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Shutting Off Water To 150k Residents - Ukraine? No, Detroit!
The news that hundreds of thousands of people will lose water supplies is not a stunning headline anymore - poor old Ukraine... or Iraq. However, this time, the 'it couldn't happen here' crowd might be stunned to hear that The Motor City is playing serious hardball with residents who have fallen behind on paying their water bills. Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department has begun turning off the taps of 150,000 residents who are at least two months behind on payments. As one advocate notes, "sick people have been left without running water and working toilets. People recovering from surgery cannot wash and change bandages. Children cannot bathe, and parents cannot cook." Of course, given that these are generally voting members of the US public, we would be stunned if the Federal government did not create a new fund to 'help' them out of this 'unfairness'.
As Yahoo reports, The Motor City is playing serious hardball with residents who have fallen behind on paying their water bills.
Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department has begun turning off the taps of 150,000 residents who are at least two months behind on payments. People are being left without a drop to drink and no ability to bathe or use the toilet. Now a coalition of water and human rights activists has banded together to ask the United Nations to step in and end the disconnections.
Last week, advocates from the Detroit People’s Water Board, Food and Water Watch, Blue Planet Project, and Michigan Welfare Rights Organization submitted a comprehensive report to the U.N.’s special rapporteur that details the dire situation facing folks whose water has been cut off.
“Sick people have been left without running water and working toilets. People recovering from surgery cannot wash and change bandages. Children cannot bathe, and parents cannot cook,” write the report’s authors. And “families concerned about children being taken away by authorities due to lack of water and sanitation services in the home have been sending their children to live with relatives and friends, which has an impact on school attendance and related activities.”
In 2013, Detroit declared bankruptcy—it’s $18 billion in the hole. Half of the 323,000 customers served by the city’s Department of Water and Sanitation have either paid their bills late or simply can’t afford service, to the tune of $175 million.
Back in March, the department announced that it would be cutting service to residents who hadn’t paid up. Although the city claims that it started sending out notices about the disconnections in March, the report’s authors write that they heard “directly from people impacted by the water cutoffs who say they were given no warning and had no time to fill buckets, sinks, and tubs before losing access to water.”
“We really don’t want to shut off anyone’s water, but it’s really our duty to go after those who don’t pay, because if they don’t pay, then our other customers pay for them,” department spokesperson Curtrise Garner told Al Jazeera America. “That’s not fair to our other customers.”
However, activists claim the city has been unfairly overcharging Detroit residents for water to compensate for its significant financial woes.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 38.1 percent of Detroit residents are living below the poverty line. Despite the tough times many people are facing, they’ve been paying an average of $64.99 a month, significantly higher than the national average of about $40, and rates are only going up. The Detroit City Council just approved a nearly 9 percent rate increase for water.
“What we see is a violation of the human right to water,” Meera Karunananthan, an international campaigner with Blue Planet Project, told Al Jazeera America. “The U.S. has international obligations in terms of people’s right to water, and this is a blatant violation of that right. We’re hoping the U.N. will put pressure on the federal government and the state of Michigan to do something about it.”
Three U.N. human rights experts issued a statement on Wednesday, declaring that “disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights.”
“When I conducted an official country mission to the U.S. in 2011, I encouraged the U.S. government to adopt a federal minimum standard on affordability for water and sanitation and a standard to provide protection against disconnections for vulnerable groups and people living in poverty,” said Catarina de Albuquerque, who is the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation. “I also urged the government to ensure due process guarantees in relation to water disconnection.”
One of the experts, Leilani Farha, who focuses on the right to adequate housing, also pointed out the racial implications of shutting off water to the nearly 83 percent black population. “If these water disconnections disproportionately affect African Americans, they may be discriminatory, in violation of treaties the U.S. has ratified,” said Farha.
Although the experts declared that “households [that] suffered unjustified disconnections must be immediately reconnected,” when was the last time the U.N. issued sanctions against an American municipality for human rights violations? In the meantime, 3,000 residents have lost their water, and Detroit plans to turn off the service of thousands more every week.
* * *
So people didnt pay their bills... advocates claim demanding payment for services rendered is capitalist exploitation (and racist)... and now the UN explains how that doesn't matter, water is a right? Tell that to Cambodians?
Welcome to the free market America
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Breaking News: Obama to announce ObamaAgua, free water paid for by the tax payers.
When asked how the government would pay for the water as well as past due bills, Obama candidly said: "Details?! I ain't got time for that!" He then brushed some dirt off of his shoulder.
Can't the water be paid for the same way Barry's expenses are paid, i.e. by printing?
Can food stamps be used to pay water bills?
Keep the "peasants" content. Oh wait.
.
"Can food stamps be used to pay water bills?"
No. only 40s
You can buy imported italian water with stamps dont fear....
Sheeeiiit, water be food, nigga!
If solar panels became prevalent. They would tax the sun.
Fight the power.
Sooo, if we just nuke the place, doesn't that solve everything?
From space. It's the only sure way.
150k more vacant homes in Detroit. Most of them haven't made a mortgage payment in two years any way. So pack up their stuff and walk away. Easy solution.
