Stephan: Frankly, as this pandemic rages, while we still with no national strategy or policies, and small businesses are collapsing by the hundreds of thousands across the country, the last thing we need is a president and an administration, with a dysfunctional Senate, whose major activity, if they are doing anything, is screwing the wellbeing of the nation. But that is what we have got. If you voted Republican I don't know how you can live with yourself.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — At a wide range of departments and agencies, Mr. Trump’s political appointees are going to extraordinary lengths to try to prevent Mr. Biden from rolling back the president’s legacy.
Voters have decided that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. should guide the country through the next four years. But on issues of war, the environment, criminal justice, trade, the economy and more, President Trump and top administration officials are doing what they can to make changing direction more difficult.
Mr. Trump has spent the last two weeks hunkered down in the White House, raging about a “stolen” election and refusing to accept the reality of his loss. But in other ways he is acting as if he knows he will be departing soon, and showing none of the deference that presidents traditionally give their successors in their final days in office.
During the past four years Mr. Trump has not spent much time thinking about policy, but he has shown a penchant for striking back at his adversaries. And with his encouragement, top officials are racing against the […]
Stephan: Since Richard Nixon created the EPA each president after him has expanded the agency's role as it became clear that pollution by corporations was detrimental to societal wellbeing. Each president that is until Trump, who has done everything in his power to castrate the agency in service to his rich supporters, and to the detriment of ordinary Americans. Here is his latest crime against the wellbeing of America.
EPA headquarters
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is declining to require oil and gas, coal, chemical and mining companies to have insurance to cover major spills and accidents.
Critics say the final rule, announced by the agency Wednesday, poses the greatest risk to communities of color and low-income communities that most often live in the shadow of polluting industries.
“EPA has found that existing environmental regulations and modern industry practices are sufficient to mitigate any risks inherent in these industries,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a release announcing the rule, adding that “the financial risks from facilities in these industries are addressed by existing state and federal requirements.”
The rule targets the financial assurances the Obama administration argued should be required by major polluters, ensuring companies have sufficient means to cover any costs related to accidents in order to avoid dipping into Superfund hazardous waste cleanup coffers.
The U.S. has more than 1,300 Superfund sites on its cleanup list, but many have become “orphaned” by companies that go bankrupt and can no longer fund the cleanup.
Stephan: Steve Mnuchin, one of the most prominent Trumpian orcs, is deliberately trying to screw you personally.
Steve Mnuchin and wife, prominent Trumpian orc
Something you’re probably aware of by now, unless you live in a cave or exclusively get your news from @realDonaldTrump and his big boy sons, is that there’s a very contagious disease ravaging the globe that is not just killing more than a million people but jobs and businesses as well. Jobs, for the lazy rich who are unaware, are how people buy stuff like food and pay for things like shelter. So losing them is bad; less bad if you live in a society where the government actually cares about people and doesn’t just say, “tough shit, them’s the breaks,” when you lose one, and more bad if you live in, for example, the United States of America. The current Treasury secretary presumably knows this and, yet, he’s apparently hoping to make a bad situation even worse!
On Thursday, Steven Mnuchinsaid that he doesn’t plan to extend a number of key emergency lending programs beyond the end of […]
Stephan: Robert Reich has spent his career trying to foster wellbeing, and I think his observations are dead on.
Trump and Republican leadership orcs
Most elected Republicans are refusing to stand up to Trump. Their cowardice is one of the worst betrayals of public trust in the history of our republic
Financial regulators subject banks to stress tests to see if they have enough capital to withstand sharp downturns.
Now America is being subjected to a stress test to see if it has enough strength to withstand Donald Trump’s treacherous campaign to discredit the 2020 presidential election.
Trump will lose because there’s no evidence of fraud. But the integrity of thousands of people responsible for maintaining American democracy is being tested as never before.
Tragically, most elected Republicans are failing the test by refusing to stand up to Trump. Their cowardice is one of the worst betrayals of public trust in the history of our republic.
Trump is also depending on a Star Wars cantina of lackeys, grifters, sycophants and fruitcakes – including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Senator Lindsey Graham, GOP trickster Roger Stone and others – whose reputations weren’t great to begin […]
Stephan: Every month it seems it becomes ever more clear that China, Europe, and Japan, and particularly China, are the countries leading the way out of the carbon era. This will have long term negative implications for the American automobile industry
Newly manufactured cars are seen at a port in Dalian, Liaoning province, China April 10, 2020. Credit: China Daily/Reuters
SHANGHAI — An aggressive China-led shift to electric vehicles is expected to slash global oil demand growth by 70% by 2030 and will help bring an end to the “oil era”, according to research by the Carbon Tracker think tank published on Friday.
Within 10 years, China could save more than $80 billion in annual oil import costs as new-energy vehicles (NEVs) become increasingly competitive, Carbon Tracker said.
Its calculations were based on a “conservative” scenario by the International Energy Agency projecting that electric vehicles would account for 40% of China’s total car sales by 2030, and for 20% of sales in India and other emerging markets.
The cost of importing the oil required to fuel an average car is 10 times higher than the cost of solar equipment required to power an electric vehicle, Carbon Tracker said.
“This is a simple choice between growing dependency on what has been expensive oil produced by a foreign cartel, or domestic electricity produced by renewable […]
