Flint water crisis analysis and political commentary

Hi, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Janet Foster Show, the show where you get real talk for action. Today has been a busy day, and today I'm talking all things Flint today, Flint, Michigan. And I know all of our listeners are pretty hip on current events, and this particular current event has been heating up just in the last 24 hours because the state of Michigan had their state of the state address this evening. And all day I have been getting great feedback from listeners of the show and individuals who started following my tweets throughout the day, and some folks in Michigan who said that they would, would be tweeting in, and there was a lot of curiosity of why a host in Los Angeles would be interested. There's several reasons, the first being what's happening in Flint is a tragedy, and it's wrong, and the second issue is, you know, Los Angeles is the second largest media market, and in terms of population, in terms of reach, and individuals who listen, I want to make sure that our listeners, our listeners are informed at even a different level than the national news that we're getting. And I like that our audience that we do have, for those of you who are joining as a result of connecting with me recently, we have a great social media presence. And one of the things, I had a guest lined up, and we decided mutually that I need to reschedule that discussion. And, and then I was able to kind of put this situation full forward. And for those of you who are listening, do know that you can tweet me live right now. We're live here in Los Angeles. You can tweet me at Janet D. Foster, and that's Janet D for Deborah. And also you can hit me up on Instagram at Janet D. Foster as well. And on Facebook, I'm Janet D. Foster. You can post on my Facebook page, and that's Janet Foster. You can find that page. It's a public page. And throughout, throughout tonight's show, I am going to be responding to some of your questions. And also some of the feedback, excellent feedback from individuals who are in Michigan. Because I think that's important, to have the people's voices heard. And we're going to be talking about the one thing that I will tell you that I, I not only empathize with the residents of Flint, Michigan, but just people in Michigan in general, I appreciate you. And, and I always have this saying that I have rarely met a person from the Midwest that I haven't liked. And I must say, the people in Michigan, you're in the Midwest, love, love, love, you got nothing but mad love for you. And I am, I am really trying very hard to restrain myself in terms of my language, because I know this is, this is live. And, and generally, I don't have colorful language to begin with. But from my background in politics, and working in communications, and working on campaigns, this is, this is a very, very important thing. And again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, I just feel so bad that this has happened to the community of Flint. And for our listeners here in Los Angeles, so that I can give you some perspective on this, Flint, Michigan, is one of these towns where it's struggling. It's been struggling economically for decades, particularly, you know, when manufacturing ceased. You know, here in the U.S., we don't manufacture anything anymore. Basically, our economy is mostly a buy economy. And, you know, towns like Flint, and there are other towns like Flint in the Midwest, but Flint in particularly, because, you know, Michigan is known for the auto industry, Flint had some ties to that. They also had ties to steel. Steel, carpentry, just you think about solid, solid good jobs. When you think good jobs, back in the day, and I would say early 70s, because it was the post 70s, late 70s is when things were starting to decline. But back in the day, Flint was humming, you know, and just through the years, it has become a community that has struggled. It has struggled significantly. And if you're a sports fan, you know about the five guys from Flint, you know, professional. And, of course, they went on to Michigan and, you know, national championship, and they're pro ballplayers coming out. A lot of talented people out of Flint. A lot of individuals who serve in the military come out of Flint. A lot of times, the military is the only option for a lot of young people out of Flint. So you... You know, you've got a town that's already economically stressed and a town that, you know, they're basically holding it together. And then you have irresponsible elected officials. And irresponsible, to call them irresponsible is being too light. But I've got to watch my colorful language. These jerks, these elected jerks, and they were elected by somebody. And they... They basically lied to the public. And what adds more insult to this injury, and it's a heinous crime that's occurred in Flint, what adds more insult is the nerve, the gall of the city to bill people for water that looks disgusting. And I think that's what's happening. It, you know, you know, and how a lot of this all began was when you had elected officials come in. And I have to go ahead and call it out. And, you know, my Republican friends, you know, tweet me, talk to me, let me know. But this was all Republican-led in the state of Michigan from the highest levels to... And we know that... Generally, local elections or local officials, they're nonpartisan. But you know how people roll. And they roll with that same doggone rhetoric. No big government, no oversight, and we're going to cut costs. And that's exactly what