Daily Affirmation

I am consumed by hate, pain, fear & rage. Oh, & despair. And utter & absolute contempt. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this insufferable world of shit & pain!

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

If "Baker" there is not "on delivery" but merely "on duty", what th' fuck-tuck-tucking hell's it doing just sitting on a residential street, pointed at a fence? I get when they're lined up in front of a restaurant; th' hell's up here? It's more suspicious every day.

On The Street & In The Sky

The narrator then asked me if I had any change; gave him four quarters.

The sky above, the crud below.

Paint It, Black

I s'pose it's a "wrap" rather than a paint job, but remains a stupid looking Muskmobile. Can't really determine which direction it's supposed to be headed, but it certainly isn't aerodynamic, no matter which way it points.

Hear Tesla's going into humanoid robots. Hope their health care robots don't burst into flames & burn any old-age/nursing homes warehouses to the ground.

Dep't. Of (Slave/Wage) Labor

Why don't the punk-ass labor unions in this country organize working people & get in the streets to fight? Where are our Molotov cocktail throwers, damnit?Fuck American union leadership. Candy-assed co-opted sell-outs. Kill them before you kill the bosses, but be sure to get all the bosses, union & bidnis!! Yes, I'm calling for the violent overthrow of everything, right fucking now!! Isn't that illegal or sometinhg? Would any of you out there like to squeal on me? I bet you would. Why don't you?

That's right, everything is about me. That's how it is when the only people who don't ignore you are squealing rat informers. G'wan, explain to me why I shouldn't be this way after 72 yrs. of dealing w/ the very scum of the earth, humanity.

Debt Up, Toilet Awaits. Thank You, Mr. President!

Don't forget that according to Fat Closeted Donny the United States is "the hottest country in the world". Hot hot hot!!

Any of you old enough to remember when Republicans wielded "THE DEBT" like a fucking cudgel, whining about Democrats & their free-spending, go-into-debt ways? Well, now they'll use Lumpy's Debt as a reason to cut any & all gov't. services to working people & an excuse for more tax cuts for the rich. Hypocrisy works very very well for them, dunnit?

Andrew Duehren / New York Times:

Federal Debt to Hit Record Levels, Budget Office Warns  —  President Trump has reshaped the country's economic policies, but the outlook for the budget remains dire.  —  In the first year of his second term, President Trump has tried to radically reshape America's economy. Fortune:   ‘The fiscal trajectory is not sustainable’: CBO warns about the highest debt in U.S. history as Trump adds $1.4 trillion to 10-year deficit

Jennifer Scholtes / Politico:
US debt forecast to hit $64T in a decade as Trump policies widen deficit Jarrell Dillard / Bloomberg:   CBO Lifts US Deficit Call by $1.4 Trillion on Trump Policies

Eric Boehm / Reason:   Interest on the National Debt Will Cost $16 Trillion Over the Next 10 Years

Fatima Hussein / Associated Press:   Federal deficits and debt will worsen over next decade, Congressional Budget Office finds

Zach Halaschak / Washington Examiner:   One Big Beautiful Bill Act will add $4.7 trillion to deficits: CBO

Why do they hate America so?

Daily Affirmation

New lyrics, to the melody of "Gawd Save the King/Queen" & "My Country 'Tis of Thee (America)":

Gawd Damn You All To Hell!
Gawd Damn You All To Hell!
Gawd Damn You All To Hell!

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now go fuck yourself to hell!

See? Entropy, As Mentioned Below

"Not With A Bang But A Whimper"

By Sidney Harris. Available here.

More unrelenting negativity. It just piles up. I'm lovin' it. Après moi, le déluge ...

Many ecologists hypothesize that, as global warming accelerates, change in nature must speed up. They assume that as temperatures rise and climatic zones shift, species will face local extinction and colonize new habitats at an ever-increasing rate, leading to a rapid reshuffling of ecological communities. A new study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and published in Nature Communications shows this is emphatically not the case.

