February 19, 2025 • 20 mins
The story of the Flint Water Crisis was not only overblown, but misrepresented.
River water isn't bad. There's nothing wrong with the pipes. The river is not polluted or better than lake water.
The only real failure in Flint was Democrat politics. Two bankrupt cities in Detroit went to war. A conflict of egos stoked by incompetence, led to contamination of drinking water.
Ultimately, it was only the Republicans fixing the problem who were held accountable.
Commentary on trending issues brought to you with a moderate perspective.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
The Tenth Man (00:11):
Water lines in Detroit are breaking in the
winter's cold, yet it's thewater lines in Flint, Michigan
that are being replaced.
The endless and wastefulaftermath of the Flint water
crisis today on The Tenth Man.
(00:32):
Water mains in Detroit arebreaking as the winter cold
takes its toll.
It happens every year.
Pipes burst, streets flood, Andtaxpayers foot the bill.
Yet just a few miles north inFlint, millions of dollars are
being spent to replace waterlines that are perfectly fine.
(00:57):
What connects Detroit's brokeninfrastructure to Flint's
wasteful repairs?
The answer lies in greed,corruption, and political
dysfunction.
The Flint water crisis wasn'tjust a tragedy, it was a
cautionary tale of how power Andpolitics can turn manageable
(01:18):
problems into nationaldisasters.
Today on the 10th man, we'lluncover the truth about Flint
and Detroit, how two strugglingcities became entangled in one
another's failures, and why thepursuit of justice has been so
one-sided.
(01:38):
Detroit's infrastructure iscrumbling under the weight of
decades of neglect.
Ancient water mains, some over acentury old, snap under the
pressure of frozen soil.
Repairs are slow and costly,with no end in sight.
There were 10 water mains brokenat one time in January 2025, and
(02:01):
currently a 54 inch water mainis broken, flooding out
thousands of homes.
Locking out residents due tofreezing and loss of power.
Meanwhile, Flint has become ahub of activity as crews dig up
water lines in neighborhoodsacross the city.
(02:21):
But here's the twist.
Those pipes don't needreplacing.
The lead contamination thatsparked the Flint water crisis
was caused by improper watertreatment, not faulty pipes, so
why the frenzy?
If you want to understand this,you have to go back to Detroit's
(02:43):
bankruptcy.
Also, to Flint's financialstruggles and the tangled web of
political greed that brought twocities together.
Detroit went bankrupt.
That was in 2013.
It was the largest municipalbankruptcy in the U.
(03:05):
S.
ever.
Detroit is also the largestmajority black city in America.
It is controlled, of course, byDemocrats.
And, unfortunately, much likethe racist scenes in the movie
Birth of a Nation, the D.
W.
Griffith movie, designed in partto show the folly of allowing
(03:28):
black people to have the vote.
That movie included portrayalsof the first black congressmen
back in the 1800s, and they weresitting at their, at the Capitol
with their feet up on the deskeating fried chicken.
And of course those scenes wereboth racist and inaccurate, but
they wouldn't be altogetherinaccurate if you applied them
(03:50):
to the city of Detroit in theearly 21st century.
Once the wealthiest city inAmerica, it was turned over to
the Democrats.
And they quickly went bankrupt.
you may remember mayor KwameKilpatrick.
(04:12):
He was the last mayor before thebankruptcy.
He's noteworthy because he wentto prison.
To prison for real crimes, notlawfare.
He was convicted of 24 felonies.
Actual felonies.
And his term as mayor was markedby big parties at the mayoral
(04:33):
mansion and even the murder ofan exotic dancer which is
controversial and stillunsolved.
Now city bankruptcies like theone that took place in Detroit
are not common.
They're actually quite rare,there have only been 60 since
(04:55):
the Great Depression.
And Detroit's was the largest interms of the monetary value.
During the bankruptcy Detroithad an emergency manager
assigned by the state.
All Michigan cities withemergency managers assigned.
have the same things in common.
(05:17):
They're all Democrat.
They're majority black.
But most important, they allhave a city income tax.
This last one is most importantbecause it shows an attitude of
trying to tax others to supportyourself.
(05:37):
That's a common Democrat trait.
The Democrat politician isalways looking around and
whenever he sees some money thatpeople have accrued to provide
for some need.