I don't really want them to leave Detroit.
Suddenly those preppers who store lots of water aint looking so crazy anymore, are they??!!
And this is America, not Utopia. Pay your bills, or go hungry / thirsty.
Besdes, don't they have a whole huge ginormous friggen fresh water lake near them?? I foresee a lot of buckets and boiling in their future...
Is that lake anywhere near you? Because I'm thinking that if people DID that, you are going to have a bunch of new residents swimming around in that lake soon. And not the brown, lazy kind. The kind that you need a microscope to see.
Just keep in mind, this is America, not Utopia. Keep your water and sewer systems operational for everyone, or don't complain when you are doubled over with cramps, and leaking explosive diarrhea every 20 minutes.
Apparently you missed the "boiling" part.
Boiling of water is for post-disaster or particular issues, and is meant to be for short-term use on DRINKING water. NOT as a regular, ongoing method of handling your communities entire water supply. Are you boiling the water you are bathing in? Washing your clothes or dishes in? Washing your hands with? How much water are you thinking of boiling on a daily basis?
Downvoter, I know where you're coming from. I too hate it when reality intrudes on my perfectly reasonable fantasy solution to a major problem.
They always roooon it with their negative-Nancy attitudes!
I grew up in rural Arkansas: I was 8 years old before we got municipal water--it was all well before that. Even then, it was only untreated from the lake. My mother boiled our drinking water for 20 years before we had treated water.
Granted, the lake was clean due to the low population, and long-term boiling was practical for our family, but my point is that it can be done.
Well I imagine rural Arkansas has a considerably lighter population density than Detroit...what can work quite well for one family per 5 acres is a logistical nightmare for a place where folks are a little more tightly packed. And rural Arkansas folk are probably quite used to providing more of their own needs than the folks in a place where everything is owned and controlled by someone else. I mean, if your water comes from your own well on your own land, who's gonna shut you off? If you live in a landlord-owned home, they control the spigot.
It CAN be done, but not by thousands of people all living in the same general area.
Can't home owners whose water has been turned off just go to their club to shower? Or in the summer they can take a quick dip in the pool. Just trying to be helpful. Enough being funny - if anyone is such a loser in this country that they can't pay their water bill, they should be outsourced to China, where they can become reeducated with the essence of personal responsibility. A year or two working in a FoxCom factory and living in a dorm would do wonders.
Of course they can! And I'm sure they will. I'm sure they will come up with ALL kinds of ways...Most of which will in short order leach into YOUR water supply. Yum yum!
Have you any idea how fast something like cholera can burn through a population once it is established? And it is a very nasty way to go. It also makes NO distinction between the 'makers and takers'. Holding up your 'paid in full' water bill won't make disease pass you by.
Ooo. Scary. Do you have any idea how cholera is actually transmitted? Obviously not, roflmao.
Yeah, through fecal contamination of food or water. Like what happens when people are unable to practice proper hygiene. Since that often results in contamination of existing water sources as people use them as their 'supply', it can spread to neighboring areas very quickly under ideal conditions.
Are you making the connection now? It SHOULD be scary.
You have no right to drink. Because we say so. Because we fucked up the whole world. But hey, Europe has a new leader; Jean Claude "when things get difficult, you have to lie" Juncker. So we don't have to worry.
You have no right to breathe either. You are just livestock. When you are no longer useful to us or convenient to allow to exist . . .
Oh hell noes!
If these greedy motherfuckers make me cancel my DirectTV, or iPhone line to pay a water bill........??????
I'm gonna be one pissed off mf'er!
Fucking greedy republicans don't want to pay their fair share.
Just disband the city of Detroit. Get rid of the city government and break it up into small neighborhoods. You cut the former entity off from knees on their ability to leach tax dollars from the people living there. Then their creditors and pensioners take a bath. Done deal. Move on
If this would actually happen I would move there. Why can't there be a few states or areas or WHATEVER designated as government free zones. When are we going to try the no government solution to the total government problem???
In 1861 seven states had the same idea with respect to the federal government. It did not end well for them.
Your overlords are not amused when their livestock decide they want to vote with their feet.
As I understand...when Detroit residents are threatened with the water being shutoff, they mysteriously come up with the money to pay their bill.
Sounds like the Water & Sewer Dept is being gamed...shut it off and require a 1 year deposit to turn it back on.
Neccesity is the mother of, "Oops. I guess I have the money after all."
Tyler Durden isn't a plumber. The graphic is a valve being turned on, not off.
Maybe it was the homeowner fucking with his shut-off?....NPT ball valves are not to be buried.
LOL. And speaking of graphics, I'm still not entirely comfortable with that ZH Twitter avatar. When it pops up on my screen, people think I'm playing for the other team.
No worries Obama just asked Congress to give 500mm to rebuild the basic infastructure in Detroit...wait shit.
What a bunch of curb cocks.
Advice to those 150,000 people.
1) Collect rain water off your roof and filter it.
2) Take an RV (Navy) shower ... only requires 2qt per shower.
