Scott Pruitt Resigns as EPA Administrator (cnbc.com) 437
Scott Pruitt's polarizing tenure as head of the Environmental Protection Agency has come to an end. From a report: President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that he has accepted Pruitt's resignation. Trump said that the agency's deputy administrator, Andrew Wheeler, will become the acting head of EPA. The departure follows months of scrutiny that gathered momentum following reports that Pruitt had rented a Capitol Hill condominium linked to an energy lobbyist on favorable terms. The revelation exacerbated concerns about the high cost of Pruitt's travel and security detail and triggered a flood of allegations that Pruitt fostered a culture of workplace retaliation, wasteful spending and self-dealing at EPA. The steady flow of negative news stories prompted multiple government investigators to open several inquiries into Pruitt. His EPA now faces about a dozen probes into its spending, ethics and policy decisions. In a statement, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said, "Good." Further reading: Judge Orders EPA To Produce Science Behind Pruitt's Climate Claims
GOOD RIDDANCE TURD (Score:5, Insightful)
Just sayin
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My only regret is that the system wouldn't let me mod you +6.
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I think that story was the kicker in the perception damage control war going on behind the scenes at Trump's sellout administration. Scott was no longer an effective traitor and sellout with 19 active investigations, but a liability.
3, 2, 1.... Prison, for real.
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Law not tempered by mercy is not justice, and untempered law strictly enforced to the letter is barbarism.
Well the problem with getting rid of Sessions... (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with replacing Sessions is he's recused. Anyone Trump gets in there besides him won't be, and would end the investigations causing the big Constitutional crisis that could really... be bad for everybody.
I don't put it past Trump to burn the White House down if he can't have it.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Boshevik Republican (Score:4, Interesting)
Pruitt had become the poster child for government corruption, but I think Trump actually liked his flamboyance about it. Sort of created cover for Trump's own shenanigans. I am sort of curious which camel broke the straw's back, but mostly I agree with the "good riddance" comments and I'm offended by the holier-than-thou hypocrisy.
The last of the vestigial TRUE Republicans are dying or retiring. The brand has been hijacked.
Gee, do you suppose it would deter the hijackers like Scott Pruitt if someone would lock up their kids? You know, the old collective responsibility thing.
Re:Hypocrisy, thy name is Boshevik Republican (Score:5, Insightful)
The last of the vestigial TRUE Republicans are dying or retiring. The brand has been hijacked.
Agreed. I'm not a kid, far from it, and I clearly remember that while you didn't necessarily agree with what the GOP did, they at least believed in family and had a sense of basic decency. Doesn't seem to the case anymore, now it just seems to be extremists catering to other extremists.
Gee, do you suppose it would deter the hijackers like Scott Pruitt if someone would lock up their kids? You know, the old collective responsibility thing.
What I'd actually do is get their wives in front of a camera for an interview and find out what they really think of all this. The crowning achievement here would be to get Melania Trump to disagree with her own husband on all of this, and do it publicly; sadly that won't ever happen, so I'd be happy enough to have Sessions' own wife, or adult daughter, speak out against these 'policies'. But yeah, having someone, say, kidnap Sessions' kids, just to prove a point? That'd be powerful. Not hurt them in any way, of course, and not even demand any ransom; treat them like royalty, keep them for a week or two, then they show up unharmed on the doorstep of th DoJ, with a note from the kidnappers: "How does it feel to not know where your children are, Mister Sessions?"
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Thanks. I wonder if the parts you quoted were the same parts that drew the ire of the trolls' sock puppets with mod points?
(One of my theories about the problems with Slashdot is skilled trolls with sock puppets harvesting the mod points I never get. However, at this point I don't think that even Nomad could repair Slashdot.)
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There are no perfect solutions in imperfect world.
Despite some limitations slashdot voting system is OK in most of the cases. Even in hotly debated topics I see rarely some revenge or 'troll' marking due to just not being in favor of a certain point of view, though it does happen. It's a forum to discuss and to get an idea of what people think, not an oracle after all.
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True, the GOP of my youth was one of unfettered freedom of economy, what's left today is unfettered kleptocracy.
Re:Hypocrisy, thy name is Boshevik Republican (Score:5, Funny)
True, the GOP of my youth was one of unfettered freedom of economy, what's left today is unfettered kleptocracy.
