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,” she […]