The researchers analyzed a massive database of biodiversity surveys, spanning marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems over the last century. The evidence showed that not only had the "turnover" of species in local habitats not sped up, but instead, it had significantly slowed down.

Dr. Emmanuel Nwankwo, lead author of the study, explained, "Nature functions like a self-repairing engine, constantly swapping out old parts for new ones. But we found this engine is now grinding to a halt."

The dominance of intrinsic dynamics

The study focused on the period since the 1970s, a time marked by a documented acceleration in global surface temperatures and environmental shifts. The researchers compared species turnover rates—the speed at which species replace each other—before and after this climate acceleration.

Contrary to the expectation that external climate forces would drive faster change, the data revealed that turnover over 1–5-year periods tended to become slower. This slowdown was consistent across diverse environments such as terrestrial bird communities or the seabed.

Professor Axel Rossberg, co-author of the study at Queen Mary University of London, said, "We were surprised at how strong the effect is. Turnover rates typically declined by one third."

To explain this counterintuitive finding, the researchers point to the fundamental way ecosystems organize themselves. The study suggests that the communities analyzed are not merely reacting passively to external climate drivers.

Instead, they appear to be operating in a state known as the "Multiple Attractors" phase that was predicted by theoretical physicist Guy Bunin in 2017. This multiple attractors phase is a state where species continuously replace one another due to internal interactions—like in a giant, unending game of rock-paper-scissors—even without environmental changes. The new study now provides strong empirical evidence that this multiple attractors phase exists and actually dominates nature.

A worrying sign of degradation

If ecosystems are driven by these intrinsic dynamics, why is the turnover slowing down? The authors argue that the observed deceleration is a side effect of environmental degradation and the shrinking of regional species pools.

In a healthy "Multiple Attractors phase" ecosystem, a large pool of potential colonizers keeps the revolving door of species turnover moving. However, as human activity degrades habitats and reduces these regional pools, the number of potential colonizers drops. This slows the pace at which species replace one another.

Dr. Nwankwo said, "In other research we are seeing clear indications that human impacts cause the slowing of turnover. It is worrying."

The findings suggest that a lack of change in local species composition should not be mistaken for stability or ecosystem health. Instead, the widespread slowdown may indicate that the internal engines of biodiversity are losing momentum due to the depletion of regional life.

[PHYS.ORG, via Attention to the Unseen.]

Mad As Hell & Not Going To Take It Any More: Canadian Carnage!

How many times must this reporter remind people: You are not now nor will you ever be "safe", whatever that means outside of baseball. Between the Big Killer In The Sky, his handmaiden Nature & the killer ape, Homo sapiens, how can anyone be safe? Stop pretending: Judging from the current situation & indications, entropy's taken over, the humanoids are undergoing rapid unscheduled devolution worldwide, & things can & will only get worse.

CBC News:

10 dead, including suspect, in mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.  —  6 victims found dead inside local high school, police say  —  10 dead, including suspect, after mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.  —  Ten people are dead, including a suspect, after an active shooter incident in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., according to RCMP.

Francesca Regalado / New York Times:   10 Dead in Shootings at School and Home in British Columbia

Fox News:   At least 10 dead, including suspect, in connection with shooting at British Columbia high school

Associated Press:   Shootings at school and home in northeastern British Columbia leave 10 dead, including shooter

Lex Harvey / CNN:   At least nine dead in mass shooting at school and home in Canada, police say

Jennifer Oliver O'Connell / RedState:   Shooting in British Columbia Leaves 10 People Dead

Matt Vespa / Townhall:   There Was a Horrific School Shooting in Canada...and Their Police Used a Weird Phrase for the Suspect

Rich Lowry / Reuters:   Female in dress suspected in horrific school, home shootings in British Columbia that left 9 dead, 25 hurt

Breitbart:   Nine Reported Dead After British Columbia School Shooting

Lyndal Rowlands / Al Jazeera:   Canadian police say 10 dead in British Columbia's Tumbler Ridge shooting

Maybe the rest of you don't (Philistines!!) but this reporter finds unrelenting negativity, contempt, disgust & revulsion at everything that surrounds him unrelentingly amusing.

