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Biden administration announces plan to replace 100% of lead pipes in US homes
The Biden administration on Thursday announced a "whole of government strategy" to remove dangerous lead from Americans' drinking water, including billions of dollars to begin replacing 100% of the lead pipes servicing the nation's homes.
Environmental groups praised the plan, which includes a promise to begin the process of strengthening the nation's drinking water standards to reflect the science showing that lead is toxic for children at any level.
But lawyers at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has been leading efforts to fight lead, said they worry that the plan lacks a solid timeline and fails to deliver enforceable requirements.
The set of actions announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) included the release of the first $2.9bn of $15bn approved in Biden's infrastructure plan for local water agencies to begin replacing lead pipes and called for the efforts to focus on the low-income communities who face the most risk of lead poisoning. It also listed 15 new actions across 10 federal agencies to address lead dangers from both water and paint.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @10:15PM (14 children)
I felt a disturbance in the alt-right media as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I hope something terrible has happened (to them); it would serve them right.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday December 17 2021, @10:33PM (13 children)
What we need is some sane country like the UK to send the US an emergency airlift of education, thought control and dark sarcasm.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:25PM (1 child)
Also training how to pronouce Worcestershire.
Woos-Ta-Cester-Chester-Shur Shire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:53AM
*What's this here sauce?!*
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:47AM (3 children)
You *have* seen who we chose (twice!) to be our Prime Minister, yes? Populism is a terrible drug...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:26PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @10:51PM (1 child)
You left out Biden ...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 20 2021, @02:56PM
And Trump.
Oh, wait. He didn't actually win the popular vote.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1, Troll) by mcgrew on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:18PM (4 children)
All but the dark sarcasm, our "alt right" (racist assholes) are far too stupid. And thought control? How do you think Trump got elected?
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @04:18AM
He got elected despite wall-to-wall mainstream news coverage about how he was bad and evil. It took another four years of non-stop thought control and a pandemic to get rid of him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @10:59PM (2 children)
The left are the racist ones, not the right.
Remember, the republican party was created to oppose slavery. The republicans freed the slaves and gave blacks and women the right to vote. The democrats passed the Jim Crow laws. What have the democrats done besides advocate for racism?
Biden even said he didn't want his son to go to a mixed race school because he called it a mixed jungle. Biden is a democrat so he's from the same racist party that supports racism.
The Nazi party is the Nazi Socialist party. Democrats are the party of the KKK.
Stop projecting the unpopular history of your own party onto your opponents. You keep repeating the same lie over and over thinking that if you repeat it enough it will make it true. No matter how many times you, or the mainstream media, repeats the same lie a lie is a lie is a lie.
The left is still racist. From things like California passing laws with racist racial and gender quotas (ie: for board of director positions) that apply to some races (but not others), to things like universities holding people of certain races to lower test score standards (ie: discriminating against Asians because they tend to rank higher on tests). The left has always been the racist ones and are still the racist ones. They try to divide us by race, class, gender, religion, etc... so they turn us against each other which distracts us from the true villains, the politicians themselves. Luckily, it's not working because the politicians are very unpopular now and people see through their nonsense.
CNN lost a substantial number of its viewers. It wonders what it's doing wrong and complains that conservative Youtube channels receive more views than they do. They almost want the government to intervene. What they're doing wrong is they keep telling lies and repeating the same lies over and over and over. and people are fed up with it, they're not stupid. and you keep repeating the same lies over and over but no one is buying it anymore. Stop with the divisive lying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @11:05PM
The only way the left can win the dialog is if they silence their critics (like they do in socialist countries).
The MOMENT the left loses their monopoly on the dialog they lose the debate. That's why they resort to silencing their critics as much as they can. They have no choice, their position is absolutely indefensible in the face of criticism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @11:50PM
Whenever the democrats lose the discussion they simply keep repeating the same played out lies over and over and over again because they can't come up with a real response. Their lies are played out, have been refuted multiple times, and no one believes them anymore.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday December 19 2021, @12:49AM (1 child)
They sent us Monty Python and Douglas Adams, among others. What more are they expected to do?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 20 2021, @03:11PM
They could have sent us the ones who wrote the lyrics about not needing any education, thought control or teachers not having dark sarcasm in the classrooms and leaving those kids alone.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday December 17 2021, @10:17PM (40 children)
The guy has already shown he doesn't care about the deficit. After adding 3.5 trillion to it, what's another few billion?
