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[smjjames]

the agency will “no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments.”

That's... I just...what the...but...Environmental Protection Agency! It's literally in the name!

I don't know if that's for everything or just that particular set of stuff, but yeah, if accurate, it's a complete abandonment of it's function.

[Frumple]

Like... theoretically, the particular report that's referring to was in reference to a specific report and its data collection, with there still being room for something else to be monitoring the stuff, for what it's worth and iirc. Read parts of the thing when it first was getting reported on out of curiosity regarding whether it was as bugfuck as it looked on the reported tin.

... never did get around to checking to see if that something else actually exists, though. Considering who was running the EPA and this administration in general, I wouldn't exactly be surprised if it didn't.

[MrRoboto75]

the agency will “no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments.”

That's... I just...what the...but...Environmental Protection Agency! It's literally in the name!

Next you'll tell me the Committee of Public Safety isn't committed to the safe well being of the public.

[Kagus]

the agency will “no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments.”

That's... I just...what the...but...Environmental Protection Agency! It's literally in the name!

Next you'll tell me the Committee of Public Safety isn't committed to the safe well being of the public.

Or that the Department of the Treasury doesn't actually go hunting for buried treasure.


But yes, this looks pretty silly. I mean, that article is horribly written, but the content is also just ridiculous. Someone mentioned moustache-twirling?

[nenjin]

In other news, make asbestos legal again?

Jesus. I predicted this in my head a couple months ago. I was like “what’s the most incontrovertibly worst manufacturing practice they could bring back.” Thanks for not disappointing, you fucks.

In other news though, Alex Jones has finally pissed enough people off.

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/06/636030043/youtube-apple-and-facebook-ban-infowars-which-decries-mega-purge?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180806

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer psychopath.

[Starver]

eVoting: https://xkcd.com/2030/

[Andux]

They're nationalists. They don't believe people can change cultures or that cultures can work together with any diversity, and that nation-states should be synonomous with the culture they represent.

In other words, they think people should stay where they're born, never speak a second language (unless it's to do business), and immigration is therefore right out. After all, if they came from Mexico and are Mexican they can't be American and thus will inevitably chafe with "real" Americans until a tragedy happens.

Ethnocentrism is pretty characteristic of the authoritarian mindset, as Bob Altemeyer noted in his book on the subject--which I highly recommend; PDF and ePub versions are available for free on his website.

Remembering again that university students are not world leaders, that the Global Change Game is not the real thing, that people do not become world-class Elites simply by rising to their feet, and so on, I still found the experiment instructive--even though it was only a "two-night stand."

First, the spectacular ethnocentrism of ordinary RWAs takes one’s breath away. Here they were again, as in Doom Night in 1994, in a room filled with people like themselves, and they simply made smaller in-groups. Assigning authoritarian followers to a sub-unit appears to automatically put blinders on them as to what was happening everywhere else. "We’re the (whatever) Team," they seemed to say, and taking the concept of "team" much more seriously than most people do, they sealed themselves off from the rest of the world. They plopped down on their islands during the first night’s simulation and at best responded with charity now and then to the overwhelming problems they and the other islands were allowing to grow. They were not in the least warlike. But leaderless and rather unimaginative, they accomplished very little during the simulation. Although they started off with a lot of enthusiasm and drive, the disasters that resulted stole all the wind from their sails.

When one injected a few Double Highs into a high-RWA world, almost all of them grabbed power by hook or by crook. Although only a tiny part of the earth’s population, they made a huge difference in how the world developed because authoritarian followers basically just follow. And the world was agruably better than the one created the night before--assuming it would have survived a forty-first year. But everything depends on who leads high RWAs, and when the Double Highs took over and formed that lethal union, their strong need to dominate led to bullying, military build-ups, and warfare. They showed no signs of being guided by moral principles and they certainly had no interest in charity or in serving the common good of the planet. They thus proved as insular as ordinary RWAs, and their world failed almost as badly. A sample of ordinary high school students usually forges a better future than was shaped on either of these nights by authoritarian university students.

[smjjames]

They're nationalists. They don't believe people can change cultures or that cultures can work together with any diversity, and that nation-states should be synonomous with the culture they represent.

In other words, they think people should stay where they're born, never speak a second language (unless it's to do business), and immigration is therefore right out. After all, if they came from Mexico and are Mexican they can't be American and thus will inevitably chafe with "real" Americans until a tragedy happens.

Ethnocentrism is pretty characteristic of the authoritarian mindset, as Bob Altemeyer noted in his book on the subject--which I highly recommend; PDF and ePub versions are available for free on his website.

Remembering again that university students are not world leaders, that the Global Change Game is not the real thing, that people do not become world-class Elites simply by rising to their feet, and so on, I still found the experiment instructive--even though it was only a "two-night stand."