More Words: "Inappropriate" & "Fucking Pathetic"

I suppose next yr. it'll be back to Up With People* or some such innocuous drivel.

New Republic:

Trump's Fury at NFL Show Spikes Amid Fresh Signs His Base Is Imploding … Donald Trump was initially angry over the decision to feature Bad Bunny in the Super Bowl halftime show.  But then, as Bad Bunny performed, Trump's rage worsened: In a furious rant, he claimed the show was a “slap in the face” to our country, that Bad Bunny’s use of Spanish means “nobody understands a word this guy is saying,” and that the show was “absolutely terrible.”

Steven Zeitchik / The Hollywood Reporter:   How Bad Bunny Finally Became the Liberal Entertainer That Broke Trump

Scott McKay / The American Spectator:   Because It's Inappropriate, That's Why

Dmitri Bolt / Townhall:   Even Jimmy Kimmel Is Calling Out Democrats for Being Sudden Bad Bunny Fans

New Jersey Online:   Stephen A. Smith backs Trump on Bad Bunny: 'Most people didn't understand anything he was saying'

Sam Haysom / Mashable:   Jimmy Kimmel responds to Trump and the right's reaction to Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show

Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:   Jon Stewart Rips Trump and MAGA as ‘Fucking Pathetic’ After Outrage Over Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Show | Video

Alex Griffing / Mediaite:   Piers Morgan Accuses MAGA Of Going ‘Woke’ With Its ‘Censorious’ Bad Bunny Outrage

Oh, is the right "censorious"? I hadn't noticed. Wotta maroon Mr. Morgan is. And how much English lyric comprehension usually occurs w/ these people? Not that I arse myself to do so, but many hip-hop lyrics escape me (Hell, I thought the Ohio Players were singing "Robitussin" rather than "Roller Coaster" for some time, but that may say more about me than their enunciation.) but it doesn't make me wiggy, I just figure it's their loss if they aren't reaching me & I don't worry about it.

---

*Looking for Up W/ People footage I discovered that it was an offshoot of something called Moral Re-Armament, loony crap that my god-mother (Whose name I forget at the moment.) a person who owned & lived in a big damn mansion in Redwood City or an adjacent burg was somehow involved in. This may be the mansion, I know it was used in one of their movies, 'though I don't remember it being that large. It did have an honest-to-gawd secret passage, from a room to an alcove on the stairs which popped open.Small, weird world.

The Right Reacts: "Widespread Twerking", "Grotesque, Leftist Garbage", "Disgusting And Pornographic Filth", "Pure Smut", "Unspeakable Depravities", "Shocking and Vulgar"! Wow. Must've Been Good.

Meanwhile, in Corporate America, this isn't "investigated":

Julianna Bragg / Axios:

Republicans alleging obscenity demand FCC investigate Bad Bunny halftime show … - “Had he said these lyrics — and all of the other disgusting and pornographic filth in English on live TV, the broadcast would have been pulled down and the fines would have been enormous,” Fine said on X.

Ewan Palmer / The Daily Beast:   Raging MAGA Rep Demands Consequences After ‘Depraved’ Bad Bunny Show

Ryan King / New York Post:   Florida GOP rep demands FCC probe of NBC, NFL over Bad Bunny's halftime show: ‘Grotesque, leftist garbage’

Tallahassee Democrat:   Randy Fine calls for FCC action over Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance

Joseph Chalfant / Townhall:   This Congressman's Inquiry Into Bad Bunny's Explicit Performance Has the Libs Screaming

Simon Kent / Breitbart:   Congressman Calls for Inquiry Into Bad Bunny's ‘Indecent’ Super Bowl Show: ‘Pure Smut’

Ainslee Raasch / WATN:   TN Congressman calls for investigation into Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance, citing ‘widespread twerking’

