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www.nytimes.com

Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump

President Trump has been a cheerleader for coal miners. But these miners say his administration is failing to enforce limits on a lethal workplace hazard.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

When coal miners came to Washington in April, they posed behind President Trump at the White House, wearing their hard hats and thanking him for trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry.

But on Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be in a more unusual position: protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building, arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust.

...

But now, after decades of improvements, the disease has made a disturbing resurgence, particularly among younger workers because of their exposure to a different material: silica dust. Experts said that is in part because of changing mining practices. Most of the thick coal seams in places like Appalachia have already been mined, and workers are increasingly cutting through more rock to reach coal, exposing them to silica dust.

Composed of tiny crystals that can lodge in lung tissue, silica dust can cause inflammation and scarring when inhaled. It is considered about 20 times more toxic to the lungs than coal dust and can also cause lung cancer and kidney disease.

The Biden administration set limits on miners’ exposure to the silica dust that mirrored federal regulations covering construction and other industries in which workers are exposed to the dust. It also required mine operators to take immediate corrective action if exposures exceeded the limit. The administration estimated the rule would prevent at least 1,067 deaths and 3,746 cases of black lung.

...

Limits on silica exposure were supposed to take effect in April. But the National Sand Stone and Gravel Association, the National Mining Association and other industry groups asked a federal appeals court to block the rule, citing the cost to mine operators.

“We are absolutely supportive of the new lower levels,” Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, said in a statement. But while the regulation requires operators to reduce the concentration of silica inside mines through ventilation systems, dust control devices and other improvements, the association argues the government should also allow for greater use of personal protective equipment to comply with the standards, a position similar to one taken by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Miners’ advocates have criticized respirators as impractical and ineffective.
 
altmin said:
www.nytimes.com

Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump

President Trump has been a cheerleader for coal miners. But these miners say his administration is failing to enforce limits on a lethal workplace hazard.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

When coal miners came to Washington in April, they posed behind President Trump at the White House, wearing their hard hats and thanking him for trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry.

But on Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be in a more unusual position: protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building, arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust.

...

But now, after decades of improvements, the disease has made a disturbing resurgence, particularly among younger workers because of their exposure to a different material: silica dust. Experts said that is in part because of changing mining practices. Most of the thick coal seams in places like Appalachia have already been mined, and workers are increasingly cutting through more rock to reach coal, exposing them to silica dust.

Composed of tiny crystals that can lodge in lung tissue, silica dust can cause inflammation and scarring when inhaled. It is considered about 20 times more toxic to the lungs than coal dust and can also cause lung cancer and kidney disease.

The Biden administration set limits on miners’ exposure to the silica dust that mirrored federal regulations covering construction and other industries in which workers are exposed to the dust. It also required mine operators to take immediate corrective action if exposures exceeded the limit. The administration estimated the rule would prevent at least 1,067 deaths and 3,746 cases of black lung.

...

Limits on silica exposure were supposed to take effect in April. But the National Sand Stone and Gravel Association, the National Mining Association and other industry groups asked a federal appeals court to block the rule, citing the cost to mine operators.

“We are absolutely supportive of the new lower levels,” Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, said in a statement. But while the regulation requires operators to reduce the concentration of silica inside mines through ventilation systems, dust control devices and other improvements, the association argues the government should also allow for greater use of personal protective equipment to comply with the standards, a position similar to one taken by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Miners’ advocates have criticized respirators as impractical and ineffective.
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The number of Trump supporters who have convinced themselves that Dear Leader actually gives a shit about them or their families or their lives remains impressive. I've said this before, but the Donald J. Trump that so many MAGAs so fervently believe in simply doesn't exist - he's a figment of their fevered imaginations. Every shred of actual evidence is that Trump is a lifelong extreme narcissist, bully, mean-spirited, greedy, corrupt, and utterly self-centered man who is not capable of showing empathy or compassion for anyone outside his children, and even there any affection he has only seems to be directed at Ivanka, and not in a healthy way. The guy simply doesn't care, at all, about his followers beyond wanting their votes and adoration and worship. If their little towns and farms die, then so be it, he has no interest or concern for them. FDR was famous for his support for the "forgotten man", Trump is just as happy to literally forget about them.