He tries to figure out how hecan get his hands on it.
Or when he sees a bunch ofpeople who are working hard, he
(05:58):
tries to figure out a way to taxthem.
And try to do it in a way thathe can get elected by not
causing taxes to go up for hisown constituents.
Well in Detroit, as people leftthe community, so left the tax
base.
(06:18):
So the way it works is likethis.
As Detroiters left thecommunity, so left the tax base.
So they're not constituentsanymore.
So the Democrats are free thento proclaim the people commuting
to the city to work.
as parasites.
To the Democrats, they're justmore sheep to be sheared.
(06:42):
And they're very creative in thetaxes that they conceived.
There's not just a city incometax.
They were even talking abouttaxing people if they had a
parking lot where they worked,if they were able to park for
free, they were going to callthat imputed income and tax you
on your parking space.
There's no mass transit.
You have to drive to work.
(07:04):
And then the city wanted to taxyou for parking.
Now these commuters are working.
They're driving the economy.
They would love to live inDetroit if it wasn't a dangerous
dying city.
So the city calls them parasitesand says they need to pay taxes
to support the police and theroads, even though the police
(07:28):
aren't effective.
The roads are poor and alreadybeing supported by Michigan's
high gasoline taxes.
So that's why we say, if youwant to find a city that's
failing, just look for a cityincome tax.
And of course, another failingcity with an income tax is
(07:50):
Flint, Michigan.
We'll talk about them in amoment.
But we're going to take a quickbreak.
And talk about the word of theday, or in this case, a phrase.
The mainstream media uses andabuses a lot of phrases like the
phrase extreme weather, forexample.
(08:12):
Normal winter temperatures, suchas the ones causing the water
line breaks in Detroit, are nowcalled extreme weather, to
promote the climate changeagenda.
And that phrase has thereforebecome meaningless.
So we're just giving that phraseas an example that's obvious.
So, here's another one.
We all know what an ad hominemis.
(08:33):
It's when you run out ofarguments so you call people
names like racist or a racialepithet or a white nationalist,
etc, etc.
But we are now hearing todaywhat is the weakest, lamest,
most facile ad hominem everused.
It's on the news every singleday and every single hour of the
(08:55):
day.
How bad would you feel ifsomeone insulted you by calling
you listener discretion isadvised and Unelected
billionaire.
Isn't that the weakest adhominem you've ever heard?
(09:16):
Unelected?
There are only there are onlytwo people in the entire country
who are elected by the entirecountry.
The president and vicepresident.
Donald Trump.
And J.
D.
Vance are the only two people inthe world who are elected by the
American public.
Calling anybody unelected all byitself is the weakest ad hominem
(09:41):
possible.
And none of those federal judgesthrowing judgments on the
conveyor belt of lawfare waselected.
All were appointed bypresidents, as was Elon Musk.
And billionaire?
(10:01):
How is that an insult?
It's at best neutral becausebillionaires get that way due to
a combination of merit and luck.
And it seems anybody would belucky to have a billionaire
working for him for free.
And that's what we Americanshave today.
(10:21):
But if there's one sentence thatsays it all about the Democrats,
it's this.
Four people who are despised bythe Democrats are Donald Trump,
Elon Musk.
R.
F.
K.
Jr.
and Tulsi Gabbard, who all haveone thing in common.
All four used to be Democrats,and the Democrats loved them
(10:47):
back then.
The two cities of Flint andDetroit have much more in common
than just their politics.
The two cities are joined bytheir water systems, quite
literally and physically.
But contrary to what you mightthink, and all you've been told.
(11:11):
The Flint crisis was not causedby switching their water supply
from Detroit to the Flint River.
Cities all across America useriver water.
They're in a panic, saying,We're not using Great Lakes
water anymore.
Well, look at a map.
(11:32):
How far are you from the GreatLakes?
If you're not in the Great Lakesbasin, you're on river water.
If you're in a municipal watersystem, then.
Yes, there are millions ofpeople who are using Great Lakes
water for drinking, for theirdrinking water supply.
But not all by far not even mostand we'll talk about corrosion
(11:56):
in a minute But if you want toknow some real corrosive water
go to Brownsville, Texas Back inthe 1990s in Brownsville, Texas.