Not saying this isn't a good thing, but how the hell ya gonna pay for it?
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @10:20PM (2 children)
The Treasury Dept. owns printing presses. Just print more money!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:27PM
Works for making tax cuts too!
(Score: 3, Informative) by fustakrakich on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:00AM
No, Wall Street does, through the fed.. Whining about the "deficit" is a silly distraction
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Friday December 17 2021, @10:23PM (15 children)
It is funny that now that Biden is in office, all of a sudden the debt suddenly matters to some people.
Trump’s most enduring legacy could be the historic rise in the national debt [washingtonpost.com]
Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years [propublica.org]
Google "trump deficit" easily turns up many more links.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @10:35PM (8 children)
Under Biden has inflation gone through the roof. The highest in decades. The Democrats' spending is the direct and obvious cause, and this level of inflation makes everyone poorer.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fishybell on Friday December 17 2021, @10:56PM (5 children)
Ah, yes, truisms vs. evidence.
While the pandemic bills that gave cash directly to citizens definitely added to the current inflation problems, it wasn't the only thing, or even necessarily the main thing. There might have been a slight pandemic that induced problems with global supply chains as well. That might have had something to do with it.
But yes, let us spout the truism of "direct and obvious cause" without any evidence.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @07:07AM (2 children)
If it was Trump or COVID or something else, why did inflation take so long to kick into high gear?
Similar connected question: why did the supply chain problems take so long to manifest, almost 2 years later?
I think blaming it on COVID is just as specious.
Possible cause is that COVID relief money is drying up and people are demanding back payments, for example.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:50PM
Well, how long did it really take? For example, deficits [thebalance.com] in recent years were below 5% until 2020 (it's still a hideous growth rate). We've since had two years of deficit growth above 10%. At a glance, the last two years have seen deficits at least 3 times larger than in previous years. And there's lag on that money hitting the economy. So it looks consistent to me.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @11:32PM
If it was pressure from on high to show how wonderfully fast the ship was that caused the sinking, why did it take until nearly the end of the voyage for the Titanic to sink?
It's ALMOST like policy decisions that lead to third, fourth and fifth-order effects take a bit of time to show up in large, complex systems. Whodathunkit?
Meanwhile, the people who like neat, simple solutions and who vote for politicians that misrepresent big, complicated problems as simple, easily solved ones, point out how absurd it is that X may have caused Y, when Y took two years to manifest after X...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @11:17PM (1 child)
While I do blame Biden and the democrats for some of the inflation I can't blame it all on them.
The chip shortage thing started before Biden it just didn't really become that noticeable until after Biden got into office.
While I don't blame Trump for it I would say it started about two years or so before Trump. I used to keep track of prices of computers and video cards and the prices of everything bottomed out about two years or so before Biden was elected. After that they slowly started increasing.
I would say there are multiple factors. Some of it is inflation, sure. Some of it also seems to correlated with the advent of crypto. Some of it also seems to be correlated with all the tech mergers and acquisitions that have been occurring over the past decades before. There is less competition. Some of it is the fact that chips are in everything now compared to before. There are more people as well and so more demand for chips and the raw materials. More businesses have been starting websites, adding computers and tech, going digital, etc... so more demand.
Yeah, during the pandemic, more people bought tech to work from home as well. More demand.
Some if it may be due to more patents, lawsuits, etc... though I would say that's not a huge factor.
I'm sure there are other factors. It's hard to say but it's also hard to blame it on Biden, or any one person, as this has been going on before him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @11:18PM
err ... I would say it started about two years or so before Biden got elected (not Trump *). While Trump was in office. Don't know why I mistyped that *
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @10:57PM
Yeah, like covid never happened - damn virus must be democratic conspiracy or something.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 20 2021, @02:47PM
Trump spending -- does not cause inflation.
Biden spending -- does cause inflation.
