2020.10.10 06:23
Trump's public lands chief refuses to leave his post despite judge's order
William Perry Pendley says ‘I have the support of the president’ despite court ruling he is serving illegally as head of the Bureau of Land Management
Cassidy Randall, Sat 10 Oct 2020 05.30
William Perry Pendley, acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, has been accused of seeking to sell off public lands to extractive industries. Photograph: Chris Dillmann/AP
A controversial environment chief in the Trump administration has said he has no intention of leaving his post after a US district court judge deemed his tenure and ongoing occupation of the position illegal. William Perry Pendley, head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), said this week that the judge’s ruling “has no impact, no impact whatsoever”. “I have the support of the president,” he told the Wyoming Powell Tribune. “I have the support of the secretary of the interior and my job is to get out and get things done to accomplish what the president wants to do.”
Perry has served as director of the BLM since July 2019, when the interior secretary, David Bernhardt, temporarily authorized him to the post. The BLM manages 248m acres – or 10.5% of all land in the US, the most of any agency, mostly in 11 western states and Alaska. It manages public lands for conservation as well as livestock gazing and resource extraction, and critics say the Trump administration has prioritized the latter.
President Trump formally proposed Pendley for the post in July 2020, but withdrew the nomination after congressional Democrats indicated unanimous opposition to his appointment, and some Republicans seemed unlikely to support him owing to his fringe views. Pendley has never been confirmed by the Senate to serve as BLM director.
After Montana’s Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, brought a case claiming that Pendley’s service was unconstitutional, US district judge Brian Morris ruled two weeks ago that Pendley had “served unlawfully” for the last 424 days, prohibited him from acting as director and suggested that his decisions during his tenure be thrown out or reversed.
The interior department said it would appeal against Judge Morris’s ruling. In response to Pendley refusing to vacate his post, the Montana senator Jon Tester accused him of a power grab “in service of his long-held goal of selling off our lands and enriching his corporate allies”.
As a former industry attorney and longtime president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), a litigation organization funded by conservative and industry groups including the Charles Koch Foundation and Exxon Mobil, Pendley boasts a deep background of legal advocacy for extractive resource industries on public lands.
He has made light of killing endangered species. The Guardian obtained a 2017 recording in which he told a group of North Carolina rightwing activists, “This is why out west we say ‘shoot, shovel and shut up’ when it comes to the discovery of endangered species on your property.” Congressional Democrats also expressed concern with his views on social justice and racial inequality. Pendley has mocked Native American land management practices and dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement as based on a “lie”. 25 days to save the Earth ...... because that is when the US withdraws from the Paris climate accord, on 4 November. Five years ago nearly 200 countries committed to a collective global response to tackle the climate crisis. But when Donald Trump took office he announced that the US would leave the Paris agreement. On the one issue that demands a worldwide response to help safeguard the Earth for future generations, the US has chosen to walk away.
The stakes could hardly be higher. The period since the Paris agreement was signed has seen the five hottest years on record, along with a cascade of disasters, from strengthening hurricanes to growing wildfires. If carbon emissions continue we can expect even worse.
With your help we can keep this issue at the center of our 2020 election coverage. The Guardian has promised to give the climate emergency the sustained attention and prominence it demands. And we practice what we preach: we have renounced fossil fuel advertising, becoming the first major global news organisation to do so. We have committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2030. And above all, we will continue our longstanding record of powerful reporting that recognizes the climate crisis as the defining issue of our time.
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2020.10.10 06:51
2020.10.10 06:57
Of course, there is NO law to Tramp and his followers, and what else?
Nothing new, doc, nothing new. All those Republican bastards try their best to use this idiot to take the advantage at maximum, no one with a normal brain would do. So be it. I am sure this mother fucker wants to sell the USA to Putin's clan if allowed with no question. Didn't we see that again, again, and again through these many years? I feel sick to talk, look, and/or listen to his voice. Enough is enough! Done, period!
God bless America
BB Lee
P.S. Three more weeks and we will see! I am ready to relocate to Catania when this bastard should remain for another 4 years, God forbids!
2020.10.10 08:41
Trump will remain in the office until Jan. 20, 2021. I am not sure what he will do
until then after Nov. 3th. I hope somehow he is removed before then as soon as possible.
I don't think it will take too long to paralyze WH. COVID19 and Trump's temper tantrum
is throwing the US government into chaos.
Pelosi is correct to declare Trump is disabled and to enact the 25th amendment.
2020.10.10 10:49
Prof. Lee, for God's sake, please don't go to Catania.
The city is only 20 feet above the sea level, and there is Mount Aetna behind in their backyard.
Both of them can swallow Catania at any time. Please consider Denver and Rocky Mountain.
The only danger, here, is that we could be the first target by the Russian or Chinese IC missiles
because we have most of the North American strategic defense and offense facilities.
Dr. Ohn, I wish the Democrats sweep the House and the Senate both in November.