And yet his voters blindly adore him and have honestly convinced themselves that he cares about them to and will look after them. It would all be rather sad if it wasn't for the enormous damage their cult leader is causing the entire country.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
The number of Trump supporters who have convinced themselves that Dear Leader actually gives a shit about them or their families or their lives remains impressive. I've said this before, but the Donald J. Trump that so many MAGAs so fervently believe in simply doesn't exist - he's a figment of their fevered imaginations. Every shred of actual evidence is that Trump is a lifelong extreme narcissist, bully, mean-spirited, greedy, corrupt, and utterly self-centered man who is not capable of showing empathy or compassion for anyone outside his children, and even there any affection he has only seems to be directed at Ivanka, and not in a healthy way. The guy simply doesn't care, at all, about his followers beyond wanting their votes and adoration and worship. If their little towns and farms die, then so be it, he has no interest or concern for them. FDR was famous for his support for the "forgotten man", Trump is just as happy to literally forget about them.

And yet his voters blindly adore him and have honestly convinced themselves that he cares about them to and will look after them. It would all be rather sad if it wasn't for the enormous damage their cult leader is causing the entire country.
Click to expand...
but he hates the same people they hate so he has that going for him...
 
altmin said:
www.nytimes.com

Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump

President Trump has been a cheerleader for coal miners. But these miners say his administration is failing to enforce limits on a lethal workplace hazard.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

When coal miners came to Washington in April, they posed behind President Trump at the White House, wearing their hard hats and thanking him for trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry.

But on Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be in a more unusual position: protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building, arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust.

...

But now, after decades of improvements, the disease has made a disturbing resurgence, particularly among younger workers because of their exposure to a different material: silica dust. Experts said that is in part because of changing mining practices. Most of the thick coal seams in places like Appalachia have already been mined, and workers are increasingly cutting through more rock to reach coal, exposing them to silica dust.

Composed of tiny crystals that can lodge in lung tissue, silica dust can cause inflammation and scarring when inhaled. It is considered about 20 times more toxic to the lungs than coal dust and can also cause lung cancer and kidney disease.

The Biden administration set limits on miners’ exposure to the silica dust that mirrored federal regulations covering construction and other industries in which workers are exposed to the dust. It also required mine operators to take immediate corrective action if exposures exceeded the limit. The administration estimated the rule would prevent at least 1,067 deaths and 3,746 cases of black lung.

...

Limits on silica exposure were supposed to take effect in April. But the National Sand Stone and Gravel Association, the National Mining Association and other industry groups asked a federal appeals court to block the rule, citing the cost to mine operators.

“We are absolutely supportive of the new lower levels,” Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, said in a statement. But while the regulation requires operators to reduce the concentration of silica inside mines through ventilation systems, dust control devices and other improvements, the association argues the government should also allow for greater use of personal protective equipment to comply with the standards, a position similar to one taken by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Miners’ advocates have criticized respirators as impractical and ineffective.
Click to expand...
If only there was a choice at the voting booth to pull the lever for an administration that would invest in alternative energy sources to would provide jobs to people without giving them lung cancer.
Nope, only choice to to vote for a scumbag because Kamala Harris “doesn’t know what a woman is, durrrrrrrrrrr.”
 
Mulberry Heel said:
The number of Trump supporters who have convinced themselves that Dear Leader actually gives a shit about them or their families or their lives remains impressive. I've said this before, but the Donald J. Trump that so many MAGAs so fervently believe in simply doesn't exist - he's a figment of their fevered imaginations. Every shred of actual evidence is that Trump is a lifelong extreme narcissist, bully, mean-spirited, greedy, corrupt, and utterly self-centered man who is not capable of showing empathy or compassion for anyone outside his children, and even there any affection he has only seems to be directed at Ivanka, and not in a healthy way. The guy simply doesn't care, at all, about his followers beyond wanting their votes and adoration and worship. If their little towns and farms die, then so be it, he has no interest or concern for them. FDR was famous for his support for the "forgotten man", Trump is just as happy to literally forget about them.

And yet his voters blindly adore him and have honestly convinced themselves that he cares about them to and will look after them. It would all be rather sad if it wasn't for the enormous damage their cult leader is causing the entire country.
Click to expand...
They don’t actually like him. They just like that he and his administration is hell bent on screwing the Dems, at all cost, on a daily basis.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
The number of Trump supporters who have convinced themselves that Dear Leader actually gives a shit about them or their families or their lives remains impressive. I've said this before, but the Donald J. Trump that so many MAGAs so fervently believe in simply doesn't exist - he's a figment of their fevered imaginations. Every shred of actual evidence is that Trump is a lifelong extreme narcissist, bully, mean-spirited, greedy, corrupt, and utterly self-centered man who is not capable of showing empathy or compassion for anyone outside his children, and even there any affection he has only seems to be directed at Ivanka, and not in a healthy way. The guy simply doesn't care, at all, about his followers beyond wanting their votes and adoration and worship. If their little towns and farms die, then so be it, he has no interest or concern for them. FDR was famous for his support for the "forgotten man", Trump is just as happy to literally forget about them.

