turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalHeartland Institute wants to abolish EPA for 50-state committee
What could go wrong?
NEXUS MEDIA JUN 29, 2018, 1:16 PM
By Phil Newell
Yesterday, the Heartland Institute’s environment page — on which materials are typically ordered chronologically with new posts at the top — re-posted a policy brief from 2014. The proposal? Replacing the EPA with a “Committee of the Whole of the 50 state environmental protection agencies.”
Eight years ago, this idea was a pipe dream. No policymaker in Washington would have seriously considered a plan to slash the EPA’s budget by 80 percent, shrink the staff from 15,000 to just 300 employees, and move the headquarters from Washington, DC to Topeka, Kansas. And while the idea is unlikely to gain traction in Congress, it’s reappearance suggests that Heartland believes this administration will look favorably on efforts to further decentralize the EPA.
The brief, written by Heartland’s science director Jay Lehr, argues that “today, EPA is all but a wholly owned subsidiary of liberal activist groups.” This sentiment was wrong in 2014, but it’s particularly ironic today, when there are so many EPA political staff who previously worked for industry or for public officials who deny climate change.
Given Pruitt’s deference to polluters, there’s is a possibility that Heartland has serious hopes of turning this proposal into public policy. Pruitt has strong ties with the think tank. Emails show Pruitt asked Heartland for names of people who could challenge scientists in a proposed debate about climate change. Pruitt also recorded a video for a Heartland event. For its part, Heartland has defended Pruitt’s scandal-ridden tenure and supplied the EPA with materials that, contrary to the scientific consensus, “support the conclusion that human activity is not the largest factor driving global climate change.”
In the brief, Lehr claims that state agencies are “less vulnerable to lobbying” than the national EPA office. In fact, it is easier for state-based businesses to exert political power over a state regulatory body than for them to do the same at the national level. Earlier this month, ThinkProgress reported on fourteen states where state environmental agencies are being run by someone who previously worked for an industry that the agency regulates. Examples include a former coal lobbyist running the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and a career coal employee leading the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.
https://thinkprogress.org/heartland-institute-wants-to-abolish-epa-for-50-state-committee-b0c23b59db76/
-snip-
"The brief, written by Heartland’s science director Jay Lehr, argues that “today, EPA is all but a wholly owned subsidiary of liberal activist groups.” This sentiment was wrong in 2014, but it’s particularly ironic today, when there are so many EPA political staff who previously worked for industry or for public officials who deny climate change."
So this jerk that works for the Koch's and the same right wing group that has been lobbying the asshole from Oklahoma by the name of Scott Pruitt ( that has over 10 investigations of criminality) that has built a $43,000 lead box in his office because he is paranoid and can make phone calls to the Heartland Institute to babbling of his fear of fucking the taxpayers and getting caught of rehashed 2014 papers, and has spent close to 3 million on first class rides in planes............private ones at that......................thinks that "liberals" are the problem........................you couldn't even submit a current paper you had to go back to 2014, did you check for spelling or grammatical errors..............and you are charging the taxpayers for this paper?
Did you charge for inflation costs.........for 2014 or 2018.......just asking?
After all, somewhere I and millions of others are footing this "bill".....................
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough........................vote
Dems tell Rosenstein, Wray not to bow to GOP pressure
Source: Politico
Democrats urged Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a letter made public Thursday not to bend to pressure by congressional Republicans and hand over national security information.
Wray and Rosenstein are set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday about a bombshell inspector general report released earlier this month, which found that former FBI Director James Comey made mistakes during an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signed the letter addressed to the pair, along with Rep. Adam Schiff of California and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, warning that handing over sensitive material in response to Republicans' demands for documents could compromise the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“With every disclosure, DOJ and FBI are reinforcing a precedent it will have to uphold, whether the Congress is in Republican or Democratic hands, of providing materials in pending or closed cases to the legislative branch upon request,” the letter says. “As the attacks on the Special Counsel intensify, it is imperative that you withstand pressure on DOJ and FBI to violate established procedures and norms. Your role in preserving the integrity of the Special Counsel’s investigation and, most importantly, our justice system has become even more vital.”
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/28/rod-rosenstein-christopher-wrap-gop-pressure-680772
It is after all about Treason and not some cockamamie witch hunt"
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough..............get out and vote
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/election?p0=263&iso=20181106T12&msg=2018%20Midterm%20Elections
Cornyn: Supreme Court confirmation vote likely after Labor Day
Source: Politico
By ELANA SCHOR 06/28/2018 12:51 PM EDT
The second-ranked Senate GOP leader on Thursday suggested the Supreme Court confirmation vote to replace Anthony Kennedy would take place sometime in September, saying he "would be shocked" if the vote happened before Labor Day.
Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) added that he is "not opposed" to moving President Donald Trump's nominee more quickly, but he noted that background checks on Trump's still-unnamed pick are likely to take time.
Republicans have already made clear that they don't plan to heed Democratic calls for a delay in the Supreme Court confirmation until after November's election to give midterm voters a chance to weigh in.
