Trump's Plan to Improve American Infrastructure

[Bicycle Bill]

"Damn the regulations; full speed ahead!!"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-trump ... itics.html

President Trump added some theatrics to a speech about infrastructure.

During an appearance at the Department of Transportation headquarters on Friday, the president dramatically flipped through binders that he said contained pages of "nonsense" paperwork for an 18-mile road in Maryland, and then tossed them onto the floor.  The binders containing environmental impact statements landed with loud thuds.

Trump was highlighting the time, money, paperwork and other hurdles it takes to get major projects like roadways and bridges approved.  Some are aimed at protecting the environment and insuring community input.  He is pledging to streamline the process to make it easier to build.

Yeah, right.  This is the same mindset that, back in the day, gave us Love Canal and other toxic landfills (and the Superfund legislation and federal spending to clean them up, sometimes decades after the fact), the still-burning underground coal fire in Centralia PA that forced the abandonment of that town, DDT poisoning which almost wiped out the American bald eagle, thalidomide babies, and the use of a known contaminant and carcinogen (dioxin) in waste oil sprayed on unpaved roads in Loves Beach MO which necessitated the demolition and relocation of that community .... just to name a few instances.

Yet here's a person who is, by his own claim, 'a genius' and 'one of the smartest men in the world', figuratively throwing the book of rules up into the air and blasting them with a 12-gauge.  I think we saw a similar scene, played for laughs, between 007 and 'Q' in a James Bond movie.  Trouble is, this isn't a movie and no one is laughing.

After almost seven years in customer service it's been my experience that at least half of the calls I take could have been avoided if the caller had just read the fukkin' manual — and that's true for more than just cell phones, cars, or other consumer products.  If Dumb'old Trump wants to be remembered as something more than a 'joke' president — the 'Jesse Ventura of the White House' — he needs to stop spending so much time putting down rules, regulations, and procedures. The best place to start would be for him to find — AND READ — the instructions on 'How to Be a President'.

-"BB"-

[Lord Jim]

The best place to start would be for him to find — AND READ — the instructions on 'How to Be a President'.

Trump just had a birthday; hopefully somebody got him a copy of this:

[rubato]

Thalidomide is actually a story of successful regulation. The FDA never approved it for use in the U.S. although it was approved in Europe. The drug company distributed it directly to physicians

"... After the success of thalidomide in Europe, the drug company William S. Merrell petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in 1960 to be allowed to market the drug in the United States. Dr Kelsey was assigned to review the application. Dr. Kelsey, who has a Ph.D. in pharmacology as well as a medical degree, had been on the job for only a month, but was troubled by the lack of evidence that the drug was safe for human use. Dr. Kelsey pressed the company for additional research. Her insistence on sufficient documentation kept thalidomide off the U.S. market for over a year, sufficient time for doctors to uncover the link between thalidomide and birth defects. In 1962, the drug was taken off the market, but not before 10,000 children had been impacted. It is estimated that 40 percent of babies with thalidomide-induced birth defects died before their first birthday. The thalidomide tragedy, with its shocking pictures, was widely covered in the media. ..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomi ... cts_crisis