REWRITING AMERICAN HISTORY WITH REPUBLICAN CONSENT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Trump proves daily that he is an ignorant would-be tyrant, and he is well on the way to achieving that goal.  He knows nothing of history, yet wants to dictate what it should include.

Russell Vought of “Project 2025” fame, knows nothing of history either.  He’s just  a whiny white boy who is too rich for anyone's good and who has been sponsored and coddled by a bunch of racist, misogynistic cowards at the Heritage Foundation who are too scared of anyone who is not rich white and male.  OK, they are terrified of them too; they could turn on him and his kind in an instant.  It has happened throughout history.  So, Vought, Miller, Bessent, and a collected crowd of scared white men and the women who love them want to get their Baby Donnie to  make history less scary, less filled with ways white men have oppressed and abused people, less information about outstanding women, and people of color, and white men who don't buy the scared white male BS.  The Trumpers are not a large group, but want everyone to think they are all-powerful, so we will be cowed into submission. 

Trump’s next target is the Smithsonian Institution, often fondly referred to as “our nation’s attic.”  Trump and his buddies who know nothing of history, science, art, and this nation, want to have oversight for all exhibitions, displays, etc.  What!  They would be lost in the jargon of science, history, art, and the rest.  Those whiny rich boys would bring nothing positive to the museums or anywhere else they plan to try to control, just lies, inaccuracies, and their personal fears, resentments, and ignorance, none of which anyone in this country needs or wants on display in an honored institution. 

Smithsonian Secretary Bunch and the rest of the amazing people you work with, don't give in!  Ask the American people to help to support your work more now that Trump and his fascist crew are trying so hard to rewrite American history, and thus a part of the history of the world. 

When I worked for the Smithsonian, I loved working with the designers of exhibitions and giving tours of their fine work.  I can't imagine what a tour of Trump's history would sound like, a lot of lies, disinformation, and would not be worth the effort.  I am trying to imagine Trump as a tour guide of his brand of history and realize he wouldn't get past the first display because he wouldn't have a clue what was there.  He and his buddies like to whine about whites being discriminated against when that is so rare as to be nearly invisible, but Trump wants that insignificance to be more than visible, actually prominent, even if they have to make it up. 

The Smithsonian crew are going to have to be very creative to get around the ignoramuses of Trumplandia.  The residents of Trumplandia, toddler men and a few women know so little it is embarrassing.  Their ignorance is the reason only fools and the incompetent, serve as secretaries and department heads in our current government.  For Trump, ignorance is bliss.

However, Republicans in Congress, mostly white men, like the Trump takeover of our national entities like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian, and say "sure, Mr. Sir, whatever you want, we care nothing for this nation, our oath of office,  and the people who elected us, just the money we can collect in gifts (bribes) and we are getting a lot right now, so, it’s all good,  whatever you want, we’re behind you, can you feel our presence back there?" 

THE EPA HAS DECIDED CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT REAL. WHAT!

By Ruth A. Sheets

Yo!  Lee Zeldin,  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, wake up!  Your future also depends on the decisions you make now.  At this moment, you are not on a good track in the decision-making department.  Check this out and maybe you’ll decide to do better.

Let's face it, no matter what those like you, who are ignorant of a subject, put into positions you know nothing about think, science is real and so is global warming/climate change.  I do wonder why so many Trump/Republican appointees have decided lying about reality is a good thing; it isn't, it is just ignorance made manifest!  

I communicate with you as a concerned citizen to implore you to uphold your Agency's Endangerment Findings and maintain vital climate standards.  That's the intelligent thing to do, but it is not clear where in the current EPA leadership intelligence lies if it is present there at all.  What do you think?

The Endangerment Finding is an assessment of the challenges faced by the people and environment caused by human activity:  fossil fuel burning, power plant emissions, harmful chemicals, and more.  Revoking the Endangerment Finding would ignore overwhelming science and endanger public health. In addition, this set of proposals you are championing undoes the vehicle emissions standards. Transportation is the largest source of climate pollution and these standards are critical to limiting dangerous heat-trapping emissions.  Is there someone intelligent there to understand this?  I am not sure.  Either way, do you care!