The Rio Grande water issufficiently corrosive and
people were coming to home tofind wet spots on their walls
(12:16):
due to pinhole leaks.
The water etched its way throughthe copper tubing.
Full story is there aredifferent grades of copper
tubing with thinner and thickerwalls.
And if the proper tubing hadbeen used, these leaks wouldn't
have occurred.
But people had to replace allthe plumbing in their houses
because of the wrong coppertubing being used and the
(12:38):
corrosive water.
Now that's corrosive.
so the Flint crisis was notcaused by switching their water
supply to the Flint Riverbecause, in fact, many cities
use river water and thatincludes the city of Flint.
(13:00):
Flint's water supply was theFlint River up until 1971.
In 1971, they switched to buyingtheir water from Detroit.
And that's because, believe itor not, in the 1970s, the city
of Flint was growing.
And they were concerned notabout water quality, but water
(13:23):
quantity.
They were concerned about thecapacity of their plant and the
river to supply a growing city.
Now ask yourself, what would beso magical about Detroit water?
In fact, it's also drawn from ariver, the Detroit River, and
it's in fact the same water.
(13:45):
Flint River water flows intoLake Huron, which flows into the
Detroit River.
It's the same water.
So somehow letting it flow toDetroit so that it can be
treated there and then pumpedback to Flint where it has to be
lifted 400 feet into the air inthe process at the same time.
(14:07):
That's a good idea.
Of course it's not a good idea.
The water's already in Flint.
You should use the Flint water.
How much electricity wasconsumed pumping that water up
to Flint?
How much coal fired electricitywas used?
What about the harm to theclimate?
(14:28):
When the story broke, peoplestarted talking about all the
pollution in the river.
Well, the Flint River is notpolluted.
Not since the Clean Water Act ofthe 1960s.
The problem with the river wateris it has a low pH, not a high
pollution.
Actually, it doesn't even comefrom the Flint River per se.
(14:49):
Well, it kind of does, but itactually comes from the Holloway
Reservoir.
It's a beautiful man made lakefar upstream from Flint.
There's a Flint River WatershedCoalition that promotes
canoeing, and fishing on it.
the dam that impounds thereservoir has a spillway with a
little waterfall, stepping stonefalls.
(15:10):
It's all quite nice.
And the tributaries to the FlintRiver include designated trout
streams such as, one near myhouse.
All sounds quite lovely, doesn'tit?
Quite unlike the pictures thatthey show you of the Flint River
downtown.
Well, of course, that's notwhere they get their drinking
water.
They get it from the reservoir.
(15:32):
And the water that we sent toFlint was just fine.
Sorry if you didn't take care ofit, Flint.
In 2011, both Flint and Detroitwere broke.
Emergency managers wereappointed by the state.
And one reason Detroit was brokeis because its residents didn't
(15:56):
pay their water bills.
People in Detroit say, Water isa human right, which is all you
have to say when you're aDemocrat.
So what did the city of Detroitdo?
Well, what do Democrats do?
They look around for somebodyelse with money, don't they?
So the city of Detroit wassupplying Flint.
(16:19):
In fact, Flint was its biggestwater customer.
Its largest single watercustomer was the city of Flint.
So they demanded payment fromFlint and kept raising their
rates because the city had topay.
The Democrats in Detroit SawFlint as a goose to be plucked,
(16:40):
and turning the screws on Flintwas easier than squeezing the
money out of their ownresidents.
But we have to be fair toDetroit.
It's not all their fault.
When they do try to shut offwater to people who don't pay,
they face lawsuits.
And the ACLU, the American CivilLiberties Union, has been suing
(17:04):
Detroit continuously since 2014because they expect people to
pay their water bill or face awater shutoff.
Well, it's pretty clear thatFlint and its suburbs can't
carry the burden of Detroit'swater bill.
Water bills of Detroit's watercustomers, so feeling the pinch,
Flint joined a cooperative tocreate a new water system,
(17:27):
bringing water to variouscommunities from Lake Huron,
direct from Lake Huron, and thiswould be cheaper, more
efficient.
This is when it turned ugly, ormaybe uglier.
The city of Detroit, fearfulthat it was losing its cash cow,
now acted like a jilted lover,and told Flint, no, you cannot
(17:50):
leave, you cannot join theKaregnondi water project.
