Pruitt

Over the weekend, NY Times reporters Coral Davenport and Eric Lipton traced a metamorphosis inside the upper echelons of the Republican Party. They looked at how GOP dogma went from dealing rationally with Climate Change to obstinate science denialism formerly only embraced by complete crackpots like House Science Committee chairman Lamar Smith of Texas. The are good reasons why the crazy far right fringe was the first part of the GOP to embrace Trump and Trumpism.

On his show Friday, Bill Maher, made a case that since Trump entered the White House his party's guiding premise is now just "some warped idea that the way to show strength is by being a dick. And that in a nutshell is what Republicanism has become. Looking at any problem and saying, 'what would a dick do?'" Obviously he soon turned to Trump's Pruitt-directed EPA-- okaying a pesticide known to cause brain damage in children and working to allow asbestos again. Asbestos, you know, the cancer-causing substance banned in 58 countries, including all 28 nations of the European Union.

Yesterday the Maine Beacon reported that 8 Democrats-- 2 in the state Senate and 6 in the House-- signed on to Paul LePage's plan to roll back a just-passed minimum wage increase. And by "signed on," I mean co-sponsoring a bill that would target restaurant workers.

Thursday, the Republicans invoked cloture to shut down the debate over the qualifications of one of Trump's Pence's worst nominees, Oklahoma's corrupt Attorney General Scott Pruitt, with whom they hope to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The vote was 54-46, the Senate's 2 most right-wing Democrats, Joe Manchin (WV) and Heidi Heitkamp (ND) crossing the aisle to go with the Republicans to end the debate.

The confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education last night was a real blow to the Resistance. She's venal and unqualified and she has a toxic agenda that seeks to destroy public education. But Trump has even worse nominees still waiting to be confirmed.

Now more than ever...by Gaius PubliusWe've already seen several indications that EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, will be stripped of its mission — protecting the environment, including the climatic environment — and turned into a profit protection agency instead.

In Trump World, an example of unsound science (source: National Academy of Science)by Gaius PubliusIs it an emergency yet?Trump's plans for changes t

A chart of global surface temperature anomalies, meaning changes from a baseline, for the 2016 calendar year. Here the baseline is 1951–1980 (source: NASA).

Pruitt and McMorris Rodgers, tasked with destroying America's environmentOf Washington's 10 congressional district, there really are only 2 that are safely red-- WA-04 and WA-05. Both go from the Canadian border to the Oregon border and both are large and largely rural. The 4th, represented by Republican sophomore Dan Newhouse, is the center of the state and includes Grand Coulee, Yakima and the Richland/Kennewick metro.