Global warming update: Killing a major environmental research report

The NYT reports (not paywalled):

Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature. 

They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway.

The first full draft of the assessment, on the state of America’s land, water and wildlife, was weeks from completion. The project leader called the study “too important to die.”

The draft was almost ready for submission, due in less than a month. More than 150 scientists and other experts had collectively spent thousands of hours working on the report, a first-of-its-kind assessment of nature across the United States.

But President Trump ended the effort, started under the Biden administration, by executive order. So, on Jan. 30, the project’s director, an environmental scientist named Phil Levin, sent an email telling members of his team that their work had been discontinued.

The article reports that Levin wrote to other authors, asserting that “the country needs what we are producing.” The key experts who worked on the report, called the National Nature Assessment, are planning to finish and publish without government involvement. One can only assumed that Levin IS FIRED!! for such insubordination.

One of the experts, Rajat Panwar (Oregon State University) who lead the chapter on nature and the economy said the team he recruited sees the work as a calling to help solve one of its generation’s most pressing problems, the loss of nature and biodiversity. According to Panwar, “the dependence of the economy on nature is understated and understudied and underappreciated.” 

Authoritarian and kleptocratic intent roam free, wild and

butt naked within the confines of our democracy and the rule of law

Hiding inconvenient fact, true truth and sound reasoning from the public is a key indicator of authoritarian and kleptocratic (A&K) intent. Just because A&K rhetoric and action are legal under existing laws, does not negate blatantly anti-democratic A&K intent. A&K intent here cannot be much clearer.

What about A&K motive? There's plenty of motive to stop all federal efforts to deal with global warning and all public communications related to it. First, there the cash, a/k/a, free speech. For example, Politico wrote last Sept., Trump pressed oil executives to give $1 billion for his campaign, people in industry say. It was legal, if the fact that there was and will be no prosecution for that request for a bribe.

Also, there is plenty of motive to keep the public as ignorant, disinformed and deceived as possible about the seriousness of global warming. As a rule, As&Ks routinely try to hide as much inconvenient fact, true truth and sound reasoning from the public as their power and circumstances permit. They capture and manipulate government institutions to kill their independence and convert them to propaganda operations. The overarching strategy is to establish and maintain asymmetry of information. They control what the public knows, how they perceive it, and what they can discuss. They do this by a combination of censorship, disinformation, repression, and the manipulation of both domestic and international perceptions.

Poll data makes it clear that most Americans are concerned about global warming. A Gallup poll from December 2024 indicated that nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (61%) are concerned about global warming or climate change, with 40% worrying about it "a great deal" and 21% "a fair amount". 34% of Americans believe that government climate policies help the economy, 34% think they hurt it. Among Republicans, 56% believe climate policies usually hurt the economy, while 52% of Democrats think they help. Analyses suggest that despite a significant amount of ambiguity, the economic benefits of climate action might be undervalued due to uncertainty. 

The bottom line: American As&Ks are highly motivated to hide, deny and distort all inconvenient climate science. They are equally motivated to use demagoguery and deceptive propaganda to deceive, divide and sow confusion among the public. That is crucial to keep public opposition to climate science denial manageable. 

What's next?

This is what's next, Phase 2: 

We've been warned.

MAGA bits: Poetry; The chaos strategy; Unseparating church & state; Attacking the church!; Heretic pastor!

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand….

A "gyre" in W.B. Yeats's philosophy is a spiral or vortex, symbolizing the cyclical nature of history. The phrase "widening gyre" says the cycle is expanding, moving further from its center, which implies a loss of control or order. The falcon metaphor, is society or humanity that has flown so far from the falconer (authority, tradition, or divine guidance) that it can no longer hear or follow the commands. This symbolizes loss of direction and disintegration of established norms.

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold speaks to the collapse of societal structures, moral values, and traditional centers of power or belief. The center here can be interpreted as the core values or the established order that once held society together, now failing to maintain its grip. Anarchy loosed upon the world with the loss of the center refers to unleashed anarchy, or a state of serious disorder.

Are we facing that, or something about the opposite, where authority is taking control of our disordered democracy with its messy civil liberties and messy rule of law? 

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Salon writes about the chaos strategy:

Donald Trump's chaos strategy: Why Americans 

continue to fall for his game of distraction

Be very wary of any political observer or other public voice — or anyone else — who suggests that Trump and his MAGA movement are losing, in disarray, ineffective or somehow confused or weak. Such people are seeing what they want to see and not what is actually happening. Donald Trump and his MAGA movement’s strategy is chaos. Moreover, that chaos is in service to their shock and awe strategy to end America’s pluralistic democracy and to replace it with a form of autocracy if not outright fascism modeled on Viktor Orbán’s Hungary or Vladimir Putin’s Russia with Trump as de facto leader for life. As Harold Meyerson observes in The American Prospect, “As to the wider world, if we ever sought to be that beacon on the hill, we’re now the bully on the hill. America, Trumpified.”  

