Get Ready For A Climate Denier Heading up the EPA?!
By Thom Hartmann A...
You need to know this....
So far, Donald Trump's choice of cabinet members has been - well - deplorable.
He's picked someone who wants to privatize Medicare to oversee Medicare as his secretary of Health and Human Services.
He's picked a bankster who foreclosed on a 90-year-old over a 27 cent underpayment to oversee banksters as his Treasury Secretary.
And he's picked a guy who thinks the KKK were just fine as long as they don't smoke pot to oversee our Civil Rights and marijuana laws as his Attorney General.
But as bad as those picks were, they pale in comparison to Trump's latest choice for a cabinet member, especially if you care about the future of our existence as a species on this planet.
Multiple sources now say that Trump has picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to regulate fossil fuels as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
This really is about as bad as it gets.
Pruitt is a close ally of the fossil fuel industry - and he's lead the Republican war on President Obama's climate regulations.
In some cases, as the New York Times reports, he's literally acted as an agent for big oil even while working in his capacity as Oklahoma's top law enforcement official.
"A 2014 investigation by The Times found that energy lobbyists drafted letters for Mr. Pruitt to send, on state stationery, to the E.P.A., the Interior Department, the Office of Management and Budget and even President Obama, outlining the economic hardship of the environmental rules."
Not surprisingly, Pruitt is also a climate change denier - either totally stupid about science or just happy to take all that petro-billionaire money to keep him in power.
For example, just this past June, he wrote an editorial in the Tulsa World newspaper falsely claiming that -
"Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind."
So, here were are - Global temperatures are rising faster than ever before, Arctic sea ice is at record lows, all signs point to runaway climate change becoming a reality within the decade, and the man who's now set to head up environmental policy for the next few years thinks there's still a "debate" about whether or not climate change is even real.
Comments
#2
While climate change is a fact, how the US should respond is certainly open to debate.
Where are the plans to move residents away from the coasts?
Where are the subsidies for underground housing in the US interior?
Where is the US money for emergency research for fusion power?
Instead we get international conferences with unfunded promises.
ct
#3
The Trumpsters loyalists will wake up as they are presented with one disaster after another that effects them and their day to day well-being, but they're gonna have one helluva headache.
#4
And ... he just picked multimillionaire mogul, Andy Puzder, for the Dept. of Labor -- an anti-union, anti-workplace regulations "putz" who is all for automation and keeping the minimum wage at starvation levels. Because, you know, Trump campaigned on behalf of American workers...
They may as well rename it the "Department of Anti-Labor."
#5
Let's not wail about the mess we're in. Instead let's propose solutions, or steps which with the best of luck MIGHT lead to at least partial solutions. Thom, won't you collect your loyal followers' ideas? Bill Moyer suggested in a column in commondreams.org that we create a shadow government, which is a British tradition to monitor the ruling party. He proposes a shadow cabinet member for every Cabinet Officer, to monitor the work and comment as needed.
#6
The next time there's a major wildfire somewhere, let's put an oil refinery in charge of it.
Better still, let's use the Repugnican strategy of burning down the house for a few bats in the attic, and nuke Washington (DC, not the state).
#7
Thom,
Disbelief from the Left Coast.
California went 62-31 for Hillary. We look around and everyone shrugs their shoulders. It's like:
WE DID OUR JOB!
There is a real sense of fight or flight, checking 401k balances, oh did I mention I'm a white male? How does schadenfreude work in reverse? I'm gonna be fine...but...sigh
History is repeating or echoing or something.
#8
I listened to a recent podcast this morning, you had a guest and during the discussion he stated cutting corporate tax rates would stimulate investment.
Call them out, INVESTMENT isn't taxed!
Make THEM bring up PROFIT. I'll bet they won't. They'll change the subject.
#9
There is no We there in all of the political discussions, on the contrary it’s the There there, the There being the Billionaires who have flexed their muscles. The election is a fraud, stolen, pure and simple.
#10
The amount of money being made from selling oil and coal is huge! I think the billionare oil men, coal magnates, and their companies should be required to give up all the money they have made, to undo the damage they have done, and are doing to the world. That would be enough money to convert the US and the World to renewable energy. Their employees could get jobs working in renewable energy companies.
