How Trump and Republicans Keep Winning

With the Senate up for grabs in Georgia, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report explaining how nearly 200,000 voters were wrongfully purged from Georgia's voter rolls. The same tactic that helped Trump win in 2016 as shown in Greg Palast's video "The Purged".

The Trump-Russia Connection

Here is a long list of American billionaires bankrolling Trump's 2020 election. And these are a few of the Russian ones (as reported by Time magazine):

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who Trump appointed in May of 2020, has up to $75,000,000 million dollars invested in companies that compete with the United States Postal Service. Once again Trump filled the swamp, and the results have been devastating for mail service in America.

Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia

Selecting corporate lawyer Eugene Scalia as Labor Secretary is another example of how Trump has filled the swamp he promised to drain. Just take a look at Scalia's record. And recently Scalia announced that managers of your 401(k) can now invest in private equity firms which means more risk to your savings. And that's not all for this corporate servant as David Sirota explains.

Filling the Swamp

In the "Filling the Swamp Department", Huffington Post reports Trump will nominate anti-environmental extremist and opponent of public lands to Director of the Bureau of Land Management. Mr. Perry has been acting Director of the BLM since July 2019 and considers horses and burros the greatest threat to public lands.

Trump EPA - Talk Versus Action

On Thursday, June 18th, 2020, Administrator Wheeler announced that he's DROPPING percholate regulations. Percholate causes brain damage and is wide spread in drinking water due to the problem of runoff from this ingredient of jet fuel. More on this latest tragedy is available form PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/epa-drops-regulation-for-contaminant-linked-to-infant-brain-damage

Where Did the Relief Money Go?

Where did the $500 billion dollars Congress appropriated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act go? Treasury Secretary Mnuchin doesn't want you to know! What could he possibly be hiding? Clientelism, nepotism, theft? His claim that it's proprietary information rings hollow. These are public funds and Congress has a right to know. Meanwhile, the CARES Congressional Oversight Commission reported in May the program eliminated a requirement that companies have to attest they need money "due to the exigent circumstances presented by" the coronavirus, and modification of a requirement that companies make "reasonable efforts" to maintain payroll and retain employees during the term of a loan. Instead, they will be required to make "commercially reasonable efforts" to do so.

Trump Opens Only Atlantic Marine Monument to Commercial Fishing

On Friday, June 5th 2020, Trump signed a proclamation allowing commercial fishing in the only marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The monument is home to rare and endangered whales and turtles and contains three underwater canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and four underwater mountains. The Monument was created in response to citizens requesting for area in the Northeast Atlantic to be protected, due to its importance as a biodiversity hotspot, habitat for numerous rare and endangered species, and a valuable scientific and historical site.

Trump Announces He's Pulling Out the Open Skies Treaty

Last week Trump announced that he is pulling the U.S. out of the Open Skies Treaty, a multilateral agreement among 34 countries that allows countries to conduct reconnaissance flights in order to provide transparency regarding military activities. The treaty allows for reconnaissance flights at short notice to lessen the uncertainty about a nation’s military intentions. Here are five reasons why the US should not withdraw from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Trump Greenlights Factory Farming the Oceans

In a blow to fishermen and women across the country, Trump issued an executive order on May 7th to open US territorial waters to fish farming. In addition to driving fishers out of business, fish farms are gross polluters, breed disease, and threaten wild populations. See the full story on Huffington Post and the Food and Environment Reporting Network.

Report: US Forces Burn Syrian Wheat Fields

SANA--the Syrian Arab News Agency--reports that US forces have burned 200 dunums (acres) of Syrian wheat fields. This in a country facing record food insecurity. More on the story is available at Veteran's Today.

Trump's Refusal to take the COVID-19 Virus Seriously Led to Tens of Thousands of Avoidable Deaths

It's been calculated by epidemiologists that Trump's refusal to respond seriously to the COVID-19 virus from when he first learned of it caused over 57,000 deaths. The Trump Death Clock is the site keeping track of the deplorable score. And so when I saw this mural by Danish muralist Welin, I thought how fitting to show these two calamities together in our lives.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Proposes Nuclear Waste De-Regulation

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to allow low-level nuclear waste to be dumped in private landfills; not just the four sites that currently handle it. The problem this poses is the lack of oversight at private dumps and the fact that the public would be put in the dark about their very existence.

Comments can be shared with the NRC through July 20th, 2020.

Trump Cancels Corona Virus Research!

CBS documents the cancellation of Corona virus research in recent weeks by the Trump Administration in this piece:

Introduction

This blog follows my Google Hangout page which had chronicled some of Don, The Con, Trump's filling of the swamp he said he'd drain, his killing of Americans and innocent people abroad, elimination of all-important regulation and environmental safeguards, and other asinine Obama era undoings with nothing better to show for. -Rod