Ah, right.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 5, Insightful) by istartedi on Friday December 17 2021, @11:54PM
This comes up again and again. Both sides have their respective axes to grind. Both sides can use absolute figures, or pretend to normalize data to suit their ends. One seemingly effective way around this is to use, instead of nominal dollars, the percentage by which the debt increased during their administration. Submitted for your consideration that even that is not sufficient. Why? Because merely owing a lot of money is only half the picture. The other half of the picture is your ability to pay it back. Based on that, I consider the Debt to GDP ratio [stlouisfed.org] to perhaps be the least biased method, although since I'm making a selection there's the possibility of selection bias.
When looking at that chart, the big take-away is that when it comes to debt the 2008 housing/financial crisis and Covid are the two big increases in recent decades. If it went back further, WW2 would also loom large.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 18 2021, @02:56AM (3 children)
Every administration in my lifetime has seen "historic" debt. Every single one. Clinton slowed the debt down, but he didn't repay or cancel a single dollar's worth of debt. When the Phat Lady sings, Biden will have presided over another historic debt.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:21PM
That's why we MUST stop him.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday December 19 2021, @01:36AM (1 child)
Maybe, but it is the Republican administrations, at least from Reagan on, that have created the budget deficits that have led to the greatest increases in debt. Reagan increased the debt from roughly 1 trillion to roughly 3.5 trillion. Some excuse that by claiming he entered into an arm race with the Soviets that bankrupted them, but he could have accomplished the exact same thing with nearly zero increase in debt. Our economy would be much stronger today as a result, but of course the billionaires would not be as well off. Clinton got 2 years to try to reverse the damage of the Reagan/Reagan/Bush I administrations before the Republicans took the House and Newt Gingrich promised that he would oppose everything Clinton tried in order to make his administration fail (damn anyone that needed help). When Clinton left office he left Bush II with a near balanced budget, which Bush II immediately trashed. He turned a budget surplus into a deficit his first year, a record deficit his second year, and an increasing deficit every year he was in office. He handed Obama an economy that was on the verge of a depression, yet any percentage increases in the deficit in Obama's eight years were less than the lowest Bush II managed. Trump immediately raised budget deficits higher than ever, with no aim other than to enrich the already wealthy. He accomplished that, just look at how much the wealth of billionaires increased during the pandemic while nearly everyone else suffered. Biden may initially raise the debt higher, but at least it is with the aim of accomplishing something that will benefit the poor and middle class and by extension the real economy, that which affects 90% of Americans, and it is likely budget deficits will shrink as a result.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 19 2021, @05:54AM
Spin it whichever way makes you feel good. The fact is, congress appropriates the funds, and writes the budget. Yes, it's a given that the prez influences the budget, and the prez can veto a budget, but congress has final say over the budget. The Clinton administration presided over the most-balanced budget since - ohhh - about the 1880s I guess? But that was only because he had line-item veto for a couple years. He enjoyed an ability to trim fat that no other president has enjoyed. People give Clinton a lot of credit, but I think he gets too much credit. Congress and the courts promptly put an end to a power they feared.
I won't argue the rest of that - but history says our debt only rises, it never goes down. Our nation is addicted to spending, and has no concept of balance, or budget. Every congress makes a joke of the idea of budgeting.
Now, I'll wait for those comments suggesting that a balanced budget would be an evil thing, bringing on plagues of biblical proportions. A balanced budget is the most-feared possibility of mankind's existence, etc etc blah blah blah . . .
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:32PM
And don't forget, the first Bush left Clinton with a record deficit and a recession. The second Bush went into office with a balanced budget and a booming economy. He left Obama a record deficit and record recession.
The Republicans only give a shit about their deficits after they leave them to Democrats.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 5, Insightful) by srobert on Friday December 17 2021, @10:36PM (15 children)
I was a plumber when they were still making solder with lead content that was frequently used on pipes that carried drinking water. We were supposed to use the tin-antimony solder, but I'm sure that some of my colleagues got them mixed up, since I nearly did so myself on several occasions.
Interesting fun fact on the etymology of "plumber" and "plumbing". They come from the Latin "plumb", meaning lead. Notice the chemical symbol for lead is Pb. The Roman empire may have suffered through a period when many of it's leadership had succumbed to lead poisoning because of the use of lead pipes in the homes of wealthy Romans. Maybe it's not so bad for modern America because lead pipes are only in the homes of plebeians.
Whenever we want to build another aircraft carrier no body says, "How you gonna pay for that?". Maybe a better question is "How are we gonna pay for failing to replace lead pipes in homes?".