And Flint said, no, we're goingto do that, we need to cut our
expenses.
So then Detroit invoked a clausein their contract with Flint and
told them if they did notwithdraw from the Karegnondi
Water Project, Detroit would cutthem off in a year's time, and
(18:14):
they were allowed to do that.
Do you understand how seriousthis is?
And how nobody talks about it?
It was in all the papers, maybedown in the column.
did you hear that?
Detroit said no water for you,Flint.
And none of the Democrats, noneof the news media, not the ACLU,
(18:36):
nobody has said boo about this,that Detroit completely cut
Flint off of its water.
Or that's what they said theywould do, if they switched.
Well, flint was in a bindbecause the water project
cooperative would not bedelivering water for 18 months
as everybody knew.
(19:00):
So striking back the flint citycouncil told Detroit, well,
we're not going to give you ayear.
We're going to cut you off rightnow.
So there were a lot ofintelligent moves by intelligent
people, right?
Or there was a lot of politicalposturing and blustering and
saber rattling that led to thecrisis.
(19:24):
Now, Flint had always known thatthey could just switch back to
the Flint River supply.
They have a waterworks, and it'sintact.
And so they decided to do justthat.
Well, they couldn't just decide.
Remember they were under anemergency manager appointed by
the state and they had to gethis permission first.
(19:46):
This is another major point thatgoes unstated or is lied about
because the emergency managerwas a Republican.
The state government wasRepublican at the time.
It's Democrat right now, butbecause this emergency manager
was appointed by the Republicangovernor.
He is often blamed for the Flintwater crisis, even though he
(20:08):
actually put the brakes on thetransfer.
Yes, he stopped it.
Since the state of Michigan wasalso managing the bankruptcy of
Detroit, the emergency managerof Flint took into account the
fact that the loss of therevenue from the Flint water
would have a negative impact onDetroit.
(20:29):
So, he did not just sign off onit.
First, he had to do a study, orthe state did a study.
And after the study determinedthat the city of Detroit should
be able to manage without therevenue from Flint, Or the fact
that they were going to lose itin 18 months anyway, another six
months.
Only then did he grantpermission.
(20:53):
Emergency manager Darnell Earlydid not create the Flint water
crisis.
He allowed the city of Flint tocreate the Flint water crisis.
People talk as if he forced themto do it, but on the contrary,
once Early granted permission,the city council members, they
(21:17):
formed a conga line and marchedaround city council chambers
singing, We Shall Overcome.
And then when they did thecutover, they had a big ceremony
where they had a toast to eachother drinking the new water
that they supplied themselvesfrom the Flint River.
It was not the state of Michiganthat caused the cutover.
(21:38):
From Detroit water to FlintRiver water.
Everything would have been fineafter that in most cities.
The water plant worked before,it could work again.
And if the government has simplydone its job, the minimum
requirement, There'd be no storyhere, but incompetence in
(21:59):
Democrat run cities is the norm.
And for the first and only timein American history.
The Water Department became thevehicle of poisoning citizens.
We'll look at the aftermath inthe next episode.
Now a preview of some comingepisodes.
(22:21):
America is the worst country inthe world, except for all the
others.
We're paraphrasing WinstonChurchill's remark about
democracy, but it applies verywell to America.
We're often called a third worldcountry based on the lies spread
by the media.
Lies such as We have a massshooting every day, or a school
(22:44):
shooting, either one.
Gun lies are among the mediafavorites, and another one is
that more children are killed byguns than any other cause.
Other lies are that America isracist, or that a half million
people go bankrupt every yeardue to medical bills.
Each of these statements iscompletely false, as we've
(23:04):
demonstrated in other episodes,but people cite them and say,
That's what makes America.
country.
But anybody can play that game,and in future episodes we'll
examine who's a third worldcountry.
And, if you're listening fromoverseas, you might be a winner.
(23:26):
Now this is all in fun, it's alltongue in cheek, and it should
be fun because it's so easy todo.
For example, just look atSocialist Canada, where a recent
airplane crash caused by theirterrible weather due to climate
change, climate change caused bytheir huge petroleum exports,
(23:47):
nearly resulted in the deaths ofdozens of people, including
Americans.
