EPA administrator Scott Pruitt still has the confidence of Donald Trump for some inexplicable reason.
Scott Pruitt
Posted inPolitical Animal
We’ll Never Know How Many Will Suffer Thanks to Scott Pruitt–And Those Who Continue to Support Him
Five years ago today–and damn, does that seem like a lifetime ago–New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait declared that President Obama wasn’t getting enough credit from climate activists for his leadership on reducing emissions. Back then, Chait observed: The assumption that Obama’s climate-change record is essentially one of failure is mainly an artifact of environmentalists’ […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Don’t Let David Buckel’s Death Be in Vain
As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures—and when it comes to the climate crisis, we are indeed living in desperate times. It’s hard to overstate the passion and principle of pioneering attorney David Buckel, who died one week ago today at the age of 60. He did not pass away from a dreadful […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
“Animal Assad”? Seriously?
Look, I know it’s WrestleMania weekend, but the WWE-style insults have to stop: President Donald Trump issued a vague threat on Twitter on Sunday, after reports of a chemical attack in Syria. “Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Trump wrote. “Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Do You Like Your Planet Regular, or Extra Crispy?
Fifteen years ago today, just weeks after George W. Bush invaded Iraq in a war for oil, Princeton University Professor Michael Oppenheimer wrote a column for the New York Times in which he observed: [T]he global warming issue, and particularly America’s handling of it, has become a central geopolitical concern. Speaking at a delicate moment […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Channeling Rage: Trump and Fox News
Here we stand Remote control buttons In our sweaty little hands As one man We’re lining up and waiting For someone’s command… TV rules– Pretty soon you won’t be able To turn it off at all! All you fools Then it will turn you off— Your back’s against the wall! —“T.V. Age,” Joe Jackson, 1982 […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Those Who Do Not Learn from History…
Now that ‘80s nostalgia is in vogue again by virtue of the box-office success of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, it’s as good a time as any to note that this July marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Madonna’s debut album. If Donald Trump loses the 2020 election, then one can envision a […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Will Sinclair Target Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse?
Just because New England didn’t vote for Donald Trump doesn’t mean that region of the country is immune to the influence of Trump-friendly media, including the influence of a prominent station in Providence, Rhode Island: “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy,” WJAR-TV anchor Frank Coletta tells the camera in a recent segment about “biased […]
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal
The Moral Depravity of the Right’s Defense of Scott Pruitt
The right’s commitment to environmental deregulation is trumping any concern about corruption.
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Perversity of Pruitt
30 years ago today, in a New Hampshire campaign appearance, Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis declared, “We need someone in the White House who understands that America should be the leader on international environmental questions.” Had Dukakis—who denounced Republican opponent George H. W. Bush as “a charter member of the environmental wrecking crew that went […]