3) Dig a 4' foot post hole, poop in it, and cover it (lasts more than a month of pooping ... then dig another a foot or two from the first) ... no odor ... no flies.
4) Pee into a 3 liter pop bottle (use the screw cap) and pour it down your post hole when it's full. No odor ... no flies.
Then stand back and watch the government (that you pay for these services you no longer need) make these simple and effective remedies illegal ... to protect themselves.
Todd Marshall
Plantersville, TX
No no no! Jackboots will visit you if you collect rainwater.
Hi Todd. Loving this rain.
I'm totally solar.
Hi Todd. Good advice. Loving this rain we've been having lately. Peace be with you and your family.
I can't help myself....don't waste the nitrogen in the pee. mix it 20 to 1 with the water from the cistern and water your survival garden. I've seen people claim that a single human wastes enough nutrients/nitrogen fertilizer in their urine to support a garden large enough to feed themselves for a year.
I won't say how much waste comes out of peoples mouths or asses.
You'll find your post hole when filled (and covered with about 6" of dirt) will very quickly decompose. Dung beetles are amazing!. Later, you can dig that same hole again and have very rich compost. But isn't there some rule about fertilizing with human excrement? Similar to the rule about mating with your sister?
So are you from Texas or West Virginia?
Illinois ... but I got to Texas as soon as I could.
Anything you suggest would take effort.... folks getting turned off dont know what work is.
Gotta be an opportunity there.
More like 150 million are soon going to need this type of advice.
Was'nt there a case in the land of free and brave where a old lady was fined for collecting rain water instead of getting in to the program?
Then there is the problem of collecting rain water when living in a apartment!?
But the ZH crowd thinks you are genious, so good for you.
Every apartment I lived in, the water bills were paid in the rent. The only thing metered was the electricity and gas.
At least several cases in Oregon ... on the west side of the Cascades where it rains 1/2 the year pretty continuously. Go figure!
Plus you get the thrill of going outdoors. I've always loved that.
FEDs should just borrow a couple million and pay their bills. It will add some badly needed high quality collateral to the system (see earlier article today) and get the FED off the hook a little in their desperate search for new debt to buy, while at the same time keeping millions living at subsistence levels in barely inhabitable shitholes, with the mistaken impression that the government has their backs. Wins for everyone!
The city with 100 year old pipes serving gutted out neighborhoods wants the suburbs to pay for their water system.
Detroit is a liability to the whole state.
this article is more evidence of the satanic puke infesting this nation. shutting off water to people is evil, especially without notice. detroit was destroyed on purpose - with many stupid fucks lining up to help with their hands in other people's pockets. it's a shame all the way around.
fuck capitalism. the .01% could easily help these people, but they refuse, and they do so with a writ of damnation. the government and water service of detroit are despicable. detroit made its bed, and now iti must lie in it. there is much blame to go around to the wealthy and poor.
TB,
Those people got welfare checks to pay their water bills. They blew the money on something else. We should euthanzie them.
Now that's just despicable. Have fun trying to survive in your bunker on your own jizm.
Even the Brown God said, "Don't work, don't eat."
2 Thessalonians 310-13 Don’t you remember the rule we had when we lived with you? “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” And now we’re getting reports that a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings are taking advantage of you. This must not be tolerated. We command them to get to work immediately—no excuses, no arguments—and earn their own keep. Friends, don’t slack off in doing your duty.
Now there's a good one - pretend to inspiration from the Word.
There's a warm place waiting for you.
The Brown God giveth, the Brown God taketh.
"Plant a seed". Pay a few of their water bills.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department now offers our customers the ability to make payments online, as well as request meter readings and other DWSD services.
http://www.dwsd.org/pages_n/billpay.html
Um, the "brown God" said no such thing. That was Paul speaking. And you might want to go back and re-read that scripture IN CONTEXT before assigning any meanings to it.
I just noticed something...I've been downvoted several times here for pointing out that this action will create a health hazard, even though a 5 year old would grasp that. Well, whatever, there are a disturbingly large number of such posters here. So what they are saying is that there WON'T be any consequences for doing this? They can't see ANY potential problems that may result?... Seriously? Does that seem like a realistic or rational belief in light of the facts? And they are usually very adamant that those folks deserve to be cut off because THEY acted irresponsibly without regard for THEIR consequences...
You know, there HAS to be some logic to your argument. It SHOULD show SOME evidence of thought. It can't just be a randomly selected collection of bumper-sticker slogans and thought-farts from Faux News. At least make it LOOK like you put some effort into it, K?
I also noticed that you got 6 upvotes. For a post where you mis-quoted scripture, attributed it to the wrong author, and completely disregarded the context in order to wring a different meaning out of it than was intended...
*facepalm*
Capitalism did not destroy Detroit, global corporatism and local cronyism did.
Folks in the .01% and well below would help "these people", but any funding would be sucked away by the criminality, ineptitude, and negligence that got this going in the first place.
Read up on how Chicago recovered from the Great Fire. Local businessmen got together, came up with a plan, appointed folks to implement it, funded it, and told the government to keep their friggin' hands off, or else! I'm not sure enough such businessmen exist anymore, and if they came forward they would be arrested as terrorists.
