Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Chump works overtime to destroy the environment

 Chump is a danger to all living things.  He proves that daily. Josh Fiallo (DAILY BEAST) explains:


The Environmental Protection Agency is ending a decades-old practice of assigning a value to human life when reviewing the effects of certain air pollutants, a report alleges.

The agency, led by President Donald Trump appointee Lee Zeldin, will continue to document the costs businesses incur in complying with regulations, but not the value of lives saved by those regulations, according to internal emails leaked to The New York Times.

Such a reversal has been described as a “seismic shift” that is antithetical to the agency’s mission statement, which prioritizes human health and the environment.

The pollutants in question are fine particulate matter and ozone.
Fine particulate matter is particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that can penetrate a person’s lungs and bloodstream. Even moderate exposure to these particles can damage the lungs about as much as smoking.

Ozone, a smog-causing gas emitted by power plants, cars, and factories, protects us from UV radiation when it is high in the atmosphere. However, when it is at ground-level and inhaled by humans, it is known to cause asthma as well as heart and lung disease.
An official announcement about the policy change has not been released. Once implemented, the Times reports it will “make it easier to repeal limits on these pollutants from coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills, and other industrial facilities across the country.”

He'll kill us all and do so gladly.  I hope he realizes how hated his children are going to be.  Chump will be dead and gone before the 2020s end.  But shy boy Barron and the rest will still be here and they will be hated.

Some comments on the article:

Mary Campbell
19 hours ago
Rolled back a slew of EPA regs, as well as OSHA regs, and much more.
Special Agent Krasnov
19 hours ago
Here comes another lost lawsuit for the Felon in Chief.
EPA is required by LAW to protect human and environmental health when setting pollutant limits.
Trump has no authority to change that.

cathy hakker
2 hours ago
All Trump cares about is how much money he can make before he is thrown out of the house, this was reported months ago that he was allowing corporations to unload more pollution to the air and our waterways, and that they no longer have to report on what or how much, he has already been paid by these companies by the millions of dollars donated to his campaign, once it comes into effect he will receive millions more, this is the future for your grandchildren people this is their future that Trump will destroy, what more do people need to that Trump is willing to destroy America for money


Related, Kate Yoder (GRIST) reports:


Two long years ago, it appeared that the much-anticipated American Climate Corps was finally happening. President Joe Biden had promised to build a green jobs workforce inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s most popular New Deal programs, ever since he was on the campaign trail. By September 2024, 15,000 young people had joined the American Climate Corps, according to the administration, working to restore landscapes and install solar panels around the country. 

It didn’t even last a year. The Biden administration wound down the program last January ahead of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, correctly anticipating that Trump would take a hammer to anything with “climate” in the name. 

But even as climate change fell off the national agenda and the promise of federal funding vanished, some states have found ways to continue to support Climate Corps-style work over the past year. Their efforts show what’s still politically viable — and under what conditions these initiatives can still succeed — assuming local governments and nonprofits find the funds.

One of the survivors is, unsurprisingly, California, a state with many climate-friendly initiatives that have enough resources to survive a federal drought. “We’ve stayed the course and are moving forward full steam ahead, and our climate work hasn’t been impacted by the chaos at the federal level,” said Josh Fryday, who runs GO-Serve, Governor Gavin Newsom’s newly created office for service and civic engagement. 


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, January 13, 2026.  Senator Mark Kelly is suing social media maven Pete Hegseth, Chump continues to misuse the Justice Dept to persecute Fed Chair Jerome Powell, only 1% (per Pam Bondi) of The Epstein files has been released, Chump continues attempting to smear the name of the late Renee Nicole Good and much more.


Today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE, Joe reviewed how Donald Chump's has elected to start the new year. 


/div>



Convicted Felon Donald Chump uses the Justice Dept to go after his rivals.  He thought attacking Fed Chair Jerome Powell was the thing to do.  He was wrong, so wrong.  

 





Let’s be absolutely clear about what’s happening here. Powell is being punished for ​​refusing to bend monetary policy to the whims of an authoritarian president who believes the entire machinery of government exists to serve his personal interests and ambitions.  

