Today In "Draining The Swamp" - Better Living Through Pollution And Bribery

Amidst all the disturbing chaos emanating hourly from neo- fascist authoritarian Donald "Rump" Trump's executive branch, we pause to take a look at how his Republican partners in the legislative branch are helping him "drain the swamp" of those nasty special interests. How's that coming along?

Well, all you Trump voters in mining country in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, rest assured that Republicans are looking out for your best inter... wait, what's that?

Moving to dismantle former President Barack Obama's legacy on the environment and other issues, House Republicans approved a measure Wednesday that scuttles a regulation aimed at preventing coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby streams. [snip]

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, senior Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said repealing the stream protection rule would "sicken and kill the very people Donald Trump falsely promised to help," coal miners in West Virginia and other states.

Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., displayed a bottle of brownish water he said came from a constituent's well near a surface coal mine. He challenged lawmakers to drink from it and said the stream rule was one of the only safety measures protecting people in coal country.

It's not "brownish water," it's alternative clean water!  Bottoms up!

At the same time they were passing that "Feel Free to Pollute Act of 2017," House Republicans also decided we've got to allow our fossil fuel industry to bribe away unfettered: 

On the same day the Senate confirmed Rex Tillerson as Donald Trump’s secretary of state, the House voted to kill a transparency rule for oil companies that Tillerson once lobbied against while CEO of Exxon Mobil. 

So all in all, a good day for America’s largest oil and gas firm. 

Using the little-known Congressional Review Act, the House GOP voted on Wednesday to kill an Obama-era regulation that would require publicly traded oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose any payments that they made to foreign governments, including taxes and royalties. 

The rule itself dates back to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act — when senators from both parties included a provision requiring greater disclosure from mining and drilling companies working abroad. The hope was to cut down on corruption in resource-rich developing countries by increasing transparency.

After all, how are Russian kleptocrats supposed to survive without all that sweet sweet Exxon skid greasing?

The Era of Epic Corruption is in full swing.