Trump's EPA may be working to find a way to green light the Pebble Mine. Have I told you how much I dislike the people in this administration?

Courtesy of CNN: 

Within hours of meeting with a mining company CEO, the new head of the US Environmental Protection Agency directed his staff to withdraw a plan to protect the watershed of Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most valuable wild salmon fisheries on Earth, according to interviews and government emails obtained by CNN. 

The meeting between EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Tom Collier, CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, took place on May 1, Collier and his staff confirmed in an interview with CNN. At 10:36 a.m. that same day, the EPA's acting general counsel, Kevin Minoli, sent an email to agency staff saying the administrator had "directed" the agency to withdraw an Obama-era proposal to protect the ecologically valuable wetland in southwest Alaska from certain mining activities. 

In 2014, after three years of peer-reviewed study, the Obama administration's EPA invoked a rarely used provision of the Clean Water Act to try to protect Bristol Bay after finding that a mine "would result in complete loss of fish habitat due to elimination, dewatering, and fragmentation of streams, wetlands, and other aquatic resources" in some areas of the bay. 

"All of these losses would be irreversible," the agency said.

The EPA is suggesting that this does NOT mean they will give the go ahead for the mining project, suggesting that they  want to simply do an environmental impact statement first, but we know they are going to green light this project.

Remember everything that President Obama did, Donald Trump wants undone.

Alaskans fought this project for years, and now all of that hard work might be for nothing, because some racist white guy has a hard on for the first black president.

Seriously, have I mentioned how much I dislike the people in this administration?

Palin picks up on her daughter's ghostwritten post about mean liberal teachers and makes it even dumber.

Courtesy of Palin's the Grizzled Mama's Facebook page: 

Teachers Unhinged 

Piper's endurance of incidents like this is admirable. The problem is when a teacher seeks to hurt a child who may not be as resilient as Piper has had to learn to be, that teacher will have scarred another child while never being held accountable. 

Funniest thing after this incident with the local Drama teacher was Piper's comment, "And of course, Mom, he drives a Prius." 

- Sarah Palin

"Unhinged teachers?"

There's some obvious projection for you.

Of course as I pointed out when this story first appeared two days ago over at Bristol's ghostwritten blog, it is VERY unlikely that anything like this happened, or that it happened in the way the Palin family ghostwriters describe it.

It is just another opportunity to garner sympathy by hiding behind the kids, and they are so dedicated to this methodology that they even decided to use it twice.

As Donald Trump would say, Sad. 

By the way, and just a little off topic, it appears that Dakota just bought Piper a car.

Okay just how much do former Medal of Honor recipients get paid? 

Because right now I have no idea what he actually does for a living.

Did the much reviled Pebble Mine project just die with a whimper and not a bang?

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

A 15-year fight to mine for gold along Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay might have just ended — with a whimper. 

Canadian mining firm Northern Dynasty Minerals has been a hot topic in investment advice since Election Day. The company’s stock jumped 326 percent after Donald Trump’s victory, as newsletters feverishly pitched the company’s prospects under the new regime. One even went so far as to label the stock “Trump’s Gold.” 

But Northern Dynasty’s long-planned gold and copper mine, located inside a key salmon spawning habitat, is less a secret fortune-maker and more an elaborate pump-and-dump stock scheme, investment analysts from Kerrisdale Capital said Tuesday. 

“All this enthusiasm is misplaced. We believe Northern Dynasty is worthless,” the analysts said in the note. Despite the stock jump, the company is actually “worth nothing because its key asset is not commercially viable.”

Well that's a little underwhelming. And yet gratifying. 

However it should be noted that this project has changed hands at least three times in the last fifteen years, and faced court orders and numerous protests, and yet it still refuses to completely die despite almost universal opposition from the Alaskan people. 

So is this it? Could this be the final nail in this project's coffin?

Well damn I hope so.

President Obama just used a Presidential Memorandum to protect Alaska's Bristol Bay.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

In a YouTube video released Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama announced a ban on future oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay, Alaska by way of a Presidential Memorandum. 

Bristol Bay is the most productive wild salmon fishery in the world, and is surrounded by sensitive tundra. Environmental groups and Native Alaskans have been working for years to secure protection for the area. “Bristol Bay has supported Native Americans in the Alaska region for centuries," Obama said in the video announcement. 

"It supports about $2 billion in the commercial fishing industry. It supplies America with 40 percent of its wild-caught seafood." "It is a beautiful natural wonder, and its something that is too precious for us to just be putting out to the highest bidder," Obama said.

Apparently this does not extend to mineral mining so it will not stop the Pebble Mine, though it may not make a difference since the EPA is already on that case.

Well I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that a certain half term governor/failed reality star is certainly going to have a rant about this in the next couple of hours or so.

However I will also say that Obama just made a lot of native Alaskans, commercial fishermen, and nature lovers very, very happy.

