The official Thread for Trash/Repug CRAPICATION of America, the planet

[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy whores continue their poisoning of America

EPA wants to let frackers dump chemical-laden water into rivers

Trump’s EPA is trying to take our nation back to the 1920s when polluted water from drilling oil was dumped on more than

2,000 acres in west Texas, creating the Texon scar, (https://environmenttexas.org/blogs/blog/txe/testimony-water-wastewater-fracking)

contaminated land so barren almost a century later that it can be identified from space.

The EPA recently released the draft of a study (https://www.epa.gov/eg/oil-and-gas-extraction-wastewater-management-study-documents) of options to dispose of

“produced water” from drilling for gas and oil that could include irrigation (https://www.abqjournal.com/1317772/for-6.html) and discharging it into rivers and streams. (https://www.wyofile.com/boysen-moneta-plan-draws-sharp-divide-between-counties/) :lol

The water, sometimes 10 times saltier than seawater (https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/what-produced-water) and laced with chemicals such as ethylene glycol, the main ingredient in antifreeze,

Fracking can produce as much as 10 gallons of water for every gallon of oil. (https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5ac4b8ca6484cf1bd33e91bb/5b4de9428ebe67c7d3f847ff_Oilfield%20Tech%20Article .pdf) The amount of wastewater (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180815141441.htm?mc_cid=facdc2f3de&mc_eid=f058c74387) new wells produce during their first year has increased by up to 1,440%.

In 2016, the EPA banned public sewage plants from accepting wastewater from fracking, but the EPA later extended the deadline (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/07/2016-29338/effluent-limitations-guidelines-and-standards-for-the-oil-and-gas-extraction-point-source) for complying until August. The water was so corrosive (https://www.propublica.org/article/wastewater-from-gas-drilling-boom-may-threaten-monongahela-river) it was damaging factory machinery downstream.

The EPA identified 692 different ingredients used in fracking (https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-05/documents/cwt-study_may-2018.pdf) that can end up in produced water, including acids, gels and sand.

The water can also be radioactive. (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918154831.htm)

Little research has been done about treating waste from drilling for oil and gas, and there are no federal regulations (https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2016/04/04/radioactive-oil-and-gas-waste-causes-confusion-across-west-virginia-and-kentucky-state-lines/stories/201604040015) about the radioactive waste produced by drilling for oil.

“The science does not yet exist (https://www.edf.org/media/epa-report-suggests-more-oil-and-gas-wastewater-headed-us-waterways) to say it’s clean enough to release into rivers and streams or to use for crop irrigation or other purposes,”

1,900 tons of radioactive sludge from produced water was illegally dumped (https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/small-towns-battle-against-radioactive-fracking-waste) in a landfill near the Kentucky River.

The EPA has said it won’t strengthen regulations (https://www.wvpublic.org/post/epa-declines-regulate-waste-ohio-valley-fracking-booms#stream/0) on waste produced by drilling for oil and gas.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/epa-wants-to-let-frackers-dump-chemical-laden-water-into-rivers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/epa-wants-to-let-frackers-dump-chemical-laden-water-into-rivers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

=====================

Ten Years Later, the "Halliburton Loophole" and America's Dirty Fracking Boom

President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The giant energy bill included massive giveaways for the fossil fuel, nuclear and ethanol industries, and

provided only token incentives for renewables and improved energy efficiency.

But the most infamous piece of the law was what is now commonly known as the

“Halliburton Loophole (https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/halliburton-acquires-baker-hughes-and-its-%E2%80%98trade-secrets%E2%80%99),” an egregious regulatory exemption that ushered in the disastrous era of widespread oil and gas fracking that currently grips our nation.

the law (championed by Cheney and disgraced Enron founder Kenneth Lay, among others)

explicitly exempted fracking operations from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

These exemptions from one of America’s most fundamental environmental protection laws

provided the oil and gas industry the immunity it required to develop a highly polluting process on a grand national scale.

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/ten-years-later-halliburton-loophole-and-americas-dirty-fracking-boom (https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/ten-years-later-halliburton-loophole-and-americas-dirty-fracking-boom)

So the costs of fracking's produced water is externalized onto everything and everybody but BigOil.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Administration Seeking To Overhaul Forest Management Rules

Federal land managers on Wednesday proposed sweeping rule changes to a landmark environmental law that would allow them to fast-track certain forest management projects, including logging and prescribed burning.

could limit environmental review and public input on projects ranging from forest health and wildfire mitigation to infrastructure upgrades to commercial logging on federal land.

"We do more analysis than we need, we take more time than we need and we slow down important work to protect communities," :lol

an expansion of "categorical exclusions."

These are often billed as tools that give land managers the discretion to bypass full-blown environmental studies (https://www.npr.org/2018/11/28/671572816/fast-tracking-logging-on-federal-lands-may-not-lessen-wildfire-risk) in places where they can demonstrate there would be no severe impacts or degradation to the land.


the administration recently rolled back protections for clean water and wildlife (https://www.npr.org/2019/04/15/713616827/trump-administration-moves-forward-with-proposal-to-re-define-waterway-protectio). :lol

"We also don't want to see this become the Trojan horse for unchecked resource extraction,"

:lol duh, that's exactly the objective

The Forest Service insists this is not about ramping up commercial logging in public forests. :lol

"Let me be clear that the Forest Service will continue to deliver high-quality, science-based :lol analysis," :lol

budget cuts, particularly in the Forest Service, where money has been diverted away from wildlife, habitat and forestry programs to pay for the skyrocketing costs of wildfire suppression.

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/731713229/trump-administration-seeking-to-overhaul-forest-management-rules?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=twitter.com (https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/731713229/trump-administration-seeking-to-overhaul-forest-management-rules?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=twitter.com)

Forest Service kakistocrat whores are LYING

[boutons_deux]

Just following oligarchy's diktat to ignore, degrade science that impinges on profits

Trump administration to move USDA researchers to Kansas City area

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has chosen to relocate two of USDA's research agencies to the Kansas City area,

the final step in a process to reshape the department's research wing

many employees at ERS, who conduct research into areas such as climate change, nutrition and the farm economy, and at NIFA, who arrange federal grants for agricultural research institutions, have told POLITICO

they believe the move is rooted in politics.

relocation could disrupt operations and drive out experienced researchers.

The proposal has already sparked a brain-drain of veteran economists from ERS, and some lawmakers and

ERS staff allege relocation is a back-door attempt to shrink the agency and

clamp down on research (https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/07/agriculture-economists-leave-trump-1307146) that doesn't align with the Trump administration's priorities.

Employees of both agencies have voted to unionize in the face of the relocation,

Union representatives said employees were not given advance notice of the announcement

They learned of the site selection through media reports,

nearly 20 employees silently protested Perdue by turning their backs to him while he addressed staff.

highlights his disregard for the rights and wellbeing of employees."

he wanted employees to hear the news from him first. :lol

But a notice containing the letter was not distributed among staff until 10:37 a.m. Thursday — well after media reports were published :lol

a USDA Inspector General investigation "examining the viability of this relocation is not complete."

USDA paid the consulting firm Ernst & Young $340,000 to run the site selection process.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/usda-kansas-city-area-1529072 (https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/usda-kansas-city-area-1529072)

[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy's coup d'etat continues, your fucking votes don't matter

Trump orders all agencies to cut scientific advisory boards by 'at least' one third (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/15/1865039/-Trump-orders-all-agencies-to-cut-scientific-advisory-boards-by-at-least-one-third)

On Friday evening, Donald Trump issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to evaluate and reduce scientific advisory committees by at least a third.

This order comes after some agencies, including the EPA and Interior Department, have already

completely eliminated some advisory boards and

replaced others with groups of industry lobbyists.

Under Trump, agencies have also

forced scientists out of advisory boards by putting in rules that those who sit on such boards cannot apply for federal research grants,

opening up spots for corporate “experts” to replace academics.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/15/1865039/-Trump-orders-all-agencies-to-cut-scientific-advisory-boards-by-at-least-one-third?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

Sexual Predator News

Justice Thomas just admitted he wants to burn down the very idea that courts should obey precedent

Arson, but for the rule of law.

Justice Clarence Thomas has long approached the law the same way that Heath Ledger’s Joker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joker_(The_Dark_Knight)) approaches urban peace.

He’s suggested that federal child labor laws and

the ban on whites-only lunch counters (https://thinkprogress.org/clarence-thomas-most-important-legal-thinker-in-america-c12af3d08c98/) are unconstitutional,

written opinions that would blow up multiple federal agencies (https://thinkprogress.org/the-worst-case-scenario-if-trumps-supreme-court-nominee-is-confirmed-de9ba49faf48/), and

argued that high school students lack First Amendment rights

because 17th century self-help books (https://thinkprogress.org/clarence-thomas-most-important-legal-thinker-in-america-c12af3d08c98/) told parents to be cruel to their children.

Thomas finally articulated his approach to stare decisis, the principle that courts should generally follow the rules announced in past decisions
.
the rule he ultimately articulates would

give his court free reign to burn down any decision that five of its members do not like.

It’s the kind of judicial arson one might expect from a justice who,

after spending much of his career writing lone dissents that had little impact on his colleagues,

now thinks he may have the votes to do things his way. (:lol aka, 5 non-squishy hard right politicos as judges)

how bad does a decision have to be before it is “demonstrably erroneous?” —

but bear in mind that this rule comes from a man who has serious doubts about child labor laws.

There are many reasons why courts typically adhere to stare decisis.

Stability in the law is an important virtue,

Stare decisis also helps depoliticize the law.

When the Supreme Court’s political center of gravity changes — as it has shifted to the right under President Donald Trump — it’s tempting for the new majority to declare themselves victors and start pillaging old precedents they do not like.

If power shifts again, the new majority might be equally tempted to retaliate, burning their vanquished foe’s decisions to the ground.

That’s not just a recipe for instability,

it’s a recipe for the kind of politics that turns Supreme Court nominations into existential fights between the two major political parties.

Moreover, it’s a recipe for a court that strips power from the elected branches and claims it for itself.

The only way for the law to have any stability whatsoever is for

judges to accept that the men and women who came before them typically acted in good faith to read difficult-to-interpret language.

And the work of those men and women should not be idly cast aside simply because the current crop of justices think that they could do it better.

https://thinkprogress.org/clarence-thomas-stare-decisis-gamble-precedent-supreme-court-01db0676d84b/ (https://thinkprogress.org/clarence-thomas-stare-decisis-gamble-precedent-supreme-court-01db0676d84b/)

[boutons_deux]

pro-pollution kakistocrats running the EPA ... to destruction, to increase Capital's profits

EPA Air Chief Gave Presentation At Fringe Climate Denier Event, New Emails Show

Bill Wehrum, a former corporate lawyer, joined three other EPA officials at a Cooler Heads Coalition gathering last year.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/epa-climate-denier_n_5d03f660e4b0985c419d7e8b?guccounter=2 (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/epa-climate-denier_n_5d03f660e4b0985c419d7e8b?guccounter=2)

[koriwhat]

No one discusses nor reads your insanely biased articles you fucking loon. Lol

[boutons_deux]

Trump on demoting Fed's Powell: 'Let's see what he does'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday kept up the pressure on the head of the Federal Reserve following a report that lawyers at the White House earlier this year

explored the legality of stripping Jerome Powell of the chairmanship.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-trump-powell/trump-on-demoting-feds-powell-lets-see-what-he-does-idUSKCN1TJ2SB?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F +US+%2F+Top+News%29 (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-trump-powell/trump-on-demoting-feds-powell-lets-see-what-he-does-idUSKCN1TJ2SB?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F +US+%2F+Top+News%29)

Appoint Laffer or Kudlow! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Corporate Wolves in Academic Sheepskins, or, a Billionaire’s Raid on the University of Tulsa

This sordid tale of crony capitalism under the guise of public philanthropy is another chapter in the corporatization of higher ed.


https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/george-kaiser-tulsa-ap-img.jpg?scale=896&compress=80

TU’s administrators had rolled out a radical restructuring of the university called “True Commitment (https://utulsa.edu/truecommitment/academicstrategy/).” The plan gutted (https://utulsa.edu/truecommitment/reprioritizing-reallocating-resources/) the liberal arts, raised default teaching loads across the university from five courses per year to eight, eliminated all academic departments, created new divisions to house surviving programs (including one called “Humanities and Social Justice”), and established a “Professional Super College” consisting of the formerly independent colleges of law, health sciences, and business.

a hostile takeover that appears to have made TU “a subsidiary of Tulsa’s biggest charitable foundation and an agent of the city’s corporate interests.”

Kaiser then set to work

using the charity to advance his personal financial interests.

A 2013 analysis (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-05-09/billionaire-george-kaisers-friendly-foundation) of GKFF’s 2011 tax return by Bloomberg news disclosed that

“at least $1.25 billion of the charity’s $3.4 billion in assets is invested in ways that benefit Kaiser’s for-profit endeavors.”

The Bank of Oklahoma also happens to be the corporate trustee of the University of Tulsa’s $1.1 billion endowment, which is contained in separate pools of funds collectively known as the Chapman Trusts.

The bank obtained sole and complete control of the Chapman Trusts ...

is of crucial importance in understanding

Kaiser’s takeover of the University of Tulsa, for which he paved the way with donations (https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/wall-street-donors/george-kaiser.html) totaling more than $70 million.

Kaiser effectively took control of TU a year ago.

etc etc.

https://www.thenation.com/article/higher-education-corporate-takeover-kaiser-university-of-tulsa/ (https://www.thenation.com/article/higher-education-corporate-takeover-kaiser-university-of-tulsa/)

[boutons_deux]

The Postal Service Wants To Make Deep Cuts To Worker Benefits, Internal Plan Shows

The agency hopes to get Congress’ help in trimming pensions and paid leave, as well as slashing delivery service.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-postal-service-wants-to-make-deep-cuts-to-worker-benefits-internal-plan-shows_n_5d092020e4b0e560b70a12d4?ncid=newsltushpmg news__TheMorningEmail__061919 (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-postal-service-wants-to-make-deep-cuts-to-worker-benefits-internal-plan-shows_n_5d092020e4b0e560b70a12d4?ncid=newsltushpmg news__TheMorningEmail__061919)

[boutons_deux]

Trump EPA finalizes rollback of key Obama climate rule that targeted coal plants

The Trump administration finalized its biggest climate policy rollback (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-proposes-rule-to-relax-carbon-limits-on-power-plants/2018/08/21/b46b0a8a-a543-11e8-a656-943eefab5daf_story.html?utm_term=.f0c0f5bd969e)

Wednesday, requiring the U.S. power sector to cut its 2030 carbon emissions 35 percent over 2005 levels —

less than half of what experts calculate is needed to avert catastrophic warming of the planet.
The Affordable Clean Energy rule, :lol

issued by the Environmental Protection Agency,

demands much smaller carbon dioxide reductions than the industry is already on track to achieve,

even without federal regulation.

As of last year, the U.S. power sector had cut its greenhouse gas emissions 27 percent compared with 2005.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-epa-finalizes-rollback-of-key-obama-climate-rule-that-targeted-coal-plants/2019/06/19/b8ff1702-8eeb-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html?utm_term=.4503b80a2741&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-epa-finalizes-rollback-of-key-obama-climate-rule-that-targeted-coal-plants/2019/06/19/b8ff1702-8eeb-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html?utm_term=.4503b80a2741&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

[boutons_deux]

A Republican senator’s new bill would force Facebook to publish Nazis

The First Amendment must be scrapped because conservatives don't like it.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a Christian nationalist (https://thinkprogress.org/josh-hawley-united-states-theocracy-1730919292b3/) and the youngest member of the United States Senate, proposed legislation (https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-06/Ending-Support-Internet-Censorship-Act-Bill-Text.pdf) on Wednesday that would effectively appoint

a panel of government central planners to monitor content on sites like Facebook and Google.

The bill, which violates the First Amendment, purports to be an effort to foster “political neutrality” on major Internet platforms. :lol aka "both sides"

Its practical effect, however, would be to prevent these sites from disfavoring any political viewpoint whatsoever —

including potentially viewpoints that are explicitly genocidal.

Hawley named his bill the “Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act.’’

The bill functions by weakening safe harbor provisions (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230) of federal communications law that prevent websites from being held liable for content posted by third parties.

https://thinkprogress.org/josh-hawley-facebook-censorship-first-amendment-760b4579d262/ (https://thinkprogress.org/josh-hawley-facebook-censorship-first-amendment-760b4579d262/)


===================

The one man most likely to turn the U.S. into a theocracy


https://i2.wp.com/thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/GettyImages-1094608152-e1560451304551.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1

Hawley tore into a Trump judicial nominee (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/josh-hawley-michael-bogren-rant-ted-cruz-worst-senator.html).

The nominee’s sin?

Michael Bogren had the audacity to represent a Michigan city that wanted to enforce a civil rights ordinance against Catholic business owners who believe they have a constitutional right to discriminate.

Hawley’s triumph over Bogren represents

a new kind of American conservatism —

one that places rigid purity over partisan solidarity,

dominance over neutral values,

pure unconstrained power over liberal democratic norms,

and victory over all.

https://thinkprogress.org/josh-hawley-united-states-theocracy-1730919292b3/ (https://thinkprogress.org/josh-hawley-united-states-theocracy-1730919292b3/)

a conservatism Uber Alles that denies even the legitimacy of any and all opposition.

[boutons_deux]

Landlords, local housing authorities condemn Trump admin's cruel wish to evict immigrant families (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/19/1865860/-Landlords-local-housing-authorities-condemn-Trump-admin-s-cruel-wish-to-evict-immigrant-families)

Landlords and local housing authorities are condemning the Trump administration’s proposal to

kick mixed-status immigrant families out of subsidized housing,

in a move by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that would essentially turn them into federal immigration agents and

uproot more than 100,00 people from their homes.

“Although unauthorized immigrants are not allowed to receive federal housing subsidies,

families of mixed immigration status can live in subsidized housing if one family member—even a child—is a legal resident,”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1865860

[boutons_deux]

The (non-existent) Trash/Repug/for-profit/Capitalist health care plan will obviously address red state/rural health care catastrophe

‘Urgent needs from head to toe’: This clinic had two days to fix a lifetime of needs

“Urgent needs from head to toe,” the social worker had written.

“Lacking primary care and basic medication. They have fallen into the gap.”

Only when Stevie and Lisa arrived at the clinic a little after 2 a.m. did it occur to them how large that medical gap has become in parts of rural America.

Dozens of people were sprawled out in sleeping bags on the asphalt parking lot.

Others had pitched tents on an adjacent lawn.

The lot was already filled with more than 300 cars from all over the rural South,

where a growing number of people in medical distress wait for hours at emergency clinics in order to receive basic primary care.

Tennessee has lost 14 percent of its rural physicians and 18 percent of its rural hospitals in the past decade, leaving an estimated 2.5 million residents with insufficient access to medical care.

The federal government now estimates that a record 50 million rural Americans (aka the Repugs bas) live in what it calls "health care shortage areas,"

where the number of hospitals, family doctors, surgeons and paramedics has declined to 20-year lows.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-clinic-of-last-resort/2019/06/22/2833c8a0-92cc-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html?utm_term=.089f8e0ddc73&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

There are GOVERNMENT solutions to rural health care availability, but fucking oligarchy Capitalists owning and operating govt

that says "fuck you poor, sick people"

[boutons_deux]

US air quality is slipping after years of improvement

After decades of improvement, America’s air may not be getting any cleaner.

Over the last two years the nation had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data shows.

While it remains unclear whether this is the beginning of a trend, health experts say

it’s troubling to see air quality progress stagnate.
There were 15% more days with unhealthy air in America both last year and the year before than there were on average from 2013 through 2016, the four years when America had its fewest number of those days since at least 1980.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed just the opposite, saying earlier this month in Ireland:

“We have the cleanest air in the world, in the United States, and it’s gotten better since I’m president.” :lol

There were noticeably more polluted air days each year in the president’s first two years in office than any of the four years before :lol

The Trump administration is expected to replace an Obama-era rule designed to limit emissions from electric power plants on Wednesday.

Called the Clean Power Plan, it would have gradually phased out coal-burning power plants that emit both air pollutants and heat-trapping gases responsible for climate change.

Trump is moving to loosen regulations on coal-fired power plants and cars that scientists credit for cleaner air, and

he appears to be less stringent about enforcing current rules,

looser restrictions and lax enforcement would almost certainly reverse the gains that have been made in recent decades,

potentially turning what has so far been a modest, two-year backslide into a dangerous trend.

EPA quietly :lol posted new air quality data online last month that shows a recent uptick in polluted days.

if regulations on coal plants, cars and other emissions are relaxed,

the air quality will deteriorate

“There is zero reason to expect any other outcome,”

https://www.apnews.com/d3515b79af1246d08f7978f026c9092b (https://www.apnews.com/d3515b79af1246d08f7978f026c9092b)

AmeriKKKa, fuck yeah! Acid rain all around!

"Barron's a nice son ya got there, Trash. Would be a pity is something happened to his health."

[koriwhat]

you're worse than avante tbh

[boutons_deux]

Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change

The Trump administration has stopped promoting government-funded research into how higher temperatures can damage crops and pose health risks.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/23/agriculture-department-climate-change-1376413

Even the FUCKING "World Champion Polluter" US Military knows they must plan for widespread death, destruction, planet-wide political instability, and outright political collapse.

[boutons_deux]

Emulating the CIA, New Rule Would Let Trump's EPA Disregard FOIA Requests With Near Impunity

"They want to box everyone out of the process who might call their policies into question."

The Trump administration is set to introduce a new rule,

without giving the public a chance to weigh in,

which will

allow officials at the Environmental Protection Agency to deny information requests

—similar to how the CIA does so—by falsely claiming requested records are unavailable.

A rule, signed (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/450169-new-epa-rule-would-expand-trump-officials-power-to-reject-foia-requests) by EPA Administrator coal whore Andrew Wheeler, will expand agency officials'

authority to reject a FOIA request by labeling it as "non-responsive,"

meaning the agency has decided to withhold the requested records or has claimed certain exemptions from FOIA.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (https://www.fedsmith.com/2016/11/02/d-c-circuit-disagrees-with-doj-handling-of-foia-request/) in 2016 that

agencies have "no authority in the statute for the government" to redact certain information from a FOIA response

"on the basis that the information is nonresponsive."

Under the new rule, officials will also be able to

file their reply to requests as "no records,"

meaning no documents or materials could be found to satisfy a request—

even if the record was simply withheld by the agency at an official's discretion.

The rule is expected to be entered into the Federal Register as early as Wednesday, and

will reportedly not be subject to a public comment period as new policies often are.

The secrecy with which the Trump administration was pushing the rule through drew condemnation from critics.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/25/emulating-cia-new-rule-would-let-trumps-epa-disregard-foia-requests-near-impunity?cd-origin=rss (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/25/emulating-cia-new-rule-would-let-trumps-epa-disregard-foia-requests-near-impunity?cd-origin=rss)

Trash and his kakistocracy implementing secrecy to enable their fascist authoritarianism, at the behest and advantage of the oligarchy, and with agreement from oligarchy's whore SCOTUS who intend to destroy the Federal regulatory apparatus. (see Gorsuch/Thomas recent words implying the entire US govt is unConstitutional )

[boutons_deux]

SMARTNEWS Keeping you current (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/)

An Internal Watchdog Will Investigate the Delay of the Harriet Tubman $20 Bill

The bill’s redesign was supposed to be unveiled in 2020, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the process would be delayed until 2026

https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/JVlMYIDLgwiLHS509CTMpLDzwvc=/800x600/filters:no_upscale()/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/8c/f7/8cf777e6-e655-4072-9ee0-85ed8b262f9a/tubmancrop.jpg


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/internal-watchdog-will-investigate-delay-harriet-tubman-20-bill-180972493/

racist Trash don't want no knitter on the twenty, and of course racist Repugs are in full agreement.

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s Ministry of No Information (https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/26/trumps-ministry-of-no-information/)

The Trump administration has halted, without explanation, the routine practice of reporting the current number of nuclear weapons in the US arsenal, the AP and United Press International report.

The new secrecy will make it nearly impossible

to estimate the true cost of nuclear weapons,

to show adherence to arms control treaties, or

to pressure others nuclear weapons states to disclose the size of their arsenals.

“The decision walks back nearly a decade of US nuclear weapons transparency policy—

in fact, longer if including stockpile transparency initiatives in the late 1990s,”

There is no national security rationale for keeping the number secret, Kristensen told the AP, adding that it is “unnecessary and counterproductive.”
“This is curious,” he reportedly said, “since the

Trump administration had repeatedly complained about secrecy in the Russian and Chinese arsenals.

Instead, it now appears to endorse their secrecy.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/26/trumps-ministry-of-no-information/ (https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/26/trumps-ministry-of-no-information/)

[boutons_deux]

How Reverse Darwinian selection afflicts Trump’s Washington


https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sarah-Huckabee-Sanders-and-Rick-Perry.jpg:lol :lol

Over the succeeding five decades, the conservative movement and its chosen vehicle, the Republican Party, have substantially achieved the goal of systematically devaluing expertise, thereby accomplishing

one of their most cherished ideological goals:

to prove to the American people that government doesn’t work.

the Republican push for non-expertise got a big boost during the Gingrich speakership.

It continued its long march through institutions during

the riotously incompetent planning and conduct of the Iraq war under George W. Bush, and

has reached ghastly perfection with Donald Trump.

the uniquely awful Trump personnel at the top tier:

Mike Pompeo,
John Bolton,
Stephen Miller,
Ben Carson,
Betsy DeVos,
departing Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Their unsuitability is matched by Trump appointees at lower levels (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/usda-food-stamps-school-lunch-trump-administration).

Despite warnings that former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and former HHS Secretary Tom Price had

considerable ethics and management problems, they were hired anyway.

In their jobs, they proceeded to demonstrate just those same qualities the administration had been warned about.

Throughout American history, there has always been

a strident minority opinion that

aggressive and self-righteous stupidity is nobler and more virtuous in the sight of God

than prudent and circumspect intelligence.

This view now controls most of our government and is in a position to make its will the law of the land.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/how-reverse-darwinian-selection-afflicts-trumps-washington/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=426 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/how-reverse-darwinian-selection-afflicts-trumps-washington/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=426)

[boutons_deux]

Washington taxpayers bear the burden as Trump’s ego infiltrates national Fourth of July celebration

The District of Columbia's time-honored Independence Day traditions are being squeezed to the side for the sake of the president's unquenchable thirst for self-aggrandizement.

Washington, D.C.’s Fourth of July celebrations have played out roughly the same way for decades.

This year, though, the longstanding security, logistics, and crowd management practices on the National Mall are

being recrafted in the image of President Donald Trump.

The nation’s birthday party won’t be a first-come first-serve egalitarian gawp in 2019.

It’ll have

tiered, ticketed entry,

some form of militaristic performance art, and

a speech by the divisive and twitchy current occupant of the country’s highest political office
.
Trump’s plans include cordoning off a special “VIP” area stretching from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to halfway down the length of the Reflecting Pool.

The velvet-rope ethos is an essential part of the gaudy, ostentatious luxury image Trump long ago made into his own personal brand.

