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Trump Administration Prepares a Major Weakening of Mercury Emissions Rules (nytimes.com)
The Trump administration has completed a detailed legal proposal to dramatically weaken a major environmental regulation covering mercury, a toxic chemical emitted from coal-burning power plants, The New York Times reports, citing a person familiar with the matter. From the report: The proposal would not eliminate the mercury regulation entirely, but it is designed to put in place the legal justification for the Trump administration to weaken it and several other pollution rules, while setting the stage for a possible full repeal of the rule. Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who is now the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected in the coming days to send the proposal to the White House for approval. The move is the latest, and one of the most significant, in the Trump administration's steady march of rollbacks of Obama-era health and environmental regulations on polluting industries, particularly coal. The weakening of the mercury rule -- which the E.P.A. considers the most expensive clean air regulation ever put forth in terms of annual cost to industry -- would represent a major victory for the coal industry. Mercury is known to damage the nervous systems of children and fetuses.
From Wikipedia:
Arendt's subtitle famously introduced the phrase "the banality of evil," which also serves as the final words of the book. In part, at least, the phrase refers to Eichmann's deportment at the trial as the man displayed neither guilt for his actions nor hatred for those trying him, claiming he bore no responsibility because he was simply "doing his job" ("He did his duty...; he not only obeyed orders, he also obeyed the law." p. 135).
"What further need have we of witnesses?"
I strongly suspect that he won't be a footnote.
Trump's presidency represents a turning point for western democracy. Do we reject amoral crony capitalism and move back towards the social compact that first brought us to prosperity, or do we embrace the post-truth, post-compassion world and descend into a new age of feudalism?
or is this man truly evil?
Trump is easily the worst person (competence, morals, decency, empathy, etc - pick your measure) to get to the office of president in my lifetime and I'm old enough to have lived during Nixon's administration. He surrounds himself with people who are somehow if anything worse in a lot of ways. There are prominent republicans who I respect and think could be good presidents even if I don't necessarily agree with their policy positions on a given topic. Trump is not even close to among them. I thought Bush Jr was a terrible president but I'd take him in a heartbeat over Trump. Reagan or Bush Sr would be a huge upgrade. Heck I'd happily take McCain (even with Palin) or Romney who I think were both competent and fundamentally decent people. No I'm not arguing the Democrats were notably better (they weren't) but literally every other president or candidate for either party in the last half centry would be an improvement over Trump.
Trump is honestly the first President in my lifetime who I do not think is actually doing what they think is best for the country. The Bushes, Clinton, Obama, hell even the losing candidates like McCain, Gore, Kerry, Bill's scarier half, while I didn't agree with all of their policies, I did believe that for the most part they were doing what they thought was good for the country. That's really about all you can ask of a leader. Trump on the other hand, only cares about what's good for Trump, anyone named Trump, and anyone who supports him so long as they continue to support him and their support benefits Trump. It's "Trump, the whole Trump, and nothing but the Trump, so help you Trump."
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil