Don't forget about that guy whose signature now goes on our currency, who's married to the Wicked Witch of the West. Or Stephen Miller, who isn't actually in the Cabinet but deserves a mention anyway.
There are so many to choose from, but Cone-of-Silence Scott gets my vote. I wouldn't want to sit next to any of them at Thanksgiving dinner, though.
36
I've traveled in about 25 countries, including some of the poorest, most dismal, authoritarian places on earth. There is one, screaming, in your face similarity in all the terrible ones. They have no free, quality, public education. If you want to go to school, you have to pay something. Even in the poorest areas in India and Africa, it's often something as simple as the requirement that students wear uniforms, that they grow out of and need to be replaced, or the colors change as the child ascends the grade levels. This is often enough to make school unaffordable for the poor. The best nation's by any measurement (Scandinavia, etc.), all have the world's best, free public education, and even through college.
40
Can't believe you left Zinke and Mulvaney out. True Swampers, they.
21
Seriously, does Pruitt really need to leave his secure
office to continue to pollute US air and drinking water?
15
I assume Ms. Devos had great conversations with the young women in America lit classes. Oh! Silly me.
11
For 10 years my husband ran an after-school program through the BSA, basically, he ran two den meetings per week in two schools. He was informed recently that "changes were made" and his program was discontinued. He helped low-income and at-risk kids.
Thanks, Betsy and Donald!
32
The both of them need to go, quickly. There is no worse judge of character than our current President who has no character himself, nor integrity or honesty.
What is wrong with his supporters? Maybe they lack character as well.
25
**Resubmission** If you're talking about the swamp creatures, you must include the "Crookedile"-in-Chief, Donald Trump. DeVos and Pruitt are all petty thieves compared to the master of "The Art of the Steal." And, he's the appropriate symbol for Memorial Day in being the biggest hot dog of the bunch. He's the real ansolute wurst! Just add some very angry, hot-tempered golden hair-colored mustard and a "bigly" twittering, topping of narcissistic relish and chomp away at your Donald Dog.
20
More shoes to drop in favour of Pruitt as the worst person. He is too concerned about his personal privacy for it to simply be about EPA policy issues.
12
Pruitt and De Vos are the living, acting embodiment of the libertarian, anti-anything Obama this administration loves. Neither will change their ways nor deviate from their mission to gut anything which even smells of left leaning liberalism. Gail will be writing about them until the day we can vote this clown show out of office, and we will feel the effect of their policies for generations. The reign of chaos Steve Bannon worked so hard to install is running to perfection.
25
It's a close horse race and Pruitt is only winning in a photo finish. That being said...Gail, we are getting close to being able to check an "all of the above" box.
14
Yes, in typical reverse brain activity, whatever Trump and many Republicans say these days--and especially what they tell voters--is the very opposite of what is true. I wish Trump fans would figure this out.
So when Trump said he would hire the very "best people" to run our government, many of us already figured out he was lying, and given his track record on judgment, would hire the "worst people" ever, which he did.
Why? My hunch is Trump is really doing the bidding of the Kochs and other nefarious libertarian billionaires, the extremist right wing-nuts and white nationalists, and Putin and the Russians—all of whom despise the U.S. government (for one reason or another) and clearly are very uncomfortable with democracy. Trump is their guy!
Another other possibility is few competent people would agree to work for Trump--for obvious reasons, as we now see. These dreadful Trump hires are the best Trump could do at the bottom of the swamp where he and they dwell.
So what difference does it make that Trump has hired the worst people ever for his cabinet? Top experts and people who have worked effectively for our government are either leaving in droves or are being viciously fired.
So there goes our hope that our institutions can survive Trump and the far right GOP.
Not sufficiently depressed yet? Read "Trump vs. the Deep State"
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/21/trump-vs-the-deep-state
16
Worst person in DC?
Not even close.
Not when Pelosi is still walking around.
Not when Schumer is in town.
Not when guys like Flake have not yet retired.
3
I'll say this for Trump's base...they're consistent.
27
Really? Is that the best you can come back with? Pelosi, Schumer, and Flake? While I understand a Dem is persona non grata to GOPer, let’s get past political rhetoric and think about substance. Pruitt is doing his dead level best to poison our air and water while DeVos is taking the public out of public schools with her efforts to deny education to the children of the 99% while using our tax dollars to fund tax exempt schools. What I wonder is where the 1% plans to live, what they will breathe, drink, and eat, when Pruitt succeeds?
Also, what exactly is the relationship between Scotty and Millan? Is he using tax money to pay his paramour? Or is she the offspring of a crony he’s doing a favor for?
17
We need a Heros gallery,
no longer a Rogues Gallery.
We know who is fouling the DC air-- but
who can we watch that inspires?
4
The drinking water in Charter schools will be as contaminated as that in the underfunded public schools, so Pruitt wins: not only our children's minds but their bodies will be poisoned . Only the private schoolers sipping Perrier will be saved.
14
I vote for Scott Pruitt. Wrecking environmental safeguards will actually kill people. Betsy DeVos's gutting of public education will leave people uneducated, but alive to vote.
This is a "lady or the tiger" choice between Pruitt and DeVos Gail. Our country is literally and figuratively being trashed everywhere you look, and there seems to be nothing we can do to stop the devastation.
I am beginning to doubt there will be a "blue wave" this fall. I hope I am wrong.
177
If there is no blue wave then I have to ask what the heck is wrong with Democrats who don't vote? And where the heck are all the representatives motivating the blue wave? I don't see you!
33
Well, Gail has it pretty easy these days. Just a catalogue of actual events is weirdly funny.
But the joke’s on us!
9
“There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.” Inspector Jacques Clouseau (1968).
Thanks for the smile, Gail. We seem to have bottomed out on our journey down this rabbit hole, so we may as well smile a while. It’s hard to choose among these financial carnivores and distinguish between the gators and the crocs. It may be helpful to ponder a common thread connecting them. Each operates on two basic parameters: “Me Good!” and “They Bad” (which can be instantly interchanged with: “Thee Bad”, depending on the unwitting target). It seems to work when projecting outward toward their base and when inputting their propaganda outlet, but the carnage within this fetid, gurgling morass must be a terrible thing to watch.
6
This is such a part of the swamp! Pruitt and the foul water, obviously, and the creatures in the lagoon from crocodiles to water mocassins do not mask the man with the sneer on his face and his approach to being a civil servant whose responsibilities are to the public and his department. Ha! Betsy DeVos even more complex in her smiling and fixed hair while under her bland demeanor there beats the heart of a Christian idealogue whose view of "education," the department she run, is to favor private schools, religious schools, charter schools--all those in another category from simply public education. As in Texas where monies that could go to badly underfunded public schools goes also to oversee charter schools, the results are like the swamp muddied by the lack of overall scrutiny for the many charters and religious schools that fail leaving students in the lurch, along w/parents and their money These two in particular as Gail shines a light on them are just the stinkiest in the swamp, other than of course, POTUS. Greasy Lake, indeed.
5
The Trump administration's personnel are dismal beyond imagination save perhaps the Defense Secretary. What to do about this now is the question. Trump himself may be worse. It may be the best we can do is prepare for the next election. Lets hope no permanent irreversible damage is done before then.
5
Gail et al, I just read the breaking news that Ireland was successful in overturning its theocratic amendment banning abortion. Apparently, it takes more seriously OUR Constitutional premise of the separation of Church and State. How ironic as well as disheartening. As much as I am concerned for our kid's education and our environment at large, I am also anxiety-stricken with the thought that women's moral and individual rights to choose what is best for their minds and bodies, will be unjustly and cruelly taken from us. Therefore, I cast my vote as to the worst and most ominous, VP Pence.
21
Keep an eye on John Bolton on your list for the worst. Great supporter of Vietnam War, but nowhere to be seen in Vietnam. But this time, if his policy end up starting a war with Iran, he will have a good excuse for not showing up. He is 69 years old.
13
I can not think of anything or anyone in this administration that has helped our society deal with our problems least of all De vos or Pruitt. If it were up to me I would kick them all out on the street as preening useless human beings who have nothing in mind but destroying everything that they touch. They have a good teacher in their mentor Trump, but with the equally useless GOP in charge intent on drowning our government in a bath tub we content ourselves some how with Gail Collin's talk reminding us of where we have fallen and that we must vote the bums out in November.
Some how our society goes on fueled by local momentum and the fact that many in the lower echelons of our government still take their jobs seriously. The protection of our environment and quality of education for our children is of course crucial. And these things are threatened by these guys at the top, but perhaps we can have some hope that with dedicated environmentalists and teachers we may still survive this train wreck.
9
What can we expect next from these two minions? Scott unwittingly promoting Trump Water and Betsy extolling the virtues of Trump University? Thank our lucky stars those fiascos are long gone from their portfolios.
5
Why can't Betsy lend her jet out to Scott. That would even save us tax payers his coach fare. As a matter of fact why doesn't she fly all of the cabinet secretaries around. Would win her big plus points with trumpie and his followers.
10
By far, Pruitt is the worst in a shameful line up of corrupt or completely unqualified cabinet members.
The shocking truth is an unjust, unqualified man assumed the presidency by corrupt means, and his highest level advisers have reportedly called him an idiot and moron.
Fickle moods drive his day as he functions by whim and emotional response. He neither reads nor studies.
And doesn't care one whit if his staffers are corrupt or deficient. Nor do Congressional Republicans, complicit within the most dangerously incompetent administration ever.
20
Gail: You make it so easy when you say "Who's the Worst when you pick two from this administration. You know beforehand it is always going to end in a tie.
9
Not to worry, folks. There are enough fools out here in the hinterlands that Trump will be re-elected in 2020 and we will be introduced to a new gang of villains. Who cares about our young people who can't read and filthy water to drink as long as abortion and birth control are outlawed and children are being ripped from their mothers' breasts at the border.
14
I love Gail Collins writing, however, this is the first Gail Collins column I had to stop reading after the first few paragraphs.
I do not know what good it is to be told over and over and over again how incompetent and slimy Tump appointees are. It is boring now. It depletes people of hope and can affect action against defeating these people, e.g. like going out to vote.
This column reminds me of Neil Postman's critique of modern journalism in his book "Amusing Ourselves to death"
4
Conversely, I think it's important to constantly remind voters how horrible Trump and his appointees are — it shows just how critical it is to get out and exercise one's civic duty, instead of shrugging it off like so many did. Those couch-surfers enabled a monster and need to be shaken out of their inactivity.
14
I disagree. Repetition inures people to the incompetence of these people. Years ago in California, a black being beaten by the police was caught on video. When the police were put on trial they were acquited. It resulted in riots in Los Angelos.
The way the defense won the case was to play the tape over and over and over and over until the jury was inured to picture of the beating by the police.
Too much negative media attention is being paid to the evil that is playing out in the White House like a TV soap opera. I think Trump would have a nervous breakdown if the media completely ignored his tweets. They can't. It is now a symbiotic relationship - with the media "Amusing itself to Death.
With the lessened attention span of the average American, constant repetition is the only answer. The republicans do this repeatedly when they need to push a thought through which you know isn’t good for anyone other than their handlers, like “job creators”, “a good guy with a gun”, “MAGA”, “that beautiful wall”, “tax cuts stimulate growth”, “Obamacare is bad for business”, etc., etc. If we aren’t reminded over and over, we’ll re-elect these guys and they will do even worse things.
2
Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff; the petty from the consequential. In comparing these two henchmen there is a tie. However, Pruitt (the petty) still needs to pilfer cash, apartments, and tickets because he doesn’t have billions. De Vos, having billions is more about spreading the wealth among her fellow bloodsuckers. Then there is the topic of their respective specialties. Pruitt wants to make sure that there is no Earth left for the meek to inherit. De Vos want to make sure that your children are eternally damaged regarding their intellectual growth and critical thinking. Actually, a tie again! Pruitt’s lead infused water will destroy our kids’ brain cells so that competent education services won’t be needed anyways! A combo! Of course, Pruitt is abrasive while De Vos seems demure. A question of style preference on that one. One seems almost apologetic about ruining your life and your children’s; the other dares you to stop him (knowing nobody will). So what’s your pleasure: animal, vegetable, or mineral? How do you want it: in your face, or in your back? I know America loves “winning” but you’ll have to settle on a co-championship; if you’re counting.
5
Toxic runoff.
These two form quite a slag heap — it's difficult to decide who's worse. I'm equally revolted, both inflecting much policy damage while behaving so abominably.
