Yesterday morning, in the hours before Donald Trump was inaugurated, I figured it was a good time to ask y’all about your predictions, hopes, and fears for the incoming Trump administration.
I suppose what worries most is not the policy--it's okay in a democracy for elections to have consequences, and for the other team to set policy that you don't like--but the destruction of democratic norms. He's so damn fascist--challenging the constitution by executive order (birthright), over-ruling Congress and Supreme Court by trying to reverse the TIk Tok ban, even skipping ahead to the last chapters of the "late fascism" playbook with promises of territorial expansion (Greenland, Panama Canal). I worry too many Americans have forgotten about balance of powers and now hunger for an Imperial Presidency. Started with Bush, continued under Obama (uhm, anyone remember his predator-drone "kill list"?) and hasn't really been reversed. Now Trump is ramping up the rhetoric along with the executive overreach. I truly do worry about our ability to recover if half of the electorate become inured to a de facto dictatorship.
First off, Trump did not over rule the Supreme Court on the Tik-ToK ban. He did order a 90 day waiting period to allow the possibility of a sale to US owners. If that does not occur, the ban will be put in place. Even after going to Google, I can't find a copy of the "late fascism" playbook. Is it available on Amazon?
My greatest fears at this moment are that Trump again shrinks Grand Staircase and Bears Ears, and, worse, revokes or makes impotent the Antiquities Act; that he feeds Ukraine to the dog Putin, and gets into a war with China over Taiwan. My greatest hope is that, since he refuses to do anything to cut carbon emissions, he instead throws money at some kind of geoengineering to cool the planet and that lunatic Musk helps figure out how. I am all for cutting carbon emissions but frankly it's too slow. I used to live in Pacific Palisades, my son lives right next door to Altadena, and these latest fires have been traumatic to watch...it's LA's 9-11 moment, and a preview of our future unless we can figure out some way to cool things down faster.
As a physical scientist, I consider the use of geoengineering to address climate change to be extremely dangerous. The worldwide consequences of the various proposed technologies are incompletely understood and difficult to model. However, we may be forced to engineer the climate at some future date if we can't get serious about reducing our use of fossil fuels. I hope that doesn't happen.
I share your hope, as unlikely as it may be. Geoengineering is the only possible solution that it seems like Republicans can convince themselves to try, along with carbon storage (which is far too slow and too expensive). We will see… it’s still a long shot. I’m in a dark mood at the moment; the raft of executive orders Trump signed are even worse than I allowed myself to expect. I’m depressed for Alaska’s sake right now, especially.
It's human nature....someone can make a documentary about a million people dying in a genocide, and someone else can make a documentary about one child being killed in a genocide, and people will cry more about the second situation. It seems human nature that we can more easily focus on small things rather than the big picture....a tendency that the right wing has taken full advantage of. Anyway, I say all this because the one thing that set me off the most, at first glance anyway, was renaming of Denali to Mt. McKinley. Relative to pulling out of the Paris accords, drilling the Arctic, and a hundred other important bad things, this is nothing, literally just a name, won't cause any hurricanes, etc. But it is also a deliberately racist slap in the face of all Native Americans. And this will be far from the last time he deliberately goes out of his way to hurt Native Americans.....not only that, but they'll cut food stamps or other important services to save money, but they think nothing of the expense that renaming or shrinking public land entities, changing management plans, etc., costs.....hundreds of millions of dollars that could be spent actually helping people.