From the beginning in the early 1970s, the EPA’s duty has been to base decisions on science and to protect the public from dangerous pollution, just as Nixon and his scientists expected.  What you are proposing now advances polluter interests, not the EPA’s mission.  Why would you permit this? 

Have you considered that this means the polluters are also lacking in  basic thinking skills (I guess greed does that to you). They will be physically impacted by the extra pollution, just like we, the  expendable peons, even if they/you can't see it.  Greenhouse and other gases are invisible, but they allow for heating of our world.  The visible pollution is also dangerous because it can cause cancer and other lovely medical conditions and you rich folks get those too.

I am hoping there is a spark of intelligence left at EPA that will cause you to uphold the Endangerment Finding and keep strong climate protections in place.  Stop listening to the demands of the folks who will want you all to take the blame when storms, floods, wildfires get worse and start killing even more people, not to mention the wildlife. 

Do the right thing for a change.  Get the word out that the rules will stay in place for now until you "study" the situation, then keep “studying” over and over until people in the white house forget.  Do you have the courage to do that or are you just a lacky whose intelligence was left behind when coming to work for an administration for whom intelligence is a liability? 

DEI, NOT A BLOW AGAINST WHITE MEN

By Ruth A. Sheets

It seems Donald Trump and his handlers are obsessed with DEI.  They toss the letters out as though cursing in anger.  Trump would have no idea what the letters he is blurting out mean if asked by a member of the White House press corps, which is why none of them ever ask him when he tosses the swear word at them.

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is the term used to identify efforts to make businesses, workplaces, education, and other entities more inclusive of the variety of people living in this country.  It used to be called “Affirmative Action” until the Supreme Court said educational entities could no longer accept students through Affirmative Action, even though it was not clear the justices even understood it beyond their thinking that it meant letting Black students in.  Their wrong understanding was that white students would be kept out and replaced by Black students of lesser ability.  That was not Affirmative Action, but it didn’t matter because the word of the Supreme Court is law, right?

 

Colleges and Universities were looking for a positive way to make their student bodies, faculties, and programs more inclusive, but it seems the majority white Supreme Court conservative justices (including Thomas the white wannabee) just couldn’t have that, a white man who might not get in where he wanted to attend because an inferior woman or Black man got in instead.  So Affirmative Action was labeled by right-wingers as baaaad!

 

Women and people of color were not going to be stopped, so a new title for such inclusive education and institutions was needed.  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was the name settled on.  This title has served to recruit and keep thousands of students so student bodies could be more diverse not only by race and gender, but also by experience, talents/skills, and region. 

 

The new right-wing trope from white men is that they are being excluded by those less-educated, less qualified inferiors.  It is true that white males will no longer automatically be accepted over everyone else, but competition is good if without prejudice. Whether the cry of male exclusion is untrue doesn’t matter because it sounds good to groups like the MAGAs.  They take as gospel whatever is tossed out to them either by their Toddler-Trump or that shows up on Fox Not Nearly News, mostly white men, with a few white women hired to be the female faces of male aggression and claimed superiority.  Viewers came to believe that what the right-wing media presented must be true, no evidence required. 

 

I was commenting on a Substack thread this morning and one of the participants tried to say that DEI discriminates against white men.  I had to reread that one several times to get the gist of his words.  I challenged him saying that he as a white man has privilege just for being white and male.  He claims he does not have any such privilege because his life has been hard.  He couldn’t get the idea that it is likely that had he been a woman or person of color, his life would most likely have been even more difficult. 

 

I am amazed at the inability of some white men to get it that they are consider the default human in many parts of the world, including here.  They seem to want to wallow in the injustices done to themselves and their white male buddies.  They believe they have never discriminated against anyone and that every single job or opportunity that came to them was due to their own personal abilities, skills, and superior thinking and education.  That may be true, but it may equally be due to their male whiteness.  They will never know because white privilege means people will always see them first. 

 

One important thing to remember is that this is not really the fault of white men in general.  Those living now didn’t set up the system, devise ways to be sure that everyone not white and male would be kept in place below men.  Today’s white males didn’t skew laws to favor white men and nor did they institute slavery and the other systems that kept white men on top.  However, it is white men with some support that keep those practices in place.

 

That being said, today’s white men of privilege can learn to understand their privilege and can move toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion if they choose. 

