Great piece Jason. Two things stuck out for me, the first being this sentence in 2025 plans for the EPA: Incentivizing the public to “identify scientific flaws and research misconduct” at the EPA. I can only imagine an army of flat-earthers, chem trail enthusiasts, and climate deniers, given a voice and a role in vetting serious research. The second is more general. The success of any move towards a more effective response to climate change and species extinction depends on long term predictability. Even if Trump eventually loses his bid for the Presidency, the very fact that the 2025 plan is out there, undermines confidence, both at home and abroad, and discourages investment in solutions.
Thanks, Tom. That's well said. My cold comfort in terms of U.S. long term predictability is that observers abroad have become accustomed to the lurching. After all, the Heritage Foundations has been providing these docs since Reagan came to power. Though, to your point, this threat seems an order of magnitude greater.
And there's warmer comfort in the economic momentum behind the energy transition at least. However much these conservatives may long for the days of coal, or the heyday of gas guzzlers, those days are numbered.
Yes, they’re becoming accustomed to the lurching—and as a result increasingly afraid (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/16/trump-rhetoric-ukraine-europe-us-relations). On the environmental question, the current libertarian partner in the coalition (FDP) has successfully blocked every Green Party initiative, gone to war over envisioning an efuelled future, and diluted every anti-pollution EU policy it can—in the 3 years I’ve been here. Every walk in a woodland I have means understanding that trees are grown to be logged, the rivers are contaminated, and climate activists are under surveillance. So I try to imagine what I can do about the pollution of our souls. By the way, I love how the work your newsletter does.
My apologies, SD, for not seeing this comment back in March. I'm republishing this piece this week, so have now stumbled across it. Thank you for the European perspective and insight, and thank you for the kind words. I dearly hope that we rally to fight off the extremists and work, long-term, on reducing what you so lucidly call "the pollution of our souls."
Snyder is my favorite poet. Even with my poor memory I remember many of his poems especially those early ones. He was an environmentalist before the movement got rolling. Just like those log trucks going up to Bubbs Creek at 3am.
When I read your splendid piece, I immediately thought of his remarks about almost loving at the end and your work. Glad you're doing well.
PS. here at our little cottage I have a large framed broadside of his Coalsdale Nevada/White Mountains poem, signed by him. It's the first thing you see when you come through the door. In person, someone told me , he came off abrasive at times, but the man positively burned with the sacred fire we all have but keep slaked. Not you.
Simic and Snyder knew each other coming up through poetry circles. Snyder was a little older. Very different poets, but equally essential. Simic was a city boy through-and-through, though.
Speaking of that framed broadside of Snyder's, immediately above it is hung a large framed portrait of H.H. Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama. You see both as you come in our front door....
A third individual who connects the two was Friedenreich Hundterwasser- "Peace-Realm Hundred Waters" who advocated for the Chinese to release the Dalai Lama back in the fifties and who like Snyder, was a lifelong environmentalist, a lover (and planter) of trees and nature, a poet in art.and sometimes poems. I once tried to acquire one his artworks but didn't succeed....
I would love to have had all three bright souls over to dinner in the backyard some cool early summer evening under the cherry tree. Perhaps I could have asked them about what we should do in the face of the coming heat.
Great Column Jason. Thanks for all these well-researched details. Last time, Trump overturned 100+ environmental protection laws and rules; Biden, to his credit, has been undoing the undoing that Trump did. SCOTUS, too, killed wetland protections.
Thanks, Maureen. Yes, there's so much from the Trump administration that I didn't get into. Just too much to detail. So thank you for this reminder of both how much damage was done and how much Biden has done to undo it. He's much older than I would like but still making excellent environmental decisions.
Regardless of the outcome of the general election (hopefully an unambiguous MAGA thrashing) defeating Project 2025 is akin to Hercules killing the Hydra.
To heal the planet, the right-wing indoctrination network must be dealt a lethal blow. An election that defeats the reactionaries is the highest priority right now, however, bankrupting that ideology has to be the ultimate goal.
The Project 2025 Hydra has over ninety heads (Advisory Board Project 2025) funding, indoctrinating and training twenty thousand ideologues, just like Hercules, we'll need all the help we can get. Vote Blue and only Blue.
