Newsok columnist Wingerter sucks up to Pruitt - WTF?

Justin Wingerter's post in Newsok.com today demonstrates a blind, uncompromising loyalty to Scott Pruitt, thinking that all this talk about the EPA administrator is exciting!  But even the first paragraph is enough to make someone seriously ill.  Any one with a brain, at least.  Wingerter sounds like a star-struck teenaged girl facing her teen idol.

Listen to this obsequious drivel:

"Critics and supporters of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt have found common ground in their shared belief that the former Oklahoma attorney general is operating with an efficiency and zeal beyond that of his predecessors."

I have yet to hear any of his critics use the terms 'efficiency' in describing his policies.  'Zeal' maybe, but not in a good way.  His 'zeal' is taking apart the EPA so oil and gas industries can pollute the environment with impunity.  This does not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the process from becoming The Donald's nominee to somehow (God only knows) getting appointed.


Al Armendariz, a former regional EPA administrator stated: “I'm not aware there's ever been an environmental administrator with an agenda to roll back environmental regulations one after another.”

We've never had a pretender-in-chief so hellbent on destroying the environment.  The Donald put Pruitt there for  the sole purpose of dismantling the EPA.

Back in March, Pruitt denied a ban on chlorpyrifos, after a study from the USDA questioned EPA's methodology and mistaken conclusions that it is unsafe.  According to FactCheck.org, there are some questions about the EPA study, but claims stronger data and conclusions come from the November 2016 report from Columbia  Center for Children's Environmental Health at Columbia University.

How convenient that Wingerter's post left out the citation for the USDA's study.  FactCheck.org, on the other hand, listed 27 references, USDA not included.

It's been clear for a while that Pruitt is hostile  to the EPA while getting on his knees in the oil and gas industries, criticizing the EPA for its policies to protect our air and our water.  Pruitt is out to line  his pockets with the help of oil and gas.

“I'll do it as long as the Lord calls me to and as long as the president wants me to do it,” Pruitt said.

God help us all!

http://newsok.com/scott-pruitt-talks-epa-pesticides-and-future-elections/article/5558202
http://www.factcheck.org/2017/04/the-facts-on-chlorpyrifos/
   (and references therein).

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-46) launched 1992

Claude Nicolllier, Franklin  Chang-Diaz, Ranco Malerba

Space Shuttle Atlantis took off Juy 31, 1992, mission STS-46, carrying Claude Nicollier, the first Swiss astronaut, Franklin Ramon Chang-Diza, the first Costa Rican astronaut and Franco Malerba, the first Italian astronaut.

Commander Loren J. Shriver, Pilot Andrew M. Allen, Mission Specialist 2 Marsha S. Ivins and Mission Specialist 3 Jeffrey A.  Hoffman completed the crew.

The mission marked the 150th human spaceflight to reach orbit.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Vladimir Dezhurov!

Veteran cosmonaut/astronaut Vladimir Dezhurov, born July 30, 1962, in the former Soviet Union, has traveled on Soyuz and the Space Shuttle to Mir and the International Space Station.  He has logged 9 EVAs at just over 37 hours total.  Not bad for only 2 trips to space!

His first mission was aboard Soyuz TM-21, launched in March 1995 to Mir.  This mission saw the first American, Norman Thagard, to ride on a Soyuz spacecraft.  Dezhurov returned to Earth in July 1995 on the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-71).

He flew to the ISS in August 2001 aboard the Discovery (STS-105) and returned in December aboard the Endeavour (STS-108).

Soyuz MS-05 has reached the International Space Station

In 6 hours, Soyuz MS-05 launched and then docked with the International Space Station!  That's a typical day's commute in the DC area.  Paolo Nespoli, Randy Bresnik and Sergey Ryazabsky have joined the three current residents on the ISS, Peggy Whitson, Jack Fischer and Fyodor Yurchikhin, who are scheduled to remain aboard until September.  The new arrivals will spend 5 months on the ISS conducting many scientific experiments.

One such experiment is a study developed by the Michael J. Fox Foundation of the pathology of Parkinson's disease to aid in the development of therapies for patients.

Skylab 3 launched 1973

Skylab 3 crew (L-R): Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, Alan Bean

Astronauts Alan L. Bean, Science Pilot (and Oklahoman) Owen K. Garriott and Pilot Jack R. Lousma blasted off July 28,  1973 in Skylab 3, the second manned mission to the U.S. space station.  Their mission time was 59 days and 11 hours.  NASA extended the mission from one to two months so the effects of flight duration on physiological adaption and readaptation could be examined.

Happy birthday, Daniel Burbank, Space Shuttle, Soyuz and ISS astronaut!

Daniel Christopher Burbank, born July 27, 1961 in Connecticut, is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions (both on Atlantis) and a Soyuz mission (TMA-22).  Both space shuttle flights took him to the International Space Station, where he helped prepare the ISS for permanent inhabitants.

The Soyuz mission took him back to the ISS in September 2011 and he stayed until April 2012.

Soyuz MS-05 is fixin’ to blast off tomorrow

Soyuz MS-05 crew (L-R): Paolo Nespoli, Sergey Ryazansky, Randy Bresnik

The 134^th flight of the Soyuz program will launch tomorrow (July 28, 2017) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan 10:30am-ish for us in the Baltimore Daylight Time Zone. This will be Expedition 52 to the International Space Station.  Its crew consists of Commander Sergey Ryazansky (Russian), Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli (Italian) and Flight Engineer Randy Bresnik (Kentuckian).  They will spend five months living, working and conducting scientific experiments. 

Nespoli has been to the ISS twice before already.  He flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-120) back in 2007 and went back in December 2010 – May 2011 as part of the Soyuz TMA-20.

Ryazansky flew on Soyuz TMA-10M to the ISS (Expedition 37) and stayed from September 2013 March 2014.  It was his first spaceflight.

Bresnik (a Virgo like me) traveled on the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) in November 2009.  He only spent 11 days on the ISS, but performed 2 EVAs and had a baby while in orbit. Like Ryazansky, he’s been to the ISS once and it was his first spaceflight.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/International_Space_Station/Vita_mission_live