"If future historians need a cover image for the Trump era, they won’t have to look far. There it is: a gilded strongman monument funded by grift, abandoned mid-construction, lying on its back while everyone argues about who owes what."
Thank you for another powerful essay! As a new grandmother (what to be called in this role is still under discussion), I’m sickened by the environmental risks these MAGA snakes in the dying grass are ensuring my grandson will suffer.
Even apart from personal impacts, returning to coal and fossil fuels while the world moves to alternatives seems economically backward - unless, of course, your riches depend on Middle East oil dynasties, domestic oil companies and coal producers, and other malefactors seeking benefit from a dying planet.
Still, Republicans in Congress continue to enable the destruction. They and their public and private allies deserve a special room in hell. A gold statue of Trump at the entrance would be a fitting accessory.
While reading about these environmental deregulations, my mind takes me back to the early '70s, while as a teenager, I flew into Los Angeles as it was covered in a reddish-brown haze. Around that time I think the Clean Air Act was passed and the EPA formed. I dread to think that we could go back to a time when the air was not safe to breathe, but here we are.
Kudos for an excellent essay. I am a long time gardener here in Oregon and was optimistically (foolishly?) seeding some onions and flowers in my greenhouse. I have seen lots of changes because of climate including the olive tree in my backyard. It is also more unpleasant during the growing season to be outside. I see lots of people acting as if nothing is happening and talking about this or that happening in the not too distant future. We live in a very fragile system. As for the wealthy, they can believe their money will save them, but that is also foolish. Elon can go far into outer space and down a black hole.
"...One ICE officer reportedly followed a woman back to her home after running her plates, “to freak her out.” Another was telling a man, “You raise your voice, I erase your voice.”
Realizing that their public image was cratering, ICE recently aired a 30-second PSA positioning it as a kinder, gentler secret police. According to the ad, ICE agents are just regular Americans: fathers, friends, neighbors, Little League coaches—people who love this country.
Good Luck to the sculptor joining the long list of people not paid by ‘them’.Applause for the masses turning up dissent world wide. There’s a definite air about everywhere….
It was a day of observing..my first outting in several weeks …I’ve studied people , clients, families for decades, professionally and intuitively it’s a knack I realized early and honed. Noted: the downhill slide of shops, stores, shelves minimally stocked/prices shocking , people slow moving ,a perceived zombie appearance , an unkemptness on streets, parking lots, the weather plays part , but the serious culprit is mental exhaustion, hurried and nervous. Palpable.
On the lighter side so many reads of enjoying ‘the half-time show’ and holding steady to unified resistance.
An AI note: 72% of the population now lives under some form of autocracy ..(surprised me), the largest since 1978.
It silently sums to selfish panic -the rich feeling they haven’t enough , so scoop whatever you can up, ignore the rising cries, a near audible undercurrent…
I am an older mom, having had my sons 35+ years ago while in my 40's. I would never have imagined the world they are dealing with now. May I outlive this administration. May I continue to read your thoughtful essays.
What Pope Leo did by sending 80 generators and thousands of medical supplies to the freezing people of Ukraine, illustrates what Christianity looks like with skin on it!
So has Leo finally realized after 2000+ years that prayers and worship of "God" doesn't work to help humanity? Generators and antibiotics do help. Maybe Leo can take this all the way. Sell off all the gold and stolen art in the Vatican and actually DO something about war and poverty. As the leaders of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (Dan Barker, Annie Laurie Gaylor) say, "Helping hands are better than praying hands.".
"If future historians need a cover image for the Trump era, they won’t have to look far. There it is: a gilded strongman monument funded by grift, abandoned mid-construction, lying on its back while everyone argues about who owes what."
With apologies to Shelley:
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command...
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Don Colossus, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
JonJon, nice riff on that poem.
Ozymandius. EXACTLY right. Well done.
Pendejo doesn't realize the free market killed coal.
Thank you for another powerful essay! As a new grandmother (what to be called in this role is still under discussion), I’m sickened by the environmental risks these MAGA snakes in the dying grass are ensuring my grandson will suffer.