But it’s alien to D.C.’s fireworks night, which has traditionally been a partisanship-free occasion.

... shrunk the actual, tangible resources that city has available to do things for people. The extra security measures required on Thursday by Trump’s decision to inject himself into the festivities

will reportedly force the city to dip into its emergency fund.

D.C.’s government still has not been reimbursed for a $7 million debt (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/trump-still-owes-dc-7-million-in-inauguration-costs-as-he-plans-july-fourth-gala/2019/06/13/c55565b6-8df5-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html?utm_term=.32153c736ea6)inc urred by Trump’s approach to his inaugural weekend festivities in 2017,

“Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!” he tweeted in February.

https://thinkprogress.org/washington-taxpayers-bear-the-cost-of-trumps-july-fourth-b0a123bc53c5/

[koriwhat]

echo chamber thread tbh

[boutons_deux]

Mississippi :lol is forbidding grocery stores from calling veggie burgers “veggie burgers”

Proponents of the law say it’s necessary to avoid confusing consumers. :lol

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/7/3/20680731/mississippi-veggie-burgers-illegal-meatless-meat (https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/7/3/20680731/mississippi-veggie-burgers-illegal-meatless-meat)

[boutons_deux]

Trump wants to remove protections for wolves. Idaho shows why that's a bad idea

Let wolves roam: Spending taxpayer money to kill wolves is going to cost more money in the long run. Here's why

Why is Idaho using tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars (https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/idaho-fish-and-game-pays-to-kill-wolves/article_69e7ef0e-a481-11e3-816f-001a4bcf887a.html) to kill seven wolves?

There are no livestock conflicts in the Lolo, and

elk numbers declined long before wolves were present.

Killing wolves year after year has had no measurable effect on elk numbers (https://lmtribune.com/outdoors/for-lolo-zone-elk-the-struggle-continues/article_66bc8b06-041b-50d4-a4a5-d6eaeea17e72.html),

yet the aerial gunning of entire wolf packs continues today.

This is just one example among many demonstrating how badly Idaho is abusing its state authority to “manage” wolves, and

a cautionary tale for what could happen if wolves were delisted throughout the lower 48.

Only about 500 to 800 wolves (https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article226436610.html) remain statewide, though we cannot know for certain since Idaho no longer reports wolf counts as it did under federal oversight. Comparatively,

we have an estimated 2,000–3,000 (https://mountainlion.org/us/id/-id-habitat.asp)mountain lions (https://mountainlion.org/us/id/-id-habitat.asp),

20,000 black bears (http://idahoptv.org/sciencetrek/topics/bears/facts.cfm), tens of thousands of (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/05/22/heres-why-there-are-so-many-coyotes-and-why-they-are-spreading-so-fast/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.67b044ed1d84)coyotes (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/05/22/heres-why-there-are-so-many-coyotes-and-why-they-are-spreading-so-fast/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.67b044ed1d84),

over 100,000 elk (https://idfg.idaho.gov/hunt/elk), (https://www.idahostatesman.com/latest-news/article217835120.html)and

more than 500,000 deer (http://tinyurl.com/y6f6wplg).

Idaho pledged (https://idfg.idaho.gov/old-web/docs/wolves/plan02.pdf) to manage wolves “like black bears and mountain lions” as part of the agreement to lift federal protections in 2011,

but the state has broken that promise repeatedly, and the situation is only getting worse.

with renewed attempts by the Trump administration and some in Congress to remove all federal protection for wolves (https://defenders.org/wolf-delisting) across the country,

more wolves may become victims of archaic and brutal predator management,

the very reason they once were afforded federal protection.

(https://www.salon.com/2019/07/07/trump-wants-to-remove-federal-protections-for-wolves-idahos-example-shows-why-this-is-a-bad-idea_partner/)https://www.salon.com/2019/07/07/trump-wants-to-remove-federal-protections-for-wolves-idahos-example-shows-why-this-is-a-bad-idea_partner/

Fuck Trash, Fuck Repugs, Fuck ALL You Trash/Repug voters.

Eradicate wolves from all 48 states? Is that what you assholes voted for?

[boutons_deux]

who is Trash pandering to by degrading car standards?

24 Governors Call on Trump to Halt Rollback on Rules for Clean Cars

24 governors, including three Republicans, urged the president (https://www.usclimatealliance.org/publications/cleancarsstatement) to abandon his plan.

The governors’ plea adds to a chorus of criticism from an unlikely mix of voices,

including not only environmentalists and

labor unions but also

some of the biggest automakers in the world.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/climate/trump-governors-clean-car-rules.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/climate/trump-governors-clean-car-rules.html)

More air pollution means more sickness and death.

[boutons_deux]

The White House has said

President Trump would veto a current version of a military spending bill

because it includes funds for extensive cleanup of PFAS (https://go.grist.org/e/399522/watch-v-PPfAASASbuM/hr3yfj/362986135?h=VHuFr-G6mRzivWW0Y8UmUrkEW8kvZ5zPqhFv16nH6Cg),

toxic “forever chemicals,” from water near military bases.

Trump reportedly thinks the $2 billion goes too far.

“I invite him to drink, bathe, or swim in some of the water our communities do,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell from Michigan.

[boutons_deux]

Clash over deep spending cuts faces another round in Alaska

Alaska’s governor won a showdown on Wednesday with lawmakers trying to reverse his bid to slash spending on higher education by 40%,

but opponents vowed to keep fighting the unprecedented cut, which

university officials have warned would wreak havoc.

Republican Mike Dunleavy, in his first year as governor, wants

deep cuts in education and other programs to help pay for his chief campaign promise - a sharp increase in the annual oil revenue dividend Alaska pays to each resident.

Dunleavy says his cuts are needed to rein in spending and cope with a long-term decline in Alaska’s oil industry receipts that is undermining its economy, even as he proposed nearly doubling the oil revenue dividend to a record $3,000 a year.

Critics say the cuts, totaling about $440 million, are so harsh they will worsen the state’s economic slump.
“I cannot fathom why the governor is purposely throwing Alaska into a severe economic recession,”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alaska-politics/clash-over-deep-spending-cuts-faces-another-round-in-alaska-idUSKCN1U512T?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alaska-politics/clash-over-deep-spending-cuts-faces-another-round-in-alaska-idUSKCN1U512T?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews)

[boutons_deux]

Trash is freak show, the real damage to America is from his kakistocrats in the Exec branch hired to execute the oligarchy's strategy

10 Ways Andrew Wheeler Has Decimated EPA Protections in Just One Year

Trump’s EPA administrator should change the name of his agency to "Every Polluter’s Ally."

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/views-article/andrew_wheeler.jpeg?itok=g5pQozvd

President Trump hosted (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/trump-environment-climate-change.html) a White House event to unabashedly tout his truly abysmal environmental record.

My organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists, has compiled a list (https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/state-of-science-trump-era) of

80 Trump administration attacks on science since taking office,

and Wheeler has been the driving force behind many of them. Below are 10 of the more egregious ways he has undermined the EPA’s time-honored role to protect public health and the environment so far.

1. Sidelined Scientists

Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, has taken a number of steps to systematically reduce the role of scientists in the agency’s policymaking process. Last fall, for example, he eliminated (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/climate/epa-science-adviser.html) the agency’s Office of the Science Advisor, which counseled the EPA administrator on research supporting health and environmental standards, and placed (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/climate/epa-etzel-children-health-program.html) the head of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave. He also disbanded (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/climate/epa-disbands-pollution-science-panel.html) a 20-member scientific advisory committee on particulate matter, or soot; failed (https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060102455) to convene a similar panel on ozone; and packed (https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060102455) a seven-member advisory committee on air quality standards with industry-friendly participants.

2. Proposed to Restrict the Use of Scientific Data

Claiming his intent is to increase “transparency,” Wheeler is promoting a rule Pruitt proposed that would dramatically limit the scientific studies the agency considers when developing health standards. If adopted, the rule would restrict the use of scientific studies in EPA decisions if the underlying data are not public and reproducible, which would disqualify many epidemiological and other health studies the EPA relies on to set science-based public safeguards. Given that EPA health standards often rely on studies that contain private patient information, as well as confidential business information that cannot be revealed, the rule would significantly hamper the agency’s ability to carry out its mission. Wheeler plans (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/421479-epa-to-pursue-final-science-transparency-rule-in-2019) to finalize the rule sometime this year.

3. Gutted the Coal Ash Rule

The first major rule (https://www.epa.gov/coalash/coal-ash-rule) Wheeler signed as acting administrator refuted his claim that he could fulfill President Trump’s directive (https://www.apnews.com/0012648e385d41f481f0af20a90f0666) to “clean up the air, clean up the water, and provide regulatory relief” at the same time. By rolling back the Obama-era coal ash rule, Wheeler provided regulatory relief to his old friend the coal industry by weakening environmental protections established in 2015 to clean up coal ash ponds, which are laced with toxic contaminants that leak into groundwater. The move was a top priority (https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060083703) for coal baron Bob Murray, owner of Murray Energy, Wheeler’s most lucrative client (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/epas-acting-administrator-has-long-lobbying-record-on-issues-before-the-agency/2018/07/05/a591cd40-6a6b-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html?utm_term=.07ea8ecca216) when he worked for the Faegre Baker Daniels law firm.

4. Recommended Unsafe Levels of Drinking Water Contaminants

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are used in firefighting foam and a variety of nonstick, cleaning, packaging and other household products, have been linked (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/23/pfas-everyday-products-toxics-guide) to thyroid disease and kidney, liver, pancreatic and testicular cancer. According to a recent study (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drinking-water-may-contain-pfas-chemicals-in-43-states-according-to-new-study-by-environmental-working-group/) by the Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University, these chemicals threaten the drinking water supplies of an estimated 19 million Americans. A 2018 Union of Concerned Scientists report (https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/preserving-science-based-safeguards/toxic-threat-pfas-contamination-military-bases), meanwhile, found that PFAS water contamination at 130 military bases across the country exceed the 11-parts-per-trillion safety threshold determined by the Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Nearly two-thirds of the sites had contamination that was more than 100 times higher than the safe level.

5. Rolled Back Clean Water Act Protections

Clearing up a decade-long dispute over the scope of the Clean Water Act, the Obama EPA adopted (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/us/obama-epa-clean-water-pollution.html) a broad, science-based definition of the law that included protecting intermittent and ephemeral streams and wetlands that do not have surface water connections to other waterways. A 2015 EPA meta-analysis (https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/risk/recordisplay.cfm?deid=296414) of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed studies concluded that even infrequently flowing small streams and isolated wetlands can affect “the integrity of downstream waters.” Trash them and that pollution could wind up in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries.

6. Suppressed an Inconvenient Formaldehyde Report

Last August, Wheeler disingenuously told a Senate committee that the EPA was holding up the release of a report on the risk of cancer from formaldehyde to confirm its veracity. “I am sure we will release it,” he said (https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a/f/afffe2f0-6008-4c2a-af13-87d1cb26d6be/7564C79E99E118F3853D747150119932.spw-080118.pdf), “but I need to make sure that the science in the report is still accurate.”

7. Ignored EPA Scientists’ Advice to Ban Asbestos

Instead of heeding the advice (https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/815-e-p-a-memos-on-asbestos/12c87a96be998db10048/optimized/full.pdf#page=1) of agency scientists and lawyers to follow the example of 55 other countries (https://tinyurl.com/y5x2k32p) and ban asbestos completely, the EPA announced (https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-strengthens-regulation-asbestos-close-loophole-and-protect-consumers) in April that it would tighten restrictions on asbestos—not ban it—despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its dangers. Manufacturers will be able to continue to use the substance if they obtain EPA approval.

8. Weakened the Mercury Emissions Rule

In late December, the EPA proposed to significantly weaken (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html) a rule restricting mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by recalculating its costs and benefits. The Obama EPA, which issued the rule in 2011, estimated it would cost utilities $7.4 billion to $9.6 billion (https://www.epa.gov/mats/regulatory-actions-final-mercury-and-air-toxics-standards-mats-power-plants) annually to install pollution controls and lead to $37 billion to $90 billion (https://www.epa.gov/mats/healthier-americans#impacts) in health benefits by reducing not only mercury, a potent neurotoxin, but also sulfur dioxide and soot, thus preventing 130,000 asthma attacks, 4,700 heart attacks, and as many as 11,000 premature deaths. The Wheeler EPA ignored the “co-benefits” of limiting sulfur dioxide and soot, and flagrantly lowballed (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html) the health benefits of curbing mercury alone at only $4 million to $6 million annually.

9. Slammed Vehicle Emission Rules Into Reverse

Last August, the EPA and the Transportation Department issued (https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/08/02/trump-epa-fuel-economy-standards/887683002/) a proposal to freeze vehicle tailpipe pollution and fuel efficiency standards, rolling back a 2012 Obama-era rule requiring automakers to boost passenger vehicle fuel economy to a fleetwide average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece (https://www.wsj.com/articles/make-cars-great-again-1533170415) titled “Make Cars Great Again” published a few days before the two agencies announced their proposal, Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao charged that the Obama-era standards—the first to limit vehicle carbon emissions—are too burdensome for automakers and “raised the cost and decreased the supply of newer, safer vehicles.”

10. Rescinded the Clean Power Plan

Perhaps Wheeler’s most damaging move to date came late last month when he signed (https://www.vox.com/2019/6/19/18684054/climate-change-clean-power-plan-repeal-affordable-emissions) a final rule to repeal and replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have required coal-fired power plants to dramatically cut their carbon emissions. Yet another gift to the coal industry, Wheeler’s so-called Affordable Clean Energy rule grants states the authority to determine emissions standards but sets no targets, leaving them the option to do absolutely nothing.

“There is no doubt in my mind that under the current administration the EPA is retreating from its historic mission to protect our environment and the health of the public from environmental hazards,” former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, who served under President George W. Bush, stated in her written testimony (https://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/documents/Testimony%20-%20Todd%20Whitman%2020190611.pdf) for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

“This administration, from the beginning, has made no secret of its intention to essentially dismantle the EPA….

Therefore, I urge this committee, in the strongest possible terms, to exercise Congress’s oversight responsibilities over the actions and direction of the EPA.”

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/17/10-ways-andrew-wheeler-has-decimated-epa-protections-just-one-year?cd-origin=rss (https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/17/10-ways-andrew-wheeler-has-decimated-epa-protections-just-one-year?cd-origin=rss)

[boutons_deux]

‘His own fiefdom’: Mulvaney builds ‘an empire for the right wing’ as Trump’s chief of staff

https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/PCYGq8M3rzXI6bQX3GNbOGlpsls=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/KCGJOUVFSQI6TPKW5LDLWAWQDU.jpg

Mulvaney told Acosta in blunt terms that the White House believed he was dragging his feet on regulation rollbacks desired by business interests and that he was on thin ice as a result,

Soon after, Acosta proposed a spate of business-friendly rules on overtime pay andother policies.

... has built what one senior administration official called “his own fiefdom” centered on

pushing conservative policies —

Mulvaney has focused much of his energy on creating a new White House

power center revolving around the long-dormant Domestic Policy Council and

encompassing broad swaths of the administration.

Mulvaney as “building an empire for the right wing.”

He has helped install more than a dozen ideologically aligned advisers in the West Wing

Cabinet members are pressed weekly on what regulations they can strip from the books and have been told

their performance will be judged on how many they remove.

Policy and spending decisions are now made by the White House and dictated to Cabinet agencies,

Democrats openly disdain him as a saboteur,

while many key Republicans distrust his willingness to compromise, particularly on fiscal policy.

Some GOP senators freely signal they would rather deal with any other administration official than him.

Mulvaney’s office has two items with stars beside them: immigration and health care.

Mulvaney’s biggest successes so far have come in deregulation efforts,

where he prods agencies to move faster in case Trump loses or Democrats win the Senate in 2020,

a new rule released in May (https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/05/02/trump-touts-new-faith-based-protections-health-care-workers-national-day-prayer-ceremony/?_view=prod&utm_term=.a4b1ce118ca8) gives health-care providers, insurers and employers greater latitude to refuse coverage for medical services they say violate their religious or moral beliefs.

White House proposed a rollback of Obama-era rules (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/05/24/new-trump-administration-rule-would-weaken-protections-transgender-people-health-care/?_view=prod&utm_term=.b7e3290b1a97) that banned discrimination against transgender medical patients.

Another rule, also being challenged in the courts, bans taxpayer-funded clinics (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/02/22/trump-administration-bars-family-planning-clinics-that-provide-abortion-referrals-million-program/?_view=prod&utm_term=.bfc6ff53b945) from making abortion referrals.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/his-own-fiefdom-mulvaney-builds-an-empire-for-the-right-wing-as-trumps-chief-of-staff/2019/07/14/85c5ebdc-942b-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fd100f656501 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/his-own-fiefdom-mulvaney-builds-an-empire-for-the-right-wing-as-trumps-chief-of-staff/2019/07/14/85c5ebdc-942b-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fd100f656501)

[boutons_deux]

oligarchy move to destroy govt limiting its wealth

Controversial agency relocation slammed as attack on science by lawmakers, employees

Critics of the Trump administration's efforts say the decision is politically motivated.

Trump administration’s plans to relocate hundreds of positions within two agencies outside of Washington, D.C. — a move some see as an effort to clamp down on science.

While the planned moves of both the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and parts of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) differ in their scope and rationale, resistance to both plans has shaped up similarly.

Critics are expressing concern over the motivations behind the efforts, which would lead to a mass-exodus of agency experts unwilling to relocate. This would spur a science brain drain in line with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on reports and research from within his own government.

https://thinkprogress.org/agriculture-usda-blm-move-dc-climate-trump-protests-science-e8e534ec12fc/ (https://thinkprogress.org/agriculture-usda-blm-move-dc-climate-trump-protests-science-e8e534ec12fc/)

iow, how to fire people, esp scientists and career professionals, aka "institutional memory", to be replaced, like Jimmy Ricky did in TX, with political stooges.

[boutons_deux]

Conspiracy Theorist Monica Crowley Named To Top Treasury Post

https://49f6rfjar763vnsgn1y42mip-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/MONICA-CROWLEY-1-e1563410658799-680x394.png

a longtime Fox News contributor :lol who

has pilloried journalists as “dishonest, hostile, biased, rude fake news” and

has endorsed a series of racist conspiracy theories,

including about President Barack Obama’s “real father.”

At Fox, she was a C-list voice the network’s hosts regularly booked to provide the casual bigotries, hypocrises, talking points, and lies (https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/28/monica-crowley-possible-trump-press-secretary-regularly-pushes-conspiracies-fox-news/214637) that fuel the Fox propaganda machine.

an additional sign of the unprecedented merger (https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/04/12/comprehensive-list-former-fox-employees-who-have-joined-trump-administration/223413) between Fox and the Trump White House.

She is at least the 17th former Fox employee to join the administration :lol

and replaces Tony Sayegh, himself a former Fox contributor.

https://www.nationalmemo.com/conspiracy-theorist-monica-crowley-named-top-treasury-post/?cn-reloaded=1&cn-reloaded=1 (https://www.nationalmemo.com/conspiracy-theorist-monica-crowley-named-top-treasury-post/?cn-reloaded=1&cn-reloaded=1)

Trash collecting turds from the Fox Shitbag network

[boutons_deux]

But illegal immigrants and Iran are huge problems

EPA Rejects Ban On Common Pesticide Linked to Brain Damage in Children

https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/04e3131024814a629959bb4d19200c92/960x0.jpg?fit=scale

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it would not ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used for killing insects, citing a lack of scientific evidence and drawing ire from environmental groups that say it could cause harm to the children of women who are exposed to the pesticide when pregnant.

While the agency banned the indoor use of chlorpyrifos in 2000,

the chemical is still widely used in the agricultural industry to protect crops, especially corn, from insects.

there’s ample scientific evidence to show that chlorpyrifos is dangerous to children’s neurological development, such as a 2006 study (https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/6/e1845?sso=1&sso_redirect_count=3&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3A%20No%20local%20token&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token) that shows that

children who are exposed to chlorpyrifos in the womb are

at risk of delayed physical and mental development as well as attention and hyperactive disorder problems.

In a 2016 memorandum (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2015-0653-0454), the EPA itself stated,

“there is evidence of delays in mental development in infants (24-36 months),

attention problems and

autism spectrum disorder in early childhood, and

intelligence decrements in school age children who were exposed to OPs during gestation.”

OP’s refer to organophosphates, a class of chemicals that includes chlorpyrifos.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2019/07/19/epa-rejects-ban-on-common-pesticide-linked-to-brain-damage-in-children/#595d6acc1026

The oligarchy, BigChem, BigAg buy to have their preferences implemented, while govt ignores the preferences of users.

All y'all Repug supporters voted for damaged babies, right?


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Chlorpyrifos_USA_2011.png
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[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy strategy of destroying "the administrative state" for profit

Trump administration forcing agency relocations is a war on government and on science (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/19/1872994/-Trump-administration-forcing-agency-relocations-is-a-war-on-government-and-on-science)

Donald Trump is doubling down on the decades-long Republican war on government.

He just feels empowered to take it to levels never before conceived of.

Where Republicans previously tried to do it within the normal bounds of the appropriations process,

by starving agencies and forcing attrition,

Trump is doing it by literally playing with employees’ lives (https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/07/18/many-usda-workers-quit-research-agencies-move-kansas-city-brain-drain-we-all-feared/?utm_term=.b68224fd422a).

The administration is relocating two research agencies within the Department of Agriculture from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City

and most of the Bureau of Land Management's (https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/07/15/interior-move-one-fifth-bureau-land-managements-dc-staff-out-west-part-larger-reorganization-push/?utm_term=.ec51af139e8b) D.C. staff to Grand Junction, Colorado.

This means dozens of federal workers who can't just uproot their lives and their families from their homes are leaving the government.

the targeted staff are some of the leading experts in their agencies,

scientists and regulators who've made their careers in public service.

It's a war on government and a war on science.

"These decisions […] are meant to displace seasoned scientists and regulators who have honorably served Republican and Democratic Administrations alike,"

"This Administration is acting to undermine the subject-matter experts at many of our federal agencies,"

Employees in these two agencies have been issuing

reports and conducting studies showing the impact that Trump's trade war with China and

his environmental policies have been having on agriculture in particular.

The workers rightly see these relocations as retribution.

Democrats in control of the House, is to block funding for the relocations,

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1872994 (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1872994)

Will the candy-assed Dems block funding of Reugs' hardball? My guess is no.

[boutons_deux]

Why does Trump want son of late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia to join his Cabinet?

President Trump has tapped Eugene Scalia to be his new labor secretary

Bush nominated Scalia only a month after he helped overturn a broad Labor Department compliance program on workplace safety standards.

Scalia argued at the time that ergonomics rules intended to prevent repetitive-motion injuries were based on "thoroughly unreliable science."

Bush used a recess appointment in January 2002 to install Scalia, who

faced opposition from Democrats, labor unions and worker advocates,

his experience and record suggest a hostility to the laws he would be sworn to uphold.

To date, his positions have been in

direct opposition to workers' safety,

the ADA,

sexual harassment claims, and

other worker protections,"

Scalia worked for the Justice Department, serving as a special assistant to Attorney General William Barr :lol from 1992-93 during Barr's first stint as attorney general

Scalia has earned a reputation for his challenges to federal regulators on behalf of corporate clients.

Scalia's law firm biography (https://www.gibsondunn.com/lawyer/scalia-eugene/) cites his "success bringing legal challenges to federal agency actions."

He represented Wal-Mart in 2006 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901145.html) against a law in Maryland that would have required the retail giant to spend more more money on health care for its employees.

The Wall Street Journal described (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443862604578032692057219364) him as "one of the industry's go-to guys for challenging financial regulations,"

"Suing the Government? Call Scalia! (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-01-26/suing-the-government-call-scalia)"

Scalia has also defended Boeing Co. (https://www.law360.com/articles/292202/nlrb-drops-boeing-case-on-heels-of-union-deal) in a challenge by the National Labor Relations Board

and SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-us-usa-courts-seaworld/killer-whale-proximity-to-trainer-key-to-shows-seaworld-tells-court-idUSBRE9AB18320131112) in a case against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration following the death of a trainer by a killer whale.

Scalia also played a key role in getting a federal judge to void the Labor Department's "fiduciary rule,"

Scalia called the law a "regulatory Godzilla — an extraordinary example of disregard for limitations imposed by Congress and the Constitution."

https://www.salon.com/2019/07/19/why-does-trump-want-son-of-late-supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-to-join-his-cabinet/ (https://www.salon.com/2019/07/19/why-does-trump-want-son-of-late-supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-to-join-his-cabinet/)

Just another oligarchy nomination meant to destroy his department, always support Capital fucking over Labor

[boutons_deux]

Giving “Upper Hand to Corporate Polluters,” EPA Drops Surprise Inspections

a new “no surprises” policy stopping unannounced visits to power, chemical and waste facilities.

“The Trump

@EPA is just chucking aside any flimsy pretense that they care about upholding environmental laws, enforcing against big polluters, or protecting Americans,”

“Giving a courtesy heads up to suspected *ongoing* lawbreakers is beyond the pale even for the Trump @EPA.”

would likely undermine the mission of protecting the environment.

The group also pointed to its

finding (https://www.peer.org/news/press-releases/epa-criminal-pollution-enforcement-cratering.html) earlier this month that

criminal pollution enforcement under Trump’s EPA is at record low levels.

“If it were up to me,” hewrote (https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28446353/epa-no-surprise-policy-andrew-wheeler/),

“I’d want the people who own power plants and chemical factories

to wake up every morning in cold dread that

someone from the Environmental Protection Agency might drop buy

to see what corners we’ve been cutting recently.

That way, I suspect, fertilizer plants would be less likely to blow up and take entire towns with them (https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nbcnews.com_news_us-2Dnews_deadly-2Dwest-2Dtexas-2Dfertilizer-2Dplant-2Dexplosion-2Dwas-2Dcriminal-2Dact-2Dfeds-2Dn572231&d=DwMFaQ&c=B73tqXN8Ec0ocRmZHMCntw&r=hZb2_NqFlv4vVku8prIWy_zjzb2-10g6sMSmJjEpNFA&m=iX_QtlBThaiIqMaX1nUhoEHp22I1DzwA3fOJzOWXVTE&s=QSS5VrMoppAsOjPSxgBfn2QdcReaVdO6OrTHdt7tn4k&e=).”

https://truthout.org/articles/giving-upper-hand-to-corporate-polluters-epa-drops-surprise-inspections/

[boutons_deux]

https://49f6rfjar763vnsgn1y42mip-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/danzcolorplus9332-820x394.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Eugene Scalia, Trump's pick to head the Labor Department, scares worker advocates to death



Workers' rights groups and Senate Democrats are objecting to the nomination of Eugene Scalia to head the Labor Department, pointing to his career as a lawyer defending big business.
Scalia led the charge against a proposed rule that would have required 401(k) plan managers to act in the best interests of their investors.
He also worked to weaken parts of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul bill and Clinton-era rules designed to prevent repetitive stress injuries at work.



President Donald Trump's move this week to tap attorney Eugene Scalia to head the U.S. Department of Labor (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-to-nominate-eugene-scalia-antonin-scalias-son-to-be-next-labor-secretary/) is causing worker advocates to sound the alarm.

