"Ask the families of those eighteen dead service members how small the number feels" 😢Those of you with no military connections may not know, but because this is 'not a war' it's costing those families, and all the soldiers who have been injured, Real Money!
And the impact of “The Big Beautiful Bill” has resulted in staffing and other resource cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. In essence, it punishes veterans that served and need resources.*
The small potatoes remark is so dismissive. None of us matter if we are not somehow kissing his fat rear. A death in the family is a death in the family and has many ramifications that may haunt those who endure it.
The wolf fight and the wild horse fight are really variations on the same Western argument: who gets to use the land, who gets the forage and water, and whose economic interests carry the most political weight. Wolves are treated as an intolerable threat to cattle even when the actual losses are tiny and compensated.
Mustangs are treated as an ecological burden even while cattle and sheep continue grazing on the same public lands. When wildlife and livestock collide, the argument is rarely just about biology. It is about land, resources, and money -- as I discuss here:
Experience with coyote management is relevant to the first part of this discussion here. https://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/smallfarms/using-coyotes-protect-livestock-wait-what. All in all, removal of grizzlies, wolves, coyotes (yeah, just try), and cougars will leave one top predator, humans, with the freedom to kill anything remaining on four legs, without competition. Unfortunately, the strongest of any species will be killed first, degrading the environment. I once interviewed the fisherman Van Eagan on the Campbell River. He told of how he and Roderick Haig-Brown, the great salmon fisher of the West Coast, used to regularly catch salmon over 70 pounds back in the 1930s and 1940s. He pointed out that those genes are now gone. A 55 pound salmon is now rare. Even a 45 pound one. Still a big fish, but that's what degradation looks like. Similarly, if one removes beavers to keep pastures from flooding, creeks degrade and there is no longer water or pasture in any meaningful sense. Similarly, if we remove fire, then fire will come with destructive vengeance. These things are linked. I don't think it's a stretch to conclude that the bitter tragedy of the disregard for the 18 lost service members will degrade the military along the same pattern, as will the insistence on hormone-induced feral warrior violence. I mourn their loss.
Yes, Harold, you said it! Top predators are definitely humans! And then we seem to have the need to count and tag every species once we've given it permission to exist on our planet. As well, we rape the planet everyday with mining. Water can't flow in a river without us rerouting or damming it for our needs. And, my final addition to this conversation is that I just heard that trump has struck 3 Iranian crude oil tankers. While all the the discussion I'm hear around these strikes pertains to war, I wonder how much crude oil was in those tankers that were apparently thoroughly destroyed and who's going to clean up that mess. Lives lost ... yes, we rightfully count and mourn the human lives lost ... but what about the marine life in that area? I've never even heard them mention the effects on the ecosystem and environment.
Yup. There have been articles internationally, actually, and it is as you suspect: horrific. There have been articles about the environmental effects in Ukraine as well. Also horrific. Thanks for bringing this to the fore.
The tone deafness and lack of empathy is still a painful jolt all these years later. Watching his smarmy, shameless dough boy Vance during the press "briefing" responding to a question about a airman's wife who was told by the Pentagon that she is not entitled to benefits following the death of her husband because "we are not at war", made me sick to my stomach. "Who is that? What does she want?" he asked with that awful smirk. Small potatoes?! Is there a word that embodies the moronic cruelty of these unserious people?
Wolves are an Apex predator. You cannot remove them without upsetting the ENTIRE NATURAL BALANCE! It has been tried before elsewhere with horrific results like plagues of other animals and pests.
The felon just proves again that he has absolutely no idea what anything costs, how anything affects someone other than him and that he doesn’t care about any of it one iota.
"Ask the families of those eighteen dead service members how small the number feels" 😢Those of you with no military connections may not know, but because this is 'not a war' it's costing those families, and all the soldiers who have been injured, Real Money!
And the impact of “The Big Beautiful Bill” has resulted in staffing and other resource cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. In essence, it punishes veterans that served and need resources.*
*Source: USA Today
The small potatoes remark is so dismissive. None of us matter if we are not somehow kissing his fat rear. A death in the family is a death in the family and has many ramifications that may haunt those who endure it.
