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Mary Johnson's avatar

Joe, thank you for this long and detailed post. I know you said you didn’t want to know about Peanut the Squirrel, but you really should. This story exemplifies the incoherence of the Magats. Briefly,NY sent a SWAT team to confiscate a wildlife rehabbers pet squirrel and raccoon. The squirrel panicked, bit someone, and was put down. The raccoon cub was also killed. The rehabber was apparently in the process of getting the correct licenses when this happened.

It was awful, and I feel bad for all the innocents involved. But the Magats are screaming that it shows the danger of “big government” and that the democrats will invade our homes, kill our animals, destroy our freedoms, etc—while they, themselves, want the government to interfere in sensitive medical issues, deny women’s rights, and more. Absolutely incoherent.

Poor little Peanut’s death does not show the danger of “big government”, but the danger of militarizing the police—something the Magats are absolutely fine with when those police are turned against peaceful protesters and communities of color.

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Kollibri terre Sonnenblume's avatar

Great essay.

I was not personally dismayed about my vote for president, which was for Stein/Ware. I was happy to go on record opposing the duopoly in general and the Genocide in particular. Every vote against the Genocide is a message to the Palestinian people that some of us here stand with them.

I was also happy to vote for Gabe Vasquez for Congress here in NM, in what is the most competitive congressional district in the US. His opponent, Republican Yvette Herrell was the incumbent in 2022 and lost to Gabe by just 1305 votes out of 192,000 cast. Herrell is one of these dominionists who want to privatize all public lands, which would be a horrific disaster. With such a close margin, this really is a contest where every vote counts.

All that being said, my central focus is the environment, and I definitely have dismay about it regardless of whether Harris or Trump wins. Each presents different challenges. Trump and Project 2025 would seek to dismantle environmental regulations, which would be disastrous. But if the previous three Democratic administrations are any indication (Biden, Obama, Clinton), the challenge under Harris will be getting people to see that no, everything's not going to be fine now, and we must hold her administration's feet to the fire to make it do the right thing. I don't relish either outcome. We have an uphill battle either way.

One of my main priorities is protecting wildlife habitat from development and extraction (which is to say, from Capitalism, and also Patriarchy). Unfortunately, one of the biggest threats to ecosystems in the US West is "green energy" development, both from the destructive footprints of the projects themselves (land bulldozed for solar and wind farms, and for the long corridors needed for transmission lines) and the additional mining needed for the projects (lithium for batteries, copper for building out the grid, etc.). It's already a big challenge getting people to see that "green energy" has its own significant environmental costs--often in places like our deserts and steppe lands that up til now had so far managed to escape the worst of industrialism--and that we must take a different path: one of *reducing* our overall footprint of consumption rather than expanding it. We shouldn't even be maintaining it at current levels.

If Harris wins, I will be involved with campaigns pushing back on her administration's plans to destroy western ecosystems, which will mean trying to convince well-meaning liberal people who believe they care about the environment that opposing Harris is necessary. If Trump wins, it's ironic but such "green energy" projects will likely go ahead at about the same pace if his last administration is any measure, because this development isn't really about sustaining the environment, it's about sustaining Capital. Some of the aforementioned liberals will continue pushing for that development, and will cast me as a Trump supporter for opposing it.

So yeah, dismay is certainly a prominent emotion for me right now!!!!

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