Scalia, whose father is late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-found-dead-in-texas/), is a career corporate lawyer most of whose professional life has focused on representing big companies in their fights with consumers, employees or government regulators.

The National Employment Law Project noted that

Scalia "has spent his entire career fighting for big businesses and against working people,"

while the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute called Mr. Trump's choice

"another fox-guarding-the-hen house selection that defines the Trump cabinet."

And prominent Senate Democrats have stated their opposition to Scalia's nomination.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eugene-scalia-trumps-labor-secretary-scares-worker-advocates-to-death/ (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eugene-scalia-trumps-labor-secretary-scares-worker-advocates-to-death/)

How much damage to Labor can yet another Capital stooge kakistocrat do in 18 months?

Will he get grilled by Congress, are just "acting" for 18 months?

[boutons_deux]

Democratic Rep. Robert Scott says Trump education official lied to Congress (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/24/1873902/-Democratic-Rep-Robert-Scott-says-Trump-education-official-lied-to-Congress)

That the Department of Education under Trump appointee Betsy DeVos, a longtime advocate of for-profit education companies, would apparently bend over backward to try to save a struggling for-profit education company is not surprising.

The frequent failures of for-profit efforts, and

their often-dismal actual educational outcomes,

continue to complicate privatization proponents' efforts

to whittle down the nation's public education system in favor of something it is easier to squeeze money out of

.one of DeVos' underlings lied to Congress about actions the department took to bail out Dream Center Education Holdings, a megachurch foray into the world of for-profit trade schools.

Former for-profit college lobbyist Diane Auer Jones, now installed as the head of the department's higher education policy, told the House Oversight Committee that

a new policy allowing schools which had lost their accreditations to be "retroactively" re-accredited had, quote,

"nothing to do with the Dream Center,"

and that she did not even know the company was in an accreditation crisis when the policy was being crafted.

The chairman of the House Education Committee, Democratic Rep. Robert Scott of Virginia, uncovered internal Dream Center documents that seem to indicate

Jones was lying outright about both those things.

As reported by The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/politics/dream-center.html),

the documents show that Jones was personally in contact with accreditors about Dream Center's problems—

a week before Jones claimed she first learned of the company's troubles.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/24/1873902/-Democratic-Rep-Robert-Scott-says-Trump-education-official-lied-to-Congress (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/24/1873902/-Democratic-Rep-Robert-Scott-says-Trump-education-official-lied-to-Congress)

Perjury but nobody's will be punished.

[boutons_deux]

"He Might've Stayed a Minute": Coal Miners With Black Lung Slam McConnell for Brushing Them Off in Healthcare Meeting

"It was a worthless trip, that's the way I feel,"

A group of retired Kentucky coal miners (https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article233016257.html) suffering from incurable black lung disease (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/23/history-going-wrong-direction-worst-form-black-lung-disease-rises-again)

slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for brushing them off on Tuesday after

they asked the Republican to commit to funding their medical care.

Around 120 miners and their families traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to meet with the Kentucky Republican and

pressure him to take action to finance the federal Black Lung Disability Trust Fund,

which serves as a lifeline for an estimated 12,000 (https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article233016257.html)former coal miners nationwide.

The miners said McConnell was "rude" during their meeting and quickly left after delivering a brief statement.

"We rode up here for 10 hours by bus to get some answers from him because he represents our state," George Massey, a miner from Harlan County, Kentucky, told (https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article233016257.html) the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"For him to come in for just two minutes was a low-down shame."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/24/he-mightve-stayed-minute-coal-miners-black-lung-slam-mcconnell-brushing-them (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/24/he-mightve-stayed-minute-coal-miners-black-lung-slam-mcconnell-brushing-them)

====================

Why 25,000 Coal Miners Diagnosed With Black Lung Could Lose Federal Help Paying for Treatment

the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which was established in 1978 and finances workers’ black lung disease claims through a tax on per-ton sales by coal mine operators, is in danger of drying up by 2020,

A 2018 report (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-07-20-18.html) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that

at least one in 10 coal miners who had worked in the mines for at least a quarter-century had black lung and in Appalachia,

that rate skyrocketed to one in five.

That’s the highest-ever recorded level of the condition, and

many cases are being diagnosed in younger workers, well under that 25-year threshold.

One reason the Fund is in danger of being depleted by the middle of 2020 is due to the 2018 government shutdown, which cut the necessary tax as of Jan. 1, and it has yet to be restored.

https://fortune.com/2019/03/19/donald-trump-coal-miners-black-lung-disease-disability/ (https://fortune.com/2019/03/19/donald-trump-coal-miners-black-lung-disease-disability/)

===========================

President Trump's Budget Proposes Eliminating This Commission. 95% of Counties It Helps Voted for Him


President Donald Trump’s (https://time.com/4792707/trump-arms-deal-saudi-arabia/) budget, ... calls for the elimination of the Appalachian Regional Commission, an organization that has helped support the economies of Appalachia for over 40 years.

ARC is among several regional commissions the White House (https://time.com/4786655/donald-trump-white-house-internship-apply/) is proposing to eliminate

Trump’s popularity in Appalachia was well documented throughout the campaign,

a commission that was devoted to helping the people in these economies will be eliminated.

Since October 2015, the ARC has supported 55 projects in West Virginia that will retain more than 2,700 jobs and educate thousands of workers across the state.

https://time.com/4793315/donald-trump-budget-appalachian-regional-commission/ (https://time.com/4793315/donald-trump-budget-appalachian-regional-commission/)

:lol yet another segment of bottom of America fucked over by Trash and the Repugs

[boutons_deux]

SURPRISE: TRUMP’S TREASURY PICK SAID OBAMA WAS A MUSLIM WHO TOOK ORDERS FROM TERRORISTS


, the path to employment comes down to being able to answer one or more of the following questions in the affirmative:

1) Are you diametrically opposed (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/can-scott-pruitt-poison-the-environment-enough-to-save-his-job) to the mission of the agency at which you’ll be employed?

2) Are you willing to be slavishly devoted (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/barr-not-a-crime-for-trump-to-demand-staffers-lie-to-investigators) to Donald Trump?

3) Are you rich (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/ranking-team-trumps-wealth)?

4) Are you racist (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/eric-blankenstein-cfpb)?

All of which is to say, it’s easy to see why

Monica Crowley was hired to serve as Trump’s assistant Treasury secretary for public affairs,

and—spoiler alert!—it’s not her deep knowledge of fiscal policy.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/monica-crowley-barack-obama?mbid=nl_th_5d3a2553475c1a0008814899&CNDID=43758549&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_Hive_072619&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6795524c17c1048022fcc&cndid=43758549&hasha=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&hashb=542eb31d958e85ddd5a4c3ccf3faae18526a77bd&hashc=54b3612ab970ce13a64a16665b1987080ca5b72e2ee7 62b722fbba6ab378f2f5&esrc=bounceX&utm_campaign=VF_Hive_072619&utm_term=VYF_Hive (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/monica-crowley-barack-obama?mbid=nl_th_5d3a2553475c1a0008814899&CNDID=43758549&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_Hive_072619&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6795524c17c1048022fcc&cndid=43758549&hasha=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&hashb=542eb31d958e85ddd5a4c3ccf3faae18526a77bd&hashc=54b3612ab970ce13a64a16665b1987080ca5b72e2ee7 62b722fbba6ab378f2f5&esrc=bounceX&utm_campaign=VF_Hive_072619&utm_term=VYF_Hive)

[koriwhat]

echo chamber from hell!

[boutons_deux]

Critics shred Interior Dept.'s management plan for downsized Bears Ears Nat'l Monument (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/26/1874647/-Critics-shred-Interior-Dept-s-management-plan-for-downsized-Bears-Ears-Nat-l-Monument)

American Indian tribes, environmental activists, and eco-minded politicians are blasting (https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/07/26/trump-team-releases-bears/) the Department of Interior’s newly released management plan for the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

Among other things,

the plan allows extensive logging,

widespread use of off-road vehicles,

and chaining

—the mechanical clearing of land by attaching a chain to two vehicles that drag it along the ground to rip out brush and other plants, a method that is cheap but especially damaging to sensitive areas.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1874647 (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1874647)

Predatory Capitalists intend to destroy the "commons" for profit. Oligarchy's whore Repugs say "Go right ahead"

[boutons_deux]

Ohio just passed the worst energy bill of the 21st century

A corrupt bailout for dinosaur power plants that screws renewable energy in the process.

Bail out two nuclear plants

Bail out two coal plants

Gut renewable energy standards

Gut energy efficiency standards

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/7/27/8910804/ohio-gop-nuclear-coal-plants-renewables-efficiency-hb6

[boutons_deux]

Ida Ho is 89% white

Idaho Republican Explains 'Diversity' Is Bad For America, Because Cows

the interim president of Boise State University said in a June newsletter (https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Ae060d865-8145-47f7-9300-9a13b4cfc19e) that diversity and inclusion were good things, and outlined a few things the university was doing to promote a diverse student body and faculty.

A rightwing group, the Idaho Freedom (for white people) Foundation, angrily denounced (https://idahofreedom.org/idahos-public-colleges-inclusion-efforts-promote-victimhood/) the newsletter as a shocking attempt to "pander to leftist ideologues with radical views of 'inclusivity.'"

didn't "reflect Idaho values. :lol

Twenty-seven other Republican House members signed on to Ehardt's letter,

diversity is actually very divisive and racist!
This drive to create a diversified and inclusive culture becomes divisive and exclusionary because it separates and segregates students.
Ehardt thinks all sort of things are "segregation," and "antithetical to the Idaho way," among them,


• Support for multicultural student events including Pow Wow, Rainbow Graduation, Black Graduation, Project Dream, etc. instead of helping all students;
• Six graduate fellowships for "underrepresented minority students" instead of merit-based awards;
• A gender-based violence community-coordinated response team, instead of letting the police handle the matter;


The letter was also very bothered by other insanely lavish spending on "diversity," like these:


• $25,000 to be allocated to departments to expand their searches through additional media advertising to attract a more diverse pool of candidates;
• $30,000 from Student Affairs to support multicultural student events, including Pow Wow, Rainbow Graduation, Black Graduation, Project Dream;
• A program that forces Boise State students to financially support the food pantry, housing, emergency loans to students, and more—even as they struggle to pay for their own tuition!

Why, yes, that would be out of a total FY 2019 Boise State University budget request (https://vpfa.boisestate.edu/budget-and-planning/files/2017/09/FY19-Agency-Budget-Request-BSU-Detail-Report-10.10.17.pdf) of over $234.5 million.

Moyle got weird, explaining there's nothing "racist" about signing on to a letter claiming that

diversity is a form of segregation, and pointing out that a university is really a lot like his ranch:


"I've got red cattle out there, I've got black cattle out there. ... It doesn't matter, they're all cattle" he said.

"It's really easy to call somebody a racist because they don't like the way the words were written."



https://www.wonkette.com/idaho-republican-explains-diversity-is-bad-for-america-because-cows

[boutons_deux]

Here's the coal ash shitfest we get when Trash sends a BigCoal stooge to run (down) the EPA even more.

EPA proposal scraps limits on coal plant waste

The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed scrapping restrictions on arsenic-laden waste from coal-fired power plants.

is filled with hazardous substances that can leach into the water supply and cause health problems.

“I can say without hesitation that this is an extremely dangerous proposal that will do lasting harm to communities near coal ash reuse sites and coal ash waste piles,”

coal ash has been deemed responsible for contaminating water with arsenic, which is linked with some types of cancer.

eliminate restrictions from 2015 that limited coal ash use to 12,400 tons per site.

The Trump administration proposal would allow projects to use as much coal ash as they want but would have to file a demonstration that shows the project won’t cause harm if it’s close to certain features like groundwater or wetlands.

“That demonstration doesn’t have to be defended to any regulatory agency or be posted for public notice or be written by any engineer or environmental professional,”

“Today the Agency is proposing sensible changes that will improve the coal ash regulations and continue to encourage appropriate beneficial use,” :lol

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler (https://thehill.com/people/andrew-wheelerr) said in a statement.

“These proposed changes will further responsible management of coal ash while protecting human health and the environment.” :lol

Wheeler is giving this gift to his former employers at the cost of public health,”

“It is a disgrace to everything the EPA stands for,

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/455386-epa-proposal-scraps-limits-on-coal-plant-waste

[koriwhat]

echo chamber from hell!

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration is trying to kill beloved labor symbol ‘Scabby the Rat’ in free speech attack on unions

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/admin-ajax.php_-1.jpg

Through a labor board it controls,

the Trump administration is trying to kill a beloved union symbol, Scabby the Rat.

This latest attack on the First Amendment free speech rights of workers is part of its effort to

convert our government’s Department of Labor into the Department of Bad Management.

the giant inflatable rat is in real danger of extermination by Trump, never a friend of labor.

The Trump administration claims that the inflatable is a menace to business (https://www.nlrb.gov/case/13-CC-225655), so harmful that it must be destroyed. :lol

Unions fly Scabby in front of unsafe and anti-union company facilities to shame companies into improving conditions for workers and alert consumers to bad businesses.

his administration is focused

on shrinking rights to overtime pay,

decertifying unions and

moving millions of working people from employees with at least some legal protections

into the gig economy as “independent contractors” without even the possibility of union rights.

Trump-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is trying to murder Scabby, establishing that this peaceful expression of free speech rights is effective in advancing the interests of working people.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/trump-administration-is-trying-to-kill-beloved-labor-symbol-scabby-the-rat-in-free-speech-attack-on-unions/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

:lol Trash's kakistocracy is going after trivial shit like an inflated rat in its relentless, scorched earth support of Capital over Labor.

[boutons_deux]

Fox News’ Tomi Lahren slammed for sexist comments about Kamala Harris: ‘Sick and disgusting!’ (https://twitter.com/TomiLahren)

Tomi Lahren
(https://twitter.com/TomiLahren)&#10004 TomiLahren
(https://twitter.com/TomiLahren)
Kamala did you fight for ideals or did you sleep your way to the top with Willie Brown?

7:26 PM - Jul 31, 2019 (https://twitter.com/TomiLahren/status/1156722853846237184)


=====================

Rocky Mountain Views@RockyMountViews
(https://twitter.com/RockyMountViews)
(https://twitter.com/RockyMountViews)Replying to TomiLahren (https://twitter.com/_/status/1156722853846237184)

So, Kamala Harris has a law degree, she was a prosecutor in California, she is a US Senator and is now running for president.

Tomi stuck a gun down her pants.

Who do you think is a more capable human being?

7:51 PM - Jul 31, 2019 (https://twitter.com/RockyMountViews/status/1156729171319484416)

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration reopens "longline" fishing

Move will further endanger the rapidly declining population of giant leatherback sea turtles.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=c5ffe9fe07&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-a:r4278486418554423186&th=16c600683a59afa2&view=fimg&sz=s0-l75-ft&attbid=ANGjdJ-Wm1sPlMFxHczImL9fuTf6OyX6aMVRht0aG3NqVKQbt2HiWToiP EHrUKHJFC9cdfL0h-6oF9YTTvMtFViRsEaG77SZ0YFZrwxuRPd5tN0tHM4gHdF0rLHi zw0&disp=emb&realattid=ii_jyxw5vas0

https://www.salon.com/2019/07/20/trump-administration-reopens-longline-fishing_partner/

Trash/Repug vicious, murderous kakistocracy destroying everything they can, and that will accelerate as the end approaches of Trash's Reign of Fuck-Everything

[boutons_deux]

IG Says Trump USDA Transfers Are Illegal, but Ernst Thinks Her Bill Fixes It

President Donald Trump’s relocation of two small offices from the nation’s capital to Kansas City may have been done illegally because

the move lacked prior congressional approval, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Inspector General (IG).

the IG said the USDA has legal authority under a 1953 statute to relocate the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), but

questioned whether there was sufficient budget authority for the actions.

The IG also suggested expenditures by USDA on the relocation may violate

a longstanding federal law that bars government from using tax dollars for purposes other than those approved by Congress.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/ig-says-trump-usda-transfers-are-illegal-but-ernst-thinks-her-bill-fixes-it_3033841.html (https://www.theepochtimes.com/ig-says-trump-usda-transfers-are-illegal-but-ernst-thinks-her-bill-fixes-it_3033841.html)

[boutons_deux]

EPA reauthorizes use of 'cyanide bombs' to kill wildlife (https://theweek.com/speedreads/858033/epa-reauthorizes-use-cyanide-bombs-kill-wildlife)

Wildlife Services officials can once again use M-44s — spring-loaded traps filled with sodium cyanide — to kill wildlife in the United States.

agency officials killed more than 1.5 million native animals, with about 6,500 encountering M-44s.

Critics say these "cyanide bombs" are dangerous, and

have killed endangered species and pets and seriously injured humans.

EPA "ignored the facts :lol :lol :lol

and they ignored cases that, without a doubt, demonstrate that

there is no way M-44s can be used safely."

M-44s often target coyotes and foxes, with

Wildlife Services killing these livestock predators to help private farmers and ranchers.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/858033/epa-reauthorizes-use-cyanide-bombs-kill-wildlife (https://theweek.com/speedreads/858033/epa-reauthorizes-use-cyanide-bombs-kill-wildlife)

[boutons_deux]

Repug-polluted, -corrupted EPA's kakistocrat handing BigChem what BigChem paid for

US won't approve labels that say glyphosate causes cancer

The US Environmental Protection Agency has said it will no longer approve warning labels that claim the controversial herbicide glyphosate causes cancer, calling the statement "false and misleading."

the EPA cited its own evaluation from 2017 :lol

that it said contained a more extensive dataset.

"It is irresponsible to require labels on products that are inaccurate when

EPA knows the product does not pose a cancer risk. :lo

We will not allow California's flawed program to dictate federal policy (https://phys.org/tags/federal+policy/)," said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler :lol in a statement.

https://phys.org/news/2019-08-wont-glyphosate-cancer.html (https://phys.org/news/2019-08-wont-glyphosate-cancer.html)

[boutons_deux]

Corporate fascism, totally legal, no search warrant, nothing

Monsanto Surveilled Journalists, Activists and Even Musician Neil Young

Explosive new documents reveal the U.S. agribusiness giant Monsanto

ran a “fusion center” to surveil and discredit journalists and activists

who criticized or wrote damning reports about Monsanto, as well as legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young,

who released an album in 2015 called “The Monsanto Years.”

Monsanto monitored Young’s Twitter activity and even analyzed the lyrics of his album.

The fusion center also surveilled journalist Carey Gillam, who has done extensive research and writing about Monsanto and its popular pesticide Roundup, which has been linked to cancer.

The corporation also

targeted the nonprofit research group U.S. Right to Know, which submitted Freedom of Information Act requests about the company.

https://truthout.org/video/monsanto-surveilled-journalists-activists-and-even-musician-neil-young/ (https://truthout.org/video/monsanto-surveilled-journalists-activists-and-even-musician-neil-young/)

[boutons_deux]

Gold Over Life, Literally': How Trump Forced Reversal on Mining Project EPA Scientists Warn Could Destroy Alaskan Salmon Ecosystem

"This is one of the world's most beautiful places, with a thriving salmon run, and now we'll get some...gold."

Trash had personally intervened—

after a meeting with Alaska's Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy on Air Force One in June—

to withdraw the Environmental Protection Agency's opposition to a gold mining project in the state that

the federal government's own scientists have acknowledged

would destroy native fisheries and undermine the state's fragile ecosystems.

In 2014, the project was halted because an EPA study found that it would cause

"complete loss of fish habitat due to elimination, dewatering, and fragmentation of streams, wetlands, and other aquatic resources"

in some areas of Bristol Bay. The agency invoked a rarely used provision of the Clean Water Act that works like a veto, effectively banning mining on the site.

the decision disregards the standard assessment process under the Clean Water Act, cutting scientists out of the process.

one EPA inside told CNN,

"I was dumbfounded. We were basically told we weren't going to examine anything. We were told to get out of the way and just make it happen."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/10/gold-over-life-literally-how-trump-forced-reversal-mining-project-epa-scientists?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/10/gold-over-life-literally-how-trump-forced-reversal-mining-project-epa-scientists?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email)

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration overhauls Endangered Species Act as critics fear animal extinction

The Trump administration announced Monday a major overhaul to the Endangered Species Act in a way it says will reduce regulations, but

environmentalists say will push more animals and plants to extinction because of threats from climate change and human activities.

The changes end blanket protections for animals newly deemed threatened and

allow federal authorities for the first time to

take into account the economic cost of protecting a particular species. :lol Fuck Capitalism

The Endangered Species Act now protects more than 1,600 species in the United States and its territories.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/12/donald-trump-administration-weaken-endangered-species-act/1985543001/ (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/12/donald-trump-administration-weaken-endangered-species-act/1985543001/)

[boutons_deux]

Shunned by House Repugs, King will probably be reelected by rural Iowans

Steve King goes full Handmaid’s Tale: If not for rape and incest, ‘would there be any population left?’

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/msnbc_king_170124a-2.jpg

defended his opposition to letting victims of rape or incest get abortions on the grounds that

rape and incest have been vital to sustaining the human population.

“what if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest?” he asked rhetorically.

“Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?

Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations,

I know that I can’t say that I was not a part of a product of that.”

he wondered why “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” were offensive terms.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/steve-king-goes-full-handmaids-tale-if-not-for-rape-and-incest-would-there-be-any-population-left/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1134 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/steve-king-goes-full-handmaids-tale-if-not-for-rape-and-incest-would-there-be-any-population-left/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1134)

A fine, well-informed studious historian

[boutons_deux]

White nationalist Republican ridiculed after only 2 people show up for his town hall meeting

Embattled Rep. Steve King (R-IA) suffered further humiliation on Saturday when only two people showed up for his town hall meeting with Iowa constituents.

King, who was stripped of all committee assignments for his white nationalism, was been

an embarrassment for Republicans with his constant racism and misogyny.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/white-nationalist-republican-ridiculed-after-only-2-people-show-up-for-his-town-hall-meeting/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/white-nationalist-republican-ridiculed-after-only-2-people-show-up-for-his-town-hall-meeting/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

===============

Trump furious with Steve King for crippling his re-election chances in Iowa

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/trump-furious-with-steve-king-for-crippling-his-re-election-chances-in-iowa-cnns-april-ryan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/trump-furious-with-steve-king-for-crippling-his-re-election-chances-in-iowa-cnns-april-ryan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

His rural supporters have stuck with him for multiple re-elections, I figure he will get re-elected. That's how fucking stupid and ignorant rurals can be.

In fact, Trash is in full agreement with King's racism, xenophobia, misogyny, but not his style.

They are both incorrigible shitbags.

[boutons_deux]

Animals suffer as Trump administration slashes inspections and enforcement at breeders and labs (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/22/1880639/-Animals-suffer-as-Trump-administration-slashes-inspections-and-enforcement-at-breeders-and-labs)

The Trump administration is slashing regulations and abandoning enforcement throughout the government

The Washington Post reports that in one 2017 case, hundreds of raccoons were trapped in cages in temperatures over 100 degrees, causing “severe heat distress” for dozens.

Inspectors confiscated 10 of the animals,

only to be ordered to return them after industry groups went to a Trump adviser and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue stepped in.

Let’s pause to consider that a Cabinet member personally intervened in the fate of 10 raccoons—

but only so their corporate owners could return them to suffering.

The USDA has gone from issuing 4,944 animal welfare citations in 2016 to just 1,716 in 2018.

The number of enforcement cases dropped by 92% in the same time frame.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1880639

Trash's brutal, sadistic Exec considers non-male, non-whites to be sub-human shit, so of course, animals are to be abused for profit.

[boutons_deux]

Battle looms over Trump Administration bid to ease safety rules for big trucks

the Trump administration formally proposed easing the rules over rest breaks truck drivers must take, and giving them more flexibility over their on- and off-duty time.

The proposed changes to the “hours of service” rules by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration were published Aug. 20 in the Federal Register, (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-08-20/pdf/2019-17837.pdf)

deaths (https://qhi7a3oj76cn9awl3qcqrh3o-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FMCSA-crash-stats.pdf) from (https://qhi7a3oj76cn9awl3qcqrh3o-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FMCSA-crash-stats.pdf) crashes (https://qhi7a3oj76cn9awl3qcqrh3o-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FMCSA-crash-stats.pdf)involving large trucks hit a 10-year high in 2017 at 4,761.

the trucking industry had spent heavily on congressional lobbying and campaign contributions, urging looser restrictions on trucking companies and their drivers.

the National Transportation Safety Board, an advisory agency with no regulatory power, has zeroed in on fatigued driving as a safety issue that is more serious than statistics suggest.

“Drowsy driving does not leave telltale signs and, as a result, it is widely believed to be underreported on police crash forms,”

“These (proposals) are opportunities for drivers to be pushed to their limits further, to drive without resting. It’s more opportunity for a driver to operate while fatigued, which is really detrimental,”

https://www.salon.com/2019/08/25/battle-looms-over-trump-administration-bid-to-ease-safety-rules-for-big-trucks_partner/

Bannon's "Destruction of the administrative state" continues.

Trial lawyers are gonna get even more wealthy from the big truck slaughter

[boutons_deux]

US Diplomat Quits Publicly And Warns Of Exodus

Bethany Milton spent 11 years working for the U.S. federal government as a consular officer in the Foreign Service.

she finally decided to leave the State Department — and the straw that broke the camel’s back was hearing supporters of President Donald Trump chanting, “Send her back, send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar during a recent rally.

“I asked the Trump Administration to send me back from my overseas posting,

shipping home the family, foreign language textbooks and various tchotchkes

from ‘shithole countries’ that I’ve collected in my years as a United States diplomat.

I am joining a growing list of Foreign Service officers who refuse to serve this administration any longer.”https://www.nationalmemo.com/us-diplomat-quits-publicly-and-warns-of-exodus/?cn-reloaded=1 (https://www.nationalmemo.com/us-diplomat-quits-publicly-and-warns-of-exodus/?cn-reloaded=1)

[Thread]

US Diplomat Quits Publicly And Warns Of Exodus

Bethany Milton spent 11 years working for the U.S. federal government as a consular officer in the Foreign Service.

she finally decided to leave the State Department — and the straw that broke the camel’s back was hearing supporters of President Donald Trump chanting, “Send her back, send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar during a recent rally.

“I asked the Trump Administration to send me back from my overseas posting,

shipping home the family, foreign language textbooks and various tchotchkes

from ‘shithole countries’ that I’ve collected in my years as a United States diplomat.

I am joining a growing list of Foreign Service officers who refuse to serve this administration any longer.”https://www.nationalmemo.com/us-diplomat-quits-publicly-and-warns-of-exodus/?cn-reloaded=1 (https://www.nationalmemo.com/us-diplomat-quits-publicly-and-warns-of-exodus/?cn-reloaded=1)


No more big shot.

A fortnight, maybe less...layin' in that bed with her husband they'll talk treason about that decision "they both" made. tee, hee.

[boutons_deux]

USDA Cuts Enforcement Of Animal Welfare Under Trump

puppy mills aren’t getting investigated at all.

Puppy mills are awful.