• They can take time to look at their situation and that of other white men they know and see how the system has worked for them. 
• - They can listen to women and people of color and note the critique that could change the ways white men relate to the people around them. 
• - They can ask questions of themselves:  do I objectify women by their looks; do I assume everyone else is less qualified or coming after what I have; do I vote for white men even if I have doubts because I can’t envision a woman or person of color in that job/position; do I treat a white male boss differently from any other boss?  These are just a few of the questions white men can ask themselves.  They are questions all of us can ask ourselves too because white men did not get their privileged position on their own.  Women provided the early education that promoted that stance.  People of color just as white men and women, have hierarchies of who they see as superior and inferior.

 

DEI is just a tool to help us appreciate the diversity of humanity on this planet and to realize that each individual and group has something important to offer the whole and that no group is better than the rest in everything.  DEI gives a framework for business, education, the workplace, communities and nations to start to notice others and the gifts they bring to the table.  It helps us to develop those gifts for the benefit of all. 

 

trump and his white male cadre of sycophants do not want self-examination.  They want things the way they were at some mythical time in the past when straight white men ruled in every sphere of life.  That time will not come again, so it is up to all of us, including white males to embrace DEI (whatever it ends up being called), and demand its use everywhere for the benefit of all.  Then challenge when Trump or anyone else tosses out the term DEI as a slur or curse.  Such contempt proves they have no clue.

A WEEK OF THOUGHTS ABOUT DEMOCRACY’S STRUGGLES

By Ruth A. Sheets

July 14, 2025

In response to a poll on Robert Reich’s Substack thread I chose Victor Orban as the dictator Donald Trump is trying hardest to emulate.  Victor Orban came into power in Hungary under false pretenses just as Trump did.  He was popular because of nothing in particular he had done, but made massive promises the people bought and swallowed whole.  Now he rules an entire country that at one time actually stood up to the Soviet Union.  A difference is that Hungary had a history of dictatorship over many years and the United States does not, which might bring us a bit of hope. 

 

Some people have noted that Trump's welcome is starting to wear off, and for a significant number, it has already worn thin.  The Republican Party or Trumplandia as I like to think of the GOP, beyond giving Trump, their leader, everything he wants is useless if anyone thinks they will stand for or with our democracy.  For years, they have done nothing to help anyone but rich mostly white men who need no help.  In 8 years, W. Bush for example did one positive thing I could recall, create and develop an HIV/AIDS program for people suffering in Africa, which I suspect is disbanded with Trump’s illegal executive order shutting down any programs that actually help people in other nations, OK, in this nation too. 

 

I think there was one positive action in Trump’s first term, well it started out that way.  He pushed the final phases of the COVID vaccine.  Unfortunately, he promoted drugs that were not helpful for people suffering with COVID, hinted people should take bleach internally because if it works to kill germs outside the body . . . .  Even though he was a victim of COVID, he didn’t understand the efforts the medical staff at the hospital went through to save him, while he pretended he wasn’t really very sick; he lied.

 

This term, Trump is trying to hold court over a Trump-created selfish nation that has little to offer anyone.  Who wants to come here to college when if their skin is not pure as the driven they will not be welcome?  Who wants to travel here to visit when they could be arrested and thrown into a concentration camp by masked goons just for existing?  Who will want to trade with a country that puts enormous taxes on all their products so people in the US won't be able to afford them?

 

Trump and his cadre of sycophants don’t really care about any of this because the folks they are doing this destruction for are super rich and expect to jump in to pick up the pieces, taking over the nation for their benefit while they work to take over the rest of the world too so they and their super rich friends can rape the planet even more horribly than they have already done.  They think they will survive global warming because of their wealth, but like most people who do not think past the moment, they don’t consider the extreme wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and other disasters inevitable with global warming.  They only want science involved when it lets them become more wealthy.   

 

This may end up a paradise for the very rich, but not for anyone else.  Therefore, a step we must take if we do not want this dystopia is for anyone who has a platform and a mouth that can speak should be telling folks that right now, they are being pushed around by a toddler pool of white men and a few sycophantic white women who care nothing for them, only the money they can wring out of the people to enrich themselves even further, in short, endless wanting, like whiny toddlers.  We need in a variety of ways, to inform people of how we are being used, and that Trump is one of the biggest users around and loves that honor.  We have to learn and help each other to learn how to defy rather than to comply  with what is going on.  We need to help folks drop their racism, even though it may be a cherished family tradition.  It is keeping them from seeing what is really going on so they can say “no.”  The same is with stopping misogyny, xenophobia, and homo/transphobia.  Those are all hatreds fanned by people who want to control others, to control us for their own purposes.  No one should want to be owned and that is what the rich folks want to do to us.

