Sorry. The Future Has Been Canceled

Scott Pruitt

“The future ain’t what it used to be at the E.P.A.”

--Scott Pruitt, Trump's administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference

Scott Pruitt would know. He's the lawyer that used to put out oil and gas industry propaganda under his own name as attorney general of Oklahoma, where defending the fossil fuel industry comes before church.

He's now in charge of protecting the environment of the United States, which means that pirates are now at the helm of the ship of state.

Pruitt just changed his testimony at his confirmation hearing -- "I never said I thought climate change was a hoax" -- to "carbon-dioxide has nothing to do with the warming of the planet." Such an attitude not only flies in the face of widespread scientific consensus that carbon-dioxide does indeed trap more heat at the earth's surface, but it also denies reality. Anyone heard lately about the Rhode-Island-size chunk of the Antarctic ice shelf that's about to drop into the ocean because of softening ice?

Pruitt is not only spouting his crap against the evidence of science and freaking reality. He's preparing to defy the very law itself. Under provisions of the Clean Air Act (passed under the last liberal president, Richard Nixon), the EPA which Mr. Pruitt now heads must regulate pollutants that harm human health. In 2009 carbon dioxide was judged to be an "endangerment" and therefore must be regulated by the EPA. That finding has been unheld in federal court, and the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the lower court.

So what's a Trump/Pruitt to do? Why, issue an executive order, naturally! According to the reporting of Coral Davenport, "Mr. Trump is expected to announce an executive order next week directing Mr. Pruitt to begin the legal process of unwinding the climate change regulations on [carbon dioxide] emissions from power plants."

The wrecking crew owns this joint now.

The Rest of the World Must Declare Us a "Rogue Nation"

“You are a slow learner, Winston."

"How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four."

"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”

― George Orwell, 1984

The climate-change-denier in chief, Donald Trump, has named fellow climate-change-deniers to top posts in his administration -- Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency, Rick Perry at the Energy Department, and Ryan Zinke at the Interior Department.

During the transition period (the first week of December), Trump officials demanded that the Energy Department turn over the names of scientists who had worked on President Obama's climate change initiative, a decree that the department refused, as anyone familiar with the history of witch hunts should have done.

Just yesterday, employees at several federal agencies including the Department of Agriculture have been barred by the Trump administration from making any statements, or providing any documents to the public or journalists -- a "gag order."

A memo sent to staff of the Environmental Protection Agency said that no press releases were to be sent to "external audiences" and that "no social media will be going out," according to a report by The Hill. The memo also says that a digital strategist will be coming in to oversee the agency's social-media policies, and that "existing, individually controlled social-media accounts may become more centrally controlled."

Centrally controlled. Big Brother is watching you.

Staff at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service also got a memo on Monday telling them not to provide any documents to the public, including press releases and social-media content. The email told employees, including about 2,000 staff scientists, that "starting immediately and until further notice," they were not to release any documents or post anything to social media.

The Trump presidency: "We will strangle science in its cradle in order to deny that two plus two is four."

Pruitt Will Do It!

Pruitt

In the same week that we learn the earth set another high temperature record for 2016 -- only the third year in a row that earth's high temperature has broken all previous records -- we also get treated with Scott Pruitt's confirmation hearing to be Trump's leader of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Irony, the Force is with you!

Pruitt stated flatly that climate change is not a hoax -- directly contradicting his ignorant boss -- but he's also largely hostile to the agency he seeks to lead ... like most of Trump's cabinet choices. Pruitt has been attorney general of Oklahoma and in that office has sued the EPA numerous times. Oklahoma is a safe zone for fracking, which has produced hundreds of earthquakes for the pleasure and enlightenment of its citizens.

No Hiding Trump's Hostility Toward Government

Okay, we get it, Mr. Trump. You're expressing your perfect contempt for the various departments of government to which you're appointing people with either (a) no qualifications for managing those departments or (b) open hostility toward the departments they are being appointed to manage.

Like this fool.

That's really a funny joke. Hahahahaha. Can't wait to see how it all turns out, if the good people who voted for you will be laughing too.

The scorecard, so far:

Steven Mnuchin at Treasury wants to do away with Dodd-Frank

Andrew Puzder at Labor is a vocal critic of increasing the minimum wage and an opponent of rules that would make more workers eligible for overtime pay

Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency is a primary architect of legal challenges on President Barack Obama’s environmental regulations

Tom Price at the Department of Health and Human Services wants to phase out Medicare

Ben Carson at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, who believes that the pyramids were grain storage bins

Jeff Sessions at Justice is no friend of either civil rights or voting rights

Betsy DeVos at the Education Department who intends to cut "the public" out of public education

This bunch has tilted radically to the 1% and decidedly away from "those forgotten people" Trump said he wanted to help. Yeah, these guys are really gonna help!

Dear EPA: Here's Your Exploding Cigar

Trump has selected Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma and beloved of the fossil fuel industry, to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt is pretty famous for being a climate change denier.

“During the campaign, Mr. Trump regularly threatened to dismantle the E.P.A. and roll back many of the gains made to reduce Americans’ exposures to industrial pollution, and with Pruitt, the president-elect would make good on those threats,” said Ken Cook, head of the Environmental Working Group, a Washington research and advocacy organization.

“It’s a safe assumption that Pruitt could be the most hostile E.P.A. administrator toward clean air and safe drinking water in history,” he added.

Mr. Pruitt is actually suing the agency he will head, suing over regulations aimed at forcing power plants to significantly reduce their emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution.

Another day, another assault on the public good.