Senate Democrats say they can find NO credible evidence that EPA chief Scott Pruitt received threats that justify his unprecedented security expenses.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Confidential security assessments in the Environmental Protection Agency show no evidence of specific, credible, physical threats against Administrator Scott Pruitt, despite claims that an “unprecedented” number of death threats justify his outsized security spending, according to a review by Senate Democrats. 

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee wrote in a letter Tuesday that they have reviewed security assessments describing 16 purported threats against Pruitt. They include public protests, criticism of Pruitt’s policies and other activities protected by the First Amendment. 

The letter from Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island urged the committee’s Republican chairman to begin oversight hearings into Pruitt’s unusual security precautions. 

The Associated Press reported Friday that EPA has spent about $3 million on Pruitt’s security measures, which included flying first-class and using a full-time security detail of 20 armed officers.

Here are some of the "threats" that have been identified by HuffPo:

Here are some alleged threats against Pruitt that were investigated, according to reports: 

― The EPA inspector general in March 2017 investigated a postcard sent to the EPA that said: “Get out while you still can, Scott,” “You ignorant fuck,” and “You are evil incarnite,” according to a report obtained by E&E. EPA investigators discussed the message with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. But they couldn’t identify the author and concluded the message “lacked a clear threat.”

 ― Another postcard included “an implied threat that contained obscene language,” Sullivan told E&E. “It was not a direct threat.” The U.S. attorney’s office declined to prosecute, and the writer of the message apologized when contacted by federal officials, said Sullivan. 

― “Threatening tweets” against Pruitt and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were investigated in April 2017. The writer told investigators he wrote the “flippant comments” while drinking and watching “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and had no intention of hurting anyone. He apologized, and a U.S. attorney’s office declined to press charges. 

― The EPA launched a criminal probe in April 2017 into two female protesters who interrupted a speech by Pruitt. Officials submitted information for misdemeanor charges, but no action was taken. 

― The head of the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement told Politico in February that Pruitt’s safety was threatened when people yelled obscenities at him.

Jesus, I never realized it before but perhaps I need a bullet proof desk, because I have received way more aggressive threats than these.

By the way as it turns out Pruitt's predecessor, Gina McCarthy, received some ACTUAL threats of harm.

One of which said, “We will hurt you and your family.”

And yet she did not even bother to ask for a bullet proof desk, or even around the clock security.

Go figure. 

New talking points from the EPA minimize human impact on climate change.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't understand all of those sciencey words you keep using.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Environmental Protection Agency staffers received a list of “talking points” this week instructing them to underscore the uncertainties about how human activity contributes to climate change. 

A career employee in the department’s Office of Public Affairs distributed the eight talking points to regional staffers. The list offered suggestions on ways to talk with local communities and Native American tribes about how to adapt to extreme weather, rising seas and other environmental challenges. 

Employees crafted the email, first disclosed Wednesday by HuffPost, on the basis of controversial — and scientifically unsound — statements that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has made about the current state of climate research.

“Human activity impacts our changing climate in some manner,” reads one of the talking points. “The ability to measure with precision the degree and extent of that impact, and what to do about it, are subject to continuing debate and dialogue.”

Another states that while there has been “extensive” research and numerous reports on climate change, “clear gaps remain including our understanding of the role of human activity and what we can do about it.”

In other words the Trump Administration is saying that since they do not understand, or really trust, science they are simply going to do nothing, and hope that the world does not burn to a cinder before Trump can run for reelection.

Personally I think that the EPA folks who start spewing this bullshit in front of the ALASKAN native community better have one hand on the doorknob of the conference room, because those folks know exactly who to blame for the changing weather patterns, and it ain't them.

Clips from 2005 talk radio appearances show that EPA administrator Scott Pruitt does not believe in Evolution and wants to amend the Constitution to ban abortion and ban marriage equality.