Mallory Wilson / Washington Times:   GOP lawmakers call for probe into Bad Bunny's ‘flagrant, indecent’ halftime show

Craig Hoyle / The Independent:   MAGA lawmaker wants a federal investigation into ‘explicit and indecent’ Bad Bunny halftime show

Bob Hoge / RedState:   Bad Bunny Super Bowl Show Fiasco Gets Worse As Revolting Lyrics to His Songs Revealed

Travis Gettys / Raw Story:   MAGA lawmaker jeered as he flips out over ‘unspeakable depravities’ of Super Bowl show

Cristina Laila / The Gateway Pundit:   GOP Lawmaker Calls on FCC to Take Action After Bad Bunny's Shocking and Vulgar Halftime Show Lyrics are Translated to English

Steve Benen / MS NOW:   House Republicans eye official investigation into Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show

Colorful Clouds

Are you bored yet? You should be; I'm trying to make every one of you as numb as I am.

Behind The Scenes In Show Bidnis & The Murder Industry

And now for something completely different: The robots are arming themselves.Defense my ass. I hope the robots get every one of you decaying meatsacks.

"Moses" Johnson Parts The Red Sea, So American Households Will Be Further Inundated In Trump Tariffs

Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
Johnson moves to again block House from voting on Trump tariffs  —  Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he is moving forward with a plan to revive a prohibition on House votes to overturn President Donald Trump's global tariffs.  Johnson told reporters he believes he will have the votes to include the block in a procedural measure set for House consideration Tuesday. The House Rules Committee approved legislation Monday that would prevent any further tariff votes through July 31.
Emily Brooks / The Hill:   GOP leaders move to reinstate ban on snap tariff repeal votes and block Democrats

Bloomberg:   House Republicans Move to Keep Putting Off Vote on Trump Tariffs

Washington Examiner:   GOP leaders seek extension to block House votes on repealing Trump tariffs

Whaddaya know about that? I s'pose the smarmy little weasel will quote us an Olde English gibberish Bible verse that proves Jeziz just loved tariffs. But why does Mike Johnson hate America so?

“President Donald Trump’s tariffs cost the average American household $1,000 last year, according to new research from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation,” ABC News reports.

“The cost is set to go even higher this year to $1,300 per household, assuming the existing tariffs stay in place.”

And into the toilet goes this once-great nation, which apparently will never learn even the simplest of lessons. Suffer, you damned morons, squirm in agony!

Have some more, suckers!

Elizabeth Schulze / Associated Press:

Trump's tariffs cost American households $1,000 last year: Research group  —  The Tax Foundation said the cost may be even higher in 2026.  —  President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Feb. 9, 2026, in Washington.  —  President Donald Trump's tariffs cost …

Scripps News:   New analysis shows Trump's tariffs cost US households an average of $1,000 last year

Suzanne Blake / Newsweek:   Tax Refund Update on Extra $1,000: Expert Says People May Be Surprised

Any non-zillionaire expecting anything from these clowns is yet another chump-ass sucker.

A "Slap In The Face" & "An Affront To America's Greatness"? What?

Guess Lumpy has no idea how many Americns would love to slap him good in his ugly bronzed face.

Mass Hysteria From The Fake News

No, really. Millions watched & it was plenty "white".

 Malcolm Ferguson / New Republic:

Trump Watched Bad Bunny Halftime Show at His Own Super Bowl Party  —  It appears that President Trump didn't even bother to tune into Turning Point USA's alternative, anti-immigrant “All-American Halftime Show.”  —  Footage taken from inside Trump's Super Bowl party at his Mar-a-Lago golf club showed

Discussion:

Matt Margolis / PJ Media:   The Best Thing About the Super Bowl Halftime Show Was Trump's Response to It

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:   Kid Rock's alternative Super Bowl halftime show was just boring

Miles Klee / Wired:   Turning Point USA's Halftime Show Was Exactly What You'd Expect