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:33PM (6 children)
The same way we paid for clean water, sewage, environmental protection, medicare, work safety, etc.
Or is fixing lead pipes just TOO big?
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:45PM (5 children)
Well, for one thing getting rid of lead pipes would lead to a huge drop in Fox viewership.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @04:12PM (4 children)
Did you mean CNN commentators?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:58PM (2 children)
For real, why does CNN even host Republican traitors at this point?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:26PM
Because having R-party corporate anus sniffers helps balance out the D-party corporate cock suckers. It's good for credibility.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @04:20AM
They keep on firing the Democratic pedos.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @06:20PM
Honestly, both, they're both more or less jobs programs for the criminally incompetent.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Username on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:42AM (3 children)
The question is, why does this require federal money and federal contractors? The feds should just be protecting the country from foreign invasion, negotiating with other countries, and ensuring interstate travel and commerce. Why are they replacing pipes on the house down the street? Overreach much? Why isn't the city doing that? Why isn't the state doing that?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:10AM
Funny how federal corruption is surpassed only by state/local corruption. Leave the states to themselves and we'll repeat the first half of the 1860s...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:38PM (1 child)
For the same reason President Eisenhower championed the Interstate Highway System. Or are you against that, too? I swear, if Democrats came out for a stronger second amendment you Republicans would try to repeal that amendment.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @11:33PM
Did you see what happened when Reagan was governor in California and the group with the highest purchases per capita was Black Americans? Even the NRA lobbied for gun control then.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @04:27AM
We don't.
??
(Score: 4, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Saturday December 18 2021, @05:29AM (2 children)
Lead is such an exasperating problem. Is it so costly to avoid lead? NO! One way is to use bismuth brass. Do we doubt that lead is unhealthy? NO! The Romans actually figured that out, but kept using it. And here we are, in America 2000 years later, still using lead. Why? To save a few cents up front, careless of the costs down the road. Manufacturers' tooling lasts longer because the lead makes the brass softer. Hell of a reason to poison everyone. The costs are far greater than the savings. Lead poisoning makes people stupider and more violent. The Europeans are smarter.
The Romans used lead all over the place, not just in plumbing. They lined their pots with lead based glaze. The upper class even sprinkled lead salts in their wine, to sweeten it.
Brass can be up to 8% lead. In 2014, standards were tightened greatly, reducing the maximum allowed lead content of brass to 0.25%. But, there's a huge loophole. The new standard only applies to faucets for "drinking water". Only the kitchen and bathroom sinks are covered. Bathtubs, showers, and exterior faucets are NOT. When we needed a new bathtub faucet, I tried to find one that conformed to the new 0.25% standard. There were none. I called a dozen manufacturers, and none of them, not even the luxury ones, offered a low lead bathtub faucet. I thought that since they had to do it for sinks, it would be no big deal to offer the same for tubs, for customers who wanted that.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday December 18 2021, @07:17AM
I haven't searched online, but I'd guess CA would have tighter standards, or Canada (CSA), maybe get one that's approved there?
Is RoHS used to qualify plumbing?
How about stainless steel parts?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:46PM
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @10:53PM
Tax bezoses and musks.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:24AM
It's kind of interesting that when the spending is to help ordinary people, there's a ton of hand-wringing about the deficit, but when it's tax cuts for the rich and powerful or more bombs to kill brown people in foreign countries, we've got the money for that. During the great recession, we could have bought all the distressed property underlying the crisis for a fraction of the cost of bailing out the financial institutions. In this case, rather than give everybody financial support, we get a bunch of loans that didn't make it to people that actually needed help.
We had $20k per unemployed person, but no money for essential workers after giving all those PPP loans.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @05:51PM
According to the Shabbos Goy Husk Puppet Biden, Whitey has to pay to change the plumbing for NoC (Niggers of Color) because the Jews brought them over as property. Meanwhile Whites replace their own goddamn pipes without begging like stray dogs.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mcgrew on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:27PM (1 child)
As if the previous president did? You know, the one who spent almost that much lowering his own taxes (but not yours or mine)?
You Republicans seem to have forgotten the difference between an expenditure and an investment. Trump's fiscal inanity was an expenditure, Biden's is an investment.