I have a dream that the Ghost of Barry Goldwater comes back and beats the entire Republican Party with the jawbone of an ass.
Re:Hypocrisy, thy name is Boshevik Republican (Score:5, Funny)
I clearly remember that while you didn't necessarily agree with what the GOP did, they at least believed in family and had a sense of basic decency.
It is a true sign of how far we have come when we get nostalgic about the good ole' days of Dick Nixon.
Re:Hypocrisy, thy name is Boshevik Republican (Score:5, Insightful)
I clearly remember that while you didn't necessarily agree with what the GOP did, they at least believed in family and had a sense of basic decency.
It is a true sign of how far we have come when we get nostalgic about the good ole' days of Dick Nixon.
More like Barry Goldwater. Nixon was definitely a crook who deserved more than what he got.
The problem of casting a wide net is that Nixon did not represent the GOP as a whole. And when the Republicans at the time became convinced of his crimes, they were ready to boot his ass out of office.
The difference is that today's Republicnas are the very definition of cowardice, and will not stand up to the man who now defines their ideology, so it will be up to the American people to elect politicians who have a backbone.
Re:Hypocrisy, thy name is Boshevik Republican (Score:4, Informative)
Nixon did not represent the GOP as a whole.
He represented the party as a whole a lot better than Goldwater did. Millions of "Rockefeller Republicans" voted for Johnson, and Goldwater lost in an historic landslide.
The difference is that today's Republicnas are the very definition of cowardice
The difference is that Nixon lost the support of the American people, and Republicans were not punished by voters for abandoning him. Trump is very popular with the Republican base, and Republicans that opposed him have been booted by primary voters.
The problem is not the "courage" of the leaders, it is foolishness of the base.
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Nixon did not represent the GOP as a whole.
He represented the party as a whole a lot better than Goldwater did. Millions of "Rockefeller Republicans" voted for Johnson, and Goldwater lost in an historic landslide.
That might be true, but your idea that we are nostalgic for Nixon is simply wrong. The entire body of work of Goldwater shows him to be a defender of individual liberties - which is why many crypto conservatives revile him to this day. He was pro-choice and anti-fundamentalist, he was supportive of gays. He also understood that without compromise, there is no governance.
His philosophy was more geared toward freedom of the individual, rather than state sponsored intrusion. But on matters of actual conser
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Please explain what Nixon did wrong.
He didn't give your parents birth control.
Re:Hypocrisy, thy name is Boshevik Republican (Score:4, Insightful)
Far simple, just tackle those corrupt idiots weaknesses. They are psychopaths driven by their ego and lusts, put them under the spot light to deny them their lusts and just insult the crap out of them at every opportunity, they will never feel shame but being publicly ridiculed makes them burn. That and expose everyone of the deceptions, scams and simply keep poking their plots and schemes until they fall apart. Next level shun those than refuse to shun them (they then have to rely on each other, worse than it sounds as they are all disingenuous back stabber all too happy to stab each other in the back to get ahead).
Without us they fail and with them we fail, interesting that.
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The last of the vestigial TRUE Republicans are dying or retiring. The brand has been hijacked.
They're mirroring the Democrats then, because they've totally exited the building. They've recently moved more far left than the republicans have moved far right.
Cue the name calling and insults, but here are the simple facts:
* 25 years ago or less, all the leading democrats declared illegal immigration was bad and needed to stop; you can find the videos of Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama stating this all over the 'net; now many democrats are openly calling for "open borders" and the abolishment of ICE, and
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They're mirroring the Democrats then, because they've totally exited the building. They've recently moved more far left than the republicans have moved far right.
Cue the name calling and insults, but here are the simple facts:
Most likely people call you names because they think your "simple facts" are just partisan lies.
* 25 years ago or less, all the leading democrats declared illegal immigration was bad and needed to stop; you can find the videos of Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama stating this all over the 'net; now many democrats are openly calling for "open borders" and the abolishment of ICE, and those numbers are growing.
I think it's telling that you didn't list any names when you claimed "many democrats(sic)" where calling for open borders. When I looked for Democrats who were calling for open borders, do you know what I found? Republicans who say Democrats are calling for open borders. Maybe it's just the skeptic in me talking, but I'm not inclined to take the word of Republican politicians and pundits on what the other part
Re: GOOD RIDDANCE TURD (Score:5, Insightful)
Fucking moron.
