Looking for the truth-----The real tragedy in Flint

Must read of the MONTH!
Click the link to see this excellent analysis.
Lots here. Grab a cup of coffee and prepare to get angry!!
The real tragedy in Flint | In Other Words by Greg Branch
We’ve all read and heard a lot about the water situation in Flint.
We’re hearing most of it from Democrats, who are citing this as an example of the evils of Republican leadership and all sorts of other hyperbole.
Rachel Maddow, among others, has (nauseatingly endlessly) blamed it on Michigan’s emergency financial manager law.
So much noise.
So much misinformation.
So little time.
If you’d like to know what really happened here, read on, but be warned: it’s long. 
If you’re the TL;DR type (Too Lazy; Don’t Reach), skip to the last subhead. 
The conclusions won’t make sense to you, but then maybe you don’t want it to.

• The Tragedy’s Roots

For more than 50 years, Flint bought its water – treated and ready to serve – from Detroit.
In recent years, Detroit has – like most cities with wholesale water customers, like Saginaw – has raised its rates to reflect the rising costs of maintaining aging systems.
Detroit, according to Flint (and most of its other wholesale customers) was really jacking prices up.
Keep in mind that all of Saginaw’s wholesale customers say the same thing at every rate increase, and some – Frankenmuth most recently – have, over the years, threatened to build their own systems or find another source.
In order to be able to control its own water destiny, Flint’s city council and its mayor voted to join the Karegnondi water authority. 
It’s something they’d been talking about – and tried once before – since the 1960s.
They finally got enough municipalities behind them to make the deal work.
They announced the deal in 2013, with a target of getting water from Lake Huron through the new system sometime in 2016.
Council voted 7-1 on the decision, which was later signed off on by the city’s EFM.
Read the expanded of each one of these!

• The Kiss-Off...
• The First Screw-Up...
• The Cover-Up...
• The Recap...
• The Even Larger Tragedy...
• Update 1/19/2016

This has been updated to reflect new information.
And let me be very clear: I am not paid to be an investigative reporter, and this is not a news outlet. This is strictly my opinion, and it is based on news accounts. 
Some facts are not known, in large part because of the lack of transparency in the office of a governor who promised to be transparent.
And as I learn new facts that contradict information I had in here, I will so note them.
None of this changes my overall point.
There is a big difference between blame and accountability — and which you use will have a lot to say about the results you get in the end.
Blame and outrage will help Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and it will help Michael Moore sell his next film.
But the people of Flint can’t drink blame, and they can’t bathe their kids in outrage.
We know exactly what the problem is.
Let’s get the best people to work on fixing it.
After that, we can start the floggings. 
And there are people here who should be flogged."
Read it all!!!