Perhaps the edge does belong to Pruitt, given the difficulties of reversing environmental disasters and his taste for spending the people's money on unnecessary First Class travel, huge security details, glitzy motorcades and pricey office furniture. He isn't even deserving of flying coach, put the man in cargo with the bags.
But really, they both stink.
8
It’s all too depressing. Even Gail can’t get me to smile about this evil president and the horrible people he chose to staff his mal-administration. As for the Republicans ... what has this nation come to?
6
I saw recently where Betsy DeVos said that "the separation of Church and State should be "assigned to the ash heap of history.""
This is truly awful and appalling, not to mention downright frightening.
18
These two literally turn my stomach.
12
Memorial Day originated three years after Appomattox to honor all those who perished or were indelibly wounded in the Civil War. The emphasis was supposed to be on all the combatants, North and South, but several of the once-Confederate states each as separate holidays to honor the rebel casualties.
Over the decades, the Memorial Day remembrance has expanded to memorialize all who have died for the country — emphasis on “all.” So for those sacrifices not to have been for nothing, we must take the wheat of this nation with the chaff; including Trump and his ragtag Cabinet and awful Administration. They are here because men and women died for everyone’s freedom. Yes, that’s a bitter pill, but one we must honor if we are to call ourselves Americans.
4
And to think all of this could have been avoided with a little bit of journalistic ethos and a lot of honest Sanders coverage.
9
Hope you voted and didn’t sit it out because you had a tantrum about Bernie. FYI, Bernie would have lost by even a larger margin because the bigoted, prejudiced people wouldn’t have voted for him either.
7
While one might argue that "up her sleeve" isn't where most of DeVos's ideas reside or are pulled from, she and Pruitt (and the entire Trump administration, including him for that matter), and almost the entirety of the GOP Congress, are not the source of our troubles. The Tea Party emergence in 2010 is the true source, with its ignorant, radical/racist and juvenile babblers who destroyed our political system. Trump et al are simply the tragic results.
8
Gail, it seems like the muck in the ponds of Washington got murkier under a Trump administration whose leader promised to his ignorant supporters,"I'll clear the swamp ."
With Scott Pruitt at the helm of the E.P.A. still not knowing what "corruption" really means, we're seeing these dismantling of etiquette and normal human behaviors among the cabinet personnel which was more a norm before than an exception which is common among Trump's appointees.
Betsy DeVos on the other hand is doing her own dismantling of all the public schools.
In case some Americans do not know Ms. DeVos is gutting the entire school system by taking the funds from all the public schools in the country, especially the funds given to them for their "after school programs and using the extra funds to issue private and charter school vouchers like she did on a school reform program in Michigan that funneled a lot of state money into ......charter schools," like you wrote.
So as far as "Who's the Worst for the Holiday" as you named your piece here, I think beside Trump who's the worst for all the holidays of all time, Scott Pruitt with his own way is the worst offender in the cesspool covered swamp of Trump administration.
Ms. DeVos comes second with her father-in-law's $5.1 billion.
That is the reason why no body should invite Trump and his minions for lunch and dinners in any of the holiday seasons. Those innocent homeowners will be stuck in the same swamp that Trump wanted to clean up. But in vain.
5
OK. I admit it's a close call, but Scott Pruitt has always gotten my vote for the 'Worst", and even though Betsy DeVos and her scurrilous family crew offer some stiff compeition, I'm not changing ... It's still Scott Pruitt hands down.
Look at it this way, anybody who wants to have bullet-proof seats in their limousine, and spends $43,000 for a soundproof telephone booth in order to run the E.P.A. like the super-secretive Kremlin just to poison millions of Americans, definitely deserves the crown.
Don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean that DeVos is chopped liver, especially when you include her brother, husband and father-in-law, who are such pieces of work in their own rights into the picture -- but getting a solid, moderately debt-free quality education means little if you can't drink the water or breathe.
And then there's Ryan Zinke ... let's get back to him next time.
Better fire-up the grill.
5
These people are odious and in any other administration, would be hounded out of Washington with three-inch headlines and Congressional hearings.
But against the stellar wind coming from the Oval Office, they are mere lesser planets.
Only after Donald is out of office will we be able to put his administration in true perspective. But that will not stand up to the scrutiny of middle-school kids who ask how we let it happen.
186
... if they can stop laughing long enough to ask.
9
Now I can see what happened to the Roman Empire with all that corruption, Gail. I didn't particularly want to learn about it as living history, however.
I think that the rough handling of reporters was Pruitt's security team that he's assembled, of course on taxpayer dollars. I had always wondered why he needed it. Now I know.
DeVos, on the other hand, has a brother who has links to the thugs at the former Blackwater (what a name, speaking of Pruitt). With a brother like that, she doesn't need a security detail.
Which makes the Trump administration the sleaziest in history that has claimed to "drain the swamp". Trump is lucky to have Faux News and a lot of very dumb supporters.
And, speaking of dumb supporters, DeVos is there to make sure that their kids stay dumb. Visiting Yeshivas is right in line with having the evangelical ministers Jefress and Hagee address Jews in Jerusalem. Trump-supporting Jews know that they are going to accept Jesus Christ one day. It's worth it for Bibi to get U.S. support. So DeVos is there to teach them all how to pray the evangelical way.
And if you happen to live in a place with good water, keep Pruitt and his security guard well away from it. They're taking us back to the days of the flaming Cuyahoga. And Pruitt is one expensive executive to do that.
16
On the matter of standing for the National Anthem, I have a couple of questions, Gail, that you might help us by exploring.
Is everyone in the stadium, including players, expected to stand, remove hat if appropriate, put hand over heart, and sing the actual words? (I don't think djt can recite the words.)
Are you allowed to stand in line at a concession stand during the anthem? Can you drink beer during the anthem? Can you use your cellphone during the Anthem? Can you look up at the military flyover, wasting more of our money, or must you continue to look at the flag?
Finally, what are the penalties for violation of these rules? At what level of violation are you snapped up by the enforcement agency and whisked off to Cuba?
Just asking? Perhaps you can investigate these matters.
32
Ms. Collins never lets her sarcasm be informed by the facts. All charter school studies that are random-based (that is, they compare students who won the lottery to get into the schools with those who applied but lost the lottery and so had to go to regular public schools) show that the students who went to the charter schools outperformed the non-charter school students. The criticism of Ms. DeVos is driven by teacher unions and has one purpose, at which they fail: to attack charter schools.
2
Unfortunately, no highly qualified person would want to work for, no less be affiliated with, this administration.
Vote in November!
20
Stop feeling sorry for Melania or making jokes about how she wants to escape. Donald Trump is the same person as he was when she married him; she went through his affairs and stayed there. She wanted a child and got one. She lives in a large mansion with many servants and no one pays attention to her unless her staff pulls her out to do something. I also used to think she was digging a tunnel to escape, but if she is digging a tunnel, it's to help her husband when it's time for him to do a Shawshank and get out. Then she's in the house and he's gone. And oh yeah, Betsy DeVos is terrible and should be sent back to her mansion and her billions. Oh...wait.
17
So hard. I vacillate. Maybe a tie?
I will say, regarding Secretary DeVos's seeming conviction that all public schools are failing and there is nothing good to be said about them, the last time I looked, the students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, were receiving an excellent education. Articulate, media-savvy, independent thinkers . . . wise beyond their years, willing to speak truth to power -- assets all on display after receiving the horrific and unasked-for lesson that only mass slaughter at the end of the school day can teach. If they are able to see beyond their grief, I imagine the Parkland parents, teachers, and students have felt pride and value in the public education system that has clearly served them so very well, as they might have imparted to Ms. DeVos had she extended the length of her "drop by" after the Parkland massacre.
23
The last time I looked only about 40% of public school pupils were proficient in language and math. But I guess that is what progressives call acceptable.
1
Since I'm nearly 70 year old, my vote is for the future of my grandchildren and others. Therefore, Scott Pruitt definitely has my vote since gutting health and safety protections is of prime importance.
20
When it comes to either one of these extremely horrible people there are only two words to be said: koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers, koch bothers.
As Wavy Gravy says: "If you don't have a sense of humor it just isn't funny."
Is this nightmare over yet?
27
I wish I lived next door to Scott Pruitt. I'd cut the muffler off my lawnmower and loosen the bolts on the housing. Right when Pruitt sits down for a BBQ, I'd fire that baby up an just let it run. Maybe play with the choke every once in awhile just to make the noise irregular. I have better things to do on a holiday but ruining Pruitt's holiday would be oh so satisfying.
32
Don't do that, @Andy, if you're in that position. Pruitt would spend more taxpayer dollars to construct a wall between your houses.
8
I think Rudy and Scott are the champions of phony smiles.
5
I praise your efforts, Gail, but Trump wins this contest because he hired Pruitt, DeVos, Mnuchin and other amoral self-serving, not people-serving, takers.
19
But if you or I tried what these two losers do, we'd be out on our ears fast.
7
Twitter news regarding arrested children by ICE:
"8 children have been placed w/ human traffickers and forced to work, or else threatened with death
24 Children were placed in homes of Sexual predators or were starved"
Is this verified?
3
These two (and Carson, Nielsen, etc.) should be out there desperately rallying the midterm troops. If the House flips, they will spend the next two years testifying in front of Dem-controlled committees. Sorta like ... Benghazi? Except for real.
11
You mean that sinkhole isn't caused by the deepening, spreading swamp?
16
Pruitt will damage our earth, DeVos will damage our children. I am still going with Jeff Sessions as the worst, he will ruin our immigration and marijuana standards if we let him and it looks like we will let him.
7
And Bolton hasn't even warmed up yet! Just wait till he gets in the game...
14
As much as I enjoy these columns, I'm always left with the feeling that Gail is just scratching the surface. Donald hogs all of the attention so the media won't be able to keep up with just how despicable the rest of his administration is.
13
A woman who has vile policies and a man who is just vile. One is more intellectual is spreading her gospel, the other more a low life acting like a gangster.
I say lets have a king and queen this week, equally bad but different.
7
It’s a dead heat between DeVos and Pruitt for being selected as the worst of a bad bunch.
But, even on a Memorial Day weekend, the challenge for each American is taking one’s mind off the fact that Donald Trump actually recruited these two bizarre characters. They were not inflicted upon him by extraterrestrials.
Trump, of course, is convinced that he can sell both of them to us along with the wall and the tax cuts for the rich.
8
I dunno Gail, I think Trump's Tweeledum and Tweedledee duo of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, taken as a unit, may lead in this "terribleness" competition. Granted, being a twofer in the contest may give them an innate advantage, but they do seem to be in sync with their benefactor, working toward the same goal, though whether that goal is a Nobel Peace Prize or nuclear annihilation is yet to be revealed. No amount of profligacy by Pruitt could match either of those outcomes, and DeVos's efforts, by comparison, are chump change.
6
Gail,
Each one is worse than the others no matter how you line them up.
5
There is no question but that both Pruitt and DeVos should be removed, but think about this: who would replace them? Would it not be in the same category as replacing Trump with Pence?
Cabinet repair boggles my mind. Trump does not appear to know anyone worth using in a post of even minor importance.
17
Let's not forget that these two, as well as others among DT's 'best people,' are doing exactly what DT wants, and promised he would do – which is to undo any good that Obama achieved, all the while enriching himself and his minions.
5
OK, so there is some evidence that once Trump starting draining the swamp, he surfaced the stinking morass that lay beneath. Fill it up again! That smell! There's a lot buried in a swamp that you don't want to meet. Remember, most of the mastodons that have been unearthed whole met their end in a preserving bog-bottom.
But is Pruitt the worst? Give him a lot of points for just being out there and owning his own corruption. Sure, he stinks, but he wears it with pride.
DeVos has a point that our schools are failing our children. It is her desire to fix things by cherry picking kids to go to private schools that exist to skim money from the rest of the system to enrich her cronies that rankles. But give her credit: she hides her swamp stink under an air of fatuous cluelessness and perfect blond Republican coiffure.
And Bolton? Well he may start the final conflagration in the middle east or get North Korea to launch a missile at some unlucky piece of real estate, but how can we hate a man who modeled his look after Professor Hoovey of Horton fame? We are here! Wear are here! We ARE HERE! No wonder he works so hard at trying to make the US look fierce. He was raised on a dust speck.
