#lee zeldin

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Reuters reports:

On Thursday, [EPA Administrator Lee] Zeldin also announced the cancellation of a $50 million grant to a group called the Climate Justice Alliance, citing its pro-Palestinian messaging on its website. The CJA said on Wednesday it would sunset its $50 million UNITE_EJ grantmaking program because it had not been able to access the funding that the Biden EPA had obligated to the group but not yet disbursed.

We looked at the $50 million meant to be given to the Climate Justice Alliance last June. They have a webpage saying "Free Palestine is a climate justice issue." 

As we showed then, the CJA funds other groups, some of which are explicitly antisemitic and anti-American.

Not to mention, celebrating October 7.

A lot of the news stories about the programs that DOGE is eliminating are highlighting how these programs are stupid, wasteful, or aligned with a far Left ideology. That's bad enough, but it is remarkable how much federal money went to go to causes that are in direct opposition to US policy. Perhaps not quote as remarkable is how the same people who say that the $3 billion the US invests in Israel on an average year could have been used to feed poor people, but are now silent on the wasteful programs that the Republicans are finding and eliminating that dwarf the amount given to Israel. I don't know if it is accurate, but the US Debt Clock site says DOGE has already saved the US government some $94 billon annually. 

[nodynasty4us]

Who will Trump choose for VP? (final round)

I had to delete the first version of this because I accidentally set it for only one day and I misspelled a name.

This does not necessarily mean who you would prefer, just who you think is most likely to get the nod.

These choices are the high scorers in the preliminary round of polls, names leaked by the Trump campaign to several news outlets earlier this week, and a couple of people mentioned by one columnist after the preliminary polls began.

As always, please reblog this poll so that more people have the opportunity to vote in it.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alice Herman, Joanna Walters, and Rachel Leingang at The Guardian:

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick, was among several cabinet nominees and appointees of the president-elect’s incoming administration who were targeted with bomb threats and so-called “swatting” on Wednesday, the Guardian has learned.

Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman of New York and Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, who has emerged as a hard-right loyalist of Trump in the last few years, was the subject of a bomb threat, her office said. The home of Howard Lutnick, Trump’s choice for commerce secretary and part of his transition team, was threatened, the Bronx outlet News 12 reported. And Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency pick, saw his Long Island home threatened, News 12 in Long Island also reported. Zeldin later posted on X saying: “A pipe bomb threat targeting me and my family at our home today was sent in with a pro-Palestinian themed message.” He said they were not at home and were trying to find out more. A report also emerged via CNN that Matt Gaetz was also targeted. The former congressman was Trump’s first choice for US attorney general but withdrew after eight days amid a sexual misconduct scandal that meant he risked not being confirmed by the Senate.

[...] The threats were made on both Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Members of law enforcement and various authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those targeted, according to Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s spokesperson and incoming White House press secretary, who released a statement. Leavitt did not give further details on the nature of the different threats. Spokespeople for the FBI and the justice department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Several of Donald Trump’s picks to serve in his cabinet were subjected to swatting and bomb threats.

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Appointees Targeted With Bomb Threats, Swatting

[yetisidelblog]

Tell Congress: You Must Prioritize Climate Defense

As climate grief hangs heavy in the air today, our hearts are with the tens and thousands of Californians affected by the wildfires raging across the region and devastating their communities. The climate crisis is here and happening in real time, yet President-elect Donald Trump has appointed a trio of climate-denying nominees to head critical energy and environment teams—all of whom are expected to be confirmed by the Senate next week. If you haven't heard about these disastrous choices, here's a quick primer:

Former Congressman Lee Zeldin—who voted against the Inflation Reduction Act and helped defund public transit in New York City—has been appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Governor Doug Burgum—who has deep ties with the fossil fuel industry in North Dakota—has been tapped to lead the Department of Interior.

And last but not least, Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright—who runs an oil and gas company dedicated to fracking—basically purchased his nomination as Secretary of Energy with a $450,000 contribution to Trump's campaign.

Regardless of what happens at next week's Senate confirmation hearings, we can't let Trump and his anti-climate cronies attack critical protections for our health and safety, for clean air and water, and for climate action. And neither should our leaders in Congress.

@upontheshelfreviews

@greenwingspino

@one-time-i-dreamt

@tenaflyviper

@akron-squirrel

@ifihadaworldofmyown

@justice-for-jacob-marley

@voicetalentbrendan

@thebigdeepcheatsy

@what-is-my-aesthetic

@ravenlynclemens

@anon-lephant

@writerofweird

@bogleech

@mentally-quiet-spycrab

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Rolling Stone:

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, received millions of dollars in exchange for consulting, speeches, and paid op-eds, according to financial disclosure documents.

The payments, first reported by Business Insider, include $186,000 from op-eds and speeches alone. Zeldin also disclosed $45,475 in casino gambling winnings. He earned a $775,000 salary from Zeldin Strategies, which he opened after losing the New York gubernatorial race and leaving Congress in 2022, and between $1-5 million dollars in dividends from the firm. 

