This is an astonishing story that flew under the radar. Trump keeps us enraged and entertained with his tweets and offhand comments, and while we are distracted by stories about Ivanka and Melania, Congress abolished a regulation that prevents coal mining companies from dumping waste into streams.
Don’t people in coal country want to fish and swim in the streams? Do they want polluted waters?

Here is the world the malignant narcissist and his utterly corrupt GOP are giving us. This is the modern definition of conservativism. Life has no value. The only thing that counts is profits and jobs that pay poverty wages without benefits.
The bad news is the U.S. is no longer the world’s leader to clean up the environment.
“Where the land is being coal mined, it’s being destroyed.”
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As my daughter UGH.
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would say ugh .
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There was just a major pipeline spill in Texas a few days ago. Silence was deafening.
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You are speaking of the Blue Ridge, Texas, oil pipeline spill, I presume. Yes, it didn’t get much coverage.
Then there is the Phillips66 natural gas pipeline fire in Louisiana.
http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2017/02/phillips_66_pipeline_explosion.html
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Moving backwards. What else would you expect of Trump and his gang of mendacious troglodytes. Germany has dedicated itself to not only phase out fossil fuels but also nuclear energy. This does not happen overnight, it takes decades but Germany has made significant strides converting to renewable energy sources. Trump who spews lies and nonsense on a regular basis wants us to continue to be a nation spewing filth into the atmosphere, water and soil.
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Ok to put lead in the water too.
Suggest that be provided to members of Congress, no alternative available.
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Dirty (coal) money talks, clean water not so much.
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Never forget that the phony populist Rump’s first act as President was to rescind a reduction in federal mortgage insurance rates that costs aspiring homeowners an additional $500 per year ($15,000 over the life of a thirty year mortgage). Just what we needed in a period of time when income and wealth inequality are major concerns for America’s shrinking middle class. After that Rump drained the swamp…at the bottom he found low life’s like Mnuchin, DeVos, and Wilbur Ross to nominate for cabinet positions. Cannot wait to see where these “billionaire populists” take our country!
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Reblogged this on BLOGGYWOCKY and commented:
Yes, while we (and the mainstream press) weren’t looking, this happened. And this type of thing will happen more and more.
Rescind all regulations, allow companies to pollute our air, our water, sell dangerous products, and put our health and the health of our children at risk.
This is what we have come to. Destroy the “public good” (including public schools as well, by the way) so somebody can make a buck.
{{Sigh}}
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Interesting how so many voting to make America “great” again likely had some sort of idyllic 1950s fantasy scenario in mind….not the late 1800s/early 1900s when industrial pollution was both unchecked and skyrocketing.
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Ciedie aech, as you know, even the 1950’s were still bad as far as pollution was concerned. Asbestos was still being manufactured and used as insulation, lead was in paint, lead was in gasoline, industry was still spewing toxins in the air and into our water, etc, etc, etc.
And for those who nostalgically and mistakenly believe that the 50’s were like “Father Knows Best,” well they also were not great for blacks and other minorities, or for women, for that matter.
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I had this same conversation with my dad about those “good old days…” 🙂
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This is why we’ve got to stop paying attention to his tweets and other verbal outrages. It’s what they’re doing that matters, not what they say.
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Dienne,
I don’t understand why anyone pays any attention to ANYthing on Twitter.
It is such vacuous nonsense – regardless of who is doing the tweeting.
It’s basically a vanity site: Here I am.Look at me! Aren’t you impressed with how great and smart I am? With how I can string together two incomplete sentences?
Like a bunch of chirping crickets.
If Aliens ever intercept the noise that is Twitter, they will undoubtedly conclude that there is no intelligent life on Earth.
There seems to be a direct correlation between the downward spiral of our society and the downward spiral of our preferred means of communicating. I don’t think that is just a coincidence.
It’s actually very funny that “progress” is moving us backwards when it comes to meaningful communication.
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Yes, SDP, I don’t look at Twitter myself.
But unfortunately, way too many people pay attention to Donald’s stupid tweets, and the press covers them.
It’s all a distraction from the really awful things that are happening.
Donald is still a pre-adolescent, egotistical sociopath, so he spews his bile on Twitter or elsewhere whenever he feels “offended.”
But frankly, the people around him, especially Steve Bannon- they want the press and the people to be distracted by this while they maneuver to get what they want. Which is nowhere good. 😦
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Your description of who hangs out on Twitter spending endless personal tweets explains why Trump hangs out there.
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I can’t get into it either SomeDAM Poet. When I first heard about this new phenom, my term for the action was twittering. My husband corrected me on several occasions before the term “tweet” embedded itself in my lexicon. I still think twitter is a better term.
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