7
The winner has to be DeVos. Besides having a foxy face, DeVos ("fox" in Low German) comes closest to acting out the opinion of the majority of adult Americans that children are not fully worthy human beings.
Our pre-natal care and maternity fatality rates are scandalous.
Adults routinely short-change the education of all children.
Adults adamantly refuse to effectively protect children from random shooters invading their schools.
Most Americans are not concerned about the quality of our life space, the environment, so Pruitt's destructiveness does not concern them.
17
So many "good" candidates, so little column space.
Just do your best, Gail. You have a very difficult job.
20
Pruitt should be charged with crimes against humanity , for his craven approach to protecting polluters and hastening the Earth's and therefore our collective demise.
11
Pruitt and DeVos fade into obscurity when compared to their boss. All in all, we should rename the whole cabinet and Donald Trump "Losers-Are-Us."
16
Memorial Day idea: dedicate your deep fried turkey to either of these birds! Lacking a turkey, name anything else that can similarly stick in ones craw, cause indigestion or are just difficult to swallow. Pruitt, a corn dog. (Look it up, New Yorkers). A deVos pig roast with Amway sauce.
Soldiers died to give us something; wasn’t this villainous infestation.
9
Can cabinet members be impeached? Oh, yeah--but who would impeach him, when so many Congress members have their hands out, too.
6
I think hypocritical evangelicals are trending so I'd like to return Sarah H Sanders to the list. Her ability to spin lies and sell the agenda of a morally bankrupt administration is breathtaking.
34
I love you, Gail, but the worst is Trump.
11
Gail, could you kindly explain to the NYTimes editors that we need far more articles on what is going on with environmental policy? We need to know who is being put on the federal courts. Are they all male and all white? Incompetent? Radically conservative? Qualified? What about the "conscience rights" ruling? And so on and so forth. All of this is much more important than a nightly newsfeed of Trump and Russia.
We need to know the lasting effects of what decisions are being made by this government.
At least you are willing to discuss Pruitt. We don't just need his scandals, what we need is his policy moves and its effects on air, water, land, animals and so forth. Oh, and Zinke, too.
Most of us have no real idea of what decisions have been made.
26
Speaking of lasting effects, Hugh Hewitt ticked off a glowing list of Republican accomplishments on his MSNBC show this morning. It included the appointment of Judge Gorsuch to the SC, (from my side of the aisle that required shredding The Constitution), and the fact that soon 25% of the federal appeals court judges will be Trump appointees (after delaying Obamas appointees). We'll be living with the Trump administration long after he's gone. Please report on that too.
10
Lasting effects? That's easy. This administration is busily strip-mining America, both literally and figuratively. I hope they get voted out before there's nothing left.
6
Gail,
Thanks for trying to generate some laughs by revealing some of the gory details that have become daily fodder from the current administration.
But I am not laughing. I am stunned. I am appalled. I am in shock that the policies and edicts coming from these two friends of the oligarchs have generated minimal horror among journalists in general.
So, you get two points for talking about the insane attitudes of these two monsters. But it ain't funny. They are evil for children and evil for the general public.
DeVos and Pruitt transparently champion the rich over the poor, the advantaged over the disadvantaged, the political donors over the kids of lesser means, the companies over the health of the Earth.
You want to make a difference? Start making a live list of the abuses and lies of this sick and twisted administration - do it with your colleagues.
Then find a way to get us in the streets by the millions. Start having sit ins - at Congress. At the Supreme Court. At the White House. In state capitals. In churches. Block highways. Disrupt the mindless flow of misinformation and lies.
Write about being registered to vote and turnout.
Your audience doesn't need laughs. It needs organizing for the revolt nescessary to save our planet from these predators.
17
Drain the swamp?! Ha! It gets deeper and slimier by the minute.
8
Phew this is a very tough choice. Good idea to group them together, since they seem to be acting as a tag team. Scott 'the poison man' Pruitt destroying our drinking water and air punts to Betsy 'keep 'em dumb' Devos who completes the play by dumbing down the minds of the next generation ensuring they have no clue how bad it is when they elect greedy, profits- before- people oligarchs to run the country.
8
How ironic that Marjory Stoneman Douglass high school students displayed the utmost articulation and intelligence in public speaking after the shooting. They are a product of our public education system, yet DeVos continues to criticize it.
20
Gail, thank you for focusing on something other than the Trump/Russia connection.
3
It's kind of ironic that the very companies that are polluting the air and water, and lauding Pruitt (thereby satisfying Trump that he should stay head of the EPA) are made up of people who will be breathing the same air and water just like us. . . . Unless they have some other idea of protecting themselves and their families? Where are they going to go? Will they move to a space station? Sort of like the "Elysium" movie plot? Makes you wonder.
2
I think one need consider their respective jobs in this competition. Sabotaging the future of our children vs. the future of the planet. Respecting education as much as I do, I still feel Pruitt gets the edge here.
I am not sure I agree with your putting Bolton on the back burner, though. Speaking of the future of our planet, his rhetoric is single handedly ticking down the Doomsday clock- that has to count bigly.
6
Pruitt, DeVos and Bolton.
Trump's Three Stooges.
A vaudeville act to accompany Trump's improv.
This dark comedy continues.
The willfully ignorant in our country laugh and cheer, while the rest sit shocked in a growing outrage.
It would be funny if it wasn't our nation and our lives.
Vote Democratic in your state's Primary and on November 6th.
Changing Congress is how We The People begin to fix this mess.
8
One has to balance the immediate damage to the long term damage that DeVos and Pruitt have (or will have) committed.
It might be worse having dumb folks choking to death on pollution and not having the means to solve it versus smart folks choking to death on that same pollution.
I cast my vote for DeVos.
1
Would have been nice for Gail to observe this Memorial Day weekend was about far more than barbecues. But not surprised.
That would be a tie. I strongly suggest to include the Kushners in this competition. Going around the world playing clueless politics and, asking for funding for their personal profit is hard to match.
5
I'd go with DeVos, because Pruitt flying first class doesn't harm people as permanently as what she has been doing. Not that destroying the earth isn't permanent, but DeVos seems to have a more singular focus, whereas Pruitt divides his time between purely selfish acts and destroying the earth.
And let's give credit to the people behind the scenes: the 40% of voters who made it possible for Pruitt and DeVos to be all that they could be.
6
@marian
"... Pruitt is Trump's poster boy for how best to ruin the very air we breathe, pollute the water and land, etc. ..."
Do these guys even realize that they too will be subjected to the same pollution and poison as the rest of us? No amount of money will spare these guys.
5
The cabinets in the White House are going to need a lot of cleaning when the next president is elected. And the residence will need to be sanitized.
9
Thanks for focusing on the destruction being visited on us by tRump minions rather than chasing whatever shiny object of the day tRump tosses out for the media to chase. More stories about the harm tRump minions are causing that impacts the lives of voters may cause enough of them to finally understand the damage being done and vote Republicans out of office.
13
While public school teachers are being shot defending their students, the secretary of defense is trying to save them by eliminating public schools.
19
Great article! My thoughts? The only reason Pruitt still has a job is Carl Ichan, the living symbol of our current autocracy.
7
Gail, Gail, Gail; how come you are not blaming the president as the worst for the Holidays or for any day?
8
You've given yourself a hopeless task, Gail. What we have here is not a swamp, but a sewer. It all smells bad, so how can you tell which smells the worst?
24
It's a conflict of interest, right?
3
I love your columns, Gail.
10
Trump is obviously the worst. These other losers are just his choices.
13
As a Michigander I have watched DeVos and her cronies destroy public education in Michigan. She hates public schools and teachers unions. She hates all unions but teachers’ especially. She especially hates public schools for blacks in Detroit. The Republicans destroyed public education, and most all education in Detroit. It was an intentional deliberate effort over many years. Pure evil.
31
The reason for the oil of vitriol in Gail's writing is the growing realization that the Socialist agenda is slipping.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the sad speeches of Ms. Clinton and the near hysteria of the NYT op-ed columnists.
For 8 good years the American people seemed to accept that they could do no better. That if things fell short the government would at least help out with some of the shortfall.
And then, lo and behold they were shown that they did not have to live this way.
The government really could be changed.
The minority students who had been told there was no room for them except in the failing public schools were told otherwise.
The billions of government subsidies spent on electric cars and windmills could be better spent by struggling citizens.
I know Gail that Memorial Day itself may injure your psyche in that it plays right in to these changes.
4
The minority students in failing public schools were given the choice of failing private schools. Because, you know, charter schools on the whole have not outperformed public schools. I note that wealthy people across the nation choose homes in good school districts. Public school districts. Only a tiny minority opt for private schools. Funny how the rich's remedy for the poor is never the one they themselves choose.
The billions spent on electric cars and windmills? A pittance next to the decades of subsidies for oil and gas that continue to this day. What royalty does the American taxpayer get from drilling on public land? Another pittance.
Were you in favor of the billions spent by the Department of Energy, over decades, to develop fracking? Or would that money have been better spent by struggling citizens?
If you don't want the government to fund research into better technology, do you at least favor a carbon tax? Because fossil fuels aren't paying for their ecological damage.
There is a socialist agenda, but I have news for you: it hasn't failed. It hasn't even been tried, at least not in the United States. Most of the industrialized world enjoys guaranteed universal healthcare, tuition-free university education, 6 weeks paid vacation, and vastly greater job security. When the federal government owns 20% of every corporation, and is paid through dividends instead of taxes, then we'll see if the socialist agenda succeeds or fails.
8
Yes, viva the authoritarian capitalist banana republic, where corruption and cronyism reign to serve the Cause.
10
I'm guessing someone with the same name as the famous cat burglar might be expected to agree with the antics of thieves and might well consider such actions patriotic. For those of us who don't live on Easy Avenue overlooking the park, public theft and pollution on the part of wealthy swamp creatures who claim to hate the swamp where they feed, Memorial Day has a meaning far removed from the destruction of the Republic.
5
Dear Gail,
I have always enjoyed your humorous take on current events but Trumps’s horribles’s deplorable, lawless dismantling of their respective agencies is so soul wrenching that I can’t even smile at your columns. The only thing that will cheer me up is to see De Vos and Pruitt in handcuffs doing a perk walk a la Harvey Weinstein. Justice not laughs, please.
16
Well, this article depends on a point of view. Homeland Security Secretary Nielson is the worst from the administrations point of view. Poisoning the poor and depriving them of education accelerates turning them into the serf class this administration wants. Nielson on the other hand is letting too many immigrants in that will be our laborers . Why let them in and allow our poor to sit home or vote . Too inconsistent. Get rid of the Nielson for consistency's sake.
5
Supposedly, Americans will not do the jobs that migrants will do... and Trump would not want black or white Americans working in his hotels!!! Seems easier to oppress Hispanics..
2
With public servants like these who needs enemies?
31
Apart from slavery, our treatment of Native Americans, the Great Depression, 9/11 and our wars, Trump and his gang of thieves are the worst thing that has ever happened to this country.
I’d like to think that the worst of their pillage and looting is already over, but I see no actual signs of this.
29
All that's missing for this group of thieves is a wedding so they can all pose like "The Godfather" wedding scene. Except in my version they're all locked up for either crimes, insanity, or both.
11
It's a shame these long-suffering public servants are catching so much flack. DeVos will just have to go find a couple of $1,200 handbags to bring her some solace. and Pruitt will have to buy his own airplane without public funds.
18
A decent Hermes bag costs at least 40K! 80K crocodile with gold-plated fittings. Lasts forever and can be resold at auction at Christies.
2
Instead of asking "Who is Worse_ Scotty or Betsy?" why not ask "What Punishment Should Be Assessed to These Two Crooks?"
I'd make Scotty work in a coal mine for the rest of his life and I'd like to see Betsy working in a cafeteria of an inner city public school (she has to take a city bus to and from work).
33
I can’t remember a single name from the Obama or Bush cabinets - but I know the whole Trump roster and their crimes
It plays in my head like Arya Starks list
22
What’s worse? Allow our area of the planet to be despoiled or raise more children who will be incapable of making intelligent choices?
A Hobson’s Choice?
9
I'm sure both were present for the Cabinet "Loyalty Oath" session. As was Linda McMahon of Small Business. Her many achievements are listed below....
Flying around the country to let small business owners know she exists.
Able to handle the difficult I95 commute to Greenwich on weekends and be back by Monday.
With hubby Vince, amassing a fortune on another fake reality show (originally owned by his father). Good business advice: "Son, here's a company."