As the Humane Society explained (https://www.humanesociety.org/all-our-fights/stopping-puppy-mills),

a puppy mill is “an inhumane high-volume dog breeding facility

that churns out puppies for profit,

ignoring the needs of the pups and their mothers” and

the puppies are often “sick and unsocialized.”

investigations have plummeted in the years Trump has been in office.

During the last year of Obama’s presidency, the division issued 1,320 warnings.

By 2017, that number had dropped to 523; and by 2018, it was down to 193.

Similarly, in 2016, the division opened 239 cases,

but that dropped to only 15 cases in the first three quarters of 2018.

To put this into perspective, there are approximately 10,000 puppy mills (https://www.thepuppymillproject.org/about-puppy-mills/) currently operating in the U.S.

The USDA gave two reasons (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/animal-welfare-laws-concerns-enforcement-lead-warnings-pet/story?id=65195650) for the startling decline in enforcement.

First, it says it has fewer inspectors and had to stop doing routine inspections during the government shutdown.

Next, it argues this is a specific policy choice —

the department decided to focus on assisting facilities with compliance by letting them correct problems before issuing a citation. :lol

There’s just one problem with that: The USDA’s own internal watchdog says it doesn’t work (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/animal-welfare-laws-concerns-enforcement-lead-warnings-pet/story?id=65195650). :lol

https://www.nationalmemo.com/usda-cuts-enforcement-of-animal-welfare-under-trump/ (https://www.nationalmemo.com/usda-cuts-enforcement-of-animal-welfare-under-trump/)

[boutons_deux]

Iowa sucks

Rep. Steve King Laughingly Says Muslims Should Be Forced To Eat Pork

The Iowa Republican, who has defended white supremacy, made the crack while discussing alleged abuses of Muslims in China.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-king-says-muslims-should-be-forced-to-eat-pork_n_5d657cf5e4b063c341f6dfdb?ncid=newsltushpmgn ews__TheMorningEmail__082819&guccounter=1 (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-king-says-muslims-should-be-forced-to-eat-pork_n_5d657cf5e4b063c341f6dfdb?ncid=newsltushpmgn ews__TheMorningEmail__082819&guccounter=1)

King was re-elected last November

[boutons_deux]

E.P.A. to Roll Back Regulations on Methane, a Potent Greenhouse Gas

The Trump administration is set to announce on Thursday that it intends to sharply curtail the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change,

to eliminate federal government requirements that the oil and gas industry put in place technology to inspect for and repair methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities.

The proposed rollback is particularly notable because

major oil and gas companies have, in fact, opposed it,

just as some other industries have opposed the Trump administration’s other major moves to dismantle climate change and other environmental rules

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/climate/epa-methane-greenhouse-gas.html?ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__0 82919

==================

Fracking prompts global spike in atmospheric methane, study suggests

As methane concentrations increase in the Earth's atmosphere, chemical fingerprints point to a probable source: shale oil and gas

This carbon-13 signature means that since the use of high-volume hydraulic fracturing -- commonly called fracking -- shale gas has increased in its share of global natural gas production and has released more methane into the atmosphere,

While atmospheric methane concentrations have been rising since 2008, the carbon composition of the methane has also changed. Methane from biological sources such as cows and wetlands have a low carbon-13 content -- compared to methane from most fossil fuels.

methane has 80 times the heating-trapping power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years in the atmosphere.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190814090610.htm (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190814090610.htm)

[boutons_deux]

Repugs habitually, reflexively insult the intelligence of Repug voters, or maybe the intelligence of Repugs voters really is so low

Virginia GOP Senator Smears Muslim Opponent As A ‘Radical’ Sympathetic To Terrorists

State Sen. Richard Stuart is out with a new ad against Qasim Rashid claiming he “doesn’t believe Islamic terrorism exists.”

Democrat Qasim Rashid is running for the Virginia state Senate on issues like criminal justice, education funding and health care. But because he is also Muslim, his opponent, not surprisingly, is trying to tie him to “Islamic terrorism.”

State Sen. Richard Stuart (R) is out with a new Facebook (https://www.huffpost.com/impact/topic/facebook) ad stating,

“Qasim Rashid doesn’t believe Islamic terrorism exists.”

All three of the ads Stuart’s campaign has posted against Rashid this month mention the word “radical,” either about terrorism or his “socialist” policies.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/qasim-rashid-virginia-richard-stuart-ad_n_5d66d66ae4b01fcc690e2d63?ncid=newsltushpmgnew s__TheMorningEmail__082919

Fucking Repug politicians prove their Repug sheeple really are fucking stupid, ignorant, gullible.

[boutons_deux]

Trash "transacting" with logging firms to destroy forest in return for campaign donations

Trump pushes to allow new logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

President Trump has instructed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue

to exempt Alaska’s 16.7-million-acre Tongass National Forest (https://www.fs.usda.gov/tongass/) from logging restrictions imposed nearly 20 years ago,

after privately discussing the matter with the state’s governor aboard Air Force One.

The move would affect more than half of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, opening it to potential logging, energy and mining projects.

It would undercut a sweeping Clinton administration policy known as the “roadless rule,” which has survived a decades-long legal assault.

the Tongass, a massive stretch of southeastern Alaska replete with old-growth spruce, hemlock and cedar, rivers running with salmon, and dramatic fjords.

President Bill Clinton put more than half of it off limits to logging just days before leaving office in 2001, when he barred the construction of roads in 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest across the country.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-pushes-to-allow-new-logging-in-alaskas-tongass-national-forest/2019/08/27/b4ca78d6-c832-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html)https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-pushes-to-allow-new-logging-in-alaskas-tongass-national-forest/2019/08/27/b4ca78d6-c832-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html

What the Dems protect, the Repugs destroy.

Just another REAL DIFFERENCE between the parties.

[boutons_deux]

Danziger: School For Scandal


https://49f6rfjar763vnsgn1y42mip-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/danzcolorplus9370-1104x773.jpg


https://www.nationalmemo.com/danziger-school-for-scandal/?cn-reloaded=1 (https://www.nationalmemo.com/danziger-school-for-scandal/?cn-reloaded=1)

[boutons_deux]

Repugs CHEAT and LIE to win

BUSTED: Republican charged after winning GOP primary — by spreading opponent’s expunged arrest

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Kelly-Yaede.jpg

Authorities in New Jersey have charged a sitting Republican mayor with winning her GOP primary by illegally spreading information on her opponent.

“Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede and her campaign manager have been

charged with publicly releasing an opponent’s years-ago and now expunged arrest

by posting it on a campaign blog ahead of the June Republican primary, which she won,”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/busted-republican-charged-after-winning-gop-primary-by-spreading-opponents-expunged-arrest/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1344 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/busted-republican-charged-after-winning-gop-primary-by-spreading-opponents-expunged-arrest/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1344)

Will she be able remain mayor? what's the punishment?

Repugs and their voters are shitbags

[boutons_deux]

Inside the shadowy think tank pushing to kick 3.1 million people off food stamps

The increasingly influential Foundation for Government Accountability is mixing sketchy research with legislative leverage — and it’s working.


In December, the Foundation for Government Accountability hosted public officials from across the country in Orlando, Florida.

The scene: Walt Disney World’s Swan and Dolphin Resort (https://thefga.org/solutions-summit/), an ocean-themed oasis with palatial fountains next to a lake lined with palm trees.

The FGA, a right-leaning think tank based in Naples, Florida, paid travel and lodging expenses for many of the conservative leaders in attendance, including Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5782883-Bevin-Check.html) and three White House aides (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6225386-1353Report-EOP-WHO-OctMar2019.html#document/p2/a515171).

Guests heard presentations such as “Stop the Scam: The Reality of Food Stamp Fraud.”

The FGA aimed to send decision-makers back to their respective states, or the nation’s capital, with fresh zeal to

restrict access to public assistance programs designed for low-income people,

including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program.

The association even provided road maps for achieving this goal in the form of

model legislation —

suggested wording for laws and regulations that could serve as a template for like-minded policymakers.

wait in line for their allotment at the food pantry hosted there so they could supplement

their SNAP budgets — at most $192 per month for a single person.

FGA president and CEO Tarren Bragdon ...
“focused on policy changes that protect resources for the truly needy and put millions of Americans on the path to achieving the American Dream.” :lol

advocate for a variety of policy proposals,

from reforming licensing requirements (https://thefga.org/news/new-study-highlights-need-for-occupational-licensing-reform/) for workers set by state and local governments,

to installing work requirements for Medicaid (https://thefga.org/solution/welfare-reform/work-requirements/medicaid-work-requirements/) and blocking that program’s expansion (https://thefga.org/commentary/freezing-obamacare-expansion-will-save-taxpayers-and-the-truly-needy/) under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

the FGA (https://thefga.org/about-us/) has attracted a pool of benefactors — mostly wealthy people whose identities are kept secret and conservative foundations.

spends its money on well-connected lobbyists,

research of dubious quality,

prewritten legislation, and

trips to Florida for public officials who oversee government assistance programs for some of the nation’s most vulnerable people.

Kansas, Mississippi (http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2017/PDF/history/HB/HB1090.xml), West Virginia, and Kentucky — have implemented one of the FGA’s signature proposals: work requirements for SNAP recipients.

many SNAP recipients have serious impediments to work, such as undiagnosed disabilities,

the Trump administration announced (https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2019/07/23/usda-proposes-close-snap-automatic-eligibility-loophole) it was pursuing another FGA-backed proposal, closing what an FGA policy report (https://thefga.org/research/closing-the-door-to-food-stamp-fraud-how-ending-broad-based-categorical-eligibility-can-protect-the-truly-needy/) calls an administrative “loophole” that allows states to enroll people in SNAP if they make use of another public assistance program.

the FGA suggests, would kick an estimated 3.1 million people (https://www.fns.usda.gov/resource/proposed-rule-revision-snap-categorical-eligibility) off SNAP.

the FGA is not required to disclose the identities of its donors. However, tax documents for 2011 from the State Policy Network, a group of conservative nonprofits, show that the network provided $60,000 in seed money to the FGA.

financial support from the Charles Koch Foundation, the Charles Koch Institute, and the DeVos family,

The FGA offered written testimony in support of the legislation. It then began pushing its own version of the act as model legislation nationwide. Among the main planks (https://thefga.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Welfare-Reform-Bill-2017.pdf):



Restricting states’ ability to seek waivers from SNAP work rules
Requiring more stringent screening of SNAP applicants and closer scrutiny of eligibility for Medicaid and SNAP recipients
Empowering states to hire third-party contractors to help ferret out fraud in those programs


“Nobody who’s serious about public policy really takes them seriously,”

Germanis told Public Integrity in a phone interview. “But politicians seem to love them because

[the FGA] tells them what they want to hear.”

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/4/20835692/conservative-think-tank-foundation-for-government-accountability-food-stamps-snap-poverty-welfare (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/4/20835692/conservative-think-tank-foundation-for-government-accountability-food-stamps-snap-poverty-welfare)

American Capitalists fund orgs to fuck over the poor to "pay for" huge tax cuts and the Capitalists' tax avoidance and tax evasion.

America The Sadistic

[boutons_deux]

another shithole Repug state run by shitbags doing shitty stuff
This GOP governor is about to install a far-right reactionary

after gutting oversight of judicial nominations

Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) announced (https://twitter.com/dougducey/status/1169354614438682624?s=20) that he would be nominating Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery to the Arizona Supreme Court seat left by retiring Chief Justice Scott Bales —

a deeply controversial decision, given that Montgomery is an extreme right-winger plagued by scandal.

Montgomery has

fiercely supported the death penalty and

the drug war,

told a Vietnam veteran he was “the enemy” for using medical marijuana,

improperly refused to provide free legal counsel to same-sex couples looking to adopt.

He worked to shield a deputy attorney in his office accused of serial sexual harassment.

And a former judicial nominating commission

rejected him 7-5, saying that

he was unqualified to serve as a judge due to

lack of experience,

ideological bias, and

ethics scandals.

Ducey, however, has gone to great lengths to roll back state oversight of the judicial nominating process

so that he could appoint Montgomery anyway, as noted (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/arizona-supreme-court-rigging-doug-ducey-bill-montgomery.html) by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern.

He packed the state Supreme Court, adding two extra seats to it, and

replaced all the Democrats on the nominating commission with Republicans or Republican-leaning independents,

breaking the precedent of past governors who chose a bipartisan slate of experts.



The consequences could be devastating for the rule of law in Arizona.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/this-gop-governor-is-about-to-install-a-far-right-reactionary-after-gutting-oversight-of-judicial-nominations/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Sen. Ernst says lawmakers should discuss fixing Social Security ‘behind closed doors’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/ZMAKNXsdM4w6-baJZMux7KYuKgQ=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/F5D4PIDLSMI6TD2E5DMLWHPZQY.jpg

said at a recent town hall that lawmakers should discuss fixing Social Security “behind closed doors,” prompting a wave of criticism from liberal and advocacy groups.

Ernst, who is running for reelection in 2020, made the remarks Saturday,

, we need to sit down behind closed doors so we’re not being scrutinized by this group or the other,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-ernst-says-lawmakers-should-discuss-fixing-social-security-behind-closed-doors/2019/09/05/b678c428-cfec-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html?arc404=true&noredirect=on (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-ernst-says-lawmakers-should-discuss-fixing-social-security-behind-closed-doors/2019/09/05/b678c428-cfec-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html?arc404=true&noredirect=on)

what the Repugs want is to cut Cost of Living adjustments, and generally drive retirees into poverty and/or force people to subsidize BigFinance aka privatization

[boutons_deux]

https://assets.rbl.ms/21094318/origin.png

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s Pick to Lead Weather Agency Spent 30 Years Fighting It

What Santorum does recall about the meeting is that his visitor had a gripe about the National Weather Service (https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/0760606D:US).

The NWS was giving away forecasts on its website, radio stations, and elsewhere, when businesses such as AccuWeather charged its clients for theirs—

never mind that AccuWeather relied on the service’s free data to formulate its own predictions.

Santorum agreed that commercial weather companies deserved protection. :lol

That year he introduced a bill (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-109s786is/pdf/BILLS-109s786is.pdf) calling for the NWS to issue forecasts via “data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers.” Critics said the

NWS would have been barred from making any public predictions beyond severe storm warnings,

which private forecasters didn’t want to be responsible for.

“A lot of people were very concerned. They said, ‘AccuWeather wants to take over the weather service.’ ”

Barry (Myers), now AccuWeather’s chief executive officer,

he remains a champion of limiting the agency’s public role,

opposing its use of social media to spread warnings.

“We fear that he wants to turn the weather service into a taxpayer-funded subsidiary of AccuWeather,”

President Trump nominated him to be NOAA’s administrator.

Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/), approved him on a party-line vote.
:lol

Adversaries say that in the grand tradition of Trump administration members

blurring the line between personal interests and public ones,

Myers will use the position to enrich AccuWeather while muzzling an agency that people rely on to make life-or-death decisions.

“He has a track record of working to undermine NOAA’s ability to keep people safe,”

“And he has egregious and unreconcilable conflicts of interest due to his family business.”

From the get-go, AccuWeather went after the NWS, promising clients that its forecasts were more accurate.

The service has to publicize all likely outcomes of a storm’s path, but AccuWeather has the luxury of offering laserlike projections for private clients.

The claim of superiority is “part of their business model,”

says Edward Johnson, a former NWS policy director. “It annoyed the forecasters at the weather service.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it)

[boutons_deux]

The rapacious oligarchy, the predatory Capitalists

unleashed by Trash' and his kakistocratic whores' Govt By and For the Wealthy

A Vast Liquidation of Public Lands Is Underway in Alaska

The Trump administration is quietly leading one of the

largest liquidations of America’s public lands since the late 19th century. (the previous Robber Baron Age)

If fully implemented, this effort could result in the

transfer, sale, or private exploitation of more than 28.3 million acres of public lands in Alaska, including

old-growth forests,

subsistence hunting areas for Alaska Native communities,

habitats for polar bears,

salmon spawning streams, and

other backcountry areas.1 (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2019/09/10/474256/vast-liquidation-public-lands-underway-alaska/#fn-474256-1)

It would affect millions of acres in the

Tongass National Forest and

the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge alone.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2019/09/10/474256/vast-liquidation-public-lands-underway-alaska/ (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2019/09/10/474256/vast-liquidation-public-lands-underway-alaska/)

[boutons_deux]

The controversy over “ethnonationalism” and a Trump judicial nominee, explained

Republicans fast-tracked Steven Menashi’s nomination after he drew protests.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3pk_js-t_KQ8wbiW1G45tb4IRkA=/0x0:5385x3590/1200x800/filters:focal(2023x1020:2883x1880)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65230961/1167380299.jpg.0.jpg

began his writing career at the Dartmouth Review, the campus conservative publication that incubated professional trolls such as Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’Souza (https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/politics/kfile-steven-menashi-judge-nominee/index.html).

Menashi used this platform

to denounce LGBTQ rights groups,

mock “Take Back The Night” marches protesting campus rape, and

defend a fraternity that threw a “ghetto party (http://web.archive.org/web/20020628001138/http:/dartreview.com:80/issues/2.12.01/editorial.html).”

He later became a

law professor who may want to dismantle much of the government, a

top aide to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and a lawyer in the Trump White House.

If Trump gets his way, he will soon become a judge on one of the most powerful courts in the country.

, the kind of person a president nominates if their goal is to “own the libs.”

. He received his confirmation hearing (https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/09/11/2019/nominations) on Wednesday. With Republicans controlling the Senate, he is overwhelmingly likely to be confirmed.

This rushed schedule is highly unusual. Nominees typically wait weeks or even months for a hearing,

opinion pieces he wrote as a college student and then later as a graduate. In them,

he denounced college anti-rape activists as “campus gynocentrists (https://afj.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Heteropatriarchal-Gynophobes.pdf),”

accused an LGBTQ civil rights group of “incessantly exploit the slaying of Mathew Shepard (https://afj.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Matters-of-Life-and-Death.pdf) for both financial and political benefit,” and

likened the practice of gathering racial data on university students to the Nazi “Nuremberg laws. (http://web.archive.org/web/20060508042330/http:/www.theamericanscene.com/pubs/tdr31201.html)”

n a 1998 New York Times op-ed, which reads like a liberal college student’s bad parody of something a conservative might write,

Menashi attacked need-based financial aid (https://afj.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Hide-That-College-Fund.pdf) at colleges and universities —

claiming that it “punishes families with the foresight and prudence to save for their children’s education.”

, he appears to defend “ethnonationalism.”

he touts court decisions that could form the tip of a spear into the heart of progressive economic regulation.

a 2010 academic article he wrote titled “Ethnonationalism and Liberal Democracy (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1592560).”

Menashi argued that “democracy can’t work unless the country is defined by a unifying race.”

suggests that ethnic diversity is itself harmful. “Social scientists have found that greater ethnic heterogeneity is associated with lower social trust,” he writes.

“Ethnically heterogeneous societies exhibit less political and civic engagement,

less effective governing institutions, and

fewer public goods.”

“it does not serve the cause of liberal democracy

“our country will be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites? (https://www.vox.com/2019/7/17/20696543/national-conservatism-conference-2019-trump)”

Menashi is much more likely than the typical judge to be sympathetic to policies that seek to make the United States more homogeneous.

a handful of lower court decisions that question the longstanding consensus that courts should not interfere with economic regulation absent an explicit constitutional command to do so.

That consensus emerged in response to an era of conservative dominance (http://www.georgemasonlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/23_3_Millhiser.pdf) that legal scholars refer to as
the [I]Lochner Era. ... as an example of how judges should never, ever behave.

Most scholars and judges still believe that Lochner is a cursed decision, although a libertarian insurgency now seeks to normalize it (https://thinkprogress.org/if-you-want-to-understand-whats-happened-to-the-supreme-court-you-need-to-listen-to-rand-paul-d2f245be1706/).

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/12/20858813/steven-mensashi-ethnonationalism-trump-nominee (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/12/20858813/steven-mensashi-ethnonationalism-trump-nominee)

Menashi is 40 years old, so he'll be fucking up America for 35 years, unless HOPEFULLY he dies early

So certainly the evangelicals love this guy because he will screw over LGBT, non-whites, non-males, non-Christians

"ethnonationalism" is a fancy word in front of White Euro-Male Christian Supremacist RACISM

[boutons_deux]

Administration finalizes repeal of 2015 water rule Trump called ‘destructive and horrible’

For years, the fight over how much power the federal government should have to regulate the wetlands and tributaries that feed into the nation’s largest rivers has played out across the country.

a legal tug of war has unfolded over a 2015 rule that gave the Environmental Protection Agency much broader authority over the nation’s waterways.

Critics say the Obama rule gave the federal government far too much power; supporters countered it would prevent the loss of vast swaths of wetlands.

Court rulings have temporarily blocked the regulation in 28 states, while keeping it in effect in 22 others.

On Thursday, the Trump administration plans to scrap the Obama-era :lol OF COURSE :lol

definition of what qualifies as “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act,

returning the country to standards put in place in 1986.

critics say the rollback will speed the conversion of wetlands and headwaters, which provide critical habitat for wildlife and support the nation’s drinking water supply.

Americans drained about half of the 220 million acres of wetlands in the contiguous United States (https://www.fws.gov/wetlands/Documents%5CWetlands-Loss-Since-the-Revolution.pdf) between the 1780s and 1980s, most of it to expand farmland.

“The administration wants to go back to an era where we are destroying wetlands heedlessly,” Robert Irvin, president of American Rivers,

The 2015 rule gave the federal government authority to oversee a wide array of lakes, streams, wetlands, storm-water controls and ditches that feed into larger waterways that are clearly protected under the 1972 Clean Water Act.

tens of thousands of acres that connect underground or through ditches to nearby waterways will lose protection.

Targeting the Obama-era regulation ranked among Trump’s top priorities when he took office. :lol

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/administration-finalizes-repeal-of-2015-water-rule-trump-called-destructive-and-horrible/2019/09/11/fddfa49a-d4aa-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html?noredirect=on (https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/administration-finalizes-repeal-of-2015-water-rule-trump-called-destructive-and-horrible/2019/09/11/fddfa49a-d4aa-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html?noredirect=on)

Trash destroys any progress Obama made, fucking up the country and people, as a personal vendetta.

Of course, the evangelicals love this destruction of the planet because their fucking Bible says the Lord gave them "dominion" to fuck up everything. Biblical justified destruction of the planet. Fuck Christianity and its perverted, fucked up Bible humpers.

[boutons_deux]

A brand new TX shitbag for shithole TX

Federal Elected Official Chip Roy Says He Won't Register His Firearms With the Federal Government


https://media1.fdncms.com/sacurrent/imager/u/blog/21970168/1024px-chip_roy_48719369982_.jpg?cb=1568291728

“I can tell you I will not register my firearms with the federal government,”

the San Antonio-area Republican said Saturday in speech to the Young Americans for Liberty :lol Convention in Austin.

Roy also proclaimed himself a “proud member of the Gun Owners of America,” a group that regularly blasts the NRA for being too soft (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gun-owners-of-america-newtown-gun-debate_n_2318951). F

Following the 2012 Colorado movie theatre shooting that left 12 dead, the group's top exec promoted a theory (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/right-wing-gun-group-aurora-was-inside-job/) that the massacre was part of a plot to trigger gun confiscations.

He also warned his audience that red-flag laws — favored by three-quarters of Americans in a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll (https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759193047/poll-most-americans-want-to-see-congress-pass-gun-restrictions)

— are only the first step toward the big, bad gubment rounding up everyone's precious peashooters.

"Even right here in Texas, people in the Republican Party are going wobbly on the Second Amendment :lol

and your right to defend your families and this country," the freshman congressman said.

"Red flag laws are the camel's nose under the tent to confiscate our weapons." :lol

https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2019/09/12/federal-elected-official-chip-roy-says-he-wont-register-his-firearms-with-the-federal-government (https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2019/09/12/federal-elected-official-chip-roy-says-he-wont-register-his-firearms-with-the-federal-government)

===========================

Chip Roy? rings a bell

Watch a Congressman Get Emotional Defending Drug Company Profits

Texas congressman Chip Roy who launched into what scientists are calling an emotional meltdown worthy of a guest star Emmy.

because Roy was arguing in defense of that most maligned of social groups: Profits. :lo drug company profits! :lol

"I'm really glad they [made a lot of money]!" he exclaimed, already heated.

"And I hope they make a lot more!"

"To sit here an attack the capitalistic system that produces and distributes medicine that is saving lives around the world? :lol

I mean it is just offensive." :lol

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a27498464/chip-roy-gilead-hearing/ (https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a27498464/chip-roy-gilead-hearing/)

shitbag TX electing shitbags

(this Roy shitbag replaces Christian Scientist Lamar Smith who is hilariously anti-science)

[boutons_deux]

Trash and Repugs fuck up everything they can, everything they touch, for profit

Trump Administration Rolls Back Clean Water Protections

The Trump administration on Thursday announced

the repeal (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/climate/trump-clean-water-rollback.html?module=inline)of a major Obama-era :lol :lol

clean water regulation (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/climate/trump-clean-water-rollback.html?module=inline) that had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water.

adds to a lengthy list of environmental rules (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html?module=inline) that the administration has worked to weaken or undo over the past two and a half years.

Those efforts have focused heavily on

eliminating restrictions on fossil fuel pollution,

including coal-fired power plants (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/climate/epa-coal-emissions.html?module=inline),
automobile tailpipes (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/climate/trump-auto-emissions-rollback-disarray.html?module=inline) and
methane emissions (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/climate/epa-methane-greenhouse-gas.html?module=inline), but have also touched on
asbestos (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/climate/epa-asbestos-rule-scientists.html?module=inline) and chemical hazards like pesticides (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/climate/epa-chlorpyrifos-pesticide-ban.html?module=inline).

polluters will no longer need a permit to discharge potentially harmful substances into many streams and wetlands.
But the measure, which is expected to take effect in a matter of weeks,

has implications far beyond the pollution that will now be allowed to flow freely into waterways.

“this is an opportunity to really drive a stake through the heart of federal water protection.”

Trump, who characterized it as federal overreach that impinged on the rights of farmers, rural landowners and real estate developers

to use their properties as they see fit. :lol and FUCK everything and everybody else
“With many of our cities and towns living with unsafe drinking water,

now is not the time to cut back on clean water enforcement,”

A wide range of environmental protections are similarly being eliminated.

The administration is rushing to clear the way for

oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/us/oil-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge.html?module=inline), for instance, and

weakening protections for endangered species (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html?module=inline)in an effort to help drillers.

And, in December 2017, Mr. Trump embarked on the

biggest land protection rollback in United States history (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/trump-bears-ears.html?module=inline)
when he reduced two national monuments in Utah by some two million acres.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/climate/trump-administration-rolls-back-clean-water-protections.html?emc=rss&partner=rss (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/climate/trump-administration-rolls-back-clean-water-protections.html?emc=rss&partner=rss)

[boutons_deux]

US and Brazil agree to Amazon development


https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/1B80/production/_108804070_056473187-1.jpg

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49694516 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49694516)

[boutons_deux]

Trash and his gutless sycophant pandering to Christian haters

Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson send anti-trans signals to Trump’s evangelical base

Multiple people who attended an internal meeting at the HUD offices in San Francisco told reporters that, in his remarks to staff,

Carson claimed that “big, hairy men” are trying to infiltrate women’s homeless shelters.

reference to the urban legend that cis men pretend to be trans women in order to gain access to women’s spaces, a myth that has been repeatedly debunked by researchers (https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/5/13/17938102/transgender-people-bathrooms-locker-rooms-schools).

the opposite is true — denying trans people the right to use spaces that align with their gender identity increases their risk of being sexually or otherwise assaulted (https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trans-teens-face-higher-sexual-assault-risk-when-schools-restrict-n1002601).

