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How the Supreme Court Could Make Your Life More Dangerous

Your life could get a lot more dangerous. Republican appointees on the Supreme Court seem poised to strip away basic safety standards for our workplaces, our food, our air and water.

Congress gives federal agencies the authority to enact regulations that protect us in our daily lives. Congress defines the goals, but leaves it up to the health and safety experts in those agencies to craft and enforce regulations.

I know regulations don’t sound very exciting, but they’re how our government keeps us safe.

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Remember when lots of romaine lettuce was recalled because it was causing E.coli outbreaks? That was the Food and Drug Administration protecting us from getting sick.

Working in a warehouse? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets standards to ensure you don’t breathe in dangerous chemicals like asbestos.

Enjoying the fresh air on a clear, sunny day? Thank the Environmental Protection Agency for limiting the amount of pollution that can go into our air.

These agencies save lives. Since OSHA was established a half-century ago, its workplace safety regulations have saved more than 618,000 workers’ lives.

Republicans have been trying to gut these agencies for decades. Now, with the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority solidly in place, they have their best chance yet.

In January 2022, the Supreme Court blocked OSHA’s vaccine-or-testing mandate from going into effect, which was estimated to prevent a quarter-million hospitalizations.

The Court claimed that Covid isn’t an “occupational hazard” because people can become infected outside of work, and that allowing OSHA to regulate in this manner “would significantly expand” its authority without clear Congressional authorization.

This is absurd on its face. Section 2 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 clearly spells out OSHA’s authority to enact and enforce regulations that protect workers from illness, injury, and death in the workplace. Congress doesn’t need to list every specific workplace hazard before OSHA can protect workers.

What this ruling tells us is that the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are intent on gutting the power of agencies to issue regulations.

This term, the Court will also hear a case regarding the EPA’s authority to enforce the Clean Water Act. If the Court undermines the EPA’s authority, it will put our environment – and our health – at risk. Remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire because it was brimming with oil, acid, and factory chemicals? That’s what we may be returning to.

And what’s next? Will they gut the Federal Trade Commission and put us all at risk of being defrauded? Target the Securities and Exchange Commission and deregulate the financial sector, sparking another financial crisis?

Beware. If Republican appointees on the Supreme Court succeed in gutting regulatory agencies, we all lose. This agenda is anti-worker, anti-consumer, and anti-environment. The only thing it’s good for is corporate profits.

#scotus #supreme court #safety #videos

@robertreich

Sun, 10 Apr 2022 21:11:39

ariaonthefloor:

little-miss-switch:
swaybound:
ariaonthefloor:
Two things:
a.) Breath play and choking is DEFINITELY a hot button for me. I love the feeling of helplessness that comes with it. There’s also something dangerously thrilling and arousing about trusting another person with the very air that you breathe.
b.) That being said, I DO NOT THIS THIS IS SAFE. AT ALL. People die from BDSM-related asphyxia. Also, you should never do something that could potentially crush your wind pipe. I know how some of us subs love a good belting, but keep that thing away from your neck, pretty please.
I’m actually not sure if I’d have the same risk assessment. You’d have to pull on the belt a lot to start choking her. I think you’d actually pull her up before she has trouble drawing in air. The only thing I’d worry about is placing too much pressure on the front of the neck.
Try it. Place a belt around your neck like this and pull it backwards. I bet you feel like coughing from the pressure before anything else.
and @spankopera: after a few moments you dont care anymore whether someone could hear the lashes or not.
Yeah, we tried this - thinking it looked hot, y’know how it is - and it did NOT choke me. It was just uncomfy and awkward.
…Ugh.
Shit.
Now that you’ve all sort of allayed my fears, I kind of want to try this.

We tried this a while back, and I know couples that do it. It freaked me out to much. I use my belt like this for crawling, but not as reigns. She thought it was fine, but I couldn’t ever think it was safe.