XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, alt.politics

Trump Picks New EPA Head Guaranteed to Destroy the Environment

President-elect Donald Trump has selected an almost cartoonishly evil man
to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Trump said he will nominate former Republican House member and failed New
York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin for the next administrator of the
EPA. And Zeldin has gleefully accepted the role.

�Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for
America First policies,� Trump said in a statement posted to Truth Social Monday. �He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will
be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at
the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards.�

�It is an honor to join President Trump�s Cabinet,� Zeldin posted on X in reply. �We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry
to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We
will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.�

If confirmed by the Senate, Zeldin would be an absolute disaster for the environment. A staunch climate denier, Zeldin wants to make fracking and offshore drilling easier and supports new pipeline construction. He is
also one of Trump�s biggest fans, refusing to admit he lost the 2020 election�and so he�s all but guaranteed to do Trump�s bidding.

Zeldin has made his pro-business vision for the EPA crystal clear. �So
day one and the first 100 days, we have the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle,� Zeldin
said on Fox News Monday, shortly after news of his pick broke. �They�re
forced to cut costs internally, they are moving overseas altogether to be
able to bolster liquidity in the American economy, where businesses
strive to grow, expand here and have the ability to export what they
produce, as opposed to exporting their jobs in the company�the companies themselves.�

Rest assured, this EPA head won�t be protecting anything.

January 6 protesters are learning the hard way that their fearless leader
plays by a different set of rules than they do.

The Justice Department on Monday rejected requests from several January 6 defendants who tried to have their cases tossed out, on the grounds that special counsel Jack Smith paused his prosecution of President-elect
Trump�s incendiary actions on January 6 after his election win.

�The defendant�s citation to Special Counsel Jack Smith�s motion to
vacate a briefing schedule in the matter of United States v. Trump � is inapposite,� Assistant U.S. Attorney Isia Jasiewicz wrote in
acknowledgment of a defendant�s extension request.

�That motion refers to the �unprecedented circumstance� of a criminal
defendant being �expected to be certified as President-elect on January
6, 2025, and inaugurated on January 20, 2025.� The need to �determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice
policy,� is not similarly implicated in this case, where the defendant is
a private citizen.�

January 6 defense attorneys have called foul on their cases, noting the inconsistencies in how the special counsel is handling January 6 for the president-elect compared to his followers. But just because you and Trump
both committed crimes on the same day doesn�t mean you get to be
prosecuted in the same way. At least for the remaining few months that
Merrick Garland is still in charge of the Justice Department.

Israel�s top leadership has indicated that they see Donald Trump�s
forthcoming administration as a free license to settle Palestine.

In a statement celebrating Trump�s win, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Monday that �the time has come� to extend Israeli
law over the occupied West Bank, reported The Washington Post.

Smotrich, himself a settler who also wields a defense ministry
supervisory role overseeing the West Bank and settlements, added that he
hoped the new administration would recognize the Israeli sovereignty
push, and that the �only way to remove� the �threat� of a Palestinian
state would be to force sovereignty �over the entire settlements in Judea
and Samaria,� referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

Earlier on Monday, the nation�s new foreign minister, Gideon Sa�ar, said
that the government had not yet made a decision about annexing the West
Bank, but explained that the issue had been discussed with Trump during
his first term and that it would be �discussed again with our friends in Washington� if relevant, reported CNN.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, when it claimed the
Palestinian territory from Jordan. Since then, it has increasingly
encroached on the land, expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank
(which violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention) despite
decades of peace agreements with Palestine.

More than 43,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, with an additional 102,000 people injured in the conflict, according to the Gaza
Health Ministry. A report by the United Nations Human Rights Office,
published last week, found that close to 70 percent of those killed were
women and children, with 5- to 9-year-old children comprising the
majority of the dead. Roughly 80 percent of the victims were killed in residential buildings or similar housing.

With Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on his way out, a MAGA power
play amid the fight for Senate leadership is starting to rub some
Republicans the wrong way.

After 17 years in the hot seat, McConnell is expected to exit his post at
the top of Senate Republican leadership on Wednesday, ending his run as
the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.

