No drinking water "indefinitely" in Jackson, Mississippi:
The water system in Jackson, MIssissippi's largest city, has failed and is no longer pressurized, report local media. Residents are advised to boil whatever water they can get out the faucet for three minutes before drinking it; officials do not know when reliable service will be back.
[Gov. Tate] Reeves said the first goal is to restore water quantity so that people can flush toilets and take a shower and then to restore quality to end the boil water notice. As a short-term plan, Reeves said the state will cashflow emergency improvements, maintenance and repairs, which will include contracting operators to assist at the treatment plant. He said Mayor Lumumba agreed to a plan where the city would be responsible for half of the cost of the operation.
[..] The city water system has been plagued with problems for years, including tens of thousands of residents losing water between one and three weeks during a 2021 winter storm.
Nearby flooding is hardly even a final straw; the problem is systematic and results from years of underinvestment.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MIRV888 on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:17AM (25 children)
I realize this is the South, but how do we as a nation allow such things to happen?
Jackson MS is a city, without running water, and apparently no contingency plan or backup equipment.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @05:05AM (3 children)
Jackson is over 80% black, so naturally the governor isn't going to help much
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:51AM (1 child)
It's also got Tate Reeves running the place, he's too busy pushing lawsuits to throw out the election results and show that Trump actually won in 2020 to have time for stuff like keeping the water drinkable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @06:32PM
Yeah, that's true, you can't have poverty without corruption, simple math
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2022, @03:46PM
Vote in a Blak governor. Problem solved.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Wednesday August 31 2022, @05:35AM (1 child)
This Christmas, be sure not to miss: "Mad Max: the boring infrastructure failure prequel".
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday August 31 2022, @05:38AM
Oh wait, that was already in the title. Never mind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @06:26AM (3 children)
It is also home of the University of Mississippi and its Medical School
What the actual fsck??
(Score: 1, Troll) by DannyB on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:24PM (2 children)
Hopefully they teach THE TRUTH about medicine and not all the GOVERNMENT LIES that the LAMESTREAM MEDIA wants you to listen to.
Covid is a hoax from Chyna!
Vaccines cause autism.
Condoms are not 100% effective, so just ignore them.
Even though people who swear by abstinence are known as "parents", the state promotes abstinence as the only 100% sure way to prevent pregnancy.
Hycroxychloriquine is the best treatment for Covid. Especially if combined with Clorox Bleach.
<no-sarcasm>
No running water in a city is the result of deregulation, or regulations which are ignored or not enforced.
</no-sarcasm>
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:37PM
It is a result of widespread antipathy towards its residents and general political corruption
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday September 01 2022, @02:50AM
Her legend [wikipedia.org] lives on. I knew she wasn't dead!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:04AM (1 child)
Bureaucracy and the accompanying waste and mismanagement. Did I mention laziness, incompetence, and indifference?
That and like USPS and pretty much all govt. bureaucracies, they learn that when they want more money, just drag their feet (a lot) and presto, more money shows up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:38PM
That's why everywhere to the left of Adolf Hitler has no drinking water and dammit the trains never run on time. Bah! Trains! Socialism!!1
(Score: 5, Interesting) by driverless on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:47AM (10 children)
This is across the US. The first thing that gets cut when your country is in trouble financially, and by financially I mean real money not imaginary stock market numbers, is infrastructure spending. The US has been doing this, quietly and invisibly, for at least the last twenty to thirty years. For example, over forty-five thousand bridges in the US are structurally deficient [infrastructurereportcard.org] and aren't going to get repaired unless they collapse. Estimates I've seen of this accumulated maintenance debt are around ten trillion dollars. That's 10,000 billion dollars to get the infrastructure up to scratch.
Twenty years ago when I lived in the US I was shocked at the state of roads, bridges, and similar. The closest I've seen to it is a few of the lesser-successful former Soviet-bloc countries, and South Africa. I've been in towns in Kwazulu-Natal with streets and sidewalks that looked about the same as the ones in the bit of Pasadena where I stayed for awhile.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Wednesday August 31 2022, @08:29AM (8 children)
I have to admit, what's going on in the US starts to remind me more and more of the last days of the Soviet Union. Shoddy and barely functioning infrastructure is only one sign of the looming collapse.