"In the end, the survival of liberal democracies might in no small part depend on the willingness of their courts and other authorities to use the defense mechanisms their constitutions provide against those who are intent on destroying them."
That's well said, Patrick. Which makes the right-wing torquing of the courts, esp. SCOTUS, all the more serious. As I briefly noted in the piece (in the context of taking decisions away from agency scientists), twisting the executive branch after gerrymandering the House and shifting the courts will make life a lot more difficult. We'll know soon whether SCOTUS has any interest at all in the plain language of the Constitution, as it applies to insurrection.
After reading this yesterday I had to take a pause on the horror of it, the gall, for another word that doesn’t describe it. I want to buy a school bus and drive it across the country with excerpts of Project 2025 on its side but it would have to be powered by what exactly? When will politicians be in service to the environment instead of the other way around.
It is hard to absorb the full weight of what's being promised by these folks, isn't it? The value system that they've absorbed and intensified is all around us, though. You might want a fleet of buses... Thank you, Margaret.
Sorry to have missed this comment back in March, Bruce. I'm republishing this piece this week, with some updates, and so just found the comment. As I'm sure you know, Project 2025 is finally getting the media spotlight. Let's hope it's a fatal amount of illumination.
Great piece Jason. Two things stuck out for me, the first being this sentence in 2025 plans for the EPA: Incentivizing the public to “identify scientific flaws and research misconduct” at the EPA. I can only imagine an army of flat-earthers, chem trail enthusiasts, and climate deniers, given a voice and a role in vetting serious research. The second is more general. The success of any move towards a more effective response to climate change and species extinction depends on long term predictability. Even if Trump eventually loses his bid for the Presidency, the very fact that the 2025 plan is out there, undermines confidence, both at home and abroad, and discourages investment in solutions.
Thanks, Tom. That's well said. My cold comfort in terms of U.S. long term predictability is that observers abroad have become accustomed to the lurching. After all, the Heritage Foundations has been providing these docs since Reagan came to power. Though, to your point, this threat seems an order of magnitude greater.
And there's warmer comfort in the economic momentum behind the energy transition at least. However much these conservatives may long for the days of coal, or the heyday of gas guzzlers, those days are numbered.
Yes, they’re becoming accustomed to the lurching—and as a result increasingly afraid (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/16/trump-rhetoric-ukraine-europe-us-relations). On the environmental question, the current libertarian partner in the coalition (FDP) has successfully blocked every Green Party initiative, gone to war over envisioning an efuelled future, and diluted every anti-pollution EU policy it can—in the 3 years I’ve been here. Every walk in a woodland I have means understanding that trees are grown to be logged, the rivers are contaminated, and climate activists are under surveillance. So I try to imagine what I can do about the pollution of our souls. By the way, I love how the work your newsletter does.
My apologies, SD, for not seeing this comment back in March. I'm republishing this piece this week, so have now stumbled across it. Thank you for the European perspective and insight, and thank you for the kind words. I dearly hope that we rally to fight off the extremists and work, long-term, on reducing what you so lucidly call "the pollution of our souls."
I WENT INTO THe MAVERICK BAR
by Gary Snyder
I went into the Maverick Bar
In Farmington, New Mexico.
And drank double shots of bourbon
backed with beer.
My long hair was tucked up under a cap
I’d left the earring in the car.
Two cowboys did horseplay
by the pool tables,
A waitress asked us
where are you from?
a country-and-western band began to play
“We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskokie”
And with the next song,
a couple began to dance.
They held each other like in High School dances
in the fifties;
I recalled when I worked in the woods
and the bars of Madras, Oregon.
That short-haired joy and roughness—
America—your stupidity.
I could almost love you again.
We left—onto the freeway shoulders—
under the tough old stars—
In the shadow of bluffs
I came back to myself,
To the real work, to
“What is to be done.”
Gary Snyder, “I Went into the Maverick Bar” from Turtle Island. Copyright © 1974 by Gary Snyder
Beautiful, Michael. What is to be done, indeed.