Him being gone has nothing to do with leftists, that corrupt shitstain simply crossed a threshold where it was realized that he would start becoming a liability to get *any* middle voters. Pruitt is an example of Trump filling the swamp, and he won because he promised to some desperate people who really didn't like him very much to drain it. He'll need those people if he wants 2020, and if the republicans want 2018.
Re: GOOD RIDDANCE TURD (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, the leftists pushed him out, with their massive political power in the current Government. Fucking moron. Him being gone has nothing to do with leftists, that corrupt shitstain simply crossed a threshold where it was realized that he would start becoming a liability to get *any* middle voters. Pruitt is an example of Trump filling the swamp, and he won because he promised to some desperate people who really didn't like him very much to drain it. He'll need those people if he wants 2020, and if the republicans want 2018.
What is unfortunate is that people like makerfixer actually support criminals as long as they pretend to be against those "lefties" that he has a white hot hate for. note - for criminals like makerfixer, a leftie is anyone who disagrees with him or his god on earth who he licks the boots of.. Funny how a far left idea like tarriffs - which are a form of price control - is now a right wing touchstone. And actual criminals like pruitt are defended as patriotic right thinking Americans.
Re: GOOD RIDDANCE TURD (Score:4, Interesting)
He's currently under 17 ethics violation, not a single one of them has anything to do with some fucking overpriced pens.
Don't try to purposefully conflate people trying to throw dirt at the man with the very real ethics violation and corruption he's been caught red-handed engaging in.
Re: GOOD RIDDANCE TURD (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember when you guys had a fit because Obama put Grey Poupon on a hamburger. And why was Scott Pruitt even dealing with "worldwide counterparts". He was head of the Environmental Protection Agency, not the State Department. Maybe if he'd spent a little less time trying to hook his wife up with a no-work job and a little more time fixing the problem with lead in the drinking water on US domestic military bases, he wouldn't be seen as such a schnorrer.
So, kindly go fuck yourself
Anyway, the most fun part of the Pruitt saga was when he would make his underlings book his personal travel expenses and then not reimburse them. The guy wasn't just corrupt, he was corrupt about some of the most petty things imaginable. I'll bet he was taking those $1500 worth of pens and selling them on eBay. He was so corrupt that there should now be a 20-year moratorium on anyone from Oklahoma having a job with the federal government, just to be on the safe side. You know, until we figure out what's going on.
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While thousands of dollars on customized luxury pens and journals is not a single large expense it's part of an overall pattern of wasted of government money in the current administration. I don't think it's necessary for hundreds of dollars in gifts to be handed out to foreign environmental policy heads. This is something the Republicans supposedly care about more than Democrats, though Republicans' actions seem to speak differently while in office.
I would expect the government to operate efficiently at al
Re: GOOD RIDDANCE TURD (Score:5, Insightful)
I like the whole "look at his expensive pens" deal, I don't want the EPA administrator handing a $.50 pen to his worldwide counterparts left over from a job fair.
That is a very specific and spelled out crime. And your willingness to accept criminal actions by lawmakers is just an example of the abandonment of law and order by the party that used to run on it.
Pretty much makes you a criminal in my book. I support actual law and order, and punishing criminals to the maximum extent possible -
You can bitch about lefties all you want. If a lefdt winger is law abiding, then they deserve to live peacefully. A right winger like yourself who suports lawlessness is a person who needs to be with other criminals. I'm not a leftie either. WhAt is it like to support crime?
Re: GOOD RIDDANCE TURD (Score:4, Insightful)
This is why we need more Republicans and Trump people in office!
Exactly! This whole ethics things is just stupid. We don't want law-abiding people in office, we want the finest criminals money can buy! I mean how else is my ship going to come in? I figure that any day now I'll get a bit rich and then I want to be able to bribe my way into getting sweet government lucre using ethics violations and then I'll be super rich.
There's much less chance of me being able to do that if we get rid of Trump and his ilk.
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He rented a room from a lobbyist who had dealings with the EPA for $50 a night. I'm sure any visitor to Washington could get a similar deal. The bed wasn't great though, others have described it as "a bit swampy".
I suppose he didn't like it either. So he had an aide get him a new one. From guess where? [vox.com]
Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:3, Funny)
Fill it so high that America gags, then drain it the tiniest bit and try to get everyone to ignore the stink of dried out shit around their necks.
