"'This is about as big as it gets,' President Trump said at the White House as a smiling Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, stood by. "

"'We are officially terminating the so-called "endangerment finding," a disastrous Obama-era policy,' he said. Mr. Trump called it a 'radical rule' that became 'the basis for the Green New Scam,' a label the president gives to any effort to curb emissions or develop renewable energy. Mr. Zeldin called it 'the single largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.' He accused Democrats of having launched an 'ideological crusade' on climate change that 'strangled entire sectors of the United States economy,' particularly the auto industry...."

I'm reading "Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change/The Environmental Protection Agency repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being. It means the agency can no longer regulate them" (NYT).

"I think that I should contribute money to Jasmine Crockett and then let everybody know that she also took money from Jeffrey Epstein."

Said Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, cracking an excellent joke, after Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) "boasted on the House floor this week that she was 'gonna expose it all' after her discovery that 'somebody named Jeffrey Epstein' donated to the campaign of former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY)."

From "Dr. Jeffrey Epstein – the Long Island neurosurgeon Jasmine Crockett confused with notorious pedophile – floats epic revenge he could exact on the congresswoman" (NY Post).

"In her rant, the Texas Democrat strongly implied that the Manhasset doctor’s April and August 2020 contributions to Zeldin, who is now head of the Environmental Protection Agency, were actually from the convicted pedophile – despite the fact that the $1,000 donations were made months after the disgraced financier died in a Manhattan jail cell."

"By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, the social cost of carbon and similar issues, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion..."

"... and ushering in America’s Golden Age. These actions will roll back trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and hidden taxes. As a result, the cost of living for American families will decrease, and essentials such as buying a car, heating your home and operating a business will become more affordable. Our actions will also reignite American manufacturing, spreading economic benefits to communities. The EPA will continue to protect human health and the environment while unleashing America’s full potential. That means reconsidering the regulations that have restricted every sector of the economy, such as the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, and Particulate Matter 2.5 levels. Under President Trump guidance, the EPA also has ended the electric-vehicle mandate that threatened to destroy America’s auto industry and made cars cost more...."

Writes Lee Zeldin in "EPA Ends the ‘Green New Deal’/We’re keeping people and the environment safe while overhauling rules that stifled our full potential" (Wall Street Journal).

"The Biden administration used so-called 'climate equity' to justify handouts of billions of dollars to their far-left friends."

"It is my utmost priority to get a handle on every dollar that went out the door in this scheme and once again restore oversight and accountability over these funds. This rush job operation is riddled with conflicts of interest and corruption."

Said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, quoted by Bari Weiss (at X).

Weiss writes: "The Department of Justice is investigating the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion program that was part of Joe Biden’s $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act. Created in the spring of 2023, and managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the fund was supposed to be a 'first-of-its-kind' program to address the climate crisis while revitalizing communities that it considered 'historically left behind.' But it appears little of the $27 billion revitalized anything—except the coffers of a range of environmental nonprofits associated with former Obama and Biden administration officials.."

"Republicans fared exceptionally well in some states, including Florida and New York. In others, like Michigan or Pennsylvania, Democrats excelled."

"How can we make sense of it? The results seem unusual because of two unusual issues: democracy and abortion. Unlike in the typical midterm election, these issues were driven by the actions of the party out of power. Indeed, the party out of power achieved the most important policy success of the last two years: the overturning of Roe v. Wade.... In states where democracy and abortion were less directly at issue, the typical midterm dynamics often took hold and Republicans excelled. A comparison between New York and Pennsylvania is illustrative. The states share a border — if you drive across the state line, things look about the same. Yet their election results look as if they’re from different universes...."

Writes Nate Cohn in "Why Some States Went in Different Directions in Midterms/Abortion rights and antidemocratic stances were more relevant or pressing in some places than others" (NYT).

"It’s no secret that an enormous amount of party leadership in New York State is based on big money and old-school, calcified machine-style politics that creates a very anemic voting base that is disengaged and disenfranchised."

Said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calling for the resignation of Jay Jacobs, the Democratic Party chairman in NY state.

Quoted in"If Democrats Lose the House, They May Have New York to Blame/Republicans flipped four congressional seats in New York, the most of any state in the country. How did this happen in one of the nation’s most liberal states?" by Nicholas Fandos (NYT).

[M]any progressives... lamented that numerous candidates had failed to stake out a bolder agenda that would inspire the state’s 6.5 million Democrats and to invest in more durable on-the-ground organizing, rather than trying to motivate voters out of fear of [GOP candidate for governor Lee] Zeldin.

"After spending the summer pounding Republican opponent Lee Zeldin as an anti-abortion, Donald Trump acolyte, Hochul is finding out..."

"... what other Democrats across the nation are also learning: Crime and the economy are crowding out abortion rights and the former president’s troubles as top of mind issues for voters. The New York governor is responding with a last-minute shift in approach just weeks ahead of the election by promoting her efforts to create jobs and fight crime. 'You deserve to feel safe,' Hochul says in a new TV ad released Saturday as part of a $1 million-plus buy in New York City. 'And as your governor, I won’t stop working until you do.'"

From "Hochul pivots in New York as GOP challenger rises on crime, economic message/New polls this week showed the race tightening — maybe to low single digits, uncomfortably close for Democrats after two decades of statewide dominance in New York" (Politico).

"You deserve to feel safe... I won’t stop working until you do" — Shouldn't it be "You deserve to be safe... I won’t stop working until you are"? I know politics is just about how we feel, but if you want people to feel safe, you've got to convince them that they are safe, and giving it away that you are just going after their feelings gives the brain a bit of a chance to notice that this is nothing but an effort at emotional manipulation.

Here's that last-minute-desperate shift ad:

 

I made a new tag for Lee Zeldin. I will disclose that that represents a bet that he will win. I don't like tag proliferation, but I also don't like needing to go back and add tags to old posts.