At the top of the billing to replace the 82-year-old are South Dakota
Senator John Thune and Texas Senator John Cornyn, two establishment conservatives and longtime McConnell allies who have not always seen eye
to eye with the president-elect.

Meanwhile, a gamut of Trump�s key allies, including Elon Musk, Tucker
Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and Charlie Kirk, are aggressively lobbying for Florida Senator Rick Scott to take the helm.
(Trump, notably, has so far avoided endorsing any of the contenders.) But
the overzealous pressure campaign�which is also being pushed along by
some far-right social media influencers and their harassment tactics�is
on the verge of combusting, according to Politico.

That�s because most of the Senate Republican conference won�t have to
face reelection until 2028 or later. On top of that, the vote is by
secret ballot, ensuring that no one�from their constituents to MAGA�s top brass�will know if they voted for or against Trump�s candidate.

�Senators do not take kindly to having an army of social media trolls
attack them,� one unnamed aide told Politico on Sunday, noting that the
effort was only �pissing off senators whose votes Rick needs� to win.

Still, all three candidates passed a Trumpian litmus test Sunday night,
quickly bending the knee to the chief Republican�s unusual demand that
they unequivocally agree to recess appointments and thwart the
appointment of Democratic judges.

�Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the
United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely
manner,� Trump posted on X on Sunday. �Sometimes the votes can take two
years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let
it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!�

Lawyers at the Justice Department just got a sinister warning about a
second term under President Donald Trump.

Mark Paoletta, a former Trump administration member and conservative
think-tank fellow working on Trump�s transition, spelled out the upcoming agenda in a lengthy X post on Monday. He named mass deportations,
pardoning January 6 insurrectionists, and declaring war on transgender
children as the top priorities. And he made sure to tell any DOJ lawyers
who may have qualms about that to fall in line.

�DOJ career employees do not set the agenda. In fact, they are required
to help implement this agenda. Hopefully, they will be as committed to
helping President Trump implement his agenda as they did for President
Biden,� Paoletta wrote. �If these career DOJ employees won�t implement President Trump�s program in good faith, they should leave. Those
employees who engage in so-called �resistance� against the duly-elected President�s lawful agenda would be subverting American democracy.
Finally, those that take such actions would be subject to disciplinary measures, including termination.�

This is yet another dark signal of authoritarian backsliding, as Trump is primed to strong-arm the federal government into doing his bidding or
risk getting fired. The former president has doubled down relentlessly on
his threat to take down �the enemy within,� a.k.a. anyone he feels like attacking. There are rough waters on the horizon for any federal employee
who doesn�t want to conform.

A former Trump staffer and renowned nativist is about to make a comeback
at the top of Donald Trump�s policy machine.

In the coming days, Trump is expected to announce the appointment of
Stephen Miller to serve as White House deputy chief of staff for policy, reported CNN.

Miller previously served as the senior adviser for policy and White House director of speechwriting under Trump�s first term, and his appointment
comes as little surprise: The 39-year-old was expected�since at least the beginning of the year�to reenter the West Wing as the leading expert on �America First� immigration policy.

The far-right politico has made a name for himself for his vicious anti- immigrant policies, which include proposals to build mass deportation
camps and deploy the military and the national guard to seal the border, promising a forthcoming reality of �large-scale raids� and �throughput facilities.�

He�s long been seen as one of the most apparent and rigid ties between
Trump and the white nationalist agenda. Miller, a mentee of Trump�s
former chief strategist Steve Bannon, has had a profound impact on the president-elect�s language and policy on immigration, despite entering Trumpworld with little policy or legal expertise. He was the architect of Trump�s first Muslim travel ban and has been a vocal proponent of family separation at the U.S. border, as well as limiting citizenship for legal immigrants. During his time in Trump�s first term, leaked emails revealed
that he promoted white nationalist articles and books, especially on the
idea that non-white people are replacing white people.

His rhetoric has been roundly condemned�including by his uncle, Dr. David
S. Glosser, who in a scathing 2018 piece for Politico Magazine condemned
his far-right relative as a hypocrite for drafting policy that would have prevented their own family from seeking refuge on America�s shores in the twentieth century.