Re:Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:5, Insightful)
Trump is the swamp. He's done nothing but appoint rich, unqualified morons to head various things.
They've all proven to know nothing at all about the stuff they're in charge of, and mostly are just looking to enrich themselves. And they lie in public just as much as he does (like about $31K dining sets they claim they don't remember approving).
Trump and his idiot cronies are really just sticking their fingers in the pie and giving themselves all sorts of perks, and this includes his shit-stain of a family.
Anybody who thought an asshole billionaire would be doing anything but making life better for his asshole billionaire friends was a fool from the get go.
Just remember, America ... when this clown is done being in office, the damage he's done to your international relationships won't be easily fixed. We sure as fuck won't be rushing to make nice with you.
Re: Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:5, Funny)
If Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize simply for not being Bush, imagine what Trumpâ(TM)s successor will be awarded.
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Re:Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:4, Insightful)
So far as 2020 goes: If you want to help, you've got to convince people you know who are Independents to register as Democrat, even if it's just an expedient, and if you know any Republicans who also just can't hold their noses any longer against how much Trump and the GOP stink, get them to do the same. It's what I saw I had to do, and it's probably the only way to get him out of office in 2020 (unless Mueller turns up something even the GOP can't ignore). People will say you're asking them to be traitors to their principles, but desperate times call for desperate measures; tell them that at least this way they can help get a viable Democratic candidate on the ballot who isn't Hillary Clinton (because she's a guaranteed loss).
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I should have expressed my concurrence here, instead of wasting it on an AC, notwithstanding the moderation of his post into visibility...
For now I'll just reiterate that we need to divide and conquer Trump's marching morons in a way similar to how they divided and conquered America.
Re: Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:3)
Or, maybe, they did not like what Obama did to the country ao much that they decided that wven Trump is better than another Dem establishment lackey
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The term 'myopians' comes to mind, if you follow me.
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Well, there seems to be a wide range of views within the Democratic party. Most of the Republicans however have all gotten behind Trump, even many who were initially opposed to him. Bizarre views from some Democrats can usually be seen as outliers, whereas bizarre views by Republicans seem to be increasingly mainstream.
FYI, I am not registered with either party.
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Instead of offering a platform you give "dirty tactics" (your words) and meanderings about washing machines with divisive rhetoric (with us or against us)?
Welp, I am sold. Who needs a platform when you have "dirty tactics" and insane rants! #bluewave for real.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you; The state of the democratic party. Why give a platform when you can rant insanely assuming people think exactly like you!
Re:Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:5, Insightful)
or get Democrats to all re-register as Republican for 2020
Or maybe actual progressives need to form their own party, actual small-government conservatives need to form their own party, and let the "Democrats" and "Republicans" twist in the wind wondering why no one likes them any more.
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That's ridiculous. Ask yourself why 45% of the electorate decided to stay home in 2016. I bet the answer is that people did not feel like either the D or R candidate was worth voting for or represented them, and they believed the narrative that a vote for any other party was a waste of time. There is a massive chunk of the population that doesn't feel like they should vote. Look at the Democrats now - they have no leadership, and no agenda other than opposing whatever Republicans do. Their incumbents ar
Re:Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:4, Interesting)
Doesn't work, whichever 3rd party that replaces one of the main stream ones will just have all the members of the main stream one move to the new party.
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Well hold up there.
Trump is doing an OK job
Trump is dismantling the EPA and FCC. Taking away all their money, power, and authority to do anything. I think that sucks. But there is a legitimate political viewpoint that we don't need the government to limit pollution or to regulate communications. I think that viewpoint is bullshit. But they've been squaking about this long enough and loud enough that it's a political issue and... hey, they got a candidate in the white-house. Let them try. At WORST, we will have 4 years of disrupt
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What the fuck dude?
The economy is positively booming with unemployment at its lowest level since the 1960s. Economists are worried about a breakout in inflation on account of companies having to increase wages so much to attract workers.
Trump isn't doing an okay job, he's doing a fantastic job and is actually delivering on his campaign promises. You're just worried that his approval ratings are steadily increasing as more and more people come to realise what a good job he's doing.
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No, he spelled Trump correctly. Virtually everything successful in this economy has been correctly attributed to Trump. Even some of his worse critics have to admit that.