Ever hear of Dwight Eisenhower? Republican president, spent shitloads building the interstate highway system and NASA. Those are investments that paid the kind of dividends Biden is hoping for, we'll see. In the '50s Republicans knew the difference between an expenditure and an investment, but apparently no longer.
PS: your house payment is an investment. Your car payment is an expenditure. Learn the difference or suffer.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:30PM
And that money we spent on Trump golf carts... I'm gonna go with... investment?
(Score: 1) by krokodilerian on Friday December 17 2021, @10:58PM (9 children)
What year is this, how are there still lead pipes installed? There are pipes left from the 1920s, or something like that?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HammeredGlass on Friday December 17 2021, @11:51PM (3 children)
They're fine as long as the water flowing through them doesn't encourage leeching.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:27AM (2 children)
Yes, and as long as they aren't disturbed. The issue in Flint, Michigan was that they started to pipe water through it that caused the lead to leach into the water supply.
That's not to say that this isn't a good idea, You never know when somebody is going to do something stupid like the manager did in Flint that will disturb the equilibrium.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HammeredGlass on Saturday December 18 2021, @03:49AM (1 child)
They shouldn't have gone against everyone's advice by using the Flint River as a drinking water source.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:33PM
It was cheaper than the alternative. Oh wait...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:52PM
They didn't ban lead pipes until 1986. Even then, some lead was still allowed until 2014 (but the easiest way to comply with the earlier rule was to use PVC).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:24AM (1 child)
How often do you think municipal water systems are torn up and replaced? That's exponentially more expensive than building in the first place...
(Score: 2) by Username on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:03AM
When they replace the road.
The issue is the property owner's service laterals. Nobody wants to mess with a buildings foundation.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:08AM (1 child)
FWIW, my second reaction was, "Wait! Doesn't lead poisoning make people dumber and more violent? Come to think of it, that probably explains a few things..."
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:42PM
Well, for millionaires to become billionaires, someone has to suffer.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @10:59PM (13 children)
So... they're claiming that being unwealthy increases your susceptibility to lead poisoning? Or that an increase in wealth increases your resistance to heavy metals?
Wtf is going on with these people?
It's _old_ communities (New England, especially non-new construction) that face the most likelihood of having lead water pipes. The projects around me are all new construction. They don't have to worry about lead. My property is 120 years old. _I_ have to worry about lead pipes and water feed, not the poor.
(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Friday December 17 2021, @11:30PM (1 child)
As a whole, the poor are statistically more likely to live in places where the lead pipes have never been replaced or lined. You may be an outlier or the municipal water pipes may have been lined. In any event, you can get that tested fairly easily.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:21AM
But do you have anything for his butthurt?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Username on Friday December 17 2021, @11:32PM (8 children)
They are insinuating that all black people are poor and all white people are rich and oppressive. Been their montra for the past few years. Biden even said it out loud. This is most likely targeting michigan's black population that aren't going to vote for the D guy since they can't even drink their water in the D ran town. Cant have that D go R in the midterms.
But, yeah, all the money will just get sent to hunteresque type contractors, and nothing will get done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:38PM
We could invade Iraq again... Terrists etc. That still work?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:47PM (3 children)
I'm sure you have a direct quote to cite then. Not like it matters, no one wanted the old racist grandpa but DNC corruption gave us no choice. As long as conservatives remain batshit insane willing to go all Jihad on liberals it is unlikely we'll be able to break the corporate grip on US politics.
I'm sure your hunteresque comment includes the 4 years of Donny's nepotism with his children. You'll totally condemn them, any minute now..........
