Have you ever heard of the Chemical Safety Board (CSB)? Chances are you haven't unless you work in certain industries. How important can it be then? Extremely, as it turns out. It's among many similar government agencies being quietly destroyed by the Trump administration to the delight of Republicans.
In August 2017, Smart Dissent had this post discussing Scott Pruitt and the EPA's attempt to suspend a rule that restricts methane emissions to fight climate change. At that time, a court blocked the suspension of the rule, a legal setback for Pruitt, Zinke, and Trump, who are trying to roll back dozens of Obama-era environmental regul
The U.S. Postal Service is being hijacked in the middle of an election season. Why is Louis DeJoy removing top officials who run day-to-day operations? It's his job to get the mail delivered on time, not play partisan games.
Newly installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said.... he has a “good relationship” with Trump — he’s donated more than $2 million to the Trump campaign or Republican causes since 2016, and chaired the finance committee for the 2020 GOP convention....
Trump has abused, threatened, and intimidated whistleblowers. Now people are terrified to come forward. This is how authoritarian states work. This is a banana republic.
In the months since the Senate acquitted Trump of two impeachment charges, the president has declared an all-out assault on whistleblowing.
Nice job draining the swamp Trump. In fact, lobbying and corruption are off the charts and growing exponentially.
Chris Christie dreamed of becoming president. Now, he’s settling for a different role in Washington: lobbyist.
Christie registered to lobby for the first time only last month, in the middle of a lobbying boom fueled by the federal government’s multitrillion-dollar response to the pandemic.... leaning on his ties to the administration....
Approximately 40,000 meat plant workers have tested positive for Covid-19. At least 168 have died. Rather than investing in measures to protect workers in the future, the companies have donated to Republican legislators and pushed for special immunity from legal liability. This is corruption. This is the swamp.
Even before the vaccine is here, the profiteering on Wall Street is flowing.
The race is on to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and some companies and investors are betting that the winners stand to earn vast profits from selling hundreds of millions — or even billions — of doses to a desperate public.
Across the pharmaceutical and medical industries, senior executives and board members are capitalizing on that dynamic.
A gun lobbyist turned White House lawyer helped lift the ban on gun silencer sales to foreign buyers, enacted by the State Department to protect U.S. troops abroad.
Michael B. Williams [33 years old] spent nearly two years helping to run a trade group focused on expanding sales of firearm silencers by American manufacturers.
But try as he might, he could not achieve one of the industry’s main goals: overturning a ban on sales to private foreign buyers enacted by the State Department to protect American troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
If you think for one minute that Trump or Republicans gives one damn about working class people, read below and then vote.
On April 28th, forty-eight hours after Tyson Foods, the world’s second-largest meat company, ran a full-page ad in several newspapers warning that “the food supply chain is breaking,” Trump issued an executive order defining slaughterhouse workers as essential. The executive order commanded meat-processing facilities to “continue operations uninterrupted to the extent possible.”
Redlining: If you’re not sure of what it is, google it. One of the many ways that racism and discrimination still exist.
Since Trump took office, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has quietly shelved at least six investigations of discrimination and redlining.... The OCC has historically prioritized the well-being of banks over bank customers, said current and former examiners, but the balance has shifted even further under the Trump administration.