A society reveals what it values by what it refuses to sell.
Public lands were never just about preserving beautiful places. They represent the idea that not everything should be turned into private wealth simply because someone powerful sees an opportunity for profit.
Once that principle is abandoned, the question is never where it ends. Only what gets sold next.
There is something incomprehensible about people who inherit one of the most spectacular natural landscapes on Earth, then decide the highest use of it is to carve it up and sell it off to the highest bidder. The Antiquities Act is not about protecting rocks and trees. It’s about recognising that some things belong to everyone, including generations not yet born. Once these places are gone, they’re gone. I wonder what these oligarchs imagine they’ll be leaving their grandchildren. Because it certainly won’t be an intact world.
Another example of unchecked wealth becoming a pathology.
Bears Ears National Monument was also a living exemplar of a unique test of governance, where five indigenous nations cooperated not just with one another to create it, but served as co-guardians, along with the federal government. It contains not just Native American artifacts, petroglyphs, centuries-old monuments, relics, buildings and finds, but new Triassic and Jurassic-era discoveries previously unknown to science. By every definition of the word, it is a national treasure, linking past, present and future.
I cannot even begin to fathom the source of Justice Robert's antipathy toward the 1906 Antiquities Act. Has he ever even visited a national park, forest, seashore, battleground, monument? Did he think the buffalo died off themselves, or that white settlers didn't try for a century and a half to grab every bit of native land they could, violating every treaty ever signed? Is his ignorance of our history so great he knows or cares nothing about the near destruction of places like Yellowstone and Yosemite before Congress finally came to its senses? Isn't the whole point of jurisprudence also supposed to be about supporting Congress's intent through the laws it passed in earlier days?
More and more, Republicans remind me of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A clique of tyrannical religious idiots determined to subjugate women, ban music and literature, forbid joy and pleasure, and blow up ancient, priceless statues of the Buddha erected long before them. It's hard to overstate the soulless stupidity of rulers so inwardly wretched as to make rapaciousness and fanaticism their only goals in life.
It's not about nature. It's about money. It's about the uranium in Bears Ears which is close to the only working uranium mill in the US. It is the highest profit margin site for uranium production in the US.
Small-scale nuclear reactors are being posited as a solution to the huge power requirements for hyperscale datacenters, a huge market. Think of thousands of small reactors across the US in a regulation and oversight adverse oligarchy.
Don Jr. and Eric are already investors and advisors to tungsten mining companies in Kazakhstan who are getting $1.6 billion in US government funding. It will be just another source of graft like all their other new ventures.
They are the Einsteins and Epsteins of our rapacious leaders and their cult. Get as much as you can, get away with as much as you can, and you will finally be on the inside and your emptiness will rule over all who have substance. Sad part is, these vipers fool more than fools.
Thanks for the info Georgia... "close to the only working uranium mill in the US."... Is this Facility on the Navajo Reservation, or on Indigenous Land?....
It sits roughly a mile east of the Bears Ears National Monument boundary and a few miles north of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community, effectively on the monument’s “doorstep.” The mill operates under federal and state permits on public land rather than within a formally recognized reservation boundary.
The mill is located on land described by regional advocacy and tribal-support organizations as sacred to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and many other Indigenous communities. Groundwater beneath the mill flows toward the White Mesa community, and winds often blow from the mill in that direction. Tribal members have organized repeated protests and spiritual walks from White Mesa to the mill, explicitly framing the site as a threat to their health, land, water, sacred sites, and cultural landscape.
The mill was originally dedicated to processing uranium ore but the company started accepting radioactive waste from around the country, but is now accepting radioactive waste from Japan and Estonia as well.
Thanks for the Info Georgia... I asked the question because I know that when it comes to Riches, Indigenous Treaties, and Rights don't matter... Look up the Plight of the Navajo Uranium Miners....
We visited the Grand Canyon a few years ago. I understood that mining remnants that we saw were from uranium mines. At some point they were shut down. Does this mean that they will reopen?
For the last century Minnesota and the US government have spent the last century cleaning up The St Louis River that flows into Lake Superior, a world treasure that holds 10% of the worlds fresh water. In the 1950's and 1960's bitter lawsuits were filed over asbestos pollution from the iron mine industry. Eventually the people won and Lake Superior began being restored. Now Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota US Representative, has opened the door to pave the way to open mining operations very close to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. While most of the water shed flows north into Canada there is growing concern that Lake Superior will once again be threatened by this new mining endeavor. I guess Canada should be alright with the US sending our shit their way?
It all boils down to this; if it's a business it's permisible and even expected to rape and destroy the surroundings with zero responsibility to preserve or restore the surroundings. It's just the cost of doing business to too many people.
Yes, but likely the shuttered mines that are closest to the Bears Ears mill will be reopened first if they have sufficiently concentrated ore. The bigger issue is that the mill has become the dump for all kinds of radioactive waste hauled in from sites all over the US and now from foreign countries. It is being held in open pools of water with a single-layer plastic liner. Groundwater contamination is a huge concern. And it will only grow much worse if it has to handle the tailings from active mines in the area.
The Bear Ears land is public domain, which means it is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. Uranium is classified as a “locatable hardrock mineral” under the 1872 Mining Law. It allows private citizens to go out on federal land, "prospect for certain types of minerals -- gold, silver, other hard rock minerals -- and stake claims," Pidot said. "And when they do that, they then acquire rights to mine those resources." Even though the law has been debated for years, Pidot said that currently, the federal government would not have many options once someone has staked claim to land. The potential for corruption is enormous based on who filed claims first.
Beyond that, the land will be open to all variety of private actions: corporate mining, grazing for farm animals, logging and personal recreational use. The government will also have the option to lease land and resources, such as oil and gas, to private companies, and even potentially sell the land to the state or companies. https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Act%20Of%20May%2010,%201872-(Mining%20Law%20Of%201872).pdf
In situ Uranium mining was new to me from oil geologists I talked to enough to find out what it was and what the problems could be. To me the pictures I saw reminded me of what looked like Beehive size pump stations around the Stringfellow Acid Pits Superfund clean up site (next to some auto and truck salvage yards I frequented). I was afraid of the groundwater contamination risks but didn't pursue info on them at the time.
I did query Google AI with "Problems with in situ uranium mining," and got (with links not shown here), as a starting point:
"...In situ Uranium Mining (ISL or ISR) faces significant environmental and operational problems. The primary issues involve groundwater contamination, uncontrolled chemical "excursions", aquifer restoration failures, and the mobilization of toxic heavy metals.
Key Environmental and Operational Problems
Groundwater Contamination: ISL operates by injecting a chemical solution (lixiviant)—often composed of water, oxygen, and sodium bicarbonate or sulfuric acid—directly into deep underground aquifers to dissolve uranium. This fundamentally alters the aquifer's natural chemistry and risks rendering groundwater unusable.
Excursions of Toxic Pollutants: Mining fluids can migrate outside the designated production zone (an "excursion"). This uncontrolled movement spreads not only uranium but also dangerously mobilized heavy metals and metalloids like arsenic, selenium, and lead into surrounding, un-mined groundwater.
Aquifer Restoration Failure: Once mining operations conclude, state and federal regulations require companies to restore the groundwater to its pre-mining baseline quality. However, in practice, achieving baseline water quality has often proved technically unachievable, leading to lingering contamination or prolonged, expensive remediation efforts.
Wellbore Leaks and Spills: A single ISL site requires thousands of closely spaced boreholes and wells. Casing failures, equipment breakdowns, and pipeline leaks frequently spill radioactive lixiviant onto the surface or into shallow local waterways.
Microbial Plugging: Subsurface microbial activity can clog the pores of the surrounding rock, reducing permeability and severely decreasing uranium production rates.
The primary regulatory body for overseeing these environmental safety standards in the United States is the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Independent monitoring and advocacy are also provided by environmental groups like Earthworks.
Are you looking for information on ISL impacts in a specific region, or do you need details on how regulatory frameworks address these issues?..."
It can't be used everywhere but seems relatively easy to go unnoticed (with poorly understood risks in communities near it.
I think both apply. If it's a Trump action its graft, if it's Don Jr. and Eric it's grift. Trump signed the proclamation and likely would put in a good word with the Bureau of Land Management for whoever had his ear on the possibilities. Don Jr. and Eric would become well-paid "advisors" to companies that wanted in on the action.
That Roberts wants to upend 120 years of precedent and strike down an act from 1906, is beyond me. It's his job to judge, not to legislate. He should stay in his own lane. This project of his is over the top.
Republican members of $COTUS where precisely placed by plutocrats, for plutocrats, the enrich the rich and disempower and impoverish the poor. To dismantle the republic and restore feudalism. That's the main theme of Robber's Court decisions.
"They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." -- Lincoln
Susan, Roberts loves to complain about the lack of respect for the court. They also want a huge amount of money for security. Six of them are worthless. He and they might look at their decisions.
I don't understand such greed, soullessness and total lack of respect for nature and Mother Earth, either. The Republicans have been chomping at the bit, for at least as long as I've been alive, to roll back the environmental protections and even mar or reduce National Parks and Monuments.
Chief Justice Roberts along with Rep. Mike Lee and the cast of villains within the Trump regime are going for broke and seemingly trying their damnedest to break our Nation. Trump is so petty that he reduced the Bears Ears National Monument because it was originally established by President Barack Obama in 2016, claiming the 1.35-million-acre protection was an overreach of the Antiquities Act and shrank it by 90% to open the land for mining and resource extraction.
In October 2021, President Biden restored Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante to their original size. “Today’s announcement is not just about national monuments,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo, said at the ceremony. “It’s about this administration centering the voices of Indigenous people and affirming the shared stewardship of this landscape with tribal nations.” (And now Trump has reduced both again!)...
It should also be noted that Deb Haaland was not only the first Native American woman to be Secretary of the Interior, but the First(and only!) Native American cabinet member ever in these entire 250 years of United States of America's existence!
So much for Trump is about the black guy. It's astonishing just how much. We have a war in Iran because him hate the black guy. Bears Ears -- hate hate hate the black guy. Black guy's daughter got into Harvard. Baron did not. Black guy got Nobel Peace Prize. Must steal or extort prize from somebody else to prove I'm better than black guy.
98% of Trump's brain functions at just this level.
Hopefully Secretary Harland will be the next governor of New Mexico. Several Indigenous candidates are running for various offices around the US and not surprisingly, most are running as Democrats.
It's so sick that some of the very wealthiest get their jollies by abusing and further depriving those with the least power and resources. History is full of that. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I visited Big Bend National Park in 100-degree heat. It was an amazing place, and I will continue to visit as many national parks as I can. The changing climate just gives us another reason for protecting these areas from development.
I lived in Big Bend National Park for 7 years. It is truly an amazing place. Now Trump wants to build a wall through it. The contractor building it is a big Trump supporter. Follow the $$...
Do the justices actually show their faces in church? They claim to be Christians and ignore the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a non-theist there is much to be learned from the Bible and yet they serve only the wealthy and not the Constitution they promised to uphold.
Mark 12:41-44 New International Version The Widow’s Offering
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Sadly, I've never been close to being as generous as the widow.
This needs to be repeated again and again, especially by Christian leaders. Here's a link to a powerful piece I read yesterday by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com
From this excellent article you recommended Dorothy: As the great 20th century scholar of the prophets Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “In a free society, some are guilty and all are responsible.”
They ignore most of the bible. They want the fruits and flowers of their beliefs, but ignore the blood and guts upon which their flowers grow. Jebus occasionally came up w some interesting psychological insights, but then promised hell to those who didn’t believe in him. — “The reality of life, its tragedy, its complexity, its meaning, cannot even be confronted by these people. They are content . . . I only ask them to leave me alone.” (From my book: Truth and Fear…).
All this news hurts, particularly efforts to dismantle the preservation of nature, protection of the environment, and the dismissal of science and ancient history. The great evil is money and the power it bestows upon evil men.
I visited two national parks and have been supporting them for most of my adult life. I go no more because my footprints are on too much as it is. Enjoy while you can. Oil rigs spoil the splendor
I've been to all of the national parks west of Kansas City, except Glacier National Park. Big Bend National Park in Texas is a real jewel for hiking. Yosemite is as close as I'll ever get to Heaven. When living in California, we loaded up our van and took our two daughters to all of them. Utah has some super national and state parks, the Big 5: Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Park as well as Grand Staircase Natl. Monument and Goblin Valley State Park. They are treasures to enjoy, share and preserve for posterity.
But, as Professor Richardson reported on her yesterday's 7/14 "Politics Chat"
The National Science Foundation (NSF) reversed its controversial decision to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)—a $386 million deep-ocean monitoring network.
The NSF STOPPED further removal of sensors & agreed to redeploy already-removed equipment, and launched a review panel to secure the future of the observing arrays.
Must ID the "review panel" ASAP and any status report. Better yet file a FOIA, Freedom of Information request. NSF may even cooperate.
FYI everybody, Professor Richards demonstrated her diligent work product yesterday on her 'Politics Chat'.
But only because he wanted the ‘view’ from his proposed golf course to be pristine. Thank goodness the Scottish people and government had the backbone to just say no to the money.
Great analogy, but their mirrors see benevolent power. Sort of like how the mirrors skew reality in a carnival. Why we have a carnival barker “president.”
"moneygrubbing was eroding the character of the nation"
More and more, Republicans remind me of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A clique of tyrannical religious idiots determined to subjugate women, ban music and literature, forbid joy and pleasure, and blow up ancient, priceless statues of the Buddha erected long before them. It's hard to overstate the soulless stupidity of rulers so inwardly wretched as to make rapaciousness and fanaticism their only goals in life.
So on the one hand, we have the preservation of nature, art, important archeological and scientific sites, and on the other hand we have the preservation of Native American cultures and their right to self-determination.
On the other hand, we have greed, selfishness, fear of diversity (in other words, strong insecurity - the place that all greed and immoral behavior come from), and stupidity (the entire West is having its worst heat waves and heat domes ever, and climate science proves that things will only get worse).