Personally involved in bankruptcy much like at least one casino owned by another current "billionaire" in public office.
Squandered 100 million US dollars on two unsuccessful Senate runs.
12
Also, when Scott Pruitt was a state legislator in OK, he drafted and championed legislation giving men ownership of the embryo of their pregnant partners. Ownership. Yes, that's ownership. There are no words to adequately describe what a horrible human being Scott Pruitt is.
38
Ms. Collins helps take some of the edge off the rusty knife of the news. This column serves as news therapy by presenting us with the conundrum of worst cabinet official. It’s a close competition.
Mr. Pruitt deserves opprobrium for his fleecing taxpayers to pay for personal security and travel, and more so for his policy intentions to hasten the poisoning of our ecosystem. But Ms. DeVos offers a different kind of toxic pollution—ignorance. Not just hers, which has become legendary, but the impact of her policy preferences.
Ms. DeVos seems want to return to faith-driven education that offers a system of belief that factors out the scientific method. If successful in imposing her policies that mix religious faith with the state, she may achieve her stated desire "to continue to advance God’s kingdom."
Her lack of curiosity with other points of view—particularly how schools actually can work well—suggests that she is uncertain about the scientific knowledge that we use to provide electricity, clean water, faster than horse transportation, or medical treatments not based on humors.
Her efforts to impose charter schools, usually based on faith-education, will rob us of a future with educated citizens.
We only get one chance to educate our children. She intends to waste it.
20
As it IS Memorial Day weekend and America begins the annual rite of cleaning off the deck and firing up the barbecue, I will at this instance vote for Pruitt. Americans are heading outdoors to enjoy the summer temperatures (Climate Change Not!), the warm air (pollution), swim in the cooling waters (chemical pollution and/or erosion from damaging storms closing beaches) and eat the farm fresh bounty of the season (chemical contamination).
Our summer fun gets more perilous each year.
Graduation season is also upon us and that will offer plenty of opportunity to reflect upon how our child got to this point of cap and gown, how broke we and they are most likely and DeVos is doing absolutely nothing for the improvement of the public education system in America and its costs.
As for "Bombs Away" Bolton, he is a stand alone figure loving war solutions for just about every situation he has ever encountered.
Being so inclined, Bolton ignores seasonal rites of celebration.
Americans of good conscience have to push the negative to the back of their thoughts, continue on as if all is fair and wonderful in our land, light up the charcoal and remember to thank our Veterans who deserve thanks and support all the time.
4
I have to agree that Pruitt is the winner. DeVos is utterly clueless and seems determined to dismantle public education. Think of how much money that would leave for future tax breaks for the wealthy! But, in this round, most of the complaints about Devos seem to arise from relatives doing questionable things and, while they are nefarious, she can't be held directly responsible. Advantage Pruitt!
6
How about this as a possibility for how DeVos became Sec of Ed? Erick Prince was/is involved with Trump family in Middle East stuff. Maybe he wanted help getting business for himself from some of those countries and/or maybe Trump or Kushner wanted his help and advice to get something for themselves (financing?). And along the way, Prince gets his sister the job she is most unqualified for. A small token of Trump's appreciation for Prince's contribution, whatever that was.
7
If I have to choose its Pruit...but only by a hundredth of a second, the flutter of a pinned-on race number in front of DeVos.
Both departments have real effects on all of us. They can be immediately felt, or will be by most of us as soon as the roll-backs of these two abominations start rolling down hill to where we live. Pruitts will actually be visible in the air, water, land, and in our medical bills. And or those living in certain places, where polluters love to pollute, in the decline in their property values, and overall way of life.
While DeVos's will be less visible, but no less damaging to students, their families, then our economy, as we slide further behind other nations.
But this race ain't one full of world class performers, but rather its a race populated by a field of deplorables in the Trump Admin. Across the lanes its one destructive maniac after another. Be it the environment, or consumer protections, or any one of a number of serious issues (opioids, low income housing, immigration...) the runners put on the track to be the team/dept "best of the best" are in reality abominations. Not cut out for progress, but rather wholly committed to destruction.
10
So unfair! Ms. Collins fails to report that Secretary DeVos has lots of personal experience with private schools, having attended Christian private schools and been beneficiary of her family's huge private college investments. So no need to investigate private schools; Betsy knows all about them. Anyhow they're "private" -- except for a few billion in federally guaranteed student loans, there's nothing governmental there. Ok, so they sometimes engage in puffery about student success. What business doesn't pump up their performance record? That's what helps Make America Great Again!
167
Hard not to hand it to Pruitt.
Both he and DeVos have made it a badge of honor to convert their agencies into engines for destruction of what they were set up to accomplish. But Pruitt gets the Donald Trump silver oak leaf cluster for going above and beyond, also turning his into an engine for personal profit and overarching self-importance.
236
Agreed. Pruitt gets the edge for being the kleptocrat DeVos doesn't need to be.
32
I was going with DeVos, just because of her singular focus on always doing the stupidest thing. I thought Pruitt's selfishness was distracting him from destroying his agency (and earth,) but your point about also turning his agency into an engine for personal profit is well taken. DeVos has let the fact that she is already rolling in money keep her from seizing the opportunity to be more Trumpian. But is it the lack of motivation, or is she just too stupid? And is there such a thing as too stupid to be Trump's Education Secretary? Scoring this one is tough.
44
Hey, @Steel Magnolia, evidently, as Gail writes, we *are* handing it to Pruitt.
13
It's a great column, and well written, but the damage these two are doing is not laughable. Neither seems to have any concern for the public good, and every intention of dismantling these offices for the good of corporations. I cannot laugh at the deaths Pruitt's actions will cause to future generations whose educations are being stifled by DeVos. Neither has any shame.
339
John Bolton is my nominee. The fact that Trump is even mentioning the possibility of Thermonuclear war is truly frightening and appears to be supported by Bolton. There’s also the side issue of Bolton dismantling our countries Pandemic response team.
Of course Devos, Pruitt, Pence, Wilbur, Carson, Zinke, Nielsen and others seem to be actively hurting their departments with Trump’s backing.
7
You make it difficult for us with these choices, Gail.
This is not like in Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong" when it is easy to figure out which one doesn't belong.
With Trump's cabinet, especially with Devos and Pruitt, they belong together, the only difference being gender. Both will inflict long lasting damage, DeVos for kids and Pruitt for the environment which affects kids and adults alike. So if we must select one, Pruitt is the "winner."
17
At the least of stating the obvious, without Trump and the Republican enablers, these people are just two bit hustlers and rich ladies who want to call the shot at local school committees even though their children are all enrolled in private schools. So who's the worst?
17
Betsy DeVos has been cozying up to Catholic prelates for years. Their goal, as it has ever thus been, is to achieve public funding of Catholic schools. Opponents of President John Kennedy accused him of this during his presidential campaign and he vigorously denied any such intention invoking his belief in the separation of church and state. Sadly, this view has been eroded by these cardinals and bishops who now apparently see Betsy DeVos as their conduit to taxpayer funding for Catholic schools.
13
There are faith-based schools that are not Catholic.
Catholic schools have long been admired for their dedication to education. (And the history of what was allowed to be read and when in the development of the human mind is interesting... No Lucretius except for learning to write with eloquence. Read "The Swerve.")
2
I think it's very interesting that a woman like Ms. Collins who might have made a very successful career as a stand-up comic elicits such interesting comments from readers of her writings. Could it be she is insightful, thoughtful and deeply knowledgeable in a kind of light and breezy manner? But I think Ms. Collins is providing the general social fabric much more benefit from her writing ability than had she been drawn to the stage.
30
Both belong in jail for life.
33
Thanks Gail for describing the 3 stooges, Bolton, DeVos and Pruitt. However, while the real stooges are the 40% of the voting public that don’t or won’t recognize that the real damage being done to our children, environment and reputation throughout the world will last a generation.
You can’t fix stupid.
79
There are more than three.
5
Oh yes we can... please talk to your neighbors, friends, and family on the other side; please get involved in a campaign on the local, state, or national level; please donate to the best candidates as you are able; please subscribe to the quality newspapers doing the truthful investigative journalism; please help elect Democratic representatives and senators in Washington; please VOTE!
4
As God is my witness, I will never vote Republican again.
167
The Repubs started losing me with the likes of Machelle Bachman and Sarah Palin and now with outright traitors like, tRump, Devin Nunes and Mark Meadows, the "party of Lincoln" resembles nothing like I want to be a part of anymore. I am now staunchly in the camp of The Resistance.
20
Sigh. Talk about a race to the bottom...
29
The list is long surely. But how about the ghosts behind the list? Charles Koch is the spookiest of them all.
34
Rather than waste time comparing, let’s give an award for Best Ensemble: Carson, Pruitt, DeVos and Bolton, Kelly, Conoway, Ivanka, Jared, Guiliani etc and of course, including The Trump himself.
And a second ensemble award for Supporting Cast—Ryan, McConnell, Nunes, the silent Republican majority, the Koch brothers, and Fox News.
And a memorial ensemble award for all who brought us to this point: Reagan ending the Fairness Doctrine, Lee Atwater, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and—doubling the award—Fox News!
79
Tutti...dont forget my favorite (is it really a favorite?) old Newt Gingrich. The OG of alt-facts.
8
Glad to see you're getting your footing again Gail, you were thrown a bit off kilter by the Trump administration for awhile. Keep snarking the good snark!
17
The worst is Nielsen, or whoever ok’d separating children from their parents seeking asylum at our borders.
302
What's wrong with separating parents and children? If parents know they'll be separated they're less likely to come. That's the point. Keeping people away from our border and minimizing the numbers seeking entry. We don't need more people in this country, we need less.
My guess is that you're not a Sunday School teacher, given how much compassion your comment lacks.
58
Who do you think harvests the fruits and vegetables and slaughters all the animals Americans eat? "Harvest of Shame" is as relevant today as it was when it was released in 1960. Those children? They work in the fields alongside their parents.
1
Pruitt is actually licensed to practice law in the State of Oklahoma. DeVos has no qualifications that are known on this planet. Only the best!
19
She is qualified to marry rich. Her In-laws started the pyramid scheme known as Amway. Character failures all around.
4
These awful people cannot leave the scene soon enough, top to bottom. I certainly hope implementation of all this ridiculous, damaging republican ideology can be halted and reversed.
VOTE!!
32
And you haven't even mentioned Mnuchin! That would be another fun article, accompanied by Alka Seltzer and Valium.
39
This is a close race, but the real winner is (or should I say winners are) the 40% Americans who don't seem to care one whit what Trump or his minions are doing.
I wonder if these are the people who Sarah Palin called "real Americans." You know the ones who care about carrying guns and pray when there is a mass shooting. Or the ones who are concerned that their neighbor might abort and end her pregnancy but not care about the other neighbor whose child isn't getting enough food or healthcare.
I suppose that makes these 40% winners and the other 60% losers.
58
how could skip Zinke?
24
He’s been under the radar for a couple of weeks. Except for that hunting Yogi the Bear permit.
2
Is there something fishy going on Hupp and Pruitt? She’s old enough to be his daughter no? If all 26 year olds can aim for a six digit salary please contact Scott Pruitt!
DeVos brother story was a revelation. Thanks for the heads up. So many layers of connections between Russian oligarchs and America’s elite and politically active folks. Just decade ago we saw wealthy Russians buying properties everywhere in America, never thought anything about it. Cuz now we see Chinese doing the same. One couple from Shanghai wanted to buy a 2.5 million property in our town in cash, same day, no questions asked. The real estate brokers didn’t want to ask questions the same way they never asked the Russians.
21
Don’t forget Jeff Sessions and Kirstjen Nielson. They’re doing some pretty horrible things on the policy front like kidnapping children and then losing them!
32
And the most amazing thing about Pruitt is that in spite of all his many transgressions (which give an entirely new meaning to "entitlement"), despite the fact that he is currently subject to over ten separate investigations, he still has a job. Which apparently he thinks is to destroy the environment, not to protect it! Education will be able to recover from DeVos, but once we've lost clean air, water, raped the land, etc., it will be awfully difficult to undo Pruitt's damage.
31
Yes, but stupidity could destroy the earth in a couple generations, whereas Pruit, because he spends half his time in purely selfish pursuits, seems less dedicated to the cause. It's tough, comparing narcissistic sloths to evil dodo birds, but I'd have to give it to DeVos because of her selfless dedication to always doing the stupidest thing, and because Pruitt will probably get fired first.
