by GAO Webadmin
Chris Horner, a lawyer for GAO in many open records cases as well as amicus briefs informing the courts what is actually going on with the regulatory onslaught we are seeing, had a piece in Monday’s Wall Street Journal combining both topics.
This item built on Horner’s most two recent Journal pieces, “The EPA Defies the Supreme Court” (August 2023) and “EPA’s Deceptive Climate Regulations Won’t Stand in Court” (May 2024). The common thread is that a scofflaw band of regulators have gotten far too far over their legal skis, and in so doing were not only too clever but dishonest. Which outright dishonesty should be their agenda’s downfall. However, this requires a Trump administration willing to fight back just as hard, but toward strictly applying a robust body of recent Supreme Court precedent.
It needs to begin now, with the transition. Word counts being the cruel mistress they are, Horner agreed to provide further insights into how a Trump transition and administration would go about expeditiously rescinding Biden’s “suite of rules,” among other overreaches. His comments to GAO include:
Politico reports that right-leaning watchdog groups filed thousands of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the Biden tenure. As counsel in dozens of lawsuits over these requests for GAO and others I have seen troves of records that, while often heavily redacted, nonetheless provide sufficient context to raise serious concerns and warrant further scrutiny. The Trump administration can review all such records in unredacted form to assess the appearance of malfeasance.
Agencies are unlikely to cooperate. As part of the 2016 Trump transition “Landing Team,” I followed the prescribed process for requesting unredacted copies of certain EPA records that had been released, in part, under FOIA. They appeared to be highly relevant to the transition team’s work drafting the plan for an incoming administrator. Career agency employees denied my requests, and those of others.
The bureaucracy loses this control on inauguration day. This time there should be a commitment to follow up, immediately, recognizing this best chance for timely reversal of unlawful rules.
Sadly, this requires not just one attorney in each agency’s general counsel’s office committed to discerning whether errors requiring confession occurred but, just to be sure, also an enterprise management, or IT, professional, capable of reconstructing any overzealous deletions.
Just as important, according to Horner, is for the Trump team to recognize that while the Biden Clean Power Plan 2.0 is a major rule and will doubtless fall under the Major Questions doctrine—possibly even via a stay by SCOTUS in the first half of next year—the Biden EPA’s”suite of rules” are not necessarily all major rules unless the lawyers convince the court to view them cumulatively, as EPA does. To do so, the challengers should seize on EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s excited utterances admitting that he pushed the “suite of rules” to force precisely what SCOTUS ruled in West Virginia v. EPA the Agency does not have the power to force: an agency preference as to how Americans get their electricity.
EPA’s Regan admitted this goal publicly, and seemingly others also did in heavily redacted internal documents even while the Agency denied, in the rule makings, that any power plant retirements would result. Better to just take Regan at his word that these rules are a cumulative attempt at something the major questions doctrine prohibits, and ask the court to accept his own confession.
GAO argued this in its amicus brief in Kentucky v. EPA, as should the challengers if they mean business. Meanwhile, the Trump administration should confess this error and target rescission of those rules, in particular, for their breathtaking violation of the rule against pretext.
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Story tip. Judas edition
Benjamin Netanyahu faces arrest if he enters Britain after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, Downing Street has indicated.
Number 10 refused to explicitly comment on “hypotheticals” but said the UK would follow its “legal obligations”.
Quelle surprise
Bill Clinton thought it was a good idea to give the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over Americans.
Democrats have no sense.
Fortunately, that was changed in the Bush administration and I believe there is a specific law that was passed prohibiting giving the ICC jurisdiction over Americans.
So Netanyahu can come to the U.S. without fear of being arrested, although that can’t be said for Canada. Trudope said he would kowtow to the ICC, too.
The U.S. ought to do everything in its power to remove the ICC from existence.
The US needs to rethink its special relationship with the UK as the latter is moving headfirst into true Fascism.
and just what is Zionist Israel?
A shining beacon of freedom amongst a trove of authoritarians.
Balogna! Israel is lead by a mass murderor.
Israel faces an existential crisis- the UK doesn’t and Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East so it’s not a fascist state.
“faces an existential crisis- the UK doesn’t”
Yes it does.. but the threat comes from Miliband and the Net-zero lunacy
“Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement,[1][2][3] characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy”
I disagree with some of what Wikipedia has aggregated, especially “far-right”, whatever that meant to the person who wrote it, but the description preserves some sense of the original meaning:
“authoritarian”
“ultranationalist ”
“dictatorial leader”
The tone superimposed on historical meaning by present American culture is that fascist is bad, and all ideas bad come from what Americans call the right wing, therefore fascism may only be associated with the right wing and its ideas about America.
To counter the overuse and destruction of meaning for the word fascist, actual American right wingers began overusing the word fascist in the opposite sense and conflating it with communism. Though traditional left wing American ideas fit fascism better than traditional right wing American ideas, almost anything JFK related being examples, I like to keep Mussolini as the prime example.
My gosh, the Wikipedia is terrible.
“Roderick Stackelberg places fascism—including Nazism, which he says is “a radical variant of fascism”—on the political right by explaining: (nonsense quote from RS)”. Certain Americans coopted Nazism and the mustached bad man as right wing ideas for the same American cultural reasons long ago. Did they not know the name of his political party?