Even by Trump’s standards, the brazenness of this assault is staggering. The Federal Reserve was deliberately designed to be independent to avoid exactly this scenario. The Banking Act of 1935 created the modern structure of the Fed and explicitly placed monetary policy decisions beyond presidential reach. Central banks in nearly every major democracy operate on the same principle of independence — precisely because the alternative could lead to inflation and instability. Trump has never accepted the basic premise that the Fed was designed to be independent of presidents to avoid political business cycles and cronyism. The idea that someone else can say no to him — as Powell has in the past by refusing to take action on the economy according to Trump’s whims — is intolerable, so, true to form, the president has escalated.
Trump has been ramping up his attacks on Powell for months. He has called for the Fed chair to be fired, accused him of incompetence, mocked him publicly and repeatedly demanded lower interest rates as if the Federal Reserve exists simply to do the boss’ bidding. When Powell refused to comply, Trump and his enablers went searching for a pretext to exact revenge. They found it in the building renovation project. 

Andrew Levin, a Dartmouth economist and former Federal Reserve official, first published a policy brief on the central bank’s building renovations for the libertarian think tank Mercatus Center. After Trump allies pounced, the report became fodder for a New York Post story sneering about a supposed “Palace of Versailles.” The Fed, for its part, kept Congress informed about the project, with Powell testifying at a Senate hearing that the renovation included no VIP dining room, no new marble, no special elevators, no water features and no roof terrace gardens. 
But facts don’t matter when the goal is intimidation. 

 

Chris Blackhurst (INDEPENDENT) observes, "What this shows, not for the first time, is that the Trump administration is no longer operating according to any principles of objectivity, and that it is entirely subjugated to its master, compliantly anticipating and carrying out his wishes. In some instances, that may not matter greatly. But with the Fed, Trumpian officials are playing with fire. If there is one arena that Trump cannot control, it is the markets. They do not do emotion. They do not idolise him or anyone else, nor are they swept along in his wake. And they are not American. They’re global, unsentimental and unforgiving."  Elizabeth Schulze, Benjamin Siegel, Fritz Farrow and Allison Pecorin (ABC NEWS) note pushback, "The Justice Department investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is drawing backlash from former Federal Reserve and Treasury officials as well as current members of Congress, including those in President Donald Trump's own party. A bipartisan group of top economic officials released a blistering statement on Monday calling the probe an "unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine" the central bank's independence" and they quote a statement from Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Tim Geithner, Jacob Lew, Hank Paulson and others stating, "This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success."  Sean James (MEDIAITE) adds, "Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said the criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell has called the 'independence and credibility' of the Justice Department under President Donald Trump into question following the president’s consistent criticism of Powell’s leadership."



Investors took one look at the Trump administration’s criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and decided to resuscitate the “Sell America” trade, selling off US stocks, bonds and the dollar.

Stocks opened lower Monday morning. The Dow was down 409 points, or 0.83%. The broader S&P 500 fell 0.37%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.23%.

The US dollar weakened against other major currencies. The dollar index, which tracks the dollar’s strength against six major currencies, was down almost 0.4% — a sharp move for the greenback.

Treasuries fell somewhat, too. The benchmark 10-year yield, which trades in opposite direction to prices, rose to just under 4.2%, near a one-month high. Bond yields’ move higher suggests the Trump administration’s action against the Fed could backfire, and rates may not start sinking as the president has demanded.

Fed independence is considered a cornerstone of what makes US financial markets exceptional. Investors, economists and historians all regard an independent central bank as key to stable financial markets, as policymakers can set monetary policy without regard to political interests.

Jim Edwards (FORTUNE) elaborates, "Markets moved back into 'Sell America' mode overnight as traders digested the prospect of an incoming Fed chair who lacks independent credibility: The dollar sank 0.32% against a basket of international currencies; the yield on 5-year Treasuries moved sharply up, a sign that investors now regard U.S. government bonds as being suddenly more risky; gold futures -- the traditional safe haven -- rose 2.21% today to hit a new record high over $4,600 per troy ounce; and S&P 500 futures are down 0.66% this morning prior to the opening bell."  Medha Singh and Pranav Kashyap (REUTERS) note, "Goldman Sachs' Jan Hatzius said the indictment threat against Powell has heightened concerns over the Fed's independence, though he expects the policy decisions to remain data‑driven."