 

I heard Trump's pathetic speech in Texas when he was trying to pretend he cared about the people lost to the flood, but it came off as disinterest, then a rant against someone who asked about the late response from FEMA and the government because Homeland Security Secretary Noem couldn't be bothered.  Trump’s over the top reaction was par for Trump's course because that is the way he always responds to people who challenge him.  He wants to be the bully in charge who accepts no questions of his motives or decisions, not much of a leader, but with the ?Supreme Court six cons supporting him as well as his entire political party, it is going to be hard to dislodge him from his position of power.  We can do it, though if we have the will and the unity it will require.  OK, it is going to require strength, courage, knowledge, persistence, and more too, but together we have that. 

RUMINATIONS ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

By Ruth A. Sheets

July 5, 2025

 On this July 4th I sit here thinking how depressing it is that over and over again throughout our history, a bunch of white men have worked to change this nation, not really caring or even thinking about the impact on the rest of the people.  In 1776, it was breaking away from Britain.  During the westward movement, it was to steal land from indigenous peoples to acquire more wealth and prestige for the investors and to take as much gold as possible.  In 1861 it was white men wanting to protect the 200+ year economy of enslavement from which they gained a lot and the enslaved, little to nothing.  Then, there were the labor and anti-labor movements, the wars, the Great Depression, all orchestrated by white men often at others' expense to gain more wealth and power.  And, here we go again.  White men are now an even smaller minority, yet we continue to pretend they are better, smarter, more innovative, more everything than anyone else.  The anti-DEIers claim without actually saying the words that the only reason any woman or person of color holds an important position was that a "better-qualified" white man was passed over in favor of THAT less competent person.  Lying is now the medium of exchange for this current group of white men who believe they are better than anyone else, and they don't have to have evidence of their superiority, just their mouths moving.  On this Independence Day, we who are not rich white men trying to control everyone else need to declare our independence of their rule, lies, abuse, incivility, desperation to hurt anyone they can.  We can make a better nation and world, but we are going to have to set those particular whiny white men, down a few pegs.  Teaching young white boys they are not better than the rest of the kids will be a challenge, but it is essential to help them grow into responsible adults who can work and play with others without trying to dominate them. 

 

All of this is not to say that white men have done nothing.  After all, we are an independent nation for nearly 250 years.  We have a labor movement that is still alive more than a century later.  We have tech that allows us to do a lot, often due to white male inventors and developers.  However, it is clear that white men have always had a cadre of women, young people, and people of color to help with and often advance the invention and development, sometimes the actual inventor. 

 

On this July 4th, we need to remember that it was We the People the Constitution was designed to support, only a few years after our war for independence.  The Constitution may have been a document written by and for white men, but that is not the language used, which means the rest of us have become included over time.  The "originalists" whine that they have to read the Constitution as it was written and rule that way, but they are lying to the American people and to themselves.  There is no such thing as originalism in reality because the founders did not envision that.  For them, our Constitution was to be a living document that was fleshed out over time through use and adaptation.  And, the white boys now                     in power are certainly trying hard to warp our document to make it support the evils they are doing to our nation and the world, while claiming some kind of originalism.  We the People need to stop this sacrilege.   

 

As I ruminated, I responded to a comment by Susanna on Heather Cox Richardson’s thread, July 3, 2025 about people needing a purpose or cause for our lives. 

