In the continuing daytime drama of Days Wasted Enduring Scott Pruitt, the central character appears to now confess to scheming up the undeserved raises for his younger cronies, that he denied point blank on national television just a couple of weeks ago:
Scott Pruitt acknowledged that he had lied -- straight up! -- on Fox News last week when he said this: "I did not know that they got the pay raises until yesterday." At issue: Two EPA employees had received early raises totaling more than $80,000 -- end-running the White House, which opposed the salary increases, in the process.Then came Pruitt's testimony in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday. Under questioning from New York Rep. Paul Tonko, Pruitt acknowledged that he did have some knowledge of the raises. "I was not aware of the amount," said Pruitt, trying to find some way that he hadn't lied ...
So, either out of all the people who could have rolled back the EPA’s mission, Didn’t Do-it Pruitt was the very best person for the job, or Trump was mindlessly bragging about how easy it would be for him to get the “very best” people. You decide. Mark Sumner
has been blogging on this right-wing Dumpster fire
all month.
- Brain chocolate! Speaking brains, this story about keeping disembodied brains alive is creepy.
- The second season of the sci-fi horror quasi-reality show, The Handmaid’s Tale, began this week on Hulu. Watch it for entertainment, or take it as a warning; it works both ways.
- Every now and then, it’s a good idea to take a peek at the crazy horseshit being passed off as truth by the usual suspects. This one, about reproductive rights, is a real doozy!
- Yes, yes, it turns out we now have scientific evidence that Uranus smells like shit.
- Tomorrow, we’ll have a review of a new, very well-written space-y science book that’s hitting the shelves as we speak and, time-permitting, one or both of the authors may even make a brief appearance in comments.