Draining the swamp

I saw a sign at Trump’s Harrisburg rally that said he was “draining the swamp.”

Here is what is really happening.  Lawyers representing Dow Chemical, whose CEO is an advisor to Trump, sent letters to three of Trump’s cabinet agencies asking them “to set aside” the results of government studies that said pesticides in the family of organophosphates are harmful to about 1,800 threatened or endangered species.  Dow Chemical manufactures the pesticides.

Dow Chemical gave Trump about $ 1 million to underwrite his inaugural festivities.  

This all comes on the heels of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s announcement that he was reversing an Obama effort to bar the use of Dow’s chlorpyrifos pesticide after studies found that even tiny levels of exposure could hinder the development of children’s brains.

Every time you see an announcement that the Trump administration is reversing an Obama era “regulation,” substitute the word “protection.”  That is what is happening.

Information of the Dow effort is from an article by Michael Biesecker, “Pesticide Maker Tries to Kill Risk Study,” Lancaster Farming,(Apr. 29, 2017), p. A 22.