Susanna, yes, we all do need a purpose.  It is just so sad that many people's purpose is to control, conquer, or do harm in general to others, sometimes marked or targeted for them, sometimes not.  I am sorry the internet which was set up to be a good connecter has turned out for many to be a divider, a source for developing the hate, distrust, and other negativities that can lead to what this nation is experiencing and perpetrating right now.  Get a bunch of rich white mostly men and their wannabees together in one place to ruminate and what they come up with is often not something good for humanity, just as the Heritage Foundation and similar richly funded organizations have proven.  It  would be great if we could redirect some of this inhumanity toward actually helping people by raising wages and salaries, building quality affordable housing for people, encouraging more cooperation, cutting the hate speech, particularly the lying, even from our "leaders."  I am not sure how we do this, but maybe instead of competition to see who can be the richest man in the world, ignore that BS and make a huge deal of the number of homes a corporation has built and donated, the number of non-white citizens a person or corporation has sponsored, companies that offer discounts for people who are struggling to make ends meet, opening, staffing, and supporting free clinics in struggling neighborhoods, donations to global organizations to stop HIV and other diseases, all with no strings attached.  We could have giant billboards praising those individuals and corporations with proof that they have done what they claim and maybe have billboards too that name and describe the Representatives and Senators that voted to defund resources the people need like Planned Parenthood, PBS/NPR, Medicaid, SNAP, etc., using phrases, try for a change, voting instead  for someone who actually cares that you have what you need.  OK, I am still a bit of an idealist, but I do think we didn't believe the evil would settle here again, so ignored most of the bad behavior of conservatives/Republicans for the past half century, occasionally trying to fight it, but still thinking Republicans had the interests of at least most of the people at heart and still believed in our democracy.  We were wrong!

 

So, now we move into the 250^th year of our nation with no certainty that we will continue as a democracy, even until next July 4^th.  We must never lose hope, though because the forces of evil count onus doing that as has happened elsewhere.  Thomas Paine reminds us that like 249 years ago, “These are the times that try men’s (our) souls . . . Those who stand it now deserve the thanks of men and women.”  So we must be the ones who stand it now and work with and for reason, persistence, and truth. 

249 YEARS AND STILL COUNTING?

By Ruth A. Sheets

July 3, 2025

 

July 4^th is nearly here and I can’t help but remember past Independence Days with fireworks, crowds, music, and so much more. 

 

My first July 4^th memory was in 1959 when we welcomed Alaska and Hawaii into the union.  I didn’t exactly know what that meant, but I heard a lot of people yelling for Alaska and Hawaii and saying there were now 50 states.  That was special because Shredded Wheat, the breakfast cereal I loved had little metal flags my sisters and I could collect in each box.  Somehow we didn’t get too many over time, but it was fun looking for them.

 

In 1964, my dad, my sisters, and I went to Elmwood Park for a band concert.  The temperature was over 100 degrees but we stayed as long as the band played, then walked home.  After that, I measured each 4^th of July temperature by that 103 number and saw it as a kind of badge of dedication, maybe love of music too.

 

The best Celebration was in 1976 when my sisters and I went to Valley Forge.  A wagon train had parked there after its weeks long journey from the west.  On the 4^th, despite the heavy fog, President Ford’s helicopter landed and he signed the order to make Valley Forge a National Park.  We met people from all over the country and had so much fun as we walked around in Colonial-style clothing.  We had just gotten past a case of presidential corruption and resignation and thought our nation was rising out of the muck of that time.

 

Here we are 49 years later and We the People are in a crisis.  That crisis was set in motion by a bunch of men and a couple of women who don’t like democracy, where people can think for ourselves, speak freely, vote because we are 18 years of age or older.  They want those privileges only for themselves and those who look and believe as they do.  The intent seems to be to crown a fool moving into dementia as king of America and all his minions crowned princes and princesses who will bow to him whenever he demands it and of course, he will demand it often.  That king, of course, is Donald Trump, and his jester, JD Vance who isn’t even the least bit funny and neither has anything positive to offer anyone.

 

By July 4^th, that man who wants to be king demands that Republicans in Congress pass an appalling bill that has nothing good to offer anyone but the already-far-far-too-rich millionaires and billionaires.  It seems Republicans are about to do that because their king is threatening or bribing them (both illegal) with “offers they can’t refuse.”  If the bill passes in its current form, many Americans and immigrant residents here will suffer and king Donnie (Toddler-Trump) will gloat that he owns them and they are useless anyway, spoken by a man who has not actually worked a day in his life.