Zeldin is a conservative Trump ally and friend to the fossil fuel industry whose voting record is “remarkably anti-environment and anti-climate,” according to Food and Water Watch. As a member of Congress, he voted to slash the EPA budget by $2 billion dollars, cheered Trump’s efforts to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, opposed legislation that would restrict corporations’ ability to discharge “forever chemicals” into waterways and supported weakening EPA standards in the Clean Air Act around particulate matter pollution. If he leads the EPA, he is expected to gut environmental regulations and cater to the fossil fuel industry’s demands. He has said that “energy dominance” is one of his top priorities in leading the EPA.

The former congressman’s financial disclosure shows he has been raking in cash in part by writing paid commentaries in prominent news outlets — without disclosing in those pieces that he has been paid to write them. 

In July, Zeldin published a column on Fox News’ website slamming New York’s Democratic attorney general for suing the massive Brazilian beef producer JBS for allegedly misrepresenting its climate impact.

“It’s the height of hypocrisy that the state is now targeting JBS for allegedly misleading consumers for coming up short of [its] 2040 trajectory while the state itself is also failing to meet their own unattainable goals,” Zeldin wrote.

Zeldin’s financial disclosure shows he was paid $3,000 for that commentary by CRC Advisors, the consulting firm chaired by conservative dark money maven Leonard Leo. While Leo is best known for his work building the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority, his firm has represented corporate clients, including oil and gas giant Chevron.

[targethitsquad]

[jessica-marie-baumgartner]

2024 can't come soon enough

[autumngracy]

New York Post | Trump team orders agencies to get ‘large-scale’ firing plans to DOGE by March 13

Trump: “For example, I spoke with Lee Zeldin, and I think he’s gonna be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from Environmental. And we’re gonna speed up the process too, at the same time. You had a lot of people that weren’t doing their jobs; they were just obstructionists. And, uh, a lot of people that didn’t exist, I guess. [unintelligible] They found a lot of empty spots that, uh, the people weren’t there. They didn’t exist.”

[new25us5]

Zeldin seeks to recoup billions issued by Biden under ‘green bank’ program

https://url-shortener.treetan.com/fc528

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[wausaupilotreview]

With Lee Zeldin tapped to head EPA, President Trump sets the stage for regulatory rollbacks

During his second term, Trump is expected to ease regulations on water protections, agricultural emissions, and industrial pollution. With federal oversight potentially shrinking, the spotlight shifts to state laws and environmental advocacy.

by Mónica Cordero, Investigate Midwest/Report for America, Investigate Midwest January 30, 2025 Lee Zeldin, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, is poised to spearhead a sweeping rollback of regulations related to meatpacking plant pollution, fertilizer chemicals and a wide range of other agriculture-related environmental standards.   In selecting Zeldin, a…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Marans at HuffPost:

Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, summed up the Republican pitch to Jewish voters succinctly in his speech to the Republican national convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday evening. “My message today to the Jewish community is clear: There is only one pro-Israel party, and it’s the Republican Party,” Brooks declared, as Jewish convention attendees waved yellow signs with the words, “We are Jews for Trump.” In keeping with their historically Democratic leanings, in 2020, the overwhelming majority of Jewish voters opted for President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump.

And Trump, whose daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner, has even disparaged Jewish Democrats, claiming they “hate Israel.” But Trump’s allies apparently see an opening following Hamas’ deadly terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Democrats remain divided on support for the ferocious invasion of Gaza Israel launched in response, which has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are civilians. Brooks’ message got greater amplification on Wednesday — the theme of the day’s programming was “Make America Strong Again,” and it focused heavily on foreign relations and the military. The lineup of primetime speakers included, in quick succession, Orthodox Jewish campus activist Shabbos Kestenbaum; Orna and Ronen Neutra, the parents of an American citizen, Omer, captured by Hamas while serving in the Israeli military; and former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Jewish Republican who ran an unexpectedly spirited race to unseat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022.

Kestenbaum, a recent graduate of Harvard University, has already made national waves with his criticism of pro-Palestinian campus activism, which he has said veers into antisemitism. He is now suing Harvard for allegedly violating his and other Jewish students’ civil rights. [...] Kestenbaum, a registered Democrat who was so progressive in 2020 he posed with then-congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman, told the Forward earlier this week he still supports many domestic progressive policies, such as raising the minimum wage and the Green New Deal, but said progressives’ abandonment of Israel and refusal to take antisemitism seriously had pushed him to accept Republicans’ invitation to speak at their convention. In his remarks on Wednesday, Kestenbaum sounded every bit the true believer in Trump’s second term, listing the ways in which he believed Trump would stand up for pro-Israel Jewish students and what he sees as the anti-American streak in higher education.