“There aren’t sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution, and it deals with the origins of man, which is more from a philosophical standpoint than a scientific standpoint,” Pruitt said on an Oklahoma radio program in 2005. https://t.co/20oZv5lOG8 pic.twitter.com/i8QpcYvfkQ

— POLITICO (@politico) March 2, 2018

Courtesy of Politico:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt dismissed evolution as an unproven theory, lamented that “minority religions” were pushing Christianity out of “the public square” and advocated amending the Constitution to ban abortion, prohibit same-sex marriage and protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments, according to a newly unearthed series of Oklahoma talk radio shows from 2005. 

Pruitt, who at the time was a state senator, also described the Second Amendment as divinely granted and condemned federal judges as a “judicial monarchy” that is “the most grievous threat that we have today." And he did not object when the program’s host described Islam as “not so much a religion as it is a terrorist organization in many instances.”

The views he states, in discussions peppered with references to inalienable rights and the faith of the nation's founders, are in line with those of millions of other conservative, devout Christians. But they also show stances that at times are at odds with the broader American mainstream, and in some cases with accepted scientific findings — an issue that has more recently come up with his skepticism about the science behind climate change. 

“There aren’t sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution (Actually there are.), and it deals with the origins of man, which is more from a philosophical standpoint than a scientific standpoint,” he said in one part of the series (That is actually untrue as well.), in which Pruitt and the program's hosts discussed issues related to the Constitution. 

Of course Republicans were quick to defend Pruitt and his primitive superstitious views.

Republicans in Congress defended Pruitt, saying his religious beliefs should factor into how he does his job. 

"All of us are people of faith and obviously influenced by our faith and the role it played in our life … and continue[s] to play in our life on a daily basis," said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees EPA. "It’s a part of who we are."

Actually since protecting the environment is an entirely science based policy, a person's religious beliefs serve only to interfere in their ability to understand the data they see in order to help direct their decision making.

ANY potential cabinet member who espouses such arcane and outdated opinions should NEVER be put in charge of any agency which requires at least some understanding and respect for science.

Period.

EPA head Scott Pruitt says he cannot fly commercial because people are mean to him.

Courtesy of Time: 

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has broken months of silence about his frequent premium-class flights at taxpayer expense, saying he needs to fly first class because of unpleasant interactions with other travelers. 

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt spoke about his flight costs on Tuesday in a pair of interviews in New Hampshire, following a first-class flight to meet with the state’s Republican governor and tour a toxic waste site. 

Pruitt told the New Hampshire Union Leader he had some “incidents” on flights shortly after his appointment by President Donald Trump last year. 

“We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment,” said Pruitt, who confirmed to the newspaper that he had flown first class from Washington to Boston before continuing on to New Hampshire. “We’ve reached the point where there’s not much civility in the marketplace and it’s created, you know, it’s created some issues and the (security) detail, the level of protection is determined by the level of threat.”

The article goes on to remind us that Pruitt is the first EPA chief to have 24 hour security, and that he spent $25,000 on a soundproof booth so that nobody can listen in on his phone calls, and is spending $3,000 to have his office swept for listening devices.

Okay I do not want to hear one more slack jawed conservative calling liberals "snowflakes" ever again.

This guy is essentially afraid of his own shadow.

Trump's EPA chief suggests that Global Warming could be good for humans. No, really!

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, alluded earlier this week that global warming may be beneficial to humans, once again questioning the world’s leading scientists who have declared the phenomenon one of the greatest known threats to humanity. 

In an interview that aired Tuesday on KSNV, a Nevada television station, Pruitt questioned how accurately scientists could predict the planet’s ideal temperature in 2100, or even this year, and said humans had “flourished” in times of past warmth. 

“We know humans have most flourished during times of what, warming trends,” Pruitt said during the interview. “I think there’s assumptions made that because the climate is warming, that that necessarily is a bad thing. Do we really know what the ideal surface temperature should be in the year 2100, in the year 2018?” 

He continued: “That’s fairly arrogant for us to think that we know exactly what it should be in 2100.”

This is not a parody folks, this is actually what he said. 

I have to wonder, is it arrogant of us to note that hurricanes and storms have dramatically increased in their destructive powers?

Or that people all around the country are dying from unprecedented drought conditions?

