As director of the New River Health Association Black Lung Clinic, Emery’s seen guys as young as 45 getting double lung transplants as disease rates soar among miners forced to dig through more rock filled with deadly silica to reach the remaining coal — far worse than the dust their grandfathers inhaled.
A rule approved last year by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration would cut the federal limit for allowable respirable crystalline silica dust exposure by half to help protect miners of all types nationwide from the current driving force of black lung and other illnesses.
But, now, it’s in jeopardy amid other Trump administration cutbacks and proposals targeting workers’ health and safety guardrails: Stuck in a politically charged environment that promotes industry, with lawmakers arguing to change it and the federal agency that wrote the rule not pushing to enforce it. Some angry retired miners with black lung are fighting back, demanding that Donald Trump honor promises he made to the people who voted him in.
This is the epitome of the leopard meme. Still, I can’t help but feel sad - even for the misguided idiots that brought this harm into the world.
I don’t think a single one of them didn’t vote to hurt some marginalized group.
I think they’re all actually single issue voters, and their issue was “hurting the right people” to maintain what they feel their status in the hierarchy should be.
I can’t bring myself to feel bad for these people anymore. They’ve had countless times to realize how they were being taken advantage of but they never did. They have a mountain of evidence so big it makes Olympus Mons look like an anthill. And these people willingly voted to harm others, to dehumanize others, to abuse others. So I can’t even feel bad for them given what they’ve done.
Trump doesn’t care about them and their black lung. If the lung would be white, that would be another thing, but black? Never! 🙄
The worst part is, we can generate electricity without giving people black lung. Just a waste.
Yes but without beautiful clean coal America would become a communist state. That’s what our dear leader told us anyway.
“You are infected with the WOKE AGENDA! Only weak get the BLACK lung and use it as an EXCUSE. Everybody’s saying it. We will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN and remove the WOKE MIND VIRUS (which is also apparently invading lungs). THANK YOU YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”
🤣 WTF is this photo?
It’s a real photo of Trump not giving a shit that someone fainted.
It’s also a nice metaphor for how he is treating the US.
🤣 Malania could faint next to him and he’d give no shits
Can’t sidestep the fact that heritage foundation and associates basically bought all rural media and pushed their manipulative agenda out pretty much with nobody blinking an eye.
It proves you have humanity.