Thanks for the opportunity to expound Jonathan.... The sad and unfortunate reality is that many of DT's actions and those of his billionaire-boys-bunch will be irreversible with permanent damage to humans/families, untold species, watersheds and forests, and our home planet. From what we have already seen, DT neither has the awareness, interest nor intelligence to understand the ramifications of decisions that are best (necessarily) founded on scientific findings whether this be within medicine, climate, economics, sociology and so on - and on top of that he is demonstrated that his prioritized interests are for the privileged, white and moneyed. He is not all bluster and smoke 'n mirrors as some suggest, rather he is deceitful, racist, lying, misogynistic, pompous, arrogant and such - all of this can be supported through the evaluation of his prior actions and words. As to public lands, I would bet that he is incapable of accurately explaining the missions, purpose and lands of the various federal lands management agencies - Jimmy and Roslyn went rafting on a wild and scenic river and DT - well, he sunbathed on his floatie in the pool. And of course I do have hope, that is that the coded "efficiency" effort of his dis-administration closes all of the ICE field offices in a cost-saving measure - heck, they are unneeded and pricey!
We started our day by listening to MLK’s “I have a dream” speech. The dichotomy between the two major events yesterday couldn’t have been more significant. We are grieving today however hopeful ~ because without hope we have truly given up.
I have very mixed feelings. I'm just not as scared of Trump as I was the first time around. He is a bumbling incompetent buffoon of a human and he will certainly cause pain but I'm no longer worried about the end of the Republic and other such hyperbolic claims. Trump is mostly BS and bluster. The voters will sour on him extremely quickly, and Democrats will take Congress in 2026. I have little doubt. And then things will stall up. So while I am concerned I am not particularly worried this time around. That said, what does concern me in the bigger picture is The growing American oligarchy, the extremely negative impact of social media on our young people, housing, wealth inequality, climate change, the consolidation of legacy media and the fact that the Democratic Party is absolutely out of touch with both the voters and its own core values. It's just not an effective opposition party now and Needs major changes to regain power. So it's not so much Trump that I'm worried about as I do the overall situation in this country. The bigger picture. We've got a real mess going on.
Jonathan, my only realistic hope is that we might convince Trump and Wright of the vital need for a Super Grid for electricity. There is a massive energy crisis coming at us quickly, thanks to data centers, AI and Crypto mining. Estimates I have seen are 125 giga-watts of additional power needed by 2030. If we accomplish this with fossil fuel we are really going to supercharge global warming.
We can vastly expand renewable energy sources and battery storage to help in the energy crisis, but only if we dramatically improve our transmission system. This could be done through the Super Grid - a project on the order of the 19th Century Transcontinental Railroad or the 20th Century Interstate Highway.
If we can appeal to Trump’s vanity, perhaps this project could blossom. It would help solve the energy crisis in the short term and we can de-carbonize the actual energy supply in the long term. But, without the ability to transmit the renewable energy from source to need, none of it will work.
As a historian who spent a career in environmental research and remain a classic New Deal liberal [modernized] I find the absolute utter disdain for any law, including the constitution the most alarming. Every single lie from that person divides and degrades as intended. His immediate executive orders attempt to eradicate every single thing I ever worked for and hold dear. I have serious doubts that this country will survive as almost every system has been successfully turned against any democratic impulses. This is all directly traceable to Reagan who got away with everything with a smile on his face. We need to learn our history.
I also am an unreconstructed, unabashed New Dealer with a bust of LBJ on my bookcase and a picture of FDR on a wall. Our family lawyer was a New Dealer congressman who had a photo of himself shaking hands with Roosevelt on the wall of his office. I used to bring him new bios of FDR when I'd come to call. He was in his eighties by then and I am now in my late seventies. There are fewer of us left every year, but I'm sure we all share your fears and forebodings.
Welcome to the club. I am meeting tomorrow with ladies of the appropriate age who are all New Dealers and remember when laws mattered and people were important. We are strategizing what we can do, mostly trying to get elected Democrats to recognize the threat and starting being a true and LOUD opposition.
