Resisting Andrew Wheeler as EPA Administrator
Andrew Wheeler during his confirmation hearing
Here’s the Sierra Club’s thinking on this, and here’s mine:
Obviously it would be better if we had not elected as U.S. president a wrecking ball to the environment, but we did. Wheeler is a fossil fuel guy, a former lobbyist for the coal industry, who will do everything in his power to reverse the progress that the U.S. has made on environmental issues over the past half century. But how much power is that, given that all this insanity is going to be over in two years? At that point it’s very likely that the EPA will be restored to its former self and reoriented to its mission.
Even if Trump serves out his term, he is loathed by the majority of Americans, voters who regard the GOP congresspeople who are in complicity with him with the same contempt we have for the president.
And is this likely to get better with the growing evidence against him of collusion, violations of the emoluments clause, financial fraud surrounding his non-profits and God knows what else? Does anyone think Mueller has come up empty from his conversations with Manafort, Gates, Flynn, Cohen and the others?
It’s hard to know what’s going to happen in 2020, but here’s something that won’t happen: another pathological liar in the White House and another stooge for fossil fuels appointed to run the EPA.
Craig,
It’s always a mistake to assume something will happen simply because you desperately want it to happen.
The election of Donald Trump has changed US politics and attitudes irrevocably.
Future Presidents will be judged by keeping election promises and providing real benefits to US citizens.
The era of American delusion has drawn to an inevitable twilight, and a new American era is dawning with very different dynamics. The type of spin doctored, politically correct, hypocritical, sanctimonious Washington establishment play acting is over.
Those who were ignored, patronized, downtrodden and despised have found a voice in President Trump. These folk won’t retreat back to apathy and despair easily. Donald Trump has awakened so many to raise their voices and hopes in exercising their democratic right to take part in the administration of the nation.
The delusion President Trump is “loathed by the majority of Americans”, is fantasy ! Even in the midst of a political crises, his support remains strong a 42% and rising. (at least another twenty percent don’t care or at least don’t loathe him).
In sharp contrast, support fro the President’s main opponents, Pelosi and Schumer, are 32% and 28% and plummeting ! Only a few weeks after the election, the polls for democratic members of Congress, has plummeted to 22%, with more than 60% of independent voters, who voted democrat in say they would reverse their vote if the election were held today.
Pelosi’s latest stunt, the dis-inviting of the President to deliver the State of Union address looks petty and spiteful, only highlighting the selfish substitution of petulance for policy and illustrating to total disregard for responsible legislative behavior.
The Mueller Inquiry has wandered in all directions, inadvertently revealing the President’s claims of misbehavior and criminal electoral interference by the FBI to contain more than a little validity !
The ” Never Trump” ranters are the President’s best political asset !
CNN in an editorial, attacked the President claiming he wanted to “destroy” NATO, (at Putin’s behest) by insisting the affluent nations belong to NATO live up to their obligation both in terms of military preparedness and commitment, as well as financial.
As i8s the accusation wasn’t ludicrous enough, the editorial continued in an amazing display of historical ignorance, to claim NATO was devised after World War Two as a bulwark against Putin’s Russia.
The fact that Russia didn’t exist at that time as a separate political entity, and Putin wasn’t even born, didn’t seem to occur the the rabid CNN scribe.
In reality, NATO was devised as a counter-measure against the enormous power of the old USSR and Warsaw Pact East European nations, united in purpose by an aggressive form of Communist totalitarian ideology.
Today, NATO still exists and has expanded, while the Warsaw pact has been disbanded, and many of those member nations no longer exist. The USSR has long since disappeared and modern Russia has become and economic pygmy, beset by economic, internal and external disruptions, fractious minorities, created by the break-up of the old empire.
Typical of the grandstanding by Democrat Rep’s like Jackie Speier (D-CA) is her breathless announcement, ” If Trump tries to leave NATO, it will be grounds for impeachment under the 25th Amendment, and remove him from office “.
Ignoring the fact that President Trump has never indicated a desire to leave NATO, it wouldn’t be grounds for impeachment. The President is free to decide his own foreign policy, within the constitutional restraints. NATO is a Treaty, not a mere agreement, and a President can only terminate a treaty with Congressional approval.
Inventing your own fake crisis is incredibly dishonest and the for the media to endorse such nonsense is disgraceful.
The fantasies and phantoms of the “Never Trumper’s’ are growing increasingly tiresome and ludicrous.
Recently Trump hosted a White House reception for the Clemson Tigers, a college football team that just won the national championship. Due to the shut down, and must to the delight of the guests, the President serve a range of fast food supplied by American businesses (The President personally footed the bill).
The evening was a huge success and everyone reported having fun except for the usual gang of journalists from NYT, WP, CNN etc, who called the diner “disgraceful” , bad taste, and an insult to the American people !
The lamenting by prominent democrat politicians, and intelligentsia, in the pages of publications like the New Yorker, was rabid ! How Dare Trump serve Americans popular American food ! What an outrage to serve “inferior” food ?!
Given the fact that nearly 4 million Americans are employed in the fast food industry, and at least 40% of Americans eat Fast Food on any given day, it would appear the President is reading the popular opinion, better than the elite.
( to paragraph Roger Kimball, “Donald Trump paid for the food himself. 1,000 hamburgers, although pedantic fact checkers at the publicity arm of the Democratic National Committee said that there were probably no more than 600 (the rest being pizza, subway, etc). Since FBI agents were in attendance, we can expect the matter to be referred to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for investigation”.
Over the next two years, all the high drama of Mueller, porn stars etc, will fade away, all the fears about the President’s unpredictable character will fade as he continues to stack up foreign policy successes, economic prosperity and domestic reforms.
His opponents wild accusations and fantasies will be discounted, and more people will grow accustomed by President’s eccentricities which will lessen hysteria and fear.
The President will succeed in building his wall,(or at least enough to fulfill his election pledge)and a prosperous economy,higher wages, low unemployment, victory over the Chinese in trade, Trump will prove to a formidable opponent in 2020.
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