Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Death of Biopolitics: Trump Admin Works to Increase the TOXICITY of Our Bodies


I am outraged to see that Trump administration appointees are working hard to roll back human health and environmental protections:
Eric Lipton (2017, October 21). Why Has the E.P.A. Shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider Helps Call the Shots. The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/us/trump-epa-chemicals-regulations.html?rref=collection%2Fseriescollection%2FTrump%20Rules&action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=Collection&region=Marginalia&src=me&version=series&pgtype=article

A scientist who worked for the chemical industry now shapes policy on hazardous chemicals. Within the E.P.A., there is fear that public health is at risk. 
WASHINGTON — For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has struggled to prevent an ingredient once used in stain-resistant carpets and nonstick pans from contaminating drinking water. The chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, has been linked to kidney cancer, birth defects, immune system disorders and other serious health problems.

So scientists and administrators in the E.P.A.’s Office of Water were alarmed in late May when a top Trump administration appointee insisted upon the rewriting of a rule to make it harder to track the health consequences of the chemical, and therefore regulate it.

The revision was among more than a dozen demanded by the appointee, Nancy B. Beck, after she joined the E.P.A.’s toxic chemical unit in May as a top deputy. For the previous five years, she had been an executive at the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry’s main trade association.
De-regulation of chemicals known and/or suspected to cause cancer and disrupt endocrine functions is occurring as Trump appoints chemical industry representatives to lead government agencies, including the EPA and USDA:
Robert Faturechi, ProPublica, and Danielle Ivory (Nov. 13 2017). A Wide-Open Door for Pesticide Lobbyists at the Agriculture Department. ProPublica, Available, https://www.propublica.org/article/a-wide-open-door-for-pesticide-lobbyists-at-agriculture-department?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter
Trump has established a clear policy of appointing toxic candidates to lead government agencies:

Rebecca Morin (June 5, 2017). 'Torture memo' author nominated for Trump administration post. Politico, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/05/trump-nominee-torture-bradbury-239167

Steven Bradbury, a former George W. Bush administration official who authored legal memos authorizing "enhanced interrogation techniques" that have been regarded as torture, has been nominated to be General Counsel of Transportation. 

The utter absurdity of these appointments, their VENALITY and the blatant obviousness of REGULATORY CAPTURE demonstrate complete lack of public accountability.

The state is no longer simply an instrument of capital. It is above all else an instrument of death.

Instrumentalization of the state in the service of capital was described by David Harvey in 2005 in terms of a “neoliberal state” whose mission is to “facilitate conditions for profitable capital accumulation on the part of both domestic and foreign capital” (p. 7).

In 2008, James Galbraith described evolution of a “predator state” as:
a coalition of relentless opponents of the regulatory framework on which public purpose depends, with enterprises whose major lines of business compete with or encroach on the principal public functions of the enduring New Deal. It is a coalition …that seeks to control the state partly in order to prevent the assertion of public purpose and partly to poach on the lines of activity that past public purpose established. They are firms that have no intrinsic loyalty to any country. They operate as a rule on a transnational basis, and naturally come to view the goals and objectives of each society…as just another set of business conditions, more or less inimical to the free pursuit of profit…. (p. 131)
The predator state doesn't simply labor in the service of capital, it simultaneously extracts and degrades the life forces of the population. It is therefore unsustainable.

The death of biopolitics is upon us. That is, we are witnessing the state's abdication of any responsibility for cultivating the life forces of the population.

I've been listening to Depeche Mode's latest and greatest album. Here is a relevant sample:


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1 comment:

  1. What makes people think, that life on earth can survive the next 20 years, with so much nuclear waste present? And TRUMP wants more. The whole human race is trippin.

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