Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's how the FDA works, so, should we just shut them down?
They're literally shutting down the FDA as we speak so yes?
Source:
U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
221–230 of 257 posts
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#222[flagged]
It's pretty important for anyone working around chemicals. I work around truck racks and pump houses and giant fuel tanks all day, and I'm rather glad I don't need to worry about being blown 100 feet in the air in an explosion and leave my family behind like my great uncle did. The reason I don't worry is because, partly due to the CSB, we're pretty good at knowing how to work around explosive liquids safely. Everyon…
The stated motivation is that the bureaucratic structure is redundant, so ideally the good work they do will be continued in another agency.
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
China has been the exception that authoritarian states collapse quickly. It's what the western powers were banking on would happen after they had success with USSR. It didn't pan out the way they thought. Not even close.
China is much more dispersed (because of it's size and some localisation/liberalisation) and they seem to understand at some level that reality exists and can't just be wished away. It's an open question if they'll retain that with Xi now President for life.
Authoritarianism works... as long as leaders are effective.
The reason democracy historically wins out in the long run is not because it always picks better leaders, but because it picks fewer really bad ones. And checks/balances those it does.
For all his faults as a leader, Xi has also come down hard on actual corruption and malfeasance.
Imagine Trump in charge of China.
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As a U.S. citizen, I tend to think of our system of government as only loosely democratic. One metric: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
Honest question: Why should I trust an index on democracy made by "The Economist Group", a London based private entity owned by the Agnelli Family, Rothschild, Cadbury and Schroder, groups with a history of union busting and other anti labor, anti democratic actions?
You don't have to and shouldn't—not without further evidence. Nevertheless, that group has taken the effort and it seems considerable work went into preparing it—that the analysis is done yearly showing trends over time, etc.
The fact that the figures are on the table so to speak they can now be tested by other researchers.
I'd not seen this analysis before and found it fascinating (I spent an inordinate amount of time studying the figures).
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#225Hot take:
The United states of america MAGA movement wants to compete with taliban in turning their countries 500 or even 900 years back.
Who will win? Not really sure. Its a touch and go situation and it can turn any either way and emerge as the winner
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As a U.S. citizen, I tend to think of our system of government as only loosely democratic. One metric: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
Honest question: Why should I trust an index on democracy made by "The Economist Group", a London based private entity owned by the Agnelli Family, Rothschild, Cadbury and Schroder, groups with a history of union busting and other anti labor, anti democratic actions?
> Why should I trust […]
Why should you trust anything? "Do your own research."
From §See also:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_indices
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy-Dictatorship_Index
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Ranking
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallagher_index
* Maybe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Only in USA, the rest of the world doesn't see lawyers flock to politics. Some data that suggests otherwise: > On the question of what to study, there’s also a clear answer: nearly a third of both the officials and MEPs hold a law degree at undergraduate or postgraduate level. Non-science subjects such as business, humanities, political science and humanities are all prominent in the data with just 5 percent of MEP…
>Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is one of the few exceptions, having trained as a medical doctor and taken a master’s degree in public health That's the worst example one could pick. Ursula comes from a family of influential EU politicians and has been groomed since childhood to take high ranking jobs in politics. It's doesn't matter what her education is when she's the EU equivalent of CCP royalty. That w…
> Ursula comes from a family of influential EU politicians and has been groomed since childhood to take high ranking jobs in politics.
Do we say such things if a dentist encourages their child to become a dentist? Or an MD towards being an MD? An accountant to account? A programmer to a programmer?
> That woman hasn't worked a job a day in her life […]
Being a politician (or in the government bureaucracy) is a job. It is a career. There is domain of knowledge in governance that one must learn to be effective just like there is in any other human endeavour.
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is one of the few exceptions, having trained as a medical doctor and taken a master’s degree in public health That's the worst example one could pick. Ursula comes from a family of influential EU politicians and has been groomed since childhood to take high ranking jobs in politics. It's doesn't matter what her education is when she's the EU equivalent of CCP royalty. That w…
> Ursula comes from a family of influential EU politicians and has been groomed since childhood to take high ranking jobs in politics. Do we say such things if a dentist encourages their child to become a dentist? Or an MD towards being an MD? An accountant to account? A programmer to a programmer? > That woman hasn't worked a job a day in her life […] Being a politician (or in the government bureaucracy) is a job .…
>Do we say such things if a dentist encourages their child to become a dentist? Or an MD towards being an MD? An accountant to account? A programmer to a programmer?
Depends if meritocracy was involved, which in her case it wasn't, or if your parents use their connections to get/buy you in power.
You're mixing up encouragement with cronyism, which I find in bad faith.
>Being a politician (or in the government bureaucracy) is a job. It is a career. There is domain of knowledge in governance that one must learn to be effective just like there is in any other human endeavour.
The point was that China's leaders have advanced degrees not related to politics, not whether being a politician is a job or not.
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
The principle is the rate of profit is falling, competing countries are rising, and they want to unleash the private sector in the hopes of raising GDP growth significantly enough to retain hegemony. This won't work, because they're fucking stupid, and they'll damage the health of the population and the productivity of the land and waters going forward, but there is a logic to it.
Remember when putting lead into atmosphere made entire gnerations stupid by lowering IQs? Maybe that is the goal.
In a kind of ironic way, if those people hadn't been so goddamn stupid maybe the government institutions they created and expanded wouldn't all be reputationally bankrupt and subject to dismantling by populist billionares.
Re: U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wrote elsewhere: > Please note that the CSB is not an enforcement agency - they don’t assign fault or levee fines or bring any charges or write any regulation.
CSB investigations still represent an objective source of truth which competes with the PR that companies put out absolving themselves of blame in the event of any mishap. Removing the CSB frees up companies to "self-regulate" and blast out bogus framings.
Do OSHA and the EPA not have dual jurisdiction with the CSB on these matters?