War on “the regulatory state”
Princess Ivanka is pleased that Daddy is getting rid of all those pesky regulations protections that might eat into her profits a little bit.
“The Trump economy is booming.” One thing @realDonaldTrump “has done that has received little attention despite arguably driving today’s economic boom is his decision to declare war on the regulatory state.” #Deregulation https://t.co/YzOYbyKXLW
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 28, 2017
A couple of weeks ago he did a photo op with the Big Pile of Protections that he promises to kill.
#trump photo op. for repealing regulations-comparing 1960's to present. More regs needed as more people, climate change, internet, equal rights, mining, green policies, cell phones. Simple-minded approach to complex ever changing world. Remember, the dinosaurs could not adapt. pic.twitter.com/6PgpEIv4Ii
— k.g. Sambrano • fiction • poetry • photography (@kgsambrano) December 17, 2017
There’s only one problem. That mountain of paper Trump used as a prop symbolizes hard-won measures that protect us.
To refresh the president’s memory, back in the 1960s, smog in major U.S. cities was so thick it blocked the sun. Rivers ran brown with raw sewage and toxic chemicals. Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River and at least two other urban waterways were so polluted they caught on fire. Lead-laced paint and gasoline poisoned children, damaging their brains and nervous systems. Cars without seatbelts, airbags or safety glass were unsafe at any speed. And hazardous working conditions killed an average of 14,000 workers annually, nearly three times the number today.
In response, Congress enacted the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and other landmark pieces of legislation to protect public health and safety. Some of those laws also created the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Highway Traffic Safety Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and other federal agencies to write and enforce safeguards.
But Trump wants more workers killed in hazardous working conditions, more smog, more filthy rivers, more species going extinct, more people killed in car crashes because they weren’t wearing seat belts – the glorious land of FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM.
Sure, let’s become China, why don’t we. I grew up in the 1970’s and I remember the so-called “Brown Cloud” over Denver and how there were practically daily air quality alerts. It’s still there, but emissions regulations and standards have made it almost invisible (you have to go up into the foothills and look east to see it, rather than just be in the city and see the tops of the skyscrapers disappearing into the haze).
I remember all the smog alerts in Los Angeles when I was in my teens – and I didn’t even live in California! They were so ubiquitous that we all heard about them.
I think this says it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrAuF2f_oI
I lived in Los Angeles then, and now.
In those days, brown skies were the norm, and, yes, smog alerts were a thing. A common, everyday sort of thing.
The difference is remarkable. The thought of going back to that appalls me. Fucking GOP monsters.
“Remember, the dinosaurs could not adapt.”
Some things are better prevented than adapted to. Massive asteroid impact, for one, and climate change for another. The dinosaurs didn’t have a choice. We do.