It's the result of decades of right-wing attacks on education, combined with the hollowing out of spiritual traditions and the "psychologization" of education perpetrated since the 1990s by the left (cultivating children's ego is considered to be more important than transmitting all that the wisest ancestors ever discovered and invented).
As to jurisprudence: there are different judicial theories. "Originalism" says that judges/Justices today should try to restore the original intent of the lawmakers who made a specific law. The legal interpretation theory Obama and his appointees support proposes to decide each ambiguity in the law (and there are many of those) in such a way that the ruling takes the opinion of the majority of the American people today into account.
Then, of course, there is neofascism, which the GOP euphemistically calls "Unitary Executive Theory". Now, the idea is that in general, the executive branch of government should have the right to decide everything, with Congress being reduced to "codifying the executive orders the president signs", as GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson publicly declared a few months ago, and the role of the judiciary to interpret the law in the sense the executive branch wants it to be interpreted.
Unfortunately, "we the people" decided to give neofascists full control over DC.
It's, John Roberts is just another money grubber with the mentality that entails. None of these people give a rat's behind, only care their bank accounts, so they can afford to live on their own private domains while they extract what belongs to all of us and of course, do not care about indigenous sacred spaces.
Thiel believes he will live in his own personal fiefdom since democracy will have died. He has built a model he calls Prospera. Musk thinks he will be living on Mars. Do we need any more proof of the pathology?
Yes, they seem to have moved on from the so-called freedom cities to datacenters in space and colonies on Mars while back here on earth all we may look forward to is a secular Rapture.
LFAA: " ... outdoor writer Wes Siler suggests that Trump’s proclamations are an effort “to trigger a case that will allow the far-right justices he’s appointed to the Supreme Court to massively reduce the scope of the Antiquities Act, or eliminate it altogether.”
The Antiquities Act will NOT be eliminated. Another collusive trump v trump or bogus EO will be stopped lawfully.
Senator Whitehouse (RI) strategies to reform SCOTUS coupled with the elimination of life tenure is rapidly developing into to a matter of survival. Voters can help by stopping ICE funder Collins & replacing her with 51 year old Maine Secretary of State, Shenna Belows.
Disclosure: I am a supporter & donor of SHENNA LEE BELOWS.
Even though I am not a fan of "vote blue no matter who" in this case we are counting on the good folks of Maine to dislodge Collins. Dr. Richardson said on her podcast that last year she thought we would be in a much worse place than where we currently are. We are holding on but...
Ligia, I've written a longer, free-standing comment, but to put it succinctly, there is a significant portion of our population that do not believe the world will exist beyond their own lifetimes. Operating on that belief, there's no reason to worry about future generations.
Hello Kazz... From HCR Today: "Theodore Roosevelt who most dramatically expanded the effort to keep western lands from the hands of those who wanted only their timber and minerals.
Roosevelt was concerned that moneygrubbing was eroding the character of the nation, and he believed that western land nurtured the independence and community that he worried was disappearing in the East. During his presidency, which stretched from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt protected 141 million acres of forest and established five new national parks." || TR is one of my Favorite USA Presidents... Raised in a Prosperous NYC Family, TDR migrated West after losing his Wife, and Mother the same day, to try his hand as a Cowboy... TR succeeded as a Rancher until the Winter 0f 1886-1887 which wiped out 1/2 his herd.... As a Rancher, TDR also served as a Sheriff... Returning to NYC, TR entered Politics, and wound-up being Asst. Sec of the Navy... With the outbreak of the Spanish War, TR resigned, and formed a Volunteer Regiment comprised of Americans, including the Indigenous, from all Walks-Of-Life... TR would lead this Regiment from the Front on Horseback during Battle... His Son Theodore, Jr, would be the 1st American General to put his Boots on the Sand at Normandy.... Both TR, and his Son would receive the Congressional-Medal-Of-Honor... TR was also a Noted Scholar, and would read at least a Book a Day... Now, in 2026, the USA has a semi-Literate Buffoon as POTUS who wants to Destroy much of TR's Legacy for a Quick-Buck... Indeed DJT wants to give DJT, and one of his Sons, Congressional-Medal-Of-Honors for riding Golf Carts... How Far We Have Fallen.... This Is The Stuff Of Greek Tragedies...
A small but important point here is that Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is simply known as TR. There is no D in his name. His father was Theodore Roosevelt Sr.
Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were 5th cousins. The D comes from Franklin's mother, Sarah Delano, and Franklin's father was James Roosevelt. Thus the FDR. They were 2 parts of the Roosevelt family located in Oyster Bay, Long Island (TR) and Hyde Park (FDR) in upstate New York.
There is a funny incident during his very early days out in South Dakota when he and some other men were out looking for some person, thievery of some kind, when he called to his guys: " Hasten forward quickly men!!" that didn't really earn him much credibility with any of the cowhands. He did, eventually, earn their respect as he was just tireless in his affairs and a man of great energy.
Thanks for the info Greg... I'm writing at 02:00 hrs, and don't like to Write... I am purposely overtly Succinct... TR was extremely accomplished was a Hero of Legendary Accomplishment...
Good evening Apache! Oh yes it is the stuff of Greek tragedies so it’s nothing new. Will we ever learn? The key ingredient I think is abuse of power. It shouldn’t matter who’s in power if the checks and balances are in place to remove bad actors before they wreck havoc. The powers that be understood this and played it the other way.
Hello Kazz... How is the Weather in Australia?... Over here in the Central Coast in California, it is Fire-Season... "abuse of power"... As an 'Outsider" looking in, I wonder if we have reached a Civilizational Peak, and are in Decline....
Is there anything Trump will not defile? From the East Wing to the Reflecting Pool, from the Kennedy Center to the national parks. From our healthcare to world peace to the justice system. The man is a plague upon humanity.
Don't place all the blame on Trump, although he certainly deserves it. Russell Vought is the man behind the curtain pulling Trump's strings. He is a Christian Nationalist, as is Hegseth. They are dangerous men who will sic the military on our civilians who oppose them. They want to turn this country into a theocracy, just like the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.
"punyverse" made me chuckle -- a needed term for the vantage held by so many people these days. I poke fun by citing geoogical time and geophysical space -- Earth's former continental configurations and the everpresent undulations in Earth's deeper layers where underwater volcanos erupt and undulate in molten waves. Punyversal mindsets counting dollars to assert a sense of control -- it's so insane.
On the wall to the right of me is an enlarged photograph of "The Hubble Deep Field" in which whole galaxies are spread like falling snowflakes. The size of actual-factual (Berenstain Bears reference there) universe is beyond lucid imaging. It's BIG. I think we humans can only track of a little bit of it, but the personal part is around where we live, and increasingly it is wise to track the general condition of the entire planet. I think it's still a punyverse, but some seem examples more compressive than others, and I think the primary key to that is observing and caring. Buddhists talk about "mindfulness", Christians who are into Jesus talk about the most inclusive sense of "love". Tentative people such as myself may talk about openness, engagement, and compassion. Some become even more abstract with terms like "Categorical Imperative". I think it points in the direction questioning (including one's self) and sufficient caring.
So much food for thought about scale, values, and what words mean by how we use them. "Lucid imaging" and I never heard about "categorical imperative". Not a conversation I can have with many people in my life but interesting. Thanks J L.
Hi Apache... Yes, and the muskrat among many others currently in power. [I just remembered that horrible jacket that melanoma wore in 2018 to "visit" children in migrant detention center, many of them separated from their parents: "I really don't care. Do U?"]
This is oblique, but I notice that music is somehow instrumental (seriously, no pun intended) in every culture I am aware of. There is something in music that synchronizes our individual consciousness, some cultures more deeply than others. We should not have allowed corporations to dominate so much of our culture. Music broke free of corporate grasp in the '70's with indy labels and underused FM radio stations. Mind blowing creativity still lives of course, but more so on the 'Net. Perhaps more so away from US commercial dominance. Music shapes culture, which is why tyrants aim to control it. Music is a meeting ground for humanity.
And the latest trump - maga-trump approval poll from … (fill in the blank) show 60% disapproval (and you guessed it right) 40% approval & any difference are within the margin of error.
And yes Susan Collin’s will vote against confirming T. Blanche & Fetterman will vote to confirm. Getting ahead of myself… sorry
Yesterday I took a photograph of an ICE protest sign. Abolish ICE, Save U.S. From GOP Terror. I was in the mall parking lot outside Hancock County Republicans committee headquarters. I left when told to. A little while later, as I was standing with my sign on the public sidewalk along the highway, the Ellsworth police gave me a No Trespass Notice. I was in the mall parking lot a few minutes and am barred from the mall for a year.
Wonder what the Chamber of Commerce might think. Or the state office which granted mall owners a $6 million tax abatement.
Financial & Tax Standing: In 2023, the mall’s ownership (Union River Associates) won a $6 million reduction in their taxable property value from the state, reflecting a prior period with a ~30% vacancy rate and dated property design.
Anchor Tenants: The center remains anchored by T.J. Maxx and Hannaford Supermarket, which provide steady foot traffic.
Municipal authorities are willing to pay tribute to Big Business, but that's because we have skewed our laws to small business's disadvantage. Reaganomics. All politicians claim to LUV small business, but from what I have read, it is an increasingly shrinking slice of the pie. Also, a billions a year hedge fund manage with a dozen employees in NOT "small business, though some count them as such. That's not the "Square Deal" and not the "New Deal", it's more or less gone on for centuries.
Obama's AG said:
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy."
So my take-away is that these outfits are too damned big for rule of law to function. so try to make them smaller (As we did once before in our history and the world still spun). What we did do is NOT meaninglessly hold these institutions accountable, bailed them out big time, made them even bigger, and by the end, Sen. Dick Durbin complained "they still own the place". Whose place is it Supposed to be? Seems to me that's the crux of the problem.
Good for you -lin. If you need anything from the mall, let me know. I'll be happy to bring it to you. Fortunately, you have a Hannaford in Bah Hahbah, otherwise, not much of a loss unless you're a TJ Maxx addict like my wife. Harbor Freight's owners have contributed to Collins campaign, so I'm avoiding ever going in there and all of the fast food joints along High Street would be a blessing to be banned.
They are building “compounds” that will have manicured grounds, and enough servants to support their luxury (aka Ivanka, etc); they think that their nests will be protected. Surprise. We’re all in this boat together, but guess who will be pitched overboard first.
GJ, tell your friend that the Chinese-cast appliqués are NOT gold-plated. They are covered in anodized aluminum leaf or anodic film. Actual gold leaf became too expensive years ago. The modern product is aluminum film that's been stained with a golden-yellow dye in an electrolytic process.
Bambi, I used to earn a large salary. But in order to be paid that salary, I was expected to work 80 hours per week, plus travel time, which averaged another 5 to 6 hours per week. After a few years of that rat race, I realized that I didn't have enough time to spend the money I was earning. It was an appalling work/life balance. I quit.
In a corollary, the oligarchs' children are going to have a rude awakening when they discover they have to spend their fortunes just to survive in or escape a world that is uninhabitable.
It seems to me that there is a point at which wealth is no longer a matter of necessity, nor even comfort, but just a sick game, an antisocial overindulgence of ego.
I think that addictions come in many forms, and human manipulators from street drug pushers to propagandists (including many advertisers, cultivate and exploit them. I think was differentiates addiction from mere habit is a compulsion to act against available evidence and one's own better judgement. I think most people including myself, do some of that, but it can be life-destroying.
I grew up thinking that there was some sort of manual for living life decently and to the fullest, but increasingly it seems,. while we have learned a lot, are still muddling through, still searching for answers, or just ignoring them. Life is often cruel, and yet the endless attempt to try to grasp further is part of the fun, and I think, the wisest choice. "Exceptionalism" may be functionally a delusion-inducing "drug" that blocks our way to happier, more sustainable, and more comforting circumstances. Albert Schweitzer said" "The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man (sic) while he lives—the death of his spirit before his physical body."
My husband believes that these billionaires are mentally ill. There has to be something wrong with someone who is perfectly happy with people dying in order for them to make more money that they have so much of that they could never use it all even if they tried.
It's antisocial personality disorder, one of the presentations of which is zero conscience. People are killed for money all the time, directly and indirectly. This regime is doing so. Look up, if you are not familiar, with the history of the British East India Company, especially their impact on India. They weren't popular in the proto-US either; where corporations can go without regulation.
J L, anyone who has worked in retail management is familiar with BLY. Beat Last Year. Retailers – at least the successful ones – maintain a diary of the previous year's daily sales figures, along with notes on weather and other events that might affect sales. They compare today's sales figure with the same day in the previous year. If the figure is less than last year's, the retailer will take steps to boost the next days' sales to make up the loss. BLY is a sort of mantra that takes on a life of its own. BLY becomes a reflex in the retailer's life. They can't really explain why they do it. They just do.
I suspect BLY affects – or infects – the minds of more than just retailers.
I believe in free enterprise, but also in a robust public sector, which is modeled by some successful current societies, and was more the accepted norm in my youth, back when we talked about "truth in advertising" and robust anti-trust. Even the significantly totalitarian AT&T was corralled, perhaps more by the "Carterfone Decision" that by divestment. I also believe in seeking optimal, dynamic balance, which is a lot more complicated than "halvesies" "Centerism". It takes whatever it takes within the bounds of practicality and individual and social justice. I think that's the "liberal consensus" HCR talks about, and though authoritarians have smeared the word "liberal" it is derived from the same root as "liberty", for what I would defend as justifiable reasons. We were taught to pledge allegiance to "liberty and Justice for all" and that means every single one and for society as a whole. That is not a simple matter, and it takes what it takes. Long-term goals and a "business plan" would help.
Rapists gonna rape. Trump’s character flaws were on full display before he was elected in 2016 and have been ever more apparent since then. He admitted as much in the infamous Access Hollywood tapes, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll, has been credibly accused by others, sees the natural environment only as a means to callously enrich himself and is currently committing rape against the country of Venezuela. Fortunately for Iran, they have been able to fight back against his violation of their sovereignty, and expose him for what he is: a hateful but foolish and incompetent bully.
