Its not like EMU’s past tuition increases had been held below the rate of inflation, its just that they had been more circumspect about raping forcing their students into perpetual debt slavery.

EMU specializes in disciplines which don’t command especially high wages, but they do generally qualify for our fearless leader’s Income Driven Repayment (IDR) debt forgiveness plans. So the EMU President and Regents probably figure that it is long past time time to tap the federal taxpayers for their grand delusions ambitions through their victims students. Who would notice a few millions more in delinquencies in a program which already has $ 187 billion in delinquencies?

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All the Other Stuff, Cronyism, Democrats, Flint Water Fiasco, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Philosophy, Republicans

Who’s Missing?

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Governor Snyder's New Pipeline Safety Advisory Board: Long on Bureaucrats & Special Interests, Short on Technical Talent

Ruptured Section of Enbridge Pipeline 6B Recovered from Calhoun County, MI. NTSB Image

Ruptured Section of Enbridge Pipeline 6B Recovered from Calhoun County, MI. NTSB Image

Governor Snyder filed Executive Order 2015-12 with the Secretary of State yesterday to create a Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board under the aegis of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. A response to the disastrous 2010 Enbridge Pipeline 6B rupture in Calhoun County and the agitation against Enbridge Pipeline 5, which transects the Straits of Mackinac.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Schuette completed a binding legal agreement with Enbridge to prevent Enbridge Pipeline 5 from being used to transport ‘heavy crude oil’ under the Straits of Mackinac. This agreement formally implements the first recommendation of the Michigan DEQ Petroleum Pipeline Task Force Report released in July to ban heavy crude oil in Line 5. Sounds good, but Enbridge Pipeline 5 does not now have the pumping horsepower for heavy crude transmission, and the weight of the crude has very little to do with pipeline integrity. Corrosive constituents in the crude, biofouling, and a host of other technical issues are far more important determinants of pipeline integrity. This agreement has great optics, but little consequence.

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Fees, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Philosophy, Proposal 15-1, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Skewed priorities and reading between the lines.

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Don’t you know that “Take a vote, not a vacation” doesn’t apply to the man at the top?

“It’s essential that making Michigan’s infrastructure safer remains a top priority. While voters didn’t support this particular proposal, we know they want action taken to maintain and improve our roads and bridges. The ‘relentless’ part of relentless positive action means that we start anew to find a comprehensive, long-term solution to this problem.” – Gov. Rick Snyder after the crushing defeat of Proposal 1 on May 5, 2015

Unless of course, you are on yet another “vacation” to peddle blueberries to the Chi-Comms?

Or, maybe that’s what he wants everyone to believe.

{More below}

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All the Other Stuff, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Republicans

Misrepresentation

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Is University Indoctrination Really a Qualification Required for Political Office?

Programming ConditioningSunday, the Detroit News ran a charming agitprop piece bemoaning the fact that 20% of Michigan’s legislators “lack a formal higher education degree, ….. raising the question of whether a college degree is a prerequisite for leadership and political office”. The snide implication of this stooge for the university left is that 20% of Michigan’s legislators are ignorami, but her devious political subtext is that 20% of Michigan’s legislators have missed the political indoctrination necessary to be good left wing robots.

May I remind you of MSU Professor William Penn’s 2013 creative writing class, as recounted by the great Walter Williams in Townhall two years ago:

MSU Professor William Penn

MSU Professor William Penn

William Penn, Michigan State University professor of creative writing, greeted his first day of class with an anti-Republican rant. Campus Reform, a project of the Arlington, Va.-based Leadership Institute, has a video featuring the professor telling his students that Republicans want to prevent “black people” from voting. He added that “this country still is full of closet racists” and described Republicans as “a bunch of dead white people — or dying white people”. To a student who had apparently displayed displeasure with those comments, Professor Penn barked, “You can frown if you want.” He gesticulated toward the student and added, “You look like you’re frowning. Are you frowning?” When the professor’s conduct was brought to the attention of campus authorities, MSU spokesman Kent Cassella said, “At MSU it is important the classroom environment is conducive to a free exchange of ideas and is respectful of the opinions of others.”

That mealy-mouthed response is typical of university administrators. Professor Penn was using his classroom to proselytize students. That is academic dishonesty and warrants serious disciplinary or dismissal proceedings. But that’s not likely. Professor Penn’s vision is probably shared by his colleagues, seeing as he was the recipient of MSU’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 2003.

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