Busy bees in Congress: Add the latest abominations!

[pat_k]

A few of the things the busy Republican bees in Congress are going after:

Rule to reduce methane emissions on public and tribal lands

Rule to lessen the environmental impact of coal mining on nearby streams

Rule to increase disclosure requirements for federal contractors

Rule requiring companies to disclose payments made to the U.S. and foreign governments relating to mining and drilling.

AP
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2017/01/house_gop_ready_to_get_to_work.html

Strategy: Get rid of hard-won protections so fast the public doesn't have a chance to respond.

[Coventina]

1. Yes, please donate to the NRDC.

https://www.nrdc.org/

[pat_k]

2. +1

[Squinch]

3. So much of this has to do with oil. We should begin, en masse, to drastically reduce our

oil usage as much as is humanly possible.

[pat_k]

4. If Bannon/DT aren't stopped, the few existing incentives will be history.

I can't think of any hard-won victories that aren't at risk.

I'd love to turn the clock back to a more progressive tax system, stronger anti-trust, and stronger union protections. If Bannon/DT and cronies in Congress aren't stopped, we'll lose the bits of ground we've held on those fronts, and see the "clock turned back" on the few gains we've made on other fronts.

And the consequences are deadly. More death, pain, and suffering caused by DT-caused global instability, unfettered humanitarian atrocities, death by denial of health care here, on and on. And I also expect to see a spike in stress related illness and deat. Seriously. I think the stress of it all is going to kill off some of the best of us.

[Squinch]

5. I'm a union member. That talk of a national right to work law means everything I've worked for

for decades is likely lost.

[pat_k]

7. It's like being stuck in cement as the steamroller comes barreling down.

We've seen the steady dismantling of organizations, principles, and government agencies that are the last bastions against the ravages of unchecked corporate power. The drip, drip, drip has been painful, but I never lost hope that we had the power to "hold the line" and reverse set backs.

Now we are facing a flood. It's overwhelming. Keeping a spark of hope and sense possibility alive in the face of the onslaught is perhaps the biggest battle we face. Confronting the reality of what we face without losing hope is something I'm not doing very well at the moment.

But somehow, we need to help each other to nurture that spark, and help each other find ways to reignite it when despair overwhelms. Hope makes action possible. We need it to sustain us. That hope is the real "last bastion."

[Squinch]

8. Yes. There's a lot of despair floating around. We can't give in to it.

I'm beginning to see why the concept of "Keep calm and carry on" is such a lifeline for the English during crises.

[pat_k]

9. "They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds."

Last edited Fri Feb 3, 2017, 12:03 AM - Edit history (1)

You reminded me to dig up some of the quotes that have sustained me. I think I'll post them where I can see them every morning.

"They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds."
-- Dinos Christianopoulos

"It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

[Squinch]

10. Those are fabulous. I love the Ghandi one.

[pat_k]

11. Yes, it's a message our Democratic "leaders" need to hear.

The "go to" rationalization for Democratic inaction is "Can't win, so don't fight."

They really do seem totally oblivious to the value -- and moral obligation -- to do the right thing, whatever the odds. Preemptive surrender doesn't move things in the right direction. It can't. Period. "Keeping their powder dry" and refusing to impeach when they were confronted with war criminals in the WH paved the road to DT hell.

Perhaps a campaign asking people to fax, email, snail mail, hand-deliver, whatever, the Ghandi quote to those who won't commit to a Gorsuch Filibuster might help a few of them "see the light."

You never know.

[TrekLuver]

6. This is the Republican way.