They announced they were going to start doing this in March, so I call BS on no notice.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/03/21/detroit-plans-thousands-of-water-...
How do I know? I get local news from Detroit.
83% of the black population in The D can't figure out how to spend a welfare check correctly.
How many times will we bail them out??
Where do I get free shit? Fuck it.
90% of Blackistan Detroit, don't know what a city water/ sewer utility bill is.
I am sure the black folks there if they had any say so wouldnt agree to billions of dollars of free aid given to other countries.
Bullshit...... every Chimp in Detroit loves Obama, and anything he says is good by them.....
Pay your fricking bill!!!
Does Israel ever pay its military bills to the USA? Just saying, leave the poor black folks out of this. They are not the ones who LBO the companies they worked for and shipped out the machines to China to be used by slave labor.
The Chosen Ones, the Nice Israelis, are working on that cashless society X-ians are always worried about.
Seems Israelis doing the Devil’s work from a X-ian perspective if ya ask me. “You’ll know them by their deeds.”
I must be one of ‘The Elect’ considering I can see that a mile away.
let them
drink 40's...
Visions of ' backdoor ' Barry on his banjo with his version of Suwannee River
The warm humanitarian heart of ZH on full display.
Tony Bonn :fuck capitalism. the .01% could easily help these people, but they refuse, and they do so with a writ of damnation.
Capitalism? Pull my finger, where is this capitalism you speak of?
Dunno how things work in USA but the "socialist" and not so socialist coutries I have lived in, if you don't pay your electricity and water, it will be turned off, what's the news?
What's the news you ask?
Well, these are poor black folks that have been oppressed by the white race for so long they no longer know how to pay their water bills, much less get off their asses to find a job.
If it wasn't for the Obamaphone they'd have no phone at all.
And, the only thing they're good at is popping out new crack babies perpetuating the welfare scam generation after generation.
And, with The Great Black Hope in the Colored House anything negative perpetuated against black folks is, RAYCIST!
Man, you are evil.
Speaking of water. Any recommendations on a quality purification system?
Aquarain.
Got well water folks, and prob within 5 years, have solar and battery for power.
getting off grid is a good game plan to have.
You make a good point.
Why don’t the nice Detroit African Americans dig themselves a community well?
The nice Detroit African Americans should have plenty of piping from the houses they've stripped over the last 92 years.
Heck, they could even all chip in and pay a driller to install a neighborhood well. LOL.
You can get off the grid until they pass laws that force you back on it lol. Just you wait that day is soon coming. And they got plenty of SWAT teams to neutralize your off the grid system.
ya know what pisses me off?... why do we call these US citizen's African american??? the racial description are flagrant caste analogies of a sub-culture in pre-american colonialism psyche!
fuck me,... they've been here as a vital part of our american culture since the 17th century. longer than most european immigrants. but, do we call a cities predominating population by irish, italian, mexican, greek, spanish, egyptian, iranian, indian, russian, german, french, english, polish, etel., american's? we are all american's... period!
so, let's stop stereo`typing races by ethnic slur`bish, and just say those poor bastards are getting fuck'd over by the Clinton's, Bush's, and Obama's!!!
the only exception here, if I can be so politely blunt, is that Obama isn't a US citizen and yet he's president...
lost in america, hoping it doesn't turn into a, 'Ethnic-cleansing Spring'?
UN involved now and more later. See where this going.
Detroit, an Ukraine near you !
I'm long well drillers who take EBT
Isn't healcare a right? Then shouldn't water be a right? Then shouldn't food be a right? Then shouldn't housing be a right? Then shouldn't transportation be a right?
Right.
Atlantic City is the new Detroit! Forward comrades!
No need to gamble anymore at Chicken Bone Beach.
Killing the Ukrainians, Russians and middle easterners is a much higher priority. Therefore recently requested $500 000 000 will be better spent there... UN believable!
When sanitation and hygiene become impossible, those neighborhoods will finally get with the program and begin producing...
Cholera, Typhus, Dysentery...None of these confine themselves to the deadbeats who don't pay. All of them spread like wildfire...yes, even to the children of those hard-working taxpayers who feel so good about teaching these bums a lesson.
Polio has been making a comeback too. You might want to watch where the kiddies swim this summer.
The phrase "cut off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind.
How fucking STUPID are these people? Both the ones making these rules and the ones who think its a great idea? When it's your 6 year old in the ICU, and they can't get the IV fluids into her fast enough to replace what's pouring out of her from every orifice, you might reconsider the wisdom of this move.
And where is the Board of Health in this?
Broken record???
The irony here is that they're paying the retirement of the people shutting of their water... maybe not irony since they probably owe back taxes.
Just wait when the public unions decides not to work the public transportation and other services.
LADWP is now taking credit cards.
Funny, last time I checked the Detroit settlement plan paid water & sewer bond holders at 100% face value, in spite of the debt exceeding the value of the water & sewer systems by more than 50%.