they did. And this is what was the result of that buffoonery, because that's exactly what it was. Straight up buffoonery that has now poisoned, poisoned individuals. And, you know, there's a resurgence. There has been in the last year a resurgence of Legionnaire's disease. I mean, these are things, these, as a result of water contamination, and we're quote-unquote supposed to be an advanced country, and this kind of crap comes in, you know, and the kind of decision-making that's happened. And where this all started was a change in where the city's water sources was coming from. And there's so... There's so many differences between how decisions are made in certain cities. And I got to say, the city of Flint is largely, primarily African-American. And there are some Latino and poor whites in the city. And so it's... And this is... It's already a town that's struggling, which I have a hard time thinking. A town that's struggling. And so the city has elected officials that draw high paychecks. That, you know, here in California, we're a little sensitive to that, knowing how we've had some of the poorest municipalities here where we've busted some overbilling. And I wonder if that's happening with Flint as well, in addition to people selling out the public in terms of their water source. But they switched their water source to basically a dirty river. A river... A river... A river that was known for dirty... For not to be clean. And the whole idea was that it was saving money. And then what happened was after people complained and started talking about how the water smelled and tasted funny, they changed. Well, what happened was the horrible chemical... The horrible chemicals in the water. And you got to think, people... People ingested this stuff. They bathed with this stuff. Through the infrastructure of that city, it went through the pipes. It started corroding the pipes. And basically, the whole infrastructure of that city has become contaminated. And now the city has... You know, they've had testing done. And they've... Independent testing. And that's how this started to surge out. Because basically... The government, the local government and the state government, was able to kind of quell that from a national perspective. And keep it quiet, so to speak. And it's basically imploded the entire infrastructure of that city. And when I say the word infrastructure, I'm talking about the whole piping system in that city. And if, you know, if you have... If you've been on social media, just in the last 72 weeks, 72 hours, some of the residents have been posting pictures of what they've been dealing with. Not just... I mean, you've seen in press conferences, you've seen the pictures of people holding up water that they may have put in a jar. But some of the pictures that I've seen, like a washing machine filled. You know, when you take your wash... When you go to do your laundry and how the washing machine fills. And the water's brand. And I don't mean... And I don't mean it's a hue of a brown, which a hue of a brown is still bad. This... The best way that I can... It looks like... It looks like someone defecated in the water. And, you know, there's pictures of people running water at their sinks. And you've got people, even within the last hour, I mean, up to the moment, I've been watching the wires and watching... And also connecting with residents of Michigan where even on their local radio, they've got the quote-unquote Republican spin source going out trying to spin something completely different that's completely in denial that this is not... The water problem in Flint isn't a real thing. You know, and this is where I got to bust you out. In conservative talk radio, right now, that's where a lot of money is. And a lot of these people are just in it for the money. I hate to put people on blast, but it is what it is. You know, this show, we have always taken a nonpartisan stand. I talk to everybody who's willing to talk. And I'm calling out bad Republicans because I know that there are good Republicans. And I need the good Republicans. Y'all need to step up. You need to step up. You need to kick these... You need to... You need to kick these fools out of your party because they're not doing... They're not doing a service to you in terms of what you stand for. And the reason why I come at this from a perspective... I'm coming at this from the perspective of a journalist, as someone who is able to see both sides, who knows how to properly interview people and talk to people, and to be truthful, I would never have someone like that on my show. And I've been approached by individuals like that. And, you know, and I've told them... I didn't really tell them to go where the sun doesn't shine, but I just tell them this isn't what we're about. And, you know, there are so many other outlets. You can go on TV and do that kind of stuff. And there are so many other places where you can do the strategic mind melding, as I call it. But, you know, I'm not going to be a part of it. And the listeners that I have, they're not going to be a part of it either. But what... I find it amazing how there are actually people saying that this water crisis isn't a real thing when it is. And I know here in Los Angeles, just in the last 72 hours, people are here who are complaining and moaning about the Oscars and the lack of diversity. We'll get to that in a couple of weeks because a couple of people are saying, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you're going to talk about that. We're going to get to that in a couple of weeks. We got enough time. The