A page for describing Characters: Doctor Who Other Supporting Cast. The people who meet and help the Doctor in Doctor Who, but never quite become his President Trent: with: Anna Lee. Elisabeth: Hanna Landy. Michigan blames Flint water crisis on racism: Part one As officials end subsidies and resume water cutoffs. James Brewer. 3 March 2. This is the first part of a two- part article. The second part will be posted March 4. The final report on the Flint water crisis released by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission (MCRC) seeks to conceal the real class interests that underlay this crime against the people of Flint. The timing of the report, February 7, is significant. It was released the same week that state and local officials announced that water bill subsidies would be ended by the end of the month, forcing residents to pay in full for water they still cannot drink, and that water service cutoffs would be resumed for those in arrears. The content of the report represents a continuation of the half- truths and lies Flint residents have been fed since the lead- poisoned water began to be pumped into their homes. The contention of the 1. Flint was the result of “systemic racism,” yet no evidence is presented to substantiate this assertion. However, the report serves a definite political purpose. As Flint residents both white and black are forced to pay their full bills for toxic water or face the loss of any water service, the official declaration that the Flint crisis is all about racism facilitates efforts to divide the working class and impede a united fightback. The commission and its report. When scientists use eco-terrorism to impose their will on the world by affecting extremes in the weather, Intelligence Chief Cramden calls in top agent Derek Flint. The oil paintings of Joshua Flint look like depictions of memories when one tries too hard to access the faded thoughts—worn corners, blurred faces, and transposed. New International Version Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. As officials end subsidies and resume water cutoffs Michigan blames Flint water crisis on racism: Part one By James Brewer 3 March 2017. TBS pilot Wrecked, a single-camera comedy from up-and-coming writers Justin Shipley & Jordan Shipley and producer Jesse Hara, has set its ensemble cast. Shelby Flint (born September 17, 1939 in North Hollywood, California) is a singer-songwriter who had two top-100 hits, "Angel on My Shoulder" in 1961 and "Cast Your. The panel of eight commissioners is an establishment group of ethnically diverse, politically- connected business professionals who were hand- picked by Governor Rick Snyder. Co- Chair Laura Reyes Kopack served as vice president of the Michigan Republican Party in 1. The commission’s document was over a year in the making. Three public hearings were held in Flint during 2. Despite the claim that racism was at the root of the Flint water catastrophe, no evidence that the poisoning of the city’s water affected blacks more than whites was presented. The population of Flint is mixed. Approximately 5. 7 percent are black and 3. No evidence was produced that those who were responsible for switching the city to Flint River water without proper treatment or facilities in place had racial motivations. In fact, many of the key actors in the switch were black. Prominent at the ceremony on April 2. Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and Flint Public Works Director Howard Croft, both of whom are African- American. Yet the commission goes to great lengths to argue for its racialist narrative. In its executive summary, after a few bullet points that sparsely outline what can be described as the official chronology, the commission dispenses with any need of a concrete examination of the facts behind the water crisis, stating: “The Commission recognizes that there have been numerous articles, hearings, studies, reports and investigations into Flint’s water crisis. There are also numerous private law suits seeking to find liability and hold parties responsible.“The Michigan Civil Rights Commission. We believe the underlying issue is historical and systemic, and dates back nearly a century, and has at its foundation race and segregation of the Flint community. These historical policies, practices, laws and norms fostered and perpetuated separation of race, wealth and opportunity.” (Page 2.)In other words, we will not dwell on the facts. The reason for this omission is not, however, innocent. The reason is that the facts do not substantiate the report’s basic premise and conclusion. In its section on “Terms and Concepts,” an assertion similar to the one Hillary Clinton repeatedly and cynically made during her failed campaign for president appears: “. Birmingham, Michigan is one of the wealthiest communities in the US, and is over 9. This is a deliberate sleight of hand to obscure the class character of the events and give credence to the concepts of structural and spatial “racialization” that are heavily cited in the text. It would be more to the point to ask whether different decisions would have been taken if the community affected looked more like prosperous, largely black upper- middle class communities such as Palmer Woods in Detroit and less like Flint. The MCRC document poses a question: “? Research into how the human brain works suggests that race played a role in the Flint Water Crisis precisely because it was never considered. That it is so deeply entrenched in the very fiber of society that we have normalized what occurs in communities that are . It implies that one does not have to produce any factual