And yet his voters blindly adore him and have honestly convinced themselves that he cares about them to and will look after them. It would all be rather sad if it wasn't for the enormous damage their cult leader is causing the entire country.
Click to expand...
Your post reminds me of something I heard years ago about the difference between Stalin and Hitler. In re Stalin: In a Siberian camp to which people in Russia were sent for re-education, a convict would complain, "If only Stalin knew what was happening." No Jew in a concentration camp ever made the same claim about Hitler.
 
05C40 said:
Your post reminds me of something I heard years ago about the difference between Stalin and Hitler. In re Stalin: In a Siberian camp to which people in Russia were sent for re-education, a convict would complain, "If only Stalin knew what was happening." No Jew in a concentration camp ever made the same claim about Hitler.
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If you read Berlin Diary by William Shirer he reported that many Germans responded to Brownshirt violence against Jews by saying "If only the Fuhrer knew!".
 
uncleradar said:
If you read Berlin Diary by William Shirer he reported that many Germans responded to Brownshirt violence against Jews by saying "If only the Fuhrer knew!".
Click to expand...
I disagree with the narrowness implicit in your assertion. My recollection of Shirer's writing was that this statement was not made by Germans discussing Brownshirt violence towards Jews, but by non-Jewish German nationals attempting to minimize the outrages committed by Nazis in general. Regardless, I do not believe any member of the Jewish Religion who had been transported to a concentration camp would have uttered "if only the Fuhrer knew." The "if only the Fuhrer knew" sentiment, IIRC, was attributed by Shirer to Germans in general attempting to minimize actions taken by Nazis in general without regard to whether those action impact Jewish people. A similar attitude is being manifested in the United States when MAGA members insist that only criminals are being rounded up by St. Donald of Mar-a-Lago's Brownshirts without regard to how old or how flimsy the assertions of criminal behavior are.
 
05C40 said:
I disagree with the narrowness implicit in your assertion. My recollection of Shirer's writing was that this statement was not made by Germans discussing Brownshirt violence towards Jews, but by non-Jewish German nationals attempting to minimize the outrages committed by Nazis in general. Regardless, I do not believe any member of the Jewish Religion who had been transported to a concentration camp would have uttered "if only the Fuhrer knew." The "if only the Fuhrer knew" sentiment, IIRC, was attributed by Shirer to Germans in general attempting to minimize actions taken by Nazis in general without regard to whether those action impact Jewish people. A similar attitude is being manifested in the United States when MAGA members insist that only criminals are being rounded up by St. Donald of Mar-a-Lago's Brownshirts without regard to how old or how flimsy the assertions of criminal behavior are.
Click to expand...
I certainly did not mean to imply that Jews were saying this. Of course it was non-Jewish German nationals. I agree that it was used to minimize many Brownshirt atrocities.
 
05C40 said:
Your post reminds me of something I heard years ago about the difference between Stalin and Hitler. In re Stalin: In a Siberian camp to which people in Russia were sent for re-education, a convict would complain, "If only Stalin knew what was happening." No Jew in a concentration camp ever made the same claim about Hitler.
Click to expand...
That sentiment had been a common refrain in pre-Soviet Russia; “If only the Tsar knew, he’d fix this.”

Bloody Sunday in 1905 damaged peasants faith in the Tsar and Russia’s abysmal handling of the Great War eroded that faith more.

I expect that people who favor an authoritarian over democracy have a tendency to think the supreme leader cares about them.

MAGAts have faith that Trump cares for them and will fix their problems.
 
My understanding of the Soviet Union is that nobody had illusions about Stalin after the famine and then the Moscow Trials. I don't think anyone in the gulag would think Stalin had nothing to do with the conditions there.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
Oh, I think that a good many do. It really is a cult of personality for many MAGAs.
Click to expand...
This is true.

Some don’t like the way he behaves sometimes but they absolutely think he their best interests at heart.

People who think they only like that they share a common enemy with Trump haven’t talked to a lot of MAGA.

That is not to say that a mutual hatred of Democrats doesn’t play a major role.
 
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