Under Carson’s leadership (https://thinkprogress.org/house-democrats-will-consider-bill-to-block-hud-rule-allowing-anti-trans-shelter-discrimination-ffab165dce6f/),


HUD has moved towards finalizing a rule that would allow federally funded shelters to turn away trans people seeking safety,

one in five trans people have been homeless at some point (https://transequality.org/issues/housing-homelessness). It’s troubling, but not surprising: Trans people often experience housing and family discrimination that leaves them without homes. By spreading these ugly myths, Carson is only contributing to the problem.

he intended his nasty comments to get a public airing, since he chose an office full of career HUD employees in San Francisco as his audience.

DeVos made a point of visiting Harrisburg Catholic Elementary School in Pennsylvania on Thursday. (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/betsy-devos-transgender-students_n_5d826487e4b0849d472247ff?nyg)

The school has a policy barring trans people from working there or attending school, claiming that

gender-affirming medical care is “self-mutilation and therefore immoral.”

purpose of the visit was to promote a program that redirects taxpayer money (https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/betsy-devos-visits-school-explicit-anti-transgender-policy-n1056676) from public schools to private schools by granting tax credits to people who give scholarships to families so their kids can attend private schools.

DeVos was sending

a message to Christian conservative voters that she is trying to secure more government funding so they can take their kids out of public schools, which may have policies barring discrimination based on gender identity, and instead send their kids into schools that are overtly anti-trans.

hating trans people is really important to the white evangelical base that Trump desperately needs to win in 2020.

overt transphobia of the sort the religious right is peddling is not popular with the public at large. Research shows that

62% of Americans say they feel more supportive of trans rights (https://www.prri.org/research/americas-growing-support-for-transgender-rights/) than they used to be.

DeVos and Carson’s gambits help them message transphobia to the Christian right,

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/betsy-devos-ben-carson-send-anti-trans-signals-to-trumps-evangelical-base/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1515 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/betsy-devos-ben-carson-send-anti-trans-signals-to-trumps-evangelical-base/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1515)

http://jensenkarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/unnamed.png

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration approved importation of lion trophy

A lion trophy from Tanzania has been approved for import to the US, the first such case since lions began receiving protections in January 2016 as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act,

the hunter, Carl Atkinson, was represented by lawyer John Jackson III, a member of the Interior Department's own International Wildlife Conservation Council,

a controversial panel convened to advise on how trophy hunting helps conservation. (https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/17/politics/trump-zinke-hunting-panel/index.html) :lol

the Trump administration is preparing to approve the importation of other species -- such as elephants -- from Tanzania.

Atkinson wanted to bring back the trophy because it is key to hunters to "memorialize the experience."

It is "unethical to waste any part of the hunt" or to leave behind any part, :lol holy shit :lol

Jackson said his client paid $100,000 for the 21-day safari.

The decision to allow some imports came after public backlash to the rollback of Obama :lol -era restrictions

"I'm working to save wildlife from animal protectionists," Jackson said :lol
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/politics/lion-trophy-import-approved-tanzania/index.html (https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/politics/lion-trophy-import-approved-tanzania/index.html)

:lol Trash gonna spite Obama, and ignore who or what suffers and dies. :lol

[boutons_deux]

BLM Headquarters Moves to Building Housing Oil Company Offices

The Bureau of Land Management is moving its headquarters to a building that

houses offices for several oil and gas companies operating in Western Colorado, including Chevron USA, Inc., and

the local branch of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/blm-headquarters-moves-to-building-housing-oil-company-offices (https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/blm-headquarters-moves-to-building-housing-oil-company-offices)

... facilitating the corruption of govt employees and destruction of the commons

[boutons_deux]

“Sacrilege”: Michiganders outraged after Pence visits island where cars are banned in 8-car motorcade (https://occupydemocrats.com/2019/09/22/sacrilege-michiganders-outraged-after-pence-visits-island-where-cars-are-banned-in-8-car-motorcade/)

Vice President Mike Pence brought an eight-vehicle motorcade with him while attending the Republican Leadership Conference over the weekend in Mackinac Island, Michigan.

In a move that is not very surprising from an administration that has consistently demonstrated its contempt for environmental concerns,

Vice President Mike Pence brought an eight-vehicle motorcade with him while attending the Republican Leadership Conference over the weekend in Mackinac Island, Michigan.
While many readers may now be scratching their heads wondering why such an action rises to the level of a condemnable offense when large motorcades are such a standard feature of the privileges normally afforded to our nation’s political elite, it may help to know that

the island —which is home to about 500 people — has banned vehicles since the late 19th century

except in extremely limited circumstances (http://is0.gaslightmedia.com/cityofmi/_ORIGINAL_/fs85-1525181283-27014.pdf) where the motorized vehicles are allowed only by special permit on an individual’s private property and for emergency purposes.

Pence arrived at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island via his unprecedented motorcade and faced cries of “sacrilege” from local residents on social media in response.

The last senior U.S. official to visit the island was President Gerald Ford, who traveled to Mackinac Island in 1975 and was transported with his First Lady Betty Ford around the island in a horse-drawn carriage.

https://occupydemocrats.com/2019/09/22/sacrilege-michiganders-outraged-after-pence-visits-island-where-cars-are-banned-in-8-car-motorcade/ (https://occupydemocrats.com/2019/09/22/sacrilege-michiganders-outraged-after-pence-visits-island-where-cars-are-banned-in-8-car-motorcade/)

The Repug aristocracy says "fuck you peasants"

[boutons_deux]

Pence family’s failed gas stations cost taxpayers $20M+

his father helped build a Midwestern empire of more than 200 gas stations that provided an upbringing on the “front row of the American dream.”

The collapse of Kiel Bros. Oil Co. in 2004 was widely publicized. Less known is that the state of Indiana — and, to a smaller extent, Kentucky and Illinois —

are still on the hook for millions of dollars to clean up more than 85 contaminated sites across the three states, including underground tanks that leaked toxic chemicals into soil, streams and wells.

Indiana alone has spent at least $21 million on the cleanup thus far, or an average of about $500,000 per site, according to an analysis of records by The Associated Press. And the work is nowhere near complete.

The federal government, meanwhile, plans to clean up a plume of cancer-causing solvent discovered beneath a former Kiel Bros. station that threatens drinking water near the Pence family’s hometown.

Pence’s older brother Greg Pence — who was president of Kiel Bros. when it went bankrupt and is now running for Congress as a Republican — distanced himself from the cleanup costs.

“Greg Pence has had nothing to do with Kiel Bros since 2004. This is another attempt by the liberal media to rehash old, baseless attacks,”

Mike Pence, then a third-year congressman, lost more than $600,000 when the company went under.

He later became Indiana governor and now has assets worth between $532,000 and $1.13 million.

Greg Pence, who is seeking the vice president’s old congressional seat, has total assets worth $5.7 to $26 million.

Nearly a decade after going under, Kiel Bros. sites still ranked among the top 10 recipients of state money for such cleanups in Indiana in 2013,

https://apnews.com/07f9256ae1984362ba3eff192b4d6dd0 (https://apnews.com/07f9256ae1984362ba3eff192b4d6dd0)

[boutons_deux]

‘Trump tied everything together’: Republican host says Trump just ruined his own denial on Ukraine scandal

Republican CNN host S.E. Cupp pointed out Monday during “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that Trump admitted to his scandal involving Ukraine.

Tapper explained that no one has alleged explicit quid pro quo, but it isn’t necessary to be illegal.

“Trump explicitly tied withholding the aid to this investigation,” Cupp said.

“And explicitly said,

‘Why would you give money to a foreign country if you thought it would be corrupt?'” Cupp continued.

“He tied it together. It’s hard to follow, which is why in some ways this is the perfect story for Donald Trump.

It’s complicated, there are moving parts, some of this happened years ago under a different administration.

The only part he cares that you heard is ‘Joe Biden and his son are corrupt.’

It doesn’t have to be true.

He doesn’t have to prove it. He doesn’t have to provide evidence.

All he cares about is sowing those seeds of distrust and doubt in the American electorate months before an election.”

There is obviously a threat and a carrot and a stick you have there — asking a foreign country to get involved.”

“His greatest defense has always been a lie, and

it’s serious because Trump had admitted it,”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/trump-tied-everything-together-republican-host-says-trump-just-ruined-his-own-denial-on-ukraine-scandal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/trump-tied-everything-together-republican-host-says-trump-just-ruined-his-own-denial-on-ukraine-scandal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

Why is Trash/Pence so obsessed with corruption in Ukraine?

Why is Trash hiding the wb complaint that obviously totally exonerates him?

[boutons_deux]

https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TMW2019-09-25colorLARGE.jpg

[boutons_deux]

The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam.

An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/07/26/climate/00CLI-BERNHARDT1/merlin_158498610_a9d01594-ec7c-45fd-9445-a9fdfb47d307-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale



For years, the Interior Department resisted proposals to raise the height of its towering Shasta Dam in Northern California.

The department’s own scientists and researchers concluded that doing so would

endanger rare plants and animals in the area,

as well as the bald eagle, and

devastate the West Coast’s salmon industry downstream.

But the project is going forward now, in a big win for a powerful consortium of California farmers

that stands to profit substantially by gaining access to more irrigation water from a higher dam and has been trying to get the project approved for more than a decade.

For much of the past decade, the chief lobbyist for the group was David Bernhardt. Today, Mr. Bernhardt is the Interior Secretary.
It is not the first time that the Interior Department under Mr. Bernhardt’s leadership has taken actions that benefit

his former client, the Westlands Water District,

a state entity created at the behest of, and

largely controlled by, some of California’s wealthiest farmers.

Mr. Bernhardt also promoted the weakening of an endangered-species regulation (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/climate/david-bernhardt-endangered-species.html?module=inline) that would get Westlands more water,

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/climate/bernhardt-shasta-dam.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/climate/bernhardt-shasta-dam.html)

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos' security detail is expected to cost taxpayers $7.87 million in fiscal year 2020

With an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion, Betsy DeVos is the wealthiest member of President Trump's Cabine

That figure represents an increase from the $6.24 million spent on DeVos’ security during the 2019 fiscal year (https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/01/betsy-devos-security-detail-cost-015986) and

the $6.79 million spent during the 2018 fiscal year, according to Politico.

When coming up with an estimate for fiscal 2019, which ended on Monday, the agency had anticipated it would spend $7.74 million to protect the billionaire education secretary.

It is not normal protocol for an education secretary to receive such an extravagant security detail.

The four secretaries to serve prior to DeVos were all protected by the department’s small security force,

DeVos dodged questions at a congressional hearing about a report which found that the department had been scammed by fraudulent or poorly managed charter schools. DeVos herself is a long-time advocate of using taxpayer money to fund charter schools.

up to $1 billion awarded by the federal government’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) had been allocated to schools that only opened for brief periods or did not open at all.

They estimated that roughly one-third of the $4.1 billion spent by CSP had ultimately been wasted.

DeVos has also been criticized for pursuing policies perceived as discriminatory.

attempted to delay implementing President Barack Obama’s regulations to fight racism in special education,

expressed support for schools that bar transgender people from working or attending and

threatened to pull money from a Middle East studies course jointly run by the University of North Carolina and Duke University for supposedly portraying Islam too positively.

https://www.salon.com/2019/10/03/betsy-devos-security-detail-is-expected-to-cost-taxpayers-7-87-million-in-fiscal-year-2020-report/ (https://www.salon.com/2019/10/03/betsy-devos-security-detail-is-expected-to-cost-taxpayers-7-87-million-in-fiscal-year-2020-report/)

Just another example of the oligarchy fleecing govt to enrich itself

Is anybody in Congress exercising oversight on Devos corrupt enterprise?

[boutons_deux]

oligarchy / Repug vandalism of govt

Science is in ‘crisis’ under Trump, new reports show

Between 2010 and 2017, Washington policymakers became less supportive of the science behind climate change.

What’s more, Washington elites have formed ideological echo chambers —

metaphorical hidey-holes for people who have the same views on stuff —

and become increasingly polarized.

Here are a few examples from the Brennan Center report that show how the government has led by example when it comes to politicizing climate research:



The EPA approved new regulations that stop experts from serving on congressional science boards and stocked those boards with industry researchers.
The Department of the Interior reassigned its head climate scientist after he raised the alarm about the effects of climate change.
When Trump made a false statement about Hurricane Dorian reaching Alabama, his Chief of Staff threatened to fire officials at the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration in order to pressure them into releasing a statement that supported Trump’s false assertion.



https://grist.org/article/science-is-in-crisis-under-trump-new-reports-show/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=beacon (https://grist.org/article/science-is-in-crisis-under-trump-new-reports-show/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=beacon)

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos violated a court order to stop collecting on some loan debts.

A judge is weighing whether it's contempt

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/02/politics/betsy-devos-security-detail-26-million/index.html) violated a court order to stop collecting on the debts of some former Corinthian College students and now a judge is weighing sanctions or finding her in contempt of court.

"I feel like there have to be some consequences for the violation of my order 16,000 times,"

said US Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim at a hearing held Monday in San Francisco

The Department of Education has said that more than 16,000 borrowers were incorrectly informed that they owed a payment on their debt,

About 1,800 had their wages garnished and

more than 800 were mistakenly subject to adverse credit reporting.

"Whether it's contempt or whether it's sanctions, I'm going to entertain them," Kim said.



"I'm not sending anyone to jail yet, but it's good to know I have that ability."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/politics/betsy-devos-loan-debt-court-sanctions-contempt/index.html (https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/politics/betsy-devos-loan-debt-court-sanctions-contempt/index.html)

[boutons_deux]

600 former EPA officials demand investigation into Trump administration over California threats

593 signatories asked for a probe to determine whether EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s aggressive focus on California officials is rooted in

a retaliatory effort to punish the state for not backing President Trump’s political agenda.
“EPA’s credibility depends on its commitment to use its authority to protect public health and our environment in an objective, even-handed manner, rather than as a blunt instrument of political power,”

“We urge your committee to determine whether Mr. Wheeler’s letters of Sept. 24 and 26

threatening to withhold grant funds and increase EPA oversight were motivated by improper partisan concerns.”

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-10/former-epa-officials-trump-versus-california-pollution?utm_source=Essential+California&utm_campaign=a56b7f24db-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6e35f7f85b-a56b7f24db-80115881 (https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-10/former-epa-officials-trump-versus-california-pollution?utm_source=Essential+California&utm_campaign=a56b7f24db-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6e35f7f85b-a56b7f24db-80115881)

[boutons_deux]

Enlarged Atlantic Fishing Area Could Further Imperil Right Whales

Environmentalists Charge Trump’s Fisheries Overseer Failed to Follow Endangered Species Act

Trump regulators opened about 3,100 square miles of ocean to fishing for scallops and fish

that live near the bottom of the ocean such as halibut and flounder that

had been closed for more than two decades,

including a section of Georges Bank (https://www.nationalfisherman.com/northeast/noaa-moves-open-long-closed-areas-fishing-new-england/) off Cape Cod, Mass., and part of the ocean near southern New England.

Environmentalists say the National Marine Fisheries Service, (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/) overseen by Chris Oliver, (https://www.noaa.gov/our-people/leadership/chris-oliver)

failed (https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/NE-Essential-Fish-Habitat_Complaint_5-9-18.pdf) to follow the Endangered Species Act (https://www.fws.gov/international/laws-treaties-agreements/us-conservation-laws/endangered-species-act.html) to protect right whales

despite published research from its own scientists that showed the move could harm right whales.

“The officials charged with protecting this species appear willing to

misrepresent the facts and the science (https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/10/03/federal-agency-accused-mispresenting-views-its-scientists-opening-fishing-grounds-off-cape/x5z4YclOiALyfEetP6FTNM/story.html) to both the court and the public because

they’re hellbent on doing nothing that might save right whales from extinction,”

https://www.dcreport.org/2019/10/16/new-enlarged-fishing-area-could-further-imperil-right-whales/ (https://www.dcreport.org/2019/10/16/new-enlarged-fishing-area-could-further-imperil-right-whales/)

Kakistocrats doing kakistocracy things, operating to nullify, destroy their responsibilities.

[boutons_deux]

Republicans air revenge porn against Democratic congresswoman, and she's the one in trouble (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/24/1894561/-Republicans-air-revenge-porn-against-Democratic-congresswoman-and-she-s-the-one-in-trouble)


https://images.dailykos.com/images/730943/story_image/GettyImages-1135977221.jpg?1571857259

in addition to publishing an illicitly acquired nude photo, RedState accused her of an affair with a congressional aide.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/24/1894561/-Republicans-air-revenge-porn-against-Democratic-congresswoman-and-she-s-the-one-in-trouble?detail=emaildkre (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/24/1894561/-Republicans-air-revenge-porn-against-Democratic-congresswoman-and-she-s-the-one-in-trouble?detail=emaildkre)

[boutons_deux]

Scientists Were Hunting for the Next Ebola.

Now the U.S. Has Cut Off Their Funding.

Predict, a government research program, sought to identify animal viruses that might infect humans and to head off new pandemics.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/health/predict-usaid-viruses.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_nn_20191027?campaign_id=9&instance_id=13414&segment_id=18286&user_id=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&regi_id=80821797 (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/health/predict-usaid-viruses.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_nn_20191027?campaign_id=9&instance_id=13414&segment_id=18286&user_id=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&regi_id=80821797)

[boutons_deux]

BigChem paying Repug whores so BigChem keep poisoning people and the planet, for profit.

TOP U.S. TOXICOLOGIST WAS BARRED FROM SAYING PFAS CAUSE DISEASE IN HUMANS.

SHE’S SAYING IT NOW.


THE WIDESPREAD ENVIRONMENTAL contaminants known as PFAS cause multiple health problems in people, according to Linda Birnbaum,

The statement may come as little surprise to those following the medical literature on the industrial chemicals (https://theintercept.com/collections/bad-chemistry/) that have been

used to make nonstick coatings (https://theintercept.com/series/the-teflon-toxin/), firefighting foam (https://theintercept.com/2015/12/16/toxic-firefighting-foam-has-contaminated-u-s-drinking-water-with-pfcs/), and host of other products.

Thousands of scholarly articles have linked the chemicals to at least 800 health effects.

Some of the health problems found in humans —

including elevated cholesterol levels, liver dysfunction, weight gain, reproductive problems and kidney cancer —

have been shown to increase along with the levels of the chemicals in blood.

Extensive research also shows that children with higher levels of PFAS have weakened immune responses.

Birnbaum was not allowed to use the word “cause”

when referring to the health effects from PFAS or other chemicals.

“I was banned from doing it,” said Birnbaum.

“I had to use ‘association’ all the time.

If I was talking about human data or impacts on people,

I had to always say there was an association with a laundry list of effects.” Birnbaum said

this restriction

“was coming from the office of the deputy director.

His job hinged on controlling me.”

https://theintercept.com/2019/10/24/pfas-toxicologist/

[boutons_deux]

FERC created Frankenstein organizations it no longer controls, while those orgs donate $100Ks back to the FERC

Energy commission stacked with Trump appointees is shielding a big political donor

A federal commission stacked with Trump appointees (https://www.ferc.gov/about/com-mem.asp) said the organization that runs our nation’s largest wholesale electricity market may keep secret how it spends millions of Americans’ utility-bill dollars on lobbying and political contributions.

slapped down (https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/comm-meet/2019/101719/E-25.pdf?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1201fc1d-fa20-458d-99c8-bcc0986ede49) a complaint (https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/public-citizen-ferc-pjm-206complaint-february-2018.pdf) by a watchdog group known as Public Citizen. The watchdog wanted PJM Interconnection (https://www.pjm.com/) to disclose spending.

PJM gave at least $456,500 to the Democratic Governors Association (https://democraticgovernors.org/) and the Republican Governors Association (https://www.rga.org/) from October 2007 to August 2017, according to Public Citizen’s complaint (https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/public-citizen-ferc-pjm-206complaint-february-2018.pdf).

Such donations, said Public Citizen, are

“the wild, wild West of campaign finance” (https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-dga-fundraising-figures-20111127-story.html) because they aren’t limited (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-modern-campaign-finance-loophole-governors-associations-1514562975) by state or federal rules and can be used to funnel large amounts of money to candidates for office.

The Trump-dominated commission dubbed the money “membership fees” (https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/comm-meet/2019/101719/E-25.pdf?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1201fc1d-fa20-458d-99c8-bcc0986ede49) that let PJM maintain “access to these organizations

the commission has no jurisdiction over many internal actions of organizations (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/eme801/node/535) like PJM that are formed with the commission’s approval to monitor our nation’s electrical system.

FERC has legally signaled the organizations are Frankensteins, monsters they created but no longer control,

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/energy-commission-stacked-with-trump-appointees-is-shielding-a-big-political-donor/

[boutons_deux]

Trump Administration Proposes Relaxing Rules On Waste From Coal Plants

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed relaxing two

Obama-era :lol

... regulations on waste products from coal-fired power plants,

a move environmental groups say would

prolong the risk of toxic spills or drinking water contamination.

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776174139/trump-administration-proposes-relaxing-rules-on-waste-from-coal-plants (https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776174139/trump-administration-proposes-relaxing-rules-on-waste-from-coal-plants)

polluted air, water, land, animals, people GOOD, Obama BAD

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration schedules lease sale for Arctic Alaska lands

The Trump administration said on Tuesday it will be auctioning off nearly 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of land in Arctic Alaska for oil development next month, and it is promising much more territory will be open to development in the future.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that its annual oil and gas lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska will be held on Dec. 11. The sale will be the 15th in a series of oil lease sales held by the BLM for that region on the western side of Alaska’s North Slope.

The BLM is also finishing up a draft plan to overturn Obama-era :lol

protections that put about half of the 23 million-acre (9.3 million-hectare) reserve off limits to oil development,

citing needs to protect caribou, migratory birds and other resources important to the region’s indigenous people and to the nation.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-drilling/trump-administration-schedules-lease-sale-for-arctic-alaska-lands-idUSKBN1XF2P5

Goddamn this motherfucking Trash, BigOil, BigLumber to hell

Trash is obviously quid-pro-quo transactioning with the oligarchy and expecting $100Ms of dark money campaign donations.

[boutons_deux]

'Forever indebted' no more,
Trump administration will end Fillipino veterans program (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/11/1898637/--Forever-indebted-no-more-Trump-administration-will-end-Fillipino-veterans-program)

https://images.dailykos.com/images/737230/story_image/GettyImages-53473212.jpg?1573488901


The Trump administration’s racism and cowardice knows no bounds

as it continues forward in its intentions to end the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole Program (https://asianlawalliance.org/relatives-of-filipino-world-war-ii-veterans-to-benefit-from-new-immigration-parole-program/) (FWVP).

The program, begun during the Obama administration :lol sicko Trash's vendetta against Obama

attempted to help reunite Filipino veterans and their families in the United States

while awaiting official federal decisions on their visas.

The idea of the program is to

allow elderly veterans the chance to have family members help support them in the states.

It’s a decent and humane program, :lol Trash and his white nationalist mafiya are indecent, inhumane.

giving the very least back to people who sacrificed so much for the rest of us.

To serve his pathological need to treat immigrants as cruelly as possible,

and to undo any program ever created by Barack Obama,

Donald Trump is dishonoring Filipino World War II veterans

More than a quarter million Filipino soldiers enlisted to serve in the U.S. army during World War II and

a little less than 30,000 were allowed to move to the United States and become citizens.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/11/1898637/--Forever-indebted-no-more-Trump-administration-will-end-Fillipino-veterans-program

"Cruelty (to non-Euro-whites, non-males) IS the point"

[boutons_deux]

shitbag Repugs in SHITHOLE Texas shitting it up

Houston Elects 19 Black Women Judges, so Texas Gov. and Legislature Move to End Judicial Elections. (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/9/1898244/-Houston-Elects-19-Black-Women-Judges-so-Texas-Gov-and-Legislature-Move-to-End-Judicial-Elections)

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott

citing (https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1097189315250130950) concern about the courts' independence. :lol

Abbott has also appointed (https://www.law360.com/texas/articles/1216081/texas-justice-ousted-in-election-gets-his-old-job-back) several judges that voters rejected last year to seats on higher courts. :lol

a bill (https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=86R&Bill=HB4504), supported by Abbott, that would have replaced judicial elections with a system in which

the governor appoints judges, :lol

the bill would have

ended elections only in counties with more than 500,000 people, targeting urban (BLUE) areas like Houston. (Dallas, Austin, San Antonio)

That would mean

the governor would choose judges in the state's larger, more diverse (https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/15/texas-partisan-judicial-elections-reform-abbott-support/) counties,

while rural, conservative counties could keep choosing their own judges.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/9/1898244/-Houston-Elects-19-Black-Women-Judges-so-Texas-Gov-and-Legislature-Move-to-End-Judicial-Elections (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/9/1898244/-Houston-Elects-19-Black-Women-Judges-so-Texas-Gov-and-Legislature-Move-to-End-Judicial-Elections)

[boutons_deux]

E.P.A. to Limit Science Used to Write Public Health Rules

The Trump administration is preparing to significantly limit the scientific and medical research that the government can use to determine public health regulations,

require that scientists disclose all of their raw data,

including confidential medical records,

before the agency could consider an academic study’s conclusions.

E.P.A. officials called the plan a step toward transparency :lol

and said the disclosure of raw data would allow conclusions to be verified independently. :lol

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/climate/epa-science-trump.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR22ofLkrL1FaJN4VhtlJwTtBWaIUB3qyUJuSPusX PPN7bSysnJQm8WE9MQ

[boutons_deux]

Flat Earth conspiracy is growing especially among born again religious zealots

600 people went to their third annual conference in Dallas, Texas.

This is scary:

A YouGov survey of more than 8,000 American adults suggested last year that

as many as one in six Americans are not entirely certain the world is round,

while a 2019 Datafolha Institute survey of more than 2,000 Brazilian adults indicated that 7% of people in that country reject that concept

The event's schedule resembled any corporate conference, with some fairly noticeable twists.

Speakers gave presentations including

"Space is Fake" and

"Testing The Moon: A Globe Lie Perspective."

Awards for the year's best flat Earth-related videos were handed out.

And believers reveled in an opportunity to meet several of the movement's most influential minds.

On a clear day, the curvature of the Earth can be seen from an airplane window. But remarkably, the hundreds of flat Earthers at the Dallas gathering were just a small portion of the movement.

People in every pocket of this spherical planet are rejecting science and spreading the word that the Earth is flat.

There's no clear study indicating how many people have been convinced -- and

flat Earthers like Weiss will tell you without evidence there are millions more in the closet anyway,

including Hollywood A-listers and commercial airline pilots

-- but online communities have hundreds of thousands of followers and YouTube is inundated with flat-Earth content creators, whose productions reach millions.