#11
Hitler was popular for a while too!
#12
Colorado did its job also. CA needs to split into 5 states to get senatorial representation.
#13
Of all the many dire, seemingly intractable, catastrophes human beings have visited upon Earth in their sad, violent history, anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) is what future generations will hold us most accountable, for not addressing seriously with all of our intelligence and effort. We are the ones on the cusp of a new era.
True justice and the ultimate irony would be if reincarnation is the mechanism that guides the evolution of life, and we are those who will look back and wonder how we could have let this happen, when it was so obvious.
#14
I thought that false advertising was illegal. It's what Trump relied heavily on to get elected. No consequences. Campaign promises all forgotten. The real Trump is emerging. Money in politics pales in comparison to the BS that flows so freely. All the excuses to follow after it's too late.
#15
Con-Don strikes again.
Save the Billionaires! Vote GOP! (Why do people vote for Republicans that they know want to eliminate government so they can get ahold of all the tax dollars through privitization?)
#16
Clearly, Trump will not pick anyone qualified for the cabinet positions available but rather only those who he thinks will be loyal. Loyality is really the only consideration.
This happened after the Roman empire split into east and west divisions. The rulers in the west in particular appointed only those to "governmental" positions that were considered loyal even though they had no idea of what was required to carry out their job. This hastened the demise of the Romans.
Trump will do the same thing to us.
Don't buy into GOP hypocrisy. Fight the SOB's.
#17
That way things are shaping up, Donald Trump will become widely known as the "US Corrupt Liar in Chief and his Swamp Filled Cabinet."
#18
@#16:
Absolutely! Fighting is our only option left, by any means available, on all fronts, everything just short of direct physical violence. Nothing is more irritating than mealy-mouthed fence-sitters, Democrats, and liberals who say, "Oh, just give them a chance, and we'll see if they'll do the right thing," or "Let's find a way to work with them, to find a compromise of some sort, etc., etc...
No! These worthless right-wing, corporate stooges have shown their true colors over and over for way, way too long, spinning ridiculous lies and false promises, saying and doing anything to claw their way to power and then turning right around and screwing working taxpayers and everyone else dumb enough to believe their pure bullcrap, while they do nothing but suck up all the wealth, foment endless war, and completely ruin the environment.
It's time -- past the time -- for full-out, non-violent revolution and massive, in-their-face protest, everywhere, all the time. Throughout decades of over the top, bare-knuckle smear campaigns, Republicans and their rightwing henchmen have made Democrats and liberals their mortal enemy. Is there any doubt about that? So then let us fight them like the enemy they have made themselves. The future of the world is literally at stake!
#19
I really miss the rain that we used to have in the Summer and Fall. The Midwest is not what it used to be. :(
#20
Jane Meyer wrote Dark Money listing the players and their game plan. Where
was the discussion about this book other than a vague nod. Jane names these players and all of the plans on how to "tear government out by the roots" the Koch brothers and their ilk need to be publicly exposed as conspiring to destroy or weaken our democracy. Talking about Trump's Cabinet picks is like " describing the water as we are drowning " when are we finally going to take the fight to them. The Koch s represent the head of the snake the focus needs to be on them and their plans. The lack of focus on the Koch makes me wonder if our leaders are afraid to pull back the curtain and expose these traitors and cowards for what they are.
#21
Greed is a neutralizer of rationality. It Breeds STUPID.
#22
I was so proud & so hopeful when "we" put people on the Moon. I'm Non-theistic, but Reagan's hatred really continues to kill so many more of US than the 58,000+ (US + Millions) in Vietnam. I'd Swear he WAS the devil. This is all an outgrowth of the Nightmare brought to US, via Treasonous Greed, from those GE & Chamber pupetmasters. In spite of Great Minds like Orwell who Saw (or unwittingly wrote the scripts for?) this Horror. I'm teaching my 10 year-old grandaughter Defensive (they're Really ALL extremely Offensive) Weapons training. I cried when I had to teach her to go for head (or distractive knee & below) shots only. She probably won't have time to don gear when they come.
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From what I have seen of the Trumpster's miss administration, he drained the swamp and has dredged up the worst of the swamp monsters to put in his miss administration.
Our nation and the world are in great trouble.