Oscars isn't until a month from now. This is taking full stage. And the thing about Flint, and it's a good segue and to kind of talk a little bit about entertainment and this whole disaster is that there have been some celebrities that have been stepping up. And I shout out to Cher. Cher, Cher, Cher, You know, she got involved and she's busy. And then, you know, God bless Michael Moore. Michael Moore is from Michigan. He reps Michigan hard. Michael Moore has been on the forefront of this from the beginning. And he always, always looks out for Flint. And, you know, and I think more and more celebrities are stepping up. And I just, I'm just so dumbfounded by this right now. And when I say dumbfounded, it blows my mind that this has happened. And then to think that the people, the good people of Michigan have a governor who, in a carefully crafted statement to the press. And then, of course, during his, state of the state message this evening, he calls it a catastrophe. This is not a catastrophe. This, this is a criminal act. And I'm going to go ahead and say it, Mr. Snyder. Criminal act. And I know that you've already stuck to your guns and said that you are not going to step down as governor, you know, which, you know, I guess it's your right. I guess it's your right. But, you know, in the real world, when you stink at your job and you cause, in your own words, a catastrophe, generally most people are fired. And, and, and I, and I really hope that the people of Michigan fire Rick Snyder. You need to start pulling. And when I say petitions, I'm not talking about the online stuff, you know, the barrage of the online stuff. I am talking about literally going. Into your state's constitution and recalling him. And you need to recall him quickly and swiftly because for him to stand there and to say for months and to sit and to basically ignore and to allow this to happen, you cannot tell me he didn't know. And that, that, that whole phrase in politics, you know, what did you know? And when? Did you know it? And you knew he knew it for months. I mean, there have been reports about this well over a year and a half. And to the extent of this, the people of Michigan need two things out of this. One, recalling him and putting him out of a job. And two, you guys in Michigan, you have the right to know who did he prostitute himself to stand up, and allow this to happen to you. Because someone, he pledged allegiance to somebody because it wasn't to the people who elected him. He agreed, he became okey-doke, he allowed this to occur. And he allowed other people to keep it going and to keeping this jig up to the public. And you know, there has been this vogue behavior as of late where it just seems to be, fashionable to make fun of the poor, demean the poor, and then trick the poor, the way that they've done this. And this is not a catastrophe. It's a criminal act because what has happened is all politicians involved who were behind, not only the decision to reroute this city's water supply, but also the politicians who knew this happened, knew that this was foul and this was wrong, and this had been happening for months and didn't do anything about it. Their blood is on their hands as well. And the criminal act that I am referring to is the fact that they have now exposed people, altered their life forever with the exposure of high levels of lead. There are children who, basically, will have learning issues. And it's not like what we see now. I mean, we already see issues now with attention deficit disorder and all these other kinds of illnesses that are either linked to our food supply or they're linked to pre-birth defects, things of that nature. Already. Well, it's going to, it's definitely going to be something that we're going to have to study, Flint, and also individuals as they migrate or move around the country, if they've lived in Flint at a certain time in their lifetime during this exposure, it's, we have to do right by them. We have to do right by them, no matter where they live. If they move from Michigan, go to Illinois, or if they move from Michigan, come to California or go to Florida. We need to do right by them by having, allowing them or allowing these individuals access to healthcare. And I don't mean this crazy, the whole employer system. And for, you know, listeners, all our regular listeners, you know how I feel about our employer paid health system. I am talking about it just, you know, Gen Xers and millennials, because we're kind of young, sometimes people who are, who are a little bit older than us or a little bit, because they were around a little bit more, sometimes they try to run game on us. And there are things that we may not know. We may not know because either we weren't born yet or we were small children. And, and I want, I want to point this out. I want to point this out. I want to point this out. And I actually know this because of the fact that I've worked in the healthcare industry and also worked in political communications where I've had to deal with information like this. But there were special exceptions for individuals in this country who were exposed to certain chemicals or leads, whether they were miners or when I say miners, I mean, miners in the mining industry, you know, black lung. There are certain types. There are certain types of testing that doctors either do on them or things that they did not pay for. And this, the same needs to happen for anybody who's ever lived in Flint during the time of this exposure. We need to watch and it's almost the same as what we needed to do when, with Three Mile Island. I