Trump rewrites the First Amendment
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
You might have seen the story out of Coal Grove, Ohio, last week where the tap water turned bright purple. It’s not as big a deal as it sounds, though. A malfunctioning water treatment valve caused a substance called sodium permanganate to be released into the system, creating the temporarily purple hue. Otherwise, no harm done.
It’s only a matter of time, though, before Americans in coal country find a lot worse than a bizarre tribute to Prince emerging from their spigots.
Shortly after his inauguration, Donald Trump signed a bill to roll back the so-called “ Stream Protection Rule ” authorized late in the Obama administration. Simply put, the rule banned the dumping of mountaintop removal mining waste, also known as “acid mine drainage,” into nearby waterways by creating a 100-foot buffer around streams and the like, ultimately protecting an estimated 6,000 miles of rivers. Many of those rivers provide drinking water for neighboring towns — for now. The Obama rule also mandated the restoration of polluted waterways and the replanting of trees.
Not any more. Apparently, clean tap water and formerly scenic vistas aren’t priorities for red state, coal country voters who would rather add cancer clusters and horrendous birth defects to the list of tragedies that go along with their disappearing coal jobs. What good are a few hundred more jobs, though, if the workers filling those jobs, as well as their families, are dropping dead from poisoned drinking water? A 2011 study in the Environmental Research journal discovered an increased risk for “six out of seven types of birth defects — circulatory/respiratory, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal [and] urogenital” defects near mountaintop removal mines. The rate was nearly twice as high as that found in areas without mountaintop removal mines.
Trump’s rollback of protections for waterways near mountaintop mining operations is all part of his plan to both destroy Obama’s legacy and to deregulate industry, even if it means poisoning his own voters.
To put this another way: it’s bad and wrong for government to regulate mining companies that dump acid mine drainage into streams and rivers, at least according to Trump and his Red Hats — but it’s absolutely mandatory for government to regulate social media corporations because Alex Jones and Steven Crowder were punished by various online platforms, including Twitter and YouTube. Poisoned water is apparently permissible, but Crowder being demonetized by YouTube is a national crisis requiring the president to threaten regulatory action.
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The Idiot opens his anal hole again.
Is all discussion of "free speech / censure on an Internet forum" necessarily meta?
And yet somehow it doesn't make me think of YouTube or the 1st Amendment.
Jes' sayin'
this is what you can look forward to if you live in coal country
Or any kind of mining area
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I read it more along the lines of showing where the administrations priorities lie.
Not in the health and well being of our lands but with some perceived injustice.
It is a typical bait and switch from the administration. Don't look at the new pollution going into the rivers, look at how republicans are discriminated against on social media.
And apparently it works....
" A 2011 study in the Environmental Research journal discovered an increased risk for “six out of seven types of birth defects — circulatory/respiratory, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal [and] urogenital” defects near mountaintop removal mines. The rate was nearly twice as high as that found in areas without mountaintop removal mines."
WTF were all those other folks in congress doing before Trump anyway.
Writing some laws that protect rivers and stream, that apparently trump is rolling back.
You mean …. More laws on top of the existing laws ?
Did you know that the Government EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Water Management districts can claim, or have claimed that anything "wet" on your property is theirs to control, even if the "wet" may only occur seasonally ?
Environment-Published March 14, 2014-Last Update January 12, 2017
Wyoming welder faces $75,000 a day in EPA fines for building pond on his property
From what I gather that man damned up a stream. Then there was runoff from his pond.
One cannot decide to damn a stream just because they want a pond. It has an impact on those downstream.
It's not dammed, if it's still able to discharge from the pond downstream.
Wyoming State Engineer’s Office permitted it.
And review by the EPA and decided it was detrimental to those down stream.
We have those here. It's called pollution abatement ponds that allow runoff in to the pond to settle, before it discharges out a weir to a stream, river or lake......downstream. They call it "Clean" when it does that. It's even permitted by the State for everyone.
But I suppose it's different rules for different folks, depending on the government mood.
Funny thing.....It was permitted and built in 2012, but EPA decided in 2014, it should get involved.
Funny in a weird way huh !
He did build a dam to create what he did and it had runoff that went back into the creek.
There are (were) rules put into place on altering waterways can have an impact on those downstream.
Either way that is a mute point now. People should be able to do whatever the hell they want. Consequences be damned...
State saw it differently. Permitted it !
Big Gov. decided to get involved.
Big Gov. Engineers must be smarter than State Engineers.
Ain't it great ?
Wrong, if these were laws Trump couldn't role them back. These are Obama EO's; which is why it was called the Obama Rule. That is from the article.
Obama was not a king. This is what happens when one president tries to rule by EO only. They don't last beyond their presidency, the next president can undo all of them.
It was a new rule implemented by the Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Interior.
trump and company passed a resolution to make the rule null and void.
It was a work in progress that actually started under Bush that would clarify the existing vague rules.
Not lying to the public
Try something with non bias reporting
Do you have a list I could go through, that you'd support ?
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This is one of the more awkward things I have seen in a while. The attempt to somehow equate mining and environmental regulation to social media and the 1st Amendment does not work at all. There is no connection, no similarity, and no lesson to be learned from the very convoluted attempt. What a mess! I don't know who this Bob Cesca is, but he writes like he's in the 3rd grade.
Trump threatens---what else is new.
This too. I'll bet a million dollars that the Trump never waded in, played in or fished in a stream. He is a 'city boy' of the worst kind.
He was hatched with splayed feet and a forked tail