Trump Tells EPA to Dismantle Clean Water Rules

President Trump issued an order on Tuesday directing his administration to begin the long process of rolling back sweeping clean water rules that were enacted by Obama.

The order directs the EPA to set begin dismantling the Waters of the United States rule, which expanded the authority of regulators over the nation’s waterways and wetlands. It’s one of President Obama’s signature environmental legacies.

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Farmers, ranchers, real estate developers and others, have complained about the rule, saying it invited heavy-handed bureaucrats to burden their businesses with too many restrictions and fines for minor violations.

It is such a horrible, horrible rule. It has such a nice name, but everything about it is bad.”

Obama’s EPA stated that such claims were exaggerated and misrepresented in the media. TheWaters of the United States rule, championed by environmental groups, gives the EPA broad authority over nearly two-thirds of the waterways in the country. Trump called it  “one of the worst examples of federal regulation” and “a massive power grab,” as he signed the directive Tuesday.

The climate and the clean water rules from Obama’s era were enacted after a tedious and lengthy process of public hearings, scientific analysis, and bureaucratic review. That entire process must be revisited before the rules can be weakened or dismantled. It is likely to take years.

These wetland protections help ensure that over 100 million Americans have access to clean and safe drinking water. Access to safe drinking water is a human right, and Trump’s order is a direct violation of this right.” – California billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer said in a statement

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The executive orders come right after the administration’s release of a budget that includes a lot less money for the EPA. Trump vowed to continue to eliminate or undermine any Obama-era environmental protections he can wherever he sees the opportunity.

So many jobs we have delayed for so many years. It is unfair to everybody.” – Trump

There are industries that disagree. Tuesday’s order received swift rebuke from fishing and hunting groups, which claim that the clean water rule has benefited the economy by sustaining hundreds of thousands of jobs in their industry.

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Trump Wants Death Penalty For Dangerous Drug Dealers – But who Are the Dangerous Ones?

President Trump suggested drug dealers in the United States should face harsher punishments, including the death penalty or life in prison, during a campaign rally last Saturday. Trump praised Singapore and China for their “zero tolerance policy” regarding drugs, and likes the idea for the U.S.

I think it’s a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if we’re ready. I don’t know if this country’s ready for it.”

The president seems to be inspired by the Filipino President whose violent war against drugs has led to thousands of deaths, including small-time drug users and innocent people for whom he says is simply “collateral damage.”

That means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty.”

Last year we know Trump congratulated the Philippines President Duterte for his efforts in eradicating drugs from the country thanks to a leaked transcript of their phone call.

I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”

At Saccone’s campaign rally last Saturday, Trump said that we should handle drug dealers like murderers..

You kill 5,000 people with drugs because you’re smuggling them in and you’re making a lot of money and people are dying and they don’t even put you in jail. That’s why we have a problem, folks. I don’t think we should play games.”

These remarks are consistent with the speech he made at the White House Opioids Summit last week when he suggested that drug dealers should have to face the death penalty.

Some countries have a very, very tough penalty — the ultimate penalty. And, by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do.” – Trump said during last week’s summit

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/972645384127500288

The Real Drug Dealers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collected data that shows that more people die from legally prescribed drugs than from heroin and cocaine combined. The CDC says the situation as an “epidemic.”

And the rates are skyrocketing thanks to America’s opioid dependence.

America represents just five percent of the world’s population but we consume 75 percent of the world’s prescription drugs according to Drugfreeworld.org.There’s a misperception by many people that because pharmaceutical drugs are regulated that they are safer. But when misused or taken without a doctor’s prescription drugs can often kill as easily as street drugs.

Prescription drug deaths for 2016 were tallied at 63,600, up from 52,000 in 2015. 2017 and 2018 look to continue the trend. It’s so bad that we actually except our average lifespan to have declined in 2017, and the trend is looking no better for this year.

In other words, the pharmaceutical companies, the companies supposedly in the business of saving lives, are responsible for a drop in the life expectancy of the entire United States.

Let that sink in.

And these numbers, of course, do not represent all of the other deaths caused by pharmaceutical companies. Big Pharma is killing us.