Detroit Voters deserve to be raped by bond holders, they voted for it.
They looted every water & sewer bond issue and didn't put it into the water & sewer system but instead bought crack and booze.
Remember when ENRON got the water rights to Argentina/Chile via the World Bank / IMF parsing up the spoils?
We just been 3rd world'ed
Now it's our turn
IMF/World Bank/Enron/Bush - Grand Theft Larceny
GP: So what's happening is - this is just one of them. And by the way, it's not just anyone who gets a piece of the action. The water system of Buenos Aires was sold off for a song to a company called Enron. A pipeline was sold off, that runs between Argentina and Chile, was sold off to a company called Enron.
AJ: And then the globalists blow out the Enron after transferring the assets to another dummy corporation and then they just roll the theft items off.
GP: You've got it. And by the way, you know why they moved the pipeline to Enron is that they got a call from somebody named George W. Bush in 1988.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/PAL203Ap.html
The neocon fancy of privatization of water is a different matter, and deeply troubling.
It is just frigging stupid when there is one pipe and one electricity line coming in to your house, and you need both of them to survive, and the fucking neocons are talking about free choise, bullshit, what they are talking about is more bonuses while wrecking the infrastructure.
I've seen this with my own eyes, and I know this is swearing in the church at ZH, but sometimes "free" market is just not good enough, you need community to get together for a service, it worked very well for a long time in many countries until these neocon fuckers start to wreck everything.
I don't know if the water in this case is in privat hands, but I think everybody needs to prioritize food and water before other needs, hence, pay the damn bill!
Cutting off free services is a great way to get rid of Socialist parasites, this is bullish for Detroit.
"Captain Paydabill" will save them.
What you need is a wrench to turn it back on then shit in bags until full and drop them by the local government/water depts. from now on.
My guess is that it is against the law for them to get/collect their own water.
That is how governments work.
Detroit:
Where Gimmedat liberal dreams meet cold, hard reality.
Coming to a Gimmedat hood near you.
Soon.
Maybe Obaba & Michelle will donate some of their millions$$$$ to help their less fortunate Blacks?
Maybe the Clintons will share some of their one hundred million$$$$ to help the poor?
Maybe some the 500 milllion$$$$ Obaba wants Joe and Jill Citizen to pay for weapons to arm the terrorists in Syria so they can kill Americans and civilians in Iraq could be diverted to help?
What about Warren Buffett who complains his taxes are too low? Want to help the less fortunate Warren?
Pelosi? Reid? Soros? Hello? Anyone of you millionaires care to contribute a little of your vast wealth?
Hello?
Anyone there?
Al Gore?
Anyone?
(crickets....and a faintly heard..."let them eat cake")
None of them can afford it, election campaigns are too expensive.
http://youtu.be/VjHR89gKfSU
I would like to know who has an average $40 water bill?? Amazing. Down here in Austin Texas a little one bedroom/one bath apartment had a $62 water bill last month. When was it exactly that the "public" utilities and their infrastructure paid for with tax money was bought by foreign interest?
And my other question:
How do I buy the bonds or whatever it is to get in on the other end of this robbery?
But keep over paying those union workers, because they're worth it.
No, really. They are. LMFAO
Water may be a right but plumbing is not.
Pardon me while I go use the plumbing. ;-)
You bought it, you own it.
Detroit is the show case of 50 years of liberalism. It is a stark reminder of how the scum sucking unions and liberals, sucked the life out of a vibrant metropolis.
Detroit and Chicago, are just 2 reminders of big government and liberalism
Really I though it was the showcase of the gutting of American industry by Wall Street and the Banks that provided them with the funds for LBOs. Guess Detroit and Chicago are reminders of Big Banks, Big Wall Street, and financialism
I'll take demographics for 1,000, Alex.
Hispaniola was once the richest colony in the Western Hemisphere. Now it's just Haiti and the Dominican Republic. What changed? Demographics. They killed all the Europeans.
Rhodesia was once the most productive agricultural entity in Africa. Now it's just Zimbabwe. What changed? Demographics. They killed all the Europeans.
Detroit was once one of the most productive cities in the Western Hemisphere. Now it's just a slum. What changed? Demographics. They drove out all the Europeans.
The Europoid people who built Detroit and made it work aren't there anymore. The people who replaced them (with the help of government and a certain financial interest in Real Estate churn, I might add) are not and never have been capable of building or maintaining an advanced civilization. That's why Detroit sucks now, when it didn't then.
People are not fungible. Content of character is not universal. Demography is destiny. "Inclusion" means corruption. "Diversity" is death.
Well, there's no going back to the lily-white paradise of the Past, you will say. True, and now there is no way forward except through the giant clusterfuck of Civil War II, that everybody on this blog knows is coming.
What, is the bailout store closed?