know millennials, you don't know anything about it. It's history to you. And Gen Xers, a lot of us were little kids when, when this happened. When the nuclear reactor went crazy in Pennsylvania. But the same thing needs to happen. Not only do scientists need to study the after effects or the environmental effects. But we need to have, we need to have sociologists involved. Also, we definitely, definitely need the medical community to come up with protocols. Protocols specifically developed. for residents of Flint, Michigan, because this, I mean, the resurgence of a Legionnaire's disease, when I was reading the report and I just thought, why is this happening in the most advanced country in the world? And it's just because we've got, we have elected officials who have lost their damn minds. I'm sorry about that little, that language, but I'm really burning up over this and I am keeping the line of being a journalist, but also being a human being and having compassion for individuals who have been lied to by elected officials that their tax dollars have paid their salaries to. That's basically what has happened. Even with a city like Flint that's struggling, people who are working, who are paying their taxes, they are not getting the due and the justice that they deserve as a result of a pack of liars. That are in office. And I'm just, I'm astounded by it. I really feel like Governor Snyder, I think that he's somewhat arrogant. And his arrogance is shown in his delayed accountability. He says he apologizes and takes full responsibility, but we know, after months, that means jack crap. It really, it means nothing. Talk is cheap. You're in your second term. He needs to go to jail. He needs to go to jail and as well as other individuals. One of the things that I'm researching for and in the coming weeks, we'll give you updates on, we're going to name names. We're going to name names on this show. Who was on, who was on the water quality board, who, everybody who said this was okay, because it's not right. And some of the tweets that I want to go to, I just, I can't believe, I just can't believe this, that, that things, the things that the elected officials have said, and then you've got some citizens who are on fire. And we've got a tweet by, Amy Hovey, which I, is awesome because this was made in Mr. Snyder's state of the state address. He talks about that there will be, there, there's a, they're going to allocate funds to address this. Guess how much it is? $28 million. You got to be kidding. Um, you know, that I'm like, um, hold them accountable people of Michigan. Cause, it's just not, it's not. Um, and for him to say, um, to say, um, who, this is making me so angry. Um, his opening statements, Mr. Mr. Um, Snyder says, I'm sorry to let you down. You deserve to know the truth. Um, the people already know the truth, the truth, the only truth that he needs to, he needs to give the people is why didn't they do? Why didn't they listen to it? Why didn't they listen to them when they first told him something was wrong? The other truth that he owes the people, he owes them who owns him because someone owns him and someone in the 1%. And I say the 1%, he sold his soul to the devil and the people of Michigan need to know people need to know who did he prostitute himself out for? And I don't care if he gets mad because, um, politicians, um, they nowadays it's become this thing where, um, they, they network among themselves and they network and they're not networking for the good of the people back in the day. That's when it seems like, um, people would network, but the longer someone is in public office, um, their networking skills become a little bit more twisted and become a little egotistical. So he, um, he, he's definitely his pimp or as, um, Gen Xers, as we call it, you know, the, the good old saying from the, from the late nineties, who's your daddy. He needs to tell us who's his daddy because, um, he's been, um, he sold out. He sold out the people of Michigan and, um, they need to know that's the only truth that they need to know. It, you know, um, it's pretty much a no dust situation that, um, the, that, um. the people know about the toxic water because they're seeing it. He probably doesn't see it. What I'd like for him to do is he spend a day, stay in a hotel, and wonder if the coffee that somebody brought him was made with the tap water. You know, it's crazy what some people are doing and how they try to deflect their own nonsense. That's the best way I can say. And then, of course, he says, of course, Mr. Snyder has released in his press release that he'll spend his next three years helping to heal the water crisis wound. It's not a freaking wound. He's changed people's lives forever. There are going to be children that are going to have concentration problems. There are going to be children that are going to have, you know, have unexplained health problems. You know, lead exposure has some of those basic, I think, similar traits that doctors can diagnose. And then sometimes on certain people in their individual biology, lead has another effect on people. So there are so many other things that need to be in place. And I'm sorry, but that tacky $28 million isn't going to hit it. It's just not going to hit it. Because people who have been exposed to toxic water in Flint, Michigan, they are going to have other things. It would not surprise me, not that I wish this on the good people of Flint, but, you know, if there's a high rate of cancer, you know it's going to be attributed to the water supply. Again, all of these politicians are going to