Is it arrogant to realize that much of the premier beach front property enjoyed by millions will soon be underwater, and that available land mass could be greatly reduced?

Is recognizing the rapidly increasing spread of disease and the loss of entire species of animals also arrogant of us?

Yeah, I think I see some arrogance as well.

And it is embodied by the asshole currently leading he EPA. 

To just about everybody's surprise it appears that even the Trump Administration has serious concerns about the opening of Pebble Mine in Alaska.

Courtesy of The Hill:

The Trump administration is reviving a controversial Obama administration proposal to block a massive gold mine proposed in Alaska after previously saying it would revive the proposal. 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt announced the surprise reversal late Friday, saying that the EPA now believes that the Pebble Mine project would be unacceptably harmful to Bristol Bay and its tributaries. 

Pruitt said he made the call after speaking with various stakeholders involved in the decision, citing serious concerns with the impact from mining and mining waste on the bay. 

“We have restored process, reviewed comments, and heard from a variety of stakeholders on whether to withdraw the proposed restrictions in the Bristol Bay watershed,” Pruitt said in a statement. 

“Based on that review, it is my judgment at this time that any mining projects in the region likely pose a risk to the abundant natural resources that exist there. Until we know the full extent of that risk, those natural resources and world-class fisheries deserve the utmost protection.”

Seriously I would NEVER have thought that freaking Scott Pruitt would put the brakes on this thing. 

I figured that Pruitt carried around an industrial strength condom just so that he could personally rape the land himself.

But I guess this just goes to show you that this Pebble Mine proposal is certain to be an environmental disaster of Biblical proportions.

So bad that even an administration which sees restrictions on development as a personal affront to their capitalist ideals cannot bring themselves to sign off on it.

Somebody left an unidentified package on Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's driveway. But don't worry according to the LAPD bomb squad its just good old American horse manure.

Steve Mnuchin and his wife earning a gift of horse poop.

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:  

Los Angeles police got a whiff of horse manure intended for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at his Bel-Air home Saturday night. 

A neighbor discovered the Christmas-themed package on the driveway of the Trump cabinet member around 5:30 p.m. local time and called police, a Los Angeles Police Department official said. 

The bomb squad opened the gift-wrapped surprise and found a “pretty good quantity” of horse manure inside, LAPD Sgt. Briggs said.

Local authorities wrapped up their investigation at the Bel-Air home a short time later and Briggs said the Secret Service would be picking up the box of feces on Sunday.

I typically do not like gags like this, as I find them childish and immature.

Having said that this is a pretty good childish and immature gag.

And they gift wrapped it, which is such a nice touch.

Perhaps Mnuchin can start following EPA Director Scott Pruitt's example and start having his office, and driveway, swept for unwelcome packages of feces.

Just a thought.

Have a happy Christmas Eve folks. 

EPA chief Scott Pruitt may be the king of paranoia.

Courtesy of the AP: 

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency used public money to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and bought sophisticated biometric locks for additional security. 

The spending items, totaling nearly $9,000, are among a string of increased counter-surveillance precautions taken by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who also requires around-the-clock protection by an armed security team. 

The EPA’s Office of Inspector General is already investigating Pruitt’s $25,000 purchase of a custom-made soundproof privacy booth for his office to deter eavesdropping on his phone calls.

An accounting of Pruitt’s spending for the bug sweep and pricey locks was provided to The Associated Press by an EPA employee who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns of retaliation.

Does Scott Pruitt realize that he works for a government agency that deals with the environment and is NOT in fact working with the CIA?

Kind of makes me wonder if Donald Trump chooses his cabinet members based on the number of voices they hear in their heads.

More than 700 employees have left the EPA since Scott Pruitt took over.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Since Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt took over the top job at the agency in March, more than 700 employees have either retired, taken voluntary buyouts, or quit, signaling the second-highest exodus of employees from the agency in nearly a decade. 

According to agency documents and federal employment statistics, 770 EPA employees departed the agency between April and December, leaving employment levels close to Reagan-era levels of staffing. According to the EPA’s contingency shutdown plan for December, the agency currently has 14,449 employees on board — a marked change from the April contingency plan, which showed a staff of 15,219. 

