March 29th, 2019.

Well, apparently Tony Cox, Trump’s appointee to chair the EPA, doesn’t believe that there is a “relationship between [particulate matter] exposure and mortality” – and NPR agrees that it’s actually quite hard to show empirically the links between air pollution and health risks cause you “can’t just run experiments on people”… but it seems Tony should totally volunteer for what he claims would be a pretty safe experiment… right?

Hell, we elected a reality TV star as our president, maybe we should embrace a couple of reality TV antics at the highest levels: When the EPA declares breathing particulate matter safe, it should be capped off with a press gathering with Tony Cox sucking on a tailpipe or doing a line of coal dust. When the FDA declares a new foodstuff safe for human consumption, we should have whoever follows Scott Gottlieb slurping it down on national television!

I’m a strong believer the most GMOs are perfectly safe – but go ahead and make a circus out of it! I’m NOT a believer that most “nutritional supplements” are particularly helpful, but go ahead and show me they’re fine for the Chairman of the FDA and I’ll be forced to believe that they’re at least probably not going to kill me.

Alas, most, if not hopefully ALL, of the health department is already vaccinated with a broad array of popular immunities, but maybe we should be really flamboyant about the fact. Televise them getting THEIR kids vaccinated! A stockbroker is cleared of wrong doing? Let the lawyer who got them off have to go forward as one of their clients, and when a jury lets a cop get away with murder… have that officer go and work in THEIR district for the next five years – preferably keeping close watch on those jurors’ kids’ schools.

Want something for your community but get all NIMBY when it comes to construction? Maybe you don’t get to have that thing, or the power that it generates, or get to dump your refuse (human or otherwise) in it. I believe strongly that we have a representative government because the people at the top are supposed to be upholding the common good even when those they represent aren’t educated enough to know what needs to happen – but instead they’re too beholden to those they represent, who themselves are obsessed with keeping what they’ve got and turning a blind eye to the rest, obsessing over polls and reelection, popularity and partisanship.

If the only way to enforce a good thing for the macrocosm is to enforce it on the microcosm at the top… well… then make it happen. And webcast it Live.