Chump and his stupidity keep  destroying our economy.  MARKETWATCH's Mike Murphy  adds, "West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was flat after giving up sharp early gains amid uncertainty around Venezuela’s oil industry following Trump’s assertion that the U.S. will control the nation’s oil after U.S. military action that deposed President Nicolás Maduro last weekend, and unrest in Iran that has seen hundreds of demonstrators reportedly killed, leading the U.S. to consider a military response. Oil prices rose more than 3% last week."  Ed Carson (INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY) notes, "Credit-card and card-issuing stocks fell after President Trump called for a one-year cap on credit card rates to 10%." 




President Donald Trump’s long-running war against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has escalated.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia has opened a criminal investigation into Powell over the renovation of the Central Bank’s headquarters, according to The New York Times. The probe includes a review of Powell’s public statements and an examination of spending records.


The U.S. Supreme Court has indicated that even if President Donald Trump can fire the heads of independent agencies, it may ensure there are protections to stop these powers applying to the Federal Reserve.

The Trump vs. Slaughter case is being heard by the Supreme Court, which, if approved, could give the president the power to dismiss the heads of independent agencies at will, changing a 90-year-old policy.
It stems from Trump firing Democratic FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter in March, whose term was not set to expire until 2029, but the findings could be applied to whether Trump can fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, as tensions between Powell and the Trump administration escalate.




Turning to the Jeffrey Epstein files which remain unreleased, December 23rd the US Justice Dept issued this statement:

A. Tysen Duva serves as the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division.  In this capacity, Mr. Duva supervises the Division’s more than 1,100 federal prosecutors and staff members who conduct investigations and prosecutions involving violent crime, sex trafficking, cartels and transnational criminal organizations, human smuggling and trafficking offenses, cybercrime, fraud, corruption, money laundering, child exploitation and other crimes, as well as matters involving international affairs and sensitive law enforcement techniques. 


Today, Ben Penn (BLOOMBERG NEWS) reports the latest on the Jeffrey Epstein files which is that the DOJ put a new "expanded team" over the files January 5th headed by . . . Tyson Duva:



A supervisor in an office within the Criminal Division that’s been deluged with Epstein review relayed to staff that DOJ leadership is “well aware that the project got off to a very rocky start and numerous issues continue to be flagged for more concrete guidance,” according to a Jan. 8 email obtained by Bloomberg Law.

Tysen Duva, who was sworn in last month as head of the Criminal Division, acknowledged the challenging task at hand, telling employees Jan. 9 that he knows this isn’t how they wanted to start their year, said the individual, who like others spoke anonymously about internal communications.

Duva commended the division for increasing its daily output through the week, saying they collectively surpassed 200,000 pages on Jan. 8. But Duva also said reviewers needed to improve their individual metrics the following week.

The Criminal Division, home to about 600 lawyers in Washington focused on white collar and violent crime cases, was enlisted to support previously assigned reviewers at the FBI, National Security Division and US attorney’s offices in Manhattan and Miami after more than two million documents were identified late last year related to the late financier and convicted sex offender.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche informed a federal judge Jan. 5 of plans to divert 400 attorneys across the department to dedicate all or most of their workdays to complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. But even with additional reviewers, the complexities remain in protecting victim identities, as required by the law.
 
Congress voted The Epstein Files Transparency Act into law and then (November 19, 2025) Chump singed the law.  The law gave 30 days for the Justice Dept to release the files.  That was December 19th and Pam da Bimbo Bondi missed that deadline -- well, blew it off.   Blew it off?  Pam told the court last week that the Justice Dept had thus far only released about 1% of the files.


Where are the documents?  And if help was needed, shouldn't Pam Bondi have known that before the December 19th deadline?  But they didn't appoint someone to head the release until December 23rd -- four days after everything was supposed to have been released.  US House Rep Ro Khanna's office released the following near the end of last week:

Today, Representatives Ro Khanna (CA-17) and Thomas Massie (KY-04), the leaders of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, sent a letter to Judge Paul Engelmayer of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, requesting the appointment of a Special Master to compel the Department of Justice to release the full Epstein files as required under Rep. Khanna and Rep. Massie’s law.