Trump's plundering of public lands is payback for the billion-dollar bribe Trump asked for from the oil and mineral interests before the 2024 election. Undoubtedly, Don Jr. and Eric will be sniffing around this, given that they are already investors and "advisors" to tungsten mining interests in Kazakhstan that received $1.6 billion in U.S. government‑backed financing commitments.
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase‑Escalante national monuments in Utah have coal and uranium resources. Trump is all-in on bringing back "clean coal" but the real prize is the uranium. The Bears Ears deposits are close to the only uranium mill in the US. The White Mesa Mill (Energy Fuels Inc., NYSE American: UUUU) uranium mill sits immediately east of Bears Ears and is the only operating conventional uranium mill in the U.S., making any nearby uranium deposits especially valuable due to low haulage costs.
One of the future solutions to the power draw issues for hyperscale datacenters is to use small-scale nuclear reactors for off-the-grid power generation. But given Trump's antipathy to solar and wind power generation, what's left that could be an extremely lucrative power source? Do you want to see small nuclear reactors distributed across the United States under a regulation and oversight adverse regime? I don't.
I don't believe they ever actually gave him that one billion dollars he desired. They instead took a leaf out of the Zuckerberg book - he only contributed a measly $1m to Trump's inauguration fund while poor Elon ended up $250m out-of-pocket and facing criminal charges for election fraud.
That deal was negotiated before the election, so it wouldn’t be covered by presidential immunity. I doubt that it would have been disclosed if it had gone through. With immunity, Trump can show off the extent of his graft—it is his proof that he is a “stable genius.” It is probably an inducement to the members of the MAGA cult that want to fuse their identity with a “winner.”
I agree, Alex. I would say life in the universe needs care and protection which comes from understanding that we are intrinsically part of a web of life. Presumed conquest of the forces of nature will be the ultimate irony.
For more than 150 years, presidents of both parties understood a simple idea: some things are worth more when they belong to everyone. Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, ancient Indigenous sites, forests, rivers, wildlife, and open skies were not created by developers, oil companies, mining executives, or a man selling gold sneakers. They were inherited, and government had a duty to protect them from vandals carrying contracts.
Then came Donald Trump, who looks at a national monument the way a liquidation salesman looks at a furniture store.
On July 13, Trump reduced Bears Ears from about 1.36 million acres to roughly 121,100 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante from about 1.87 million acres to 181,500. Nearly three million acres were removed from national monument boundaries with a couple of signatures. Apparently, even mountains are not safe when the president believes everything should have a clearance sticker.
Everything must go! Minerals! Timber! Sacred lands! Historic sites! Act now, and receive a complimentary drilling permit while supplies last!
Trump presents this as returning the land “to the people,” which is adorable. The people already owned it. That is what public land means. He is returning it to them in the same way a burglar returns your television to the economy.
Republican leaders once helped establish national parks to stop profiteers from fencing off natural wonders and turning the country’s inheritance into merchandise. Theodore Roosevelt protected about 230 million acres of public land because he feared that moneygrubbing was degrading the nation. Trump heard “moneygrubbing” and mistook it for a governing philosophy.
This is not conservation, freedom, or local control. It is another Trump fire sale. The public gets weaker protections, Indigenous communities lose safeguards for sacred sites, and commercial interests gain access. The only thing being preserved is Trump’s talent for turning public treasures into private opportunities.
No republican administration has been more about the money than Trump's administration. And that the Robert's court only sees the dollar signs when it should be seeing the promise that both parties had made historically in protecting the wilderness for all further defines this administration as clearly fascist. These attitudes put into focus the lethality of this administration toward land not owned by them but owned by everyone. The lethality of essentially using territorial annexation to satisfy a few at the cost of many is not only a crime against nature but eventually matriculates as a crime against humanity. Evidence of water rights and our air have already been plundered; what's next?
Hold your tears until the lawyers sue against it. Marc Elias and others are overturning his foolishness - Marc's firm is lately responsible for 12 out of 12 wins. He is the guy to support if you can.
Very well put. In another 2.5 years there won't be a shred left of the America we all knew: its physical beauty; its unique, globally recognized system of government; civil rights; leadership in education, science and technology. All gone, and most Americans aren't even paying attention, while Trump’s personal coffers grow and his name and image are spread throughout the land.
Our society has conflicting values regarding using public lands for sourcing commodities.
Yes, people want pristine beauty from sea to shining sea.
But they also want low inflation, low gas prices and the ability to travel around the country by car, or their big SUV, or plane and live in 2000 to 3000 square foot houses. That is what they value and that is their wealth. And they blame government leaders if prices and inflation are high and curtails their spending and energy intensive habits.
So government does whatever they can to keep prices low and that involves increasing supply of commodities like oil wherever they can find it. You can sputter all you want but you are the problem. The USA has some of the highest consumption per capita of oil and commodities in the world.
By the way, Yellowstone is overrun with visitors. They need to do a lottery for visitors every year and prioritize US citizens especially in the summer months.
As usual, Heather delivers a superb summary of our history on this crucial aspect of our Nation’s evolution.
As usual, Kelli captures the essence of it, this time in only five sentences.
The general tenor of comments as far down as I was able to read this morning is outrage at the administration’s actions.
What we face is yet another chapter in America’s experience with the Tragedy of the Commons.
We have been here before. The question is: what do we do about it?
I will suggest only one of many possible answers. Since we do not have a functional Congress, urge action by the only substitute we currently have: The Problem Solvers Caucus. They actually have a governance mentality and may be willing to take up the challenge.
Here is a link to their website. If you are represented by someone there, that’s great. If you are not, address the co-chairs or someone from your state—or both.
The ask: For once and for all, let’s have legislation that settles the status of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, with a view toward permanent protection of these National treasures. A 90% reduction in their areas is unacceptable and irresponsible. A designation must be achieved in a form and at a scale that honors their unique features and can be sustained permanently.
It is beyond tragic that we have come to this governance miasma, but here we are.
Juan Ciscomani is not my Representative, but he’s from Arizona and so am I. He will have my letter by the end of the week.
"Once that principle is abandoned, the question is never where it ends. Only what gets sold next."
There is one (only) principle: Treat others the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot. Once that principle is abandoned, there is no question. Everyone loses in the end.
Perhaps every generation faces the same question: are natural treasures part of our common inheritance, or just assets waiting to be monetized? The answer shapes not only landscapes, but also the character of a nation.
Homo Viator, Write letters of protest to your Governor and Senators. The lawsuits are already written. Earthjustice and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said they'd sue the moment the ink dried, and they will, and they may well win the first rounds.
The creation of America's National Parks is said to be one of our best ideas, as inspiring and radical as the Declaration of Independence. Giving hope for posterity and protection for nature, wilderness and wildlife. Good governance and reverence for our Mother Earth...
Our system lets us think what we like, but action becomes society's business when it imposes unwelcome impacts on others. when that occurs, we need to consider what is reasonably just.
I agree. The people responsible for allowing ~15 million unvetted illegal immigrants -- larger than the population of Greece and all but 8 of our states -- what is "just" for the people who allowed that?
It’s simply reductionist-materialistic thinking, which is still the basis of our “modern” western science, taken to its extreme. In this mode of thinking, living Nature is essentially lifeless, created by happenstance, a pool of resources waiting to be used, nothing more. Many of our “great” thinkers today still adhere to this philosophy: Musk, Thiel, but also Richard Dawkins and Yuval Noah Harari.
And that thinking will prevail and be worshipped as long as society puts PROFIT or PEOPLE. IMO, we need a revolution that admires a regulated free enterprise as a co-concept to social well being.
A rapacious capitalism with no controls is as dangerous as a stultifying old school socialism that controls the means of production.
There are fine examples of both systems creating social harmony and economic success in Norway, Finland and Sweden. Not perfect. But they are prosperous and the people are happy. What a novel idea!
And here is a revolutionary idea inspired by the fact that Norway's oil riches are funneled to social programs. A sovereign wealth fund fed by North Sea oil - in a nation that drives electric vehicles. Hmmm.
Here's my idea. The oil and gas under the surface of American land does not need to be in private hands. What if the government repossessed it and fed the "profits" to the people? Who said that mineral rights need to be held by just a few rich dudes? I call the stuff Our National Treasure.
The oil and gas was created over eons by natural processes. Why should anyone own it exclusively?
OK, too radical? How about a great big levy on the revenue harvested by fossil fuel companies - instead of sending them Federal subsidies! We pay them to make billions while kids go hungry, the elderly can't afford medicine and veterans are homeless?
I wholeheartedly agree, Bill! Why shouldn't the richest companies in the world pay more taxes? Or better, why should oil and other resources belong to just a handful of rich white dudes?
"A rapacious capitalism with no controls is as dangerous as a stultifying old school socialism that controls the means of production."
What is "rapacious capitalism" and how about the SEC, EPA, FTC, CFTC and others that regulate? What are you suggesting, or are you just (perhaps) overreacting to Richardson's latest breakfast news?
“Rapacious capitalism” is the economic con game we live in right now. Shareholder ROI and top executive compensation are valued more than the quality of life for 90+% of us. Monopolies and duopolies dominate as small players and potentially more competitive businesses are gobbled up like Pac-Man game.
People are more important than profits.
I'm a long time business guy who operated several enterprises. The current system is rigged for the rich and the small entrepreneur is crushed.
Time for an economic reset. Start by offering Universal Healthcare so innovators don't have to carry that burden - just like most other developed nations.
These lands were protected BY LAW. Why would anyone think that the people who donated those lands to the public would be happy with the government just deciding that their wishes, which are in writing, suddenly don't matter because there is a new government?
This is the real 'crime' of this administration. We have spent decades and millions of dollars trying to save these natural lands. But one guy thinks he has the right to say that history is wrong and that the land does not deserve protection? Same with NATO. and the Paris Accord. and NAFTA. and equal rights. and separation of church and state. and the list just doesn't end.
If what this administration is doing is not against the law... then the law isn't worth saving either.
Do you know you’re keeps using extremely erudite language. Saying absolutely nothing of relevance. Nice theory now put it to practice. And by the way, there’s no such thing as a generation, they are all artificially man made.
, Heather hasn’t even become a very good theorist either
Wow, and Coffman ways in. Did you like that how I spelt your name and how I misspelled Waze lmao did you get the message?
I am a prolific poster here, and I use voice texting. I know it’s an archaic form now of not needing to type. However, the software hasn’t caught up with the sarcasm or innuendo necessary to be accurate. So I voice text everything and I don’t go back to check my work because it’s not important I’m guessing if you found a preposition at the end of a sentence or a dangling participle in the declaration of independence you would curse the founders Lololol
And if you’re worried about orthography, you’re a lost soul when in ninth grade, you were taught that CONTENT is more important than Form. Or did you drop out of school earlier? which I don’t think is the case.
I’m assuming you understood the context and more importantly. THE CONTENT there? If not, I can re-explain it to you. lol
Hey Ruth, I get out English you in a heartbeat with my eyes closed. My ears closed in a blackened out room. English composition is not the name of this Substack. It’s supposed to be what you call informative and if you have trouble reading, I can certainly help with that. I voice text everything and I could give a shit about capital letters punctuation dangling, participle, or ending a sentence with a preposition. CONTENT OVER FORM. OR DIDN’T YOU HAVE NINTH GRADE ENGLISH? MAYBE YOU WERE A DROPOUT
By the way, Ruth Miss nobody that shit for brains was elected president by 75 million people or more TWICE. HE RUNS A COMPANY THAT OWNS HOTELS AND GOLF COURSES ALL OVER THE WORLD NOW IF YOU WANT TO EMBARRASS YOURSELF FURTHER BY MAKING A COMMENT ABOUT THAT, I CAN’T WAIT. I’M CELEBRATING THINKING ABOUT YOUR RETORT.
You’re just like people that call him a loser and I’m thinking where the hell did you grow up? Did your parents teach you what success was? Yikes
Why have they gone against 150 years of protecting public lands? Because these oligarchs are gangsters with no respect for American traditions and DJT is their boy. And why is there an "energy emergency"? Because their boy picked a fight with Iran that is impossible to win, and that every administration until this one has KNOWN it was impossible to win. And the few grownups still left in the room still knew it when he went in.
It follows the fascist M.O. The former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it too. It's also the fundamental dynamics of organized crime, hierarchical, conscienceless. rapacious, and deadly, relying on wealth, bribery and extortion for power. Trump's strategic mentor also counseled Joe No-Decency McCarthy, AND members of the Mob.
"During President Donald Trump’s first term, he bemoaned the failure of his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to protect him from the Justice Department’s investigation of Russia’s efforts to elect Trump in 2016.
“Where’s my Roy Cohn?” Trump erupted, referring to his notorious former fixer who had also been Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s hatchet man during the 1950s Senate hearings into communist activity. Trump later fired Sessions."
It is also because their boy hates any form of renewable energy. I still cannot believe that he has spent billions of our tax dollars to halt windmill farms. It is so bizarre that he has such a pathological hatred of them. I recently drove from Chicago to Denver and back, and I love the windmills! There were so many of them along the route silently generating power across the plains. I also managed to somehow not come down with windmill cancer.
Annabel, I don't think the war on Iran has that much to do with Donald's declaration of an "energy emergency." His handlers are exploiting a constitutional provision that eliminates or dramatically reduces restrictions on a president's powers when an emergency exists. So when Donald or his handlers want to take actions that are beyond presidential powers, they simply declare the appropriate "emergency" that permits Donald to act outside his constitutional powers. The emergency would have been declared whether or not there was a war.
Thank you for this, Heather. As a lifelong conservationist, this subject is dear to my heart. And recently dyspeptic to my body. The GOP's slavish devotion to profit is responsible for the trashing of our land and water at a pace almost beyond imagining. After the destruction of our democratic system, Trump's decimation of our natural treasures and the wildlife they protect will be his most lasting, thoughtless, and evil accomplishment. Damn him and his sycophants for their betrayal of our natural heritage.