Detroit has been rendered into the graveyard/necropolis of
the United States of America by the ruling classless kleptocrats that chewed Detroit up and spit it out when they had no more use for it. Frankly, I'm a Motown fan
and Detroit can be rebuilt to honour the great musicians
and artists that made her name great. It is a cryin' shame that Detroit was left to go to pot IMHO. Given the intelligence housed on Internet today we could collectively
re-boot Detroit with much crowdfunding and unused untapped creativity housed on-line. A concerted effort to rebuild Detroit for the wealth of music she has given us is to be found on today online and one only needs to gather interested parties and start rebuilding. In brief, if we could collectively motivate a rebirth for Detroit we could actually save Capitalism before it spirals into further hell on earth. Younger generations have no idea how much the boomer generation loved Motown as a genra in music and I, for one, would actually donate money for a rebuild of Detroit and so would millions of music lovers throughout the world. Detroit has history and many people in many countries are none too pleased that it has been degraded to the point of the destruction that has manifested over the last 40 years. If Americans en masse decide to rebuild Detroit, they might stand a chance when SHTF.
There's reports of young folks pioneering off-grid in Detroit already. But better to sush about it. If the government gets wind, they'll shut them down before they can take root.
Detroit has been rendered into the graveyard/necropolis of
the United States of America by the ruling classless kleptocrats that chewed Detroit up and spit it out when they had no more use for it. Frankly, I'm a Motown fan
and Detroit can be rebuilt to honour the great musicians
and artists that made her name great. It is a cryin' shame that Detroit was left to go to pot IMHO. Given the intelligence housed on Internet today we could collectively
re-boot Detroit with much crowdfunding and unused untapped creativity housed on-line. A concerted effort to rebuild Detroit for the wealth of music she has given us is to be found on today online and one only needs to gather interested parties and start rebuilding. In brief, if we could collectively motivate a rebirth for Detroit we could actually save Capitalism before it spirals into further hell on earth. Younger generations have no idea how much the boomer generation loved Motown as a genra in music and I, for one, would actually donate money for a rebuild of Detroit and so would millions of music lovers throughout the world. Detroit has history and many people in many countries are none too pleased that it has been degraded to the point of the destruction that has manifested over the last 40 years. If Americans en masse decide to rebuild Detroit, they might stand a chance when SHTF.
Let em dry to death. That's capitalism, right?
Parched and wrinkled mutherfuckers, all dried up in Detroit.
Have those Detroit guys ever heard of pre pay meters? Or massive pressure reduction leaving just the basics? What is it with you Americans, you're all mad.
I'll bet most people getting their water shut off have iPhones, HDTVs and Escalade payments.
They should call the WH on their free Obama phone and complain.
(they probably are)
As ye sow,
So shall ye reap.
"Michigan teachers rank second in the nation in terms of salary when the cost-of-living is factored in, according to an analysis done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Maryland ranked No. 1; Illinois was No. 3 followed by New York and California."
http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/18265
Really now, why dont you look at the fat in the police, fire department, prison system and city and state beauracracies if you want to see some real waste of money on salaries and benefits.
Fuck y'all. I have a right to unlimited free shit.
Give me your address. I'll box up that last deuce I dropped and send it to ya for free. :)
Bundle the water bill with the cell phone bill and put a lein on the EBT card payments. Problem solved.
Nestle business model is working out fine. Get water for virtually free then sell it back at a 1000% plus, convince all water is not a right to enhance profiteering. The business model works even better when they find a "captured" market. Nice test case with potential to be extrapolated, just need more financially screwed towns and cities willing to jack prices up benefitting corporate cronies; a win-win. /sarc.
The money they saved by not paying their water bill can be used to buy bottled water. Win-Win for everyone.
Bottled water does no flush the turlet, or fill the tub. Does taste better though.
They can go green by pooping in a plastic bucket and putting the lid back on to keep the smell down. Win win for everyone once again....
WTF the UN got to do with water in detroit
Read yesterday a report on this stating that the city is only going after the poor people and not the big ones that owe the most... sound familiar? Typical predator and prey relationship, especially this close to the final curtain call.
It's the same thought-process that leads to parents congratulating a child who just 'won' a fight, regardless of whether he was at fault or not. The primitive notion that it is perfectly acceptable to attack the weak, not because we actually believe them to be morally inferior, but simply because we know we can pound them into the dirt. That they CAN be pounded without offering much resistance just shows how worthless they are, so it can feel good to defeat them. THAT is Nature at work, Darwin in action, survival of the fittest, dog-eat-dog. No need for guilt if you are only following "the laws of Nature or of Man", regardless of how it affects this person. If you upend his whole life and seize what little he has, disrupt his entire family and slap him with a label of "Deadbeat", then cut off his water and sewer, it's all good. Because the LAW says that 1180 dollar water arrears has more "value" than all of the above. Although unfortunate, they'll say, his resultant circumstances are NOT the fault of the one who was simply following the law which SAYS it's ok to ass-rape you repeatedly. It's not like he got any pleasure out of it or anything, it's just that the rules require it, so...
So, with Detroit it's like they're saying "We're not trying to force you outta here or anything, you're free to stay if you INSIST....even though we are defunding everything so fast that if you DO stay, in six months time your main meal will be squirrel-on-a-stick cooked over an open campfire and eaten bones and all. But sadly, the rules require us to cut off your water and sewer as well even if the loss of your job or the WORST economy in recent history have made you unable to pay. The fact that we appear to be enjoying it is simply coincidence."