After the last Trump administration the Heritage Foundation and right-wing think tanks wanted to be prepared on day 1. Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership is that blueprint. It combines the worst of deregulation, privatization and free-market grift with toxic patriotism and Christian Nationalism. Representative Andy Biggs, AZ introduced a trove of legislation on day one of the new session that align with Project 2025. Trump’s executive actions also align exactly with Project 2025. It’s blitzkrieg. All the guardrails and balances of power that challenged Trump’s criminality last term are gone. All the agencies that pushed back will be kneecapped by the Schedule F reversal. The environment will suffer. Tribes will suffer. Women will loose more healthcare rights. Essential services will be defunded in blue states. The national debt will rise beyond redemption and the tech bros will control the alternatives to the dollar. The robust economy Biden supported will falter as the doors open even wider for predatory capitalism to take charge. All our social media clicks are already controlled by commerce, now they will additionally be controlled by oligarchs. Every minority will retreat in public life. Violent attacks against LGBTQ, Jews and Black Americans will increase as white-supremacy is emboldened. Domestic violence will increase. Separation and displacement of immigrant families, legal and illegal will result in death and massive injury to the soul of our country. Industry, especially construction and hospitality will suffer. California’s economy which supports and fuels the economy of poorer states will decline. And the fucking eggs will not be cheaper as bird flu and other pathogens spread unchecked by any government oversight. Do I see anything to be hopeful for? Governors in blue states. Democratically controlled state legislatures. Local governments that can compromise. Big changes take big money and the government is running on credit. Big changes to laws can still be challenged in court and legal challenges to Project 2025 are already in place. The Republican majority is thin and 2 years is a short period of time. We as individuals still have the freedom to live with our personal values as much as we can. And The West is a big space. There are places to hide and monkey wrenches to tinker with.
Donald Trump yesterday again revealed exactly what sort of human being he is: deranged, narcissistic, astonishingly self-indulgent and completely unconcerned about the damage he and his billionaire pals will inevitably inflict on Homo sapiens and our beautiful planet.
The dismay in my heart when I contemplate the complicity of so many of my brethren in Trump's re-election is staggering. If this behavior is what we can expect from our species in the coming decades then disaster is our just dessert.
I am extremely concerned about the potential impacts of the second T administration on all aspects of science and medicine. He has no understanding or appreciation of the relevance and importance of scientific data on public policies. We live in a highly complex, technological society. The individuals that Trump has nominated to run important Federal agencies like the CDC, HHS, the NIH, the EPA, and the DOD appear to be unqualified.
I guess I am more pessimistic than most of the commenters. I fear for our democracy. I'm sure there will be elections, and that they will marginally count, but one only has to look to some of Trump's international heroes to have concerns.
In Hungary, Orban was elected, and then set about to control the courts and the media. The result is a limited democracy. Our Supreme Court has shown itself during this past year to be egregiously partisan and corrupt. The Titans of our economy have all bowed in obedience to Trump (or in Musk's case, just bought their way in). With the pardon of over 1,500 tried and convicted J6 criminals, the worst of the radical malitia folks will feel they have complete freedom to attack cops, or whomever else they want, as long as it's done in Trump's favor.
My overriding fear is that this is the end of democracy for the foreseeable future. I fear that meritocracy will be replaced by nepotism, sustainability by profit, and we the people by the rich and corporate elite. And I worry about how the US will affect the rest of the world.
My hope is that people and their elected representatives can fully comprehend the reality of where we are now, reflect on how we got here, and correct the mistakes. If the solution is to come from the democratic party, I hope they noticed that corporate elites and billionaires had the front row seats at the inauguration, and understand that this is the predictable result getting in bed with the devil.
My biggest fears are that he’ll give states the power to control federal lands, which they’ll sell for profit and the buyers will largely be foreigners (like from China). All under the guise of fixing the housing shortage? Here on Oregon, foreigner companies already own a lot of timber lands, which is very concerning. I fear the lack of protection and common sense for health care, especially for women, which absolutely affects men! And that they are shoving the term “gender roles” in while defining sex, which is so subjective and will allow the government to define a woman or man’s societal ROLE based on their assigned sex at birth? I fear that not only is he not the one in charge, but neither is Musk or his Fox friends. There’s someone(s) much more maniacal in the dark corners of the world pulling the strings from afar… Most of all, I fear that he’s emboldened the worst in all of us.