David Warburton, Write letters of protest to your Governor and Senators. The lawsuits are already written. Earthjustice and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said they'd sue the moment the ink dried, and they will, and they may well win the first rounds.
As Trump pushes for drilling on public lands, check the impact of Susan Collins putting Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court with this map of public lands at risk in Maine and beyond.
Mainer here. But at least you know she’s concerned . Collins has not lifted a finger after Joan Sebastian Guerrero was murdered. But was the deciding vote in the big beautiful bill giving ICE billions. She has blood on her hands.
Hey tc I really missed you where have you been? Have you seen all the great news about California lately? Mississippi is now beating California in education, all excellence with math and reading. Mississippi who is 50th until Trump disabled and executed the Department of Education and gave each state the right to teach their students. What fits their state instead of what fits Washington DC’s Inculcation method, and Mississippi is now a number ninth in the country and education
MISSISSIPPI. California highest crime, highest taxes, highest property, taxes, highest gasoline prices, highest property, prices, highest homelessness… and one of the highest states in debt. Used to be the light on the hill now is the crack cocaine on the hill.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I am absolutely sick at heart about the Utah monuments being opened to the pillage Drumpf’s grubby buddies want to perpetrate.
I am not whining I am protesting every American hater. I can’t stand Americans who hate America and have an IRRATIONAL hatred for our president… which apparently would include you?
I wake up every day with a smile on my face and proud of America in my heart and mind every single day that’s all you whiners complain, insult, and accuse with no basis
Not only have all of his policies worked , but he is creating democracy all over the world
You are delusional and you are a whiner. You are the only one who doesn’t see it. Trump, like yourself is a loser. He always was a loser. Everything he touches dies. There is not a single thing he is winning. I don’t know where you get your info, perhaps Faux news and right wing bait stations. Please show me a list so I can read up and be a loser, just like you.
So I sent you two lists I’ve given you two opportunities or three opportunities to answer. You’re not full of hot air. You don’t even have that much hot air. You don’t have much air at all and it’s affected your thinking.Deeply.
I’m offering it to you again here it is whitehouse.gov dispute all the lies there and we can have a really good discussion so I could actually show you the facts and destroy every argument that you put forth
Everything he touches dies, huh? Would you like a list of his peers?
Some of the most famous people in the world in history are his peers. And this country is a screaming success, not only here but all around the world. Quit living on old tapes quit living in ancient history. Does you no good? But people get what they deserve, Dave
As life is a do it to yourself proposition, you will either wake up one day and be happy or be miserable the rest of your life
David, I think you live in an upside down backwards World at best. Either that or your parents never taught you right from wrong. Or the difference between winning and losing But I’ll help you here with a little meme
Poor Donald Trump, who raised the great family who is a billionaire
And was elected president .TWICE. AND EVEN ONCE by a majority of the voters just to revisit reality for you. You might wanna get out of your cave and as punishment for yourself try watching four or five networks instead of the same urine soaked networks And that you live in over at blue sky… with all the same urine of disinformation.
Wow, did you get suckered into that one!! Just another example of Heather deflecting from important wins by Trump and his administration to talk about some thing that means absolutely nothing to today’s American not a damn thing
Given that Trump’s address to the nation on Thursday will be almost exclusively political in nature, including reassertions that he was cheated out of winning the 2020 election, the Democrats should demand rebuttal time to rip his claims to shreds.
Thank you, Heather, for bringing the Trump Admin’s decimation of our public land agencies and protections and their plans for accelerated resource extraction to a wider audience. While oil, gas, mining, grazing, and timber interests receive taxpayer subsidized access to our public lands, average Americans are being charged fees by concessionaires (not even our own public agencies) to literally park for 30 minutes and take in a view (e.g., Emerald Bay Inspiration Point in the Lake Tahoe Basin). Our once-proud resource agency staff have been reorganized, decimated, and demoralized. I’m heartsick and infuriated that the Trump Administration appointees in Agriculture and Interior are enriching themselves and their cronies at the expense of our nation's natural heritage.
Raping-women and children, land, the economy, election integrity, our international and national standing-nothing is sacred to this regime but money and dominance. There are no words…
🤬🤬🤬 these vulgarian, Philistine, money grubbers will make this nation unworthy of visitation. Just look at videos of folks who are visiting here, and travelling around the nation and they ALL wonder at the natural beauty we have here.
I can only hope Roberts and his bought and paid for "justices" will choke on the money they're getting from corporations desperate to make even more money to pacify the greed of their major shareholders.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Eb72nCsxi/. By the way, when all of you fools believe any of the bullshit you’re here now about America’s not respected across the globe. Check out the link. Not to mention of soccer fans that I’ve already talked about, but here’s a nice little video for you. Get out of your cave. Go see the real world
Yeah I’m glad you brought up all the people that are coming here for the soccer matches every one of them surprise of what America is real at this country that the freedom at the variety that the diversity and at the food choices I don’t have to use a passport to go from state to state they can’t stop loving America and you can’t stop HATING IT.
You accused yourself … Love your Country and support your president who is every policy is working wonderful for the American people and spreading democracy around the world
You're engaging a malicious, psychotic, incoherent 2-year-old here only to demand attention and deflect intelligent discussion the way attention-seeking little brats tend to do. It can be challenging, but try not to let him lock your goat in the basement and throw away the key. He's beyond shame.
Let me see if I can explain this to you, pal. I’m providing awareness. I don’t need attention. I need awareness because most of you here are only a aware of half the truth or no truth at all and you need to be made aware so you don’t embarrass yourself here with your lies your disillusion, with your unsupported, hatred and lack of any facts because you only know half of them. I can’t stand people that hate America especially the ones like you that hate it. IRRATIONALLY !!
This country is on a roll like it hasn’t been in 50 years or more. Enjoy it relish shit take all the winds in your retirement account and say thank you Mr. Trump. And if you’re that poor, take all your wins in the big beautiful Bill that is helping you that nobody could offer you before because they didn’t think of it and now he did and he’s also providing democracy all over the world. Like no other president. So you go ahead and keep on hating when you don’t even know why sad
Well, you’re as good with insults as usual with no backup no support no facts. Just a bunch of hate consumed by hate and I feel sorry for you actually almost pity. Donald Trump’s policies are working for every American, including you despite your hatred of him. Oh, I’m sorry despite your needless and factless and hopeless hatred of him.
That is so funny Dan the only people you called trolls are the people that don’t agree with the policies here with all the lemmings. People posting 2030 times a day here as long as I agree with you they’re not trolls
You would trade your life for mine in a heartbeat. Love this president policies, and I am having more than a great life you to the opportunities provided for me and my willingness to work extremely hard and diligently for years to make it happen
The SCOTUS 6 want to increase Presidential authority to make war and profiteering pay, to override the civil rights of minorities, to violate laws that inhibit Presidential executive power, but when it comes to preserving the beauty of this great land and honoring its complex history, the SCOTUS 6 would censor Presidential authority, unless there was money to be made. Disgraceful values!!
Not powerful enough to be Satan. He may be a(n the) Antichrist, Satan's minion. Should perhaps revise the Catholic prayer to St. Michael to read, "and do thou, o Prince of the Heavenly Host, thrust into Hell Trump and all the evil spirits [his Cabinet] who prowl the world seeking the ruin of souls [and everything else that is good]."
Ha! Thanks, Loren. You made me look something up. :-) I'm not sure if turning them into frogs would harm them. It might even be an improvement, at least in appearance. They're already toads. Or toadies.
To open lands for coal mining??!! Seriously? Coal? In 2026. This is not a serious debate about the proper balance between development and preservation or between private and public goods, etc. It's flat out insane.
A society reveals what it values by what it refuses to sell.
Public lands were never just about preserving beautiful places. They represent the idea that not everything should be turned into private wealth simply because someone powerful sees an opportunity for profit.
Once that principle is abandoned, the question is never where it ends. Only what gets sold next.
It’s called shitting in your own nest.
There is something incomprehensible about people who inherit one of the most spectacular natural landscapes on Earth, then decide the highest use of it is to carve it up and sell it off to the highest bidder. The Antiquities Act is not about protecting rocks and trees. It’s about recognising that some things belong to everyone, including generations not yet born. Once these places are gone, they’re gone. I wonder what these oligarchs imagine they’ll be leaving their grandchildren. Because it certainly won’t be an intact world.
Another example of unchecked wealth becoming a pathology.
Bears Ears National Monument was also a living exemplar of a unique test of governance, where five indigenous nations cooperated not just with one another to create it, but served as co-guardians, along with the federal government. It contains not just Native American artifacts, petroglyphs, centuries-old monuments, relics, buildings and finds, but new Triassic and Jurassic-era discoveries previously unknown to science. By every definition of the word, it is a national treasure, linking past, present and future.
I cannot even begin to fathom the source of Justice Robert's antipathy toward the 1906 Antiquities Act. Has he ever even visited a national park, forest, seashore, battleground, monument? Did he think the buffalo died off themselves, or that white settlers didn't try for a century and a half to grab every bit of native land they could, violating every treaty ever signed? Is his ignorance of our history so great he knows or cares nothing about the near destruction of places like Yellowstone and Yosemite before Congress finally came to its senses? Isn't the whole point of jurisprudence also supposed to be about supporting Congress's intent through the laws it passed in earlier days?
More and more, Republicans remind me of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A clique of tyrannical religious idiots determined to subjugate women, ban music and literature, forbid joy and pleasure, and blow up ancient, priceless statues of the Buddha erected long before them. It's hard to overstate the soulless stupidity of rulers so inwardly wretched as to make rapaciousness and fanaticism their only goals in life.
It's not about nature. It's about money. It's about the uranium in Bears Ears which is close to the only working uranium mill in the US. It is the highest profit margin site for uranium production in the US.
Small-scale nuclear reactors are being posited as a solution to the huge power requirements for hyperscale datacenters, a huge market. Think of thousands of small reactors across the US in a regulation and oversight adverse oligarchy.
Don Jr. and Eric are already investors and advisors to tungsten mining companies in Kazakhstan who are getting $1.6 billion in US government funding. It will be just another source of graft like all their other new ventures.
They are the Einsteins and Epsteins of our rapacious leaders and their cult. Get as much as you can, get away with as much as you can, and you will finally be on the inside and your emptiness will rule over all who have substance. Sad part is, these vipers fool more than fools.
Uh... what's wrong with Einstein?
Sorry, just saying that the chump family are a genius crew of the very worst of humanity.
It's a contrast
There is no limit to their level of greed. Once upon a time public officials did not see serving the public as a for profit job.
Thanks for the info Georgia... "close to the only working uranium mill in the US."... Is this Facility on the Navajo Reservation, or on Indigenous Land?....
It sits roughly a mile east of the Bears Ears National Monument boundary and a few miles north of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community, effectively on the monument’s “doorstep.” The mill operates under federal and state permits on public land rather than within a formally recognized reservation boundary.
The mill is located on land described by regional advocacy and tribal-support organizations as sacred to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and many other Indigenous communities. Groundwater beneath the mill flows toward the White Mesa community, and winds often blow from the mill in that direction. Tribal members have organized repeated protests and spiritual walks from White Mesa to the mill, explicitly framing the site as a threat to their health, land, water, sacred sites, and cultural landscape.
The mill was originally dedicated to processing uranium ore but the company started accepting radioactive waste from around the country, but is now accepting radioactive waste from Japan and Estonia as well.
https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/white-mesa-uranium-mill/
https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/blog/community-opposition-to-uranium-mill-grows/
Thanks for your comments and insights.
Thanks for the Info Georgia... I asked the question because I know that when it comes to Riches, Indigenous Treaties, and Rights don't matter... Look up the Plight of the Navajo Uranium Miners....
We visited the Grand Canyon a few years ago. I understood that mining remnants that we saw were from uranium mines. At some point they were shut down. Does this mean that they will reopen?
For the last century Minnesota and the US government have spent the last century cleaning up The St Louis River that flows into Lake Superior, a world treasure that holds 10% of the worlds fresh water. In the 1950's and 1960's bitter lawsuits were filed over asbestos pollution from the iron mine industry. Eventually the people won and Lake Superior began being restored. Now Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota US Representative, has opened the door to pave the way to open mining operations very close to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. While most of the water shed flows north into Canada there is growing concern that Lake Superior will once again be threatened by this new mining endeavor. I guess Canada should be alright with the US sending our shit their way?
It all boils down to this; if it's a business it's permisible and even expected to rape and destroy the surroundings with zero responsibility to preserve or restore the surroundings. It's just the cost of doing business to too many people.
Yes, but likely the shuttered mines that are closest to the Bears Ears mill will be reopened first if they have sufficiently concentrated ore. The bigger issue is that the mill has become the dump for all kinds of radioactive waste hauled in from sites all over the US and now from foreign countries. It is being held in open pools of water with a single-layer plastic liner. Groundwater contamination is a huge concern. And it will only grow much worse if it has to handle the tailings from active mines in the area.
The Bear Ears land is public domain, which means it is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. Uranium is classified as a “locatable hardrock mineral” under the 1872 Mining Law. It allows private citizens to go out on federal land, "prospect for certain types of minerals -- gold, silver, other hard rock minerals -- and stake claims," Pidot said. "And when they do that, they then acquire rights to mine those resources." Even though the law has been debated for years, Pidot said that currently, the federal government would not have many options once someone has staked claim to land. The potential for corruption is enormous based on who filed claims first.
Beyond that, the land will be open to all variety of private actions: corporate mining, grazing for farm animals, logging and personal recreational use. The government will also have the option to lease land and resources, such as oil and gas, to private companies, and even potentially sell the land to the state or companies. https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Act%20Of%20May%2010,%201872-(Mining%20Law%20Of%201872).pdf
In situ Uranium mining was new to me from oil geologists I talked to enough to find out what it was and what the problems could be. To me the pictures I saw reminded me of what looked like Beehive size pump stations around the Stringfellow Acid Pits Superfund clean up site (next to some auto and truck salvage yards I frequented). I was afraid of the groundwater contamination risks but didn't pursue info on them at the time.