�No matter what opinion is held about immigration, any government that specifically enacts law or policy on that basis must be recognized as a
threat to all of us,� Glosser wrote. �Laws bereft of justice are the
gateway to tyranny. Today others may be the target, but tomorrow it might
just as easily be you or me.�

Miller has also been on the front lines of other components of Trump�s
agenda, including attacks on LGBTQ rights and abortion access. In May,
Miller (under the helm of America First Legal) joined a legal effort by
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and several professors at the
University of Texas at Austin that aimed to dismantle Title IX, arguing
that the federal civil rights law�which protects against sexual or
gender-based discrimination in education�violated the state�s �sovereign interest.�

According to a legal filing, that included limiting schools� abilities to punish students who take time off to get an abortion, even if that
abortion was performed out of state.

Miller sided with the professors that the school should be allowed to
punish students who take time off to get an abortion, even if that
abortion is performed out of state, while weirdly diminishing Title IX as
a pronoun-fueled bathroom battle that would �force girls in every public
school in America to share restrooms, locker rooms, and private
facilities with men.�

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram to get a better understanding of perhaps the most confusing electoral coalition: the AOC-
Trump voter. On Sunday night, the progressive congresswoman opened her
story comments to her followers, asking: �People who support both Trump &
me OR voted Trump/Dem, tell us why.�

The seemingly endless responses touched on the war in Gaza, status quo dissatisfaction, and general vibes. But they all boiled down to one
common denominator: class struggle.

�It�s real simple � Trump and you care about the working class,� one
comment said. �I feel like you are both outsiders compared to the rest of
DC, and less �establishment,�� said another. �The responses you got make
me want to barf,� said one more.

Others mentioned the genocide in Gaza, the economy, or the general need
for �change.�
Twitter screenshot aaron from queens ???? @aaronnarraph: AOC asked her followers who split their ballots either for Trump/her or
Trump/downballot Dem to explain why and posted the replies: (16
screenshots of Instagram replies to AOC)

�Their responses give a window into their (primarily anti-establishment) views,� X user Leah McElrath tweeted. �Split-ticket voting is real,
despite conspiracy theories to the contrary.�

�Interesting & quite reassuring: seems there are a lot of people out
there wanting radical change, but if only the right offers it, they�ll
vote for them. But there�s an opportunity on the left too. Suspect that�s
true in the UK as well,� another X user mused.

This impromptu Q&A provided more evidence of a thirst for economic
populism that the Democratic Party has yet to tap into.

Less than a week after being elected to a second term, President-elect
Donald Trump doesn�t appear to be the international strong-arm he claimed
he�d be.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already waltzed right past a pointed warning from the MAGA leader, sending tens of thousands of soldiers to
the Ukrainian war front after Trump told him not to escalate the
situation.

Ukraine�s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, told NBC News that
Russian forces are �trying to dislodge our troops and advance deep into
the territory we control� in Kursk, a city in southwestern Russia that
borders Ukraine. Ukrainian forces �continue to hold back� a �nearly 50,000-strong enemy group� in the occupied region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote in a Telegram post Monday.

Ukraine has warned of a looming counteroffensive in the embattled region
for weeks. Among Russia�s allies on the front line include more than
10,000 North Korean soldiers�confirmed by the Pentagon�who are engaging
in �combat against Ukrainian militaries,� according to Zelenskiy.

�There are losses; this is a fact,� he said.

�The importance of this operational area cannot be underestimated given
the number of enemy troops concentrated there,� Syrskyi wrote on
Telegram. �If it were not for the steadfastness of our soldiers, these
tens of thousands of enemies from the best Russian assault units would
have stormed our positions.�

Trump had spoken with Putin over the phone on Thursday, reportedly
advising the foreign leader not to escalate the war, reminding Putin of America�s military capabilities in Europe, according to The Washington
Post.

Russia immediately turned its back on the discussion, claiming that the
report was �pure fiction.�

One of Trump�s biggest and boldest campaign promises was that he would immediately end the Russian invasion of Ukraine�though his philosophy on
how to achieve that was suspiciously scant of details and, at times,
veered toward solutions that would invariably aid Russia.

