“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Henry Clement, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, August 2023. This post discusses hunting, fishing, and public lands, as well as those who seek to undermine their unique significance in American life.

By Henry Clement

Regardless of your political beliefs, it is overwhelming to keep track of the environmental assaults on once-protected wilderness areas. All of Trump’s appointees, despite their incompetence, openly reveal their servility and unfitness to hold any office. We are too quiet because the administration is making authoritarianism seem normal [Please read Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.“]

The king addressed his loyal appointees, saying, “When I was young, I did a lot of stupid things, but after years of deception, corruption, abuse of power, infidelity, bankruptcies, involvement in Epstein’s activities, and believing Putin, I am no longer young.”

At breakneck speed and with astonishing incompetence, Trump is shaping up to be the historical author of America’s downfall—and the loss of our “best idea ever, public lands.”

A dead wilderness could take years, if not centuries, to restore

Trump, his fawning appointees, congressional MAGA Republicans, and Russell Vought—the architect of undermining the United States Constitution—have no regard for public lands. They want to sell our forests, game lands, and fish habitats to coal, oil, lumber, and mineral extraction companies that genuflect to their interests. We also see investors keen on constructing cookie-cutter million-dollar homes that disrupt elk migrations and harm wildlife, deforest river corridors, and threaten trout populations. They shamelessly desire chemically treated lawns and golf course fairways—who needs trees, elk, and trout anyway?

The MAGA supporters have discovered their manipulated interpretation of Jesus in Donald Trump

The loud and babbling speeches of Senator Michael Shumway Lee of Utah (R) and other congressional members, who brand themselves as truth-tellers but fit the mold of miscreants, drown out all voices of reason. With each new day, the idea of plundering public lands falls into the hands of greedy individuals. These lands are at risk of being devastated, and like Humpty Dumpty, the forests, elk, trout, and wildernesses we nurtured for nearly two centuries may never be restored.

MAGA deceives with every breath it takes

MAGA is exposing its selfishness and hoping its paymasters, partners in the timber, mining, and extraction industries, along with ruthless developers, achieve their goals. They are free to destroy forests, fisheries, hunting grounds, and the natural beauty of our public lands.

For hundreds of years before our founding, Europe acknowledged its mistakes. The rapid deforestation for firewood and timber products led to dire consequences. Forests maintain soil health on mountains and level lands, protect against erosion and flooding, and shield against excessive rainfall. They also protect dunes and shorelines, as well as old-growth forests, which serve as a barrier against wildfires.

Despite our efforts, we still find ourselves without answers

To avert environmental disasters caused by land clearing, property owners should be required, as they are in Europe, India, Japan, and other countries, to obtain permission before clearing land for different uses, or face heavy fines. If permission is granted, the landowner should be mandated to replant a similar-sized area to that which was removed.

Like many others, my grandfather and great-great-great-grandparents on both my maternal and paternal sides arrived at Ellis Island or on sailing ships that docked at various locations. They came from different parts of Europe, including persecuted French Huguenots, Irish Catholics fleeing the Potato Famine of 1845, and persecuted Quakers from England, even before our nation was officially established. Relatives fought and died in Europe during World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and beyond. Image Statue of Liberty seen from the Circle Line ferry, Manhattan, New York. Photo by Commons image taken by William Warby.

We are clearly heading towards autocracy, as Trump dismisses the constitutional limits on his power

Shutdown Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, openly shrinks away from responsibility, while his congressional colleagues yield to Trump’s whims without reservation. The Republican Party, along with its MAGA faction, heeds Trump’s desires, even if it means defying the Constitution and undermining its own authority. “These threats are bigger than health subsidies—bigger, even, than this shutdown,” said a former MAGA devotee hunter and fisher.

Every day, Trump comes to work to advance his bid for an American autocracy. That may not be very comforting to Americans who prefer law and order.

The king and his ambitious billionaires are seeking more wealth and power, with no limitations in place. Trump will be sure to secure more money for himself and ensure the ruling class receives theirs.

Crypto-centric extremist Peter Thiel, J D Vance’s protege, and fellow billionaire Marc Andreessen, a former progressive thinker, but now also supports authoritarian views. The crypto money crowd and MAGA followers have proven they can outtalk any citizen or rightful government agency trying to protect public lands.