Renewable Revolution

Make No Mistake, Trump Is Test-Running Fascism To See What He Can Get Away With
mavenroundtable.io - “Babies in cages were no ‘mistake’ by Trump,” argues Fintan O’Toole in the Irish Times, “but test-marketing for barbarism.” Is it possible that President Donald Trump is throwing out policy and rheto…

Read more Doomstead Diner Daily 2/12/20

True. The phrase "test running Fascism", though applicable to 🦀 Trump Tactics in a general sense (i.e. criminals are ALWAYS pushing the boundaries of law to see what they can get away with), it neglects to point out the grievous, deadly harm Trump has already caused (see below).

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February 12, 2020





President 🦀 Trump released his (i.e. 🐘🦕😈🦖🐍) proposal for the government’s budget this week. Given that Congress controls the power of the purse, even with a functioning democracy these budgets are  really a messaging document, meant as a signal to the president’s party about what they want to prioritize. Since the House is controlled by the Democratic party, and even the GOP-controlled Congress has repeatedly shrugged off Trump’s budget, this one is particularly pointless.

But if President Trump wanted to prove to us skeptics that he prioritizes clean air and clean water, he could have suggested big budget increases for those issues, knowing full well that Republicans in the Senate wouldn’t accept those funding levels anyway. Trump would get the free publicity and the appearance of concern about environmental issues, without having to actually do anything or otherwise inconvenience his industry backers by limiting their ability to profit off of pollution.

But even that symbolic gesture towards the clean air and clean water he claims to care about (in an attempt to shore up support among suburban women and young conservatives) seems to be too much. Trump’s proposed budget absolutely slashes all sorts of environmental programs – not just the climate ones, but also programs like Superfund, which the administration has used to try and distract from its lack of other environmental regulation enforcement.

E&E has some details on the new budget: a 27 percent cut to the EPA’s budget overall, reducing employment by 11 percent. For EPA’s air quality work, a reduction from $813 million to just $437 million. At the Energy Department, cuts would be 8 percent, and at the Interior Department, a 13 percent reduction.

While those don’t sound quite as bad, as Center for Western Priorities’ Aaron Weiss highlighted on Twitter, that’s at least in part thanks to the continued support for fossil fuels in the Interior. While the budget proposed a 97 percent cut to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a $581 million and 1,000 jobs cut to the National Park Service, and a $71 million cut to fish and wildlife habitat management, it keeps mineral and energy resource research intact, and boosts coal funding by $3 million. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy recently announced a $64 million gift to the coal industry (and that’s in real money, not just a proposed budget line item). 

And what about that innovation agenda Republicans claim to be so keen on? Trump’s budget proposes zeroing out funding for the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

While it’s worth calling out that this budget leaves massive holes in what even conservatives claim to care about, the fact that Congress will all but ignore it doesn’t mean Trump’s anti-science, pro-pollution agenda isn’t having real-world 🏴‍☠️ impacts.

To document some of those, the Union of Concerned Scientists recently released a report on how Trump’s regulatory rollbacks are Endangering Generations by “failing to protect children from contaminants in their food, water, and the air they breathe, and putting generations in peril of the dramatic impacts of climate change.” 

If that sounds like it may be a bummer, not to worry! They also have a fun illustrated version called Breathe in the Smog, Drink in the Lead. It’s a children’s book that isn’t for children, but rather about them, and all the problems they face, like air pollution and lead in water or paint. You can check out the video version to hear terrible, not-at-all-child-friendly truths in a rhyming, toddler-friendly style: “Should kids work in mines? Should babies drink beer? When you listen to science, the answers are clear.”


Maybe someone will read it to the toddler in the White House?