Margaret Hartmann / New York Magazine:   Turning Point Halftime Got Big Ratings (If You Round Way Up)

Nick Gilbertson / Breitbart:   Trump Rips Bad Bunny's Halftime Show as an Affront to America's Greatness

Arianna Coghill / Mother Jones:   The Biggest Thing Missing from TPUSA's Halftime Show: Joy

Jacob Stolworthy / The Independent:   Turning Point USA Super Bowl halftime show viewing figures revealed

Thomas Stevenson / The Post Millennial:   Man accuses Florida bar manager of being ‘racist’ for making the switch from Bad Bunny to TPUSA All-American Halftime Show

Martha Ross / Mercury News:   ‘Lip-synching’ Kid Rock can't compete against Bad Bunny's live views

Dmitri Bolt / Townhall:   Don Lemon Defends Bad Bunny's Halftime Show While Admitting He Had No Idea What Was Being Said

Alexandra Petri / The Atlantic:   Finally, a Halftime Show That Represents Real America!

Nicole Weatherholtz / NewsMax.com:   TPUSA Halftime Show Draws 5.7M Seeking Bad Bunny Alternative

Willem Moore / Canary:   Trump rages at Bad Bunny as alternative Superbowl show falters

Colby Hall / Mediaite:   It Was Just a Halftime Show. The Meltdown Reveals How Dumb We've Become.

Alexander Willis / Raw Story:   ‘Hypocrites’: GOP lambasted as video shows halftime show played at Trump Super Bowl party

Frieda Powers / BizPac Review:   TPUSA's ‘All-American’ alternative halftime show draws millions of viewers: 'This one's for you, Charlie!'

Cooper Williamson / Blaze Media:   ‘Slap in the face’: Trump tears into Super Bowl halftime show performance

Jonathan Carter / The Hill:   Trump slams Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance as ‘one of the worst’

Caitlin McCormack / New York Post:   TPUSA's ‘All-American’ alternative halftime show draws millions of viewers to rival NFL Super Bowl: 'This one's for you Charlie'

TMZ.com:   Kid Rock Headlines Turning Point USA's Rival Super Bowl Halftime Show

Nick Moyle / New Jersey Online:   The White House said Trump would skip Bad Bunny's halftime show. Here's what actually happened at his Super Bowl party

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:   CONGRATULATIONS to TPUSA!  Early Numbers Show Your Super Bowl Halftime Show Pulled In at Least 6 Million Viewers - And 5.3 Million Concurrent Viewers …

Hunter Bassler / KUSA-TV:   Did you miss Turning Point's ‘All American Halftime Show’? Here's how to rewatch it

Andrew Powell / IJR:   Trump Blasts Super Bowl Halftime Show as Backlash Erupts Over Bad Bunny Performance

Daniel Chavkin / Yahoo Entertainment:   How many people watched TPUSA halftime show? How 2026 Super Bowl alternative compared to Bad Bunny

Tess Patton / The Wrap:   Turning Point USA's All-American Halftime Show Won't Play on X Due to ‘Licensing Restrictions’

Alex Bollinger / LGBTQ Nation:   Close Trump ally rages that Superbowl Halftime Show isn't “white enough for me”

Asher Notheis / Washington Examiner:   Turning Point USA's ‘All-American Halftime Show’: Everything you need to know

Jon Michael Raasch / Daily Mail:   Trump silent on TPUSA halftime performance

more at Mediagazer »

RELATED:

 Jorge Bonilla / Fox News:
Why Bad Bunny's polarizing Super Bowl halftime show felt like a slap at America

Discussion:

Amanda Rosa / Miami Herald:   Bad Bunny's halftime show reminds the world ‘America’ is more than just the U.S.

Dylan Gwinn / Breitbart:   Meghan McCain Blasted for Defending Bad Bunny Halftime Show: ‘This Is a Joke, Right?’