If you think about it and consider the toxicity and ineffectualness of drugs to actually rid disease, the pharmaceutical companies are killing us at a rate that far exceeds anything else.

Pharmaceutical companies are the dangerous drug dealers we need to put a stop to. We at OLM do not condone the death penalty, we like to see people get well, not get killed. But wouldn’t it be nice if someone had the scruples and fortitude to go after the real bad guys?

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Trump’s CDC Director Resigns After Tobacco Investments Discovered

Brenda Fitzgerald reportedly said she resigned because she could not divest from certain financial interests “in a definitive time period.” A Politico article from Tuesday reports that Fitzgerald purchased shares in a tobacco company shortly after becoming CDC director.

The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially resigned her position today after just six months, due to “complex financial interests.” She was repeatedly forced her to recuse herself from the agency’s activities, unable to testify before lawmakers on public health matters. And on Tuesday, January 30th,  Politico reported:

The Trump administration’s top public health official bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use — the leading cause of preventable disease and death and an issue she had long championed.

The stock was one of about a dozen new investments that Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made after she took over the agency’s top job, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. Fitzgerald has since come under congressional scrutiny for slow walking divestment from older holdings that government officials said posed potential conflicts of interest.

Fitzgerald is 71 one years old. She is a physician who served as the Georgia public health commissioner until her appointment to the CDC post this last July. She said she and her husband had divested from many stock holdings in an interview late last year, but that she and her husband were legally obligated to continue certain investments in cancer detection and health information technologies. Fitzgerald apparently had to avoid government business that might affect those specific financial interests.

It is unacceptable that the person responsible for leading our nation’s public health efforts has, for months, been unable to fully engage in the critical work she was appointed to do.” – Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash

Dr. Fitzgerald’s tenure was unfortunately the latest example of the Trump Administration’s dysfunction and lax ethical standards. I hope the incoming Secretary of Health — nominated because his predecessor resigned for using taxpayer dollars for his personal luxury travel — will encourage President Trump to choose a new CDC Director who is truly prepared to focus on families and communities.” – Sen. Murray

Senator sent Fitzgerald a letter saying that the necessary recusals prevented Fitzgerald from engaging on public health issues like cancer and the massive opioid epidemic. Murray had voiced his concerns regarding Fitzgerald’s financial investments and the recusals necessary to avoid the aforementioned conflicts of interest since July. In December, the senator sent Fitzgerald a letter saying those recusals prevented her from fully engaging on public health issues including cancer and the opioid epidemic.

Fitzgerald had dismissed those concerns, saying that she was following ethics rules laid out by HHS and that her recusals were “very limited.”

About three hours after HHS announced Fitzgerald’s resignation, the CDC’s chief operating officer, Sherri Berger, sent an agencywide email that announced Fitzgerald’s resignation and said Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy, will be acting director effective Wednesday.

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170 Million in U.S. Drink Radioactive Tap Water – Trump Nominee Faked Data to Hide Cancer Risk

Millians of Americans drink tap water with radioactive elements at levels that may increase the risk of cancer, according to as systems nationwide analysis of by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The study says 171 million Americans deal with this level of contamination in their tap water, which is more than 50% of the population in the U.S.

Radiation in tap water is known to be a serious health threat, especially with pregnancies. The Environmental Protection Agency’s established legal limits for radioactive elements in tap water are badly outdated, but President Trump’s nominee to be the White House environment czar doesn’t see care if systems comply with the standards, as “outdated and inadequate” as they are.

The nominee, Kathleen Hartnett White, former chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, admitted in a 2011 interview that the commission falsified data to make it appear that communities with excessive radiation levels were below the EPA’s limit. She said she did not “believe the science of health effects” to which the EPA subscribes, placing “far more trust” in the work of the TCEQ, which has a reputation of setting polluter-friendly state standards and casually enforcing federal standards.

EWG’s Tap Water Database compiles results of water quality tests for nearly 50,000 utilities nationwide. EWG mapped the nationwide occurrence of radium which is the most common radioactive element found in tap water.