This story has apparently become an idiot-magnet. For whatever reason, the idea of leaving thousands of people without access to basic water and sewage appeals to a goodly segment of persons, who are often very self-righteous in their insistence that these folks deserve this, and that it will not have ANY negative effect on anyone else. The righteousness of teaching them "a lesson" will overcome any of the unfortunate consequences, so they believe.
If you don't want to be bothered with those neighborhoods anymore, then have the BALLS to come out and say that. Stop pretending that you are such exploited, put-upon taxpayers who are being driven into poverty by supporting them.
So STOP supporting them. Relocate the residents, purchase the homes of the 4 or 5 who actually DO own their homes, and bulldoze those homes to the ground, and allow them to return to Nature. THEN you don't have to worry about water and sewer. Collapse or crimp the supply pipes and call it a day.
But to retain the illusion of a community, and allow people to live there at all, and to collect taxes on that land as if it was a functioning neighborhood is beyond disgusting. To go further and cut off basic necessities like water and sewer is cruel and beyond stupid.
If you think those people are such a drain, then relocate them and stop collecting taxes on it as though it was actually a part of the city.
OR... give those communities the opportunity to break away and try to take care of themselves, if they can. Let them reincorporate with Michigan as a separate entity from the city that obviously finds them such a drain.
In fact, separate Detroit from ALL of its outlying areas. No more funding the city by draining the suburbs, it stands alone, or it falls under its own weight. And the owners of all the best prime real estate can take the loss themselves. No more huge tax base to bleed the many outside so the few can live well inside.
Then you give those folks in the newly-freed neighborhoods homesteading rights, the ability to form their own local governments, and you help them to get their infrastructure in place so they can have the best chance of success. Let them decide what they need, and how to fund it, with the same access to capital that any other beginning enterprise would get. Let THEM decide what investors to court, and 'sell' themselves to those investors. And if or when profit is realized, let them decide if they want to "invest' it with Wall Street or put it back into their communities. Let THEM decide what they want to pay their local officials, cops, firemen, teachers. Allow them, as new entities, tax breaks and the right to refuse any and all unfunded mandates from the state and the feds for a period of time. So no, local businesses would NOT have to install wheelchair ramps unless they had enough handicapped patrons to make it worthwhile...(Personally? In my opinion, if you mandate it and do NOT fund it, you can go and fuck yourself. Put your money where your mouth is or shut the hell up.)
So how about coming up with some realistic ideas about how to deal with this? I think we can certainly manage to come up with SOMETHING better than the one where we just relegate thousands of people to poverty and then cut off their water and sewer services.
Hey Detroit? If it is so bad that you can't afford to keep the basics going, maybe you can't AFFORD those neighborhoods in the first place. If I have a boat in my driveway and am declaring bankruptcy, it should not come as a surprise if I am asked to unload the thing.
I like where you are going with this Bemused Observer , and also liked the motown music commenter saying to open source it.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/19/open-source-revolution-conquer-one-percent-cia-spy
UN Agenda 21. Its not a stand alone policy. Irony, as its implemented by the UN which gets to stick its nose in even more as per this article (wonder who founded the UN????). Death to sovereignty is the goal via the destruction of sovereign constitutional laws via crony capitalism.
The weakest and easiest to target go first - hollowed our communities which once had a solid rural and/or manufacturing base then mysteriously end up on welfare and funding the drug cartel -easy to despise those people now isn't it?
But this has been decades in the making everywhere hence shrinking middle class and small business ownership numbers everywhere whilst we are "De-regulated" into regulation-strangulation fit for crony capitalism and global "competitiveness". Jesus even our language has been twisted.
If there is no outrage about artificially inflated water prices to suit corporatist services like essential water supply, can we expect outrage when the middle class is finally gutted? Or can we expect those who've been well and truly screwed to celebrate as we're all brought down?
All western nation people really need to re-think a few things. I dislike moochers but they pale in comparison to corporate welfare which this story reaks of. Want active dissent in vast numbers? Perhaps those without water are potential allies forced into awakening, not people to be mocked as suckers while your situation is relatively better. If Americans can't get this turned around via unified outrage then what hope is there for other docile western nations? We're all looking a lot like Dodo birds.
It's all part of a push being made towards more and more centralized controls. This global NWO, where the whole planet is one big marketplace of efficiency is presented as progress. We're told there's simply no choice, our continued prosperity depends on having ONE global set of rules instead of a bunch of confusing regulations that are often at odds and hamper the free movement of capital.
Now the thing is that this type of societal organization is just one of many possible ways to run your society. It's neither bad nor good, and for the right population, it would work quite well. But we don't HAVE that kind of population.
Humans are currently too individualistic for that arrangement to work. And a society of individuals requires smaller governments, and more local controls. We need more 'tribal' government, with the rules customized for the needs and requirements of those local and surrounding entities. And those locals should be free to act in their own self-interests (within logical reason..) and not have to be subordinate to the wishes of some corporate entity on the other side of the planet.