A crash at a Canadian airport,under the authority of Canadian
air traffic controllers,/ In ajet aircraft built in Canada,
supported by the Canadiangovernment's huge subsidies to
the Canadian Aircraft Company,supported by taxation to excess
(24:10):
by the downtrodden Canadianpeople.
Now, tell a friend about theTenth Man podcast, and thank you
for listening.
Water lines in Detroit are breaking in the
winter's cold, yet it's thewater lines in Flint, Michigan
that are being replaced.
The endless and wastefulaftermath of the Flint water
crisis today on The Tenth Man.
(00:32):
Water mains in Detroit arebreaking as the winter cold
takes its toll.
It happens every year.
Pipes burst, streets flood, Andtaxpayers foot the bill.
Yet just a few miles north inFlint, millions of dollars are
being spent to replace waterlines that are perfectly fine.
(00:57):
What connects Detroit's brokeninfrastructure to Flint's
wasteful repairs?
The answer lies in greed,corruption, and political
dysfunction.
The Flint water crisis wasn'tjust a tragedy, it was a
cautionary tale of how power Andpolitics can turn manageable
(01:18):
problems into nationaldisasters.
Today on the 10th man, we'lluncover the truth about Flint
and Detroit, how two strugglingcities became entangled in one
another's failures, and why thepursuit of justice has been so
one-sided.
(01:38):
Detroit's infrastructure iscrumbling under the weight of
decades of neglect.
Ancient water mains, some over acentury old, snap under the
pressure of frozen soil.
Repairs are slow and costly,with no end in sight.
There were 10 water mains brokenat one time in January 2025, and
(02:01):
currently a 54 inch water mainis broken, flooding out
thousands of homes.
Locking out residents due tofreezing and loss of power.
Meanwhile, Flint has become ahub of activity as crews dig up
water lines in neighborhoodsacross the city.
(02:21):
But here's the twist.
Those pipes don't needreplacing.
The lead contamination thatsparked the Flint water crisis
was caused by improper watertreatment, not faulty pipes, so
why the frenzy?
If you want to understand this,you have to go back to Detroit's
(02:43):
bankruptcy.
Also, to Flint's financialstruggles and the tangled web of
political greed that brought twocities together.
Detroit went bankrupt.
That was in 2013.
It was the largest municipalbankruptcy in the U.
(03:05):
S.
ever.
Detroit is also the largestmajority black city in America.
It is controlled, of course, byDemocrats.
And, unfortunately, much likethe racist scenes in the movie
Birth of a Nation, the D.
W.
Griffith movie, designed in partto show the folly of allowing
(03:28):
black people to have the vote.
That movie included portrayalsof the first black congressmen
back in the 1800s, and they weresitting at their, at the Capitol
with their feet up on the deskeating fried chicken.
And of course those scenes wereboth racist and inaccurate, but
they wouldn't be altogetherinaccurate if you applied them
(03:50):
to the city of Detroit in theearly 21st century.
Once the wealthiest city inAmerica, it was turned over to
the Democrats.
And they quickly went bankrupt.
you may remember mayor KwameKilpatrick.
(04:12):
He was the last mayor before thebankruptcy.
He's noteworthy because he wentto prison.
To prison for real crimes, notlawfare.
He was convicted of 24 felonies.
Actual felonies.
And his term as mayor was markedby big parties at the mayoral
(04:33):
mansion and even the murder ofan exotic dancer which is
controversial and stillunsolved.
Now city bankruptcies like theone that took place in Detroit
are not common.
They're actually quite rare,there have only been 60 since
(04:55):
the Great Depression.
And Detroit's was the largest interms of the monetary value.
During the bankruptcy Detroithad an emergency manager
assigned by the state.
All Michigan cities withemergency managers assigned.
have the same things in common.
(05:17):
They're all Democrat.
They're majority black.
But most important, they allhave a city income tax.
This last one is most importantbecause it shows an attitude of
trying to tax others to supportyourself.
(05:37):
That's a common Democrat trait.
The Democrat politician isalways looking around and
whenever he sees some money thatpeople have accrued to provide
for some need.
He tries to figure out how hecan get his hands on it.
Or when he sees a bunch ofpeople who are working hard, he
(05:58):
tries to figure out a way to taxthem.
And try to do it in a way thathe can get elected by not
causing taxes to go up for hisown constituents.
