Worker safety agency NIOSH lays off most remaining staff

For those who dont know NIOSH while under HHS and not the department of labor does most of the research work for safety in the US and anything that needs to be certified either goes through ANSI or NIOSH, so this has effectivly killed safety protections in the United States. - Source, About to graduate with a masters in Safety Engineering in Yankeeland... because timing is great

It's times like these that I'm forced to wonder about the extent of grounded rationality going on in the US administration. I try not to look at it in those terms because it seems like too much of an individualist mindset, but like... what would be the plan here? Kill as many people as possible and rule over the remainder with an iron lung? In the short term, I guess I could see an attempt to break up any union power and replace it, but you can't just do that and then get the same thing without unions. Even if you get back mostly the same level of skill, somehow, the lack of union protections would mean less oversight in an agency where oversight is critical.

Some of this shit seems less like a consolidation of power from someone interested in being ultimate ruler and more like a move toward a balkanized US made up of company towns.