I did query Google AI with "Problems with in situ uranium mining," and got (with links not shown here), as a starting point:
"...In situ Uranium Mining (ISL or ISR) faces significant environmental and operational problems. The primary issues involve groundwater contamination, uncontrolled chemical "excursions", aquifer restoration failures, and the mobilization of toxic heavy metals.
Key Environmental and Operational Problems
Groundwater Contamination: ISL operates by injecting a chemical solution (lixiviant)—often composed of water, oxygen, and sodium bicarbonate or sulfuric acid—directly into deep underground aquifers to dissolve uranium. This fundamentally alters the aquifer's natural chemistry and risks rendering groundwater unusable.
Excursions of Toxic Pollutants: Mining fluids can migrate outside the designated production zone (an "excursion"). This uncontrolled movement spreads not only uranium but also dangerously mobilized heavy metals and metalloids like arsenic, selenium, and lead into surrounding, un-mined groundwater.
Aquifer Restoration Failure: Once mining operations conclude, state and federal regulations require companies to restore the groundwater to its pre-mining baseline quality. However, in practice, achieving baseline water quality has often proved technically unachievable, leading to lingering contamination or prolonged, expensive remediation efforts.
Wellbore Leaks and Spills: A single ISL site requires thousands of closely spaced boreholes and wells. Casing failures, equipment breakdowns, and pipeline leaks frequently spill radioactive lixiviant onto the surface or into shallow local waterways.
Microbial Plugging: Subsurface microbial activity can clog the pores of the surrounding rock, reducing permeability and severely decreasing uranium production rates.
The primary regulatory body for overseeing these environmental safety standards in the United States is the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Independent monitoring and advocacy are also provided by environmental groups like Earthworks.
Are you looking for information on ISL impacts in a specific region, or do you need details on how regulatory frameworks address these issues?..."
It can't be used everywhere but seems relatively easy to go unnoticed (with poorly understood risks in communities near it.
Hello Georgia... Good Info.... Thank-You... Are There Any Trumps Involved?....
I've read that migratory birds have inbuilt magnetic compasses but I didn't know that bears' ears have uranium. Whatever do they use it for?
Possibly you mean “grift?”
I think both apply. If it's a Trump action its graft, if it's Don Jr. and Eric it's grift. Trump signed the proclamation and likely would put in a good word with the Bureau of Land Management for whoever had his ear on the possibilities. Don Jr. and Eric would become well-paid "advisors" to companies that wanted in on the action.
That Roberts wants to upend 120 years of precedent and strike down an act from 1906, is beyond me. It's his job to judge, not to legislate. He should stay in his own lane. This project of his is over the top.
Not fit for office.
Never was!
He should be disbarred and sent to Gitmo!
Republican members of $COTUS where precisely placed by plutocrats, for plutocrats, the enrich the rich and disempower and impoverish the poor. To dismantle the republic and restore feudalism. That's the main theme of Robber's Court decisions.
"They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." -- Lincoln
This is like a hard pill to swallow - yet its 100% spot-on!
I'm choking on that pill.
Susan, Roberts loves to complain about the lack of respect for the court. They also want a huge amount of money for security. Six of them are worthless. He and they might look at their decisions.
I don't understand such greed, soullessness and total lack of respect for nature and Mother Earth, either. The Republicans have been chomping at the bit, for at least as long as I've been alive, to roll back the environmental protections and even mar or reduce National Parks and Monuments.
Chief Justice Roberts along with Rep. Mike Lee and the cast of villains within the Trump regime are going for broke and seemingly trying their damnedest to break our Nation. Trump is so petty that he reduced the Bears Ears National Monument because it was originally established by President Barack Obama in 2016, claiming the 1.35-million-acre protection was an overreach of the Antiquities Act and shrank it by 90% to open the land for mining and resource extraction.
In October 2021, President Biden restored Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante to their original size. “Today’s announcement is not just about national monuments,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo, said at the ceremony. “It’s about this administration centering the voices of Indigenous people and affirming the shared stewardship of this landscape with tribal nations.” (And now Trump has reduced both again!)...
It should also be noted that Deb Haaland was not only the first Native American woman to be Secretary of the Interior, but the First(and only!) Native American cabinet member ever in these entire 250 years of United States of America's existence!
So much for Trump is about the black guy. It's astonishing just how much. We have a war in Iran because him hate the black guy. Bears Ears -- hate hate hate the black guy. Black guy's daughter got into Harvard. Baron did not. Black guy got Nobel Peace Prize. Must steal or extort prize from somebody else to prove I'm better than black guy.
98% of Trump's brain functions at just this level.
The fifth grade bully demanding respect. My parents would have tanned his hide way back
Hello JD... DJT is a Perpetual '3rd Grader'.... You give him too much credit..
Obama lives in Dumpty’s head rent free!
Second only to undoing anything Biden accomplished.
I'm sure his hatred, and it's that, of Obama is his reason for going after Iran.
That and politcally easy prey for a bully, as was Venezuela. He still want's to conquer Greenland, but is still held at bay.
He is especially nettled by that black guy, but also hates brown or black on principle, apart from a few token toadies.
100% It's all about the black guy.
Hopefully Secretary Harland will be the next governor of New Mexico. Several Indigenous candidates are running for various offices around the US and not surprisingly, most are running as Democrats.
Support them if you can!
Yes, please support our indigenous brothers and sisters everywhere. The political elite and big business have been screwing them forever.
rape culture
Rape mindset. Take, take, take. For me, me, me.
The "I can take whatever I want and no one can stop me" mindset, which they keep testing just for "fun". See Epstein files (maybe, someday?".
The worst kind: raping your Mother.
Yes! Epstein and natural resources. Short accurately describing Trump et alia!
It's so sick that some of the very wealthiest get their jollies by abusing and further depriving those with the least power and resources. History is full of that. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
It's soon going to be far too hot to visit these places anyway.
I visited Big Bend National Park in 100-degree heat. It was an amazing place, and I will continue to visit as many national parks as I can. The changing climate just gives us another reason for protecting these areas from development.
I lived in Big Bend National Park for 7 years. It is truly an amazing place. Now Trump wants to build a wall through it. The contractor building it is a big Trump supporter. Follow the $$...
Yeah, more to the point, Russell!
Another problem.
Well said ICTT -- I had no idea before this newsletter of Roberts' antipathy toward national parks and monuments. It's appalling.
I had no idea Roberts was the man he has revealed himself to be. I never saw him that way pre-Trump. Trump brings out the worst in everyone.
Do the justices actually show their faces in church? They claim to be Christians and ignore the teachings of Jesus Christ. As a non-theist there is much to be learned from the Bible and yet they serve only the wealthy and not the Constitution they promised to uphold.
Front row pew people, with nary a thought that they harbor evil in their souls (or whatever)
My favorite parable -
Mark 12:41-44 New International Version The Widow’s Offering
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Sadly, I've never been close to being as generous as the widow.
This needs to be repeated again and again, especially by Christian leaders. Here's a link to a powerful piece I read yesterday by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com
From this excellent article you recommended Dorothy: As the great 20th century scholar of the prophets Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “In a free society, some are guilty and all are responsible.”
Thank you!
https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/this-is-our-moral-moment?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
They ignore most of the bible. They want the fruits and flowers of their beliefs, but ignore the blood and guts upon which their flowers grow. Jebus occasionally came up w some interesting psychological insights, but then promised hell to those who didn’t believe in him. — “The reality of life, its tragedy, its complexity, its meaning, cannot even be confronted by these people. They are content . . . I only ask them to leave me alone.” (From my book: Truth and Fear…).
All this news hurts, particularly efforts to dismantle the preservation of nature, protection of the environment, and the dismissal of science and ancient history. The great evil is money and the power it bestows upon evil men.
I visited two national parks and have been supporting them for most of my adult life. I go no more because my footprints are on too much as it is. Enjoy while you can. Oil rigs spoil the splendor
I've been to all of the national parks west of Kansas City, except Glacier National Park. Big Bend National Park in Texas is a real jewel for hiking. Yosemite is as close as I'll ever get to Heaven. When living in California, we loaded up our van and took our two daughters to all of them. Utah has some super national and state parks, the Big 5: Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Park as well as Grand Staircase Natl. Monument and Goblin Valley State Park. They are treasures to enjoy, share and preserve for posterity.
I hope you get to Glacier NP before the all of the glaciers melt. 😢
This is the same president who rants against windmills.
But, as Professor Richardson reported on her yesterday's 7/14 "Politics Chat"
The National Science Foundation (NSF) reversed its controversial decision to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)—a $386 million deep-ocean monitoring network.
The NSF STOPPED further removal of sensors & agreed to redeploy already-removed equipment, and launched a review panel to secure the future of the observing arrays.
Must ID the "review panel" ASAP and any status report. Better yet file a FOIA, Freedom of Information request. NSF may even cooperate.
FYI everybody, Professor Richards demonstrated her diligent work product yesterday on her 'Politics Chat'.
Good for Buddy & anyone who works at sea.
I was just wondering if this too can be reversed?
But only because he wanted the ‘view’ from his proposed golf course to be pristine. Thank goodness the Scottish people and government had the backbone to just say no to the money.
Great analogy, but their mirrors see benevolent power. Sort of like how the mirrors skew reality in a carnival. Why we have a carnival barker “president.”
Good morning, ICTT. I have long called persons with values like those of John Roberts and his ilk, the "Christian" Taliban.
Exactly!
"moneygrubbing was eroding the character of the nation"
More and more, Republicans remind me of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A clique of tyrannical religious idiots determined to subjugate women, ban music and literature, forbid joy and pleasure, and blow up ancient, priceless statues of the Buddha erected long before them. It's hard to overstate the soulless stupidity of rulers so inwardly wretched as to make rapaciousness and fanaticism their only goals in life.
Moneygrubbing is eroding the soul of the species.
You stated it perfectly!
Thanks for the important info about Bears Ears.
So on the one hand, we have the preservation of nature, art, important archeological and scientific sites, and on the other hand we have the preservation of Native American cultures and their right to self-determination.
On the other hand, we have greed, selfishness, fear of diversity (in other words, strong insecurity - the place that all greed and immoral behavior come from), and stupidity (the entire West is having its worst heat waves and heat domes ever, and climate science proves that things will only get worse).
It's the result of decades of right-wing attacks on education, combined with the hollowing out of spiritual traditions and the "psychologization" of education perpetrated since the 1990s by the left (cultivating children's ego is considered to be more important than transmitting all that the wisest ancestors ever discovered and invented).
As to jurisprudence: there are different judicial theories. "Originalism" says that judges/Justices today should try to restore the original intent of the lawmakers who made a specific law. The legal interpretation theory Obama and his appointees support proposes to decide each ambiguity in the law (and there are many of those) in such a way that the ruling takes the opinion of the majority of the American people today into account.
Then, of course, there is neofascism, which the GOP euphemistically calls "Unitary Executive Theory". Now, the idea is that in general, the executive branch of government should have the right to decide everything, with Congress being reduced to "codifying the executive orders the president signs", as GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson publicly declared a few months ago, and the role of the judiciary to interpret the law in the sense the executive branch wants it to be interpreted.
Unfortunately, "we the people" decided to give neofascists full control over DC.
Amen, ICTT
Storm troopers, taliban, gilead commanders. With their stupid cult followers.
Money and power is what they worship. The common good is an anathema to these greedy good for nothings
It's, John Roberts is just another money grubber with the mentality that entails. None of these people give a rat's behind, only care their bank accounts, so they can afford to live on their own private domains while they extract what belongs to all of us and of course, do not care about indigenous sacred spaces.
Thiel believes he will live in his own personal fiefdom since democracy will have died. He has built a model he calls Prospera. Musk thinks he will be living on Mars. Do we need any more proof of the pathology?
It’s pure comedy. Disney could not have constructed more pathetic evil characters.
I was thinking the same thing. It’s these 89’s cartoon villains going “I will destroy the world! Mua ha ha ha!”, but this time they are real…
Pinky and The Brain Intro
.https://youtu.be/GBkT19uH2RQ?si=5iJbL911IBK0RR0y.
These were Bush and Dick Cheney. The updated Trump version would be X rated ; )
Nor could Mel Brooks!
Mel Brooks certainly could. Even at 100.
I'm not laughing. In fact it is all getting to me.
Clobber both of those Nazi scumbags.
I wish these idiots would go live on Mars and leave our country alone!
We can't lose focus on Project 2025, their "blueprint" for America's present and future.
I keep hearing they have already accomplished 50% of its goals.
Yes, they seem to have moved on from the so-called freedom cities to datacenters in space and colonies on Mars while back here on earth all we may look forward to is a secular Rapture.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk
LFAA: " ... outdoor writer Wes Siler suggests that Trump’s proclamations are an effort “to trigger a case that will allow the far-right justices he’s appointed to the Supreme Court to massively reduce the scope of the Antiquities Act, or eliminate it altogether.”
The Antiquities Act will NOT be eliminated. Another collusive trump v trump or bogus EO will be stopped lawfully.
Senator Whitehouse (RI) strategies to reform SCOTUS coupled with the elimination of life tenure is rapidly developing into to a matter of survival. Voters can help by stopping ICE funder Collins & replacing her with 51 year old Maine Secretary of State, Shenna Belows.
Disclosure: I am a supporter & donor of SHENNA LEE BELOWS.
JDinCA.
Even though I am not a fan of "vote blue no matter who" in this case we are counting on the good folks of Maine to dislodge Collins. Dr. Richardson said on her podcast that last year she thought we would be in a much worse place than where we currently are. We are holding on but...
Concur.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything you have written here, but I support Troy Jackson.
Also a good choice.
They don't care. They'll leave their grandchildren the family estate.
But what kind of a world will their grandchildren be living in? These greedy people cannot see beyond the length of their noses!
Ligia, I've written a longer, free-standing comment, but to put it succinctly, there is a significant portion of our population that do not believe the world will exist beyond their own lifetimes. Operating on that belief, there's no reason to worry about future generations.