“There has been a drop of employees of 770 between April and December. While several hundred of those are buyouts, the rest of those are either people that are retiring or quitting in disgust,” Kyla Bennett, director of New England Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), told ThinkProgress. “Is that number higher than it would normally be? I think it is.”

I imagine the number of exiting employees will only continue to grow. 

After all how many employees do you need at the Environmental Protection Agency if they have no intention of protecting the environment?

President Obama put a lot of effort into plans to protect this planet, so of course Donald Trump's focus is on undoing everything that he tried to accomplish even if it means the death of every creature in existence.

EPA chief comforts fossil fuel companies by assuring him that new report which specifically blames climate change on humans will not impact his policy decisions.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said a newly released government report that lays most of the blame for the rise of global temperatures to human activity won't deter him from continuing to roll back the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, a major rule aimed at combating climate change. 

"We’re taking the very necessary step to evaluate our authority under the Clean Air Act and we’ll take steps that are required to issue a subsequent rule. That’s our focus," Pruitt said in an interview with USA TODAY Tuesday. "Does this report have any bearing on that? No it doesn’t. It doesn’t impact the withdrawal and it doesn’t impact the replacement."

You might be asking yourself why a scientific report would have zero impact on EPA policies, considering the job they are supposed to perform, and the answer to that is because it's only some report done by scientists.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Rigorous, independent research and analysis should undergird everything the government does. Nowhere is that more true than at the Environmental Protection Agency, which crafts and enforces a wide range of regulations aimed at limiting damage to the environment — and to people — from pollutants. Democratic administrations tend to use data to justify more aggressive regulation, while Republican administrations tend to prefer a lighter touch. But the current administration is following a third path, seemingly bent on converting the EPA into a science-be-damned rubber stamp for industry. And if director Scott Pruitt is successful, we will be living in a much more dangerous environment.

So no, a report from a bunch of scientists will NOT have an impact on the polices of the EPA, because the head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, simply does not believe in all that science mumbo jumbo.

EPA gagged agency scientists who were scheduled to speak at Rhode Island climate change conference yesterday.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

The Environmental Protection Agency has canceled the speaking appearance of three agency scientists who were scheduled to discuss climate change at a conference on Monday in Rhode Island, according to the agency and several people involved. 

John Konkus, an E.P.A. spokesman and a former Trump campaign operative in Florida, confirmed that agency scientists would not speak at the State of the Narragansett Bay and Watershed program in Providence. He provided no further explanation. 

Scientists involved in the program said that much of the discussion at the event centers on climate change. Many said they were surprised by the E.P.A.’s last-minute cancellation, particularly since the agency helps to fund the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, which is hosting the conference. 

The scientists who have been barred from speaking contributed substantial material to a 400-page report to be issued on Monday. The move highlights widespread concern that the E.P.A. will silence government scientists from speaking publicly or conducting work on climate change. Scott Pruitt, the agency administrator, has said that he does not believe human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are primarily responsible for the warming of the planet. 

This is how dictatorships work.

Attack the media, silence the intellectuals, and spread fear among the people. 

In the meantime they implement policies which allow them to grow their wealth, while endangering the population.

They always say that elections have consequences, and in this case that is quite the understatement.

EPA is spending almost $25,000 to build a soundproof booth so that Scott Pruitt can communicate privately.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The Environmental Protection Agency is spending nearly $25,000 to construct a secure, soundproof communications booth in the office of Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to government contracting records. 

The agency signed a $24,570 contract earlier this summer with Acoustical Solutions, a Richmond-based company, for a “privacy booth for the administrator.” The company sells and installs an array of sound-dampening and privacy products, from ceiling baffles to full-scale enclosures like the one purchased by the EPA. The project’s scheduled completion date is Oct. 9, according to the contract. 

Typically, such soundproof booths are used to conduct hearing tests. But the EPA sought a customized version — one that eventually would cost several times more than a typical model — that Pruitt can use to communicate privately.

