Donald Trump and his henchmen ratchet up their smash-and-grab antics as time runs out on them

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Just when you thought the kakistocracy of Donald Trump’s administration, made up of the worst of the worst for their appointed jobs, had demonstrably done everything in their power to further damage America, it seems that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt just turned the dial up to eleven. In front of a group of fellow climate change deniers, while preventing reporters, environmentalists, and scientists from being present, Pruitt signed a rule proposal on Tuesday to basically remove any semblance of science from the EPA.

Without warning to anyone but Pruitt’s selected science-denying friends, the official EPAtTwitter account issued a tweet announcing a “special event” just thirty minutes before it took place. While Pruitt made this announcement to proclaim what he called an end to “secret science” it is clearly an attempt to reduce the use of science in order to allow businesses to make more money at the expense of the environment and future generations. This rule would require any use of the scientific method to “be reproducible and able to be analyzed by those in the marketplace.” In other words, if rich donors and large corporations (nonscientists) don’t understand the actual science, or it doesn’t fit their business model, it will no longer be utilized by the EPA.

After all of Pruitt’s recent scandals, it appears that Pruitt has received encouragement from Trump to do whatever he wants without repercussions. Or perhaps making the Big Oil corporations happy is not a flaw, but rather a feature of why Trump is keeping him on despite the negative press. Trump’s recent twitter tirades have looked even more unhinged than typical.

If Trump and his administration understand that their time in power is soon coming to an end, they are more likely to increase their smash-and-grab efforts to further pad their pockets before Special Counsel Robert Mueller puts an end to this destruction.

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