Well look who is finally thankful that Tripp Johnston has a dad.

The above is from Bristol's secret Facebook page. You know the one that she hopes nobody in the media pays any attention to.

For most of its existence Bristol has either ignored Levi's very existence or made nasty little remarks about being a single parent and not having ANY support.

Well just the other day that picture showed up out of the blue, which to me indicates that Bristol is more than a little worried that her constant nastiness toward Levi might be an issue during their mediation in five days and is trying to make nice at the last minute to cover for the shit she has been saying for the last four plus years.

Sadly for her there are reams of videotape showing both her, and her mother, making nasty remarks about Levi in public, and even more recorded instances of them saying worse in "private."

By the way I have it on good authority that Levi and Sunny are in the catbird seat, and that Bristol is going to have little choice but to acquiesce to their demands for equal custody rights.

P.S. Okay now concerning that picture. I realize that many of you are going to find that horrendous, and believe me as a non-hunting animal lover I understand your disgust.

However I feel I must remind you that Levi grew up hunting and fishing with his father, and in his mind there is literally nothing better than tracking an animal through the wilderness of Alaska and making a kill.

So it makes perfect sense that he would want to pass that love of adventure along to his son, and make the same memories with him that he cherishes of times spent with his own dad.

Sarah Palin posts pictures of her at Bristol Bay. I think this is where I'm supposed to say I was wrong.

Asshole blogger!

So earlier today I may have made some comment about not totally buying Palin's story about spending the weekend in Bristol Bay. And some IM commenters demanded photographic evidence.

Ta dah!

Now I am not exactly calling Palin a liar (Right this instant) but there is really no way of proving if this was taken this weekend at Bristol Bay or not.

(Nice to see that she included Trig, though by the way he is struggling it is clear he still does not enjoy having to spend time with her.)

Palin's ghostwriter also posted a few more pictures as well. You know just in case we were cynics. (Who us?)

According to the post this is supposed to be Piper.

Home from commercial fishing grounds in Bristol Bay, and here's Piper helping slay salmon to market! 

A good season for wild reds on the Nushagak, Piper hopes to make enough to cover, maybe, a cell phone bill. Do you agree, as I’ve said before, we need more girls holding up fish in pics instead of holding up iPhones in selfies?! 

Says the woman who has selfies literally all over the internet.

Another Piper photograph, which MIGHT prove that SHE was in Bristol Bay.

Look maybe Palin WAS there, after all anything is possible even though I have it on good authority that she hates fishing.

After all just because somebody photographed Palin in an airport on Sunday does NOT mean she was not also in Bristol Bay fishing with her family at the same time.

Wait.......

EPA moves to officially block the Pebble Mine.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it is beginning a process that could block a massive proposed gold mine in Alaska from being built. 

The Pebble Mine is a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine that could be up to 2 miles long, a mile and a half wide, and 1,700 feet deep -- the largest of its type in North America. The proposed site for the mine is at the headwaters of the Nushagak and Kvichak rivers, which feed into the Bristol Bay. It is the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, producing nearly half of the world's wild sockeye. 

The EPA said Friday that it is invoking Clean Water Act protections that would stop its construction, citing concerns about the threat it poses to the bay and the fish that depend on it. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said that the agency is taking the step to "ensure that the world's most productive salmon fishery is safe from the risks it faces from what could be one of the largest mines on Earth" in a call with reporters Friday afternoon. 

McCarthy cited threats to the region's multimillion-dollar fishing industry, as well as to native cultures that rely on the bay. The agency released a scientific assessment of the bay and proposed mine in mid-January, which McCarthy said provided "ample reason for EPA to believe that a mine of the size and scope of Pebble Mine would have significant and irreversible impacts on Bristol Bay."

And that should be the end of that.

This has been going on for years and it seems that everybody, except a handful of  politicians including Sarah Palin, have been speaking out against this since it first became known.

Alaska natives, fishermen, and environmentalists have been beating the drum, and finally it looks like the EPA is going to put their foot down and stop this potential environmental disaster BEFORE it can poison our water and kill our salmon.

I think Alaskans everywhere will be celebrating this decision. 

Sarah Palin MIA on Hannity yesterday.

So yesterday this was posted on Palin's ghostwritten Facebook page: 

Today, I’m in a remote area in Alaska (in Illiamna in Bristol Bay) and heading back in Todd’s float plane to do an interview for Hannity’s show on Fox in a few hours from our house. 

So of course the Sea O'Pee'ers damn near wet themselves with anticipation.

However Hannity came on and immediately started to talk about the Zimmerman trial, in the first segment usually reserved for the Princess of Poison Punditry. And by the end of the show it was pretty clear that she was not making an appearance.