Just look out for the leaders starting to blame internal and external "enemies" for their own failure to act and their own mistakes as the next sign.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Wednesday August 31 2022, @02:03PM (5 children)
Fearfully I agree. In general, IMHO, there's been a diminishing of quality in pretty much everything. A great example: the Brooklyn Bridge. They didn't know how to cheapen it. They were building the biggest strongest bridge ever built, and all they knew how to do was to overbuild for safety and longevity. That bridge was built long before motor vehicles existed, yet 130+ years later it stands and holds far more weight and traffic than the original builders ever imagined.
Fast forward to recent times- bridges built to "modern" standards are dangerous and needing replacement in less than 50 years of service. I blame much of the problem on 3 factors: 1) far too much salt and other severely damaging chemicals dumped on roads in winter, 2) far far too much truck traffic (put that crap on rails!), and 3) general short-sightedness in design, construction, and budgets.
In addition, I feel our (US's) govt. needs a more "agile" design. Politicians sign huge spending bills including building bridges, but 1) they're not really in touch with things like true engineering quality- just dollars, and 2) they don't check up on projects and require (mandate, force) fixes. A new development near me (ugh) had to widen a road. So there's brand new pavement, but it's like driving on a ski hill mogul field. How does that pass inspection? Was it ever inspected? Are there even standards for road quality? If so, who sets those standards? The whole process is invisible to most tax-paying citizens. We need much more accountability in govt, and far more citizen groups reviewing such things. It'd be a good part-time job for retirees and their wisdom.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Wednesday August 31 2022, @03:50PM (4 children)
We don't need a more "agile" design, we need decision makers that are being held responsible for the decisions they make. You don't know jack shit about road constructions but order a road built that crumbles in the first Winter because you allowed the construction company to cut corners because you didn't order what is needed for the road to survive? Return the money that you got for that job, because you lied on your application. You told us you could do it, and you obviously couldn't.
Back in the days, politicians wanted to see their name on road signs and parks, as a memorial to the world, and they tried to be good at their job so they would earn that privilege to be remembered fondly as the founders and builders of legacies that stand the test of time. Today, they don't even give a fuck if you wish them to hell 4 years down the road because by then they already have more money than they could legally earn in a honest job and they don't even give half a fuck about you or the town they are responsible for.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:05PM
That doesn't make any sense.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:20PM (2 children)
Absolutely agree, I think we just use different words to mean the same thing. By "agile" that's exactly what I mean (sorry if I misunderstand the meaning of "agile")- a followup system. W. Edwards Deming, Tom Peters, et al were absolute about "quality circles" (worth a search if you're not sure). In your words, "held responsible", which is great philosophically, but as an engineer I need to put the concepts into concrete (no pun intended) definable action.
Yeah, unfortunately politics has become much more of an advertising game, and much less about who has gotten what done. Many people cry "term limits" but I'm not so sure that's a fix. If someone is really good, why kick them out just because? What I've tried to advocate: just like any normal job, we need a much better system of getting them out if they're incompetent, corrupt, etc. If we could ever get our voting system stabilized, and it could be far more efficient (I make the analogy to ATM systems) and safe, I'd advocate voting maybe 4 times a year. Higher offices need to be in longer, but maybe 6 months for president.
But before anyone disagrees- you can't think about this in terms of existing govt. It would take years for the system to stabilize- IE, to get rid of the showmen and women and grandstanders, and (slowly, unfortunately) attract more proactive people into politics. Ethical people who are not afraid of being held responsible.
(Score: 2) by helel on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:31PM (1 child)
What we need is multi-candidate districts and ranked choice voting. Many many people can see that their representatives are horrible but when the alternative is a fascist that wants to install Trump as president-for-life you damn well better believe their voting for the candidate that is merely greedy and incompetent. Ranked choice voting lets the people vote for candidates that are actually good without risking disaster and by lumping multiple candidates in form the same district you limit the effectiveness of gerrymandering insuring that the makeup of the representative body in question more closely matches the will of the voters.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday September 01 2022, @02:51AM
Hell, how about ranked-choice polling, just to get people introduced to the idea?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:43PM
> Just look out for the leaders starting to blame internal and external "enemies" for their own failure to act and their own mistakes as the next sign.