Well in Detroit, as people leftthe community, so left the tax
base.
(06:18):
So the way it works is likethis.
As Detroiters left thecommunity, so left the tax base.
So they're not constituentsanymore.
So the Democrats are free thento proclaim the people commuting
to the city to work.
as parasites.
To the Democrats, they're justmore sheep to be sheared.
(06:42):
And they're very creative in thetaxes that they conceived.
There's not just a city incometax.
They were even talking abouttaxing people if they had a
parking lot where they worked,if they were able to park for
free, they were going to callthat imputed income and tax you
on your parking space.
There's no mass transit.
You have to drive to work.
(07:04):
And then the city wanted to taxyou for parking.
Now these commuters are working.
They're driving the economy.
They would love to live inDetroit if it wasn't a dangerous
dying city.
So the city calls them parasitesand says they need to pay taxes
to support the police and theroads, even though the police
(07:28):
aren't effective.
The roads are poor and alreadybeing supported by Michigan's
high gasoline taxes.
So that's why we say, if youwant to find a city that's
failing, just look for a cityincome tax.
And of course, another failingcity with an income tax is
(07:50):
Flint, Michigan.
We'll talk about them in amoment.
But we're going to take a quickbreak.
And talk about the word of theday, or in this case, a phrase.
The mainstream media uses andabuses a lot of phrases like the
phrase extreme weather, forexample.
(08:12):
Normal winter temperatures, suchas the ones causing the water
line breaks in Detroit, are nowcalled extreme weather, to
promote the climate changeagenda.
And that phrase has thereforebecome meaningless.
So we're just giving that phraseas an example that's obvious.
So, here's another one.
We all know what an ad hominemis.
(08:33):
It's when you run out ofarguments so you call people
names like racist or a racialepithet or a white nationalist,
etc, etc.
But we are now hearing todaywhat is the weakest, lamest,
most facile ad hominem everused.
It's on the news every singleday and every single hour of the
(08:55):
day.
How bad would you feel ifsomeone insulted you by calling
you listener discretion isadvised and Unelected
billionaire.
Isn't that the weakest adhominem you've ever heard?
(09:16):
Unelected?
There are only there are onlytwo people in the entire country
who are elected by the entirecountry.
The president and vicepresident.
Donald Trump.
And J.
D.
Vance are the only two people inthe world who are elected by the
American public.
Calling anybody unelected all byitself is the weakest ad hominem
(09:41):
possible.
And none of those federal judgesthrowing judgments on the
conveyor belt of lawfare waselected.
All were appointed bypresidents, as was Elon Musk.
And billionaire?
(10:01):
How is that an insult?
It's at best neutral becausebillionaires get that way due to
a combination of merit and luck.
And it seems anybody would belucky to have a billionaire
working for him for free.
And that's what we Americanshave today.
(10:21):
But if there's one sentence thatsays it all about the Democrats,
it's this.
Four people who are despised bythe Democrats are Donald Trump,
Elon Musk.
R.
F.
K.
Jr.
and Tulsi Gabbard, who all haveone thing in common.
All four used to be Democrats,and the Democrats loved them
(10:47):
back then.
The two cities of Flint andDetroit have much more in common
than just their politics.
The two cities are joined bytheir water systems, quite
literally and physically.
But contrary to what you mightthink, and all you've been told.
(11:11):
The Flint crisis was not causedby switching their water supply
from Detroit to the Flint River.
Cities all across America useriver water.
They're in a panic, saying,We're not using Great Lakes
water anymore.
Well, look at a map.
(11:32):
How far are you from the GreatLakes?
If you're not in the Great Lakesbasin, you're on river water.
If you're in a municipal watersystem, then.
Yes, there are millions ofpeople who are using Great Lakes
water for drinking, for theirdrinking water supply.
But not all by far not even mostand we'll talk about corrosion
(11:56):
in a minute But if you want toknow some real corrosive water
go to Brownsville, Texas Back inthe 1990s in Brownsville, Texas.
The Rio Grande water issufficiently corrosive and
people were coming to home tofind wet spots on their walls
(12:16):
due to pinhole leaks.
The water etched its way throughthe copper tubing.
Full story is there aredifferent grades of copper
tubing with thinner and thickerwalls.
And if the proper tubing hadbeen used, these leaks wouldn't
have occurred.