evidence to substantiate your conclusion, since racism is hard- wired in the human brain and determines what . This should not be interpreted as a finding that it doesn’t apply. Rather, we believe that there is a lack . If racist is only used to describe a person who overtly discriminates based upon a belief in white supremacy, then we have not found evidence it applies here. However, if racist is defined to include anyone who does anything that could be considered racism, then the word could rightfully appear throughout this report. As we have said and will repeat, racism does not require malicious intent.” (Page 2. In other words, the commission reserves the right to declare actions “racist” that are not actually carried out by racists. According to the above definition of racist—“anyone who does anything that could be considered racism ”—every man, woman and child on the face of the earth is a racist. Aside from its misanthropic content, this definition renders the term itself useless and meaningless from an objective standpoint. What actually happened in Flint? The removal of the city of Flint from its 5. Lake Huron water provided by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) to draw water instead from the polluted Flint River was a product of deep- going economic processes that go unmentioned by the MCRC. Flint was the birthplace of General Motors in 1. Huge factories employing tens of thousands shaped the life of the city. In the northeast of the city was a 2. Buick City. Some 8. GM employees worked in Flint at its height, with good- paying jobs and benefits. Almost 3. 00,0. 00 people lived in Flint. The deliberate corporate policy of deindustrialization hit Flint hard. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were wiped out, not just in Flint but across the country. The American phenomenon called the “Rust Belt” included Michigan. In Flint, GM withdrew, leaving behind concrete slabs and toxic waste dumps. From once having one of highest standards of living in the country, the city became one of the nation’s poorest. The United Auto Workers union completed its transformation from a bureaucratically controlled defensive organization of the working class to a corporatist arm of the corporations and the state, working with GM to close plants, destroy jobs, slash wages and benefits and intensify the exploitation of the workforce. The growth of poverty brought the associated evils of petty crime, drugs, disease. The population dwindled to 1. GM now employs only a few thousand in Flint. The MCRC fails to mention the 2. Widespread predatory lending based on the false promise of ever- increasing home values lured working families into gambling their futures on the market value of their homes. Millions lost their homes across the country, while the banks that had caused the crisis were bailed out by the federal government to the tune of trillions of dollars. Bankers and speculators had to find new ways of generating profits under conditions of a drastically declining economy. Bankruptcy became a vehicle of choice to enable capitalism to extract a higher rate of profit from the working class. Under the direction of Obama’s Auto Task Force, GM and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, closing factories and laying off workers. More significantly, with the agreement of the UAW, contracts were pushed through that cut the wages of all new- hires in half and slashed the benefits of the workforce. The success of these attacks spurred the drive against public- sector workers. Michigan Governor Snyder transformed the existing emergency manager laws—even after they were overturned in a popular voter referendum—to enable the plundering of Detroit, particularly the massive DWSD water system that supplied Flint’s water. Under Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, laws were passed allowing speculators to override previous legal protections and open up public assets to plunder by private interests. During the Detroit bankruptcy eligibility trial in October, 2. New York investment banker Kenneth Buckfire spoke for the financial speculators eyeing the water department, saying, “The only way is to sell it or privatize it. Several private equity firms have expressed interest, but only if they can charge higher rates.”As a result of the corruption of Detroit officials, particularly under Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and increases in interest charges by the bondholders, water rates charged by the DWSD increased continually. In addition, between 2. Flint authorities tacked on their own increases, resulting in a 1. In Southeast Michigan, a “water war” had been brewing for years. The DWSD rate increases served as fuel for the campaign of Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright to build a separate untreated water pipeline from Lake Huron just six miles to the north of the DWSD pipeline that delivered treated water to Flint. Wright has been plotting this project—called the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA)—since 2. Though it is ostensibly a municipal water system, the $3. KWA construction project has already generated profits for private entities, specifically engineering firm L. D'Agostini & Sons with a $2. American Cast Iron Pipe Company, contracted to produce 6. Zito Construction Company, with a $7 million contract to lay the pipeline; E& L Construction Group, $1. The attraction of the pipeline plan for state authorities was not, as is commonly asserted, that it would save the city of Flint money on its long- term water rates.
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