That much is certain!
Hello Kazz... From HCR Today: "Theodore Roosevelt who most dramatically expanded the effort to keep western lands from the hands of those who wanted only their timber and minerals.
Roosevelt was concerned that moneygrubbing was eroding the character of the nation, and he believed that western land nurtured the independence and community that he worried was disappearing in the East. During his presidency, which stretched from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt protected 141 million acres of forest and established five new national parks." || TR is one of my Favorite USA Presidents... Raised in a Prosperous NYC Family, TDR migrated West after losing his Wife, and Mother the same day, to try his hand as a Cowboy... TR succeeded as a Rancher until the Winter 0f 1886-1887 which wiped out 1/2 his herd.... As a Rancher, TDR also served as a Sheriff... Returning to NYC, TR entered Politics, and wound-up being Asst. Sec of the Navy... With the outbreak of the Spanish War, TR resigned, and formed a Volunteer Regiment comprised of Americans, including the Indigenous, from all Walks-Of-Life... TR would lead this Regiment from the Front on Horseback during Battle... His Son Theodore, Jr, would be the 1st American General to put his Boots on the Sand at Normandy.... Both TR, and his Son would receive the Congressional-Medal-Of-Honor... TR was also a Noted Scholar, and would read at least a Book a Day... Now, in 2026, the USA has a semi-Literate Buffoon as POTUS who wants to Destroy much of TR's Legacy for a Quick-Buck... Indeed DJT wants to give DJT, and one of his Sons, Congressional-Medal-Of-Honors for riding Golf Carts... How Far We Have Fallen.... This Is The Stuff Of Greek Tragedies...
A small but important point here is that Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is simply known as TR. There is no D in his name. His father was Theodore Roosevelt Sr.
Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were 5th cousins. The D comes from Franklin's mother, Sarah Delano, and Franklin's father was James Roosevelt. Thus the FDR. They were 2 parts of the Roosevelt family located in Oyster Bay, Long Island (TR) and Hyde Park (FDR) in upstate New York.
There is a funny incident during his very early days out in South Dakota when he and some other men were out looking for some person, thievery of some kind, when he called to his guys: " Hasten forward quickly men!!" that didn't really earn him much credibility with any of the cowhands. He did, eventually, earn their respect as he was just tireless in his affairs and a man of great energy.
Ken Burns did an excellent job (IMO) with TR and FDR in his documentary - "The Roosevelts".
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-roosevelts/
: ()
Thanks for the info Greg... I'm writing at 02:00 hrs, and don't like to Write... I am purposely overtly Succinct... TR was extremely accomplished was a Hero of Legendary Accomplishment...
Good evening Apache! Oh yes it is the stuff of Greek tragedies so it’s nothing new. Will we ever learn? The key ingredient I think is abuse of power. It shouldn’t matter who’s in power if the checks and balances are in place to remove bad actors before they wreck havoc. The powers that be understood this and played it the other way.
Hello Kazz... How is the Weather in Australia?... Over here in the Central Coast in California, it is Fire-Season... "abuse of power"... As an 'Outsider" looking in, I wonder if we have reached a Civilizational Peak, and are in Decline....
The Odyssey will be released soon. It should be epic.
Is there anything Trump will not defile? From the East Wing to the Reflecting Pool, from the Kennedy Center to the national parks. From our healthcare to world peace to the justice system. The man is a plague upon humanity.
Don't place all the blame on Trump, although he certainly deserves it. Russell Vought is the man behind the curtain pulling Trump's strings. He is a Christian Nationalist, as is Hegseth. They are dangerous men who will sic the military on our civilians who oppose them. They want to turn this country into a theocracy, just like the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.
Do they CARE? I think not.
It occurs to me that love is essentially the extension of care beyond what a friend of mine calls our "punyverse".
"punyverse" made me chuckle -- a needed term for the vantage held by so many people these days. I poke fun by citing geoogical time and geophysical space -- Earth's former continental configurations and the everpresent undulations in Earth's deeper layers where underwater volcanos erupt and undulate in molten waves. Punyversal mindsets counting dollars to assert a sense of control -- it's so insane.
Hello Joan... You would be Surprised to know how many in DJT's Hard-Core Base are 'Creationists'....
No surprise. They pander to that. The scientific method is the work of the devil.
I'm guessing that the majority are.
On the wall to the right of me is an enlarged photograph of "The Hubble Deep Field" in which whole galaxies are spread like falling snowflakes. The size of actual-factual (Berenstain Bears reference there) universe is beyond lucid imaging. It's BIG. I think we humans can only track of a little bit of it, but the personal part is around where we live, and increasingly it is wise to track the general condition of the entire planet. I think it's still a punyverse, but some seem examples more compressive than others, and I think the primary key to that is observing and caring. Buddhists talk about "mindfulness", Christians who are into Jesus talk about the most inclusive sense of "love". Tentative people such as myself may talk about openness, engagement, and compassion. Some become even more abstract with terms like "Categorical Imperative". I think it points in the direction questioning (including one's self) and sufficient caring.
So much food for thought about scale, values, and what words mean by how we use them. "Lucid imaging" and I never heard about "categorical imperative". Not a conversation I can have with many people in my life but interesting. Thanks J L.
And some people's (who shall remain unnamed) punyverses are so small that only themselves fit in.
Hello KD... Do You Mean DJT?...
Shussh. "He who Shall Not Be Named".
Hi Apache... Yes, and the muskrat among many others currently in power. [I just remembered that horrible jacket that melanoma wore in 2018 to "visit" children in migrant detention center, many of them separated from their parents: "I really don't care. Do U?"]
But the pusher don't care ah, if you live or if you die.
Hello JL... Yeah, 'Steppenwolf'....
This is oblique, but I notice that music is somehow instrumental (seriously, no pun intended) in every culture I am aware of. There is something in music that synchronizes our individual consciousness, some cultures more deeply than others. We should not have allowed corporations to dominate so much of our culture. Music broke free of corporate grasp in the '70's with indy labels and underused FM radio stations. Mind blowing creativity still lives of course, but more so on the 'Net. Perhaps more so away from US commercial dominance. Music shapes culture, which is why tyrants aim to control it. Music is a meeting ground for humanity.
And the latest trump - maga-trump approval poll from … (fill in the blank) show 60% disapproval (and you guessed it right) 40% approval & any difference are within the margin of error.
And yes Susan Collin’s will vote against confirming T. Blanche & Fetterman will vote to confirm. Getting ahead of myself… sorry
I don't think Collin's will dare to confirm Blanche with her reelection being on the ropes.
Her underwhelming response to the ICE murder in Biddeford, (two tweets) was, well, concerning.
Yesterday I took a photograph of an ICE protest sign. Abolish ICE, Save U.S. From GOP Terror. I was in the mall parking lot outside Hancock County Republicans committee headquarters. I left when told to. A little while later, as I was standing with my sign on the public sidewalk along the highway, the Ellsworth police gave me a No Trespass Notice. I was in the mall parking lot a few minutes and am barred from the mall for a year.
Wonder what the Chamber of Commerce might think. Or the state office which granted mall owners a $6 million tax abatement.
Financial & Tax Standing: In 2023, the mall’s ownership (Union River Associates) won a $6 million reduction in their taxable property value from the state, reflecting a prior period with a ~30% vacancy rate and dated property design.
Anchor Tenants: The center remains anchored by T.J. Maxx and Hannaford Supermarket, which provide steady foot traffic.
"Maine Coast Mall granted $6M abatement | Business | ellsworthamerican.com"
.https://www.ellsworthamerican.com/news/business/maine-coast-mall-granted-6m-abatement/article_6ef6f5fe-c1b3-11ed-ba35-632a428cf7f0.html.
!! 😠
IMHO, large malls with national retailers should not be receiving tax incentives. They're already sending their profits out of the region.
Municipal authorities are willing to pay tribute to Big Business, but that's because we have skewed our laws to small business's disadvantage. Reaganomics. All politicians claim to LUV small business, but from what I have read, it is an increasingly shrinking slice of the pie. Also, a billions a year hedge fund manage with a dozen employees in NOT "small business, though some count them as such. That's not the "Square Deal" and not the "New Deal", it's more or less gone on for centuries.
Obama's AG said:
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy."
So my take-away is that these outfits are too damned big for rule of law to function. so try to make them smaller (As we did once before in our history and the world still spun). What we did do is NOT meaninglessly hold these institutions accountable, bailed them out big time, made them even bigger, and by the end, Sen. Dick Durbin complained "they still own the place". Whose place is it Supposed to be? Seems to me that's the crux of the problem.
But the stores do employ local residents. And Hanafords is a regional business
Or the ACLU or Democracy Docket.
Did send to DD.
ACLU only considers when you've been charged.
This is only a field report. Of a relatively small, but still chilling Republican action.
The police said, the owner did not want the mall politicized but they hold GOP actual and aligned events including in the parking lot.
Good for you -lin. If you need anything from the mall, let me know. I'll be happy to bring it to you. Fortunately, you have a Hannaford in Bah Hahbah, otherwise, not much of a loss unless you're a TJ Maxx addict like my wife. Harbor Freight's owners have contributed to Collins campaign, so I'm avoiding ever going in there and all of the fast food joints along High Street would be a blessing to be banned.
Wowza, please be careful Lin.
Most concerning.
However, Collins is very concerned.
They are building “compounds” that will have manicured grounds, and enough servants to support their luxury (aka Ivanka, etc); they think that their nests will be protected. Surprise. We’re all in this boat together, but guess who will be pitched overboard first.
Trump appears to be doing this at the White House which he's converting into a sort of gold-plated bunker in the Palladian style.
Gawd, I hope there is enough money left in the treasury to strip the tchotchke from the people's house. I'll chip in!
Are the gold plastic appliqués from The Home Depot gold-plated? Asking for a friend.
GJ, tell your friend that the Chinese-cast appliqués are NOT gold-plated. They are covered in anodized aluminum leaf or anodic film. Actual gold leaf became too expensive years ago. The modern product is aluminum film that's been stained with a golden-yellow dye in an electrolytic process.
In other words, Fake Gold.
A topical description given your Cyclospora outbreak.
We know what oligarchs imagine they leave to their children...a fortune. He who dies with the most wins. That is their motto.
Bambi, I used to earn a large salary. But in order to be paid that salary, I was expected to work 80 hours per week, plus travel time, which averaged another 5 to 6 hours per week. After a few years of that rat race, I realized that I didn't have enough time to spend the money I was earning. It was an appalling work/life balance. I quit.
In a corollary, the oligarchs' children are going to have a rude awakening when they discover they have to spend their fortunes just to survive in or escape a world that is uninhabitable.
Profit over people - nothing new for the Grifter-in-Chief. What would Trump not sell for buck?
On top of it all, those 'people' stole this land from the rightful indigenous people. It's shameful.
They only care about their money. Full Stop
"Some things belong to everyone". That's what the indigenous tribes thought, Kazz, before the Spanish, the French and, worst of all, us came here.
Trust me, these people are not thinking about their grandchildren! The only thing they are thinking about is how much money & power they can get NOW!
It seems to me that there is a point at which wealth is no longer a matter of necessity, nor even comfort, but just a sick game, an antisocial overindulgence of ego.
I’m sure it’s an addiction, one that is strangely life-threatening to others.
I think that addictions come in many forms, and human manipulators from street drug pushers to propagandists (including many advertisers, cultivate and exploit them. I think was differentiates addiction from mere habit is a compulsion to act against available evidence and one's own better judgement. I think most people including myself, do some of that, but it can be life-destroying.
I grew up thinking that there was some sort of manual for living life decently and to the fullest, but increasingly it seems,. while we have learned a lot, are still muddling through, still searching for answers, or just ignoring them. Life is often cruel, and yet the endless attempt to try to grasp further is part of the fun, and I think, the wisest choice. "Exceptionalism" may be functionally a delusion-inducing "drug" that blocks our way to happier, more sustainable, and more comforting circumstances. Albert Schweitzer said" "The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man (sic) while he lives—the death of his spirit before his physical body."
More than enough is never enough for these people.
The amount of greed is staggering.
My husband believes that these billionaires are mentally ill. There has to be something wrong with someone who is perfectly happy with people dying in order for them to make more money that they have so much of that they could never use it all even if they tried.
It's antisocial personality disorder, one of the presentations of which is zero conscience. People are killed for money all the time, directly and indirectly. This regime is doing so. Look up, if you are not familiar, with the history of the British East India Company, especially their impact on India. They weren't popular in the proto-US either; where corporations can go without regulation.
Nailed it
J L, anyone who has worked in retail management is familiar with BLY. Beat Last Year. Retailers – at least the successful ones – maintain a diary of the previous year's daily sales figures, along with notes on weather and other events that might affect sales. They compare today's sales figure with the same day in the previous year. If the figure is less than last year's, the retailer will take steps to boost the next days' sales to make up the loss. BLY is a sort of mantra that takes on a life of its own. BLY becomes a reflex in the retailer's life. They can't really explain why they do it. They just do.
I suspect BLY affects – or infects – the minds of more than just retailers.
I believe in free enterprise, but also in a robust public sector, which is modeled by some successful current societies, and was more the accepted norm in my youth, back when we talked about "truth in advertising" and robust anti-trust. Even the significantly totalitarian AT&T was corralled, perhaps more by the "Carterfone Decision" that by divestment. I also believe in seeking optimal, dynamic balance, which is a lot more complicated than "halvesies" "Centerism". It takes whatever it takes within the bounds of practicality and individual and social justice. I think that's the "liberal consensus" HCR talks about, and though authoritarians have smeared the word "liberal" it is derived from the same root as "liberty", for what I would defend as justifiable reasons. We were taught to pledge allegiance to "liberty and Justice for all" and that means every single one and for society as a whole. That is not a simple matter, and it takes what it takes. Long-term goals and a "business plan" would help.