The Flat Earth Society has 200,000 followers on Facebook.


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/17/1900204/-CNN-Flat-Earth-conspiracy-is-growing-especially-among-born-again-religious-zealots?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

Kentucky GOP moves to strip Democratic governor of his authority, accelerating trend of power grabs

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/26/1901875/-Kentucky-GOP-moves-to-strip-Democratic-governor-of-his-authority-accelerating-trend-of-power-grabs?detail=emaildkre (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/26/1901875/-Kentucky-GOP-moves-to-strip-Democratic-governor-of-his-authority-accelerating-trend-of-power-grabs?detail=emaildkre)

Federal and state Repugs are implementing one-party FASCISM

same story in NC

[boutons_deux]

MSNBC greasebag guest:

Hungry and poor people should ‘celebrate’ billionaires at Thanksgiving

Michael Strain, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute,

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/MSNBC_11-28-2019_13.19.03b.jpg

said that Americans should give thanks for billionaires.

Strain scoffed. “The market is determining wages based on productivity. :lol

Velshi replied, “in a country where we’ve got a whole bunch of billionaires. Wouldn’t taxation solve some of that?”

“We do have a progressive tax system,” Strain agreed. :lol

“The higher your income, the more you pay in taxes.” :lol

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/msnbc-guest-hungry-and-poor-people-should-celebrate-billionaires-at-thanksgiving/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/msnbc-guest-hungry-and-poor-people-should-celebrate-billionaires-at-thanksgiving/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

The overwhelming, defining aspect of Repugs, Repug cult base, oligarchy is motherfucking LYING compounded by stupidity and ignorance.

[boutons_deux]

TN legislator called for ridding US of higher education in order to "end a liberal breeding ground" (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/30/1902782/-TN-legislator-called-for-ridding-US-of-higher-education-in-order-to-end-a-liberal-breeding-ground)

https://images.dailykos.com/images/743081/story_image/GA3dJL8t1?1575173608

In September, State Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield, BS, Lipscomb U.) declared that

he wanted to eliminate higher education (presumably only for women, because abortion) which would save America.

His excuse: he was on talk radio. He (still) hasn’t apologized.

SEN. KERRY ROBERTS (http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/members/s25.html) OF SPRINGFIELD CALLED FOR ELIMINATING HIGHER EDUCATION WHILE SPEAKING ABOUT ATTENDING A RECENT ABORTION LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON HIS CONSERVATIVE RADIO TALK SHOW (https://www.facebook.com/senatorkerryroberts/videos/433693207246542/) ON SEPT. 2.

Roberts specifically

called out one activist who testified in favor of protecting abortion rights.

He asserted without evidence that

the woman’s beliefs were a “product of higher education”

and claimed that getting rid of higher education would “save America.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/30/1902782/-TN-legislator-called-for-ridding-US-of-higher-education-in-order-to-end-a-liberal-breeding-ground?detail=emaildkre (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/30/1902782/-TN-legislator-called-for-ridding-US-of-higher-education-in-order-to-end-a-liberal-breeding-ground?detail=emaildkre)

Goddamn, all you fucking rightwingnujob assholes are fucking stupid

[boutons_deux]

‘Flat-out corruption’:

DeVos accused of scheming to stop next president from canceling student loan debt

Billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos this week proposed (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/devos-student-loan-agency.html)

handing over the federal government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio to a “stand-alone government corporation,”

a move observers condemned as a corrupt ploy to strip the next president of the ability to cancel student loan debt.

“This very much appears to be a Betsy DeVos scheme to block the next president from unilaterally forgiving federal student debt,

which she is well aware a president could do without Congress,” The Intercept‘s Ryan Grim wrote in a series of tweets (https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1202391266882990080) late Wednesday.

“The DeVos family is heavily invested in the student loan industry and this is just flat-out corruption.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/flat-out-corruption-devos-accused-of-scheming-to-stop-next-president-from-canceling-student-loan-debt/

[DMX7]

‘Flat-out corruption’:

DeVos accused of scheming to stop next president from canceling student loan debt

Billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos this week proposed (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/devos-student-loan-agency.html)

handing over the federal government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio to a “stand-alone government corporation,”

a move observers condemned as a corrupt ploy to strip the next president of the ability to cancel student loan debt.

“This very much appears to be a Betsy DeVos scheme to block the next president from unilaterally forgiving federal student debt,

which she is well aware a president could do without Congress,” The Intercept‘s Ryan Grim wrote in a series of tweets (https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1202391266882990080) late Wednesday.

“The DeVos family is heavily invested in the student loan industry and this is just flat-out corruption.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/flat-out-corruption-devos-accused-of-scheming-to-stop-next-president-from-canceling-student-loan-debt/




There is no way she should have ever gotten that job. It's absolutely outrageous.

[boutons_deux]

yet another sadistic TX shitbag

He wanted to ban feeding homeless people. Now he’s about to lead a federal homeless agency

A consultant known for urging cities to stop “enabling (https://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/to-control-homelessness-consultant-suggests-clearwater-change-rules/1230918/)” homeless people, in part by blocking charities from handing out food, has been tapped to lead the agency that coordinates the federal government’s response to homelessness.

Robert Marbut, who has worked with several cities, including Fresno and several other California cities and counties, would succeed Matthew Doherty as executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

The shift in leadership comes as President Trump has repeatedly vowed to crack down on street encampments in Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere in California.

Marbut, a Texas-based consultant ... has long encouraged elected officials to stop coddling people on the streets.

“No one has got out of homelessness just because they got fed,” :lol he told the Tampa Bay Times (https://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/to-control-homelessness-consultant-suggests-clearwater-change-rules/1230918/). “That has never happened.”

Marbut also has been skeptical of “housing first,” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/robert-marbut_n_6738948)

the widely accepted model that prioritizes getting people off the streets before focusing on other issues of mental health or substance abuse.

The federal agency he is poised to lead has long pushed the strategy as the best way to reduce homelessness.

“The primary concern is that his approach, and what we see signs of from the administration wanting to do, is

going to encourage greater enforcement of laws criminalizing homelessness with all the collateral damage that causes,”

“He clearly has a patronizing, condescending and shaming-and-blaming approach that may hide homelessness from downtown businesses,”

“But it does nothing to end or even alleviate homelessness.

His goal is to fix what he perceives to be individual flaws while ignoring all the really clear structural problems that create this.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-04/homeless-robert-marbut-interagency-council-executive-director-trump?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=833e09a87a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-833e09a87a-80027601 (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-04/homeless-robert-marbut-interagency-council-executive-director-trump?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=833e09a87a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-833e09a87a-80027601)

Of course, Trash's kakistocracy launches another tactic in their strategy to abuse, criminalize, crush the poor.

Any Christ-loving evangelicals objecting because Christ loved the poor? fuck no

[boutons_deux]

Trump nominee who is anti-IVF and surrogacy was deemed unqualified.

She was just confirmed.

The latest of President Trump’s confirmed federal judges has been assailed by fellow lawyers for

her lack of trial experience

and has been lambasted by reproductive rights advocates for

her vigorous opposition to abortion, surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.

And in a near-party-line vote Tuesday, the Senate approved the nomination of Sarah Pitlyk, making the conservative lawyer the newest federal judge for the U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

The new appointment has also been seen as yet another mark of the influence of the Federalist Society (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/?tid=lk_inline_manual_7), a conservative nonprofit organization, over Trump’s selection of judges. Pitlyk is a Federalist Society member.

Pitlyk is also the latest (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-push-to-fill-courts-with-conservative-judges-hits-first-speed-bump/2017/12/15/46afc8c0-e1b5-11e7-bbd0-9dfb2e37492a_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_9) of Trump’s nominees to receive a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association, which has long reviewed the competence of nominees for the federal bench.

“Ms. Pitlyk has never tried a case as lead or co-counsel, whether civil or criminal,” Hubbard wrote.

“She has never examined a witness.

Though Ms. Pitlyk has argued one case in a court of appeals, she has not taken a deposition.

She has not argued any motion in a state or federal trial court.

She has never picked a jury.

She has never participated at any stage of a criminal matter.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/04/trump-nominee-who-is-anti-ivf-surrogacy-was-deemed-unqualified-she-just-got-confirmed/?utm_campaign=post_most&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/04/trump-nominee-who-is-anti-ivf-surrogacy-was-deemed-unqualified-she-just-got-confirmed/?utm_campaign=post_most&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1)

[boutons_deux]

‘Make America 36th Out of 41 Developed Nations Again’:

Social justice index of developed nations puts US near bottom

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/users/user20/screen_shot_2019-12-05_at_2.53.05_pm.png
measuring access to social justice and the opportunities they afford their respective citizens and residents.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/make-america-36th-out-of-41-developed-nations-again-social-justice-index-of-developed-nations-puts-us-near-bottom/

[boutons_deux]

https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sarah_Pitlyk_Federal_Judge_Ted_Rall_1088x725-700x470.jpg

[boutons_deux]

Entitled?

Medicare chief asked taxpayers to cover stolen jewelry



Seema Verma requested $47,000 for items taken from an SUV that took her to a speech.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/07/medicare-chief-asked-taxpayers-to-cover-stolen-jewelry-077761 (https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/07/medicare-chief-asked-taxpayers-to-cover-stolen-jewelry-077761)

[boutons_deux]

Forest Service moves to open "America’s Amazon" to loggers

Loggers want to raze trees more than 1,000 years old.

Trump’s National Forest Service is using a refuted scientific theory (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-dispute-trump-administrations-rationale-for-alaska-logging/) to justify building roads in our country’s largest national forest, what some call “America’s (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-fate-of-americas-amazon-is-hanging-in-the-balance/2019/11/03/9101ad3a-f126-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html)Amazon.”

Two scientists whose research was cited in the U.N. study says the Forest Service is espousing junk science.

“Nothing in that report (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-dispute-trump-administrations-rationale-for-alaska-logging/) supports what they’re claiming,”

. Opponents like the Sierra Club (https://www.sierraclub.org/) say Trump could go further, logging in parts of other national forests that are protected.

https://www.dcreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tongass-map.jpg

Trump’s plan, pushed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/trump-pushes-to-allow-new-logging-in-alaskas-tongass-national-forest/2019/08/27/b4ca78d6-c832-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html) by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, (https://www.whitehouse.gov/people/sonny-perdue/)

would slash protections for more than 9 million acres (https://www.hcn.org/articles/climate-desk-30-million-acres-of-public-land-in-alaska-at-risk-of-being-developed-or-transferred) of the Tongass National Forest,

an area larger than Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Canyon national parks combined.

The Tongass stores more carbon removed from the atmosphere (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16102019/tongass-national-forest-trump-roadless-rule-logging-climate-change) than any other national forest in the country in its old-growth Sitka spruce, (https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/treebook/sitkaspruce.htm) hemlock and cedar trees.

The forest holds about 650 million tons of carbon (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-dispute-trump-administrations-rationale-for-alaska-logging/) or about half of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2017.

The Alaska Forest Association, (https://www.akforest.org/) an industry group that supports logging, received more than

$200,000 from a USDA grant that was supposed to help states fight fires.

The money was used to support undoing prohibitions against building roads.

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/15/forest-service-moves-to-open-americas-amazon-to-loggers_partner/ (https://www.salon.com/2019/12/15/forest-service-moves-to-open-americas-amazon-to-loggers_partner/)

[spurraider21]

There is no way she should have ever gotten that job. It's absolutely outrageous.
she was easily the worst. she's the one that needed the pence tiebreak vote

[boutons_deux]

Trash to America: EAT SHIT (profits over over clean food)

New Trump rule may allow 'feces, sex organs, toenails, unwanted hair' into pork products

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/18/1906410/-New-Trump-rule-allows-feces-sex-organs-toenails-unwanted-hair-into-pork-products-NBC-news?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

As the oligarchy pays Trash/Repug to increase their profits by allowing more air (and other) pollution ...

Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

Cutting toxic air might prevent millions of people getting depression

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/18/depression-and-suicide-linked-to-air-pollution-in-new-global-study

[boutons_deux]

AZ! :lol Repug assholes! :lol Repug obsession with Hillary :lol

GOP Congressman Celebrates Christmas With Video of Hillary Clinton Getting Struck By a Heavy Light Fixture

https://am13.akamaized.net/med/cnt/uploads/2018/09/gosar-1200x675.jpg

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/gop-congressman-celebrates-christmas-with-video-of-hillary-clinton-getting-struck-by-a-heavy-light-fixture/ (https://www.mediaite.com/politics/gop-congressman-celebrates-christmas-with-video-of-hillary-clinton-getting-struck-by-a-heavy-light-fixture/)

[boutons_deux]

From a NYT email

Trash's Executive Branch kakistorcrats

"In just three years, the Trump administration has

diminished the role of science in policy making

while disrupting research projects nationwide.

Experts say the effects may be felt for years.

An examination by our Climate reporters found that

political appointees

had shut down government studies,

had reduced the influence of scientists over regulatory decisions and, in some cases,

had pressured researchers not to speak publicly.

“Regulations come and go, but the thinning out of scientific capacity in the government will take a long time to get back,”

"

100Ks of people will suffer, be sick, and/or die from BigCorp's whore hatchet men fucking up USA while sicko Trash tweets

It takes a long time to build, but destruction happens much more quickly

[boutons_deux]

EPA’s Superfund Program, A Trump Priority, Is In Shambles

It turns out it’s hard to clean up toxic waste without money.

three years into the Trump administration, Superfund appears to be in worse shape than ever.

The number of sites on the National Priorities List (https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-national-priorities-list-npl) (NPL), which require long-term remediation, stands as 1,335 ― up from the 1,322 that Pruitt told ”Fox & Friends” was “unacceptable.”

The number of unfunded toxic cleanup sites has ballooned, from 12 in 2016 ― Obama’s last year in office ― to 34 in 2019, according to EPA figures released late last month. It’s the biggest backlog in at least 15 years (https://apnews.com/a7b70f21b6c75f95210112390cc813ad),

The sites are in 18 states and Puerto Rico.

He is not aware of any measure by which Superfund improved over the last three years.

the Trump administration has inflated its Superfund efforts by taking credit for work done during previous administrations.

Superfund is designed to deal with expensive, complicated sites that often have no responsible party.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-administration-superfund-backlog_n_5e14ff79c5b66361cb5c3e03?ncid=newsltushp mgnews (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-administration-superfund-backlog_n_5e14ff79c5b66361cb5c3e03?ncid=newsltushp mgnews)

:lol aka, BigCorp's "external costs" paid by taxpayers. With cleanup profits pocketed by BigCorp! :lol

[boutons_deux]

EPA Will Ease Rules On Storage Of Deadly Coal Ash

Utilities soon could get federal approval for the riskiest way to get rid of coal ash.

make water supplies more vulnerable to the ash, the toxic remnants of burning coal.

the enduring legacy of coal ash will be groundwater pollution such as that in Memphis where city water is threatened. (https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/breaking/2019/03/01/memphis-aquifer-not-protected-arsenic-some-parts-tva-says-coal-ash-contamination-ground-water/3034179002/)

The EPA proposal to set up a permit program (https://www.powermag.com/epa-overrides-subpart-d-in-newly-proposed-federal-coal-ash-permitting-rule/) to dispose of coal ash applies in Native American territory and states except two.

Coal-burning power plants produce about 100 million tons (https://www.utilitydive.com/news/toxins-in-the-ground-inside-americas-most-polluted-coal-ash-site-and-indu/551339/) of coal ash yearly.

Arsenic, lead and mercury lace the ash.

Companies (https://www.dcreport.org/2018/03/30/epas-pruitt-clears-the-way-for-power-plants-to-further-pollute-our-water/)mixed the ash with water and stored it in unlined pits called coal ash ponds.

Such carelessness led to catastrophes, including

130 million gallons of coal ash and water (https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/National-Coal-Ash-Report-4.30.2019.pdf) being released into the Clinch River near Cleveland, Va., in 1967. The spill killed an estimated 217,000 fish and damaged the river for 35 years.

In 2014, a break in a pond at Duke Energy’s plant in Eden, N.C., sent 27 million gallons of sludge (https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article9094658.html) into the Dan River.
92 percent of plants with regulated ponds have at least one that leaks.

Also, 76 percent of plants with regulated landfills have at least one leaking landfill.

Researchers found the groundwater often has unsafe levels of four or more pollutants. (https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/National-Coal-Ash-Report-4.30.2019.pdf)

They included arsenic, (https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/arsenic) which causes cancers, and lithium, (https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/lithium) which can cause kidney damage and birth defects.

The levels of contamination at many sites are hundreds of times greater (https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/National-Coal-Ash-Report-4.30.2019.pdf) than what could be considered safe.

https://www.nationalmemo.com/epa-will-ease-rules-on-storage-of-deadly-coal-ash/?cn-reloaded=1 (https://www.nationalmemo.com/epa-will-ease-rules-on-storage-of-deadly-coal-ash/?cn-reloaded=1)

EPA director/kakistocrat Wheeler is a coal industry lobbyist :lol

[boutons_deux]

Right-wing ‘Review Boards’ in Missouri would pave way for arresting librarians over books deemed ‘inappropriate’

a bill put forward in the state House by a Republican lawmaker, which, if passed, could create committees across the state with the power to jail librarians for distributing material the panels deem “inappropriate.”

Under the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act (H.B. 2044), (https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/01/15/missouri-bill-new-parent-board-could-toss-any-public-library-book-it-deems-sexually-inappropriate-librarians-could-be-jailed/)

locally elected “parental library review boards” would be permitted to unilaterally remove books they decide are sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate for young readers from library shelves.

Libraries that allow children to borrow books that have been banned or whose access has been restricted would risk

losing state funding, and

librarians could be ordered to pay fines of up to $500 or

sentenced to jail time for up to a year.

MLA President Cynthia Dudenhoffer rejected that explanation.

“Public libraries already have procedures in place to assist patrons in protecting their own children while not infringing upon the rights of other patrons or restricting materials,” Dudenhoffer said (http://molib.org/mla-statement-on-hb2044/).

“Missouri Library Association will always oppose legislation that infringes on these rights.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/right-wing-review-boards-in-missouri-would-pave-way-for-arresting-librarians-over-books-deemed-inappropriate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/right-wing-review-boards-in-missouri-would-pave-way-for-arresting-librarians-over-books-deemed-inappropriate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

=================

Rep. Ben Baker (R). He is a minister, missionary and former dean of students at Ozark Bible Institute and College

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/01/15/missouri-bill-new-parent-board-could-toss-any-public-library-book-it-deems-sexually-inappropriate-librarians-could-be-jailed/ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/01/15/missouri-bill-new-parent-board-could-toss-any-public-library-book-it-deems-sexually-inappropriate-librarians-could-be-jailed/)

[boutons_deux]

Swamp Draining News

With Bernhardt Running Trump's Interior Dept., Former Corporate Clients Lavishing Tens of Millions in New Lobby Spending

"The corruption is absolutely shameless."

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/screen_shot_2020-01-16_at_3.55.10_pm.jpg?itok=98jnSUeB

More than a dozen former lobbying clients of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt have spent nearly $30 million convincing the Trump administration to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry,

after examining lobbying records and Bernhardt's recusals due to conflicts of interest.

Since Bernhardt replaced Ryan Zinke—who resigned (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/15/facing-17-ethics-investigations-and-subpoena-house-dems-ryan-zinke-set-resign-end) in 2018 amid his own ethics scandals—

17 of Bernhardt's former clients have lobbied the federal government.

Fifteen of those have lobbied the Interior Department, including eight which spent more than $1 million each.

"The corruption is absolutely shameless,"

"Millions in spending on lobbying have proven devastating for public lands but a gusher for oil and gas interests,"

Bernhardt has consistently favored industry over conservation interests and public health. There appears to be no end, and no shame, in sight."

lobbied the administration on issues including federal protections for the sage grouse—which the government slashed last year—and water preservation.

, the department has pushed to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,

made it more difficult to designate a species as endangered,

moved the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters to Colorado, where fossil fuel interests have easy access to the agency,

and opened one million acres in California to fracking.

the long-term effects of many of the issues Bernhardt's associates have lobbied for will be difficult to reverse by a future administration.

"Regulations can always change but it will be nearly impossible to reverse all this leasing and the permanent damage to endangered species,"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/16/bernhardt-running-trumps-interior-dept-former-corporate-clients-lavishing-tens (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/16/bernhardt-running-trumps-interior-dept-former-corporate-clients-lavishing-tens)

[boutons_deux]

campaign tactic to suck in more $Ms from environmental destroyers

The Trump Administration Is Almost Finished Rolling Back Protections for Millions of Miles of Streams and Wetlands

A draft version of the rule released earlier would end federal oversight for up to half of the nation’s wetlands and one-fifth of the country’s streams, environmental groups warned. That

includes some waterways that have been federally protected for decades under the Clean Water Act

Trump has portrayed farmers — a highly valued constituency of the Republican Party and one popular with the public — as the main beneficiaries of the rollback.

He has claimed farmers gathered around him wept with gratitude :lol LIE

when he signed an order for the rollback in February 2017.

The administration says the changes will allow farmers to plow their fields without fear of unintentionally straying over the banks of a federally protected dry creek, bog or ditch.

However, the government’s own figures show

it is real estate developers and those in other nonfarm business sectors

who take out the most permits for impinging on wetlands and waterways —

and stand to reap the biggest regulatory and financial relief.

https://time.com/5770047/trump-administration-wetlands-rollback/ (https://time.com/5770047/trump-administration-wetlands-rollback/)

[koriwhat]

lmao look at this dumbass loon bouts in his echo chamber :lmao

[boutons_deux]

5 Ways Trump’s Latest Anti-Environmental Proposal Would Allow Fossil Fuel Companies to Bulldoze Communities

the Trump administration released a draft of its proposed changes (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/01/10/2019-28106/update-to-the-regulations-implementing-the-procedural-provisions-of-the-national-environmental) to the regulations that implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)—the most important law that requires the federal government to consider the environmental impacts of its decisions and that gives the public a voice in federal decision-making.

This is not an effort to “modernize” the environmental review process, :lol

as President Trump and Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Mary Neumayr claim (https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/nepa-modernization/), :lol

1. Removing any analysis of climate impacts through changes to “cumulative impacts” or “effects”

2. Ignoring “indirect” effects

3. Allowing blatant conflicts of interest

4. Redefining “major Federal action”

5. Creating loopholes to ignore public comment

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2020/01/16/479454/5-ways-trumps-latest-anti-environmental-proposal-allow-fossil-fuel-companies-bulldoze-communities/ (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2020/01/16/479454/5-ways-trumps-latest-anti-environmental-proposal-allow-fossil-fuel-companies-bulldoze-communities/)

The oligarchy's FUCKING OF AMERICA to amass more Capital continues, and accelerates in Trash's 4th year of destruction.

[boutons_deux]

The US relaxed its meat safety rules at exactly the wrong time

In the last decade, the number of recalls the US government made for unsafe meat increased. And not just by a little.

the number of Class I meat recalls made by the US Department of Agriculture increased by some 85% since 2013, from 53 to 98.

That’s the most hazardous kind of recall, carrying a reasonable chance that consumption of the food could lead to illness and even death.

Recalls in the Class II category rose by 52%, from 17 to 26, and

Class III recalls dropped from 5 to 0.

in 2013 the US recalled just over 13 million pounds of meat and poultry.

In 2019, the government recalled more than 20 million pounds.


the Trump administration, which has recently deregulated aspects of the food safety apparatus.

In October 2018, the administration announced (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/09/28/2018-21143/petition-to-permit-waivers-of-maximum-line-speeds-for-young-chicken-establishments-operating-under) it was

offering poultry plants waivers to increase line speeds from 140 birds per minute to 175 birds per minute,

a policy change made even after the number of Class I recalls had spiked.

the administration decided (https://qz.com/1716113/trump-gives-pork-industry-a-path-to-regulate-itself/) in September 2019 to also relax standards for pork processors.

Under that industry’s revised plan, hog slaughter plants can opt into a system in which

they can hire their own people to replace some—but not all—federal inspectors. :lol self-regulation! Always fails!

In addition, the government removed any cap on line speeds.

while the number of poultry recalls in 2019 was similar to previous years,

the 17 million pounds of poultry and egg products recalled last year tripled the average of the previous six years.

https://qz.com/1790253/the-usda-is-recalling-more-unsafe-meat-now-than-in-2013/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=daily-brief (https://qz.com/1790253/the-usda-is-recalling-more-unsafe-meat-now-than-in-2013/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=daily-brief)

Consumers want (factory) food that is safe

BigMeat wants more profits (and fuck safe food)

Guess who wins? Enabled by Repugs, BigMeat crapifies the food.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Administration Boldly Finalizes Plan to Ruin Some of America's Most Pristine Wilderness
https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAE AAAICTAEAOw==https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAE AAAICTAEAOw==
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=c5ffe9fe07&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-a:r7035520978561404495&th=17021430623eb0f8&view=fimg&sz=s0-l75-ft&attbid=ANGjdJ_D7orbsQNIEt6VVRRgYQtf4L5qpSHQBQglsR8 T0tLtWKbday_va3HA-7Sx-Gu60FjgAz36kV1x1isjq166-ys_H-ZxxPbk4tSX1hDpH8DbPtHXAQy7-3BJgx0&disp=emb&realattid=ii_k6cloo0h0

A little more than two years after dramatically shrinking two national monuments in Utah (https://earther.gizmodo.com/trump-just-destroyed-bears-ears-national-monument-in-a-1820983891?_ga=2.5062007.550166475.1580570469-248962609.1559160032),

the Trump administration has finished off its plans to exploit the land it cut out.

rest easy knowing that formerly pristine wilderness and land held sacred by local tribes

is finally in the hands of prospectors, ranchers, and oil and gas companies.

Egged on by

Utah’s virulently anti-public land Congressional delegation (particularly (https://www.npr.org/2017/02/05/513492389/utah-representative-wants-bears-ears-gone-and-he-wants-trump-to-do-it) former House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop),

Trump signed off on a massive 2-million-acre reduction to the monuments in December 2017.

“With these plans, the administration is racing to allow new development on formerly protected public lands before the courts can overturn its illegal action.”

the Bureau of Land Management promoted its newly finished plan for the monuments as part of a process that “right-sized the boundaries” and “restores access” to the lands,

“These plans will conserve our treasured lands,

All of this is, not shockingly, largely bullshit that hides what’s really going on here.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/trump-administration-boldly-finalizes-plan-to-ruin-some-1841495837?utm_source=gizmodo_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020-02-07 (https://earther.gizmodo.com/trump-administration-boldly-finalizes-plan-to-ruin-some-1841495837?utm_source=gizmodo_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020-02-07)

Everything that shitbag Trash touches turns to shit.