3
Pruitt is Trump’s best cabinet head. The fact that the leftists collective heads are exploding over him tells me he is effective in diminishing this completely rogue federal agency.
What the EPA did under Obama, with the polluting of the Colorado River, was a disgrace and a red flag that this agency is useless and bloated. Every state has an EPA. We don’t need a huge federal monolithic EPA dictatingorders on every puddle in America.
1
Is it possible to be both blind and short-sighted at the same time?
5
Your idea of environmental heaven would be, what, China or India (where nobody can breathe)?
4
Gail : Always love your columns but your indirect darts and multiple targets dilutes the piece.
Pruitt us affirmatively destroying the environment, the damage will not be reparable.
he wins and we lose
8
Pruitt is well known, and quite the success in Oklahoma. People in KANSAS make fun of that State. Just think about THAT.
26
Kansas makes fun of Oklahoma? The situation appears to be even worse than it is.
4
Come on people, it's Memorial Day Weekend! The kickoff to Summer, picnics in the park, hot dogs and beer, baseball and hot dogs and beer! I say, let's give it to them both. It's a tie, dead heat. Toss up. There are no losers in Trump's World. Just the losers because of Trump World, which means everyone else.
19
Considering how carefully yeshivot separate post-adolescent men from sexually mature females (who are not their spouses) of any age in most all circumstances they can, seeing DeVos in that photo makes me wonder if they made her a "temporary male" so she could be with them.
10
Unrelated men and women can be in the same room as long as it's not secluded and they don't touch. To put it into context, a YouTube video about the school suggests that it is a reasonably demanding school. They ask their students to master both religious and secular subjects.
The apples don’t fall far from the poisonous (Orange) tree.
15
It's a good thing you make me laugh, Ms. Collins; otherwise, I would cry.
16
They both sicken us now and poison our future for money.
25
I’d vote for Pruitt. Again.
But the similarities between these two “public servants” are even more compelling than a potential contest.
What do they want? Money and perks. Who do they think they are? Hard-working Americans. What are they really? Heartless, practiced grifters. Spoiled babies. Thieves. Mercenaries accustomed to cutting lucrative deals with other mercenaries.
These apples don’t fall far from the Tree-rump.
24
Well, school is out for the summer, so hopefully Betsy will pack a big, expensive suitcase with her jewels intact and take a long, long cruise around the world, spending Education funds on show-and-tells and baubles-bangles-and-beads for her Cabinet buddies. Then we have Pruitt. Aha, what better time to do his dirty deeds than during our traditional vacation time. Oceans to pollute, oh my! Mountains to deforest, gee whiz. And those treasured national lands to exploit in the name of oil. A regular Oz is to be found, wicked witches and flying monkeys included.
But just for the heck of it, I am going to throw in Bolton's name for the worst. We all know this guy's bio, and it is scar-reee. As a matter of fact, with him now whispering in Trump's ear, one has to wonder if we will even be celebrating the 4th of July in the traditional sense. Perhaps it will be be yet another country about which we will sing with somber voices those lyrics, "and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air.."
19
Just because he isn't causing the splashes of Pruitt, don't forget Ben Carson's efforts at harming poor people. Minor league, perhaps, but still a deplorable.
26
Gail, what was once funny is now just sad. Luckily, Trump doesn't name fire chiefs, or a lot of arsonists would have day jobs.
It used to be that a headline like the Onion's "Betsy DeVos Argues Issue of Guns in Schools Should be Fully Left Up To Individual Shooters" would provoke a smile or at least a twinkle in the eye.
Those of us who didn't vote for the disaster on wheels who combed the country for Marvel villains to place in charge of protecting our children and our environment need to pay attention to one thing in 2018 and 2020.
Winning.
Some of the blame for a President who almost won the popular vote can be placed at the feet of governors and legislatures who used the 2010 census to craft legislative districts that leave Democratic representation in the minority even though Democratic candidates in recent elections have won a clear majority of the votes.
The rest of the blame can be attributed to those who run the Democratic Party, which insisted on running a candidate in 2016 who had been the target of scurrilous rumors and outright hate for over 20 years. When people point to polls that show so many Obama voters switching to Trump, they fail to acknowledge that Obama was a surprise to the right-wing noise machine that expected Hillary in 2008, that no matter how they tweeted the racial whistle they could not scale the rhetorical heights that they found child's play when attacking Clinton.
We're complicit too. Remember how we laughed when Trump trolled Jeb? Sad.
17
DeVos and Pruitt.
Two perfect examples of the "populism" that Trump voters voted for when they voted for him, always looking out for the little guy.
I remember how he used to crow about how he was going "to take on Wall Street".
He's hired more people from Goldman Sachs than all
the other president combined and same for billionaires like DeVos.
I guess we didn't understand what he meant by "take on".
MTRA: Make Trump Rich Again 2018/2020
17
I wish I could at least smile when I read this but both are so obviously corrupt, unqualified, and hostile to the departments they are overseeing that all I want to do is cry.
20
"DeVos is an expert on the subject of failing too many students, having worked on a school reform program in Michigan that funneled a lot of state money into minimally supervised charter schools and made everything worse." This observation and the article cited by Ms. Collins tell only half the story, particularly as to how DeVos-funded State-controlled Republicans in Michigan have treated the public school children of Detroit. As a pro bono attorney working on behalf of many of these children, their parents and Detroit taxpayers, I can relate that perhaps the most descriptive event was Republican Governor Snyder's moving Flint's emergency manager, Allen Earley, to run the Detroit Public Schools because the publicity surrounding Earley's decision to start using Flint River water was becoming so great. Earley's conduct at DPS was, if anything, even worse than in Flint. In the midst of this, DeVos funneled $1.45 million to various Republicans who created legislation permitting the Detroit Public Schools district allowing this district to be the only school district in the State (out of 550 districts) to hire unqualified, uncertified teachers; i.e., the educational equivalent of sending the predominantly minority (87% black, 8% Hispanic) children of Detroit to the "back of the bus."
58
It gets worse!
The Michigan legislature considered a bill to require charter schools to meet the same accountability standards as the public schools from which they were siphoning funding. DeVos spent more than a million dollars on lobbying to defeat the proposal.
12
Granted DeVos and Pruitt are both pretty bad, but John Bolton’s advocacy of a war to effect regime change in Iran on behalf of the MEK, a former terrorist group, is pretty scary and may have more profound consequences. Definitely a tough decision. Glad we have Gail to sort these things out.
36
It sort of comes down to who will damage the children more quickly and/or more devastatingly, doesn't it? One is going after their physical health by re-instating pollution of our air and waterways as legal business practice. The other is seeing to it that only the privileged get a decent education while other children are the subject of repeated (and mostly failed) experiments with their future success.
220
And the same children who have the lousiest schools are more likely to live in the areas where the environmental protections are the least. Lose-lose.
20
These two are truly terrible. It’s revealing of just how bad they are that Ben Carson isn’t in the running, since he proves every day that overseeing HUD isn’t brain surgery. (Unfortunately, brain surgery is the only thing this man is good at.).
And then there’s Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who is responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources. However, he interprets this to mean dismantling existing national monuments and drilling for oil in wildlife refuges.
The Trump cabinet: an embarrassment of emvarrassments.
181
We wouldn’t be in this mess if the Democrats hadn’t run Hillary. What were they thinking? How bad was she that it was even close? Unbelievable.
7
We wouldn’t be in this mess if the republicans hadn’t run Trump
30
And now we know how it all came about through the ruination of a really good man. But, the same players are still controlling the game. I fear there will be no Democrat "revolution" of the kind necessary for real change.
I hate to admit, I live in a pseudo liberal town in a blue state, and it's just as horrible. Mistreatment of the poor, minorities, elderly, abuse of animals. People are just ugly. There is only one party in the US, the party of the rich.
3
My comment doesn't concern Americans specifically since we have the same problem here on the Old Continent too: why are conservatives so back folded in their opinion and why do they lack, in many cases, a wide spread education, or should I say general wisdom?
Is it a chronical longing for the times back "when everything was better" or do they have fear of the future? If you look back in history they didn't bring forward civilization and human progress. Instead they were strong in saying "only we are the right ones". It is kind of a grotesque play.
25
I’ve always had a problem with awards like the Oscars , Tonys, etc in their attempt to determine a “best”as if something as intangible as a performance can be quantified and counted.
I feel the same way about Trump’s Cabinet. So many of them should be recognized for their awful performances and are so dreadful either in character or job performance or both that determining THE “worst”is impossible. Perhaps we could just keep a worst five list. Bolton, devos, mnuchin, Perry, Pruitt, Of course Stephen Miller could get a dishonorable asterisked place on the list, given his nasty influence despite only being an advisor and cabinet member.
20
They’re ALL awful. A true Hall of Shame, that the American people will pay for over and over and over. And there’s almost nothing we can do to stop it. Upcoming elections? Maybe they will stem the tide somewhat, but the Democratic party is disorganized, not well unified and no longer has a clear message. God help us, it makes me profoundly sad.
3
For far too many Americans, Memorial Day weekend is the kick-off for summer partying.
Retailers see it as a banner for a sales pitch to buy stuff.
Of course, many of us do pay homage to those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country.
I for one will not spend any time discussing who is the worst cabinet secretary - because they're all the worst - starting with the "man" who appointed them.
If those who gave their lives for this country "saw" who is now in charge, I think they would have second thoughts about serving their country.
30
What both DeVos and Pruitt have in common is their strong religious belief. Why does it occur that those in the Trump administration who love money, despise people who don’t have it, whose most obvious passion is greed are people of faith? Many of Trump’s accomplices are like them, feeling they are doing God’s work by cutting taxes for the rich, dirtying the air, taking away health care, building up the military, and denying housing to the poor. I suppose there is no bigger shield to hide behind.
38
Maybe because churches are purveyors of fraudulent "truths" and are also tax evaders and siphons of public money. The "charity" they dole out comes from your pockets. I'd rather get rid of churches and have a proper welfare state. If we had no churches, we might be able to house the homeless and feed the hungry. Imagine that.
5
Whatever their religious affiliation, they are NOT doing God's work, and to hint that they think they are or other people think they are is the grossest of lies. Publicize their crimes widely--then eventually the public will become enraged and lynch them.
6
You might read this column and think it's humorous, but it's not. The damage done to both departments, Education and the EPA, will be long lasting even when these people are gone." When a fool throws a rock in the garden, it takes ten wise men/ women to remove it."
21
This cast of cartoon villains seems ripe for its own "Primary Colors" treatment, the movie preferably handled by the Coen brothers, who have proven repeatedly that they can satirize the allegedly unsatirizable. Until then, I have to put my money down again on Scott Pruitt. He's just so . . . you know that sickening, sweet smell of hot garbage, ripening in the summer sun? That.
29
Oh Gail! I can't BELIEVE you missed the cherry on top!
Just for fun, visit Hupp's LinkedIn page. Before her current EPA gig, her longest job tenure was 8 months as a travel agent (except for a couple of years waitressing at Eskimo Joe's). The travel agency job then mysteriously qualified her to be an independent "political consultant" for two years, where apparently she was so qualified, Pruitt HAD to have her work for him.
Now, with virtually no work experience, Pruitt is paying Hupp more than what 80% of working Americans make a year. There are people who have been working for decades in the travel field who don't make $114,000.
Hupp's $114,000 Trump administration salary is an insult to - gosh, the long list of people insulted include people working for minimum wage that the Trump administration refuses to raise to a living wage. But really, a government agency paying that six figure salary to a completely unqualified 20-something is just an insult to all of us to pay taxes (of course, that means Trump won't feel insulted!)
43
Well, Trump is repealing employment protections for federal workers. Perhaps she is the first who should be weeded out.
4
...meanwhile, Trump just changed the federal rules, so that qualified federal government employees can be fired much more easily to make room for Pruitt's Hupp!
5
You're right, Georgina! The truly sickening part about Trump changing the rules on firing federal employees is that he used the reason getting rid of those who 'undermine the public's trust' - which, to us, means Trump and his crew - but to the GOP in power, it means firing anybody who is a Democrat.
Democrats have to get together, unify and vote Democratic in 2018 and 2020. It's a moral imperative.
5
Well, Gail, I'd like to add that none of them, none of this swamp, are invited to my home for the holidays. They'd better not even show up on my street...
12
Such a thoughtful group of un-Americans! I'm going to take a knee and wish all of them to leave the country. Permanently.