Tyler O'Neil / The Daily Signal:   Democrats Champion Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show, Attack Turning Point USA Alternative

Theresa Braine / Chicago Tribune:   Super Bowl halftime show: Bad Bunny nets 135M viewers to Kid Rock's 6M

Colby Hall / Mediaite:   The Bad Bunny Halftime Show Reveals the Business of Manufactured Outrage

Brandon Morse / RedState:   The Super Bowl Halftime Show Was Political and Don't Let the Virtue Signaling Convince You Otherwise

Chris Pugh / Plain Dealer:   Logan and Jake Paul clash after Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance

Kevin Haggerty / BizPac Review:   Trump sounds off on ‘disgusting’ Bad Bunny show: ‘A slap in the face to our country’

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:   A New Low for the NFL: Bad Bunny Featured Two Men Simulating Sex, Dry Humping During Halftime Show

Rolling Stone:   Right-Wingers Who Boycotted Halftime Show Still Saw Enough of It to Be Furious

Kevin Slane / Boston.com:   Super Bowl 2026: Bad Bunny performs joyful, controversy-free halftime show

Jon Michael Raasch / Daily Mail:   Trump silent on TPUSA halftime performance as president bashes Bad Bunny's multicultural performance

Brecca Stoll / The Daily Wire:   Trump Responds To Bad Bunny Halftime Show, Says It Was ‘Absolutely Terrible’

Andrew Weil / WATN:   Who was the child in Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show?

Drew Lerner / Awful Announcing:   Turns out the Bad Bunny halftime show wasn't the end of western civilization

Cheryl Teh / Business Insider:   Trump's review of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show is in, and it's safe to say he didn't like it

Adam Zagoria / New Jersey Online:   Was the Super Bowl halftime wedding real?

 Shane O'Neill / Washington Post:
Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show was expected to provoke. Did it?

Discussion:

Alix Martichoux / The Hill:   Bad Bunny's Puerto Rico flag had a special meaning. Did you notice?

Warner Todd Huston / Breitbart:   Washington Post Mocked for Calling Bad Bunny's Vulgar Halftime Show ‘Wholesome’

Grateful Calvin / twitchy.com:   MORE Firings, Bezos: WaPo Applauds Bad Bunny's Halftime Show as ‘Wholesome’ and ‘Family-Friendly’

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:   When the Two Sides of the Culture War Meet

Jon Caramanica / New York Times:   Bad Bunny's Halftime History Lesson

Andrew Unterberger / Billboard:   Bad Bunny Turns the World Into His Casita With Triumphant Super Bowl LX Halftime Performance: Critic's Take

Matt Durr / MLive.com:   Couple featured during Bad Bunny's halftime show actually got married on stage

Crystal Bell / Mashable:   Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show: Will he call out ICE?

Krys Shahin / KUSA-TV:   Is Bad Bunny married? What to know about the Puerto Rican superstar before the Super Bowl

Gotta love (Like hell you do!) "Dumbest Man on the Internet" & admitted homosexual Jim Hoft decrying "Two Men Simulating Sex, Dry Humping During Halftime Show". Who does he think he's kidding?

And the magic word was invoked:

They Hate The Cities & The Country (& All The Nation)

Double Rainbow, Yosemite Valley, Spring 2024, by Darvin Atkeson

The NYT:

It was the most consequential camping trip in American history: In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, asked the naturalist John Muir to guide him into the wilderness of California’s Yosemite Valley. After three days and an unexpected snowstorm, the two men emerged, bedraggled but gratified. Camping beneath the valley’s giant sequoias, Roosevelt later wrote, “was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.”

The 26th president went on to lay the groundwork for an audacious policy: America’s wild lands should be publicly owned and protected in perpetuity. For over a century, Republicans have mostly defended and expanded this legacy, in large part because of their personal connections to the outdoors. But something has changed since President Trump returned to office last year: His inner circle consists almost exclusively of hyperonline MAGA ideologues, whose passion for American landscapes generally begins and ends at the golf course. The Roosevelt Republicans are in retreat. The indoor Republicans have arrived.