My only hope is that the pendulum swings hard the other way: emboldening the best in all of us, too. I hope that this insanity of elections will somehow recalibrate our democracy. I’m so tired of our elected politicians spending all their time and tax payer dollars trying to impeach one another or undo laws the voters already voted on. What if they did like Pete Buttigieg and actually did the work they were hired to do? If the next four years play out like an Ivy League frat house, and the environment is the front lawn covered in solo cups, hopefully there will remain enough of us not benefiting from the bro-y-ness to put a stop to it. There is always the sorority next door cleaning up what the boys left behind. It’s up to us to make the cool kids suddenly less cool. But before that happens, I fear and feel for all of us: women, minorities, plants, lands and animals who will be irrevocably damaged because billionaires feel the need to gain more power.
My greatest concern is the massive, perhaps unprecedented hit that federal lands will take under this administration. Loss of national monuments, increased logging on the national forests, erosion of the endangered species act, expanded energy and mineral development across the board -- the list of potential damages is so long and he's already getting started. These do not just represent policy changes that can be reversed in 4 yrs, but will result in irreversible levels of land and water degradation that may be permanent. Unless litigation can put a brake on such a feeding frenzy, what we are likely to witness will be the greatest loss of biodiversity and natural landscapes since the 1960s when bedrock environmental laws were enacted. Public lands and the ecological values they support is what makes this country great, but may not be so for much longer.
Project 2025 people will do as much damage as we allow them to do. And it is all of our jobs to publicly call them out. Today the king stopped the discount that people on Medicare and medicaid pay for prescription drugs that Biden had put in place. Can't wait until Pendley starts destroying the west.
I suppose what worries most is not the policy--it's okay in a democracy for elections to have consequences, and for the other team to set policy that you don't like--but the destruction of democratic norms. He's so damn fascist--challenging the constitution by executive order (birthright), over-ruling Congress and Supreme Court by trying to reverse the TIk Tok ban, even skipping ahead to the last chapters of the "late fascism" playbook with promises of territorial expansion (Greenland, Panama Canal). I worry too many Americans have forgotten about balance of powers and now hunger for an Imperial Presidency. Started with Bush, continued under Obama (uhm, anyone remember his predator-drone "kill list"?) and hasn't really been reversed. Now Trump is ramping up the rhetoric along with the executive overreach. I truly do worry about our ability to recover if half of the electorate become inured to a de facto dictatorship.
First off, Trump did not over rule the Supreme Court on the Tik-ToK ban. He did order a 90 day waiting period to allow the possibility of a sale to US owners. If that does not occur, the ban will be put in place. Even after going to Google, I can't find a copy of the "late fascism" playbook. Is it available on Amazon?
So far the only thing I've heard that I like is the possibility of getting rid of daylight savings time. Long overdue.
Booooooo! My wife and I love it! But whatever, I guess. Put it to a national vote!
I know I'll never vote again for any senator or congressman who supports eliminating DST. Hurray for long evenings!.
My greatest fears at this moment are that Trump again shrinks Grand Staircase and Bears Ears, and, worse, revokes or makes impotent the Antiquities Act; that he feeds Ukraine to the dog Putin, and gets into a war with China over Taiwan. My greatest hope is that, since he refuses to do anything to cut carbon emissions, he instead throws money at some kind of geoengineering to cool the planet and that lunatic Musk helps figure out how. I am all for cutting carbon emissions but frankly it's too slow. I used to live in Pacific Palisades, my son lives right next door to Altadena, and these latest fires have been traumatic to watch...it's LA's 9-11 moment, and a preview of our future unless we can figure out some way to cool things down faster.
As a physical scientist, I consider the use of geoengineering to address climate change to be extremely dangerous. The worldwide consequences of the various proposed technologies are incompletely understood and difficult to model. However, we may be forced to engineer the climate at some future date if we can't get serious about reducing our use of fossil fuels. I hope that doesn't happen.