The only difference between far left fascism and communism is ownership of the means of production.
That’s not a small difference
It not much of a difference, since if you don’t do what Fascist want. They take your business and at best throw you in jail. At worse they just take you out and shot you, your wife and children.
best Ive seen. goes to the actual sources
https://youtu.be/1T_98uT1IZs
SM:
The video is worth watching but I think you should broaden your information sources. Maybe read Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism”. [Short version: fascism, socialism & communism are ALL three peas in the same totalitarian pod. And Mussolini was a socialist [his father was a communist] before he formed the fascist party. And fascism comes in both Left and Right versions, but regardless, ALL are totalitarian — thus evil.]
This ‘F’ word is uniquely utilitarian.
So varied are its applications, it is now a completely useless epithet.
Particularly when used as a pejorative term to describe someone’s assumed or declared position on the political spectrum.
The bottom line is that the behaviors of globalists / totalitarians / authoritarians are all equally misanthropic.
When I was in school, “fascism” was defined differently – it was an economic system where businesses were privately owned, but were controlled by government (hmm…), vs communism which was state ownership of the businesses.
Like so much else, the meaning of the word has been changed.
This comes fairly close to the actual usage, at least. As in, “anything generic the communists find fashionable to dislike this year”.
From a Ronald Reagan speech titled: “A Time for Choosing” given on October 27, 1964
.
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down – [up] man’s old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.
Reagan saw the Big Picture.
Trump sees it, too.
And our Trudope is also going along with this.
again… if you want to know who is in control look at (((who))) you cannot criticize. Ursula paid with her freedom and her life, just because she spoke the truth and asked ‘hurtful’ questions.
“Biden” was flipping off the Supreme Court with these rules as much as it was in open contempt with the student loan and Bruen rules. But given how much John Roberts is a wussy, prompt and severe action is unlikely.
I had no idea Horner, who I greatly admire, was collaborating with GAO to confront and reform EPA. Wonderful news!
The U.S. Senate hearings to confirm Trump’s EPA administrator ought to be very interesting.
We ought to be able to tell the direction the Trump administration is going to take from these hearings.
The Democrats will be throwing a million questions at Lee Zeldin including his thoughts on CO2.
And we will get to see what the Republicans think about CO2, also.
I think every politician, especially Republicans, should have to come out with a position on CO2. Do they think it is dangerous? Do they think it needs to be regulated? Do they think it can change the temperatures and weather of the Earth?
Then, we will be able to separate those with some sense, from the clueless.
I’m enjoying watching the news again. All the leftwing propaganda on the airwaves during the election was getting a little much, but that’s all over now. Of course, there will still be leftwing propaganda, but it won’t have as much punch as it had in the past, and it won’t matter as much. The Leftwing is in a downward spiral, they just don’t want to see it themselves, so they pretend they are still the movers and shakers.
Trump is going to get the United States back on track by reversing everything Biden and the Democrats did. They tore it down, and Trump is going to build it back up.
The new Congress takes office on January 3, 2025, so the hearings should begin soon afterwards. The Republicans are going to try to get as many approved as possible before Trump is sworn in on January 20, 2025.
That day can’t come soon enough.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. must be prosecuted along with several members of his family for accepting bribes from foreign countries.
What can you prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law?
What is the bank report called when suspicious activity is noted?
A SAR. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/suspicious-activity-report.asp
Start following those threads ‘up stream’ … more than 150 SARS were issued according to the PBS story here:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republicans-are-using-financial-records-to-investigate-hunter-biden-heres-how
This won’t happen. Joe is senile or rapidly approaching that category. There is likely a scale: 1 through 7 or 10. Could there be an “11”?
“ having diminished cognitive function, as when memory is impaired, because of old age“
I don’t think Joe is going to be prosecuted because he is senile and getting worse every day.
I do want to see the Lawfare perpetrated by the Democrats investigated and prosecuted and that would include Joe Biden’s role in this corrupt lawlessness. But Joe wouldn’t be the only one involved. Obama was the principal author of this Lawfare and I would love to see him prosecuted. Well, he won’t be prosecuted in the traditional sense, but his crimes should be shown to the American Public.
Everyone who sat in on the presidential briefings knew about the plans to try to destroy Trump, while in office, and after he left office. They are all guilty of Treason for trying to subvert the Will of the American People and using the power of the federal government to attack their political opponents.
I would like to put every one of them in jail. It’s just what they deserve.
And this is not in the past. The radical Democrats are currently still trying to steal our Republic out from under us.
Shine a Light on this Treason, Republicans. Americans deserve to know the truth about these Democrat criminals that supposedly represented them.
Ford pardoning Nixon was probably a great thing for America.
I agree.
It eliminated a whole lot of trouble for the nation.
I’ve said it before: There is a lot of work to do to undo what Biden has done. More than what can be accomplished in a single term. The Congress needs to be involved.
Fighting the regulatory state through the courts takes years. The disputed policies often remain in effect while the cases wind their way through the slow-moving system.