(Score: 3, Informative) by Username on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:32AM (2 children)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idpevmeoK1A [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @06:01PM (1 child)
Wow that is your citation? A word mixup from an old racist? No mention of the oppression, so your citation at best is 25% supportive of your thesis. Please remember this next time someone calls you an idiot. Also, care to revisit Don's wide selection of racist quotes? I'm sure a principled man such as yourself will condemn and disavow without regard for political affiliation /s No way you'd let a false narrative override your integrity! I don't like Biden, but you hypocrites are worse by a wide margin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:01PM
Too much lead in his pipes is what leads him to fall for such crap.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday December 18 2021, @09:48PM (2 children)
That's nonsense. My favorite bar is in the worst part of Springfield. There are about an equal number of Whites and Blacks living in that neighborhood, because it's not about race, it's about wealth. You will find very few Blacks in the west side McMansions because very few Blacks have the money, but poor whites still outnumber poor blacks. Race is a tool of the rich to keep the poor from understanding who's really holding them down.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @05:15AM (1 child)
How do you explain to people losing their jobs to cheap immigrants that stopping immigration isn't the solution?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @06:53AM
Point out that most of the good jobs are being shipped overseas and that the profits are going to the elites.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:31AM (1 child)
Wealthy people are more likely to live in areas with better pipes, are more likely to test their water and are more likely to be able to afford to filter the water for lead or buy bottled water than poor people are. At pretty much every step along the chain, the wealthy are more likely to have some way of reducing their risk that are less affordable or impossible for those with less money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:23AM
Um... I think that's a feature, not a bug.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:09PM (7 children)
The Trump administration rejected the advice of experts, instead allowing lead pipes to remain in infrastructure [chicagotribune.com] for many more decades and, in some cases, indefinitely. Many of these lead pipes are in areas with poorer people and disproportionately minority populations.
Right wingers will certainly tell us that the Trump administration's actions to allow lead pipes to remain was to protect us from economic damage, and regulating that lead pipes be replaced is Marxism. They will tell us that individuals have a choice about whether to buy homes in areas with lead pipes, and that the free market can solve this problem better than Marxist government regulations. Because many of the lead pipes that need to be replaced are in neighborhoods with large minority populations, right wingers will say that this is the result of critical race theory being taught in schools, and that it must be stopped. Right wingers know that replacing lead pipes is just more Marxism and critical race theory, and that we must not interfere in the free market. Isn't that right, Runaway and khallow?
I now await my troll mod. :)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:32PM (1 child)
How proudly and prominently they display their ignorance and hypocrisy is about the only fun oart of the rightwing extremists. It will swuftly become less fun when they ramp up their domestic terrorism.
Good news is the corporatocracy is trying to reign in the crazy they unleashed with even Mitch McFuckle saying the 1/6 investigations need to uncover the truth behind the attack. Of course he waited until it was clear that 1/6 failed and became an albatross around the GOP neck. Expected from that evil twisted fucker, but will it shock any of the rightwing nutters back to reality? Or will they double down and go full not-sees.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @05:56PM
i hope you get shot in your face.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Username on Friday December 17 2021, @11:35PM (4 children)
I didn't know Trump was indefinitely President.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:53PM
So you specialize in being a dumbass, cute.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Friday December 17 2021, @11:54PM (2 children)
Just wait until the next election, then he'll be "Beloved President Trump" for life...
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:33AM (1 child)
So will Biden, but then again, at his age and his state of health, he might just drop dead before he hits the next election.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @02:29AM
He's already brain dead.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @11:42PM (4 children)
A democrat did something good for the country. Expect lots if complaining from selfish conservatives who were instructed to be mad about it.
What idiots. This post can not be down modded, trigger warning was provided so if you were offended it is your own fault. Take some responsibility for your own choices!
(Score: 1, Troll) by Username on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:51AM (3 children)
Brings up a good question. Why is a foreign news source saying a democrat did something, not the United States did something? An american political slant in foreign news. Maybe this was a CNN article they just bought for filler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday December 18 2021, @06:37AM (2 children)
It is simply normal reporting. When the previous government did something we said 'Trump has ...' because, ultimately, at that time he was responsible for that government. Now, we report that 'Biden has...' because he is now in the hot seat. Just as we also say 'Boris Johnson has...' or 'Macron has.. and so on. We really don't give a damn which side they represent, just what they are doing and how they are affecting their country, region, state, or our mutual interests.
Go back and search the page - the word democrat is not used - that is simply your political bias. What should it have said? 'That chap currently sitting in the Whitehouse...'? Biden is currently in charge and responsible for what his administration does - so the 'foreign' media will report that 'Biden has...'
(Score: 1, Troll) by Username on Saturday December 18 2021, @08:47PM (1 child)
What is the second word?
Go look on any website, its always, the Dutch something something omicron, England something something, South Africa something something.