Bitch please. That has been the central tenet of the Republican platform since 1980. The Deep State, that shit that reached fever pitch in 2020, turned out to be them. Assholes!
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday September 01 2022, @12:05AM
Same feeling here, bro. I actually rode my bike throgh most of those places a few years back and the reality is even worse than what is in the news.
As per the USSR example, I can make a prediction. Military budget overextends due to Chinese and Russian dangers and then belly up.
As per solution, we should go back to our beautiful island and let them foreigners screw themselves as they see fit. America first.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday September 01 2022, @02:35AM
That's part of the story. You are absolutely right that the US has spent decades eating its proverbial seed corn, and the results are completely predictable.
Another part of the story is this: The US has been saddled with a political party dedicated to the proposition that all government programs suck no matter what it does or what its policies or personnel are. And when that political party is in office, they do their best to adjust things to prove their point, whether simply underfunding them to the point where they can't do their job anymore to more complex changes carefully designed to ruin that program or agency. As any parent of small kids can tell you, it doesn't take a lot of brains to figure out how to break things.
I understand the "this agency is inefficient, here's a way we could make it run more cheaply and effectively" or "this agency is unnecessary, we should eliminate it" arguments. That's fine. But that's not what's been going on in lots of places in the US.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday August 31 2022, @01:33PM
This meme comes to mind. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pressing-a-boot-on-your-own-head [knowyourmeme.com]
The results of the people you elected.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 31 2022, @02:00PM
Because it's a local problem. If we make it national scale, then it becomes a widespread national problem when it fails.
(Score: 5, Touché) by RedGreen on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:39AM (4 children)
that is that commie shit and has no place in Merica. What a bunch of clowns they have in them places will not even invest is safe drinking water because taxes are evil commie shit too...
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Wednesday August 31 2022, @08:32AM (3 children)
Noo, that ain't no commie shit. Crappily built and barely maintained infrastructure, with nobody giving a fuck about it and you being unable to find someone to fix it unless you "know" someone (or have something good to trade it for), that was everyday life in the East Bloc.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pTamok on Wednesday August 31 2022, @11:03AM
Just call on Archibald "Harry" Tuttle to come and fix your aircon. Nothing bad will happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:45PM (1 child)
> everyday life in the East Bloc.
And, apparently, in most red states. Those commies sure do get around.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday September 01 2022, @02:38AM
Well, they are called "red". Maybe all those guys in red caps saying "Make America Great Again" are getting together to sing the Internationale and fight for the liberation of working people from capitalism?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday August 31 2022, @11:38AM (1 child)
That's how "government small enough to drown in a bathtub" conservatives roll. They're too busy fighting culture wars to bother keeping the flood waters out (New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, 2005), lights on (Texas, Feb 2021), and now, the water potable and running.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Opportunist on Wednesday August 31 2022, @03:57PM
No matter how small the government, without water you can't drown it in the bathtub anyway.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:51PM (22 children)
I read the article, but am no better informed about what happened. It said, "the main pumps had been 'damaged severely,'" but not how they had been damaged. Did they wear out? Was there a severe storm? Did a backhoe hit it? It's hard to know who or what to blame, or how to prevent it happening again, without that crucial information.
It's reminiscent of the lead poisoning in the Flint, Michigan water system. They were vague and misleading about that one, too, until the whistle blowers came forward and laid the scandalous mismanagement bare. Quite a few government employees went to jail for that one, which likely explains why officials aren't being so forthcoming in Jackson, Mississippi.
So it seems the "Republicans suck!," "No, Democrats suck!" posts so far are premature: we don't know enough to say either way. The only thing we know is that the unfortunate residents of Jackson, Mississippi, have to boil their water for the indefinite future. The only useful inference that the rest of us can draw from the story is that it pays to have to a personal backup plan for the things you need because somewhere, somehow, society will let you down and the people running the show don't care, won't suffer, and will never repent.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by HiThere on Wednesday August 31 2022, @01:51PM (14 children)
Well, the "years of underinvestment" is pretty clearly Republican. They're the party that intentionally sabotages government. (Wasn't always true, but it seems to have been true for the last decade.)