I share your hope, as unlikely as it may be. Geoengineering is the only possible solution that it seems like Republicans can convince themselves to try, along with carbon storage (which is far too slow and too expensive). We will see… it’s still a long shot. I’m in a dark mood at the moment; the raft of executive orders Trump signed are even worse than I allowed myself to expect. I’m depressed for Alaska’s sake right now, especially.
It's human nature....someone can make a documentary about a million people dying in a genocide, and someone else can make a documentary about one child being killed in a genocide, and people will cry more about the second situation. It seems human nature that we can more easily focus on small things rather than the big picture....a tendency that the right wing has taken full advantage of. Anyway, I say all this because the one thing that set me off the most, at first glance anyway, was renaming of Denali to Mt. McKinley. Relative to pulling out of the Paris accords, drilling the Arctic, and a hundred other important bad things, this is nothing, literally just a name, won't cause any hurricanes, etc. But it is also a deliberately racist slap in the face of all Native Americans. And this will be far from the last time he deliberately goes out of his way to hurt Native Americans.....not only that, but they'll cut food stamps or other important services to save money, but they think nothing of the expense that renaming or shrinking public land entities, changing management plans, etc., costs.....hundreds of millions of dollars that could be spent actually helping people.
Thanks for the opportunity to expound Jonathan.... The sad and unfortunate reality is that many of DT's actions and those of his billionaire-boys-bunch will be irreversible with permanent damage to humans/families, untold species, watersheds and forests, and our home planet. From what we have already seen, DT neither has the awareness, interest nor intelligence to understand the ramifications of decisions that are best (necessarily) founded on scientific findings whether this be within medicine, climate, economics, sociology and so on - and on top of that he is demonstrated that his prioritized interests are for the privileged, white and moneyed. He is not all bluster and smoke 'n mirrors as some suggest, rather he is deceitful, racist, lying, misogynistic, pompous, arrogant and such - all of this can be supported through the evaluation of his prior actions and words. As to public lands, I would bet that he is incapable of accurately explaining the missions, purpose and lands of the various federal lands management agencies - Jimmy and Roslyn went rafting on a wild and scenic river and DT - well, he sunbathed on his floatie in the pool. And of course I do have hope, that is that the coded "efficiency" effort of his dis-administration closes all of the ICE field offices in a cost-saving measure - heck, they are unneeded and pricey!
"Jimmy and Roslyn went rafting on a wild and scenic river and DT - well, he sunbathed on his floatie in the pool" - I love it
Good morning Jonathan!
We started our day by listening to MLK’s “I have a dream” speech. The dichotomy between the two major events yesterday couldn’t have been more significant. We are grieving today however hopeful ~ because without hope we have truly given up.
Thanks for all you do to inform and encourage us!
I have very mixed feelings. I'm just not as scared of Trump as I was the first time around. He is a bumbling incompetent buffoon of a human and he will certainly cause pain but I'm no longer worried about the end of the Republic and other such hyperbolic claims. Trump is mostly BS and bluster. The voters will sour on him extremely quickly, and Democrats will take Congress in 2026. I have little doubt. And then things will stall up. So while I am concerned I am not particularly worried this time around. That said, what does concern me in the bigger picture is The growing American oligarchy, the extremely negative impact of social media on our young people, housing, wealth inequality, climate change, the consolidation of legacy media and the fact that the Democratic Party is absolutely out of touch with both the voters and its own core values. It's just not an effective opposition party now and Needs major changes to regain power. So it's not so much Trump that I'm worried about as I do the overall situation in this country. The bigger picture. We've got a real mess going on.
Jonathan, my only realistic hope is that we might convince Trump and Wright of the vital need for a Super Grid for electricity. There is a massive energy crisis coming at us quickly, thanks to data centers, AI and Crypto mining. Estimates I have seen are 125 giga-watts of additional power needed by 2030. If we accomplish this with fossil fuel we are really going to supercharge global warming.