But people had to replace allthe plumbing in their houses
because of the wrong coppertubing being used and the
(12:38):
corrosive water.
Now that's corrosive.
so the Flint crisis was notcaused by switching their water
supply to the Flint Riverbecause, in fact, many cities
use river water and thatincludes the city of Flint.
(13:00):
Flint's water supply was theFlint River up until 1971.
In 1971, they switched to buyingtheir water from Detroit.
And that's because, believe itor not, in the 1970s, the city
of Flint was growing.
And they were concerned notabout water quality, but water
(13:23):
quantity.
They were concerned about thecapacity of their plant and the
river to supply a growing city.
Now ask yourself, what would beso magical about Detroit water?
In fact, it's also drawn from ariver, the Detroit River, and
it's in fact the same water.
(13:45):
Flint River water flows intoLake Huron, which flows into the
Detroit River.
It's the same water.
So somehow letting it flow toDetroit so that it can be
treated there and then pumpedback to Flint where it has to be
lifted 400 feet into the air inthe process at the same time.
(14:07):
That's a good idea.
Of course it's not a good idea.
The water's already in Flint.
You should use the Flint water.
How much electricity wasconsumed pumping that water up
to Flint?
How much coal fired electricitywas used?
What about the harm to theclimate?
(14:28):
When the story broke, peoplestarted talking about all the
pollution in the river.
Well, the Flint River is notpolluted.
Not since the Clean Water Act ofthe 1960s.
The problem with the river wateris it has a low pH, not a high
pollution.
Actually, it doesn't even comefrom the Flint River per se.
(14:49):
Well, it kind of does, but itactually comes from the Holloway
Reservoir.
It's a beautiful man made lakefar upstream from Flint.
There's a Flint River WatershedCoalition that promotes
canoeing, and fishing on it.
the dam that impounds thereservoir has a spillway with a
little waterfall, stepping stonefalls.
(15:10):
It's all quite nice.
And the tributaries to the FlintRiver include designated trout
streams such as, one near myhouse.
All sounds quite lovely, doesn'tit?
Quite unlike the pictures thatthey show you of the Flint River
downtown.
Well, of course, that's notwhere they get their drinking
water.
They get it from the reservoir.
(15:32):
And the water that we sent toFlint was just fine.
Sorry if you didn't take care ofit, Flint.
In 2011, both Flint and Detroitwere broke.
Emergency managers wereappointed by the state.
And one reason Detroit was brokeis because its residents didn't
(15:56):
pay their water bills.
People in Detroit say, Water isa human right, which is all you
have to say when you're aDemocrat.
So what did the city of Detroitdo?
Well, what do Democrats do?
They look around for somebodyelse with money, don't they?
So the city of Detroit wassupplying Flint.
(16:19):
In fact, Flint was its biggestwater customer.
Its largest single watercustomer was the city of Flint.
So they demanded payment fromFlint and kept raising their
rates because the city had topay.
The Democrats in Detroit SawFlint as a goose to be plucked,
(16:40):
and turning the screws on Flintwas easier than squeezing the
money out of their ownresidents.
But we have to be fair toDetroit.
It's not all their fault.
When they do try to shut offwater to people who don't pay,
they face lawsuits.
And the ACLU, the American CivilLiberties Union, has been suing
(17:04):
Detroit continuously since 2014because they expect people to
pay their water bill or face awater shutoff.
Well, it's pretty clear thatFlint and its suburbs can't
carry the burden of Detroit'swater bill.
Water bills of Detroit's watercustomers, so feeling the pinch,
Flint joined a cooperative tocreate a new water system,
(17:27):
bringing water to variouscommunities from Lake Huron,
direct from Lake Huron, and thiswould be cheaper, more
efficient.
This is when it turned ugly, ormaybe uglier.
The city of Detroit, fearfulthat it was losing its cash cow,
now acted like a jilted lover,and told Flint, no, you cannot
(17:50):
leave, you cannot join theKaregnondi water project.
And Flint said, no, we're goingto do that, we need to cut our
expenses.
So then Detroit invoked a clausein their contract with Flint and
told them if they did notwithdraw from the Karegnondi
Water Project, Detroit would cutthem off in a year's time, and
(18:14):
they were allowed to do that.
