Tom Toles for April 26, 2018

PROFIT TRUMPS THE EARTH – {rhyme}

Regular science is distracting

from the goal of carbon-extracting: -

- which is Profit’s trumping the Earth,

trumping Mother Nature’s worth.

The Creation we’re counteracting

with the Greed which we’re enacting, -

- causing Earth to suffer a dearth

of health, well-being and mirth.

======

{Off the cartoon’s topic:}

TRUMP’S SYCOPHANTS – {limerick and coda}

America’s spirit slumps.

The fault is mostly Trump’s, -

- whose impetuosity

is a yuuge monstrosity

enabled by sycophant chumps.

… Coda:

With his megalomania unbound,

his errors compound and confound

while his sycophants mess around.

Our Ship of State runs aground.

========

The transparent research needed is to Pruitt’s financial dealings.

Pruitt believed all the lies about wasteful spending in government and thought he would take his turn.

Everything will be transparent except the air.

Continuing the political tradition doing the opposite of what the word’s definition, “transparency” will actually suppress important data and expert opinion to preserve old money interests.

" …

Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Administrator, has systematically removed science from environmental decisions and regulations in the United States. Now, he’s working on yet another rule that would eliminate decades of scientific studies from being considered when writing regulatory standards.

The new rule proposed today would require any data used by the EPA to set regulatory requirements to be publicly available. This new rule masks, which was proposed in the name of “transparency” in fact hides decades of scientific research.

Scott Pruitt, the EPA’s Administrator, proposed a new rule that would remove decades-long landmark studies on the health impacts of air pollution, pesticides, etc. from being used in environmental regulatory decisions. This is because many of the studies which were conducted over the course of decades signed a confidentiality agreement with the subjects to not share their personal information as part of the study. Hence, the data was anonymized and reported to the EPA with the requirement that personal information on each subject not be shared with the public.

…"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2018/04/24/epa-chief-scott-pruitt-delete-decades-of-science-in-the-name-of-transparency/#723ee65f7afa

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/?s=forbes

What is his justification for having a secure phone booth?

What is he doing that he does not want to become public knowledge?

{Off the cartoon’s topic:}

CATBIRD SEAT – {limerick}

Trump’s on the Catbird Seat,

where there he wreaks havoc replete

with idiotic tweet

and policies offbeat.

Would he were gone tout de suite.

======

OT, a bit, but why is anyone surprised at the nomination of Ronny Jackson? The core purpose of every appointment by Trump is to destroy the agency involved. Pruitt’s doing bang-up job of doing that to the EPA, and Ronny Jackson, as an atrocious administrator, is Trump’s “perfect” choice to head up the second-largest bureaucracy in the U.S.

The reason thatt Pruitt wants the raw data to be published is to pick them apart to twist them beyond recognition. A typo will be pointed out and they’ll claim an entire document is worthless. Proof of this is the use of the “17-year pause” deniers claimed because the rise in climate temp slowed slightly because of the El Nino spike.

It is incredible if anyone actually believes that people paid by the wealthy fossil fuel interests are trustworthy and scientists that dedicated their schooling and careers to science are not.

He wants to regulate science with a balance sheet: if the science requires companies to spend money fixing the problem then its junk science.

At the same time they want to shoot down research by demanding “public access” to security or HPPA data that can NOT be made public on research, the administration is PROHIBITING PUBLIC ACCESS TO BANKING INFORMATION ON HOW THE “CREDIT” FOLKS ARE SCREWING US AND VIOLATING THE LAWS! Ludicrous is the new “normal”.

If Pruitt’s head were transparent we could see that he is a crook of very little brain. (With apologies to Winnie the Pooh, though, truthfully, these treacherous modern times are liable to turn almost anybody into an Eeyore!)

This whole administration is transparent, we can see right through them.

British power generation achieves first ever coal-free day – The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/…/britain-set-for-first-coal-free-day-since-the-industrial-re…

Apr 21, 2017 – Friday was Britain’s first ever working day without coal power since the Industrial Revolution, according to the National Grid. The control room tweeted the milestone on Friday. It is the first continuous 24-hour coal-free period for Britain since use of the fossil fuel began.

Republicans are running America backwards.

Pruitt’s phone booth is to stop degenerate Tree Huggers, Malicious Birders, Save the Earthers from snooping on him. He’s pretty sure one of them might do a 2Nd Amendment Fix on him.

Zero accountability is the only way to get transparency from Republicans.

second biggest asshole in DC

When people on the right complain about “lazy people gettin’ free stuff” on the taxpayers dime, I think of people like Pruitt and not the inner-city person of color who is on welfare. I know the right wants me to picture an urban welfare queen getting an “Obama Phone” and eating caviar. However, it’s the self-important entitled people like Pruitt that do the real damage.

Republican welfare means give our tax dollars to rich people.