be accountable. There's going to be a hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard that community. And, you know, basically you poisoned people. You knew about it and didn't do anything about it. That's the real deal. So if he needs help with that reality, I can sure help out. The thing that, the thing that I just find crazy is how, how calm he said it. And one person, one person here, I, I gotta give a shout out to Black Madonna. That's her, her Twitter handle. She just says, it's a year, it's a year late, 365 days and 10 dead people. You need to be arrested. I'm like, all right. You know, some people are just, some people are just on point. And, you know, he, he needs to, if, if not arrested, he needs to step down from that job. And I like, another shout out to Red Road Rail. She says, thanks to Scott Walker, Wisconsin will no longer know who is doing the bribing. Flint can happen. So yes, there are people who they've, they've got their ears on. They're in neighboring Wisconsin, which is true, which I actually think probably the same devil that Scott Walker, that owns Scott Walker owns Mr. Snyder. It just, you know, you just gotta, you just gotta go with it. Also, you know, I, I've got another, here's another one and Joy Hart. Thank you, Joy Hart for your tweet. And she, she just points out a comment here. 8,000 small children live in Flint, Michigan, and all 8,000 have been poisoned by Snyder. And, you know, that's, you know, that seems to be the sentiment here. And they, you know, this is, wow, power to the people, Flint. And I say, I say power to the people for sure. And that's Joy Gilliam, shout out to Joy for that. And Randy Kent, Randy Kim, he just calls it out. He says poisoning the water is murder. And you got to believe it. I, this, the Flint, Michigan water, issue is going to be something that I think should take center stage in the presidential election. I know in the democratic debate, it came up a little bit on Sunday, got issue with that debate. The fact that it was on a Sunday, nobody watched it. And because the ratings really showed that. But I think that as I start getting in the mix of some of these real debates, that are coming up, all those other ones, those were window dressing interviews. But as people start making the rounds out here in California, I am going to start asking those questions. And I've got a question out to you, the audience, you know, hit me up with your thoughts. I've got some, you know, Michigan, Michigan folks, especially folks from Flint, keep coming at me, keep coming at me with your thoughts. But let me know what your thoughts are. And I'll see you in the next episode. Because even though you don't live there in Flint, what has happened there can happen to you. And I know here in Los Angeles, we have some of those similar issues that Flint has seen. And some of our municipalities, our main problem here in Los Angeles is our infrastructure is so overgrown. We're not able to find a way to find a way to find a way to find a way to find a way to old that we have pipe bursts that burst throughout the city and random parts of the city. And, you know, in politics right now, and Republicans, I've got to come at you on this one. There's this notion of spending and it's disingenuous when you talk about, when you talk about local spending and tax dollars coming back into communities, because a lot of the Republican rhetoric right now in terms of economics is outside of the U.S. And a lot of that is, and the only way you can invest outside of the U.S. is you've got to tighten up things at home. Things somewhere else in the budget. And the way the Republicans that are in office now, and Republican leadership in Congress, and in a lot of these state houses throughout the country in different states, it's how they're, how they are trying to hold up that, it's a figment, it's an image that is disingenuous. And it's really, it's a reckless one where they do that locally so that at the federal level, you know, defense spending can increase. Of course, you know, they keep telling us, telling us things to try to make us feel afraid. And, but it seems to be backfiring. And then they don't know what to do when things happen here at home. And then, you know, that the whole thing about it just, you know, right now, gun control, they don't know what to do with that. But a lot of relationships that the Republicans are trying to build are investment for some of their key, for some of their key backers. And those key backers are not the rank and file guy who makes, 50,000, you know, the guy or gal who makes $50,000 a year. But what they do is they need to keep you pissed off and telling you that somebody else is taking your money when you think that you don't have a lot of money, which technically you don't have a lot of money. But, and, you know, but to make you to kind of feed into that so that they can do business with the Saudis or try to, you know, make them feel better. And so, you know, I think that's a big, you know, I think that's a big, you know, I think that's a big, you know, I think that's a big, try to negotiate more foreign manufacturing of goods to import in the United States. They got to do these things. And when you have members of Congress who are voting against infrastructure projects here in the States, whether it's a rail line and, you know, my friends in Florida, particularly in the area, this was kind of personal for me because I'm from the I-4 corridor. Can you say the I-4 rail line connecting Tampa and Orlando? You know, it astounds me how some people in Florida were saying, well, how