Forcing global priorities and goals on everyone has only pushed a whole bunch of at-odds cultures, ideologies and beliefs right up into each other's faces. No one is permitted their own private places anymore, they MUST mix, and mix thoroughly. Any attempt to pull back is portrayed as reactionary, backwards-thinking, wanting to go back to the 'good old days', etc. If they try anyway, they are portrayed as intolerant, bigoted.
So we end up with a world filled with angry, fearful people who all feel as though they will be forced to give up things important to them to someone else. Denied any refuge, any rights to "go home and shut the world out" for awhile. But no, that world demands the right to follow you right into to your own home and re-arrange your furniture, even rifle through your underwear drawer because, "If you have nothing to hide, why worry?". And if you dare complain, it's because YOU are an unfriendly sociopath who is out of touch with the modern world.
I want to return to a world where there are many, many smaller 'places'. And they all look different, because people are different, and will all choose to do things, arrange things, in their own unique ways. Some may not be nice places, or welcoming to strangers, etc, that's fine. I would also have the freedom to NOT go there. If some people decide to create nasty little communities based on prejudices and hatefullness, I'd be FINE with them having that space. The existence of such places would not offend me in the least, as long as they kept that shit within their own borders, and behaved themselves when outside those borders. In fact, because it would attract that type, it would help clear them off MY streets and I wouldn't have to live next door to one....Winning!
And I'm thinking they'd be just as happy to not live next door to me. So why do we continually force everyone to 'play nice?' when it's obvious this game is just irritating and upsetting the kids? Time to separate them.
Why?
Even you should be able to see why.
It was those living in Detroit that voted in the fucking tribal fucking leftie cocksucking corrupt bunch of fuckwits year after year that allowed Detroit to get into its present state.
I didnt vote any of those cunts into Detroit City Hall. I dont live there.Im not fucking paying for it.
Maybe when they dropping dead from dehydration and disease the filthy unwashed hordes might make more sensible choices about with fucking morons govern them.
Until then, There is a fucking lake near by, they have buckets, they have legs, Let them get on with it.
Wow bemused...... I can't tell if you are LIbertarian, Anarchist , Liberal or Capitalist. You BEMUSE me!!! LOL
:-) Welcome to the story of my life...I don't fit in anywhere! It's amazing, no one wants me in their "club". They're fine until I disagree with one of their cherished beliefs, which ALWAYS happens.
Now, I just say what I believe. If an idea is good, I like it, regardless of what category it fits in. Though I am probably more to the left, if a Tea Partier comes up with a good idea, I have no problem getting behind it. I can't reject something good simply because it's "their idea.."
And I have no problem rejecting the sacred positions of each side either. When I used to visit the Huffington Post I'd get "jumped" when I suggested that the abortion rights folks might want to re-consider their position on allowing minors to have them without parental knowledge or consent. I said if I can go to jail for tattooing "Property of Hell's Angels" on YOUR 14 year old daughter's ass, why shouldn't you join me in my cell for aborting MY 14 year old daughter's fetus? I didn't matter to them that I supported the right(for adults), my disagreement on THIS particular point was enough to label me a Bible-thumping conservative troll. And some were REALLY nasty about it.
And forget about the far right. If I suggest that the 'open carry' folks who walked around town with their rifles were being unnecessarily obnoxious, and upsetting folks who might see a group of armed men in street clothes and assume it's another 'theater-shooting' type incident going down, they say, "Fuck you! You're not taking MY guns!" It never occurred to them that another armed citizen might see THEM as a potential threat and panic in light of recent events.
No one ever tries to see it from the other POV. Doing that doesn't mean you have to agree with that position, or that you are less passionate about your own. But it gives you more understanding of why THEY do, puts things into perspective. And then compromise becomes the obvious solution.
If the other guy is just wrong, wrong, wrong on everything, then he's just an enemy that doesn't have to be negotiated with, just destroyed.
I fucking HATE this aspect of human behavior. So I reject all parties and their platforms. As an inmate of this concentration camp called human society, I have no choice but to wear the striped pajamas. But I'll be damned if I'll wear the colored stars and triangles so I can be easily categorized.
What difference does it make?
-Our next president
Um uh I have moved to uh, ensure that ah the ah um It's partianship at its worst that ah the um water and Iraq are um
-Our current president
And so who really gives a shit anymore?
Like the lady asked me the other day. "Doesn't Tibetan Freedom mean anything to you?"
It is difficult to riot effectively when you are dehydrated.
It is difficult to riot effectively when you are dehydrated.
How much did Obama request from Congress to finance his human smuggling operation on the border?
Bottom up, top down & collapse the whole system to be rebuilt under communism complete with DickTator!
Fucking hell, This is great news,
Does this mean capitalism is coming back to Detroit. Or is it some fuckwit libtards plan to get the rest of the Great Americam Morons to demand equality and more fucking rights, and I have to pay for it.
Then get the fucking whitehouse monkey cock jockey to issue a decree and tell the fucking fed to print moar fucking bumfluff to pay the water compoanies.