We can vastly expand renewable energy sources and battery storage to help in the energy crisis, but only if we dramatically improve our transmission system. This could be done through the Super Grid - a project on the order of the 19th Century Transcontinental Railroad or the 20th Century Interstate Highway.
If we can appeal to Trump’s vanity, perhaps this project could blossom. It would help solve the energy crisis in the short term and we can de-carbonize the actual energy supply in the long term. But, without the ability to transmit the renewable energy from source to need, none of it will work.
As a historian who spent a career in environmental research and remain a classic New Deal liberal [modernized] I find the absolute utter disdain for any law, including the constitution the most alarming. Every single lie from that person divides and degrades as intended. His immediate executive orders attempt to eradicate every single thing I ever worked for and hold dear. I have serious doubts that this country will survive as almost every system has been successfully turned against any democratic impulses. This is all directly traceable to Reagan who got away with everything with a smile on his face. We need to learn our history.
I also am an unreconstructed, unabashed New Dealer with a bust of LBJ on my bookcase and a picture of FDR on a wall. Our family lawyer was a New Dealer congressman who had a photo of himself shaking hands with Roosevelt on the wall of his office. I used to bring him new bios of FDR when I'd come to call. He was in his eighties by then and I am now in my late seventies. There are fewer of us left every year, but I'm sure we all share your fears and forebodings.
Welcome to the club. I am meeting tomorrow with ladies of the appropriate age who are all New Dealers and remember when laws mattered and people were important. We are strategizing what we can do, mostly trying to get elected Democrats to recognize the threat and starting being a true and LOUD opposition.
After the last Trump administration the Heritage Foundation and right-wing think tanks wanted to be prepared on day 1. Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership is that blueprint. It combines the worst of deregulation, privatization and free-market grift with toxic patriotism and Christian Nationalism. Representative Andy Biggs, AZ introduced a trove of legislation on day one of the new session that align with Project 2025. Trump’s executive actions also align exactly with Project 2025. It’s blitzkrieg. All the guardrails and balances of power that challenged Trump’s criminality last term are gone. All the agencies that pushed back will be kneecapped by the Schedule F reversal. The environment will suffer. Tribes will suffer. Women will loose more healthcare rights. Essential services will be defunded in blue states. The national debt will rise beyond redemption and the tech bros will control the alternatives to the dollar. The robust economy Biden supported will falter as the doors open even wider for predatory capitalism to take charge. All our social media clicks are already controlled by commerce, now they will additionally be controlled by oligarchs. Every minority will retreat in public life. Violent attacks against LGBTQ, Jews and Black Americans will increase as white-supremacy is emboldened. Domestic violence will increase. Separation and displacement of immigrant families, legal and illegal will result in death and massive injury to the soul of our country. Industry, especially construction and hospitality will suffer. California’s economy which supports and fuels the economy of poorer states will decline. And the fucking eggs will not be cheaper as bird flu and other pathogens spread unchecked by any government oversight. Do I see anything to be hopeful for? Governors in blue states. Democratically controlled state legislatures. Local governments that can compromise. Big changes take big money and the government is running on credit. Big changes to laws can still be challenged in court and legal challenges to Project 2025 are already in place. The Republican majority is thin and 2 years is a short period of time. We as individuals still have the freedom to live with our personal values as much as we can. And The West is a big space. There are places to hide and monkey wrenches to tinker with.
"the fucking eggs will not be any cheaper" is one of the gems of this comment string
Donald Trump yesterday again revealed exactly what sort of human being he is: deranged, narcissistic, astonishingly self-indulgent and completely unconcerned about the damage he and his billionaire pals will inevitably inflict on Homo sapiens and our beautiful planet.
The dismay in my heart when I contemplate the complicity of so many of my brethren in Trump's re-election is staggering. If this behavior is what we can expect from our species in the coming decades then disaster is our just dessert.