Outside of that, you've got a decent point. But the governor of Michigan didn't go to prison over the sabotage of Flint, Michigan's water supply. The folks who made money off it got off scott free. That some low-level followers got sentenced doesn't really help that much at preventing repeats.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @02:13PM (9 children)
And there, folks, is the actual "divisiveness" we keep hearing about. See where it comes from? Rather than suggest a better solution, HiThere and most Democrats would rather flame, insult, attack, and when we don't actually know what happened. Just fire off the blame bombs (and look like an ignorant boorish jerk). 100% like junior high school bullies piling on someone. It's super-cool to bash the Republicans. Got your cool dude sunglasses on too? Grow up or shut up.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @03:02PM (8 children)
Who keeps torpedoing infrastructure bills in congress going back many years (and in the rare event something passes, they then take credit for it)? Couldn't pass Obama's plan because it would give him a "win." Fought tooth and nail Biden's plan, because again, "winning" is more important than governing. Yeah, and remember Trump's big "Infrastructure Week", guess who blocked all of that as well (and it doesn't start with a "D")?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:28PM (7 children)
You're asking a question and not making a statement, but let's assume you're deriding Republicans as you Ds like to do.
How about: many of those spending bills are totally wasteful? You just want to spend spend spend? How about you follow up and see how the money is wasted, and correct the system?
BTW, that's why they're called "conservatives"- they're just trying to not be so wasteful, and a huge problem with government is these huge bills that are absolute- no wiggle room, no adaptation. Just absolute spend spend spend. Think a bit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by helel on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:38PM (3 children)
They're called "conservatives" because that's what you call fascists when you're being polite.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday September 01 2022, @12:17AM (1 child)
American liberals are already fascists. What to the right of them is irrelevant.
Note however that it's not a line but a ring. Ultra right and ultra left are the same.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Friday September 02 2022, @03:41AM
"When you go far enough to the right, you meet the same idiots coming around from the left."
-- Clint Eastwood, circa 2005
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2022, @01:19AM
You're an easy read. You were not one of the "cool kids" in school, but badly wanted to be. You tried to dress cool, say all the latest cool phrases, but were still mocked and outcast. So now you've joined the liberals and learned the lingo and the angry condescension and strong verbal attack language. Bravo.
Please define "fascism" as you believe it to mean.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:50PM
What's the word I'm looking for here...?
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @06:20PM (1 child)
Looks like not wasting money on infrastructure is really paying dividends, isn't it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2022, @01:00AM
You are stunningly naive. People as naive as you should not be allowed to vote. Some kind of test should be required. Wake up.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday September 01 2022, @12:09AM (1 child)
Correct me here, but NYC got more than twice moneys per capita from Biden's deal. I guess NY is the poorest place that needs help.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday September 01 2022, @12:50PM
To me "do more favors to the folks that support me" doesn't mean the same as "intentionally sabotages government". Both parties do the first of those two. Neither party is even approximately ideal. But "intentionally sabotages government" is more a Republican theme. (Not that the Dems rush to fix that. If they did, we'd have a different Postmaster General.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 01 2022, @03:14PM (1 child)
"Years of underinvestment" is a vague smear, not a specific accounting of how the funding was not adequate to keep the water system functional. For example, the funding could have been enough to replace aging equipment and pay the same staff to manage it, but they didn't give us the extra $5 million to hire my buddy's consulting company, thus becoming "years of underinvestment." Or maybe the funding was fine to continue operations but not enough to renovate the boss's office and supply him with the car and driver he wanted, thus "years of underinvestment." So then I order my underlings to not buy the new equipment needed so that the system will fail, and then I can make a stronger case for getting the bump in funding I wanted.
It's the game bureaucrats play, and have always played.
If we're being honest, both parties "intentionally sabotage" the parts of government they don't like. Democrats like to cut funding to the military and pass legislation to undermine the 2nd Amendment (the right to keep & bear arms), thus "intentionally sabotaging government." They like to do that because companies and organizations that predominately support Republicans champion those things. When Republicans block infrastructure funding, it is usually because they want to block Democrats from gaining a sop they can use to garner union support.