Under Obama the economy was one of the worse in recorded history. His mismanagement of the economy are just one more reason, along with those 7 to 10 trillion others, that Obama will go down as one of the worse in history. Of course it will take 25 or more years for this to happen.
Re:Trump's version of swamp draining... (Score:5, Insightful)
Trump is standing up to the world
Yeah! Those fucking Canadians have had it too easy for too long, what with them always helping us!
You're just mad because you want to see America fail.
This makes me sad because I believe that many Trump supporters actually believe things like this about people who disagree with them. There are way too many people in this country who think they have a monopoly on love for their country.
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I think there are a lot of people who think love means always agreeing. Instead, look at the country like a crazy uncle. Sure you can love the uncle, but that doesn't mean you have to agree with everything he says or does. If you've got a relative you love that's hooked on opiates you don't sit back and say "good for her, doing what she wants whenever she wants!", instead you try to help that relative out.
The whole foundation of this country begins with disagreeing. Thomas Jefferson said he loved Great
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Your attitude towards your fellow citizens is a good illustration of the division the country faces. It's completely incorrect and it's a good illustration of the problem that many people like you have. I'm not sure who has convinced you that a large percentage of the country is your enemy, although I could certainly guess, but it's not correct and it's not helpful to progress. Viewing those that you disagree with as your enemy will not help you solve the problem, especially when you need their help, and
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Ok, dumb, troll or shill, which is it?
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Wait, where are you getting your news? Trump seems to not be putting America first; he's going to ruin the economy with his tariffs, protecting a few economic interests at the expense of everyone else. He's a compulsive liar and it's extremely obvious to everyone else in the world, and this is turning America into the world's laughing stock. There's nothing to stand up to the world over here, we are and were being treated fairly by most countries. Especially the countries that he's most pissed about are A
Rich (Score:5, Insightful)
Go ahead and find me a poor politician, I'll wait.
Vows of poverty and politicians versus statesmen (Score:3)
You're hitting on a serious problem with America's political system there. If you want competent politicians on both sides, and if you agree that the issues are complicated, then where do you store the losers of the last election? That's on the theory that they were actually competent to run for office in the first place.
For elections to be meaningful, we need more than one choice, regardless of how long the incumbent has been "studying" the issues. We need some politicians who want to serve the public inte
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The appointees seem to be rich, but that's nothing new in politics. What's more new is that essentially every one of these appointees seem intent on dismantling government. Especially those department and agency heads who were known before being appointed to be opposed to the existence of their respective departments and agencies.
As a public official the first rule is to never abuse the office for personal gain; you are not a CEO of a business wasting money from profits, but a public servant who is wastin
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Unfortunately, it would be hard to do the experiment at an actual Trump rally, but maybe it could be simulated at one of the protests against separating the kids? What if each of the protestors has a piece of paper with Trump's face on it and they use it for a "Word from the OTHER side" chant? Just a minute or two of chanting somewhere in the protest? I think the video of a mob of angry Trump faces chanting "Lock kids up, LOCK KIDS UP!" would have the potential to go viral--and it might even get into the heads of some of Trump's followers.
In other words, a false-flag operation? No. Just no. Very bad idea.
Stick to the truth. It wins in the end.
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Not at all, but your reply mostly makes me wonder if you're one of Putin's professionals. Let's pretend you just don't understand the suggestion.
A false flag would involve a sincere pretense of flying some other flag. There is NO way to claim that the sarcastic intention would not be obvious. Well, actually I can imagine one way, but I've never seen a video of Trumpsters wearing Trump masks en masse. Maybe I shouldn't give them the idea? They might like it.
My idea actually came from my extremely minor parti
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First of all, a tip of the hat to you for participating in the protests.
For the record, I am most definitely not one of Putin's "professionals." Nor am I at all a supporter of Trump and his administration. Very much the opposite.
My original concern about your "lock kids up" protest is that although the sarcasm of it may be obvious to many, there will be those who try to spin it as the "other side" misrepresenting who Trumpists are. On reflection, I'm thinking your idea may not be such a bad one after all, i
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Either you are willfully ignorant or blind to reality. Or a professional troll paid to fake it. Or you might even be one of Stephen Miller's personal sock puppets.
Go watch some of Trump's rallies. If you are sane, then I doubt you have the stomach to watch the entire thing.