Do you understand how seriousthis is?
And how nobody talks about it?
It was in all the papers, maybedown in the column.
did you hear that?
Detroit said no water for you,Flint.
And none of the Democrats, noneof the news media, not the ACLU,
(18:36):
nobody has said boo about this,that Detroit completely cut
Flint off of its water.
Or that's what they said theywould do, if they switched.
Well, flint was in a bindbecause the water project
cooperative would not bedelivering water for 18 months
as everybody knew.
(19:00):
So striking back the flint citycouncil told Detroit, well,
we're not going to give you ayear.
We're going to cut you off rightnow.
So there were a lot ofintelligent moves by intelligent
people, right?
Or there was a lot of politicalposturing and blustering and
saber rattling that led to thecrisis.
(19:24):
Now, Flint had always known thatthey could just switch back to
the Flint River supply.
They have a waterworks, and it'sintact.
And so they decided to do justthat.
Well, they couldn't just decide.
Remember they were under anemergency manager appointed by
the state and they had to gethis permission first.
(19:46):
This is another major point thatgoes unstated or is lied about
because the emergency managerwas a Republican.
The state government wasRepublican at the time.
It's Democrat right now, butbecause this emergency manager
was appointed by the Republicangovernor.
He is often blamed for the Flintwater crisis, even though he
(20:08):
actually put the brakes on thetransfer.
Yes, he stopped it.
Since the state of Michigan wasalso managing the bankruptcy of
Detroit, the emergency managerof Flint took into account the
fact that the loss of therevenue from the Flint water
would have a negative impact onDetroit.
(20:29):
So, he did not just sign off onit.
First, he had to do a study, orthe state did a study.
And after the study determinedthat the city of Detroit should
be able to manage without therevenue from Flint, Or the fact
that they were going to lose itin 18 months anyway, another six
months.
Only then did he grantpermission.
(20:53):
Emergency manager Darnell Earlydid not create the Flint water
crisis.
He allowed the city of Flint tocreate the Flint water crisis.
People talk as if he forced themto do it, but on the contrary,
once Early granted permission,the city council members, they
(21:17):
formed a conga line and marchedaround city council chambers
singing, We Shall Overcome.
And then when they did thecutover, they had a big ceremony
where they had a toast to eachother drinking the new water
that they supplied themselvesfrom the Flint River.
It was not the state of Michiganthat caused the cutover.
(21:38):
From Detroit water to FlintRiver water.
Everything would have been fineafter that in most cities.
The water plant worked before,it could work again.
And if the government has simplydone its job, the minimum
requirement, There'd be no storyhere, but incompetence in
(21:59):
Democrat run cities is the norm.
And for the first and only timein American history.
The Water Department became thevehicle of poisoning citizens.
We'll look at the aftermath inthe next episode.
Now a preview of some comingepisodes.
(22:21):
America is the worst country inthe world, except for all the
others.
We're paraphrasing WinstonChurchill's remark about
democracy, but it applies verywell to America.
We're often called a third worldcountry based on the lies spread
by the media.
Lies such as We have a massshooting every day, or a school
(22:44):
shooting, either one.
Gun lies are among the mediafavorites, and another one is
that more children are killed byguns than any other cause.
Other lies are that America isracist, or that a half million
people go bankrupt every yeardue to medical bills.
Each of these statements iscompletely false, as we've
(23:04):
demonstrated in other episodes,but people cite them and say,
That's what makes America.
country.
But anybody can play that game,and in future episodes we'll
examine who's a third worldcountry.
And, if you're listening fromoverseas, you might be a winner.
(23:26):
Now this is all in fun, it's alltongue in cheek, and it should
be fun because it's so easy todo.
For example, just look atSocialist Canada, where a recent
airplane crash caused by theirterrible weather due to climate
change, climate change caused bytheir huge petroleum exports,
(23:47):
nearly resulted in the deaths ofdozens of people, including
Americans.
A crash at a Canadian airport,under the authority of Canadian
air traffic controllers,/ In ajet aircraft built in Canada,
supported by the Canadiangovernment's huge subsidies to
the Canadian Aircraft Company,supported by taxation to excess
(24:10):
by the downtrodden Canadianpeople.
Now, tell a friend about theTenth Man podcast, and thank you
for listening.
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