“The business of business is business and profit, not making the nation or world a better place. The business of government is making the nation or world a better place, not just protecting business.” -- paraphrasing Germaine, probably sometime in the last few years
The New York Times is reporting on another quiet, unexplained bureaucrat firing at the behest of conservative and capitalist pro-business, anti-government ideology. This time, a top scientist in the EPA who works on children’s health issues has been quietly placed on administrative leave with no explanation. She continues to receive pay and benefits. For now.
The NYT writes: “Dr. Ruth Etzel, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who has been a leader in children’s environmental health for 30 years, joined the E.P.A. in 2015 after having served as a senior officer for environmental health research at the World Health Organization. She was placed on administrative leave late Tuesday and asked to hand over her badge, keys and cellphone, according to an E.P.A. official familiar with the decision who was not authorized to discuss the move and who asked not to be identified.
The official said Dr. Etzel was not facing disciplinary action and would continue to receive pay and benefits. No explanation was offered to the staff on Tuesday.
Public health experts said that, since the start of the Trump administration, they had seen a clash between the E.P.A.’s top leadership, appointed by a president who has pushed for weakening environmental rules, and the children’s health office.”
An EPA spokesman refused to give a reason for the administrative leave, and claimed that no anti-science or anti-EPA agenda was in play regarding cuts in EPA size and leadership. Given the Trump administration’s complete disregard for inconvenient research and inconvenient truth, it is reasonable to believe this is just another quiet attack on knowledge and truth. There really is an anti-science and anti-EPA agenda in play. The EPA gets in the way of profits and its work undermines conservatism, which (falsely) holds that (i) government cannot do anything right, and (ii) it cannot generally be involved in regulating businesses or property because that is unconstitutional.
This is a topic that deserves constant attention. Killing off research and blocking access to knowledge is a tactic that is now well-established with American conservatism, and now populism. The easiest way to deceive the public is to keep it in the dark and feed it BS. That is what is happening before our very eyes.https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-biopoliticsandbionews/the_nra_blocks_gun_violence_research/ B&B orig: 9/27/18
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