The agency is arguing that they need this for the sake of privacy but they already have a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) on site, just like other agencies, so the reason for this extra level of security is somewhat puzzling.

It kind of makes you wonder just what Pruitt is saying that he is so desperate to keep quiet.

And of course who he is saying it to.

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?

The problem with climate change denying in the wake of devastating hurricanes.

Courtesy of the Guardian: 

As the US comes to terms with its second major weather disaster within a month, an important question is whether the devastation caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma will convince Donald Trump and his administration of the reality of climate change. 

The president’s luxurious Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida may escape Irma’s wrath, but with the deaths of so many Americans, and billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses, the costs of climate change denial are beginning to pile up at the door of the White House. 

Just days before Harvey formed in the Atlantic last month, Trump signed an executive order to overturn a policy, introduced by his predecessor Barack Obama, to help American communities and businesses become more resilient against the risks of flooding, which are rising because of climate change. 

But the merciless assault on the US mainland by Harvey and Irma should be forcing the president to recognise the consequences of his arrogance and complacency in dismissing the research and analysis carried out by scientists. 

The flooded streets of Houston and the wind-ravaged homes of south Florida bear the unmistakable fingerprint of extreme weather made worse by manmade greenhouse gas emissions.

I don't have a lot of confidence that Trump will suddenly see the light,  especially while the head of his EPA is suggesting that talking about climate change is "insensitive" to the victims of the storms, however it should instruct voters that they need to prioritize candidates who understand and respect science to offset the shitgibbon wiping poop all over the country's environmental protections.

The Trumpfication of America. The EPA is now personally attacking an AP reporter using an article from Breitbart.

The EPA press release links to a Breitbart story blasting the AP’s reporting as “fake news” pic.twitter.com/y2j7d1s8Mz

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) September 3, 2017

In their statement the EPA went after the AP and one of the reporters directly: 

Unfortunately, the Associated Press’ Michael Biesecker has a history of not letting the facts get in the way of his story. Earlier this summer, he made-up a meeting that Administrator Pruitt had, and then deliberately discarded information that refuted his inaccurate story – ultimately prompting a nation-wide correction. Additionally, the Oklahoman took him to task for sensationalized reporting. 

"The Oklahoman" by the way is a rather conservative paper which was quick to come to the defense of fellow Oklahoman Scott Pruitt: 

THE disdain that some in the media have for President Trump and members of his administration is evident regularly. Recent coverage related to EPA administrator Scott Pruitt provides an example of interest to locals because of Pruitt's Oklahoma ties.

As you can read from that opening paragraph the paper has a clear and obvious bias. So of course Trump's EPA is going to cherry pick their story to bolster their complaint against the AP.

The Associated Press of course has a response.

Statement from @AP executive editor Sally Buzbee about @JHDearen and my report on flooded #Superfund sites in #Houston. @EPA #Harvey pic.twitter.com/qeegU1q3eT

— Michael Biesecker (@mbieseck) September 3, 2017

All of this is of course comes directly from the Donald Trump playbook which is to promote positive press coverage and dismiss any negative, fact based, coverage as "fake news."

And now it appears that these same tactics have been adopted by the federal agencies now under Trump's control.

Apparently this is the new normal.

The Utility companies have known since the 60's that carbon dioxide emissions were destroying the environment, they just didn't care.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Just a few days ago, an exhaustive report by the Energy and Policy Institute revealed that public utilities have been aware of the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions and the use of coal as an energy fuel since the 1960s. 

According to the study, in the 1970s, members of the Electric Power Research Institute, a group financed by the utility industry, testified before Congress that their own investigations have led them to believe that “the fossil fuels combustion will be essentially unacceptable, an important justification for expanding (...) solar energy options.” And by 1988, the same institute stated that, “There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is real.” 

Frustratingly, regardless of its strong awareness of what today is humanity’s most pressing challenge, this same industry years later launched a national campaign to deny the climate crisis, and undermine any national and international efforts to fight it. Several of these companies joined forces with the fossil fuel industry in a successful push for the U.S. to renounce the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. 