America’s center is rapidly collapsing, and it has not been very difficult for Trump and the MAGA movement and the other fascists and authoritarians to break it.

That sounds right to me. Salon gets it. Well, at least that writer gets it.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Above the Law writes about unseparating the state from the church: 

Folks who were paying attention didn’t really need Project 2025 to know the direction Trump and the far right were planning to take the country in. Back in 2022, it was obvious theocracy was approaching.*** And whether it was labeled Integralism or White Christian Nationalism, it was pretty clear that conservative Christianity would be taking a hold in the White House under a Trump presidency. The only real question was how strong the hold would be. Considering Trump just casually mentioned a Christian task force housed in the White House, it’s gonna be pretty strong. 

*** FWIW: It was obvious to me back in 2017. Harumph!

It's too early to predict how much impact American Christian theocracy have. There will be some impact on society and individuals and groups that God says need to be re-educated, oppressed or more vigorously put in their place. It will probably take 6-8 months before the scope, depth and grasp of the Christian nationalist wealth and power movement comes into reasonable focus. One needs to keep an eye on changes in the the rule of law and more Christian access to tax dollars.  

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Deployment of power by DJT and MAGA seem to be fragmenting in the American Christian world. The WaPo writes: 

High-level members of the Trump administration and allies of the president are leveling attacks on religious groups, including Catholics and Lutherans, who do the same work Bush praised [in 2001], questioning their efforts to help migrants. These attacks may signal a new political approach toward religion, some experts say, one comfortable belittling faith groups — despite DJT’s self-described brand as a champion of Christians. More broadly, it has aligned some Republicans against religious groups that in some cases propelled their rise to power, Trump’s included.

“This is just a complete reversal” of the Bush-era goal of bringing faith groups into public works and elevating their role in American life, said Melissa Deckman, a political scientist focused on religion and politics in America and chief executive of the polling firm PRRI. These actions are “a total abandonment of faith-based groups,” Deckman said.

On Sunday, on the social media site X, right-wing Trump ally Mike Flynn accused Lutheran organizations that receive federal grants to help the needy of committing “money laundering.” Flynn put quote marks around the word “Lutheran” — one of America’s largest Protestant groups — in the post. Billionaire Elon Musk’s then shared Flynn’s post, calling “illegal” multiple Lutheran organizations that work in the United States to provide health care to homeless people, run food pantries, and help migrants and refugees.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

The Daily Beast writes about the heretic in the White House: 

Trump Enrages Christian MAGA By Naming ‘Heretic’ Pastor to White House 

DJT angered some of his Christian supporters on Friday when he named a televangelist who even some conservative evangelicals have labeled a “heretic” as part of his White House administration. The president signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office and chose Pastor Paula White-Cain, his ally and spiritual advisor, to lead it. White-Cain, 58, is a megachurch preacher from Florida who has endorsed biblical interpretations that some evangelical Christians believe go too far. She is a proponent of “prosperity theology,” which teaches that God rewards the truly faithful with material wealth and personal success. 

Scott Ross, a Texas-based leadership coach and self-described “Orthodox Christian,” called the move “an abomination.” “Paula White, head of Trump’s White House Faith Office, is no Christian leader,” he wrote. “She preaches the heresies of Word of Faith & Prosperity Gospel, both utterly opposed to authentic Christianity. Worse, she has lived a life of scandal, with multiple husbands, twisting the Gospel for profit.” .... “Arguably, this is the worst and most dangerous thing President Trump has done—putting a false teacher at the helm of faith outreach. Lord, have mercy on our country and this administration,” Ross added.  

Conservative commentator Jon Root, who typically posts in support of Trump, wrote, “This is the worst decision President Trump has made since taking office… Paula White is a heretic, who pedals the prosperity gospel. Plus, women should not be pastors according to The Bible.”

Putting White-Cain in the White House Faith Office is the worst and most dangerous thing?? Women should not be pastors according to The Bible?? 

Well, what can I say? Maybe Ross and Root are right. Who knows? We're in uncharted waters. The ship of state just might hit rocks and sink into only Christian God knows what. Knowing God stuff is waaaay above my pay grade. 

Q: Are splits among Christians and bickering Christian nationalist splinter groups a sign of Yeats' widening gyre?   