“The Department of Justice is openly defying the law by refusing to release the full Epstein files. Millions of files are being kept from the public,” said Rep. Ro Khanna. "The DOJ has failed to make the necessary redactions to protect survivors while removing records after publication without any explanation. That is why we are requesting the appointment of a Special Master to oversee the release of the files and ensure that the DOJ is following the law.” 

"Attorney General Pam Bondi is egregiously violating the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act," said Rep. Thomas Massie. "Under her leadership, the Department of Justice is missing statutory disclosure deadlines, making excessive redactions, and illegally withholding the Department's internal communications. Because the Department of Justice has shown it cannot be trusted with making the disclosures required by law, a Special Master should be appointed to oversee the release of the Epstein files.” 

See the full letter below or click here.  

Dear Judge Engelmayer:

We write jointly as Members of the United States House of Representatives who sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Public Law 119-38 and as amici curiae in the above-caption manner. We respectfully request permission to file this brief as amici curiae given our unique expertise as the leads of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. We are writing to suggest the appointment of a Special Master and Independent Monitor to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make mandatory production under the Act.

As the leads of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, we have urgent and grave concerns about DOJ’s failure to comply with the Act as well as the Department’s violations of this Court’s order.

On December 19, 2025, the Department of Justice released only a portion of responsive materials. That release, however, did not comply with the statute as written. The Department failed to meet the Act’s requirements in multiple respects, including missing the statutory deadline, asserting common-law privileges that the Act does not permit, and applying extensive redactions that appear inconsistent with the Act’s expressed prohibition on withholding or redacting records to protect politically exposed persons.

Several federal courts, including this District, have already recognized that the Act’s disclosure mandate is clear and that its specific statutory language supersedes pre-existing secrecy rules and generalized privilege doctrines. Nonetheless, the Department has continued to rely on arguments that courts have rejected, including the claim that Congress did not “speak clearly” enough to require disclosure of unclassified investigative and internal materials, despite Section 2(a)’s unequivocal language.

Compliance concerns have been further heightened by the Department’s handling of records after their release. Independent investigators identified numerous files that were publicly released on December 19, 2025, and later removed, including file EFTA00000468. While removal may have been undertaken to protect victims depicted in the material, an objective that is both appropriate and required, the Department’s own statements underscore that this issue is more significant than DOJ has suggested.

DOJ has acknowledged that, despite tens of thousands of manual redactions and quality control checks, information that victims believe should have been redacted was nonetheless posted publicly. DOJ also represented to the Court that it interprets the Act to require publication of grand jury and discovery materials unless a statutory basis for withholding applies, with victim privacy protected through appropriate redactions rather than categorical withholding. Consistent with those representations, and with the Court’s order directing DOJ to certify that victim-identifying information is being protected, the Act allows narrowly tailored and consistently applied redactions, not the wholesale removal of records after release or assertions of privilege inconsistent with the Act. Whether the Department’s actions complied with those limits is a fact-specific question that would benefit from neutral, independent review.

We have reviewed the DOJ’s most recent submission to this Court on January 5, 2026, Dkt. 826, where the DOJ states that it has only produced “approximately 12,285 documents (compromising approximately 125,575 pages).” The DOJ claims that there is still “more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act in various phases of review.” Other reports suggest that the DOJ may be reviewing more than 5 million pages. Because these figures are self-reported and internally inconsistent with prior representations, there is reasonable suspicion that the DOJ has overstated the scope of responsive materials, thereby portraying compliance as unmanageable and effectively delaying disclosure. 

The conduct by the DOJ is not only a flagrant violation of the mandatory disclosure obligations under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but as this Court has recognized in its previous rulings, the behavior by the DOJ has caused serious trauma to survivors. 

In addition, the DOJ has not complied with Section 3 of the Act, which requires the Attorney General, within fifteen days of the deadline for release, to submit a report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees identifying the categories of records released and withheld and summarizing all redactions and their legal bases. To date, no such report has been provided. Without it, there is no authoritative accounting of what records exist, what has been withheld, or why, making effective oversight and judicial review far more difficult.

Put simply, the DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act.