is that going to affect your taxes? It wasn't. You were going to get money, but, you know, your governor turned it down. Well, the same thing, and you know, I'm from the I-4 corridor, I'm from the I-4 corridor, I'm from the I-4 corridor, you know, that rail is infrastructure. The same thing goes for water, water infrastructure in cities. And sometimes, you know, people like to use these, they're really dog whistle words as it relates to playing on people's ignorance. They like to, when they use socialism, and that really, or socialist. And that actually makes me laugh because generally the people who are throwing that around are folks, when you check them out, they were the ones that got D's as in disaster in history as their grades, D's and F's, which I just never really understood that. And then I kind of always thought, well, maybe it was my history book or my civics book that maybe they went to a crappy school because I went to a very good school. And that's sort of not how economics works. But infrastructure and investment at home should be our priority. And even in a city like mine here in Los Angeles, where pretty much regardless to party affiliation here, we've basically had poor poor, poor movements. Have a lot of innovation going on. Have a lot of innovation going on. Have a lot of innovation going And, you know, here in Los Angeles, I mean, this town was, a lot of these pipes, these pipe, and even these systems for these pipes have been around since like 1855. And, you know, and some get patched and, and you just know, and you know, it's nappy water. You know, just living here, you know, not to drink the tap water. I didn't, you know, so, and I, and my heart goes out to people in Flint because, I mean, I, you know, I live, I live in an area very well where if something like Flint, if fire water smelled funny, you better believe we would be raised in hell. And it would be fixed within 24 hours, but because I live in an affluent neighborhood, it will get dealt with. But the way. The way things work or seem to be working in our country right now, if you have no money or you're from a poor neighborhood, it's just not happening. And I just think that we need to relook at this. And for those of us who don't live in Michigan, we do need to support them. However, you know, if you've, I know the easiest way to do it is to support known organizations. Like the Red Cross, who they've been known to help, you know, water donations. You know, bottled water is one thing, but there's other kinds of donations that people are going to need because people are going to need, they're going to need health care. And, you know, if you've, if you've got connections, this is just crazy. I know that the state has two renowned universities and medical centers. You know, with Michigan State and University of Michigan, this is going, this is going to be a huge overload for that state. Because that, it's like that state, every time that state gets 10 steps forward, something happens. You know, we had back in 2008, the, when the entire country, you know, the economy collapsed between 2007 and 2008. And it really hit. It hit Michigan harder than anywhere else because of the auto industry. And you had these auto executives who were basically messing around and the suppliers and, and just everybody that was tied to that industry. You know, things collapsed. And then now you've got where the auto industry in Michigan, it's coming back. It's humming and, and, and jobs are starting to come back to Michigan. And then you've got poor Flint. And then you've got Flint that has this going on. And it, it, it starts to make you wonder though, if this happened in Flint, it can happen somewhere else. And the effects, the after effects of Flint, how will it affect, how does it affect neighborhoods or neighboring cities? Kind of, you know, the butterfly effect of not only the water quality, but also, you know, in terms of services. Because resources, resources, whether it's housing, healthcare, I just keep drilling healthcare because that is going to be a problem in Flint. You know, and also mental health, not just for physiological ailments, but there, there's going to be, I, I think that there, I, I would not be surprised that if there's a trigger in other episodic events, health events, mental health, etc. Have a hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard hazard!! hazard! probably got the pH balance, pH levels equal to battery acid. And, you know, you just, you have to just think in your own town, how would you deal with that? How would you protect your children? And right now, you know, thinking about Flint, they're going to have to test their schools. I mean, just everything. And I know that the city is handing out filters, but I wouldn't even drink filtered water from Flint. And good grief. You know, it's, you know, Mr. Snyder calls it a catastrophe. I call it a hot mess. I mean, it's a complete hot mess. And it's crazy. And what I think is even worse, is how people are, how politicians aren't stepping up. I know earlier today, presidential candidate Marco Rubio was asked about it. And he said he wasn't briefed. And, you know, in politics speak, when a politician says that they haven't been briefed, that just means he didn't care enough to know. But then, too, one of the things, one of the things that, what was going on in the Hill, was that there was a water quality bill going on. And thank goodness, the president vetoed that and squashed it, kept it from going forward. Because, you know, this whole concept of smaller government, trying to save money, it