Expansion of Clean Waters Act? EPA Can't Even Do Their Current Job!

In May of 2015, the Obama Administration announced that the EPA would start managing water supplies over and above the original intent of the Clean Waters Act.  Unfortunately , since then, there have been two major screw ups by this agency for things for which they have had a long standing responsibility.

Just 3 months later in August, there was the "Gold King Mine" waste water spill of 3 million gallons of a toxic slush into the waterways and water supplies that connect Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.  That slush was made up of poisonous heavy metals which included lead, cadmium, and even arsenic.   Who caused the spill? The EPA who is charged with maintaining clean waters.  Worse than that, they knew of the possible risk a year earlier.  Yet, they carelessly proceeded with the work they were doing.

At the same time as the Colorado incident, the EPA caused another heavy metal spill in Georgia.  Like Colorado, the they were directly responsible for releasing toxic waste into another water source; this despite prior concerns of the local government.

Then, there was the Flint drinking water's lead contamination.  While the EPA didn't directly cause this problem, they knew about it in February of 2015 and did nothing. Instead, they argued with the State of Michigan over testing standards and safe lead limits.  It wasn't until October that they actually admitted there was a problem.  In the meantime, the residents of Flint were drinking water that had lead levels 5 times more harmful than the EPA limits for drinking water.   As a result of all the delays due to bureaucratic blame gaming, 100,000 residents have been poisoned and will probably suffer debilitating mental and physical health issues in the future.  Of course, the EPA claims no responsibility.  However, its Regional Director announced her resignation.  There is no indication as to whether or not the resignation was voluntary or sacrificial.  My bet is on the latter.

As with most government agencies, expansion merely creates monsters where one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.  Simpler and smaller is always better and more efficient than the creation of massive bureaucracies.  But, try and tell that to Obama and the Democrats.

References:

EPA Broadens Clean Water Regulations: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/27/epa-expands-clean-water-regulations

2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_water_spill

Another EPA disaster, this time in rural Georgia: http://watchdog.org/234655/ga-epa-spill/

The EPA’s Silent, Guilty Role in the Flint Water Crisis: https://newrepublic.com/article/128156/epas-silent-guilty-role-flint-water-crisis

Blame JFK for the Rise in Mass Shootings

Once, again, we had another mass killing.  This time at a Colorado Planned Parenthood facility.  The killer is obviously mentally ill and a loner.  While the Democrats and President Obama want to focus on gun control as a means to stop these events, Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, is the only adult in the room to call for stronger mental health laws and reporting.

In 2014, the Washington Post published this graphic showing the mental status of mass killers since 1984:

With only 26% of the above labelled "With No Mental Health Issue", it is obvious that the majority of murders were committed by people with mental problems (areas in black and possibly grey).  For example, all 6 of the mass killing events in 1999 were committed by mentally ill people.  The same was true in 2012.  Of course, if the "Unclear" group was assumed to possibly have some mental illness (otherwise, they would be in blue), then the vast majority were mentally ill in some way.  This proves that Paul Ryan is on to something by calling for better mental health laws in this country, in order to control their access to guns. 

The problem with mentally ill people being on the streets actually goes back to 1963 when then-President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act.  Under that law, people would no longer be institutionalized against their will unless they were either found to be a threat to themselves or others, or if they themselves, requested to be institutionalized.  Thus, the practice of scooping people off the streets was stopped and nearly 90% of beds at state mental hospitals were emptied. This is also why so many of the homeless, that walk our streets, appear to have mental problems. It's no coincidence that the enactment of that law has resulted in a rise of mass killings into the 1970's and beyond.  Note these statistics that show the number of these events by decade since the 1900's from the "History of Mass Shootings" (linked in "References" below).

                                                    1900s: 0
                                                    1910s: 2
                                                    1920s: 2
                                                    1930s: 9
                                                    1940s: 8
                                                    1950s: 1
                                                    1960s: 6
                                                    1970s: 13
                                                    1980s: 32
                                                    1990s: 42
                                                    2000s: 28

Thus, there is a clear correlation between the passage and implementation of the Community Mental Health Act in the 1960's/1970's, and the rise of mass killings.  Before the Planned Parenthood shooter went on his rampage, he shot his neighbor's dog.
Pre-1960, that act may have landed him in a mental institution, or he at least would have been flagged so he could no longer own a gun. Not shown above is the 2010s, where mass killings are already double what they were in the Bush years of the 2000s (also linked below).

Additionally, another law is allowing the mentally ill to possess firearms: HIPAA or the Health Insurance and Portability Act of 1996.  The privacy restrictions of that law make it nearly impossible, under federal law, for mental health providers to notify authorities of a patient who probably shouldn't own a gun.  That law was passed by another Democrat President, Bill Clinton.

How Paul Ryan and Congress would effect changes to the original JFK Community Mental Health Act and the privacy provision of HIPAA are anyone's guess.  But, I believe that keeping guns out of the hands of certain mentally ill patients would definitely save lives and would be a lot easier to implement than trying to take millions of guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens that responsibly own them for sport or their own protection.

References:

Paul Ryan: 'Clearly we can do more' to address mental health issues: http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/01/politics/paul-ryan-colorado-shooting-mental-health-issues/

Washington Post: Weapons and Mass Shootings (statistics): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/weapons-and-mass-shootings/

History of Mass Shootings: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20130112/NEWS02/701129949

Community Mental Health Center Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Mental_Health_Act

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_and_Accountability_Act

HIPAA Privacy Rule and Sharing Information Related to Mental Health: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/special/mhguidance.html

Hillary: From Email-Gate to Toilet-Gate

Hillary's lies about her email's just keep getting deeper and deeper.  Last March the Washington Post published this about her private server:

Tuesday, Clinton said the server was set up for her husband, former president Bill Clinton, at their house in Chappaqua, N.Y., which she said was guarded by the Secret Service. “I think . . . the use of the server . . . certainly proved to be effective and secure,” she said.

Now, we find out that the server was never in Chappaqua or protected by the Secret Service.  Instead, it was located thousands of miles away in a bathroom closet in an apartment in Denver, Colorado; and the only secret "service" protecting her classified State Department emails was a toilet.  Perhaps the server's location was precisely selected in order to provide some interesting reading material for people using the, well, you know.

I guess Hillary could argue that it was "effective and secure" based on the fact that it wasn't a public restroom in Grand Central Station. Thank God for that!

References:

Security of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server comes under scrutiny: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/security-of-hillary-clintons-private-e-mail-server-comes-under-scrutiny/2015/03/10/fcccfb78-c737-11e4-aa1a-86135599fb0f_story.html

Report: Hillary's Email Server Was Kept in a Bathroom Closet in Denver: http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/08/18/report-hillary-clinton-email-server-was-kept-bathroom-closet-denver
 

On Health Care Reform: The Truth Is Dribbling Out

In another one of those raucous Town Halls with right-wing mobs, a Democratic Representative from Colorado, Betsy Markey, let it slip that: "There's going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work..." (Click to See Full Story: "Markey: Medicare will take hit").

So, what is it that we'll have to give up? Money? Care? Our lives? I'm quite sure the true answer is: "All of the above!"