Rapists gonna rape. Trump’s character flaws were on full display before he was elected in 2016 and have been ever more apparent since then. He admitted as much in the infamous Access Hollywood tapes, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll, has been credibly accused by others, sees the natural environment only as a means to callously enrich himself and is currently committing rape against the country of Venezuela. Fortunately for Iran, they have been able to fight back against his violation of their sovereignty, and expose him for what he is: a hateful but foolish and incompetent bully.
Interesting that governments we once saw as the ‘bad guys’ now seem like the adults in the room.
Also greedy. Sitting on a pile of money like Scrooge McDuck.
Ha, ha - Donald Scrooge McDuck nails it! Donald is a cartoonist showman not a statesman.
or, Scrooge McDonald! 😆
On second thought, Scrooge McDuck was a benevolent robber barrow - Donald T. has no sense of generosity or shame.
good point! i agree with you.
But still admired by the cult, which is more powerful than the Nazi inspiration
Trump's plundering of public lands is payback for the billion-dollar bribe Trump asked for from the oil and mineral interests before the 2024 election. Undoubtedly, Don Jr. and Eric will be sniffing around this, given that they are already investors and "advisors" to tungsten mining interests in Kazakhstan that received $1.6 billion in U.S. government‑backed financing commitments.
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase‑Escalante national monuments in Utah have coal and uranium resources. Trump is all-in on bringing back "clean coal" but the real prize is the uranium. The Bears Ears deposits are close to the only uranium mill in the US. The White Mesa Mill (Energy Fuels Inc., NYSE American: UUUU) uranium mill sits immediately east of Bears Ears and is the only operating conventional uranium mill in the U.S., making any nearby uranium deposits especially valuable due to low haulage costs.
One of the future solutions to the power draw issues for hyperscale datacenters is to use small-scale nuclear reactors for off-the-grid power generation. But given Trump's antipathy to solar and wind power generation, what's left that could be an extremely lucrative power source? Do you want to see small nuclear reactors distributed across the United States under a regulation and oversight adverse regime? I don't.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/28/world/trump-cut-billion-dollar-mining-deal-his-sons-stand-profit/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/trump-cuts-national-monuments-utah
https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/blog/bears-ears-and-grand-staircase-open-business/
https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/article/2025/12/17/demand-for-data-centers-soars-could-small-modular-reactors-meet-the-need
I don't believe they ever actually gave him that one billion dollars he desired. They instead took a leaf out of the Zuckerberg book - he only contributed a measly $1m to Trump's inauguration fund while poor Elon ended up $250m out-of-pocket and facing criminal charges for election fraud.
That deal was negotiated before the election, so it wouldn’t be covered by presidential immunity. I doubt that it would have been disclosed if it had gone through. With immunity, Trump can show off the extent of his graft—it is his proof that he is a “stable genius.” It is probably an inducement to the members of the MAGA cult that want to fuse their identity with a “winner.”
Just because people see the value of something doesn’t mean they own it. Life in the universe needs understanding not conquest.
I agree, Alex. I would say life in the universe needs care and protection which comes from understanding that we are intrinsically part of a web of life. Presumed conquest of the forces of nature will be the ultimate irony.
"Roosevelt was concerned that moneygrubbing was eroding the character of the nation..."
What would Teddy say now?
Exactly.
''Trump’s National Yard Sale''
For more than 150 years, presidents of both parties understood a simple idea: some things are worth more when they belong to everyone. Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, ancient Indigenous sites, forests, rivers, wildlife, and open skies were not created by developers, oil companies, mining executives, or a man selling gold sneakers. They were inherited, and government had a duty to protect them from vandals carrying contracts.
Then came Donald Trump, who looks at a national monument the way a liquidation salesman looks at a furniture store.
On July 13, Trump reduced Bears Ears from about 1.36 million acres to roughly 121,100 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante from about 1.87 million acres to 181,500. Nearly three million acres were removed from national monument boundaries with a couple of signatures. Apparently, even mountains are not safe when the president believes everything should have a clearance sticker.
Everything must go! Minerals! Timber! Sacred lands! Historic sites! Act now, and receive a complimentary drilling permit while supplies last!
Trump presents this as returning the land “to the people,” which is adorable. The people already owned it. That is what public land means. He is returning it to them in the same way a burglar returns your television to the economy.
Republican leaders once helped establish national parks to stop profiteers from fencing off natural wonders and turning the country’s inheritance into merchandise. Theodore Roosevelt protected about 230 million acres of public land because he feared that moneygrubbing was degrading the nation. Trump heard “moneygrubbing” and mistook it for a governing philosophy.
This is not conservation, freedom, or local control. It is another Trump fire sale. The public gets weaker protections, Indigenous communities lose safeguards for sacred sites, and commercial interests gain access. The only thing being preserved is Trump’s talent for turning public treasures into private opportunities.
No republican administration has been more about the money than Trump's administration. And that the Robert's court only sees the dollar signs when it should be seeing the promise that both parties had made historically in protecting the wilderness for all further defines this administration as clearly fascist. These attitudes put into focus the lethality of this administration toward land not owned by them but owned by everyone. The lethality of essentially using territorial annexation to satisfy a few at the cost of many is not only a crime against nature but eventually matriculates as a crime against humanity. Evidence of water rights and our air have already been plundered; what's next?
This letter literally makes me cry… and there’s not a thing we can do to stop this. Once sold, our precious land is gone forever.
Hold your tears until the lawyers sue against it. Marc Elias and others are overturning his foolishness - Marc's firm is lately responsible for 12 out of 12 wins. He is the guy to support if you can.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-admin-turns-to-threats-coercion-after-courts-reject-presidents-assault-on-voting/
Wouldn't it be great if corporations ignored the opportunity, as they have in Alaska? The Grifter's decision is unconscionable.
Your first sentence, I have borrowed and pasted numerous times. Thank you.
Very well put. In another 2.5 years there won't be a shred left of the America we all knew: its physical beauty; its unique, globally recognized system of government; civil rights; leadership in education, science and technology. All gone, and most Americans aren't even paying attention, while Trump’s personal coffers grow and his name and image are spread throughout the land.
Your first sentence says it all, sadly.
Our society has conflicting values regarding using public lands for sourcing commodities.
Yes, people want pristine beauty from sea to shining sea.
But they also want low inflation, low gas prices and the ability to travel around the country by car, or their big SUV, or plane and live in 2000 to 3000 square foot houses. That is what they value and that is their wealth. And they blame government leaders if prices and inflation are high and curtails their spending and energy intensive habits.
So government does whatever they can to keep prices low and that involves increasing supply of commodities like oil wherever they can find it. You can sputter all you want but you are the problem. The USA has some of the highest consumption per capita of oil and commodities in the world.
By the way, Yellowstone is overrun with visitors. They need to do a lottery for visitors every year and prioritize US citizens especially in the summer months.
As usual, Heather delivers a superb summary of our history on this crucial aspect of our Nation’s evolution.
As usual, Kelli captures the essence of it, this time in only five sentences.
The general tenor of comments as far down as I was able to read this morning is outrage at the administration’s actions.
What we face is yet another chapter in America’s experience with the Tragedy of the Commons.
We have been here before. The question is: what do we do about it?
I will suggest only one of many possible answers. Since we do not have a functional Congress, urge action by the only substitute we currently have: The Problem Solvers Caucus. They actually have a governance mentality and may be willing to take up the challenge.
Here is a link to their website. If you are represented by someone there, that’s great. If you are not, address the co-chairs or someone from your state—or both.
https://problemsolverscaucus.house.gov/about/
The ask: For once and for all, let’s have legislation that settles the status of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, with a view toward permanent protection of these National treasures. A 90% reduction in their areas is unacceptable and irresponsible. A designation must be achieved in a form and at a scale that honors their unique features and can be sustained permanently.
It is beyond tragic that we have come to this governance miasma, but here we are.
Juan Ciscomani is not my Representative, but he’s from Arizona and so am I. He will have my letter by the end of the week.
Let’s roll.
"Once that principle is abandoned, the question is never where it ends. Only what gets sold next."
There is one (only) principle: Treat others the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot. Once that principle is abandoned, there is no question. Everyone loses in the end.
Perhaps every generation faces the same question: are natural treasures part of our common inheritance, or just assets waiting to be monetized? The answer shapes not only landscapes, but also the character of a nation.
Homo Viator, Write letters of protest to your Governor and Senators. The lawsuits are already written. Earthjustice and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said they'd sue the moment the ink dried, and they will, and they may well win the first rounds.
https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/inside-the-scheme-to-virtually-eliminate?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
The creation of America's National Parks is said to be one of our best ideas, as inspiring and radical as the Declaration of Independence. Giving hope for posterity and protection for nature, wilderness and wildlife. Good governance and reverence for our Mother Earth...
But sadly they way you have been banging out CO2 will eventually make it impossible to visit those parks anyway.
No it won't. Stay calm and maintain your air conditioner.
At this stage in the game, that kind of thinking and acting upon it, should be a criminal offence.
Our system lets us think what we like, but action becomes society's business when it imposes unwelcome impacts on others. when that occurs, we need to consider what is reasonably just.
Balderdash I say to the whole of everything Trump.
I agree. The people responsible for allowing ~15 million unvetted illegal immigrants -- larger than the population of Greece and all but 8 of our states -- what is "just" for the people who allowed that?
> 15 million unvetted immigrants — the vast majority of whom are working hard, providing for their families, and contributing to the economy…
As should being in charge of securing our borders and allowing 2.5 million illegals in every year. But if she's in jail she can't run again.
It’s simply reductionist-materialistic thinking, which is still the basis of our “modern” western science, taken to its extreme. In this mode of thinking, living Nature is essentially lifeless, created by happenstance, a pool of resources waiting to be used, nothing more. Many of our “great” thinkers today still adhere to this philosophy: Musk, Thiel, but also Richard Dawkins and Yuval Noah Harari.
Ain't that the truth Dutch Mike!
And that thinking will prevail and be worshipped as long as society puts PROFIT or PEOPLE. IMO, we need a revolution that admires a regulated free enterprise as a co-concept to social well being.
A rapacious capitalism with no controls is as dangerous as a stultifying old school socialism that controls the means of production.
There are fine examples of both systems creating social harmony and economic success in Norway, Finland and Sweden. Not perfect. But they are prosperous and the people are happy. What a novel idea!
And here is a revolutionary idea inspired by the fact that Norway's oil riches are funneled to social programs. A sovereign wealth fund fed by North Sea oil - in a nation that drives electric vehicles. Hmmm.
Here's my idea. The oil and gas under the surface of American land does not need to be in private hands. What if the government repossessed it and fed the "profits" to the people? Who said that mineral rights need to be held by just a few rich dudes? I call the stuff Our National Treasure.
The oil and gas was created over eons by natural processes. Why should anyone own it exclusively?
OK, too radical? How about a great big levy on the revenue harvested by fossil fuel companies - instead of sending them Federal subsidies! We pay them to make billions while kids go hungry, the elderly can't afford medicine and veterans are homeless?
I wholeheartedly agree, Bill! Why shouldn't the richest companies in the world pay more taxes? Or better, why should oil and other resources belong to just a handful of rich white dudes?
"A rapacious capitalism with no controls is as dangerous as a stultifying old school socialism that controls the means of production."
What is "rapacious capitalism" and how about the SEC, EPA, FTC, CFTC and others that regulate? What are you suggesting, or are you just (perhaps) overreacting to Richardson's latest breakfast news?
“Rapacious capitalism” is the economic con game we live in right now. Shareholder ROI and top executive compensation are valued more than the quality of life for 90+% of us. Monopolies and duopolies dominate as small players and potentially more competitive businesses are gobbled up like Pac-Man game.
People are more important than profits.
I'm a long time business guy who operated several enterprises. The current system is rigged for the rich and the small entrepreneur is crushed.
Time for an economic reset. Start by offering Universal Healthcare so innovators don't have to carry that burden - just like most other developed nations.
More Vain and Greedy Mankind Bullshit Pillaging Mother Nature 🥵.
Just look what “Maggot President” has done to our USA capital grounds ⁉️ 🥵
Wouldn’t surprise me to hear him choke to death on “America the Beautiful” …THY KINDOM COME…FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA.”
Too much coffee this morning?
You might like the simile for western civilisation in this cartoon.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/jul/10/we-say-thanks-to-all-our-selfless-spineless-pals
Great 'thinkers'?
None of those men qualify.
I would say so, too. But they are regarded, even celebrated, as such by western society.
wow.. and that kind of says it all doesn't it...
Musk and Thiel are not "great thinkers" in your context. They are great industrialists and inventors.
Our character is tainted in every way possible. They have left nothing as it was. Deliberately and with malice…
Our generation elected Trump twice. How we end up with this character? Any explanation?
... umm.. No.
Seriously dude?
National Parks are just 'assets waiting to be monetized'? Poland must be a very dismal place.
I think you may have misread my comment. It was a question, not a statement.
That's fair.
But why ask the question?
These lands were protected BY LAW. Why would anyone think that the people who donated those lands to the public would be happy with the government just deciding that their wishes, which are in writing, suddenly don't matter because there is a new government?
This is the real 'crime' of this administration. We have spent decades and millions of dollars trying to save these natural lands. But one guy thinks he has the right to say that history is wrong and that the land does not deserve protection? Same with NATO. and the Paris Accord. and NAFTA. and equal rights. and separation of church and state. and the list just doesn't end.
If what this administration is doing is not against the law... then the law isn't worth saving either.
Do you know you’re keeps using extremely erudite language. Saying absolutely nothing of relevance. Nice theory now put it to practice. And by the way, there’s no such thing as a generation, they are all artificially man made.
, Heather hasn’t even become a very good theorist either
Husband of Ruth writing:
Did you take English composition lessons from Shitforbrains, Rick? Because your about as coherent as him.
it's "as he," not "as him." Did you learn grammar from "Shitforbrains"?
Wow, and Coffman ways in. Did you like that how I spelt your name and how I misspelled Waze lmao did you get the message?