The Utah congress shitbags will be heavily compensated by the BigCorp pillagers

[boutons_deux]

Agency saved by DeVos appears to have accredited a college with no students, faculty or classrooms

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS) accredited a college which appears to have no faculty or students after Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos

reversed an Obama :lol era decision

to shutter the federal agency after it accredited colleges that defrauded students

The ACICS, which

accredited now-shuttered for-profit schools, including ITT Tech (https://www.salon.com/2019/08/05/how-financially-troubled-colleges-rip-off-veterans_partner/), Corinthian Colleges (https://www.salon.com/2015/06/09/this_is_americas_worst_college_screwed_over_corint hian_college_students_get_screwed_again_by_so_call ed_debt_relief/), and Brightwood College (https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/brightwood-college-kearny-mesa-chula-vista-closure-education-corporation-of-america-students/167113/),

was shut down by former President Obama’s administration in 2016.

The department argued at the time (https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-22/education-department-strips-authority-of-acics-the-largest-for-profit-college-accreditor) that the agency, which oversaw 725 schools and more than $3 billion in federal financial aid,

“exhibited a profound lack of compliance” with the “most basic” responsibilities of an accreditor.

DeVos, who has often sided with for-profit institutions (https://www.salon.com/2019/10/08/judge-threatens-betsy-devos-with-jail-for-not-adhering-to-court-order-on-student-loan-debts/), to reinstate the ACICS in 2018

Devos “ignored her career staff’s 57 findings of ACICS’s noncompliance.”

The education secretary similarly came under fire for ignoring career staff (https://www.salon.com/2019/12/12/betsy-devos-ignored-her-own-staff-forced-students-defrauded-by-for-profit-colleges-to-pay/) when

she gutted a debt relief program for students defrauded by the for-profit colleges accredited by ACICS.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/agency-saved-by-devos-appears-to-have-accredited-a-college-with-no-students-faculty-or-classrooms/ (https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/agency-saved-by-devos-appears-to-have-accredited-a-college-with-no-students-faculty-or-classrooms/)

Ditzy Devos, bought her "job" with $200M, is the supreme, National Champion Repug kakistocrat

btw, Devos is invested in financial predators who service students loans for failed colleges, loans that Devos refuses to cancel.

And where are the Dems? overwhelmed by the numerous instances of crime, malfeasance by Trash and his Exec branch?

[boutons_deux]

Foreign crapifiers of America, criminal Pootin, criminal Netanyahu, etc, only possible with All American domestic crapifiers

Netanyahu Boasts That He Destroyed Free Speech in America

.. just boast that his ministry of strategic affairs has managed

to undermine First Amendment protections for free speech in the United States

by lobbying state legislatures

to pass laws forbidding the boycott of Israel.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/netanyahu-boasts-he-destroyed-free-speech-in-america/ (https://www.truthdig.com/articles/netanyahu-boasts-he-destroyed-free-speech-in-america/)


States That Have Passed Anti-BDS Laws (those whose language clearly targets companies that boycott settlements, in addition to Israel are listed in italics)

Alabama,
Arizona,
Arkansas,
California,
Connecuit,
Florida,
Georgia,
Idaho,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Kansas,
Louisiana,
Maryland,
Michigan,
Minnesota,
Mississippi,
Nevada,
New Jersey,
New York,
North Carolina,
Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island,
South Carolina,
Texas,
Wisconsin

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/us-states-use-anti-boycott-laws-punish-responsible-businesses (https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/us-states-use-anti-boycott-laws-punish-responsible-businesses)

"free market" :lol

"freedom!" :lol

hands off, no intervention, "laissez-faire" :lol

Freedom of Speech! :lol

America The Crapified

[boutons_deux]

Local GOP chair shows up armed outside Virginia lawmaker's house to show 'we know where you live'

https://images.dailykos.com/images/758686/story_image/RichmondGunrally.jpg?1579642618

One of the rights the National Rifle Association has boosted in the last decade is the notion that

individual gun ownership cannot be limited because

gun owners may at some point have a patriotic duty to murder U.S. political figures whom they deem to be tyrants.

The definition of "tyrant" is, in their view, gratifyingly simple:

someone who tries to restrict gun ownership in any way, shape, or form.

an idiot showed up outside a Virginia lawmaker's house armed with both a handgun and a shotgun, a move intended, he said, to be

a "peaceful" protest against the Virginia House's new tightening of gun laws, but which seemed anything but peaceful in actual intent.

, the chairman(!) of a Republican Party group in the city of Hopewell, Virginia, and a gun rights group founder, Brandon Howard,

held his armed "protest" outside the house of Democratic state Del. Mark Levine, a sponsor of a bill in the House of Delegates that would have banned assault weapons.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/20/1920666/-Local-GOP-chair-shows-up-armed-outside-Virginia-lawmaker-s-house-to-show-we-know-where-you-live?detail=emaildkre

double-shot of gun fellator hate: Levine is very smart, very educated JEW

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s FY20 Budget Proposes Cuts and Elimination of History & Humanities Programs–Again


Summary:

The only major increase in funding is +$51 million for the Library of Congress up to $747 million.
Agencies or Programs Targeted for Elimination:



National Endowment for the Humanities
Institute of Museum and Library Services
National Historical Publications & Records Commission
K-12 American History & Civics Grants and Academies
Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education Programs
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
National Park Service: Heritage Partnership Program, grants to preserve the sites and stories of the Civil Rights Movement, grants-in-aid to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Competitive Grants, Historic Revitalization Grants, and Save America’s Treasures.


Major Cuts:


National Archives Operating Expenses -$27 million to $345.6 million
Smithsonian Facilities Capital Budget -84.5 million to $219 Million
National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund -$69.9 million to $32.7 million. National Recreation and Preservation Fund -$31.8 million to $32.3 million


http://historycoalition.org/2019/03/18/trumps-fy20-budget-proposes-cuts-and-elimination-of-history-humanities-programs-again/ (http://historycoalition.org/2019/03/18/trumps-fy20-budget-proposes-cuts-and-elimination-of-history-humanities-programs-again/)

[boutons_deux]

crapifier / self-dealer / Christian spremacist

Ditzy Devos

Betsy DeVos gets snippy — but can’t even answer basic questions before Congress

was repeatedly unable to answer basic questions,

got snippy with Democratic lawmakers, and

falsely claimed research cited by top Democrats was wrong and had been “debunked.”

The numbers behind that research came from DeVos herself,

DeVos got heated, refuted his claims, and yet was unable to give a correct answer.

“Everything you’re citing is debunked, ridiculous, so I don’t accept the premise of your question,” DeVos, putting the word “question” in air quotes, :lol

reports that show

more than 40 percent of charter schools funded in full or in part by the federal government

“collected the grants and

then either did not open, or

have opened and shut down,”


the reports have “actually not” been debunked.

Minutes later Pocan revisited the 40 percent failure rate of charter schools, to DeVos’ anger.

“It’s nothing but propaganda by an individual who has an in for charter schools.”

“So what percent of charter schools are failing?” Pocan asked.

DeVos’ mouth opened and her jaw dropped but she did not speak for several seconds.

“You’re the Secretary of Education and you don’t have this?

You ‘know’ this report’s wrong, but you don’t –” Pocan said before being cut off.

“Charter schools are chartered by states, they are not chartered by the federal government,” DeVos said, smiling, as if she won a debate. She had not.

She had, however, ignored that the report shows 40.5% of charter schools received some if not all of their funding from the federal government.

“You know that number’s not right but you don’t have a correct number,” Pocan responded.


What I know is parents and families are choosing to send their children to charter schools,” said DeVos.

“So you don’t know the answer?” Pocan again asked.

“Parents and children are going to charter schools by choice,” DeVos repeated, showing

she has little interest in anything but continuing to fund charter schools,

regardless of the cost to taxpayers or

the cost to students who don’t receive a good education, and

the cost to public school students who lose funding every day

a student attends a charter school instead of a public school.

parents are learning that

charter schools (https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/02/27/in-many-charter-high-schools-graduation-odds.html) “make up an outsized share of the number of public schools persistently graduating less than half of their students.”

Americans are “turning against” charter schools reveals another Washington Post report (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2019/05/30/feature/charter-schools/).

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/watch-betsy-devos-gets-snippy-but-cant-even-answer-basic-questions-before-congress/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3826 (https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/watch-betsy-devos-gets-snippy-but-cant-even-answer-basic-questions-before-congress/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3826)

[boutons_deux]

Trash still spiting Obama

New EPA Rule Change Saves Industry Money but Exacts a Climate Cost

The reversal of an Obama-era regulation relaxes leak detection rules for climate super-pollutants.

For the latest Trump Administration rollback of Environmental Protection Agency rules, the math goes something like this:

The change will save businesses and industries $24 million a year.

Earth's atmosphere, on the other hand, will receive emissions of pollutants equivalent to at least 625,000 new cars being added to the road.

This week, EPA Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler signed (https://www.epa.gov/section608/revised-section-608-refrigerant-management-regulations) a new rule that

relaxes the requirements that owners and operators of refrigeration equipment have leak detection and maintenance programs for

hydrofluorocarbons, a set of refrigerants often referred to as (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10092018/new-york-ban-hfcs-potent-greenhouse-gas-climate-pollutant-cooling-refrigeration) "climate super-pollutants."

The rule change—the latest reversal of an Obama-era regulation :lol

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27022020/epa-hfc-refrigerant-emissions-climate-hydrofluorocarbons-pollutant-andrew-wheeler?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=84036328&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--r2oatnWQAaKkkAjuoTOvhreCc_r09CX01eytiYwJ2rkUlANlBs d8iAywWw4Q3m4ApvBIoIW1OyZuAsTGG5kLXuaENpw&_hsmi=84036328 (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27022020/epa-hfc-refrigerant-emissions-climate-hydrofluorocarbons-pollutant-andrew-wheeler?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=84036328&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--r2oatnWQAaKkkAjuoTOvhreCc_r09CX01eytiYwJ2rkUlANlBs d8iAywWw4Q3m4ApvBIoIW1OyZuAsTGG5kLXuaENpw&_hsmi=84036328)

[boutons_deux]

How would a Dem version of DJT Jr put it?

"I will dance in the street when you Dem babies are born with TCE heart defects"

‘This decision is grave’:

Trump’s White House gave the green light to a dangerous chemical linked to fetal heart defects

John DeSesso, who has a long history of lobbying on behalf of chemical companies.

DeSesso’s campaign to persuade the EPA that trichloroethylene or TCE — a toxic chemical linked to fetal heart defects — is perfectly safe.

DeSesso has “primarily earned his living”

as a “contract scientist for chemical companies and their trade associations,

promoting their positions on toxic chemicals from arsenic to Roundup.

As cancer clusters, immune disorders and fetal abnormalities mounted in communities contaminated by TCE,

DeSesso was paid to cast doubt on the research establishing TCE’s toxic effects on the human body.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/this-decision-is-grave-trumps-white-house-gave-the-green-light-to-a-dangerous-chemical-linked-to-fetal-heart-defects/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3851&recip_id=298460&list_id=1

[boutons_deux]

‘This is wrong’: Betsy DeVos under fire after ‘last-minute’ rule change slashes funding for more than 800 rural schools
https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/betsy-devos.jpg

The Department of Education quietly informed state education officials that

it would change how districts report the number of students who live in poverty,

which could result in funding cuts for more than 800 of the “poorest” and “most geographically isolated” schools,

“Rural districts have budgeted for these resources, and the administration has given no consideration to how they will be impacted by this immediate cut to their funding,”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/sparks-fly-at-steve-mnuchin-hearing-youre-telling-me-that-im-breaking-the-law-and-staggering-lies/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3858&recip_id=298460&list_id=1

So Ditzy Devos found a way to read the law that MUST BE FOLLOWED that screws rural poor people who are 95% Trash/Repug voters.

[boutons_deux]

The Trump EPA Is Restricting EPA Science — And It’s Somehow Worse Than We Expected

This week the Trump administration issued a supplemental notice to a draft rule long feared by many in the public health and scientific communities as a major disruption to science-based policy (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/scott-pruitt-will-restrict-the-epas-use-of-legitimate-science/)

the proposal—in reality—would prevent the EPA from using the best available science to protect public health and the environment, as its mission holds.

1. The EPA’s use of science will be even more severely restricted

the rule now applies to all “influential science” at the agency (not just science used in regulatory efforts) and that it applies to all data and models (not just dose-response models).It also expands the definitions of data and reanalyze to be bigger and vaguer.

2. The restrictions are more complicated and confusing, but still limit science


a weighted approach where the EPA won’t be prevented from using science that relies on nonpublic data,

but those studies will be down-weighted compared to studies with entirely public data.

This approach would unfairly and arbitrarily devalue scientific work

that relies on things like personally identifying health data.

At an agency charged with protecting public health, studies involving health data are especially crucial.

Many of those crucial health studies will be needlessly downgraded in EPA decision-making under this proposal.

3. The goal of the rule is to question the science


always about finding ways for those outside of the scientific community to undercut the science supporting EPA decisions.

goal is about allowing non-scientists to cherry-pick the science.

allow stakeholders to reanalyze the data and models and explore the sensitivity of the conclusions to alternative assumptions…”

want data to be more accessible so that stakeholders (like regulated industry, for example) can call into question legitimate scientific studies by cherry-picking data.

4. The administration doesn’t know the difference between the EPA and the CDC

The administration seems to believe that the EPA can simply mimic data sharing efforts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but this is unworkable (https://blog.ucsusa.org/gretchen-goldman/wheelers-breathtaking-ignorance-of-science-in-one-comment) for several reasons.

The EPA claims to be concerned with “stakeholder input” but it is unlikely that stakeholders like community groups and public health advocates will have the resources to access the data. But you know who will? Regulated industries.

5. The administrator still has broad authority to decide when the rule applies

aggressive provision allowing the EPA administrator to decide when the rule applies on a case-by-case basis. This is still arbitrary and illogical, but most most alarmingly,

it makes the EPA’s use of science wholly political.

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/03/05/the-trump-epa-is-restricting-epa-science-and-its-somehow-worse-than-we-expected/ (https://cleantechnica.com/2020/03/05/the-trump-epa-is-restricting-epa-science-and-its-somehow-worse-than-we-expected/)

[boutons_deux]

The great dismantling of America's national parks is under way

Under this administration, nothing is sacred as we watch the nation’s crown jewels being recut for the rings of robber barons.

For more than 100 years, professional management of our national parks has been respected under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

The change began within 24 hours of the inauguration when Donald Trump complained (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/06/donald-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-photos-edited) that the NPS was reporting smaller crowds on the National Mall than Obama had drawn.

Perhaps this is when the NPS wound up on the list of transgressors.

Soon the interior secretary, Ryan Zinke,

attempted (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/382906-zinke-backs-off-plan-for-big-national-park-fee-increases) to double the entrance fees,

rescinded (https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060059511) climate policies and

moved (https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2018/08/09/yellowstone-boss-dan-wenk-speak-after-clash-trump-administration-zinke/946597002/)) seasoned senior national park superintendents around to force their retirements.

Bernhardt

populated too much of the department’s political leadership

with unconfirmed, anti-public land sycophants, and

announced a reorganization to install his own lieutenants to oversee super regions,

realigning (https://www.doi.gov/employees/reorg) NPS from seven regions to twelve in the name of greater efficiency.

leave the parks open (https://psmag.com/news/national-parks-suffered-irreparable-damage-during-the-shutdown) to impacts during the unfortunate government shutdown,

illegally misuse (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/460151-federal-watchdog-trump-admin-broke-law-by-pulling-from-park) entrance fees,

open park trails to e-bikes (https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/ebikepolicy.htm),

suppress (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/25/trump-administration-climate-crisis-denying-scientist) climate science,

kill (https://naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/the-trump-administration-proposes-to-roll-back-ban-on-extreme-hunting-tactics-in-alaskas-national-parks) wolf pups and bear cubs in their dens to enhance “sport hunting”,

privatize (https://www.outsideonline.com/2404058/interior-department-privatizing-campgrounds-plan) campgrounds, and

issue muzzle memos (https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/09/memo-prompts-concerns-national-park-superintendents-are-being-muzzled-regarding-resource) to park managers.

. Senior career park managers are likely to be replaced with unqualified political hacks.

You ask, why

Because if you want to drill, mine and exploit the public estate for the benefit of the industry,

the last thing you want is a popular and respected agency’s voice raising alarms on behalf of conservation and historic preservation.
Because if you want the public to ignore the science of climate change,

the last thing you want are trusted park rangers speaking the truth to park visitors.

the last thing you want is a government agency with high popular appeal that needs to grow rather than shrink.

https://news.yahoo.com/great-dismantling-americas-national-parks-110036985.html (https://news.yahoo.com/great-dismantling-americas-national-parks-110036985.html)

[boutons_deux]

Erik Prince Recruited Ex-Spies To Infiltrate Liberal Groups

“Secretary DeVos’ brother was directly involved in a spying scheme in her home state

against a teachers’ union she’s been hostile with for years.

If this doesn’t clear the bar for an immediate Congressional investigation, nothing does.”

“Both Project Veritas (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/us/politics/james-okeefe-project-veritas-trump.html) and Mr. Prince (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/world/asia/trump-afghanistan-policy-erik-prince-stephen-feinberg.html) have ties to President Trump’s aides and family,” the Times noted.

“Whether any Trump administration officials or advisers to the president were involved in the operations, even tacitly, is unclear.

But the effort is a glimpse of a

vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trump’s agenda.”

readers on social media as “chilling (https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/1236332477515476992),” “stunning (https://twitter.com/sashachavkin/status/1236325623477477381),” and “insane (https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1236351331457290244).”

“My paranoid fantasies are all true!”

if she gave the go-ahead to enlist former intelligence officers to steal documents from public education advocates that she disagrees with,

it steps well beyond policy disagreement and into criminal territory,” Martin added.

“If Secretary DeVos was in any way involved, it will confirm that

she stops at nothing to undermine public schools.”

https://www.nationalmemo.com/erik-prince-recruited-ex-spies-to-infiltrate-liberal-groups/ (https://www.nationalmemo.com/erik-prince-recruited-ex-spies-to-infiltrate-liberal-groups/)

[boutons_deux]

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/91065101_10218039960005616_9811045333860352_n.jpg? _nc_cat=100&_nc_sid=110474&_nc_ohc=2skgApVy_4sAX_KhVpr&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=155749e4b86c4ddc8ef2662d49243daa&oe=5EC0F4E0

[boutons_deux]

Under COVID-19 cover, mercury emissions increase in air okayed by Trump EPA

Today [Apr. 16, 2020], the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) finalized their plan to gut the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS),

which regulates toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

Since MATS was put in place in 2011,

it drastically reduced mercury and other air pollutants,

which are linked to
breathing illnesses,
heart disease, and
cancer,
among other health impacts.

It is estimated that MATS has saved as many as 11,000 lives each year.

https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/2020/04/27/under-covid-19-cover-mercury-emissions-increase-in-air-okayed-by-trump-epa/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+%28Science Blog.com%29 (https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/2020/04/27/under-covid-19-cover-mercury-emissions-increase-in-air-okayed-by-trump-epa/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+%28Science Blog.com%29)

[boutons_deux]

Is Trump Responsible For Making Nursing Homes More Unsafe?

The industry was one of his first targets for deregulation, and he’s been on quite a tear…

Trump’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Medicare_%26_Medicaid_Services) Administrator, Seema Verma, who is in charge of regulating nursing homes,

only recently got around to requiring nursing homes to report all their COVID-19 cases (https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/19/trump-nursing-homes-covid-coronavirus-195589), to the CDC,

which she tried to spin as a “crackdown”.

After that, the Trump Administration agreed to send those facilities protective supplies from the government stockpile.

Nursing homes were one of the first industries to get Trump’s “all regulation is over-regulation” treatment, when Trump took office,

the Nursing Home Reform Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_Home_Reform_Act) as part of a 1987 budget bill, which was signed by President Reagan.

That’s part of why President Obama moved to significantly strengthen regulations (https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150713/NEWS/150719975/obama-administration-moves-to-strengthen-nursing-home-oversight).

And then it became one of the first things Trump took to undo when he took office in 2017.

Trump’s deregulation of the nursing home industry has been very broad.

https://medium.com/@ericjscholl/is-trump-responsible-for-making-nursing-homes-more-unsafe-e9807972f7ce

[boutons_deux]

Cruelty Is The Point

Florida Supreme Court Destroys Precedent Protecting Mentally Disabled People From Execution

Literally no one asked them to do this.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/florida-supreme-court-precedent-death-penalty-disability.html

[boutons_deux]

FDA rolls back food rules for 5th time during pandemic

Manufacturers may now

substitute ingredients without relabeling, and

vending machine operators may ditch calorie information

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/27/fda-rolls-back-food-rules-5th-time-during-pandemic (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/27/fda-rolls-back-food-rules-5th-time-during-pandemic/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9. eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YS IsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNTk3NDBkYjNhZGU0ZTIxYTg0OTNm ZGFlIiwidGFnIjoiNWVjZWNjZThmZTFmZjY1NGMyZTgyY2U5Ii widXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29t L2J1c2luZXNzLzIwMjAvMDUvMjcvZmRhLXJvbGxzLWJhY2stZm 9vZC1ydWxlcy01dGgtdGltZS1kdXJpbmctcGFuZGVtaWMvP3V0 bV9jYW1wYWlnbj13cF90b195b3VyX2hlYWx0aCZ1dG1fbWVkaX VtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ3cGlzcmM9 bmxfdHloJndwbWs9MSJ9.swqgthP9yx0K1cAYgxScWc1ClNwDB uQFpUJcbnrQBEM&utm_campaign=wp_to_your_health&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_tyh&wpmk=1)

... because of the pandemic, more shit in your food

[boutons_deux]

E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/climate/epa-coronavirus-pollution-rules.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/climate/epa-coronavirus-pollution-rules.html)

[boutons_deux]

EPA overhauls mercury pollution rule, despite opposition from industry and activists alike

The changes could revamp the math on

how the government values human health. :lol WTF Repug govt doesn't value human life
The Environmental Protection Agency changed the way the federal government calculates the costs and benefits of dangerous air pollutants,

a shift that could restrict the ability of regulators to control toxins in the future.
The move announced Thursday, one in a series of actions (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/14/epa-pollution-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_3) taken by the Trump administration that

experts say will probably increase air pollution, comes as the nation is fighting a deadly respiratory virus.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/04/16/epa-overhauls-mercury-pollution-rule-despite-opposition-industry-activists-alike/ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/04/16/epa-overhauls-mercury-pollution-rule-despite-opposition-industry-activists-alike/)

It is well known the air pollution kills, so Repugs increasing air pollution means Repugs are killers.

[boutons_deux]

Trump's New Intelligence Chief Spells Trouble

Shitbag John Ratcliffe is the least-qualified director of national intelligence in history—and a staunch partisan as well.

https://media.wired.com/photos/5ec8248cff427e9399b4ccc8/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/Security_ratcliff_1132937980.jpg

the clearest sign that three-term Texas congressman Ratcliffe is manifestly unqualified to serve as the nation’s director of national intelligence isn’t the fact that

he embellished (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/politics/john-ratcliffe-resume-intelligence.html) his résumé, nor that

only a minority (https://www.npr.org/2020/05/21/860134557/despite-opposition-john-ratcliffe-confirmed-for-top-intelligence-post) of the US Senate would vote to confirm him, nor that

the first time he was floated for the post last summer he was so soundly rejected that he withdrew almost immediately.

the 108th Congress tried to stop a man like Ratcliffe from assuming that very role in the first place.

They wrote into the law that created the job, 50 US Code § 3023 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/3023),

“Any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise.”
And John Ratcliffe definitely doesn’t.

Ratcliffe, the Trump loyalist and congressman from Texas’ fourth district, is

best known for his fiery hearings performances cross-examining witnesses like special counsel Robert Mueller and,

last fall, during the impeachment proceedings.

https://www.wired.com/story/john-ratcliffe-director-of-national-intelligence/#intcid=recommendations_wired-right-rail_28570817-f5c4-4689-9575-0cb76646998f_popular4-1 (https://www.wired.com/story/john-ratcliffe-director-of-national-intelligence/#intcid=recommendations_wired-right-rail_28570817-f5c4-4689-9575-0cb76646998f_popular4-1)

[boutons_deux]

Repug racist appointed and approved

Veterans Affairs secretary tells Congress

he won’t remove headstones engraved with swastikas

Robert Wilkie was revealed to have been a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans ahead of his confirmation

https://www.salon.com/2020/05/30/veterans-affairs-secretary-tells-congress-he-wont-remove-headstones-engraved-with-swastikas/

[boutons_deux]

Advocates Condemn Rent-a-Bank Rule that

Encourages Predatory High-Cost Loans

Call on Congress to Pass Federal 36% Interest Rate Cap Limit


Consumer advocates slammed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for its final rule (https://occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2020/nr-occ-2020-71.html) issued today that

encourages online non-bank lenders to launder their loans through banks

so they can offer high-cost triple-digit loans in states where such loans are illegal.
“The FDIC and OCC have failed to crack down on

banks that are enabling predatory lending aimed at families and small businesses.

Now, OCC leadership is issuing a rule that could

facilitate these schemes and

make a dangerous environment for borrowers even worse,”

https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2020/05/in-the-news-advocates-condemn-rent-a-bank-rule-that-encourages-predatory-high-cost-loans/ (https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2020/05/in-the-news-advocates-condemn-rent-a-bank-rule-that-encourages-predatory-high-cost-loans/)

[boutons_deux]

IRS KILLS REQUIREMENT TO REVEAL DARK MONEY DONORS

Recent IRS rule changes will exempt many politically-active non-profit 501(c) organizations from having to annually report names and addresses of major donors who donate more than $5,000 in a given year.
The rules, originally intended to prevent foreign governments and overseas interests from trying to exert undue influence on US elections,

will now allow a number of groups suspected of receiving “dark money,” such as the National Rifle Association, to cloak the sources of their funding.

In the past, the IRS released that information to the public in order to boost transparency and combat election corruption.
The new rules (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-05-28/pdf/2020-11465.pdf), finalized by the IRS and the Treasury Department last week, mean that

political action groups and labor unions will only be required to list contribution and spending totals without specifying where the money came from.


https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/06/03/irs-kills-requirement-to-reveal-dark-money-donors/

[boutons_deux]

Trash pandering to BigCarbon for campaign cash

Trump gives U.S. agencies power to fast-track big infrastructure projects

an executive order that gives federal agencies emergency powers to fast-track major energy and other infrastructure projects by overriding environmental permitting requirements.

the order was a way to help the economy rebound from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and improve infrastructure. :lol

It instructs the Interior, Agriculture and Defense Departments to accelerate projects on federal lands.

Trump has been a vocal advocate of fossil fuels as president and

has sought to roll back regulations slowing their development and

reduce state powers to block projects for environmental reasons.

Trump administration proposed to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental regulation that creates time consuming environmental reviews and public feedback requirements for major infrastructure projects.

“Gutting NEPA takes away one of the few tools communities of color have to protect themselves and make their voices heard on federal decisions impacting them,”

letting agencies “ram through” fossil fuel projects will harm “the very same communities that are dying at higher rates from COVID-19 and police violence.”

the Environmental Protection Agency cited the coronavirus when it announced a policy to ease compliance and monitoring for industrial facilities and power plants. :lol

Industry groups praised Trump’s order. :lol

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-environment/trump-gives-u-s-agencies-power-to-fast-track-big-infrastructure-projects-idUSKBN23B2WD?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-environment/trump-gives-u-s-agencies-power-to-fast-track-big-infrastructure-projects-idUSKBN23B2WD?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews)

[boutons_deux]

KY Senators working hard for the Black Vote

It's 2020, and

the Senate won't pass an anti-lynching bill

because of Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell

https://images.dailykos.com/images/813694/story_image/AP_20133724846572.jpg?1591281542

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act passed the Democratic House 410-4 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2020/roll071.xml)on Feb. 26

When the Senate tried to pass it this year with unanimous consent, Sen. Rand Paul objected.