Which was kind of odd considering the fact that Hannity had a segment on his show called "Is the Left Demonizing the Tea Party?" A segment that literally cried out for the nonsensical word salad of the Tundra twit.

This of course did not escape the notice of the barely coherent Palin-bots who were shocked from their usual stupor to do a thing we call "ask questions. 

"We are just as disappointed as you all are that Governor Palin’s segment was not on. Her Facebook post technically does not suggest it would have been aired tonight, but I do believe two very reliable folks who say they heard Sean advertise it today on his radio show. 

Whatever the case is, hopefully they will run it soon and once again I have no idea why FOX tonight is spending all this time talking about Zimmerman after one of the biggest legislative follies in history came out of the Senate today. 

Some are already claiming that the segment will air on different days, yet we cannot confirm through Governor Palin or FOX, so we’ll await confirmation.

Michele Malkin's insane Twitter focused blog Twitchy gathered a number of angry Palin-bot Tweets demanding to know where Sarah Palin was and accusing Hannity of being liar and tool of the GOP. (Right on both counts!)

Later this was posted on Twitchy:

You do not want to make Sarah Palin angry, and while you’re at it, you shouldn’t make Sarah Palin fans angry either. Palin was to have returned to Fox News tonight with an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show, but her segment was reportedly postponed after being hyped by the network. While viewers did get to see the same footage of the George Zimmerman trial we’ve seen all day long, most would have preferred Palin to “star witness” Rachel Jeantel. 

Now I have no reason to place any faith in the accuracy of the "reporting" from Twitchy as it links to a Palin propaganda site for its explanation. And it seems to me that Hannity's show had plenty of room for Palin's interview as proven by that liberals vs teabagger segment I cited earlier.

So, what happened? If it was just a logistical problem with Palin not making it back home in time, you would think THAT would be offered as the simple explanation. Because I have to tell you IF Palin traveled all the way from Bristol Bay just to film this interview with Hannity, and then got bumped, well that goes to show a dismissive attitude toward the Wasilla Wendigo that will certainly not sit well with her fans, OR with the Grizzled Mama herself.

Sarah Palin continues to wander around Fox studios desperately looking for attention. Update!

"Look at me, look at me, look at me now!"

I was not going to include any Palin interviews today, because frankly I am fed up with Palin's flirtatious Fox photo-ops.

However this one, where she wanders into the studio of some radio host I have never heard of called Tom Sullivan, was interesting in that Palin seemed to completely misunderstand the point he was making, and tries to defend HER version of "family values" by using Bristol as an example.

Here is the statement that Sullivan makes:

"The day before President Kennedy was assassinated, most rich people, most poor people. Most minorities, most majorities. 98% of the people were..that were adults..were married. They mostly went to church. They may have been in different economic zones, but they all kind of had the same values. And we don't have that now. Not even close to that, now we're down to something like 40% of adults are married, we're at a minority."

Now he is quoting from a book written by Charles Murray, and I am very suspicious of his data on this, but the point that Sullivan is making is clear. He blames much of the "breakdown of the American families" on a new looser moral code.  This is, purposefully or not, a direct attack on Palin, her morals, and how she has raised her family.

I am not at all sure that his point was completely understood by the Grizzled Mama who responds with this:

"You know what though? Look at my own, kinda thinking selfishly here, look at my life situation and how, perhaps, some of the things that I personally have gone through can be used as an example of, 'life happens.' For instance look at my daughter, she was a teenager, she was pregnant, she has this most beautiful baby now, but she recognizes, wow life would have been a lot easier and made more sense had this happened to me a decade from now, once I had my education, if I were married, and all that. However, and life also is all about, and your chances for prosperity and for success are all about how you are going to deal with the circumstances that your facing. My daughter Bristol decided, welp I'm going to DO this, I'm going to be independent and responsible, I will take responsibility, I will work extremely hard. She has two jobs, she works very, very hard. She's quite..um..modest and humble about where she does spend her money so that she has a future for her son. She's reacted well to the circumstances that she has been in, and it's an example of, okay life happens, it's not always perfect, ideal situations, how are you going to react to those? And again are you going to be personally responsible or are you going to have government do it for you?"

Now I am not a moralist, and don't necessarily agree with Sullivan, but his point about the fact that strong healthy families, usually make for strong healthy children, who then go on to have strong healthy families of their own, is not entirely incorrect. (Though I also believe that unhealthy relationships which "stay together for the children" can be much more damaging than divorce.)

I don't believe that Palin recognizes that the unhealthy environment which she had created at home (And which has been colorfully illustrated by Joe, Levi, and Frank Bailey's books), had essentially predetermined some of the problems her children are facing today.

So instead she did what she always does. She invented a healthy outcome for her daughter's "mistake," in which today everything is perfect, despite imperfect decisions in the past. Bristol is working two jobs, is modest and humble, and is NOT relying on the government for a hand out.