And today, Southern Company, the country’s third largest utility, persists on denying CO2 emissions are the main culprit in the climate crisis. Moreover, an important sector of this industry funds front groups that oppose any CO2 limits on coal-burning plants.

This kind of goes hand in glove with those discovered emails from Exxon that proved the oil giant knew full well that their product was killing the planet and then spent millions to keep that information from the public.

This shit drives me crazy, and is a strong indication of why we so desperately need the EPA.

And currently Trump's administration is in the process of dismantling it.

The government has just lost four of its top cyber security officials. Gee, what great timing.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:  

Four senior cybersecurity officials are stepping down from their US government positions, raising concerns that an exodus of top leaders may make the federal government more vulnerable to hacking. 

Two of those resigning – Sean Kelley, the chief information security officer for the Environmental Protection Agency, and Richard Staropoli, the chief information officer for the Department of Homeland Security – had been in their jobs for just a few months. 

The other two, Rob Foster, the Navy's chief information officer, and Dave DeVries, the director of information security and privacy at the Office of Personnel Management, are departing agencies for which computer security is a top priority. DeVries assumed his job shortly after the OPM suffered the largest known cyberattack in federal government history, and Foster had served in similar positions at the Department of Health and Human Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Ann Dunkin, the CIO of the EPA under President Barack Obama who was asked to leave by Trump’s transition team and now holds the same title for Santa Clara County, California, told BuzzFeed News that four executives leaving in such a short time raised red flags. 

“There appears to be a concerted effort to remove the career CIOs who were there during the Obama administration,” Dunkin said. “During the last week we’ve seen four go? That smells.”

Though the four departing officials gave a variety of reasons for their decision to leave, one source suggested that it was likely due to frustration that multiple key positions within the agency were being left vacant.

This is troubling for one very important reason.

Donald Trump has suggested that Vladimir Putin would not have wanted him to win the election because he plans to build up the military.

But the facts are that Putin could not care less that Trump is wasting taxpayer money on bullets, bombs, and ships.

Putin's latest attack against America could never have been repelled by military aircraft or a regiment of soldiers. To stop those Russian hackers our government needed more highly trained and experienced cyber security experts.

So THIS agency is key to protecting us from the next attempts to hack our government agencies, political parties, or polling stations.

Which should make everybody wonder why increasing the spending and making sure it is fully staffed is not priority one for this administration.

Though sadly once again I think we already know the answer to that question.

Well now Donald Trump's ignorance about climate change is directly impacting Alaska.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

The Trump administration has moved to dismantle climate adaptation programs including the Denali Commission, an Anchorage-based agency that is crafting a plan to safeguard or relocate dozens of towns at risk from rising sea levels, storms and the winnowing away of sea ice. 

Federal assistance for these towns has been ponderous but could now grind to a halt, with even those working on the issue seemingly targeted by the administration. In July, Joel Clement, an interior department official who worked with Alaskan communities on climate adaptation, claimed he had been moved to a completely unrelated position because of the administration’s ideological hostility to the issue. 

“We were getting down to the brass tacks of relocation [of towns at risk] and now work has just stopped,” Clement told the Guardian. He has lodged an official complaint over his reassignment.

“Without federal coordination from Washington DC, there isn’t much hope. This will take millions of dollars and will take years, and these people don’t have years. I think it’s clear I was moved because of my climate work. It feels like a complete abdication of responsibility on climate change.” 

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, 31 Alaskan communities face “imminent” existential threats from coastline erosion, flooding and other consequences of temperatures that are rising twice as quickly in the state as the global average. A handful – Kivalina, Newtok, Shishmaref and Shaktoolik – are considered in particularly perilous positions and will need to be moved. 

“It was clear from the start of the Trump administration that there was no interest in helping Alaskan communities, particularly coastal communities, adapt to climate change,” said Victoria Hermann, president of the Arctic Institute. 

“There’s now no liaison from Washington on the issue. The biggest loss has been momentum. It feels like the Obama administration was kickstarting something useful but now it has dropped dead.”