American Legal Realism, Legal Formalism, and MAGAism compared

American Legal Realism

American Legal Realism (ALR) is a legal ideology or doctrine that emerged in the early 20th century, primarily in the United States, as a reaction against the prevailing legal formalism of the time. It arose when there were major social and technological changes underway in the US. ALR drew heavily from pragmatism, a philosophy that emphasized practical consequences and real-world effects over abstract principles. ALR emphasizes the actual behavior of judges and the social, economic, and political factors influencing legal outcomes. Realists argue that legal rules and principles are not fixed or objective. Instead, they are often ambiguous, contradictory, or incomplete, leading to multiple possible interpretations in judicial decision-making. Under ALR, the law is seen as an instrument for achieving social ends, reflecting the belief that judges should consider fairness, public policy, and societal needs in their decisions. Here, there is an understanding that judicial decisions should be influenced by more than just legal doctrine, including social norms and empirical realities. 

Legal formalism

Legal formalism posits that law is a set of rules and principles that are independent of other political and social institutions. Formalists believe that by applying a consistent set of legal rules to a given case, sound legal decisions will be the outcome of logical deduction. The law is seen as a rational, scientific system where judges merely apply existing laws without considering external factors like social interests or public policy. Here, judges are expected to align their decisions with current laws without alterations. The role of the judge is to interpret the law, not to analyze or change it. This approach assumes that common law can only progress by following a specific set of principles drawn from legal authority, leading to predictable outcomes

MAGAism

MAGAism does not strictly adhere to either legal realism or legal formalism. Instead, it exhibits characteristics that align more closely with authoritarianism. The MAGA movement has been described as authoritarian, with tendencies towards nativism, opposition to pluralism, and a focus on maintaining power through various means, including undermining democratic institutions (1, 2, 3, 4). The movement's approach to the rule of law appears to be more about using legal mechanisms to achieve political ends rather than adhering to a specific legal philosophy. This includes threats to prosecute political opponents, invoking the Insurrection Act, and plans for mass deportations. The influence of the Federalist Society, which promotes originalist interpretations of the Constitution, suggests a formalist approach in judicial appointments. However, this formalist stance is often used to advance a political agenda rather than a pure commitment to legal formalism. For MAGA, the law is a means to desired ends.

The problem with writing laws

During Brett Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearing, senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) made these comments, which reflects a major problem with many important American laws:

“. . . . . the people don't have a way to fire the bureaucrats. What we mostly do around this body is not pass laws. What we mostly decide to do is to give permission to the secretary or the administrator of bureaucracy X, Y or Z to make law-like regulations. That’s mostly what we do here. We go home and we pretend we make laws. No we don’t. We write giant pieces of legislation, 1200 pages, 1500 pages long, that people haven’t read, filled with all these terms that are undefined, and say to secretary of such and such that he shall promulgate rules that do the rest of our dang jobs. That’s why there are so many fights about the executive branch and the judiciary, because this body rarely finishes its work. [joking] And, the House is even worse.”

Here, Sasse a MAGA extremist was voicing criticism of the evil deep state, the damned bureaucrats. He wanted congress to do it job. That is something that congress is not competent to do because congress does not have the expertise that those hated federal bureaucracies have. MAGA got rid of Sasse because MAGA wants DJT to do congress' job. Sasse criticized that. That criticism made DJT angry and MAGA drove Sasse out of the Senate. 

See the problem? Which legal doctrine would you want, assuming competent judges acting in good faith, not Trump judges, ALR, legal formalism, or MAGAism?  

Secrecy & opacity: Regarding authoritarian MAGA's 180-Day Playbook & public trust

The secret plan

The fourth pillar of Project 2025 is our 180-day Transition Playbook and includes a comprehensive, concrete transition plan for each federal agency. Only through the implementation of specific action plans at each agency will the next conservative presidential Administration be successful.

Pillar IV will provide the next President a roadmap for doing just that. To learn more about Project 2025’s vision for a conservative administration, please read our recently published book, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.

This plan has not been made public. It is not conservative. It is kleptocratic and authoritarian. The reason for secrecy is to hide the authoritarian and kleptocratic intent of America's corrupt, authoritarian radical right elites. From what I can tell, essentially no one in the MSM or the public generally seems to care that massive government changes are kept secret from the American people. Reporting about it has been minimal, with little or no mention of how morally rotten and anti-democratic it is to keep the American people in the dark about massive changes in their federal government. 

I guess the MSM and public trust DJT and MAGA elites to do the right thing. Well, as Zuckerberg would say: