Short Take 1
While the World Watches, the Children of Flint Michigan Are Being Poisoned.
On September 30, 2015, two years after the fact, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder took note of the poisoned water being supplied to Flint residents in a brief unapologetic announcement, “we found there are probably things that weren’t as fully understood when that switch [from Lake Huron water to Flint River water] was made,” Having already proved his credentials as a Class A sleazebag, no surprises there. What was a surprise, though in hindsight shouldn’t have been, was the response of the man who in his 2008 speech accepting the democratic presidential nomination decried the response of the outgoing Bush administration to another human tragedy, Hurricane Katrina —“We [democrats including himself] are more compassionate than a government that…sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.” Apparently the specter of the leaders of a major American city poisoning its most vulnerable citizens doesn’t tug at the heartstrings in quite the same way. On January 16, 2016, three months after Gov. Snyder’s announcement, Obama traveled to Michigan. To go to the “scene of the crime?” Not exactly. He was attending the annual car show to crow about his Herculean efforts on behalf of car company owners and shareholders to screw workers, decimate their unions (whose leaders were in on the scam), establish an official two-tier wage policy to beggar the workers and enrich the already rich elites. According to official news reports, he “declined” to visit Flint. He did, however, issue a statement —stupefying in its cluelessness and almost making Gov. Snyder’s lame response look sincere — “What is inexplicable and inexcusable is once people figured out that there was a problem there, and that there was lead in the water, the notion that immediately families weren’t notified, things weren’t shut down. That shouldn’t happen anywhere.” After a few more irrelevancies, along the familiar lines of “I know that if I was a parent up there, I would be beside myself that my kid’s health could be at risk,” (same logic he used to defend Israel’s barbarous assault on Gaza), several days later his administration announced the creation of an $80 million revolving fund. As always with Obama’s disaster relief solutions, the devil is in the details. It turns out that actually the fund does not go to Flint. According to an Obama’s spokesperson, “The state will decide how much of the $80 million will be directed to Flint.” Now what could go wrong with that?
It appears that Obama’s compassionate reflexes could stand some tuning up. He finally visited Flint the first week in May —seven months after the initial public announcement.
To highlight how contagious cluelessness is, here’s Hillary’s over the top comments on the crisis —“I issued a statement about what we needed to do and then I went on a TV show and I said it was outrageous that the government hadn’t acted…I want to be a president who takes care of the problems that are affecting the people of our country every day.”
Sound familiar? It’s the Obama two-step. She’s got it down pat.