Supreme Court nominees since the Ford administration spent an average of 67 days between their nomination and final confirmation, according to a 2015 report from the Congressional Research Service — a window that Cornyn told reporters he "would endorse" as a goal. Of course, that figure doesn't include President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, whom Republicans blocked and denied a confirmation hearing in 2016.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/28/anthony-kennedy-replacement-schedule-681485
Fuck You Cornyn and the fucking horse you ride on..........................your president is under fucking investigation for possible treason and should be denied anything until after the investigation ................and to top it all off you broke the law when you violated the Articles of The Constitution two years ago with your fucking worthless majority leader..........dick head.........................SO FUCK YOU........
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough................go and vote
Ethics Committee launches full-scale probe into Schweikert and top aide
Source: Politco
By JOHN BRESNAHAN 06/28/2018 01:19 PM EDT
The House Ethics Committee has launched a wide-ranging investigation into GOP Rep. David Schweikert and his chief of staff, Oliver Schwab, over allegations the Arizona Republican misspent official funds and received illegal campaign contributions from Schwab and other employees, according to a statement from the secretive panel.
The probe follows a recommendation from the Office of Congressional Ethics — the independent ethics watchdog — that the Ethics Committee further explore Schweikert and Schwab’s activities.
Schweikert said in an interview that he welcomed the investigation, calling the issue a matter of “clerical mistakes” rather than an intentional violation of House ethics rules. Schweikert has repeatedly downplayed the issue since the scandal broke last year.
“It’s wonderful, because we have been asking to have a formal review so we can present our information since almost December,” Schweikert said of the investigation. Schweikert said he plans to meet with ethics investigators soon to make a presentation in the case.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/28/david-schweikert-aide-oliver-schwab-probe-680895
Just maybe we in the Democratic party can flip this house seat........................Primary is August 28,2018
https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona%27s_6th_Congressional_District_election_(August_28,_2018_Democratic_primary)
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough.......................get out and vote
America's immigration crisis
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/immigration-border-crisis/index.htmlIt is not a immigration issues it is a refugee issue....................
Bee Gees To Love Somebody
Bee Gees' Barry Gibb was knighted by Prince Charles
Unsealed Warrant Reveals More About Manafort's Dealings With Russian Oligarch
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Tierney Sneed | June 28, 2018 10:17 am
The unsealing of an application FBI agents used to secure a search warrant for Paul Manafort’s residence reveals new information about the former Trump campaign chairman’s business relationship with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire whom Manafort sought to offer “private briefings” while he was leading the Trump campaign.
According to the warrant, Deripaska helped fund Manafort’s years-long lobbying effort for Ukraine’s Party of Regions, which predated his work on the Trump campaign. Manafort also received a $10 million loan from Deripaska, the warrant said.
The warrant additionally reveals that by July 2017, Special Counsel Robert Mueller had on his radar loans Manafort took in 2016 and early 2017 from a bank whose CEO served as the Trump campaign adviser and reportedly wanted to be Trump’s Army secretary.
FBI agents sought the warrant from a magistrate judge in late July 2017, to search a Manafort apartment in Virginia. A more redacted version of the warrant had been included in previous court filings in Manafort’s cases in Virginia and Washington.
Reuters was the first to report that this less-redaction version of the warrant had been unsealed.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-search-warrant-deripaska-loans
And while this is going on................the US Supreme Court ...................
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough..................get out an vote
Flake: I Won't Hold Up SCOTUS Pick In Order To Force Tariff Vote
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Matt Shuham | June 28, 2018 11:02 am
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said Wednesday that he would not hold up President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat as leverage in his push to get a vote on the President’s tariffs.
“There are lots of folks out there who assume because I’ve not been in line with lots of the President’s policies, and certainly haven’t condoned his behavior, that I should oppose everything, every one of the President’s nominees or whatever,” Flake told the Arizona Republic. “I’ve never taken that position.”
“I certainly wasn’t anticipating a Supreme Court vacancy, but it’s unaffected,” he added.
Flake’s recent actions on the Senate Judiciary Committee started attracting attention a week ago, when a committee vote on appeals court nominee Britt Grantt was cancelled because Flake had withheld his vote for the second week in a row. The retiring Arizona senator later confirmed that he was trying to put pressure on his fellow Republicans to rein in Trump’s tariffs on allies, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
“Congress ought to stand up and say ‘No, we’re not going to do that. You can’t use Section 232 to claim that Canada is a national security threat,’” Flake said Sunday. “That’s not who we are.”
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/flake-i-wont-hold-up-scotus-pick-in-order-to-force-tariff-vote
You truly are a spineless evil person. with no fucking principles ......................and any news outlet that brings you on are are enabling your spineless evil mantra
You created this shit.......................and you should be reminded that you created this shit ........................asshole
Get out and vote...................November 2018 cannot get fast enough
Solution:
https://kyrstensinema.com/
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