Snyder is my favorite poet. Even with my poor memory I remember many of his poems especially those early ones. He was an environmentalist before the movement got rolling. Just like those log trucks going up to Bubbs Creek at 3am.
When I read your splendid piece, I immediately thought of his remarks about almost loving at the end and your work. Glad you're doing well.
PS. here at our little cottage I have a large framed broadside of his Coalsdale Nevada/White Mountains poem, signed by him. It's the first thing you see when you come through the door. In person, someone told me , he came off abrasive at times, but the man positively burned with the sacred fire we all have but keep slaked. Not you.
Nor you, Michael. Thank you.
Simic and Snyder knew each other coming up through poetry circles. Snyder was a little older. Very different poets, but equally essential. Simic was a city boy through-and-through, though.
I greatly admire Simic as well!
Speaking of that framed broadside of Snyder's, immediately above it is hung a large framed portrait of H.H. Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama. You see both as you come in our front door....
A third individual who connects the two was Friedenreich Hundterwasser- "Peace-Realm Hundred Waters" who advocated for the Chinese to release the Dalai Lama back in the fifties and who like Snyder, was a lifelong environmentalist, a lover (and planter) of trees and nature, a poet in art.and sometimes poems. I once tried to acquire one his artworks but didn't succeed....
I would love to have had all three bright souls over to dinner in the backyard some cool early summer evening under the cherry tree. Perhaps I could have asked them about what we should do in the face of the coming heat.
Great Column Jason. Thanks for all these well-researched details. Last time, Trump overturned 100+ environmental protection laws and rules; Biden, to his credit, has been undoing the undoing that Trump did. SCOTUS, too, killed wetland protections.
Thanks, Maureen. Yes, there's so much from the Trump administration that I didn't get into. Just too much to detail. So thank you for this reminder of both how much damage was done and how much Biden has done to undo it. He's much older than I would like but still making excellent environmental decisions.
For readers interested in more on the SCOTUS decision, you can check out my piece, The Supreme Court and the Swamp (https://jasonanthony.substack.com/p/the-supreme-court-and-the-swamp),
Regardless of the outcome of the general election (hopefully an unambiguous MAGA thrashing) defeating Project 2025 is akin to Hercules killing the Hydra.
To heal the planet, the right-wing indoctrination network must be dealt a lethal blow. An election that defeats the reactionaries is the highest priority right now, however, bankrupting that ideology has to be the ultimate goal.
The Project 2025 Hydra has over ninety heads (Advisory Board Project 2025) funding, indoctrinating and training twenty thousand ideologues, just like Hercules, we'll need all the help we can get. Vote Blue and only Blue.
https://globalextremism.org/project-2025-the-far-right-playbook-for-american-authoritarianism/#two
"In the end, the survival of liberal democracies might in no small part depend on the willingness of their courts and other authorities to use the defense mechanisms their constitutions provide against those who are intent on destroying them."
From <https://religiondispatches.org/as-far-right-surges-in-us-and-germany-debate-rages-over-disqualification-of-those-who-would-destroy-democracy/>
That's well said, Patrick. Which makes the right-wing torquing of the courts, esp. SCOTUS, all the more serious. As I briefly noted in the piece (in the context of taking decisions away from agency scientists), twisting the executive branch after gerrymandering the House and shifting the courts will make life a lot more difficult. We'll know soon whether SCOTUS has any interest at all in the plain language of the Constitution, as it applies to insurrection.
After reading this yesterday I had to take a pause on the horror of it, the gall, for another word that doesn’t describe it. I want to buy a school bus and drive it across the country with excerpts of Project 2025 on its side but it would have to be powered by what exactly? When will politicians be in service to the environment instead of the other way around.
It is hard to absorb the full weight of what's being promised by these folks, isn't it? The value system that they've absorbed and intensified is all around us, though. You might want a fleet of buses... Thank you, Margaret.
Terrifying.
Indeed, Mary, it is.
Great article on a devastating topic!!!
Thank you, Deb. Great to hear from you.
Sorry to have missed this comment back in March, Bruce. I'm republishing this piece this week, with some updates, and so just found the comment. As I'm sure you know, Project 2025 is finally getting the media spotlight. Let's hope it's a fatal amount of illumination.