So, did the Republicans block funding to this specific water system? We don't know. The article did not give us enough information, probably because the reporters who penned the article would had to have called people and done homework and hard tasks like that (forgive me, I have lost patience with the professional class who call themselves "reporters" and "journalists"). Without that detail, this is not an informative or instructive piece but one tailor-made for jumping to fraught conclusions.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday September 01 2022, @08:49PM
There have definitely been times when the Democrats have cut military spending. There have also been times when they gave the military more than they asked for.
My real problem with the Democrats is that they are more likely to actually get us involved in a war, where the Republicans prefer to bluster and threaten. Neither strikes me as a particularly good approach. The last Republican president I admired was Eisenhower, but this isn't really a good recommendation. I admired JFK, but despite his good qualities he nearly got us into a nuclear war. (He did get us into Vietnam, though only in a minor way. He left major commitment for Johnson.)
However in this particular case there's a bit more information, and it WAS Republican underinvestment, if it wasn't something more malicious. It was know that the river water was more acidic and thus would dissolve more lead than the prior, more expensive, water source. And it was known that there were lots of lead pipes in the water system. So it may have been a malicious decision to switch to using river water. It could just be greed, but if it was greed driven choices that were known to be harmful, I'd call that malicious. I'm tempted to call it thousands of instances of battery, but that may not be the appropriate term for "intentional non-fatal poisoning". The lead pipes were relatively harmless as long as the water supply was a bit alkaline.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by helel on Wednesday August 31 2022, @04:36PM (6 children)
If I understand your point correctly you're stating that just because the last time basic infrastructure failed it was Republicans and the time before that it was also Republicans and also the time before that it was Republicans and also that other time it was Republicans we can't jump to any conclusions because maybe this time, in a deep red state, it might be Democrats?
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @06:58PM (4 children)
You are a divisive troll.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by helel on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:06PM
And you know exactly which political parties policies lead to this disaster.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:30PM (2 children)
It is interesting that you halve enough brains to say that.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2022, @01:15AM
It's even more interesting that you are as intelligent as you are, but so naive about people and how things function and everything really. I'm a dreamer and idealist too, but there's a thing called "reality". Learn about it. People are not as ethical as you or I would like to believe. Again, learn about reality. The more money you dump into a liberally-run system, the more waste there is. Very sadly there are people among us who are very very keen to find where the money faucet is and they're right there scooping up as much as they can. They drag their feet, waste money, waste time, then whine they need more money.
Doubt me? Do a study of the US "edumacation" system. To be fair, I know quite a few public school teachers. They do NOT work hard at all, but love to cry how hard they work and how underpaid they are. They make an average of 90K in my county, and work about 1,400 hours a year, and I didn't total up all the "teacher in-service days" that they do NOT work but just do whatever people do on a day off.
Notice I did not say people all have to work 3,000 hours a year, but teachers need to quit whining. Frankly everyone should work fewer hours and let the unemployed have work. And divvy it up some more so more people could do highly skilled jobs but not have to work 55+ hour weeks.
I also know several private school teachers. They're paid a good bit less, and are much more dedicated to being good teachers. In fact, many admit they could barely live on their teaching salaries, so most are married, and either way many have 2nd jobs or some other way to make income.
BTW, I like your Freudian slip: "halve". Or maybe you meant to write that...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 01 2022, @03:30PM
Are you implying he lobotomizes others against their will? Is he a wanton lobotomizer? Did he pith you off, too?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 01 2022, @03:27PM
If I understand your point correctly, you're stating that I can make evidence-free assertions that the last time infrastructure failed it was Democrats, and the time before that it was also Democrats, and also the time before that it was Democrats and also that other time it was Democrats, and have it accepted as fact?
You're not making any useful point about how best to take care of infrastructure, but only mounting a partisan attack.
My original point is that the article did not give us enough information to know how it happened, nor to assign blame. It's a bad article filled with innuendo and little fact. That point still stands.
Washington DC delenda est.