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Scott Pruitt Resigns as EPA Administrator (cnbc.com)
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
Just sayin
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.
If Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize simply for not being Bush, imagine what Trumpâ(TM)s successor will be awarded.
Thoughts and prayers.
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.
I firmly believe that many of Trump's base are his base not because they like Trump so much, but because they hated Obama and all Democrats and used their ballots for revenge, and to hell what it did to the Country, let it all burn to the ground so far as they're concerned; it's the ugly underside of having a democratic republic, nothing prevents people from abusing their right to vote in such a way that they use it to cause damage just out of spite. I also firmly believe that many of Trump's supporters are in so deep now that they don't think they can do and about-face without losing everything, so they continue to hold their noses, and that members of the GOP who are suddenly retiring from office are doing so because they can't hold their noses anymore, but aren't going to 'sell out' their own party (although ironically, they did exactly that by supporting Trump as a candidate).
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).
Melania is going to get the boot as a surprise twist during the fall season premier.
The EPA is why every car doesn't smell like that banged up 1980s Chrysler "Antique" you drove behind the other day. It's why LA isn't full of smog. It's part of the same movement that removed lead from gasoline, causing a reduction in brain damage and, according to all available evidence, ultimately causing a massive reduction in crime since the 1980s.
No, it doesn't need to be curtailed, most of us want clean air and water. You may be the exception, you may even like brain damage, I have no idea, but you're the exception.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
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.
Go ahead and find me a poor politician, I'll wait.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
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?"
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.
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.
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.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
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.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
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.
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.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
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.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.