The General Political Thread

[Kore]

So is it time to talk about the extreme heat wave this year yet and how fucked we are?

how does this mean we're fucked

Global warming isnt human caused right?

Alien caused

[McPero]

So is it time to talk about the extreme heat wave this year yet and how fucked we are?

how does this mean we're fucked

Global warming isnt human caused right?

Alien caused

No its just random u kno

[Furrnox]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/07/11/approved-by-donald-trump-asbestos-sold-by-russian-company-is-branded-with-the-presidents-face/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e4d668f4a767

"But Trump has long expressed skepticism about its potential health effects after it is applied. In his 1997 book, “The Art of the Comeback,” he wrote that he believed that anti-asbestos efforts were “led by the mob."

"Asbest, named for its chief product, was once known as “the dying city” because of elevated rates of lung cancer and other diseases."
Nice.

[StevenChilton]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/07/11/approved-by-donald-trump-asbestos-sold-by-russian-company-is-branded-with-the-presidents-face/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e4d668f4a767

"But Trump has long expressed skepticism about its potential health effects after it is applied. In his 1997 book, “The Art of the Comeback,” he wrote that he believed that anti-asbestos efforts were “led by the mob."

"Asbest, named for its chief product, was once known as “the dying city” because of elevated rates of lung cancer and other diseases."
Nice.

Trump is actually right on that.

Asbestos lawsuits in the late 80s/90s/2000s were probably the biggest scandal in US legal history and bankrupted loads of small and medium sized insurance firms. The claims were widely exaggerated, e.g. that 'one fibre could kill', deliberately conflating different types of asbestos, etc. Essentially the lawyers hoped that judges, with little scientific knowledge, would be swayed into awarding huge sums to their clients (of which they'd collect a big percentage).

Lots of lawyers jumped on the bandwagon and you had dodgy doctors who were taking backhanders from the lawyers in return for saying the right thing in court when testifying. One doctor diagnosed over 50,000 individual asbestos claims alone and was paid $10,000 a day to conduct the screenings by a handful of legal firms. Courts were even awarding huge sums to people simply on the basis of *possible* asbestos exposure (i.e. perfectly healthy people were being awarded $millions). It ended up costing the US economy something like $150-200 billion dollars.

'Asbestos litigation has come to consist, mainly, of non-sick people...claiming compensation for non-existent injuries, often testifying according to prepared scripts with perjurious contents, and often supported by specious medical evidence...it is a massively fraudulent enterprise that can rightly take its place among the pantheon of great American swindles'-Prof. Lester Brickman

[Duuring]

Sure. That still does not make it a safe.

[StevenChilton]

Sure. That still does not make it a safe.

Depends what type of asbestos you're talking about (asbestos is a general term) and in what form it's in (e.g. asbestos cement, asbestos spray, asbestos wool etc). White asbestos cement for example is quite safe.

Trump's point was less to do with safety and more to do with the US asbestos compensation scandal of the 1990s.

[William]

Time to enlist!

[McPero]

Gotta keep Space safe for our kids to play in peace.

[DaMonkey]

Who is going to pay for the space wall when we build it?

[Voluble123]

ooohhhh who is down to make a religious border wall that would be gr8

[Furrnox]

Sure. That still does not make it a safe.

Depends what type of asbestos you're talking about (asbestos is a general term) and in what form it's in (e.g. asbestos cement, asbestos spray, asbestos wool etc). White asbestos cement for example is quite safe.

Trump's point was less to do with safety and more to do with the US asbestos compensation scandal of the 1990s.

That's debateable.

[StevenChilton]

Unlike other forms of asbestos the UK Govt advises white asbestos cement can be left alone, including on public buildings like schools, and there is no obligation to remove it. Unlike other asbestos products you also don't need to be a licensed contractor to remove it. 

It was the last asbestos product to be banned in the UK (1999), and even then it was on the basis of bad publicity rather than scientific advice (the general public was scared shitless by the word 'asbestos').

As I said, it's quite safe. The release of fibres from it is extremely low (even when broken) and within safety limits.

[junedragon]

How hard is it to get a US citizenship so I can join the US Space Force ODST?

[Toffee]

How hard is it to get a US citizenship so I can join the US Space Force ODST?

Easy if you're in Trump''s extended family

[Edwin]

How hard is it to get a US citizenship so I can join the US Space Force ODST?

Easy if you're in Trump''s extended family

Or be the family member of any other US citizen...?