I am extremely concerned about the potential impacts of the second T administration on all aspects of science and medicine. He has no understanding or appreciation of the relevance and importance of scientific data on public policies. We live in a highly complex, technological society. The individuals that Trump has nominated to run important Federal agencies like the CDC, HHS, the NIH, the EPA, and the DOD appear to be unqualified.
I guess I am more pessimistic than most of the commenters. I fear for our democracy. I'm sure there will be elections, and that they will marginally count, but one only has to look to some of Trump's international heroes to have concerns.
In Hungary, Orban was elected, and then set about to control the courts and the media. The result is a limited democracy. Our Supreme Court has shown itself during this past year to be egregiously partisan and corrupt. The Titans of our economy have all bowed in obedience to Trump (or in Musk's case, just bought their way in). With the pardon of over 1,500 tried and convicted J6 criminals, the worst of the radical malitia folks will feel they have complete freedom to attack cops, or whomever else they want, as long as it's done in Trump's favor.
No, I'm not at all optimistic.
My overriding fear is that this is the end of democracy for the foreseeable future. I fear that meritocracy will be replaced by nepotism, sustainability by profit, and we the people by the rich and corporate elite. And I worry about how the US will affect the rest of the world.
My hope is that people and their elected representatives can fully comprehend the reality of where we are now, reflect on how we got here, and correct the mistakes. If the solution is to come from the democratic party, I hope they noticed that corporate elites and billionaires had the front row seats at the inauguration, and understand that this is the predictable result getting in bed with the devil.
My biggest fears are that he’ll give states the power to control federal lands, which they’ll sell for profit and the buyers will largely be foreigners (like from China). All under the guise of fixing the housing shortage? Here on Oregon, foreigner companies already own a lot of timber lands, which is very concerning. I fear the lack of protection and common sense for health care, especially for women, which absolutely affects men! And that they are shoving the term “gender roles” in while defining sex, which is so subjective and will allow the government to define a woman or man’s societal ROLE based on their assigned sex at birth? I fear that not only is he not the one in charge, but neither is Musk or his Fox friends. There’s someone(s) much more maniacal in the dark corners of the world pulling the strings from afar… Most of all, I fear that he’s emboldened the worst in all of us.
My only hope is that the pendulum swings hard the other way: emboldening the best in all of us, too. I hope that this insanity of elections will somehow recalibrate our democracy. I’m so tired of our elected politicians spending all their time and tax payer dollars trying to impeach one another or undo laws the voters already voted on. What if they did like Pete Buttigieg and actually did the work they were hired to do? If the next four years play out like an Ivy League frat house, and the environment is the front lawn covered in solo cups, hopefully there will remain enough of us not benefiting from the bro-y-ness to put a stop to it. There is always the sorority next door cleaning up what the boys left behind. It’s up to us to make the cool kids suddenly less cool. But before that happens, I fear and feel for all of us: women, minorities, plants, lands and animals who will be irrevocably damaged because billionaires feel the need to gain more power.
My greatest concern is the massive, perhaps unprecedented hit that federal lands will take under this administration. Loss of national monuments, increased logging on the national forests, erosion of the endangered species act, expanded energy and mineral development across the board -- the list of potential damages is so long and he's already getting started. These do not just represent policy changes that can be reversed in 4 yrs, but will result in irreversible levels of land and water degradation that may be permanent. Unless litigation can put a brake on such a feeding frenzy, what we are likely to witness will be the greatest loss of biodiversity and natural landscapes since the 1960s when bedrock environmental laws were enacted. Public lands and the ecological values they support is what makes this country great, but may not be so for much longer.
Project 2025 people will do as much damage as we allow them to do. And it is all of our jobs to publicly call them out. Today the king stopped the discount that people on Medicare and medicaid pay for prescription drugs that Biden had put in place. Can't wait until Pendley starts destroying the west.