We need the laws changed. The voters need to keep pressure on squishy Republicans and we need to vote the climate caucus members out of office.
With Trump’s reelection, we’re not at the beginning of the end, just the end of the beginning.
re: “EPA”
.
Time to start from scratch?
.
Take things back to a blank slate, start over, re-write the EPA ‘charter’ according to lawful congressionally passed legislation …
As far as starting from scratch, I would prefer seeing a balanced federal budget. A lot of good things would come as a natural result of this.
Both plus a 1 to N list of so many other problems.
Yes. Just as Moldbug advised:
Trump kind of tried to replace NASA with something less embarrassing, but that’s about it.
…and a Mandela-style Truth and Reconciliation Court with audits, investigations, and whistleblowers.
Please no.
Every political office or title becomes permanent. Someday the other side wins.
So, Biden, when he becomes a former President in January 2025, walks away fatter-dumber-and-happier with an annual Presidential pension of $246,424! On top of that, he can collect an additional $166,374 annually from his pension for being a former Congressional representative!
(ref: https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/pensions-and-perks-for-former-presidents-archive )
With his obvious decline in mental functioning, I don’t expect to hear any apologies from him for the damage he, personally, and his Administration have done to the USA over the last four years via their blatant disregard of science, not the least of which was publicly declaring “climate change™ ” to be an existential threat to mankind.
He will be remembered more for his, or his wife’s attempts to start a nuclear war. Fortunately, that will be the last entry on his list of career failures.
Thanks for posting the actual numbers.
Small price to pay for USA if its still a democracy.
Except the USA is not a liberal democracy or a “plain Jane” democracy. The USA is a Constitutional Republic, and there are differences.
Prior to JFK, everyone called the USA the “great republic.” JFK started calling it the “great democracy.” One can speculate many reasons, but one that comes to mind is to make an emotional connection between the citizens and the Democratic Party.
Then came the change from democracy to “liberal” democracy. Of course there are many possibilities, but the one that comes to mind is to create an emotional connection, an identification of the country to the liberal policies embraced by the Democratic Party.
Yes. It is all politics. But as AP used to say, words matter and as Karl Marx wrote, control the language, control the ideas.
So much for my second Friday rant.
If EPA bureaucrats can’t be fired, they should be relegated to a desk in the basement and relieved of all operational duties.
A crew of Trump’s reformers should move in and take charge of all facilities, including every single computer, server, storage device, official phone, and thumb drive. The group can be called the transition team or whatever.
Going through all the seized records, meeting notes, emails, and texts will surely reveal copious instances of malfeasance and conspiracy. The basement desk-jockeys will be given the choice of resignation or prosecution.
I don’t like firing people, especially people I’ve never met.
A 4-year hiring freeze in an organization that fosters 30-year careers barely reduces natural head count by attrition. Plus the top performers will leave first and hangers on will hang on longest.
I’m not sure how rebuilding should work best.
Be sure to confiscate the staplers.
(Apologies to Office Space).
This would require an actual “crew of Trump’s reformers”. Plus someone who could investigate who isn’t yet another Strzok Squad. And so on.
We have a newly elected Congressman (no complaints, I am over 70) who is a “trans woman” claiming that “trans women” are biologically the same as “cis women.”
Puzzling. If the two are the same, then why are the prefixes needed?
Personally, I believe she should submit to a medical professional for a physical and have the medical professional declare biological similarities and differences.
Sorry. Friday rant…
I’m in the next generation wondering what will happen to womens sports. One branch of “the movement” wants womans sports to remain separate but gain equal and another branch wants gender distinctions erased and sports integrated. How can there be a WNBA if there is no gender? It gets weird, and this was not the comment thread to discuss it. I can’t guess an outcome, I only know someone will feel wronged by it.
Better still would be for society to stop entertaining the delusion that this has any basis in reality at all. If a man wants to dress and act like a woman, that’s his call. But he’s a man and can go to the men’s bathroom. If he wants society to tolerate his own denial of his own reality, surely he can meet us half way and take a dump in the men’s room.
Very nice. It’s not just the EPA, every single department needs a thorough audit. All questionable rules or regulations should automatically be withdrawn until the audit supports the need for them. Our government is out of control and needs to be whittled down to size.
Some people just don’t learn, do they?
I want Trump’s EPA to immediately strike a death blow to the root cause of the climate con.
Declare CO2 to be a NON-Pollutant.
For too long climate goons have ridiculed critics as “climate change deniers” for insisting that the increase in carbon emissions should be of little concern because carbon is not a pollutant.
Of course CO2 is the building block of life and found naturally throughout the environment.
The deceitful conjecture and theoretical mumbo jumbo that has twisted lazy & vague correlation into the causation of climate change deserves to be slain once and for.
And done so with weapons of honest science.
There are no poisonous or harmful effects from increased atmospheric CO2.
Only with distorted science & governmental disinformation on a grand scale have people world wide come to understand how CO2 became a pollutant.
Carbon is a natural, vital element without any detriment to the environment. Period.
And all of the $ Trillions spent trying to combat emissions has caused a spiraling corruption that has polluted modern civilization’s ability to flourish and prosper.