19
It’s interesting to see staff propagandists directed from training readers to hate the President to ginning up emotion against the agency heads. What this indicates is that it is NOT working to only run ten articles a day training dolts to hate
Mr. Trump since his popularity numbers are solid.
Making caricatures of Cabinet Secretaries was easier for the Republicans when Obama’s people were refusing to even use the protected government email system, or insisted on using fake names to communicate with others. Mr. Obama’s replies to such people locked in the admission that he knew full well that these people were doing this.
During the first Obama scandals – you know, that federal judge STILL doesn’t know how many documents on gun-walking the DOJ has – the solid wall of non-responses seemed to be enough. But those pesky reports definitely got to Obama agency heads & czars when they only spent time playing politics and attacking employers.
Don't we miss the days when none of us were told anything the government was doing?
1
Schools are out of session in June so I wonder what havoc Betsy can cause during the downtime.
7
I've got to stop reading the newspapers. I'm not sure how much longer I can take this. Is there anything this administration touches that is not despoiled and corrupted? And let's be clear about at least one thing: the Congressional GOP and 40% or so of the population are completely on board with the destruction. Our government, our country will be permanently and irrevocably changed. And I'm just sick about it. Anybody trying to console me will probably just make me feel worse. I should just shut down until the election and hope for the best.
30
That's ok, things have been falling apart here for decades, and we didn't even need the GOP to do it. Now we just have the whole country falling apart and the economy with it. Not to mention international relations. I can't remember the last time I felt happy or secure in this country. Felt a moment of hope when Obama won the first election, which was quickly dashed with huge pay cuts and rising taxes. Wish I could emigrate.
4
Remember Joe Lieberman sitting right behind Betsy DeVos during her confirmation hearings: he represented religious schools, which supported her appointment. He vouched for her to his former Senate colleagues.So it's no surprise that Catholic, Jewish and "Christian" schools are where she wants to put public education money. She's hand in glove with these special interests.
15
Yes, Pruitt is certainly top dog when it comes to abuse of power & undermining his own agency, but Zinke over at Interior deserves at least a nod of recognition for his efforts to make it easy for extraction industries to profit from raping our natural resources. DeVoss is just plain evil, as is her brother (who is also extremely dangerous to our democracy). I can sort of appreciate your attempts at humor here, but I can't help feeling betrayed and desparate about the fate of our country. How did it go so wrong so quickly? Where are our checks and balances against the constant abuses of power on so many fronts? Are there ANY consequences for these traitorous criminals?
16
Even though he got a late start out of the blocks, John Bolton is showing some serious come-from-behind moxie. I give him even odds to be the front runner by Independence Day.
9
I really, really want to maintain my outrage at the sins and crimes of the current regime. But they come so thick and fast that it is difficult to maintain the anger and not just turn away. I know that is exactly what those criminals want me to do. Help me out here, tell me how to keep my focus on this evil regime. Sigh.
15
Ami, DeVos' damage can be mitigated, even reversed, with a Democrat sitting in the White House. We just have to make sure that Trump is only a one term president. The environment is a different story, however. It is there that Pruitt and Zinke can do irreparable damage. With global warming and climate change our oceans are stressed as are our flora and fauna. The air we breathe and water we drink are vulnerable thereby putting our very health at risk. As horrible as DeVos is, Pruitt, and Trump, are lethal individuals.
13
Who and where is the voice of the Democratic party? And I don't mean MSNBC. Our elected officials seem all too quiet and therefore complicit. EVERY day there is a headline that is truly depressing and I fear the midterms may not being the relief we seek from these awful people.
13
Exactly! The Democrats are mostly sitting by silent, not really fighting at all. Same as President Obama in not fighting for his SC nomination. Where’s the outrage??
2
Focusing on wildly insane or corrupt politicians again? I know, it is irresistible. Still, we need to focus on my relatives who voted them into office.
Perhaps Gail Collins could talk to them - my relatives - who assert in their childish faux-innocence that Trump is the direct servant of Christ. I know, it makes not sense, and that is the point. Gail is smart and funny and perhaps she will succeed in bestowing upon them the light of wisdom I fail to generate.
In the meantime, if we want to replace bad politicians we first need to replace a bad population of voters who elevate the lowest characters to the highest power on Earth.
14
Am I the only one who has noticed that every appointment made by Trump has been someone who has clearly announced plans either in the past or, by their present actions, to destroy the department now under their authority. This isn't "drain the swamp", this is "destroy the government".........and help yourself to the taxpayers money while you're at it. After all, Trump is doing it for all to see, why not follow the president's example? Who's to stop them? Certainly not the GOP, and the Dems are just sitting there slack-jawed while this nation is plundered and goes down in flames.
9
Trump obviously came prepared immediately after the election with his list of the most venal people in the country to destroy this nation. He was well prepared for sure. How did he get to know all these evil people?
3
Pruitt seems like a terrible person who has an entitlement mentality. DeVos is a clueless person who doesn't have to feel entitled because her family was very rich and then she married into an even richer one.
Also, Pruitt's facial expression is usually one of a guy with road rage, except that Pruitt is not driving a car.
But I would say DeVos is worse, because despite all of her wealth and resources with which she could do a lot of good, she has spent a good deal of her time and money working to take away something she doesn't understand (public education) from people who don't have money, so that other people (charter school operators) can make money off it. Neither she nor any of her kids went to public school, but she is sure it is no good and that corporations, some owned by her friends, can make it good if we only let them make money at it.
Because having rich people run things always makes them better. Like our country.
9
It's fine to find humor in the horrible.
But we can't laugh at the permanent Trump judges who will codify the madness.
Too bad the third party fools, fake independents, and non-voters didn't think of this when they sold their children down the river in 2016.
The stuff of tragedy.
13
We weren't voting for Hillary, we were voting against Trump. But maybe some solution to this would be a strong third party as you see in many other countries. Labour wins in England, why not here? Otherwise we really only have a one party system, the party of the rich.
Please, 3rd party voters - if you didn't vote for Hillary, it was a vote for Trump. This country is a 2 party system, regardless of how "unfair" that may seem to some. When one votes, they are not "reflecting his or her values," they are deciding who sits in the seats of power in the government. That's what elections are about, deciding who runs the government, not validating one's "feelings."
Too simplistic: even a brief glance at a high school textbook would confirm that the Democrats have led every major modern reform movement.
Seamy as Pruitt’s scandals may be, his policies dwarf them all and have much larger consequences than DeVos. He’s taken science out of the EPA. He has barred it from considering important scientific studies. Despite claiming he cares about water, he’s blocked the Waters of the US (WOTUS) rule, which affects the water supply of a third of the country. It appears that he’s only looking to regulate two members of the PFAS compounds of which there are thousands. He’s taken every possible action possible to promote climate change, an existential threat. It may not be as easy to follow what he’s doing, and the effects may not show up for years, but if the courts aren’t able to block his worst actions, we’ll all suffer.
10
I cannot believe you are complaining that Betsy DeVoucher's brother owns a private army. How many cabinet secretaries bring as much to the table?
6
Calling Trump's crew foxes guarding the henhouse is an insult to foxes. Let's hope Novemver 2018 is the beginning of the end.
7
Of all the bad news from Washington of the past week, and in this administration that can seem like several lifetimes, the worst for me is that Scott Pruitt is still holding onto his job. Pruitt has lived so long in the deep and comfy pockets of the energy industry and their lobbyists, he might as well be a baby kangaroo, and he’s not planning on leaving while there’s still money to be made from befouling America’s air and water. And as you reflect on this holiday weekend that there are still wild places in this country “to get away from it all,” Pruitt’s henchman Zinke has a plan for that too.
12
Alternative fact: the air is just too clean for optimum health.
DeVos works heroically to make this fact non-alternative.
Pruitt works heroically to make air dirtier.
Our children deserve no less. They will shank us later.
5
The president has been playing a game off 52 Pick Up. All his appointees are the cards and the president just throws all the cards in the air and let's them fall wherever they land. We, the people, have to find one a way to pick them up and one day have a leader that is playing with a "full deck."
2
I'll vote for Pruitt by a nose, but let's shout out an honorable (or horrible) mention to Ryan Zinke. Pruitt is fouling our air and drinking water, while DeVos attempts to destroy the public school system and teachers that made this country great. And "flags up" Zinke is in the process of despoiling our national treasures.
What a triumvirate of destruction. I can't wait for the day when they are locked up in jail.
9
We used to hope that Cheney and Rumsfeld, who did worse things, would wind up in jail. How soon we forget!
7
Which is worse, the chicken or the egg, that is, the person that destroys science or the person that destroys the minds that science depends on. And then there's the rest of the barnyard.
6
It’s so depressing Gail. But it’s my fellow Americans who voted for Trump and continue to love and support him and his entourage that scare me the most. They’re the winners of this contest.
7
DeVos gets my vote. Pruitt is a swamp unto himself, and he's doing all the damage he possibly can in whatever time he'll ultimately end up having. All his corruption is shameful and boy, do I hope he ends up paying for it in criminal court one day. But if we're honest with ourselves, he isn't the first to fleece taxpayers through his position, and he won't be the last. He isn't even alone right now. I may be an outlier, but as a progressive Democrat, I've just come to accept and expect Republicans will assault the environment if it can benefit short term profits for business. We will be having this right for the foreseeable future.
But DeVos is holding the minds of this future generation. And these schoolchildren will join the electorate in short order. We already see the damage a dumbed down society can wreak. DeVos' very appointment is a product of it. I shudder to think what further devaluing and defunding our already insufficient education system will produce. On top of that, we've always had a system where the quality of education is directly tied to the wealth of the district. DeVos will just continue to exacerbate this, and add her religious quackery, and it's a very gloomy picture indeed.
Can Pruitt scorch as much Earth? I don't see it (yet), but I have no doubt he will try.
5
What a bunch of corrupt 'politicians', able to get away with 'murder'...because their boss, Trump in person, sees nothing wrong with cheating the people paying their salaries. DeVos is subverting the value of public schools, a nasty thing to do. But Pruitt is not only corrupt, he is shameless; and further, by denying human-made climate change, he is endangering mother Earth as well. And to add injury to insult, we have a complicit republican congress that seems O.K. with their outrage. How long can this indecency go on?
5
You forgot to mention that de vos has suggest that ICE pluck immigrant children right out of the classroom.
Now the nations children are already traumatized by school shootings and she thinks it’s ok for armed ICE agents to enter schools and abduct children.
Maybe I’m giving her too much credit for having a thought process.
8
I am sure that Trump will love it.
4
Compared to making Earth unsuitable for human life, keeping kids uneducated is small potatoes. (That "e" is correct, isn't it? Because it's plural? Quayle has made me permanently uncertain about spuds.)
Pruitt wins because without Spaceship Earth, there is no Planet B.
7
I have to go with Pruitt, though not for his extravagance with taxpayers money. I've found it difficult to function recently due to Trump overload and have decided to limit myself to worrying about things that are truly apocalyptic, like climate change (and nuclear war) as opposed to merely horrendous, like gutting America's schools. So for now its Pruitt--though I'm waiting for Bolton to be added to the menu.
28
Descriptions of the dire situations that have been brought upon our nation and are society are one thing.
Solutions are quite another thing entirely.
What is needed is a STRONG MESSAGE that enough is enough.
A simple and meaningful solution is for all Republicans of good conscience to change their political registration as Republican to Democrat or Independent.
Independents should consider becoming Democrats.
Perform this simple but meaningful maneuver and do it now before the elections in November of 2018.
Put the threat of your vote where your good sense and your heart happen to be.
Patriotism can take many forms and can be effective through simple acts of protest.
Send the Trump Administration a message that even they can understand.
40
Your comment “Republicans of good conscience” seems like an oxymoron, and that’s the problem.
11
For Robert A.
Interestingly enough New Canaan, Darien, Wilton, and even Greenwich - all in CT. - voted for Hillary Clinton.
The above towns are all strongly Republican and Fairfield Co. is a wealthy area in CT.
Well-educated, well-off, and well-informed Republicans can take correct action when necessary.
So with that thought I shall leave you to ponder their voting preferences come this next election.