First, the spectacular ethnocentrism of ordinary RWAs takes one’s breath away. Here they were again, as in Doom Night in 1994, in a room filled with people like themselves, and they simply made smaller in-groups. Assigning authoritarian followers to a sub-unit appears to automatically put blinders on them as to what was happening everywhere else. "We’re the (whatever) Team," they seemed to say, and taking the concept of "team" much more seriously than most people do, they sealed themselves off from the rest of the world. They plopped down on their islands during the first night’s simulation and at best responded with charity now and then to the overwhelming problems they and the other islands were allowing to grow. They were not in the least warlike. But leaderless and rather unimaginative, they accomplished very little during the simulation. Although they started off with a lot of enthusiasm and drive, the disasters that resulted stole all the wind from their sails.

When one injected a few Double Highs into a high-RWA world, almost all of them grabbed power by hook or by crook. Although only a tiny part of the earth’s population, they made a huge difference in how the world developed because authoritarian followers basically just follow. And the world was agruably better than the one created the night before--assuming it would have survived a forty-first year. But everything depends on who leads high RWAs, and when the Double Highs took over and formed that lethal union, their strong need to dominate led to bullying, military build-ups, and warfare. They showed no signs of being guided by moral principles and they certainly had no interest in charity or in serving the common good of the planet. They thus proved as insular as ordinary RWAs, and their world failed almost as badly. A sample of ordinary high school students usually forges a better future than was shaped on either of these nights by authoritarian university students.

I believe I know of the experiment you mentioned, but wasn't that experiment discredited or at least given a major asterik of a caveat that says that it's just one datapoint out of many? It's not that insights can't be drawn from it, it's that it's just one game model and experiment or sets of experiments.

[Kagus]

This is at least two layers of deep-fried heresy to post, but... Would anyone be surprised if something like this actually ended up happening at this point?

[Dunamisdeos]

There's probably something in there about impeached Presidents not being allowed to hold office again, or something.

[Lord Shonus]

More practically, appointments to the office of VP would require the consent of the Senate. The same Senate that, in this example, would have just removed the appointee from office.

[smjjames]

How did those who found themselves thrusted into the position (via assassination or early/sudden death) do it? I think some just waited until the next election rolled around and selected the VP via normal campaign proccesses. *goes and checks*

Anyways, that sort of musical chairs (like the way Putin did it) would be so obviously corrupt that you'd have to be (metaphorically) blind to not see it. Besides, I don't think Pence enjoys the role of High Priest to Trumpism enough to willingly resign and play it again if he got the top position.

Looking at wikipedia, John Tyler, Milard Filmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur (all 19th century) simply left theirs vacant. Teddy Roosevelt left it vacant for the first term (actually the remainder of McKinley's term) but had one for the second who was nominated through the normal electoral proccess. Calvin Coolidge left it vacant for the first term and the VP for the second was nominated via the normal electoral proccess. Harry Truman, LBJ and Gerald Ford followed the same precedent.

I guess Pence might prefer to not leave it vacant, but selecting a VP outside of the normal electoral proccess, even if it required the consent of the Senate, would still smack of circumventing the will of the voters.

edit: Maybe as a compromise, Pence should pick Hillary, hah!

[Andux]

I believe I know of the experiment you mentioned, but wasn't that experiment discredited or at least given a major asterik of a caveat that says that it's just one datapoint out of many? It's not that insights can't be drawn from it, it's that it's just one game model and experiment or sets of experiments.

The game isn't the basis of Altemeyer's research; he talks about a number of different studies and tests throughout the book. The bit I quoted is just one that stuck in my mind.

[Shazbot]

You ARE aware of the politically charged debate over voter ID's, shazbot? And what do you mean by EFV?

On the surface of it, having voter IDs does sound reasonable, but the problem is that a certain party has been using it to disenfranchise minorities and makes it more difficult for some segments of the population to vote. Until it can be guaranteed that said IDs will be issued to absolutely everybody, it's going to be controversial. Probably going to need to throw in a federal voter database as well.

EMV. My bad. No, it occurs to me Democrats used poll taxes and literacy tests to suppress black Republican voting in the postwar South, in addition to masked goons terrorizing people in front of their houses, or screaming at them through bullhorns, but nowadays the parties have switched and only Democrats run around in masks screaming at black women at cafes for being Republicans.

Somehow I may have... nope I didn't get that backwards.

Either accept that we need both properly secured voter identification and secured ballot handling, or admit hypocrisy. Garbage in, garbage out, as the computing world says. Unless the input is as tamper-proof as the output, you merely shift the point of failure from outside hacking to ballot-stuffing. Like how my wife was somehow registered across the state in a Democratic precinct...

[Dunamisdeos]

edit: Maybe as a compromise, Pence should pick Hillary, hah!

People would swallow their brains trying to comprehend this. It would be fantastic.