I am a prolific poster here, and I use voice texting. I know it’s an archaic form now of not needing to type. However, the software hasn’t caught up with the sarcasm or innuendo necessary to be accurate. So I voice text everything and I don’t go back to check my work because it’s not important I’m guessing if you found a preposition at the end of a sentence or a dangling participle in the declaration of independence you would curse the founders Lololol
And if you’re worried about orthography, you’re a lost soul when in ninth grade, you were taught that CONTENT is more important than Form. Or did you drop out of school earlier? which I don’t think is the case.
I’m assuming you understood the context and more importantly. THE CONTENT there? If not, I can re-explain it to you. lol
Hey Ruth, I get out English you in a heartbeat with my eyes closed. My ears closed in a blackened out room. English composition is not the name of this Substack. It’s supposed to be what you call informative and if you have trouble reading, I can certainly help with that. I voice text everything and I could give a shit about capital letters punctuation dangling, participle, or ending a sentence with a preposition. CONTENT OVER FORM. OR DIDN’T YOU HAVE NINTH GRADE ENGLISH? MAYBE YOU WERE A DROPOUT
By the way, Ruth Miss nobody that shit for brains was elected president by 75 million people or more TWICE. HE RUNS A COMPANY THAT OWNS HOTELS AND GOLF COURSES ALL OVER THE WORLD NOW IF YOU WANT TO EMBARRASS YOURSELF FURTHER BY MAKING A COMMENT ABOUT THAT, I CAN’T WAIT. I’M CELEBRATING THINKING ABOUT YOUR RETORT.
You’re just like people that call him a loser and I’m thinking where the hell did you grow up? Did your parents teach you what success was? Yikes
Reported under Substack Inc's new reporting Guidelines now a part of the binding TOU.
WOW! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
Why have they gone against 150 years of protecting public lands? Because these oligarchs are gangsters with no respect for American traditions and DJT is their boy. And why is there an "energy emergency"? Because their boy picked a fight with Iran that is impossible to win, and that every administration until this one has KNOWN it was impossible to win. And the few grownups still left in the room still knew it when he went in.
The former "Party of Lincoln" has become an example of organized crime. Think about how they are now behaving.
As HCR said in one of her YouTube videos, the GOP is the fascist party. Nothing more, nothing less.
It follows the fascist M.O. The former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it too. It's also the fundamental dynamics of organized crime, hierarchical, conscienceless. rapacious, and deadly, relying on wealth, bribery and extortion for power. Trump's strategic mentor also counseled Joe No-Decency McCarthy, AND members of the Mob.
"During President Donald Trump’s first term, he bemoaned the failure of his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to protect him from the Justice Department’s investigation of Russia’s efforts to elect Trump in 2016.
“Where’s my Roy Cohn?” Trump erupted, referring to his notorious former fixer who had also been Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s hatchet man during the 1950s Senate hearings into communist activity. Trump later fired Sessions."
https://www.alternet.org/todd-blanche-went-from-democrat-to-trump-s-latest-roy-cohn-prosecuting-with-revenge-in-mind/
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910/
The one thing they can organize.
Annabel, the “emergency” is grabbing the mineral rights.
It is also because their boy hates any form of renewable energy. I still cannot believe that he has spent billions of our tax dollars to halt windmill farms. It is so bizarre that he has such a pathological hatred of them. I recently drove from Chicago to Denver and back, and I love the windmills! There were so many of them along the route silently generating power across the plains. I also managed to somehow not come down with windmill cancer.
Annabel, I don't think the war on Iran has that much to do with Donald's declaration of an "energy emergency." His handlers are exploiting a constitutional provision that eliminates or dramatically reduces restrictions on a president's powers when an emergency exists. So when Donald or his handlers want to take actions that are beyond presidential powers, they simply declare the appropriate "emergency" that permits Donald to act outside his constitutional powers. The emergency would have been declared whether or not there was a war.
Thank you for this, Heather. As a lifelong conservationist, this subject is dear to my heart. And recently dyspeptic to my body. The GOP's slavish devotion to profit is responsible for the trashing of our land and water at a pace almost beyond imagining. After the destruction of our democratic system, Trump's decimation of our natural treasures and the wildlife they protect will be his most lasting, thoughtless, and evil accomplishment. Damn him and his sycophants for their betrayal of our natural heritage.
David Warburton, Write letters of protest to your Governor and Senators. The lawsuits are already written. Earthjustice and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said they'd sue the moment the ink dried, and they will, and they may well win the first rounds.
https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/inside-the-scheme-to-virtually-eliminate?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
decimation of our health and science institutions also. A total betrayal.
As Trump pushes for drilling on public lands, check the impact of Susan Collins putting Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court with this map of public lands at risk in Maine and beyond.
https://thedemlabs.org/2026/07/12/susan-collins-brett-kavanaugh-leads-todrilling-on-public-lands-mapping/
Mainer here. But at least you know she’s concerned . Collins has not lifted a finger after Joan Sebastian Guerrero was murdered. But was the deciding vote in the big beautiful bill giving ICE billions. She has blood on her hands.
She was very offended today that someone would call out her virtue when she got told she was responsible for the ICE murder of Guerrero.
She’ll get over it.
Ah yes. Always "concerned."
Self concerned.
Bravo, JL!
Way beyond time for her to go. Under that old-lady "sweetness and concern" she is all about the power.
The Confederate White People's Party, aka the Republican Party, is the enemy of America and must be treated as such.
I’m beginning to think we never should have let them back into the Union back in 1865.
Hey tc I really missed you where have you been? Have you seen all the great news about California lately? Mississippi is now beating California in education, all excellence with math and reading. Mississippi who is 50th until Trump disabled and executed the Department of Education and gave each state the right to teach their students. What fits their state instead of what fits Washington DC’s Inculcation method, and Mississippi is now a number ninth in the country and education
MISSISSIPPI. California highest crime, highest taxes, highest property, taxes, highest gasoline prices, highest property, prices, highest homelessness… and one of the highest states in debt. Used to be the light on the hill now is the crack cocaine on the hill.
Here try this whine. lol
https://youtube.com/shorts/dxkgZZi1cic?si=214uxOYgAYbJXz39
Not sure if it's possible to despise this administration more than I already do, but it seems more likely day by day...
Please join my new organization, The People’s Pooping Festival on the Donald Trump mausoleum in the very near future. Really any day now.
You seem to have started prematurely.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/14/explosive-diarrhea-cyclospora-outbreak-investigation
Taco did it.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I am absolutely sick at heart about the Utah monuments being opened to the pillage Drumpf’s grubby buddies want to perpetrate.
Another ridiculous example of this President valuing dollars over everything.
"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. Pave paradise, put up a parking lot." Joni Mitchell the prophet.
And valuing his whims, and those of cronies over the entire web of life, including humanity. Absolute Narcissism.
https://youtube.com/shorts/dxkgZZi1cic?si=214uxOYgAYbJXz39
This is perfect for you whiners
Your example sounds more like you, whiner!
I am not whining I am protesting every American hater. I can’t stand Americans who hate America and have an IRRATIONAL hatred for our president… which apparently would include you?
I wake up every day with a smile on my face and proud of America in my heart and mind every single day that’s all you whiners complain, insult, and accuse with no basis
Not only have all of his policies worked , but he is creating democracy all over the world
You are delusional and you are a whiner. You are the only one who doesn’t see it. Trump, like yourself is a loser. He always was a loser. Everything he touches dies. There is not a single thing he is winning. I don’t know where you get your info, perhaps Faux news and right wing bait stations. Please show me a list so I can read up and be a loser, just like you.
So I sent you two lists I’ve given you two opportunities or three opportunities to answer. You’re not full of hot air. You don’t even have that much hot air. You don’t have much air at all and it’s affected your thinking.Deeply.
I’m offering it to you again here it is whitehouse.gov dispute all the lies there and we can have a really good discussion so I could actually show you the facts and destroy every argument that you put forth
Everything he touches dies, huh? Would you like a list of his peers?
Some of the most famous people in the world in history are his peers. And this country is a screaming success, not only here but all around the world. Quit living on old tapes quit living in ancient history. Does you no good? But people get what they deserve, Dave
As life is a do it to yourself proposition, you will either wake up one day and be happy or be miserable the rest of your life
David, I think you live in an upside down backwards World at best. Either that or your parents never taught you right from wrong. Or the difference between winning and losing But I’ll help you here with a little meme
Poor Donald Trump, who raised the great family who is a billionaire
And was elected president .TWICE. AND EVEN ONCE by a majority of the voters just to revisit reality for you. You might wanna get out of your cave and as punishment for yourself try watching four or five networks instead of the same urine soaked networks And that you live in over at blue sky… with all the same urine of disinformation.
Just like you JL, posting a narcissistic remarks, every single day meaning nothing
How do people take a common trait of an American and turn it into a curse? Unbelievable.
Wow, did you get suckered into that one!! Just another example of Heather deflecting from important wins by Trump and his administration to talk about some thing that means absolutely nothing to today’s American not a damn thing
Given that Trump’s address to the nation on Thursday will be almost exclusively political in nature, including reassertions that he was cheated out of winning the 2020 election, the Democrats should demand rebuttal time to rip his claims to shreds.
Thank you, Heather, for bringing the Trump Admin’s decimation of our public land agencies and protections and their plans for accelerated resource extraction to a wider audience. While oil, gas, mining, grazing, and timber interests receive taxpayer subsidized access to our public lands, average Americans are being charged fees by concessionaires (not even our own public agencies) to literally park for 30 minutes and take in a view (e.g., Emerald Bay Inspiration Point in the Lake Tahoe Basin). Our once-proud resource agency staff have been reorganized, decimated, and demoralized. I’m heartsick and infuriated that the Trump Administration appointees in Agriculture and Interior are enriching themselves and their cronies at the expense of our nation's natural heritage.
I couldn’t agree more with you. I’m crying and furious at the same time.
Raping-women and children, land, the economy, election integrity, our international and national standing-nothing is sacred to this regime but money and dominance. There are no words…
🤬🤬🤬 these vulgarian, Philistine, money grubbers will make this nation unworthy of visitation. Just look at videos of folks who are visiting here, and travelling around the nation and they ALL wonder at the natural beauty we have here.
I can only hope Roberts and his bought and paid for "justices" will choke on the money they're getting from corporations desperate to make even more money to pacify the greed of their major shareholders.
I despise them all.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Eb72nCsxi/. By the way, when all of you fools believe any of the bullshit you’re here now about America’s not respected across the globe. Check out the link. Not to mention of soccer fans that I’ve already talked about, but here’s a nice little video for you. Get out of your cave. Go see the real world
Yeah I’m glad you brought up all the people that are coming here for the soccer matches every one of them surprise of what America is real at this country that the freedom at the variety that the diversity and at the food choices I don’t have to use a passport to go from state to state they can’t stop loving America and you can’t stop HATING IT.
I'm sorry, but are you accusing me of hating the US?
"Targeted harassment" is one of the "guidelines" now barred by Substack's enforceable TOU.
At least 2 forums for judicial relief.
You accused yourself … Love your Country and support your president who is every policy is working wonderful for the American people and spreading democracy around the world
OK troll. See you later. Have the life you deserve. I know it's hard for the mentally challenged such as yourself, so take care.
You're engaging a malicious, psychotic, incoherent 2-year-old here only to demand attention and deflect intelligent discussion the way attention-seeking little brats tend to do. It can be challenging, but try not to let him lock your goat in the basement and throw away the key. He's beyond shame.
Let me see if I can explain this to you, pal. I’m providing awareness. I don’t need attention. I need awareness because most of you here are only a aware of half the truth or no truth at all and you need to be made aware so you don’t embarrass yourself here with your lies your disillusion, with your unsupported, hatred and lack of any facts because you only know half of them. I can’t stand people that hate America especially the ones like you that hate it. IRRATIONALLY !!
This country is on a roll like it hasn’t been in 50 years or more. Enjoy it relish shit take all the winds in your retirement account and say thank you Mr. Trump. And if you’re that poor, take all your wins in the big beautiful Bill that is helping you that nobody could offer you before because they didn’t think of it and now he did and he’s also providing democracy all over the world. Like no other president. So you go ahead and keep on hating when you don’t even know why sad
Well, you’re as good with insults as usual with no backup no support no facts. Just a bunch of hate consumed by hate and I feel sorry for you actually almost pity. Donald Trump’s policies are working for every American, including you despite your hatred of him. Oh, I’m sorry despite your needless and factless and hopeless hatred of him.
That is so funny Dan the only people you called trolls are the people that don’t agree with the policies here with all the lemmings. People posting 2030 times a day here as long as I agree with you they’re not trolls
Whatever you say chief. Now go take your meds before Nurse Ratchet gets upset.
You would trade your life for mine in a heartbeat. Love this president policies, and I am having more than a great life you to the opportunities provided for me and my willingness to work extremely hard and diligently for years to make it happen
The SCOTUS 6 want to increase Presidential authority to make war and profiteering pay, to override the civil rights of minorities, to violate laws that inhibit Presidential executive power, but when it comes to preserving the beauty of this great land and honoring its complex history, the SCOTUS 6 would censor Presidential authority, unless there was money to be made. Disgraceful values!!
Trump is a Devil. And that's all there is to it.
*The* Devil. Satan himself.
My initial response as well.
Not powerful enough to be Satan. He may be a(n the) Antichrist, Satan's minion. Should perhaps revise the Catholic prayer to St. Michael to read, "and do thou, o Prince of the Heavenly Host, thrust into Hell Trump and all the evil spirits [his Cabinet] who prowl the world seeking the ruin of souls [and everything else that is good]."
Better yet, the Morrigan's curse on all despoilers of our Mother Earth (so mote it be).
Ha! Thanks, Loren. You made me look something up. :-) I'm not sure if turning them into frogs would harm them. It might even be an improvement, at least in appearance. They're already toads. Or toadies.
Or might as well be.
To open lands for coal mining??!! Seriously? Coal? In 2026. This is not a serious debate about the proper balance between development and preservation or between private and public goods, etc. It's flat out insane.
Do you mean 'beautiful clean coal'?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q0VUq0LJra8