 

So folks, back in 1976 I would never have guessed we would be facing a fascist takeover 49 years later, but that is where we are.  We need to ask ourselves and each other, “is that where we want this nation to go?”  Do we trust Trump and his minions to do right by anyone but rich mostly white men?”  I say “no.”  I say, “billionaires and millionaires are rich enough; our kids are precious and deserve better than going to bed hungry and getting a poor education because funds are cut; immigrants are immensely valuable to this nation while ICE is not; no one should be losing health care.” 

 

Let us celebrate Independence Day and remember what people have sacrificed that we have a nation that can grow, learn, develop, and become more inclusive and welcoming.  We do not have to settle for the Toddler-Trump formula of threats, lies, gaslighting, fearmongering, hatreds, resentments, targeting groups for violence and dismissal.  We can do better.  We can plan, rally, protest, march, strike, vote, demand our elections are held fairly, demand better of our courts, vote out senators and representatives who have decided they don’t care what We the People want.  Let’s stand together for the sake of our children, our nation, our dreams, immigrants who help make us who we are, and principles that matter.  We can make this better!

POLLUTION PERMISSION!

By Ruth A. Sheets

This is a note I sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to their intention to drop the pollution regulations on coal-burning power plants.  The impetus for this response was from “Moms Clean Air Force” (www.momscleanairforce.org ).

Dear EPA Director;

What is going on with you at EPA?  Why are we the people having to beg, I mean BEG you to do your job to protect our children and the rest of our population?  Where is your humanity?  As a teacher and human being concerned with children’s health, I’m writing to  strongly oppose EPA’s efforts to roll back the recent updates to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Now, let's see, why would you even think of doing that?  Are you thinking it won't impact your family since you are rich, so who cares; it won’t get us!  Is there no moral code of value among Trump's appointees to our critical agencies?  Where did you leave your moral compass and why won't you go and pick it back up and use it?  Are you scared of Trump?

If you were truly a scientist worthy of the office you hold, you would know that no amount of mercury exposure is safe for a child’s brain, NONE! We must keep mercury and other dangerous pollutants from spewing out of coal-fired power plants and ending up in our air, water, soil, and food.  In fact, we need no coal-powered plants, despite what coal miners supposedly want, according to Donald Trump (but that’s probably not true).  We will all suffer for your ignorance and unwillingness to do the right thing!  Why would you choose to do that to yourselves and the rest of us too?

Over the last decade, mercury protections have had significant public health benefits.  You would know that if you cared one wit! Last year, the EPA under President Biden strengthened these safeguards even further to address gaps that were allowing coal plants to continue to emit dangerous quantities of hazardous air pollution, which has been illegal for some time, but, ah well, if the polluters were not caught, no problem, right?  Now you want to just let them go back and pollute to their heart's content.  Who does that, what kind of person would put kids at risk that way?  If you looked, you would see that the recently strengthened regulation improvements offer serious benefits:

- 70% reduction in the emissions limit for mercury from existing lignite-fired plants,

- the strengthening of protections from non-mercury toxics such as lead, arsenic, and chromium, 

- the reduction in emissions from other health-harming air pollutants, including fine particle pollution, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide

- the requirement that coal plants continually monitor their emissions.  

(from the Mom’s Clean Air Force report)

These safeguards are critical for everyone, but particularly for the communities most impacted by pollution from coal plants, and I wonder who those vulnerable people are.  Oh yes, mostly Black and Indigenous people and other poor folks of all races who generally get no voice with rich folks like you all who just can't manage to care. Those communities  for example, rely on fishing as a primary food source, for cultural identity, and for local economics, and that fish is often contaminated with those pollutants.  This contamination impacts many vulnerable people, particularly children.

So, as you can see, regulating power plant pollution of all kinds  is critical for infants and children, whose developing brains can be permanently impacted by mercury exposure, leading to developmental delays, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and birth defects.  Are you OK with that?  Is that what you are hoping will happen so there will be an impacted class of workers you and your rich buddies can exploit? That is EVIL!  Are you?

So, I say to you, do not roll back the recent updates to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.  Instead, expand the regulations to include other toxic waste that none of us should be breathing, eating, or drinking.  That is the right thing to do in case you didn't know.  There are real scientists out here who can help you understand this pollution danger, but I bet you will not consult them or do anything to stop this backsliding on pollution because money and executive threats are more important than the health of your fellow Americans and the climate crisis that stalks all of us.  Terribly sad!  R.Sheets