In June, Trump said he would be open to an increase in U.S. weapons aid
to Ukraine so long as it shows up for peace talks with Russia, reported Reuters.

Trump�s advisers envisioned that the peace talks�which Trump promised to facilitate upon winning in November�would also quietly include Ukraine
seceding part of the country that is currently occupied by Russian
forces. The concept was drawn up by retired Lieutenant General Keith
Kellogg and Fred Fleitz, both former chiefs of staff in Trump�s National Security Council.

And Trump�s ardent opposition to NATO�the Western military and trade alliance�has also raised eyebrows, even sparking condemnation from some
of his former allies. In February, Trump claimed he told a European
leader that he�d allow Russia to �do whatever the hell they want� to NATO allies if they didn�t �pay� their �bills.� And while Trump�s former
national security adviser John Bolton cast doubt on the incendiary story,
he didn�t question the MAGA leader�s desire to nix the strategic
alliance.

�Look, I was there when he almost withdrew, and he�s not negotiating,�
Bolton said at the time. �His goal here is not to strengthen NATO, it�s
to lay the groundwork to get out.�

Elise Stefanik is continuing her ascent through Trumpworld.

President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly tapped the House Republican Conference chair to serve as the next ambassador to the United Nations, a decision that could redefine America�s relationship with some of its
longest allies.

�I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my
Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,� Trump said in a
statement obtained by CNN. �Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and
smart America First fighter.�

Stefanik, a longtime critic of the international organization, won
reelection in New York�s 21st congressional district on Tuesday while campaigning as a staunch defender of Israel in its war on Gaza. That
includes defending Israel�s decision to eliminate humanitarian aid from
the region. In a statement last week, Stefanik heralded Israel�s decision
to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East, or UNRWA, from operating in Israel, the West Bank, and
Gaza, claiming that the 74-year-old aid program �instills antisemitic
hate in Palestinians� and �houses weapons for terrorists.�

She also called on the United States to defund the refugee program,
criticizing the Biden administration for issuing �$1 billion to UNRWA
since 2021.� (The U.S. has received international condemnation for being
the lone holdout on aid since Israel accused 19 UNRWA staff members of participating in the October 7, 2023, attack. An independent report
published in April found no evidence and was supplied no evidence by the Israeli government supporting the allegations.)

Stefanik has called for a �complete reassessment of U.S. funding of the
United Nations� after the Palestinian Authority attempted in October to
expel Israel from the organization for alleged war crimes and human
rights abuses.

At the time of her first win in 2014, she was the youngest woman ever
elected to Congress. She�s since proved to be one of Trump�s staunchest defenders, making a name for herself in 2019 for her impassioned defenses
of the MAGA leader during his first impeachment trial and later refusing
to certify the 2020 election results, elevating lies that the Biden-Trump
race had been stolen.

But she hasn�t always sided with the MAGA leader. In 2017, Stefanik voted against Trump�s tax plan, one of his signature legislative victories.

Donald Trump named his new border czar in the middle of the night to
carry out his dreadful mass deportation plans.

�I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on
Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in
charge of our Nation�s Borders (�The Border Czar�), including, but not
limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security,� Trump said on his Truth Social platform late Sunday
night. �I�ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at
policing and controlling our Borders.�

Homan is best known for crafting and then overseeing Trump�s ruthless
2017 �zero tolerance� family separation policy that resulted in almost
2,000 children being ripped from their families after being detained at
the southern border. This policy resulted in traumatic, inhumane
mistreatment of migrants and their children. It was widely criticized and
put on hold in 2018, around the time that Homan stepped down as ICE
director.

Homan has been bullish about his role in the process, telling the
Republican National Convention crowd this summer that he had a message
for the millions of migrants coming to this country for a better
opportunity for themselves and their children: �You better start packing
now. You�re damn right. Cause you�re going home.�

Homan doubled down on his hard-line stance on 60 Minutes last month. When
asked by Cecilia Vega if there was a way to carry out Trump�s mass
deportation dreams without separating families, Homan responded, �Of
course there is. Families can be deported together.�

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