On the other hand, I do think everyone is more or less insane. The craziest one is the guy who's insisting he's perfectly sane. I bet Trump has made that claim, though I haven't heard it in the blizzard of insanity he spews.
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Fill it so high that America gags, then drain it the tiniest bit and try to get everyone to ignore the stink of dried out shit around their necks.
Trump's version of swamp draining was simple, he drained the swamp into his administration.
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Chance would be a fine thing.
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I doubt it. Sounds like the senate has narrowly approved the agency's deputy administrator, Andrew Wheeler, to become the acting head. From what I can find he's a long time fossil-energy lobbyist that's completely on board with the current trajectory, but has a lot more political savvy than Pruitt.
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Scott Pruitt is a cow. (Score:2, Funny)
You are all cows. Cows say moo. MOOOOOO! MOOOOOO! Moo cows MOOOOO! Moo say the cows. YOU ENVIRONMENTALLY PROTECTED COWS!!
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Only Luddites fail to environmentally protect cows.
Scott Pruitt probably wanted to feed the cows toxic waste
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You know, I enjoyed /. memes more when they were about beowulf clusters of Natalie Portman's hot grits in Soviet Russia.
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I'm just poking Sexconker with a stick for the hell of it. Nothing to see here..
Allow me to introduce you two... (Score:2)
Asshole, doorknob. Make sure you don't hit it on the way out.
Womp womp (Score:5, Funny)
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I wish I had some mod points to give you. Someone please mod up that womper.
An EPA administrator with the shortest tenure (Score:5, Informative)
And yet, he had the most harmful agenda toward his own agancy of any predecessor.
What's crazy is that it took an ethics scandal over sweetheart deals with a gas industry lobbying firm to get him out
Yeah, I guess you can say at least he's out, but who knows who Trump will replace him with. Probably just another oil and coal industry lapdog.
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Yeah, I guess you can say at least he's out, but who knows who Trump will replace him with. Probably just another oil and coal industry lapdog.
Andrew Wheeler- [bbc.com] You hit the nail on the head. A former coal industry lobbyist.
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Naw, I think the crazy part is that the EPA was Nixon's idea.
Even with the perversions, Nixon was an ACTUAL Republican president with some principles that weren't entirely bonkers. I would argue that most of the GOP presidents since then have been posers or fakes. Poppy Bush was the main exception--and he was bounced after one term. #PresidentTweety is just the natural result of FAKE Republican devolution.
Re:An EPA administrator with the shortest tenure (Score:4, Insightful)
What's really sad is that something like Watergate would not fell the president today but be used as an excuse to cut into journalist freedoms.
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I sure hope you're wrong, but I can't point at any concrete evidence. #PresidentTweety certainly claims he's doing just fine and feeling dandy.
In solution terms, I think we need a seriously new financial model to support REAL journalism. I favor an approach that links to solving the problems that the journalists are telling us about. That financial model should also be linked to EPR (Earned Public Reputation) at the individual level. On the one hand, EPR could tell you a lot about the creator of a video or
Good. But what about the next guy? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good. But what about the next guy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to distract from your main point about his successor, which is good, I want to criticize your use of the term "Conservative types" with a capital C.
Nobody is a more rabid environmentalist than the hunter who wants to protect their land or the fisherman who wants to protect their livelihood. These people are typically conservatives. Conservatives are about preservation and good stewardship. The Republican party does not define what it is to be conservative, and environmentalism is not a liberal or conservative philosophy. [theamerica...vative.com]
The Republican party has cognitive dissonance over environmentalism because the party has entrenched big-business interests with very short-term thinking. They have vocally pushed the false story that environmental policy is anti-business.
Toyota made a fortune off environmentally friendly cars. When George W Bush told America that raising fuel economy would cost "millions" of jobs, Toyota bet on the technology anyway. When gas prices rose Americans bought fuel-efficient cars bolstering Toyota. The American auto makers were either buying engines from Toyota or licensing their patents. Environmental tech paid off.
When the US government used thermal imaging to inspect for leaks in large ships, big shipping companies objected. But once they realized that cutting down on engine leaks would save them money, they started enforcing the emissions laws themselves because it was profitable.
Conservatives know that investing in environmental technology is often economically productive. Less fuel consumption means less dependency on foreign resources, less damage to American land and resources, and more technological innovation and leadership.
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I'm sorry, but you are kidding yourself. You are in denial.