"language of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act is

IDENTICAL to the bill that was unanimously approved by the Senate."

Twice, in fact.

"The only conclusion I can draw from [Paul's] sudden opposition is

he has an issue with the House bill being named after Emmett Till."

McConnell, could also just bring the damn bill to the floor for a roll call vote.

But right now McConnell and the rest of the them are hiding behind Paul.

They're letting his punchable face be the one of white supremacy, :lol

protecting them from having to take

this vote that could anger their racist base.
(https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre)

[boutons_deux]

Christian supremacists hire The Shittiest People

New Trump Appointee to Foreign Aid Agency Has Denounced Liberal Democracy and “Our Homo-Empire”

Merritt Corrigan, USAID’s new deputy White House liaison, has condemned the “tyrannical LGBT agenda” and celebrated Hungary’s right-wing prime minister as “the shining champion of Western civilization.”

has said that the country is in the clutches of a “homo-empire” that pushes a “tyrannical LGBT agenda.”

“Liberal democracy is little more than a front for the war being waged against us by those who fundamentally despise not only our way of life, but life itself.”

Corrigan wrote on her Twitter account that “our homo-empire couldn’t tolerate even one commercial enterprise not in full submission to the tyrannical LGBT agenda.” Corrigan’s Twitter account is now private.

wrote an op-ed (https://conservativewoman.co.uk/home-where-women-will-find-true-liberation/) in The Conservative Woman, a London publication, decrying “the false song of feminism” and calling for women to take up traditional roles of mother, wife and homemaker.

a Tea Party activist with a history of making and sharing anti-Islamic comments on his personal social media profiles would be the agency’s new religious freedom adviser.

https://www.propublica.org/article/new-trump-appointee-to-foreign-aid-agency-has-denounced-liberal-democracy-and-our-homo-empire?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=river

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration seeks to allow bear-baiting in Alaska refuge

Killing brown bears at bait stations would be legal for the first time in Alaska’s most-visited national wildlife refuge

The new rule for the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge would also allow

trapping,

more discharge of firearms and

increased motor-vehicle access.

Using bait stations to hunt brown bears has never been allowed in the 1.9 million-acre (769,000-hectare) Kenai refuge

The state’s all-Republican congressional delegation and Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy support the rule change. :lol

could threaten the sustainability of the isolated population of Kenai brown bears in Alaska,”

On Tuesday, the administration

overturned an Obama :lol era ban

on several contentious hunting practices in Alaska’s national preserves.

Practices that will now be allowed there include

bear-baiting,

the killing of bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens,

use of artificial lights to hunt at dens and

hunting of swimming caribou.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-alaska-bears/trump-administration-seeks-to-allow-bear-baiting-in-alaska-refuge-idUSKBN23H3L6?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-alaska-bears/trump-administration-seeks-to-allow-bear-baiting-in-alaska-refuge-idUSKBN23H3L6?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews)

Capitalism fucking sucks, a inhumane, failed system

[DMC]

Bouton.exe on loop script

[boutons_deux]

hater Pence and his hate-driven Christians in action

The Trump Administration’s Hateful Message on Health Care for Transgender Americans

On Friday, the Trump Administration released (https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/1557-final-rule.pdf) a set of guidelines dictating that

discrimination against L.G.B.T. people in health care is not forbidden.

It was the fourth anniversary of the Pulse massacre (https://www.newyorker.com/tag/orlando-shooting), when forty-nine people were murdered in a gay night club in Orlando, Florida.

It was three months and one day since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus (https://www.newyorker.com/tag/coronavirus) a global pandemic.

It was days, perhaps a week or two, before the Supreme Court is expected to release its

ruling on whether discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity (https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-supreme-court-considers-lgbt-rights-but-cant-stop-talking-about-bathrooms) is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.


The timing is conspicuous.

The new document reverses a rule, put in place by the Obama :lol Administration,

in 2016, that banned health-care providers from discriminating on the basis of gender identity or whether a patient had sought an abortion.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-trump-administrations-hateful-message-on-health-care-for-transgender-americans?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_061320&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6795524c17c1048022fcc&cndid=43758549&hasha=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&hashb=542eb31d958e85ddd5a4c3ccf3faae18526a77bd&hashc=54b3612ab970ce13a64a16665b1987080ca5b72e2ee7 62b722fbba6ab378f2f5&esrc=bounceX&utm_term=TNY_Daily (https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-trump-administrations-hateful-message-on-health-care-for-transgender-americans?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_061320&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd6795524c17c1048022fcc&cndid=43758549&hasha=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031&hashb=542eb31d958e85ddd5a4c3ccf3faae18526a77bd&hashc=54b3612ab970ce13a64a16665b1987080ca5b72e2ee7 62b722fbba6ab378f2f5&esrc=bounceX&utm_term=TNY_Daily)

Trash has probably told his mafiya to find EVERYTHING and ANYTHING done by Obama and his Exec, so Trash can kill, cancel, overrule all of it

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration finalizes rule allowing Alaskan hunters to kill hibernating bears, wolf cubs


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/10/1952109/-Trump-administration-finalizes-rule-allowing-Alaska-hunters-to-kill-hibernating-bears-wolf-cubs

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos sued by New York for subjecting students to ‘ongoing injury’

On Thursday, the City and State of New York filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education to block a controversial new rule (https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/politics/education-secretary-betsy-devos-title-ix-regulations/index.html), pushed by Secretary Besty DeVos, that would allow people accused of sexual harassment and assault to cross-examine accusers as part of university adjudication procedures.

The plaintiffs are alleging a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act —

the same law (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/trump-administrations-incompetence-saved-daca/613249/) the Supreme Court used to block President Donald Trump from suspending the DACA program that gave work permits to young immigrants.

DeVos and her officials’ decision will “discard decades of established Title IX policy and practice,”

and was forced through in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns for educational institutions,

with no regard for how the current public health situation would affect the change.

Civil rights advocates have warned (https://thehumanist.com/news/national/betsy-devoss-title-ix-timeline-rocky-at-best-disaster-at-worst) that if DeVos’ rule change goes through,

it will make it harder for victims of harassment and assault to come forward,

as well as reducing the kinds of incidents that are required to be reported in the first place.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/betsy-devos-sued-by-new-york-for-subjecting-students-to-ongoing-injury-report/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Repug/Christian misogynist assumption: ALL rape victims are lying until proven truthful

[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy wants to privatize, exploit, crapifiy EVERYTHING

Trump nominates controversial, longtime acting head of land management bureau as director

tasked with managing federal lands because he has previously advocated for selling them off (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/476564-interior-extends-tenure-of-acting-blm-head-who-once-advocated).

whether an extremist and long-time opponent of America’s public lands should be in charge of the agency he has spent an entire career trying to undermine.”

criticized Pendley for his 17-page recusal list (https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/463079-blms-top-leader-releases-17-page-recusal-list) detailing ties to a number of industries that could benefit from increased access to public lands.

He has also overseen the relocation of the agency’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Colorado, resulting in the loss of more than half the staff slated to move.

“Pendley has a long record of opposing the very existence of the public lands he now oversees,”

“He may be the perfect choice for Donald Trump, but

he is a terrible choice for those who seek a higher standard of environmental ethics and integrity."

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/504757-trump-nominates-long-time-acting-head-of-land-management-bureau-as

[boutons_deux]

Judge Orders DeVos: Cancel These Student Loans Immediately

to cancel outstanding federal student loan debt for over 7,000 student loan borrowers.

The case concerns the Borrower Defense to Repayment program (https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/borrower-defense). This loan forgiveness program was

originally created by the Obama administration (https://bostonstudentloanlawyer.com/final-rules-issued-student-loan-forgiveness-program/) :lol

to provide student debt relief to students who were misled, defrauded, or otherwise harmed by predatory colleges and universities – often, for-profit schools.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2020/07/02/judge-orders-devos-cancel-these-student-loans-immediately/#32d55e6071a6

[LkrFan]

just one of many, more to come.

here's Repugs doing Pootin's bidding

A bill has already been introduced in Congress to remove the US from the United Nations

http://www.businessinsider.com/american-sovereignty-restoration-act-us-withdraw-un-2017-1

They're still at it
https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1279186579253231621?s=09

SMH

[boutons_deux]

Corruption of the 2020 Census INCOMING

House Dems Ramp Up Objections To Two ‘Questionable’ Political Appointees At Census

the Commerce Department turn over various documents related to their appointment and

why “these responsibilities should be carried out by political appointees rather than civil servants.”

The Trump administration’s announcement last month that Nathaniel Cogley and Adam Korzeniewski were joining the Census Bureau has prompted widespread scrutiny of the move.

There are very few political appointee roles at the Bureau,

put them within the Bureau’s upper echelons.

resumes contain little (https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/882433973/trump-appointees-join-census-bureau-democrats-concerned-over-partisan-games) of the experience typical for working at the wonky and technocratic agency.

Their appointment to the Bureau blindsided even its Trump-appointed Director Steve Dillingham

the timing of the appointments was also met with suspicion,

because it came so late in the operational timeline for the 2020 census count.

Inspector General Peggy E. Gustafson has sought information about

why their positions were created,

how the appointees were recruited and

what the goals of their tenure will be

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/census-political-appointees-house-oversight-committee-letter?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

I expect Trash to fire the Commerce IG

[boutons_deux]

Denouncing Seema Verma's "Textbook Definition of Corruption,"

Jayapal Calls for Medicare Chief's Ouster

"She must resign or be removed."

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/seema-verma-ig-report.jpg?itok=ZelkLfz0

watchdog's report revealing that the administration official violated federal requirements in her management of over $6 million in contracts.

"Verma has been using government money for her personal benefit" and showed that

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator engaged in "the textbook definition of corruption."

the OIG said (https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region12/121920003.asp?utm_source=website&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=cms-contracting-report-07-16-2020) it looked at three contracts for strategic communications services from June 2017 through April 2019 and found:

CMS allowed a subcontractor individual to perform inherently governmental functions, such as making managerial decisions and directing CMS employees.

CMS also administered its strategic communications services contracts as personal services contracts.

CMS officials exerted a level of control over the contractors' work that exceeded what is allowed under service contracts;

in essence, CMS administered these contracts as if the services had been procured under CMS's statutory authority to contract for experts and consultants.

Lastly, CMS

did not comply with FAR [Federal Acquisition Regulation] requirements in managing contract deliverables and approving the use of a subcontractor,

did not maintain complete working files for all three contracts, and

paid some questionable costs.



"She has defied rules, skirted regulations, violated trust, misled Congress, and she must be replaced,"

"Besides arranging contracts with personal friends to raise her profile and thus misspending CMS dollars,

the IG investigation identified additional hundreds of thousands of 'questionable costs' all associated with reckless spending,"

"She has put the agency at risk of fraud and abuse and therefore she has put the public in jeopardy."

The "report confirms that Administrator Verma and her top officials

used contracts in violation of federal regulations and

spent taxpayer funds inappropriately to retain these private consultants,"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/17/denouncing-seema-vermas-textbook-definition-corruption-jayapal-calls-medicare-chiefs

Verma is ally and protege of Christian supremacist idiot Pence

Will Trash first the IG?

Trash/Barr's "unitary executive" means nobody and nothing in the Exec branch is subject to Congressional oversight.

[ElNono]

^^^ another topic Trumptards don't want to touch with a 10 foot pole, tbh

[boutons_deux]

The CFPB once defended consumers.

Thanks to Trump,

it now helps companies prey on them instead.

Kraninger, a thoroughly unqualified Trump appointee (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/06/21/trump-wins-consumers-lose-again-at-the-cfpb/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2), has shown little interest in doing her purported job, which is protecting Americans from the financial services industry.

Kraninger’s main accomplishment since the start of the covid-19 pandemic has been the loosening of regulations (https://uspirg.org/news/usp/cfpb-green-lights-predatory-payday-loans-amid-covid-19-pandemic) on payday loans.

Previously, regulations stopped people who couldn’t afford to repay the loans from taking them on,

Annual interest on payday loans can run above 500 percent.

payday loans are exploitative products that prey on the financially desperate.

since the beginning of the shutdowns, tens of thousands (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-complaints-to-the-cfpb-are-skyrocketing-as-the-coronavirus-outbreak-continues-2020-07-17) of consumer

complaints have poured into the CFPB about mortgage issues,
inaccurate credit reports,
hassles with debt collectors,

No surprise, the financial services sector, which hates the CFPB, cheered (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/06/21/trump-wins-consumers-lose-again-at-the-cfpb/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10) Kraninger’s appointment to the job.

the sabotage — and make no mistake, that’s what it is — of the CFPB isn’t even a major story in the Trump era.

Her tenure in the top role of the government’s most powerful consumer advocacy organization is a demonstration of

the contempt Trump and Republicans hold for governance,

not to mention their

prioritization of the interests of the wealthiest segments of our economy over the well-being of everyone else.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/01/cfpb-once-defended-consumers-thanks-trump-it-now-helps-companies-prey-them-instead/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/01/cfpb-once-defended-consumers-thanks-trump-it-now-helps-companies-prey-them-instead/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most)

How many Ms of Trash's supporters are being raped by payday loan sharks?

[boutons_deux]

TRUMP’S CFPB DEPLOYS PREDATORY LENDERS AS FIRST RESPONDERS TO PANDEMIC

The agency deregulated small-dollar lending by repealing key consumer protections on payday and auto title loans.

https://theintercept.com/2020/08/12/cfpb-coronavirus-predatory-payday-loans/

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration finalizes plan to open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling

https://www.theweek.com/speedreads/931798/trump-administration-finalizes-plan-open-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-drilling

[boutons_deux]

In the Tongass, a tussle over Alaska’s identity



A U.S. Forest Service rule limiting new roads is set to be lifted for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. But few say it will bring back logging

https://images.csmonitor.com/csm/2020/08/0811%20DDP%20TONGASS%20lede.jpg?alias=standard_900 x600nc

https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2020/0811/In-the-Tongass-a-tussle-over-Alaska-s-identity?icid=rss

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s EPA Reauthorizes Use of Herbicide Linked to Congenital Disabilities


https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-epa-reauthorizes-use-of-herbicide-linked-to-congenital-disabilities/

They figure it will mostly dehumanized farm workers' kids, just meat, that will be screwed up for profit.

[boutons_deux]

Idaho massacre of 570 wolves and wolf Pups bolsters alarm over Trump attack on endangered species

alarm about the Trump administration’s push to lift protections for gray wolves across the country after an analysis revealed how

a record-breaking 570 wolves, including dozens of pups, were brutally killed in Idaho over a recent one-year period.

Wolves no longer have Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and parts of Oregon, Utah, and Washington state but are still protected elsewhere.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith told (https://apnews.com/d4d1f57556f327d041fae4a5a34f54ba) the Associated Press last week that her agency is

“working hard” to delist wolves nationwide by the end of the year, calling the policy change “very imminent.”

http://redgreenandblue.org/2020/09/20/idaho-massacre-570-wolves-wolf-pups-bolsters-alarm-trump-attack-endangered-species/

[boutons_deux]

E.P.A. Rejects Its Own Findings That a Pesticide Harms Children’s Brains

The agency’s new assessment directly contradicts federal scientists’ conclusions five years ago that

chlorpyrifos can stunt brain development in young children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/climate/epa-pesticide-chlorpyrifos-children.html

The oligarchy/BigCorp/Capitalists don't fucking care about your kids or about ANY lives, human or otherwise.

[boutons_deux]

A judge just dismissed efforts to stop pesticides and GMO crops from being used in wildlife refuges

Washington federal court last week dismissed a lawsuit against the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service after a pair of nonprofit groups sued the agency for reversing previous bans on specific insecticides and genetically modified organisms (GMO) in national wildlife refuges.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that

the plaintiffs failed to show that they would be harmed by the policy reversal, :lol

adding that

the alleged injuries put forward by individual members are speculative and therefore do not establish standing. :lol

they're gonna start approving genetically engineered crops to be planted and neonicotinoid pesticides to be used,"

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/29/a-judge-just-dismissed-efforts-to-stop-pesticides-and-gmo-crops-from-being-used-in-wildlife-refuges/

so who THE FUCK has standing to protect nature?

bears, wolves, bees, fish, insects gotta get their own lawyers?

[Ef-man]

Seems trump has bankrupt the RNC, hate to see it.

Strapped for cash, Trump yanks TV ads in key states as Biden spending surges

Trump’s retreat from Ohio, Iowa and New Hampshire reflects his struggle to change the dynamics of a race that polls suggest he is on track to lose.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-10/trump-biden-television-advertising-battleground-states

[boutons_deux]

Debt collectors will soon be allowed to reach you by text or on Facebook

The federal government has cleared the way for

collection agencies to send unlimited texts, emails and even instant messages to debtors on social media platforms.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule (https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_debt-collection_final-rule_2020-10.pdf) late last week outlining how collectors can use new communication methods.

The federal agency, which is charged with protecting Americans from financial abuse, :lol

did not limit the number of messages collectors could send,

but it did require that each message come with instructions on how to opt out.

The bureau also limited the number of times collectors may call someone to seven calls per week for each debt.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/debt-collectors-unlimited-text-email-messages-consumer-financial-protection-bureau

Trash, Repugs, Exec branch in full "Nero Decree" mode, to accelerate when Trash is officially defeated.

[boutons_deux]

EPA won't require industry to guarantee funding for toxic waste cleanups


declining to require oil and gas, coal, chemical and mining companies to have insurance to cover major spills and accidents.

poses the greatest risk to communities of color and low-income communities that most often live in the shadow of polluting industries.

“EPA has found that

existing environmental regulations and modern industry practices are sufficient to mitigate any risks inherent in these industries,” :lol :lol

The U.S. has more than 1,300 Superfund sites on its cleanup list, but many have become “orphaned” by companies that go bankrupt and can no longer fund the cleanup.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/527586-epa-wont-require-industry-to-guarantee-funding-for-toxic-waste

[boutons_deux]

Trash administration rejects tougher standards on soot, a deadly air pollutant

“People of color and the poor — that is who gets hit the hardest by this,”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/07/trump-air-pollution/

Environmental Protection Agency scientists estimate that

lowering the standard could save up to 34,600 lives per year,

but the EPA’s final decision claims that existing, higher standards set in 2012 are adequate to protect human health.

=============

100Ms of tire particles polluting air, land, water

Scientists solve mystery of mass Coho salmon deaths.

The killer? A chemical from car tires

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-scientists-mystery-mass-coho-salmon.html

also, soot from tires is a problem

[boutons_deux]

Trash and Repugs poisoning government with poison pills, harming and killing people and the environment

Trump EPA finalizes rollback making it harder to enact new public health rules

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/09/trump-air-pollution

Fuck Capitalism, Fuck Capitalists, fuck the oligarchy, fuck BigCorp

Will the Dems annul this Repug shit?

[boutons_deux]

Ditzy DeVos won’t be missed.

Here are some of her policies that need to be reversed.

1. Her changes to Title IX stripped away civil rights of students


2. DeVos proposed massive cuts to the Dept. of Ed


3. She stood against survivors of sexual assault

4. She consistently took shots at special education funding

5. Ditzy DeVos made the student debt crisis worse

https://progresstexas.org/blog/betsy-devos-won%E2%80%99t-be-missed-here-are-some-her-policies-need-be-reversed?akid=9604.243811.DKkfNp&rd=1&t=6

===============

"She has investments in companies that hound students to pay their federal loan debts,"

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2017/01/27/297572/inside-the-financial-holdings-of-billionaire-betsy-devos/

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos Warns That Biden Will Pick Education Secretary with Background in Education

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5fdcd27d0e2c11a8253ca571/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/Borowitz-DeVos.jpg

WASHINGTON —Calling the prospect a “nightmare scenario,” Betsy DeVos warned that President-elect Joe Biden will pick an Education Secretary with a background in education.

The outgoing Education Secretary warned that

putting someone with a “pro-education bias” in her job would be like “naming a fox to be Secretary of Hens.”

“For the past four years,

I have worked tirelessly to keep our schools free from education,” she said.

“It deeply saddens me to think that all of my hard work will go to waste.”

Even more alarming, she said,

Biden may name a “knowledgeable person” to replace her, a decision she called “disastrous.”

“In order to be impartial toward education, an Education Secretary must be as ignorant as possible,” she said.

“I don’t mean to boast, but I am going to be a tough act to follow in that respect.”

In total, she said, Biden’s plans for education may be the “most radical aspect” of the Democratic Party agenda.

“Forget about defunding the police,” she said.

“He is talking about funding the schools.”

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/betsy-devos-warns-that-biden-will-pick-education-secretary-with-background-in-education (https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/betsy-devos-warns-that-biden-will-pick-education-secretary-with-background-in-education)

[boutons_deux]

Trump vetoes bipartisan driftnet fishing bill

would gradually eliminate the use of large-scale driftnet fishing in federal waters off the coast of California.

“By forcing the West Coast drift gillnet fishery to use alternative gear that has not been proven to be an economically viable substitute for gillnets,

the Congress is effectively terminating the fishery,” the president said in a statement.

“As a result, an estimated 30 fishing vessels, all of which are operated by family-owned small businesses, will no longer be able to bring their bounty to shore.”
The measure passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support last month.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/532337-trump-vetoes-bipartisan-driftnet-fishing-bill

[boutons_deux]

Gray Wolves Lose Federal Endangered Species Act Protections

applies to all gray wolves in the lower 48 states

despite the lack of scientific evidence showing true recovery across gray wolves’ historic range.

Starting today, management of wolf populations will return to

individual state wildlife agencies, some of which are already reinstating hunting and trapping season on wolves.

//www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/04/gray-wolves-lose-federal-endangered-species-act-protections?cd-origin=rss (https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/04/gray-wolves-lose-federal-endangered-species-act-protections?cd-origin=rss)

Repugs/oligarchy, death and destruction for profit

[boutons_deux]

Biden kills the EPA "secret science" Trash crap

[boutons_deux]

Federal Agencies Have Lost Hundreds of Scientists Since 2017.

An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists reveals that federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have lost hundreds of scientists since 2017.

https://cdn.blog.ucsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/Cross-agency-change.png


https://blog.ucsusa.org/taryn-mackinney/federal-agencies-have-lost-hundreds-of-scientists-since-2017-what-comes-next

[boutons_deux]

Capitalist profits over life, of all kinds

Former Trump official hid cancer risk info from Illinois community

https://www.rawstory.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6I mh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNjA2MzMyNC9vcmlnaW4 uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3Nzk0NDkxMn0.X6uxj-HkMUOLXZfzcvKnEWHjqb9FiJv5h5DG2gxS8YA/image.jpg?width=1200&height=675

Trump administration officials withheld information about carcinogenic pollution from Illinois communities.

"Bill Wehrum, who served as assistant administrator of the office of Air and Radiation until 2019,

kept information from residents of Willowbrook, Illinois, about results of air monitoring that showed they had an elevated risk of cancer due to ethylene oxide from a local sterilizing plant,

Measurements of ethylene oxide around the since-closed plant were conducted in 2018 and showed an elevated risk of cancer due to the gas.

directed the regional administrator not to release the results to the public, according to the report," Lerner writes.

"Before serving as head of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation,

Wehrum was a lobbyist who represented chemical and oil companies."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-epa-appointee

[boutons_deux]

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-0/p526x296/174713735_5041162345976779_8137718184389009633_n.p ng?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=Y5ku8FUGoq8AX8fbZfn&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&tp=30&oh=a782e6f5628db300a1e3008162d8da9f&oe=60A1B6AB

[boutons_deux]

Andy Borowitz (https://www.facebook.com/andyborowitz?__cft__[0]=AZUO5TiHi7_Dnk2AYtjDr4HuZXjSNRjequTq9xPYUC-e_KBcK_Zxvf3mgT-wQ7tbNQnjcvwDOOdQc5fYzLWC-4e3kr3TIEY2kJ_2XI63pI4eeVwrN6WKs-6xz2Z8Bdp52iG205tp-k7v3s2j6o-pZQu9b5UrHDbskGhOXSfNhkMsnGerHElSZFBzqX08PTQKq0s&__tn__=-UC%2CP-R)

Ron DeSantis Signs Law Designating Any Gathering Of Three Democrats A Riot

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration sidelined experts in writing car pollution rules, EPA watchdog finds

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/04/21/trump-administration-sidelined-experts-writing-car-pollution-rules-epa-watchdog-finds

[RandomGuy]

Federal Agencies Have Lost Hundreds of Scientists Since 2017.

An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists reveals that federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have lost hundreds of scientists since 2017.

https://cdn.blog.ucsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/Cross-agency-change.png


https://blog.ucsusa.org/taryn-mackinney/federal-agencies-have-lost-hundreds-of-scientists-since-2017-what-comes-next

Hopefully they will bounce back.

I have always said that the modern conservative movement is, at its core, anti-science.

It does not surprise me that the most "conservative" presidency in modern memory would be the most virulently anti-science and anti-truth.

[koriwhat]

I have always said that the modern conservative movement is, at its core, anti-science.

As you say that behind your 2 masks and 50 genders. :lol

[Winehole23]

KY Senators working hard for the Black Vote

It's 2020, and

the Senate won't pass an anti-lynching bill

because of Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell

https://images.dailykos.com/images/813694/story_image/AP_20133724846572.jpg?1591281542

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act passed the Democratic House 410-4 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2020/roll071.xml)on Feb. 26

When the Senate tried to pass it this year with unanimous consent, Sen. Rand Paul objected.

"language of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act is

IDENTICAL to the bill that was unanimously approved by the Senate."

Twice, in fact.

"The only conclusion I can draw from [Paul's] sudden opposition is

he has an issue with the House bill being named after Emmett Till."

McConnell, could also just bring the damn bill to the floor for a roll call vote.

But right now McConnell and the rest of the them are hiding behind Paul.

They're letting his punchable face be the one of white supremacy, :lol

protecting them from having to take

this vote that could anger their racist base.
(https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/4/1950391/-It-s-2020-and-the-Senate-won-t-pass-an-anti-lynching-bill-because-of-Rand-Paul-and-Mitch-McConnell?detail=emaildkre)


passed by unanimous consent.

there have been ~200 previous attempts to pass a federal anti-lynching law. all of them failed.

1500984153847832576

[RandomGuy]

passed by unanimous consent.

there have been ~200 previous attempts to pass a federal anti-lynching law. all of them failed.

1500984153847832576

I am mildly surprised. I was beginning to think the fascist party was totally morally bankrupt.

Seems to have done something right despite themselves.

[boutons_deux]

San Antonio's Chip Roy voted against the lynching Bill saying it was woke bullshit

[boutons_deux]

Lynchings still happens in America. It's just now cops shooting blacks dead