As a precinct committeeman (Democrat), I knock on doors on behalf of Democrats and I also peruse election results. In the 2016 election, in my precinct, all of the R candidates won except Donald Trump. (Thank you Republican women) Another interesting set of election facts regards the 2014 off year primary election result and the 2018 primary election result. In 2014 there were 9 (only nine!) Democratic primary election ballots chosen. In 2018 that number was 118. (Only 59 Republican ballots were chosen in the same election). Democratic voters are coming out of the woodwork in this Republican precinct and I hope it's a national trend.
1
Ms. Collins pretty much got them all. Have any of your rational readers seen any scandals worse than these?
Welcome to Trump's world...and we still have time for more stupidity yet before Mr. Mueller lowers the boom on the Trump administration. There may be a silver lining to the cloud that hangs over America.
34
Forget about the cabinet, as horrible they are. The worst for the holiday and every day is, by a mile, Donald Trump.
In just 48 hours:
For all the thunderous noise, Spy-gate actually proved to be nothing more than Lie-gate.
His pathetically groveling on again off again romance with Kim and his desperation for a date before the November election appeared embarrassingly in a letter for all the world to laugh at.
Separating babies and children from their mothers at the border to teach them a lesson was an unwanted lesson in absolute cruelty.
Saying that NFL players who do not stand at attention before the flag should leave the country was unimaginably un-American.
He's lost the Nobel but he's the hands down winner of the worst of the worst contest. We definitely need another commemorative coin to mark his latest fake achievement.
395
Isn't it curious why the media is attacking these agency heads when Trump is still the obvious top target for hatred?
7
No, it's not. It's their moral obligation as decent human beings.
One wiseguy suggested that Obama still has his Nobel!
7
Aw come on Gail, couldn't we have had a weekend holiday without thinking about these sewer rats?
First we have to recognize these are just the kind of people (I you can call them that.) that the GOP wants running these agencies. Their policies are the direct result of GOP ideology. Their poor donors in the chemical, extraction, and petroleum industries have to pay for these regulations like clean water, clean air, and clean lands. It hurts them to pay for these things, as you know their argument is it costs the public jobs and money, which seems to ring true with those good old blue blooded evangelicals and other followers of ancient superstitions.
Now we see Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas wants to eliminate evolution and big bang theory from the schools and replace them with Intelligent design, something DeVos certainly approves of.
These and other insults to centuries of learning and advances in the welfare of humankind are the result of the reign of Donald1, the Mad President. Yes mad I say, mad like a rabid skunk.
He with delusions of grandeur and paranoid suspicions of spies about him, brings us these vermin to overturn reason and learning, all with the approval of the Grand Old Prevaricators.
Comes the revolution comrade, we will prevail.
110
Thank you, Gail. Please keep the light shining on Trump appointees, so people can see what is happening with their government under Republican rule.
55
Sorry to say that I can't see the point in complaining that America's worst president surrounds himself with America's worst cabinet secretaries. If it weren't DeVos and Pruitt it would be two other paragons of corruption and incompetence. There isn't a single upstanding official in this entire kakistocracy, and the ones we hear about the most frequently tend to be the worst of a uniformly bad bunch.
293
The ONLY plus to this administration is the introduction of the word "kakistocracy" into daily usage.
"...a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens."
Kinda says it all for this administration.
40
As a taxpayer I want my money back plus damages....Sigh.
175
You have hit on an excellent idea: all thinking Americans should pull a Trump and simply refuse to pay our taxes while these clowns are wasting our money on religious crusades and self enrichment.
3
It's a tough call deciding whether the Crooked Oklahoma Baptist working hard to poison the earth, air and water is better or worse than the Amway Church Lady trying to turn America's youngest brains into profitable mush, but Scott Pruitt gets the award this week for once again suppressing truth, facts and nationwide public safety.
Scott Pruitt’s EPA and the White House have both blocked publication of a federal health study on a nationwide water-contamination crisis after one Trump administration aide warned it would cause a "public relations nightmare."
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry - part of the Human Health and Services (HHS) Dept - was preparing to publish its assessment of a class of toxic chemicals that have contaminated water supplies near military bases, chemical plants and other sites nationwide.
The HHS study shows that the chemicals endanger human health at a far lower level than EPA has previously called safe.
The chemicals at issue in the HHS study are contaminating water systems around the country.
Known as PFOA and PFOS, they have been linked with thyroid defects, problems in pregnancy and certain cancers, even at low levels of exposure.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, called the delay "an egregious example of politics interfering with the public’s right to know... it’s unconscionable that even the existence of this study has been withheld until now."
"Have a glass of water and drop dead, America !"
GOP 2018
658
The truth is a mighty hammer, deflected only by willful ignorance.
33
The research is very light right now on PFOA/PFOS compounds and their congeners, so the regulatory levels under Fed and State policies are in constant flux as the body of knowledge increases. These compounds are ubiquitous wherever a fire company practiced with foaming agents, thus airports and Air Force land are primary sources, although leachate from legacy unlined landfills compete as primary sources too. They can be very soluble, especially the shorter chain congeners, which commonly are created from breakdown of the longer chain forms. It's a pickle!
Granulated activated carbon is a good treatment filter, but remedial methods are still under experimentation.
Don't expect any solid risk science out of this administration, the states will likely make breakthroughs first. Unfortunately, many states get too conservative (want extremely low levels that can't be detected) since they look for the Feds to be first guiders. The current draft risk values need much more work, as these compounds can be endocrine disruptors too.
We sample for these compounds on many site and are seen WAY too often, even at low levels. The EPA must continue to take these seriously, which they are, but is hamstrung by the hacks currently in charge. The science was on the way when the morons arrived. That's a pickle too!
38
Hey Gail, even though he’s not a cabinet member, can you add Rudy to your list?
164
No! You just cannot keep adding people like that. Where would it end? The bribes, the aggrandizement, the lies - nope. We have to have some discipline here or the list becomes unmanageable. Not that Rudy is unworthy, mind you.
8
DeVos has also managed to gut Civil Rights protections in the USDOE. And has a stellar history of punishing fellow Republicans in Michigan who aren’t quite loyal enough. That should surely give her a couple more points in the awfulest contest...
http://www.bridgemi.com/talent-education/betsy-devoss-michigan-legacy
38
I want to know what else Millan Hupp does for Scott Pruitt.
152
Me thinks, his wife should want to know too?
51
Yeah, because obviously that’s the only reason he’d hire a woman, right?
Women can be as corrupt and venal as men. We have proof of enough of Scott Pruitt’s wrongdoing without baseless, sexist speculation.
8
Wife is probably relieved.
When Trump goes, an exterminator needs to be brought in to fumigate the sty that Trump has created. All trace of these hideous people must be removed.
138
Good point. And get rid of that sofa in the Oval Office that Kellyanne had her feet on.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/us/politics/kellyanne-conway-couch.html
5
You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll want your money back! Fortunately there's a one time only unlimited guarantee - if at the end of two years the American people are unsatisfied with these dangerous bozos they can vote Democratic. Otherwise, by this time next year Gail could well be writing her 'who's the worst' columns in a penal colony and uploading them to her readers by carrier pigeon.
96
God forbid! It's a horrible thought but I worried about that horrible scenario soon after that poor excuse for a human being became president.
6
I love your “vote them out” enthusiasm! Here’s hoping that the electronic voting machines with no paper trail are not compromised.
10
I was just watching footage of the Irish vote being counted. Hand counted paper ballots with so many observers watching!! That is what we need. But because we are not truly free in America, we will not have that in our election. I imagine it's fairly easy to rig, these computer ballots, and I have no doubt the Republicans and Russians are working hand-in-glove to make that rigging go in their favor. Give up power? Be accountable for one's crimes? Never going to happen. I pray that's not so because this upcoming election in November is the make-or-break moment for America.
They are all so terrible, so horrific and so unintelligent and blindly ideological. His cabinet is truly a ship of fools, corrupt and venal.
Of course their boss, the so called President, in the words of his former Secretary of State, is a reactionary moron and a fascistic deplorable. And that is being kind and generous to this con artist and demagogue.
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But for your use of the term “ideological“, I agree with and smart at the thought of all you have written. However, ideological implies that these people are acting on the basis of a system of ideas, when they are actually just following savage instincts. On the other hand, that is what the libertarian view of the world is based on.
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Betsy. The schoolmarm from Hell. Seriously.
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I do not think they can be separated because if you put DeVos and Pruitt together and scramble the letters you get stupid voter. I think that says it all.
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I’ve never been good at anagrams, so hats off to you. That is spectacular.
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That is brilliant!
Thanks for the laugh.
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Your comment is a perfect example of why i LOVE the NYT, and in particular, its comments column! Elegant, erudite and to-the-point wit!
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DeVos is doing damage that will impact an entire generation. Part of what has made the parkland kids so effective is that they have had the good fortune of going to well funded public schools where they have been taught to think and debate. An illiterate uneducated populace is much easier to control than people who have been taught and are able to think critically.
There's still time to reverse the damage from Pruitt. Sadly the damage from DeVos will live on past her tenure. Kids can't learn if they're not taught and when they enter the real world they fail because they were never given the tools to be successful. Even our most conservative small government founding father Thomas Jefferson recognized that public education was a worth while investment.
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I can only disagree with one of your statements, that "kids can't learn unless they're taught". If that were true, children would arrive at elementary school as blank slates, knowing nothing. And we'd all stop learning anything new as soon as we left school. I don't undervalue education, but I believe that the real value of an education is learning to think. That serves you for a lifetime.
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Most of our crooks in public service are penny ante material who'd sell their souls for a few thousand dollars in perks or contributions. This applies to everyone from school superintendent to senator. Now compare these pikers to a Russian oligarch. Not only do these accomplished minions skim billions right off the top, they're actually much more astute than our home-grown cruds, urbane actors on the world stage. Both Trump and Putin prize loyalty above all else, but Putin, bless him, has an eye for talent and his choices are not ignoramuses hobbled by a perverse ideology.
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Yeah, but Putin gets to cull his handpicked team with fancy poisons, showcasing survivors to their advantage. Unfair!
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Just a matter of time.
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Neither nominee has been "FIYAD"! To my mind that suggests a tie. No, I don't mean the overpriced plaids that the Trump crowd sells online.
With that in mind we can call them the "Terrible Twosome". Well, okay, the nickname is just as fishy as their mistreatment of our Salmon population!
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Mr. Pompeo has begun to distinguish himself as Secretary of State. He has already done what he condemned Sec. Clinton for, and worse. For example, not only did he overlook diplomatic security during hearings. He is also planning to cut the diplomatic security budget by 40 percent. Does Benghazi ring a bell?) Pompeo has already lost his temper twice during reasonable questioning by Congress. Compare that with Clinton who kept her cool during truly noxious hearings conducted by guess who? Pompeo. After his secret meetings with North Korea, Pompeo referred to Mr. Kim as Chairman Un. That is the diplomatic equivalent of grizzlies in schools. Pompeo is one of the worst but in a different way. He is a poisoned apple who shares Trump's white supremacy and misogyny. He is a fervid right wing ideologue who hides behind the same Trump NFL pseudo patriotism.
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Pompeo, like Pruitt, is a minor leaguer who suddenly found himself in the international spotlight. He was a small time business guy in Kansas who found his way into the US House in 2011 with an anti-immigrant agenda.
Next thing you know, this fervent Trump supporter is suddenly Director of the CIA and now State, dealing with North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, the EU and everything else.
It will not turn out well for either Pruitt or Pompeo.
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... or us!
Sure, he is a light weight.
Just first in his class at WestPoint.
Just Harvard Law Review.
Get serious.
This is a detestable duo. But they are in the minor leagues compared to Trump and there are even more bad actors out there.
Consider what would happen if tomorrow the Special Counsel were to release an overwhelming exposure of criminality. I am guessing --- not much.
Our Country is in big trouble and we are in pretty deep.
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It's a hard call to make since both are so destructive.
1) Destroying the environment by repealing laws and procedures to stop businesses from polluting, and shrinking the national parkland to allow the above as well.
Effect > right now as climate change is exacerbated, our water disappearing and becoming undrinkable and the air delivering toxins making it dangerous to breathe.
2) Destroying the public education system, while privatizing it to make it harder for the middle class or poor to receive a proper and long lasting education. The curriculum is becoming more slanted to religion and right wing ideas for the students that are going through it now.
Effect> an entire generation is being lost that may grow up, vote in people/themselves that will reverse the above.
I will go with Pruitt being the worst. ( not by much )
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I respectfully disagree. Without decent education, we are never going to turn around the low- information voter problem that got us into this mess.