From 2010 to 2015, more than 22,000 utilities serving over 170 million people in all 50 states reported the presence of radium in their water.” EWG

Related Reading: What’s the Best Water for Detoxifying and For Drinking?

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Slaughter of 90,000 Wild Horses May Proceed Despite 80% Objection From Public

President Donald Trump’s budget proposal calls for saving $10 million next year by selling wild horses. Horses captured throughout the West will likely be sold for slaughter, which current regulations do not allow. Wild horse advocates say the change would gut nearly a half-century of protection for wild horses — an icon of the American West — and could send thousands of free-roaming mustangs to foreign slaughterhouses for processing as food.

Rep. Stewart is leading the charge to slaughter America’s wild horses and burros over the opposition of 80 percent of Americans,” said Suzanne Roy, AWHC Executive Director. “Putting his deputy at the helm of the agency charged with protecting these national icons is like putting the wolf in charge of the chicken coop.”

https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/status/921508861621792769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecowatch.com%2Fres%2Fcommunity%2Ftwitter_embed%2F%3Fiframe_id%3Dtwitter-embed-921508861621792769%26created_ts%3D1508539808.0%26screen_name%3DEcoWatch%26text%3DBrutal%2BOutlook%2Bfor%2BHealthy%2BWild%2BHorses%2Band%2BBurros%253A%2BBLM%2BCalls%2Bfor%2BShooting%2B90%252C000%2Bhttps%253A%252F%252Ft.co%252FePTwoYrYhJ%2B%2540greenpeaceusa%2B%2540foe_us%26id%3D921508861621792769%26name%3DEcoWatch

In 1971, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, ending the practice of rounding up equines on America’s ranges and killing them for meat. But today, some members of Congress want to return to the era of mass killing.

Polls show the majority of Americans do not favor killing horses, wild or domestic. But lobbyists for the cattle industry and hunting groups do because horses compete with livestock and game species such as antelope for pasture and water. The Trump Administration’s 2018 budget included a proposal that opens the door for the Bureau of Land Managment (BLM) to save money by selling wild horses for slaughter. The congressional budget proposal would instead allow the BLM to cull young, healthy wild horses. Representatives say the horses would be “euthanized,” the way homeless pets sometimes are.

As EcoWatch writes:

The American Wild Horse Campaign on Thursday harshly criticized Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke‘s appointment of Brian Steed, the former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), as the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as dangerous and out of step with the wishes of the vast majority of Americans.

“Rep. Stewart is leading the charge to slaughter America’s wild horses and burros over the opposition of 80 percent of Americans,” said Suzanne Roy, AWHC Executive Director. “Putting his deputy at the helm of the agency charged with protecting these national icons is like putting the wolf in charge of the chicken coop.”

“Americans don’t want the government to be in the horse slaughter business, and Interior Secretary Zinke should appoint someone to lead the Bureau of Land Management who is committed to protecting, not destroying, America’s historic mustangs,” Roy concluded.

Roy added that the long-term leadership for this agency, which manages 245 million acres of public land in the West, should be determined through a full and transparent confirmation process, not a late-in-the-day political appointment by the secretary.

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President Trump Has Nominated A Pro-Vaccine Exec to Secretary of the Health and Human Services

President Trump has just nominated Alex Azar, the former chief lobbyist and President of the US division of drug the company Eli Lilly, to be the next Secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS). Alex Azar was deputy secretary for Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration. He is slated to replace Dr. Tom Price as head of the department.

Eli Lilly invented and manufactured thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative used in vaccines that have been repeatedly linked to autism and other neurological disorders.

In contrast to Mr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon and former Republican congressman, Mr. Azar is a lawyer and health care expert who allies predicted would use his deep knowledge of the federal bureaucracy to advance Mr. Trump’s agenda of undermining President Barack Obama’s health care law. Mr. Azar recently called the Affordable Care Act a “fundamentally broken system.” –NY Times

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

From Autism Action Network:

Prior to employment at Eli Lilly, under George W. Bush, Azar was general counsel and later deputy secretary of HHS at the time the decision was made to give an expedited efficacy and safety review to Gardasil, a vaccine for human papilloma virus produced by Merck that has enormous safety issues. As general counsel (head attorney) for HHS, Azar participated in the Autism Omnibus Proceeding that denied more than 5000 claims of vaccine injury, even though HHS settled one of the test cases that found that Hannah Poling’s autism was indeed caused by vaccine injury. Azar is exactly the wrong person to head HHS. Azar must be approved by the Senate, and the Autism Action Network will be working hard to stop his confirmation.