just doesn't work in real lives, in real people's lives. And, you know, Just to my Republican friends, and I invite my Republican friends to come on. There are a few of you that, you know, we've been working out a schedule to see when can we talk. I think that your party needs an overhaul. I think you need to kick the old guys out. Gen Xers and millennials who are Republicans, you need to step up. You need to step up and kick them out. Kick out your folks who basically are willing to sell themselves to the devil. Kick out your folks who seem to have this Billy Badass talk about war, but never serve themselves. But they don't have a problem sending somebody else's kid. You know, and then your trust fund kids. You got to have a real job nowadays. I just think to relate to the majority of the electorate in this country, gone are the days of your daddy did. And it's just not good enough. And there are some, you know, there are some rich kids, kids from rich families where those families have the foresight to make them work, to work for their own. And not give them. Not give them the fortune. Because there is a definite difference in mindset and humanity in terms of how people behave when they work for something. And how if it's handed to them. And I think Republicans, you'll resonate with that, seeing how that seems to be the same message. That a lot of Republicans like to use with their analogy with welfare. The same thing is with, you know, if you want to call someone who's hungry. And, you know, someone who has children who left a domestic violence situation. And or someone, a teenager who became a parent. The father of the child has moved on. Doesn't take much. Doesn't take responsibility. And the teen mother is trying to not only graduate high school, but also graduate college so she can be self-sufficient. You know, you like to call that a handout. Well, handouts are, handouts go both ways. Whether it's my daddy knows Senator so-and-so. And, you know, my daddy gave me $2 million to start this business over in China. And my daddy knows Senator so-and-so. And we're going to get this done. Instead of building a bridge in our city that's more than 120 years old. Or redoing infrastructure in our city of pipes so that nothing bursts on the street. You know, it just depends on how the money's allocated and what things are done. And that philosophy. That philosophy is a little different. I definitely will be talking about Flint more in the coming weeks. I just think that this, the issue with Mr. Snyder, their governor, it's just not what it was meant to be. I mean, you've got the residents talking about how they were given bad information. There doesn't seem to be too much going on to help the children who are exposed to lead. And Governor Snyder is talking about, he's concerned about his state's budget. You know, whatever, dude. Maybe take a pay cut or step down. Which I think the people of Flint would appreciate that. And mostly everybody else would. And I will say this in kind of closing on my commentary. Is that, you know, things like this happen when you have people who don't vote. And it allows for people who may not be the best at bringing people together. And this is what happened in the case of Michigan in terms of their governor. As well as other areas of their elected officials. And, you know, since this is an election year, you know, there's a tendency where people pay attention more in the election year. And if there's one message that you can take away is don't just let it be an election year. You should be voting every day. Every single election. You know, this is a personal bragging point. I've been a registered voter since I was 18. I've voted in every single election. I've not missed an election. And I've lived in two different states. And let's see. One, two, three. And five different counties. So three different counties in Florida and two in California. Yeah. And I will tell you that I vote. I vote. And it's whether the person I, my preference, whether my preference wins or not, I get to the polls. And I want to encourage you to think about that. I want you to start thinking about locally and locally about and asking people, what have you done for me lately? And ask, too. And check. Check your own city's watch. Check your own city's water supply. And make sure that you don't live in the next Flint. And that's going to be my thoughts for this week. We'll pick it up next week. And I want to just thank all the listeners for shouting out and for the people who have joined me today when I kind of did the tweet around. And I also want to give a special shout out to the Islamic Relief USA. I will. I have seen you guys. You guys won. This organization, I just want listeners to know, they were the first to send water relief to Flint before any celebrities did. And they have been on point. And at some point, we're going to bring them in. Not just talk about Flint, but there's some other things. But I just want to do a special shout out to the Islamic Relief USA because you guys, I've been watching you. We see you. We see you. And you're doing. You're doing good. And I think it's awesome. I just want to thank you. And you can connect with me, as always, on Twitter at Janet D. Foster and on Instagram and on Facebook at Janet Foster. And I want to thank my wonderful, wonderful sound engineer, Jeremy Hansen. And to everyone, thank you for listening. Subscribe to the show. Check out my pages. And, you know. We play radio family. We're going to keep it coming. And have a wonderful week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.