Of course WE know that Bristol's reality show, her job, seems to have crashed and burned, she has had several cosmetic surgeries, and that she is being partially supported by her mother.

She doesn't need a government handout because her mother's influence has helped her to get a book deal, appear on television, and film a pilot for a now defunct reality show.

So how was that being "personally responsible?"

And let's certainly not forget that Bristol got pregnant on purpose, it did not just happen to her.

She did it to get her mother's attention, force her to stop making her take care of the house, and to force her to stop taking her for granted. And it worked.

And, if rumors are true, it is STILL the best way to get Mommy's attention.

In a nutshell those are Sarah Palin's "family values" whether she admits them or not. How does that stack up to what the GOP is promoting in this 2012 election cycle?

Still think she will emerge victorious from a brokered convention?

(P.S. to hear this interview for yourself just click Tom Sullivan's name at the top of the post.)

Update: I don't want to do yet another Palin post today so let me just  attach the link to the Grizzled Mama's personal message to fans here.

And here are a few of more interesting excerpts for your enjoyment. 

 I’ll miss the start of the race because I’m visiting troops in Indiana on their way to Afghanistan, and it is important … these deployed troops and those returning — whom I so honor — they are our heroes. So, I’ll miss the first day of the Iron Dog, but then I’ll get home to cheer Todd on throughout that week. That’s one day in our lives, that’s Sunday. (laughter) 

Yep just visiting the troops, like any ex-reality show star would do. Certainly does NOT indicate any problems in the old marriage, right?

The kids are very busy. My son’s in the service, the oldest. And Bristol’s very busy. She’s working full-time for a dermatologist. She loves her job in an office there, raising her son Tripp, a single parent, doing great. She’s also shooting a [documentary] series – kind of the antithesis of the ‘Teen Mom’ stuff you see on MTV, for Lifetime. She’s shooting these segments that show what real life is like for a single mom who loves her son more than life itself, but sure wishes that maybe a decade from now after she had an education, after she had some career experience under her belt, then she would have had a baby. 

Actually there may be a NEW Alaska based reality show in the works for Bristol.  Or so says some film insider pals of mine. Apparently THAT is one of the "two jobs" she is currently working on,


Willow’s doing awesome. She’s going to graduate high school a year early, and then she’s going off to hair school, and she’s so excited about that. She’s 17, and she was in New York and D.C. with me at the beginning of the week, and Willow got a little taste of real life because she was telling some folks that she was proud that she was getting to graduate a year early and that she’d gotten everything lined up and then she got accepted to hair school. Then it occurred to her, she was like, “I think they looked at me, mom, like, ‘well if you’re willing to pay the tuition, doesn’t everybody get accepted to hair school?’” But she’s still real excited, and I’m excited for her. 

I will let this pass without comment. I am sure many of you will take up the slack.

And Trigg is just the light of our life … just an awesome little kid. He got glasses yesterday. He’s almost four years old, and [it's] just the sweetest little heart of gold that he has. He keeps us grounded, keeps us knowing what our right priorities are. 

Trigg got glasses today? Well that's about damn time!

Robert Redford takes on the Pebble Mine in Alaska.

I know that we are a little irritated at the Huffington Post, but this article written by Robert Redford is required reading for anybody who loves Alaska, and every other wonderous, magical  place on our planet:

Imagine a pit two miles wide by 2,000 feet deep, and an underground mine a mile deep. This gargantuan gold and copper operation would produce an estimated 10 billion tons of contaminated waste -- 3,000 pounds for every man, woman and child on Earth.

Massive earthen dams -- some taller than the Three Gorges Dam in China -- would be constructed to hold back that waste forever. Now imagine all this in an active earthquake zone at the headwaters of the largest sockeye salmon runs in the world. The threat to Bristol Bay just below is unimaginable.

No wonder the Pebble Mine is opposed by nearly 80 percent of Bristol Bay residents. The growing coalition to stop this disaster-in-the-making is led by Native village corporations, associations and tribes from around Bristol Bay. They've partnered with commercial and recreational fishermen, sportsmen and conservation groups to protect the thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars that come from Bristol Bay's renewable economic engine: wild salmon.

Anglo American's history is littered with one pollution disaster after another: from Zimbabwe to Ireland to Nevada. Rio Tinto has left a trail of toxic contamination that spans the globe: from Indonesia to Bolivia to Utah. Do you trust these companies to take a catastrophic risk with one of our last and greatest wild places?

Mr. Redford also provides this link to a petition that I am asking all of you to please sign in order to protect this sparkling jewel of Alaska  from becoming a toilet filled with contaminated industrial sludge.

It will only take a moment, and afterward you will not only have the satisfaction of protecting such a gorgeous place, but you will have the added satisfaction of knowing that you have helped to sabotage yet another of Sarah Palin's carefully laid plans to ravage our pristine landscape.