While we believe that criminal violations have taken place and must be addressed, the most urgent need now is for the DOJ to produce all the documents and electronically stored information required by the Act. In its November 26, 2025, letter (Dkt.813), the DOJ represented to this Court the categories of documents in its possession, much of which has not been produced.

Thus, in our capacity as amici curiae, we suggest pursuant to its inherent authority and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 53, this Court appoint Special Master and/or Independent Monitor for the purpose of ensuring all the documents and electronically stored information are immediately made public to be in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.  We also suggest the Independent Monitor be given authority to notify and prepare reports to this Court about the true nature and extent of the document production and if improper redactions or other improper conduct is taking place.  We also suggest this Court compel testimony from the person or persons most knowledgeable from the DOJ SDNY office about the production that has been made, the pending productions, and the representations that have previously been made to this Court.

Absent an independent process, as outlined above, we do not believe the DOJ will produce the records that are required by the Act and what it has represented to this Court. 

We appreciate the Court’s attention to this letter. We can make ourselves available to the Court at a future hearing or participate in a briefing on the need for a Special Master or Independent Monitor or any topic this court deems helpful for the full and fair administration of justice.

###

Khanna then went on MS NOW's THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O'DONNELL to discuss the issues and the lack of progress on the part of DOJ.




Meanwhile, US Senator Mark Kelly took to the Senate floor to announce that the whims of Pete Looselips Hegseth were not going to be the final words. 

 
 



Michael Kunzelman (AP) reports, "Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders. Kelly, a former Navy pilot, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. Hegseth announced last Monday that he censured Kelly over the former Navy pilot’s participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders."  Alex Woodward (INDEPENDENT) reports the filings note, "It appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech" and that this is put at risk  “protected speech, chill legislative oversight, and threaten reductions in rank and pay. . . . Each of these actions also signals to retired service members and members of Congress that criticism of the Executive’s use of the armed forces may be met with retaliation through military channels."  

The senator spoke with Lawrence last night about the lawsuit. 



The US government murdered Renee Nicole Good on January 7th in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  ICE agent Jonathan Ross, a man with years of training in using a firearm and who provided training to others ("a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor"), shot and killed the mother of three who was unarmed.  Ross, apparently needing to make social content while on the clock, filmed her and when the video was released, the world saw that her last words to him were, "I'm not mad at you."  By contrast, he or one of his fellow agents immediately called Renee a "f**king bitch" after plugged her with three bullets.  The federal government immediately began attacking Good -- even though they should be stating "I can't comment on an ongoing federal investigation." 

Instead, as NPR's Martin Kaste observed on January 9th, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, "And I think what's not normal here is the way the federal officials have been publicly passing judgment on a case that's still being investigated. For instance, just today, the vice president posted a video that appears to have come from a device being held by the agent who shot Renee Good on Wednesday. It shows Good smiling and saying she's not mad at the officer. But Vance called the video evidence that the officer was in danger. So there seems to be a real disconnect right now on the basic level of what the evidence means."  






Billie Eilish has joined a growing number of artists criticizing U.S. immigration enforcement following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, prompting a sharp response from the Department of Homeland Security.
In a series of posts shared with her millions of followers, Billie Eilish described ICE as a "federally funded and supported terrorist group" and urged Americans to contact their members of Congress to demand that the agency be defunded. She also called for the arrest and prosecution of the officer involved in the shooting and circulated a list of people who reportedly died in ICE custody last year.

Serial liar Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin is quoted and we don't quote her.  She's lying and that's her pattern.  You lie to the courts, no one needs to believe you anymore.  She's lied to the press repeatedly.  She also has a husband who got a sweetheart -- and unethical deal -- from Kristi Noem.  Was the pay off for that unethical deal that she has to lie now?  I have no idea.  But known and repeat liars don't get quoted here.


 

US president Donald Trump has added another justification for the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an Ice agent in Minnesota: she behaved badly.

“At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

In the days since Good (37) was shot and killed by Jonathan Ross, an Ice agent, Trump administration officials have used a variety of arguments as they have tried to justify the episode.

They have called it an act of self-defence, and Trump has falsely claimed Good “ran over” the agent. JD Vance, the vice-president, has argued that Ross has “absolute immunity.”






The following sites updated:


Posted by at