This article is just propaganda for Biden.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday December 19 2021, @09:23AM
Not sure what is displayed on your screen, but the word 'democrat' does not feature on the page linked to by the story we are discussing. But if you feel that it is propaganda you have my express permission to skip this story and go watch the TV or something.
The Dutch article you mentioned says "caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte said....". How dare they mention the Prime Minister's name - pure propaganda!.
Lets look at the Hong Kong article that is on the same page. "Chief executive Carrie Lam told reporters...." Again, they have mentioned somebody's name. What is happening in the world? How terrible.
I searched for something that includes 'Trump said...' but he doesn't appear to be newsworthy at the moment.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:02AM (3 children)
They already monitor the levels of lead everywhere. Lead in pipes doesn't matter 99.9% of the time. It only leaches out when the water is acidic, which means it's probably already either contaminated by something or the people at the water company are doing a bad job.
Around here they started putting sodium hydroxide in the water a year or two ago to raise the pH and stop lead contamination - even though there was no lead contamination. NaOH costs $125 a ton and it doesn't take much.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Saturday December 18 2021, @07:28AM (2 children)
Limestone will raise pH too, but I'm not sure of the implications for drinking water (shouldn't be a problem?) Any thoughts on using limestone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:53PM (1 child)
Yeah, ever heard of hard water? Lime scale? Calcium carbonate?
Sheesh. We spend tons of money to get that shit OUT of the water so it doesn't damageboilers, kettles, coffeemakers, your hair, etc.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday December 18 2021, @06:36PM
Thank you for the information. Your delivery could use some polish. Is it okay if people come here to learn, or should all posts be informative and definitive?
If limestone treatment is causing scale deposits, then it's probably over-treating, so use less limestone / bypass the lime bed tank somewhat. It's pretty easy to measure outflow conductivity and adjust the amount of treatment automatically.
Do water softeners remove some of that lime scale?
As you said, NaOH is the simple fix, as long as it's not contributing to scale deposits.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Username on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:09AM (10 children)
Reagan made lead pipes illegal and Bush made 0% lead the safe level. Why didn't they just throw those guys in Flint or DC in prison for poisoning people?
Also, some science, it's not the pipes that are the problem, it's the water. The more corrosive the water, the more metals it leaches. Even if Flint removed all its lead pipes, people would still get heavy metal poisoning from the copper and iron.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:30AM (5 children)
It's not just Flint or DC, and prosecuting politicians is frowned upon by political parties, which happen to be rather influential organizations. Water quality testing is not something even widespread enough to know the full extent of water supply contamination.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @12:52AM (4 children)
Yes it is. Most people receive water from a system that is required to test once a year [cdc.gov]. That's not often enough if something changes like it did in Flint, but it's better than nothing. It's definitely the norm, not the exception, to receive an annual report on your water quality.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:20AM
Testing at the source is not sufficient. Tests need to be done at the tap.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday December 18 2021, @03:15AM (2 children)
Assuming they don't fake [mlive.com] the tests like they did in Flint. Regulation isn't enough, you need detection and enforcement too.
Flint got caught because there was independent testing of the water and children (some who showed high levels of lead in their blood). If nobody had bothered to test things on their own, it's likely that Flint's water supply would still be dosing people with lead today.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday December 19 2021, @01:11AM (1 child)
This is the source of many problems. We have a lot of regulations on the books that fail to stop the problems they are supposed to address. The problem isn't the regulations, it is that the enforcement is usually underfunded or left to local sources that have a vested interest in ignoring the regulations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 19 2021, @05:33AM
It's more fun to be the Big Man making rules that the worker following the rules. So we get a lot of rules. Then it's up to you to figure out which ones really matter and which ones you can ignore. Same deal at work - 1000s of rules for everything but only 2-3 actually really matter, i.e. someone will notice if you mess with it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday December 18 2021, @01:18AM
Because there are some people who the law binds but does not protect, and other people who the law protects but does not bind. And in this case, the victims are in the first category, and the crooks are in the second category.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Saturday December 18 2021, @02:27AM (1 child)
Copper and iron are essential nutrients. A person is more likely to be deficient than to have a dangerous excess.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18 2021, @03:02AM
That and as copper oxidizes it gets an incredibly durable coating that protects the metal from further corrosion.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday December 18 2021, @07:26AM
How do you feel about PEX?