Fishermen who want to protect their livelihood? Those same fishermen who trawled fish out of the oceans to the point of collapse?
It may be a matter of semantics, but today's "Conservatives" are about 2 things: authoritarianism and "I've got mine, fuck you". The conservatives of which you speak don't exist, or, if they exist, they don't call themselves "Conservatives" (big or little C, it doesn't matter).
Today's conservatives are defined by regressiv
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What you say about conservatives may have been true once. I really do not know. But it is not true of them today. The movement has become overwhelmed by popularism now - intellectual considerations thrown aside in favor of soundbite politics and conspiracy theories. Their approach to the environment is now defined by an instinctive rejection of any and all regulation and an unshakable faith in the market to solve every problem, justified by outright rejecting any scientific evidence that would be politicall
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Toyota made a fortune off environmentally friendly cars. When George W Bush told America that raising fuel economy would cost "millions" of jobs, Toyota bet on the technology anyway. When gas prices rose Americans bought fuel-efficient cars bolstering Toyota. The American auto makers were either buying engines from Toyota or licensing their patents. Environmental tech paid off.
Toyota also only initially invested in the technology because an American car manufacturer (GM, IIRC) had put together potential p
Re: (Score:3)
This is only because people have been changing the meanings of those words over time. I think the vast majority of environmentalists are what you call a conservationist, they do not want to get rid of all people. You look at a few outliers and assume this represents the whole.
Re: Good. But what about the next guy? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Shouldn't government employees be loyal to the Constitution first, the people in an incredibly close second, and all others far behind that?
If government employees were loyal to the Constitution then the EPA would not exist.
The federal government is a construct of the states, the states are sovereign but give certain powers to the federal government. No where in the Constitution was the federal government given the authority to regulate air and water quality. If it is there then I'd like to have someone point it out to me. That was something left to the states.
The US Constitution is primarily a business contract, the states agreeing on how t
Good riddance (Score:2)
Prediction: (Score:5, Funny)
Melania is going to get the boot as a surprise twist during the fall season premier.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually I've been predicting that she's going to boot Trump soon, but the prenup will prevent her from getting the house in NYC.
Bummer (Score:3)
I hear that Anthony Weiner is open to exploring new opportunities. Does anyone have Matt Lauer or Harvey Weinstein or Charlie Rose on speed dial? Now that the bar has been set sufficient low I'm sure that any of them would be fine candidates.
Great People (Score:2)
I love the United States. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
For this to happen, the whole system would have to change. As long as you can only really choose between two evils and hoping that you'll actually pick the lesser one, you can't hope to actually get anything good.
Re: (Score:2)
Not going to happen. Voters all know the unfortunate reality that makes two-party systems so stable: If you want to have any hope of keeping the greater evil out, you have to vote for the lesser one.
How is this "News for nerds"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Too many of the articles seem to be things designed to "engage" people, and aren't terribly informative. And by "engage" I mean get people to start arguing.
Yeah the guy was awful read the new yorker article (Score:2)
There was a great new yorker article about him and his "philosophies".
https://www.newyorker.com/maga... [newyorker.com]
like he sued the EPA 14 times before he became the administrator and plenty of other horrible industry funded activities. Literally the last and most corrupt and paranoid person you could get to run that agency...
LOL. Using crew to point to corruption (Score:2)
Seriously, CREW is about as corrupt as they get.
Kim Kardashian? (Score:2)
Sure she won't be great at it, but she'll be less bad than any other Trump pick.
Re:Super swamper for sure... (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Excellent analogy (Score:2)
Just like vaccines, right-wing ideologues can't imagine a world where acid rain, lead in gasoline and paint (i.e. just about everywhere), and Superfund sites that are decades away from being completely cleaned up.
Maybe we should kill the IRS too, because they're evil according to __fill-in-the-blank__
I'm a registered GOP voter, but sometimes the more ignorant, emotionally-driven members of our party really embarrass the rest of us.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends on your definition of great.
It sure is great for comedians all over the world, I can tell you that much.
Re: (Score:2)
And it didn't even work, we could still hear him.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd imagine that the soundproof room was to prevent outside people from recording the marching orders that Pruitt was receiving from the gas and oil industry executives.
Of course, now that the room has been built, don't expect the next EPA admin from the Trump administration to be in a hurry to tear it down.