Even apart from personal impacts, returning to coal and fossil fuels while the world moves to alternatives seems economically backward - unless, of course, your riches depend on Middle East oil dynasties, domestic oil companies and coal producers, and other malefactors seeking benefit from a dying planet.
Still, Republicans in Congress continue to enable the destruction. They and their public and private allies deserve a special room in hell. A gold statue of Trump at the entrance would be a fitting accessory.
Timothy Snyder's recent substack has links to donate to the Ukranians if y'all are so inclined to follow the Pope's example......
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-long-ukrainian-winter?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
While reading about these environmental deregulations, my mind takes me back to the early '70s, while as a teenager, I flew into Los Angeles as it was covered in a reddish-brown haze. Around that time I think the Clean Air Act was passed and the EPA formed. I dread to think that we could go back to a time when the air was not safe to breathe, but here we are.
I was also a teen in the ‘70s. One of my friends moved to LA. He had a convertible and told me after driving on the freeway his face was filthy.
It seems as though Trump is retaliating against all of us. He’ll be dead and the rest of us will live on a dead planet.
Kudos for an excellent essay. I am a long time gardener here in Oregon and was optimistically (foolishly?) seeding some onions and flowers in my greenhouse. I have seen lots of changes because of climate including the olive tree in my backyard. It is also more unpleasant during the growing season to be outside. I see lots of people acting as if nothing is happening and talking about this or that happening in the not too distant future. We live in a very fragile system. As for the wealthy, they can believe their money will save them, but that is also foolish. Elon can go far into outer space and down a black hole.
Failing to recognize climate change is madness. This is not a liberal/ conservative issue. We’re all in the same boat! These people are evil.
Jack, agreed. And the time is much closer at hand than people think. But we would rather fight about Super Bowl half time shows.
reminds me of the poem Ozymandias by Shelly...
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
somehow seems very fitting for trump and his Don Colossus
"...One ICE officer reportedly followed a woman back to her home after running her plates, “to freak her out.” Another was telling a man, “You raise your voice, I erase your voice.”
Realizing that their public image was cratering, ICE recently aired a 30-second PSA positioning it as a kinder, gentler secret police. According to the ad, ICE agents are just regular Americans: fathers, friends, neighbors, Little League coaches—people who love this country.
This was TOO good to leave unedited so....
https://jaywilson1.substack.com/p/security-is-freedom?r=10sd39
Sure hope someone creates a meme of Charlton Heston on his knees in front of the shattered Don Colossus....
Good Luck to the sculptor joining the long list of people not paid by ‘them’.Applause for the masses turning up dissent world wide. There’s a definite air about everywhere….
It was a day of observing..my first outting in several weeks …I’ve studied people , clients, families for decades, professionally and intuitively it’s a knack I realized early and honed. Noted: the downhill slide of shops, stores, shelves minimally stocked/prices shocking , people slow moving ,a perceived zombie appearance , an unkemptness on streets, parking lots, the weather plays part , but the serious culprit is mental exhaustion, hurried and nervous. Palpable.
On the lighter side so many reads of enjoying ‘the half-time show’ and holding steady to unified resistance.
An AI note: 72% of the population now lives under some form of autocracy ..(surprised me), the largest since 1978.
It silently sums to selfish panic -the rich feeling they haven’t enough , so scoop whatever you can up, ignore the rising cries, a near audible undercurrent…
These are warning signs.. they are mounting
I am an older mom, having had my sons 35+ years ago while in my 40's. I would never have imagined the world they are dealing with now. May I outlive this administration. May I continue to read your thoughtful essays.
Under the next Democratic administration (fingers crossed), can’t the EPA resurrect the endangerment finding?
If there ARE any future history books.
Saints preserve us. I have three grandchildren.
What Pope Leo did by sending 80 generators and thousands of medical supplies to the freezing people of Ukraine, illustrates what Christianity looks like with skin on it!
So has Leo finally realized after 2000+ years that prayers and worship of "God" doesn't work to help humanity? Generators and antibiotics do help. Maybe Leo can take this all the way. Sell off all the gold and stolen art in the Vatican and actually DO something about war and poverty. As the leaders of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (Dan Barker, Annie Laurie Gaylor) say, "Helping hands are better than praying hands.".