This short video report on by the BBC
gives a frightening summary of Donald Trump's less well noticed recent decisions in his continuing programme of removing government regulations
in all areas of life and business in the USA:
- In Alaska, bears can now be hunted while they hibernate, and wolves can be shot from helicopters. The argument is that individual states should
manage wildlife resources. That argument is totally illogical: wildlife is a national resource, used by many people from outside of those states
(people from other states, and international visitors). If state management of wildlife is such a good idea, why don't they take the same approach with
drug control (as was done in Germany about 20 years ago, where the federal government repealed all anti-drug legislation and left it up to the
individual states to draft and enforce their own)?
- It has been made easier for mentally ill people to buy guns without background checks. Irrespective of whether the right to bear arms, as guaranteed in
the US constitution, is a good idea or not, it is an established legal principle that mentally ill people should not have all the rights of normal citizens,
and the history of gun violence in the USA shows that there are problems resulting from so many guns, so why are they making life more dangerous for
everyone?
- Environmental protections for streams has been reduced, allowing mining companies to dump toxic waste into the nation's waterways. This is a national
problem, as streams, and the rivers that they feed, cross state boundaries, and pollute ground-water and the surrounding oceans. Republicans seem obsessed
with letting free-market forces control so many things, but free-market forces cannot properly limit pollution unless the full costs of that pollution
are passed on to the polluters (the principle of "the polluter pays") which is not currently the case, and is not even on the agenda of the Trump
administration.
- Oil, gas and mining companies will no longer need to report money paid to foreign governments. This is a licence for bribery and corruption,
and even for companies to interfere in the elections in overseas governments. The rest of the world is slowly moving to stamp out bribery and corruption,
but the USA is going against the trend, in order to ensure the competitiveness of US companies.
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can now sell their customers' browsing history (and other Internet usage history) without the consent of those
customers. This will allow better targeted advertising, but is open to abuse. It should not be forgotten that, given the number of hacking attacks
going on, once your data is out there on someone's computer systems, it will also probably leak into the hands of criminals and be used for
identity theft and financial crime. Again, this is a move in the opposite direction to most of the rest of the world. I already use a proxy
service for some of my Internet activity, and if my usage history was going to be put up for sale, I would use a proxy for everything (luckily there
is little chance of that it Germany).
It seems that Donald Trump and his band of idiot followers are intent on removing government regulation from everything that will ensure
a safe life, ethical business practices, and protect the environment.
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