The wolf fight and the wild horse fight are really variations on the same Western argument: who gets to use the land, who gets the forage and water, and whose economic interests carry the most political weight. Wolves are treated as an intolerable threat to cattle even when the actual losses are tiny and compensated.
Mustangs are treated as an ecological burden even while cattle and sheep continue grazing on the same public lands. When wildlife and livestock collide, the argument is rarely just about biology. It is about land, resources, and money -- as I discuss here:
https://jaywilson1.substack.com/p/what-is-a-wild-horse-worth?r=10sd39
Experience with coyote management is relevant to the first part of this discussion here. https://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/smallfarms/using-coyotes-protect-livestock-wait-what. All in all, removal of grizzlies, wolves, coyotes (yeah, just try), and cougars will leave one top predator, humans, with the freedom to kill anything remaining on four legs, without competition. Unfortunately, the strongest of any species will be killed first, degrading the environment. I once interviewed the fisherman Van Eagan on the Campbell River. He told of how he and Roderick Haig-Brown, the great salmon fisher of the West Coast, used to regularly catch salmon over 70 pounds back in the 1930s and 1940s. He pointed out that those genes are now gone. A 55 pound salmon is now rare. Even a 45 pound one. Still a big fish, but that's what degradation looks like. Similarly, if one removes beavers to keep pastures from flooding, creeks degrade and there is no longer water or pasture in any meaningful sense. Similarly, if we remove fire, then fire will come with destructive vengeance. These things are linked. I don't think it's a stretch to conclude that the bitter tragedy of the disregard for the 18 lost service members will degrade the military along the same pattern, as will the insistence on hormone-induced feral warrior violence. I mourn their loss.
Yes, Harold, you said it! Top predators are definitely humans! And then we seem to have the need to count and tag every species once we've given it permission to exist on our planet. As well, we rape the planet everyday with mining. Water can't flow in a river without us rerouting or damming it for our needs. And, my final addition to this conversation is that I just heard that trump has struck 3 Iranian crude oil tankers. While all the the discussion I'm hear around these strikes pertains to war, I wonder how much crude oil was in those tankers that were apparently thoroughly destroyed and who's going to clean up that mess. Lives lost ... yes, we rightfully count and mourn the human lives lost ... but what about the marine life in that area? I've never even heard them mention the effects on the ecosystem and environment.
Yup. There have been articles internationally, actually, and it is as you suspect: horrific. There have been articles about the environmental effects in Ukraine as well. Also horrific. Thanks for bringing this to the fore.
Not to mention the wasted oil.
Trump keeps comparing the 18 lives lost to the War in Iran to the War in Vietnam-- can someone remind him that was A WAR WE LOST!
We might tell him we lost that war as well as this one
Lots of folks who live around wolves and livestock like to shoot and kill things.
Stephen Miller is a threat to every human on earth right now. Skewed priorities !!
Trump’s policies have done more to harm the cattle industry in the last month then wolves have done
Mary, thank you for bringing a voice for the innocent, helpless (and voiceless) creatures.
The tone deafness and lack of empathy is still a painful jolt all these years later. Watching his smarmy, shameless dough boy Vance during the press "briefing" responding to a question about a airman's wife who was told by the Pentagon that she is not entitled to benefits following the death of her husband because "we are not at war", made me sick to my stomach. "Who is that? What does she want?" he asked with that awful smirk. Small potatoes?! Is there a word that embodies the moronic cruelty of these unserious people?
Wolves are an Apex predator. You cannot remove them without upsetting the ENTIRE NATURAL BALANCE! It has been tried before elsewhere with horrific results like plagues of other animals and pests.
The felon just proves again that he has absolutely no idea what anything costs, how anything affects someone other than him and that he doesn’t care about any of it one iota.
People use the excuse that “all presidents have been corrupt” to justify Trump. It would be good to look at the level of current corruption.
Thank you for this, Mary. Your essays are excellent. And so true.