Yep, He Really Cares!

       So, the front page of today’s Daily Sun has photo of Trump, looking as if he cared, standing somewhere in South Florida with Rick DeSantis (Our Gov) beside him making pronouncements as to how much he is concerned with the Everglades and Florida’s water quality. Mind you this isn’t drinking water. We know Trump cares little about that, since he has done f***-all to help Flint, Michigan, yet wait ‘til the last page and see what he just did in Michigan. Trump, starting in early 2017, has undone essentially all clean water protection which existed when he took office.

         Is it a good thing to be concerned about the Everglades? Of course, it is, especially since the problems which affect the ‘Glades are the same problems which, while they don’t specifically “cause” red tide, certainly exacerbate its effects and duration. Of course, Florida was well on the way to doing that on its own under Governor Charlie Crist (not a huge fan, but he was right on this), until the bottom fell out of the economy and the set-asides for repurchasing ‘Glades wetlands went to other more pressing issues.

         Enter Rick Scott, fresh from overseeing the largest Medicare fraud in history, taking office in 2011 and blaming Crist for the Great recession, drop in tourism, dandruff and what-have-you. Scott, then did little or nothing to ameliorate the burgeoning algae problem in Okeechobee, and neither did his partner in graft, Marco Rubio, South Florida senator. 

While the State’s economy recovered, a phenomenon for which Scott endeavored to take credit, even though it was a nationwide recovery, the efforts to address restoring the ‘Glades fresh water flow, and/or algae bloom/red tide issues were treated like a stepchild. This was, of course exacerbated by Marco Rubio’s insistence that Big Sugar (a huge planter in the former wetlands south of the lake, water user and to some extent, polluter of Okeechobee) was a “national security interest.” Yep, he really said that.  

        Trump, accompanied by his bestie, DeSantis, looked around, posed for the photo-op, used the usual plethora of superlatives, perhaps half of them correctly, while the real reason for the visit was Florida’s status as a big vote producer.

        So how does Trump really feel about clean water, when it’s not a reelection issue, but rather a quality of economic life issue for his big business cronies? That’s another story all together. Within just several months after his inauguration, he issued an executive order overturning the Waters of the United States rule, calling it a “disaster.” Trump then instructed the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to review and reconsider the rule, also known as WOTUS or the Clean Water Rule.

         Mind you, the Corps is the organization which created most of the Okeechobee mess by straightening Kissimmee River to please developers, beginning in 1948. Trump failed to mention, or probably didn’t even consider that rolling back the provision could put at risk the health of 117 million Americans, the well-being of plant and animal species ― including endangered ones ― and the protection of critical habitats. The economic risks could also be significant.

        The origins of the Clean Water Rule dates to that blistering June Sunday in 1969 when Ohio’s Cuyahoga River, a tributary of Lake Erie, became so polluted with sewage and industrial waste that it burst into flames. The disaster sparked an environmental revolution in the U.S. It helped lead to the establishment of the EPA in 1970 and the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, which gave the federal agency the authority to limit pollution in “navigable waters.” Note that the
“bleeding heart environmentalist” who signed both pieces of legislation was Richard Nixon! The law had almost immediate was a game-changer for America’s large water bodies, including the Cuyahoga, which went from burning to “gleaming” by the late 1980s.

Cuyahoga river 1969





Cuyahoga river 2019



       Of course, the polluters are typically people of Trump’s ilk, corporate interests who, in most cases live far from where they pollute and only care about their bottom line. So, just how two faced is Trump on the issue? He’s taken $1billion from defense personnel spending but listen to him just the other day. Trump says, "it's time for the federal government to spend big money on cleaning up the Great Lakes”, but the big spending actually began nine years ago under then-President Barack Obama.

       And, here’s the clincher, if you ever doubted this man’s moral bankruptcy, until Trump reversed course in a speech March 28, 2019, (last Thursday night) in the electorally important state of Michigan, he had proposed, in three consecutive federal budgets, to either eliminate funding for the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative or to cut it by 90 percent. In fact, he most recently suggested cutting the program by 90 percent in the fiscal 2020 budget he proposed less than three weeks ago. You wouldn't know that, though, if you just listened to what the president had to say in his campaign rally in Grand Rapids Thursday night. Here’s The Buffalo News’ report:   

        “Trump's attempt to take credit for an Obama-era program he'd been trying to cut didn't impress Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat who has fought for years to boost funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Higgins said the program is responsible for the cleanup and restoration of the Buffalo River and other similar projects across the Great Lakes region – and that Trump has had nothing to do with it. "The credit belongs to President Obama and to congressional leaders who have worked in a bipartisan nature to restore funding," Higgins said.

        I find myself wondering how Governor DeSantis, an actual honorably discharged Navy veteran, vice a fake bone spur dodger, can walk with Trump without vomiting. Then I bitch slap myself back to reality and remind myself that it’s Florida politics.