Government regulation can seem pretty abstract and remote from people’s lives, but let’s look at some statistics provided by the Washington Post:

At the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a division of the Transportation Department that enforces pipeline safety regulations, officials have opened five cases against potential violators of those rules since Trump’s inauguration, federal data shows. That marks a 95 percent drop from the 91 cases that PHMSA officials opened in the same period under Biden, as well as a 93 percent drop from the 68 cases in the same period in Trump’s first term and a 90 percent drop from the 52 cases opened in that period under President Barack Obama.

Now, that excerpt is from an article written by Post reporters Maxine Joselow, Hannah Natanson and Ian Duncan on the fascist regime’s decision not to enforce existing regulations, but I have a different angle on it.

As I write this, on May 18, less than four months have passed since Trump was re inaugurated. In that limited time frame it is typical for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to open somewhere between 50-90 investigations against potential violators. That seems like a lot to me, and it’s noteworthy that the number was 68 investigations in the same time period during Trump’s first term, so this isn’t some strictly partisan matter.

Why do so many companies that operate pipelines and handle hazardous materials routinely invite government scrutiny? Presumably it is because environmental protection and public safety and health are not their top priorities. Even if we were to posit that the government has historically been overzealous in its oversight, it seems crazy that traditionally there has been a new investigation opened every few days.

How much worse would these violators have behaved if they had been no regulations or if those regulations had been rarely enforced?

We’re now going to find out the answer to that question.

Of course it’s not legal to ignore regulations but the Supreme Court ruled that Trump can’t commit a crime in the course of his regular duties, so there’s no remedy but impeachment, conviction and removal from office.