In the past year or so, this new conservative vanguard has rolled out the most boldly anti-environment agenda in modern American history. Recently this has included taking steps to allow a foreign company to mine for copper just upstream of Minnesota’s beloved Boundary Waters wilderness.

Before the rise of the indoor Republicans, conservatives’ affinity for wilderness was a powerful force in American politics. As the historian Douglas Brinkley put it to me, “There was something about huddling around the campfire exchanging stories, hunting and fishing — it was part of the DNA of the Republican Party.”

This helped ensure a nearly bulletproof consensus among Democrats and Republicans to steward public lands. While lawmakers and cabinet members argued about the details of environmental regulations, the core ethic of conservation — protecting clean air, clean water and wilderness for future generations — remained reliably bipartisan.

Since the rise of the MAGA movement, many Republican elites no longer seem interested in riding horses in the Rockies or fly fishing in the Adirondacks. Jackson Hole is out. Palm Beach is in.

Leaders of several nonpartisan and right-of-center nature conservation groups — the de facto representatives of the nation’s hunters and recreationists — told me they have spent decades building rapport with federal officials who admired the conservation groups in the same way Roosevelt admired Muir. In the past year, those partnerships have mostly eroded.

Many of the career civil servants they once worked with at agencies such as the Interior Department have quit, been fired or been sidelined by Trump loyalists focused on retribution and dismantling government bureaucracy.

Many conservationists had hoped that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a former governor of North Dakota, would stand up for public lands and environmental protections. More so than any other cabinet member, he styles himself as a Westerner, hosting a cowboy-themed Christmas party and displaying a mounted elk head in his D.C. office. Even REI, the liberal-leaning outdoor retailer, endorsed his nomination for the top job overseeing the nation’s public lands and national parks. (The company later apologized for its endorsement.)

Instead, Mr. Burgum appears to be a yes man, cowed into submission by Mr. Trump and his sharper-elbowed advisers like the White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, and the Office of Management and Budget director, Russell Vought. On Mr. Burgum’s watch, the Department of the Interior has systematically pursued resource extraction over conservation and let go of about a quarter of the National Park Service staff.

During Mr. Trump’s first term, some pro-conservation Republicans with MAGA clout played a moderating role in the White House. In 2020 Donald Trump Jr. and the hard-right commentator Tucker Carlson, both avid outdoorsmen, helped block the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, which threatened one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries.

In 2020 the younger Mr. Trump helped found a magazine and lifestyle brand, Field Ethos, which hawks $100 waxed canvas toiletry bags and embossed mimosa glasses. But in the current administration, he has shown less interest in conservation than in feathering the family nest by inking deals with online betting markets and crypto start-ups.

The few conservative elites who are still fighting to protect cherished trout creeks and bird habitats are outnumbered and outgunned. If this momentum continues and resistance fails for three more years, some of our nation’s unique and sensitive landscapes, from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Bears Ears National Monument, will be even more endangered than they are today.

When future historians look back on this era, the most telling anecdote about the triumph of the indoor Republican might be the president’s decision in 2025 to pave over the White House Rose Garden, which he framed as a chivalrous effort to defend American women from the vicissitudes of nature. “You see the women?” he told an interviewer. “The grass was wet. Their heels are going through the grass.”

Maybe it’s too much to expect every president to go camping, but the American right will have to decide how much to tolerate a generation of leaders who are ambivalent or outright hostile to our nation’s natural heritage. Time is of the essence; political parties recover faster than ecosystems.

Remember, they're confessing every time they whine about the left "hating America". And everything they hate scares them, whether it's the American people, urban & rural, or the animals, dirt, trees & the like of our continent's vast natural wonder

Original title:

MAGA Elites Are Indoor Cats

Were cat fanciers irked enough to raise a stink & have it changed?

Piling on the Philistines.

None More Wonderful Than Man:
Art, Artists, and MAGA’s Hollow View
of Humanity

MAGA sees art as nothing more than a tool of self-aggrandizement, and artists as less than human.