It should be noted that Alaska natives overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton, and in an unusual move even endorsed her during the 2016 campaign.

They knew what the danger was in electing Donald Trump, and they feared what he would do to the country and how it could negatively impact their lives.

And they were right to fear.

These villages are in a very dire situation, and without government help they may lose the home they and their ancestors have inhabited for literally thousands of years.

The Denali Commission in Anchorage is working right now to raise funds and help them, but as it turns out they are also targeted for elimination by the Trump Administration.

When President Obama came here in 2015 he saw the problems facing our native communities and he implemented plans to help them.

If Hillary Clinton had won this election you can bet she would have kept those promises made by her predecessor.

Donald Trump on the other hand wants to literally undo EVERYTHING President Obama set in motion to help this planet and her people.

Like I said, the Alaska natives knew. Too bad so many failed to listen.

Trump Administration removes virtually ALL mention of climate change, and the science that backs it up, from federal government websites.

How these pages appeared when we had a real leader in charge of this country.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

During inauguration day on 20 January, as Donald Trump was adding “American carnage” to the presidential lexicon, the new administration also took a hammer to official recognition that climate change exists and poses a threat to the US. 

One of the starkest alterations to the White House’s website following Trump’s assumption of office was the scrapping of an entire section on climate change, stuffed with graphs on renewable energy growth and pictures of Barack Obama gazing at shriveling glaciers, to be replaced by a perfunctory page entitled “An America first energy plan”. 

In the more than 100 days since, the administration has largely opted for a chisel and scalpel approach to refashioning its online content, but the end result is much the same – mentions of climate change have been excised, buried or stripped of any importance. 

Federal government websites are being combed through to apply new verbiage. The state department’s office of global change, for example, has removed links to the Obama administration’s 2013 climate action report and mention of the latest UN meeting on climate change. Text relating to climate change and greenhouse gases has also been purged.

Here is one of the worst things that this article pointed out:  

Trump’s desire to champion the coal industry is reflected in the Department of Energy’s online pages aimed at educating children. Sentences that point out the harmful health consequences of burning coal and other impacts of fossil fuels have gone.

It is one thing to remove data from websites visited by adults, who may have the wherewithal and intellect to find the right information elsewhere, but when you take it off of educational sites visited by children you are purposely misinforming them down and directly interfering in their education.

This reminded me of a scene from that very troubling "Jesus Camp" documentary in which one of the kids, Levi, is reading from home school material that purposefully minimizes global warming, and attacks Evolution.

Having a parent purchase home school materials to help misinform their children, and keep them ignorant, is bad enough, but when our own federal websites are doing the same that is indefensible.

The once dead Pebble Mine project has now been resurrected, thanks to Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Plans to mine alongside Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay, where half the world’s salmon are fished, had appeared dead in the water in recent years. 

Not anymore. The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped a regulatory plan that would have protected Bristol Bay from the planned Pebble Mine, encouraging the project’s backers to seek permits and move forward. 

Northern Dynasty, the mining concern behind the Pebble project, has had a rough few years. In 2014, the Obama EPA moved to block its plans to mine for copper and gold under the Clean Water Act, prompting the company to launch a costly court battle. Then a New York investments house announced it believes the company’s stock is effectively worth $0.00 — because even if Pebble gets approved it will be economically impossible to extract the minerals there in a profitable fashion. 

Optimists, meanwhile, began pushing Northern Dynasty stock as a get-rich-quick opportunity following President Donald Trump’s election victory, in anticipation of a reversal in federal policy toward Pebble. On Friday, that prediction was proven at least partly correct: EPA head Scott Pruitt announced the agency would settle Northern Dynasty’s lawsuit, abandon Obama-era regulatory plans, and allow the company to apply for a mining permit.

Alaska natives, fishermen, and environmental groups worked pretty damn hard to put the kibosh on this terrible project, and now with one hijacked election we are back to square one. 

Elections have consequences, perhaps if Alaskans had bothered to research the candidates they would not have helped elect the man who will help to poison our precious Bristol Bay and murder thousands of our fish.