Hmm - most ‘terrorism’ is ‘short-term, immediate impact’ approaches - bombs, guns, etc. One wonders what a truly ‘long-view’ terrorist might get up to. Oh, wait - that’s neo-liberalist free market economics!
Grenfell, anyone? Not asbestos, but same principle. More neo-liberal, free market outcomes, especially when the ‘market’ is invited to privately operate social provision.
What other material would you possibly use to insulate against a dumpster fire?
Anyway, this is a signature move for him. I didn’t feel even a hint of surprise when I heard about it.
I am a bit surprised that anyone who survived Scott Pruitt’s pogrom is offended by this. When he purged the EPA of double-plus-ungood-thinkers, I was under the impression that he got rid of everyone with any taint of integrity. I’m pleased to be wrong about that.
I genuinely think that Trump wouldn’t give two craps about an antiquated, blacklisted, virtually worthless building material if this wasn’t a cartoonishly blatant gift to Russian asbestos manufacturers. Whoever’s writing this Marvel script is really clumsy about giving away the bad guy’s motivations!
Or maybe it’s a misguided prank by White House aides.
“Hey… hey… I dare you to write a note that says “Ban asbestos!” and sign it ‘Obama’ and leave it on the boss’s desk.”
Is this satire?
Or somebody opens a bag beside him, and records his reaction.
Yeah, with almost everything he’s ever talked about, I’ve always thought he seems stuck in the early '80s at latest. I don’t know if it’s dementia, where it’s easier for him to remember things that happened in the more distant past, or if that was simply his heyday and the point after which he stopped paying any attention to the world and failed to notice that things changed. It is pretty weird.
Although in that case, the market didn’t have to say anything - leaving aside that coal industry employment became decoupled from production demands in the early 20th century due to automation, despite what Trump said, his actual policies worked against more coal mining jobs (and for coal mine owner profits). E.g. reducing regulations meant they could return to more environmentally destructive means of mining that are more heavily automated.
Please build Donny Two Burger’s prison cell with that asbestos.
I was thinking that maybe he wants all that asbestos to line the cells in hell that he and his family will be suffering in soon enough.
Not hot enough, turn up the heat.
I imagine that the vast majority of people who pursued careers with the EPA joined the agency because they believed in the mission of actually trying to protect the environment.
This must feel like working for the Center for Disease Control and being told that your department is being reassigned to distribute Smallpox blankets.
Any chance we can turn this to our advantage? Somehow trick Trump into saying that fire is harmless and only unAmerican liberals don’t set themselves on fire, or that drinking big glasses of paint thinner is a core component of making America great again? Given their track record, his followers wouldn’t hesitate for a second.
Well, that and the fact that Obama was against it, so he is for it.
They must not make any lead based paint in Russia, or he’d be all over bringing that back too. I hear Obama was against eating paint chips, maybe Trump will start havig some every day for lunch.
Came to post this. No one is going to actually use it even if it’s legal. Not that there aren’t financially reckless bosses out there, but no company would be stupid enough to take on the liability.
This is the Onionverse. It’s a fork of the Universe, registered sometime around the end of 2016 as observed from Earth. May FSM have mercy on its inhabitants.
Trump has long since to convicted himself of high treason and crimes against humanity. Now it’s just a matter of whether the court eventually sentences him to painless lethal injection or orders him burned at the stake.
Much like the eclipse viewing, he’d probably grab a handful and shove it in his mouth.
“Hey, this stuff isn’t bad. It’s dry, but crunchy. And see, it’s not bad for me. I’m not dying, am I?”
NEXT: bringing back DDT
The next time someone says make America great again I am going to tell them about this and the fact that he is getting it from Russia with his face literally stamped on it.
I will then proceed to tell them STFU and walk away.
Former EPA employee here. You’re spot-on, people go to work for the agency in part because they like the feeling of bettering the world. Almost everyone doing the actual feet-on-the-ground work are all about science and improving the environment.