Then, they can impeach the damn Tramp anytime or in the morning of the January 20th.
2020.10.10 13:33
Thank you, Steve, for your kind concern on my plan to relocate(?) to Catania/Sicily.
But to have a peace in my mind till I leave this world and keep my current marital status, I really take it seriously to move to somewhere I don’t have to see or listen to this mother fucker.
In my age to becoming 82, next month, I know I don’t have much mileage left and hopefully 4 more years?, that means 86 if God permits so that I want to get away with no further argument with my wife I suffer every day because of this bastard.
The problem starts with the morning paper/WAPO my wife cannot live without it. Over the breakfast table, I cannot help but read at least the Editorial and my blood boils over to explode, spilling out my favorite four-letter words helplessly. My wife simply cannot tolerate my foul language and get so upset that she has no reason to listen to this curse instead of him, blaming on my rotten family upraising to allow such foul language, and infrequently walks out in the middle of breakfast to hurt me.
That argument has been the ONLY item to make my life miserable these days but I would go crazy if I can’t shout out the curse on this mother fucker only to disrupt our marital life with not many days left.
So, when this bastard should remain another 4 years God forbids, my curse would get worse and my wife will abandon me to be sure. The only way to avoid this idiot is to go abroad to Europe where I don't have to listen or watch this bastard and my wife happened to speak Italian so that I take such generous offer seriously by Prof. Pierfrancesco Veroux of Catania Univ to accommodate us down there although the Sicilian language is much different from ordinary Italian which deters her consent to my plan.
Through the book I edited with Pierfrancesco, I was lucky enough to have made quite a few friends not only at Univ Catania but also at Univ Palermo in Sicily besides Univ Bari nearby at Apulia so that I wouldn’t be lonesome though I have to learn Italian.
Sadly,
BB Lee
2020.10.11 13:14
Doc, you can not really get away from Trump no matter where you go.
The people of the world are listening to him. Maybe, you could go to Antarctica.
The last time I was there, there was no TV or cellphone, therefore, no CNN.
You should live more than 6 years for the sake of people with the darn venous disease.
I do not have the problem in myself but I have seen so many people suffering
from venous insufficiency during my practice. I regret why I didn't know your existence.
I could've sent you truckloads of the "vein" people to you.
I have heard plenty about you from your classmates.
Yet, I don't know what you can or can not do about what you are.
But, at least, for your longevity, please make friends with Trump and even love him
for what he is, just like his mother loved him. ㅎ, ㅎ, ㅎ.
2020.10.12 08:37
Thanks for such kind words, Steve!
Whatever they say about me- I paid the price more than I had to among my high school as well as college friends to have become victimized for all these years by my own reputation as 일등생 (of course, I am shamelessly proud of my graduation record of '98.4' at 경기 high school, beating 유진오's record for 53 years!) -, I am one old chap reaching to the ancient age of 82 years old within a month so that I feel deserved to ignore others' criticism but finish a few more miles with peace as taught by one of my friends saying "Don't let them bug you!". But darn, this bastard really gets under my skin every day!!!!! My allergic reaction to this bastard is getting worse every day beyond my tolerance level these days!!!
BB Lee
P.S. It reminds me of one old saga involved to a Republican president, George Bush while I was in Seoul. Indeed, I gave a very unique service, voluntarily, to POTUS as a U.S. citizen while I was in Korea through '90 and fulfilled my obligation to serve to President Bill Clinton successfully as Surgeon in Charge when he came to Korea to Jeju to meet Korean President Kim YS. I willingly set up the emergency care and subsequent evacuation plan to the U.S. in the case when he should with the WH security team and medical team. But when George Bush became the president instead of Al Gore with cheating the vote at Florida as you all remember, I informed to the Embassy and WH Medical team that I no longer wish to serve as Surgeon in Charge when he should come to East Asia to surprise many though I eventually gave in to continue to serve till I left Seoul to come back to the U.S. in early 2004. I simply didn't want to give any help to greedy Republicans and refused to get involved with them. I even refused to accept quite a few invitations to their events as an appreciation to my service to POTUS for almost 10 years, using my fully booked schedule for the trips to foreign countries as my excuse. So when I learned idiot Tramp was elected, my heart fell into my stomach!!!! I knew it would happen by instinct then although my entire family tried to convince/comfort me that Hilary will be elected with no exception. No fucking polls, no sir!!!! This mother fucker is simply no good for my health and I desperately try to get away from him!!!!
How can this happen in America? Has anything like this ever happen in this land?
Yes, it does happen under the Trump regime, a flagrant violation of the law
that's simply ignored, encouraged, and justified by Donald Trump.
Doesn't this boil your blood?
This is typically a white-supremacist would do. This tells how well they would not abide
by the law of the land and tells how stupid and idiotic they are.
Trump and his Republican Party are their boss and leading these guys
to the USA into chaos. We should get rid of them by November.