[...] In fact, Biden, who has expressed pro-Israel views dating back to the 1970s, has angered many on the left, as well as Arab American and Muslim voters, with his refusal to impose material consequences for what many human rights groups and Western governments have determined are Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Biden showed his dedication to Israel by shepherding a foreign aid bill through Congress in April that included $26 billion in military and economic assistance to Israel, along with $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Palestinians. Like other recent presidents from both parties, Biden has instead mostly expressed his disapproval of Israeli decisions in conversations with Netanyahu. He won some progressive praise in May for pausing a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, on the grounds that those munitions pose unnecessary danger to civilians in dense areas, but he has yet to follow through on promises of a broader weapons cutoff in the event of a massive Israeli invasion of Rafah.

[...] Brooks might have been overstating the case. But given how divided rank-and-file Democrats are on the topic of Israel, many national party leaders would just as soon avoid the topic. It is hard to imagine a speaker making a similar request of the crowd at the Democratic national convention in Chicago this August, let alone getting that kind of positive response.

With Jewish speakers (including lifelong Dems) being featured at the RNC, the GOP sees a play to win over Jewish voters incensed at the fairly still pro-Israel Democratic Party’s increasingly pro-Palestinian turn, especially after October 7th.

[yetisidelblog]

@upontheshelfreviews

@greenwingspino

@one-time-i-dreamt

@tenaflyviper

@akron-squirrel

@ifihadaworldofmyown

@justice-for-jacob-marley

@voicetalentbrendan

@thebigdeepcheatsy

@what-is-my-aesthetic

@ravenlynclemens

@writerofweird

@bogleech

[rjzimmerman]

Who Is Lee Zeldin? (Sierra Club:

Excerpt from this story from the Sierra Club:

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is, in a word, unexpected. The appointment announced on November 11—in which the Trump transition team erroneously referred to the EPA as the “Environmental Protective Agency”—was not an energy industry lobbyist like Andrew Wheeler or a MAGA insider like Mandy Gunasekara, who authored the EPA chapter of Project 2025. Instead, Trump chose Lee Zeldin, a little-known former Republican congressman from Long Island, New York, whose background on environment and energy issues is relatively skimpy. 

So, then: Who is this person who will be in charge of the federal agency tasked with protecting the environment and public health?  

Zeldin is a politician and military officer who grew up in New York’s Suffolk County. From 2015 to 2023, he represented New York’s First District (eastern Long Island) in Congress, where he sat on the House Foreign Affairs and Financial Services Committees. Before that, he served for four years in the New York state senate. In 2022, he ran for governor of New York against Democrat Kathy Hochul, a race that he lost by six points. 

He’s a booster of fossil fuels and promises to unleash “energy dominance.”

In his run for governor of New York, Zeldin campaigned on expanding fossil fuel extraction. He called for allowing “the safe extraction of natural resources in the southern tier” of the state, approving new pipelines, and repealing the gasoline tax. He also was a staunch opponent of New York’s ban on fracking and ran on ending it. “[Zeldin] has a record of being pro-fracking, and that’s a record I think he’s going to clearly carry forward into the Trump administration,” Eric Weltman, a senior organizer in Food and Water Watch’s New York office, told Sierra. 

Zeldin has mentioned pursuing “energy dominance” as one of three top priorities in heading up the EPA. “It is an honor to join President Trump’s cabinet as EPA administrator. We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin said in a statement on X.

He has taken more than $410,000 from the oil and gas industry, and he questions the scientific consensus on climate change.

According to Climate Power, Zeldin has received over $410,000 from the oil and gas industry in his election campaigns, including over $260,000 while running for Congress and more than $150,000 in his gubernatorial run. He has taken more than $60,000 from Koch Industries over the course of his political career, according to Open Secrets data. 

His voting record in Congress is mostly anti-environment, with an LCV lifetime score of just 14 percent.

Zeldin unsurprisingly has an overall poor voting track record, as scored by the League of Conservation Voters. “Trump made his anti–climate action, anti-environment agenda very clear during his first term and again during his 2024 campaign. During the confirmation process, we would challenge Lee Zeldin to show how he would be better than Trump’s campaign promises or his own failing 14 percent environmental score if he wants to be charged with protecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, and finding solutions to climate change,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, LCV’s senior vice president for government affairs, said in a statement. 

He supported a few conservation efforts for his district.

While in Congress, Zeldin backed several conservation initiatives for his district in Long Island. According to the campaign website for his gubernatorial run, he helped save Plum Island—a tiny island off the eastern tip of Long Island—by securing repeal of a 2008 law requiring it to be sold to the highest bidder. He also worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to “protect our coastlines, advancing the ambitious Fire Island to Montauk Point project,” a climate resiliency coastal risk reduction project to help safeguard Long Island’s prized beaches. 

He appears to be against clean energy funding and tried to gut public transit funding in New York.

In addition to voting against the IRA and its massive clean energy investments, Zeldin early on in his political career attempted to divert funding away from clean energy programs in New York and undermine the New York City area’s transit system, according to Environmental Advocates NY. The New York environmental organization bestowed its “Oil Slick” award in 2011 on Zeldin, a rookie state senator at the time who led an effort to try to weaken public transit. He sponsored a bill that would have defunded the MTA, resulted in service cuts and fare increases, and discouraged public transit use. The bill would have also diverted $100 million away from clean energy programs to “plug holes in MTA’s finances.”