Time to Wake Up #305: Lyin' Lee Zeldin - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

[Rhiannon12866]

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivers his 305th speech in his Time to Wake Up series, this time on Trump's EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin.

Sheldon Whitehouse represents Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate, where he champions policies to uphold American leadership in the world, protect our planet in a changing climate, and hold the powerful accountable. - 03/26/2026.

[jfz9580m]

1. K&R

I love Sen Whitehouse. He is one of the best.

Perfect timing. I am posting something seriously in the Writing forum where I started a thread already rather than Activist HQ, on an allied issue.
Man..I really miss Lina Khan.




Btw not sure you ever saw this fairly under the radar story. These are my countrymen I am truly proud of (not parasites like Vinod Khosla). Go Hemant Kappana . I am not sure the present model of migration (the last 20 years) to the US is supportive of honest, clued in humans. I see some of the people who thrive pver there from these parts and they are just these crass or clueless douchebags. I can say it . I felt less lonely after reading about Hemant.


https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a39035992/the-man-who-unearthed-volkswagens-emissions-cheat/

The moment Hemanth Kappanna boarded that flight, it seemed like his best days were behind him. He’d helped uncover Volkswagen’s conspiracy to cheat emissions regulations, revealing a complex, devious mechanism that allowed VW’s diesels to spew carcinogenic, climate-changing pollutants unfiltered into the atmosphere. His team, in a tiny engineering department at a not terribly prestigious public university, used a $70,000 grant to track down a deception that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (annual budget: over $8 billion) hadn’t detected. Kappanna and his colleagues published data that led to one of history’s biggest legal settlements, with Volkswagen paying roughly $21 billion in fines, penalties, and civil suits in the U.S. alone. Executives went to prison. VW’s CEO resigned in disgrace.

Kappanna and his team’s work led to a seismic shift in the automotive industry. But now he was jobless in America, with an expiring work visa. All he had was a one-way ticket to India, the country he’d left nearly 20 years ago. His return to Bangalore was not a hero’s welcome. He took public transit from the airport to his mother’s home and tried to avoid anyone he knew.

For years, Kappanna had lived the American dream. He arrived in the U.S. in 2002, 23 years old and freshly accepted to the engineering master’s program at West Virginia University (WVU). “Engineering was the way forward for us,” Kappanna says. “Back when I was studying, it was either engineering, medicine, or law.”

It was the first time he’d ever left India; this skinny, five-foot-10 kid had barely even ventured outside Bangalore, India’s third-biggest city. Talk about culture shock. “Compared to Bangalore, WVU is a village,” Kappanna says. He enrolled without financial aid, washed dishes in a dormitory dining hall, and studied under Mridul Gautam, PhD, whose specialties include real-time emissions testing on heavy-duty diesel trucks.

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[Rhiannon12866]

2. He really is the best, so hard working and one of my favorites, too!

And thanks for all your relevant posts, plus I sure miss Lina Khan as well, one of our long time best!

[jfz9580m]

3. I updated my post with an interesting story you would like

I like to boost my countrymen I am actually proud of unlike the Ragy Thomases, Vincent Palathingals (Jan 6 Trumper ), Suhail Doshis, Vivek Ramaswamys, Niki Haleys, Nina Vasans, Shalab Kumars, Aravind Panagariyas, Gita Gopinaths, Indira Nooyis etc.

Those guys make all of us look bad (whatever trashy metric of “success” they meet. Goddamn zombies).

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Thanks for the contribution, I'll look for it!