Tuesday, March 31st, 2020
Andrea Germanos, Staff Writer - Common Dreams
Stephan: I keep telling you that criminal trump and his goblins are using the smog of the pandemic to carry out all kinds of nastiness; things they have dreamed of doing but couldn't because it would draw too much attention. But now with the media obsessed with the Coronavirus, they are pulling out all stops in order to further enrich the American kleptocracy, and the results are brutal.
“Amid a spiraling health crisis and economic turmoil, Trump is recklessly driving us over a climate cliff,” said Dan Becker, director of Safe Climate Campaign.
Credit: Sarah Nichols/Flickr
As the nation grapples with the coronavirus outbreak crisis, the Trump administration intends to further threaten public health and advance its attacks on environmental regulations with a new rule neutering Obama-era vehicle mileage standards, according to multiple news reports Monday.
The administration is expected to announce the new rule Tuesday.
The Obama administration in 2012 ordered automakers to have a 5% annual increase in fuel efficiency for model years beginning in 2021‚ a standard that would bring the equivalent of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The Trump administration will significantly weaken that standard and instead require a 1.5% annual increase, putting the 2025 at 40 mpg.
“Of all the bad things President Trump has done to the environment, this is the worst,” said Dan Becker, director of Safe Climate Campaign.
“Amid a spiraling health crisis and economic turmoil, Trump is recklessly driving us over a climate cliff,” Becker added.
As Bloomberg reported,
The final regulation’s release will conclude a years-long effort to dismantle the ambitious […]
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Jake Johnson, - truthout/Common Dreams
Stephan: If you listen to the news what you hear is that the recent legislation passed in the Senate is about helping ordinary people, and it does that although not adequately, as the coming days will demonstrate. That was the price to get Democrats to vote for it. But that isn't what this bill is really about. Its real function is to protect the neoliberal economy, and the vampire capitalism of American corporations. Here are the details.
Senate Majority leader and principal Trump goblin Mitch McConnell
Credit: Win McNamee/Getty
By a vote of 96-0, the United States Senate Wednesday night passed an enormous coronavirus stimulus package that would provide some desperately needed economic relief to struggling workers and the unemployed while establishing a $4.5 trillion fund to bail out large corporations — with little to no enforceable restrictions.
Progressives didn’t mince words in response to the unanimous vote, which sends the largest bailout legislation in U.S. history to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, where it could pass as early as Friday before heading to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
“We oppose the Senate’s looting of America by big corporations,” the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) said in a statement. “Over and over, the American people are told there is ‘no money’ — for student debt relief, for Medicare for All, for a Green New Deal, to create millions of jobs and save our planet. And now, at the moment when the American people are most in need, our coffers […]
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REBECCA BEITSCH, - The Hill
Stephan: I keep telling you that underneath the 24/7 media coverage of the pandemic, there is a whole other world of actions being taken by criminal Trump. I have already mentioned how the Trumplicans are trying to use the pandemic not to foster wellbeing but to shift blame away from Trump and use things like public information flyers to make Trump seem like he is in control. That's a lie, of course, but not the biggest one being promulgated by this administration. Trump is also using this crisis to suspend or reduce a wide range of government regulations designed to assure clean water and foster a vital earth.
It is hard for me to do this every day. I find Trump so loathsome, and the people around him so despicable that it is not easy to do the basic research I do each day to find these stories. I do it because I believe we are all interconnected and interdependent, and I think we each need to do what we can to foster wellbeing for every being on the planet. SR is one of the things I can do, and so I do it. I am trying to blow through the misinformation, propaganda, and lies, to get to the truth about what is happening, and get it out to others, so they can make informed assessments of things in their own life and the lives of their families.
Like you probably, I am closeted away on our property. Except for a couple of quick trips out I have not seen anyone but my wonderful wife, Ronlyn, in several weeks now. And as I do the research for each day's edition I am constantly reminded that none of this needed to happen. What we are going through is the result of Trump's incompetence, his basic nastiness, and his sick ego. Like you, I worry about my daughter and her son, I worry about friends I can talk to but can't see in person. And now I am worried that years of careful science designed to help the planet to prosper are being destroyed by this disgusting man and his cohorts.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to meet environmental standards during the coronavirus outbreak.
The temporary policy, for which the EPA has set no end date, would allow any number of industries to skirt environmental laws, with the agency saying it will not “seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations.”
Cynthia Giles, who headed the EPA’s Office of Enforcement during the Obama administration, called it a moratorium on enforcing the nation’s environmental laws and an abdication of the agency’s duty.
“This EPA statement is essentially a nationwide waiver of environmental rules for the indefinite future. It tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, so long as they claim that those failures are in some way ’caused’ by the virus pandemic. And it allows them an out on monitoring too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was,” […]
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Noah Lanard , Reporter - Mother Jones
Stephan: Here is yet further evidence proving that Trump and his familiars are trying to distort the Covid-19 pandemic to support Trump's re-election.
Trump signature
In a move that should surprise no one, President Donald Trump reportedly wants his signature on the checks that will be sent out to many Americans after Congress passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday evening that Trump wants his name of the checks, citing an unnamed administration official. Normally, a civil servant would sign them. It’s a move that various commentators predicted in the days for the bill became law.
The money for the checks comes from Congress, not Trump. The Senate passed the stimulus bill 96-0 on Wednesday. In the House, the bill was set to easily pass by voice vote until Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tried to […]
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Amanda Marcotte, - AlterNet
Stephan: Here is a story clearly illustrating what I mean by willful ignorance. When your life is at risk and you still won't believe something that might save it based on hard scientific data you are, like christofascist and Trump advisor Jerry Falwell demonstrating the very definition of willful ignorance.
Jerry Falwell, noted christofascist goblin, and Trump advisor
Credit: White House/Shealah Craighead
Scientists and health experts largely agree on the steps needed to fight COVID-19, the rapidly spreading new coronavirus: Widespread testing, if possible. Widespread and often stringent social distancing protocols in communities where it’s taken root, to slow the spread. Hygienic practices like frequent hand-washing and sterilizing commonly touched surfaces. Protective gear, like masks in medical settings, to keep health care professionals from catching it and spreading it.
But when it comes to conservative evangelical Christians, who are already hostile to science on many levels, advice from health experts is all too often being treated as something that can be dismissed out of hand, if it threatens the political or theological goals of their movement.
To be clear, Christian right leaders aren’t denying that coronavirus is a real problem (at least not anymore). If anything, the bevy of snake oil salesman who call themselves ministers sees the panic around the virus as a marketing opportunity to make money from selling
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