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#2) . . . That's why we have to give credit and support to the many public school teachers that go on strike for better pay and better funded schools. They truly are heroic.
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@Funky
American education was already in the toilet before 2016.
America is not even in the top 20.
http://www.businessinsider.com/pisa-worldwide-ranking-of-math-science-re...
DeVos is exacerbating the problem of course, a veritable horror show. For some cliches: the sun is setting on the American century, the baton is being passed to China, Pax Americana is in decline. The military is having a very hard time finding recruits who understand and can operate all the high tech weaponry. At least 30% of the electorate is dumb as a fence-post.
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She's aiding and abetting criminality in her support for abusive for-profit schools that provide no benefits to their students but in reality take advantage of their naiveté and put them at a real disadvantage--in debt with a worthless degree. But he actually is a criminal, cheating the American people and profiteering from the public trust all the while destroying the very rules meant to protect our most precious natural resources. DeVos is an abomination, but Pruitt is even worse.
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Ordinarily, elections revolve around jobs and the economy, both of which are doing pretty well right now. But these are not ordinary times.
Americans need to realize that it's time to commit ourselves to political and ethical rehab, and if the daily shows being put on by the likes of Pruitt, DeVos, Trump, and their GOP enablers isn't enough to do it, then what will? We could opt for an eternity in a padded room trussed up in a straitjacket, but if we don't come to our senses soon, our ultimate fate is unlikely to be so serene.
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It is hard to top Scott Pruitt for all-around awfulness. Leading his Pirate Ship Trump crewmates in number of scandals is impressive.
But now that Jared Kushner has his security clearance back, can we show him some love? We don't even have to talk about Russia or his challenges with filling out forms correctly.
Shaking down foreign governments for loans is big-time corruption. He may not be a cabinet member, or much of anything else, but he should at least be back in the conversation for "worst". He'd certainly lock down the Qatar vote.
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My vote still goes to Pruitt. Because I breathe air, and sometimes drink water.
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I'm drinking less water these days. A stiff Martini seems a better choice.
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Trump's appointments make Batman villains appear less exaggerated; less over the top.
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Why wait? I'll add John Bolton now to the terrible trio of Pruitt, DeVos and Bolton.They each have their own agenda which in no way matches the values of the United States.Pruitt only cares about oil, DeVos cares about private schools and colleges and John Bolton is a war hawk.This gives us dirty air and water,sub standard schools and dangerous international relations!The only way to thwart these minions is to elect a Democratic Senate and House in November who can provide real oversight.
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As despicable as Devos is, the clear winner for absolute worse Cabinet member is Scott Pruitt.
You only listed a few of the many, many rotten schemes he has come up with to scam the American taxpayer- including boondoggle trips to Rome and Morocco to name two.
But the most dangerous of all is the wholesale roll back of all the environmental regulations he has presided over in just over a year.
Pruitt is Trump's poster boy for how best to ruin the very air we breathe, pollute the water and land, etc.
I can only conclude Trump and Pruitt really do hate America. They are doing their best to destroy it- literally.
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I agree because if public schools become scarce we can still have our kids read books and we can teach them at home. If the air and water are polluted there is no other planet we can go to. Pruitt is clearly the worst. Perhaps Betsy DeVos really is sincerely religious. Pruitt is simply a corrupt robber.
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VOTE November 6, 2018. Change our Congress. It's all that we have.
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No. It's not all that we have. We can strike. We can stand united. We can say "No more" no matter what the tyrannical 40% say. We can bring this country to it's knees so that there will be nothing left for the 'masters'. We think we're free. We're not until we ACT.
These two traitors to their agencies are merely reflections of the man who appointed them. They have been tasked with dismantling the core agendas of public education and the environment. Whatever can be privatized will be and whatever can't be monetized will be starved of government funding. Scott and Betsy are the proverbial foxes guarding the hen house but Old Mc Donald has proven, with their hiring, that he never cared about the hens in the first place.
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The American people wanted this. They voted for it -- hook, line and sinker. The American people got exactly what they wanted for.
The American people still want this. They will go to their deaths wanting this.
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No, "the American people" did not want this. A small portion of the people voted for Trump.hi Some of them may now be surprised at what they are getting. I didn't vote for Trump or want the garbage he is serving up. I hate it that you say 100% of the American people got exactly what they wanted. It was more like 30% to 40% who voted for him. Clarity of thinking and writing is important and so are facts. Your comment is missing all of those. If you are an American, S.R. Simon, are you saying that you got exactly what you wanted? If not, why do you write such drivel?
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You have to factor in all the people who didn't vote in November 1016, Barbara — so actually, it was only 25.5 percent of the electorate that voted for Trump.
Sooner, rather than later, one hopes.
3
Given the developments of the past week, it seems only fair to give Mike Pence his turn at the distinction of being the worst member of the administration. After all, his indescribably tone deaf remarks that North Korea could repeat Libya's fate seemed to torpedo the prospects for peace talks. It did not help that Pence followed up by saying that his ominous words were a fact, not a threat.
It also made matters worse that he would not even acknowledge the North Korean delegation around him.
It takes a special kind of awful when statements from North Korea about an American politician ring true. So Pence deserves some kind of recognition for being unmistakably bad.
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And don't forget that the steady whittling away of female reproductive rights we've seen in the last year is surely attributable to Pence. The "right" to diminish those freedoms was granted him by Trump: even the president would venture out that far on the limb of hypocrisy.
Although this subject actually gives Scott Pruitt extra points for dreadfulness. In 1999, when he was an Oklahoma state senator, he introduced a bill to grant men "property rights" over unborn fetuses, requiring women to obtain the would-be father's permission before aborting a pregnancy. [Source: HuffPost]
3
What does the Queen of Vouchers DeVos have "up her sleeve for June"? To counter mounting criticism that she doesn't care at all about public education, she has filled her entire summer calendar to the brim with school visits, from coast to coast. Of course being summertime, there won't be much educational instruction, if at all, going on in most of them.
Anyways, she will at least have made the heroic effort, and there will be some good photo-ops generated of her purposefully striding up to all of those entrances for media release. Maybe if some kids are out on the playgrounds, she might even squeeze in some kickball games with that public school crowd.
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I know that you were talking about Trump minions, Miss Collins, but the real winner of the "most terrible person in the Trump administration" contest is President Trump himself.
Trump put these execrable figures in their cabinet positions, and of course we put Trump in his. So, who is the most terrible leader impersonator in this story little scenario? Quick, we don't want to know; break the shaving mirror!
In this discussion, we are missing Ryan Zincke, Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, all of whom are very much in the running for the Trump cabinet dunce cap.
But maybe they're not dunces. Maybe, like their boss, they are simply masquerading as such to cover their unfitness for membership in the human community, left alone the president's cabinet.
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But who voted them in, who approved of their appointments?
That is the real sewer rats.
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Ms Collins, this is an impossible task. This entire administration has plumbed new depths in worst.
Tonight, I watched a report about border agents taking children away from their parents when they seek asylum. It seems the ideal candidate for a position on the Trump team is one who is unburdened by the personal standards of decency that would make such acts impossible.
But if I must choose, De Vos gets my vote because of her disregard for the American children,and the damage she is all to happy to inflict on them.
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How to solve this conundrum ? They switch " jobs ". They are both grossly unqualified for their current positions. Let's throw them in the deep end of the Swamp, and it's sink or swim. I'm guessing sink, rapidly. Not that anyone in the Trump Regime would ever admit to failure, or anything. The stable genius has only the best people. Right ?????
30
What we fail to understand is not that Pruitt and DeVos are awful human beings—that much is certain—but that they’re rich. In this country, rich people get to do whatever they want, so you can’t judge them by the standards of (ugh!) ordinary people.
After all, scamming the rubes is a time-honored tradition. We don’t diss the scammers. We exalt them. We do their bidding. We elect them to the presidency.
To be fair, the environment has done nothing for Pruitt, except to just lay there and let him have its way with it. But there are troubling signs that it’s looking for a #MeToo moment, since Kilauea seems to have had just about enough. Rape the earth, will you?!
I recommend that Pruitt visit Hawaii and take a very close look at some plumes of explosive lava. I’d be happy to take up a collection to fly him first class.
DeVos can’t be faulted for keeping young people ignorant. How else would you find folks to participate in the various pyramid schemes if you let them have actual educations?
Besides, given the current administration in Washington, we’ve really got to grade awfulness on a curve. The awful people that were around years ago couldn’t compete with the current crop.
Even Nixon seems like an honorable statesman compared to the current guy defiling the Offal Office. Watergate? Are you kidding? The current president does a Watergate twice a day, and you don’t see him waving goodbye from a helicopter.
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Pruitt isnt rich--he just wants to live like that our expense!
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"This is a crime wave, not a presidency."
--David Henry, NY Times comment
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I like it! Let Pruitt stand up before Madame Pele, face to face, and see how it goes. For a hint, as the guy whose leg was shattered by a splash of lava.
14
Offhand, I imagine Weinstein gets the nod for being the worst of the holidays.
As to DeVos, she’s at least half-right. Our upper-middle-class public schools and many of our middle-class schools are fine – they’re as effective (at least) as those I graduated from 45 years ago, short of a major transformation. They provide some minimal support for those with real capacity and they inculcate basic skills to the rest, so that they might compete on energy and good looks with all the other indifferently educated kids in America. But those public schools serving our lower-middle-class and impoverished communities, with rare exceptions, are for the birds. Why do we suppose that hundreds if not thousands of parents contend for every open slot in ghetto charters? Yet defenders highlight the one school here or there that does a better-than-average job as if it exemplifies such schools instead of being such an outlier.
We’re failing our young for yet ANOTHER generation in an increasingly competitive world. DeVos’s approach appears to be to scrape off the losses as unfixable, and to focus attention and resources on schools that CAN improve. I wish that she’d have the moxey to tell Trump that we should try something radically new that could save a FAR higher percentage of our young. But all she may be good for is finding funding for those that already do a passable job without her help.
2
Pruitt is excessive in his environmental deregulation efforts, but the precise line of optimal effectiveness is hard to draw, obscured as it is by environmentalist berserkers who readily admit that the only way we can be saved as a species is returning to the bare-subsistence level of neoliths 5-10 thousand years ago – which certainly wouldn’t support today’s immense global populations.
So, it’s hard to know where to stop until there’s a massive popular rejection or something truly bad happens, at which point you roll back regulation since the last cut. But, unless Pruitt can restrain his more personally corrupt impulses, he may not be the secretary who does that.
On balance, I still think that the prize for “worst of the holidays” goes to Weinstein. But reasonable people can differ.
Private academies are worse and often with far right and religious right agendas. She is terrible, a truly odious and
unintelligent fool.
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Public schools serving our neediest children are grossly underfunded. I am not talking about raising teacher pay. I am talking about things like funding to reduce class size. When I taught 1st grade, at first I had 30 kids in my class. Then for nearly a decade we received Title I "reduced class size" money, used to add another teacher and class to each grade, reducing my class to 25. In Kindergarten we reduced the class size to 20. It made a world of difference. Then, that money dried up in the bust of 2008, and slowly class size crept back up.
Public schools must serve all learning disabled students who have IEPs. In better schools in wealthier neighborhoods the principal can find and hire service providers like speech therapists, occupational therapists and physical therapists so these children can get all their therapy at school. In harder to staff schools, with the neediest children, it is hard to provide these onsite services because there are few candidates applying in that area. So these students are given vouchers that often go unused because their parents cannot find an after-school speech therapist nearby, don't have money to travel farther away, and don't have childcare to watch their other kids when taking their child for services. There was another great program which provided tuition for a masters in these three areas in exchange for working afterwards in a Title 1 school. It was great while it lasted. That money dried up too.
It's all about priorities.
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We've got an Education Secretary who thinks of students as a revenue source rather than our country's future. We've got an EPS Secretary working to ensure that we all die from pollution, so there is not future.
Well, it's consistent.
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The race to the bottom in the current administration.
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Pruitt/DeVos what a pair,
A match for 5-deferment's hair,
Pruitt a despoiler,
DeVos a non-toiler,
Drive all observers to Despair.
The bottom of the barrel choices,
The sinkhole of non-informed voices,
Pruitt the free spender,
DeVos , vast wealth tender,
How Putin, our dear friend, rejoices.
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Excellent. I must point out Donald's Barrel is Bottomless. The BEST barrel.
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Larry, one of your Top Five.
39
there are words ( said to everyone who says "there are no words")
19