While the head of Eli Lily in the US, Azar was also on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Association, a trade and lobbying association for manufacturers of biological products including drugs, vaccines and GMOs. Azar’s career perfectly mirrors the “revolving door” door between regulatory agencies and the industries that they supposedly regulate in the public interest. The revolving door is one of the clearest indicators of government corruption. And Azar is only 50 years old, so we can probably expect several more trips through the revolving door before his career is done.

Azar has the wrong experience, the wrong track record, the wrong associations, and the wrong personal financial and career interests to head HHS. America has the most expensive healthcare and drugs in the world, yet our indicators of public health are among the lowest found in developed countries. A former lobbyist for one of America’s largest drug companies is not the person who will bring desperately needed reform. The head of HHS should be an advocate for allowing research to go wherever honest science leads, regulatory policy that puts the safety and health of the public before corporate and physician’s profits, transparency in all medical research and regulatory reviews, informed consent as the basis for all medical procedures, and aggressive policies to end the epidemics of autism, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s, asthma, and on and on.

As a candidate, and in office, President Trump said he would “drain the swamp of government corruption.” In his tweet announcing the Azar’s nomination, Trump wrote, “He will be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!” But according to the Dow Jones Newswires, “during Alex Azar’s tenure Eli Lilly & Co. executive prices rose dramatically for some of the company’s top drugs.” The last person we need heading HHS is a drug company fox guarding the hen house. Alex Azar should not be confirmed as Secretary of HHS.
Please share this message with friends and family and please post to social networks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwRWckMKVC4

Related: How Plumbing (Not Vaccines) Eradicated Disease

If you’ve like to take action, click on Autism Action Network and scroll down, there’s an email form. You can also call the White House and politely express your opposition to Azar’s nomination at (202) 456-1111.

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Other Trump News Regarding Health, Human Rights, Animal Rights, and Environment

The Keystone Pipeline Leaked 210K Gallons in South Dakota. President Donald Trump issued the federal permit for the Keystone XL project in March,  though it had been rejected by the previous administration due to environmental concerns, and many argue the pipeline addition is not even needed.

Trump also began to reverse the Obama administration’s ban on bringing heads of elephants killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the U.S. Fortunately, the Don heard the uproar:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/931685146415255552

But he also, again, delayed the implementation of “Organic Animal Welfare Standards”.

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Trump Is Lifting Ban on Importing Elephant Trophies from Africa

The Trump administration is reported to be reversing the Obama administration’s ban on bringing heads of elephants killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the U.S.

Imports will be allowed for elephants killed between Jan. 21, 2016 and the end of 2018. The decision has been cheered by many hunting and gun rights organizations. The United States and international authorities say the African elephant is an endangered species, and the Obama administration argued that allowing trophy imports of the elephants would harm the animals by encouraging the killing and poaching of them.

Even though elephants are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, a provision in the act allows the government to give permits to import these trophies if there is evidence that the hunting actually benefits conservation for that species. The official said they have new information from officials in Zimbabwe and Zambia to support reversing the ban to allow trophy hunting permits.” – ABC News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghr1oldTVJc

Legal, well-regulated sport hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation.” – FWS spokesman

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump’s sons, are known to be fans of large game hunting.

https://twitter.com/Weinsteinlaw/status/930959251312447489

Newsweek states that the elephant population has declined since 2001 in Zimbabwe and in some regions in Zambia.

Hunters often choose the healthiest or strongest members of animal populations, to have a more impressive trophy, but this can have negative effects on the species overall.

This 2015 poll showed that 86 percent of Americans are opposed to big-game hunting, and 60% of respondents said that it should be illegal.

Update!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/931685146415255552

Nice work everyone!