And that deadly dihydrogen monoxide.

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

The EPA has been chasing diminishing returns for at least thirty years, driving environmental pollutants far below actual toxic levels, and they will never stop because they are on a holy mission. And, unsatisfied by their failure to destroy industrial civilization, they go looking for ever more things to class as “pollutants”, like CO2.

That’s not even the least likely possibility any more.
However, my question would be “cui bono?” – who gets the contracts for all that work and the cost overruns, and who do they “donate” to?

If you recall at the very beginning of Trump’s term. One of the things he ushered in was that cost/benefit analysis for the EPA. It was one of the first things that demonstrated he knew what he was doing. Sadly far to many things government does, lack this simple element.

I happen to have lived in a city that since the mid 70’s has been fighting the EPA on just this subject. Over 40 years. I will summarize the story as best I can only to demonstrate its absurdity.

Complaints were made that the cities storm water drains commingled with regular sewer drainage in a medium sized tributary. They forced the city to create a remedy to be approved by them. A total of 4 were proposed. The EPA took by far the most expensive one. Which at the time put the initial cost at nearly 250 million dollars for a 24 square mile city.

So the city went to court to fight for one of the less expensive and time consuming proposals. (If memory serves it was roughly 85% as effective but at 25% of the cost). After nearly a decade in court a judge ruled the city would have to use the most expensive option. As cost/benefit was not a requirement in the EPA legislation. Only the most effective choice could be chosen.

So the city was forced to place a CONCURRENT sewer system, running directly next to the current one with a series of pumps and cisterns build in to handle run off. The project finally got off the ground after litigation (appox 1989). And continues to this day. Just last year digging up all the streets south of my home and continuing north this year. 33 years on. This monstrosity continues.

And while the tributary is clearly cleaner. Flooding has now become routine, (as the pumps must be turned on manually) homeowners tax bill every year is 18% higher to pay for the bonds. And the cost overruns are slowly closing in to 1 billion dollar territory.

This is what happens when government dictates solutions without looking at alternative choices.

Have tens of millions of people suddenly become irrational? Or has the irrationality formed to fit the structure of society in such a way that one doesn’t bump into the other? That might show itself in voting patterns.

But, now, with a brand new factor, irrationality can be allowed to run free. And it includes what must have a better term for it than “virtue signaling to oneself”.

Without these tens of millions firing up their yummy irrationality, we’d be looking at a new flu, if anybody bothered.

https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-unveils-your-body-my-choice-vaccination-program

https://babylonbee.com/news/joe-biden-announces-civil-war

https://babylonbee.com/news/cdc-says-a-new-covid-variant-may-be-needed-to-effectively-bury-afghanistan-news

It seems the Biden administration is into the whole “Totalitarian Dystopia” vibe.

This might’ve slipped under the radar for most people earlier in the year, but the implications of this are huge.

The Biden administration’s Treasury Department published a document in May called “The American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda.”

You already know that with a nice-sounding title like that, this document is the stuff of nightmares.

“For already compliant taxpayers, the only effect of this regime is to provide easy access to summary information on financial accounts and to decrease the likelihood of costly ‘no fault’ examinations,”
…
I guess they’re fine with being called a “regime.” At least they’re honest.
The document tries to downplay the fact that that Biden administration wants to establish a “comprehensive financial account reporting regime.” The regime really wants this to seem like simple and inconsequential shift, but Matt Welch at Reason.com describes the implications of the proposal.

“‘All business and personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment accounts,’ would be forced to ‘report gross inflows and outflows’ to the IRS,” Matt Welch. “And not just bank accounts: The dragnet would now include PayPal, settlement companies, and ‘crypto asset exchanges,’ for starters.”

This proposed “comprehensive financial account reporting regime” seemingly wants to monitor virtually all financial transactions, including “PayPal, settlement companies, and ‘crypto asset exchanges.'”

https://notthebee.com/article/bidens-screed-against-the-unvaccinated-was-so-bad-even-cnns-jake-tapper-said-he-took-it-too-far-and-now-people-are-really-mad-at-jake-tapper

https://notthebee.com/article/espn-reporter-announces-she-wont-be-working-football-games-this-year-after-choosing-not-to-get-the–while-trying-to-conceive