Either the circus is back in town or somebody forgot to close the enclosures at the zoo

Since election day, I've been relatively quiet and stifling my basest instincts to engage in primal screaming, either literally or in writing. I haven't watched any TV or streaming news, and am reading only selective articles from the print media. However, I couldn't help but notice a few really disturbing pieces of news over the past 24 hours, and decided that the moment for constrained primal screaming has arrived. So, expect me to restart my postings, including environmental, climate change and biodiversity articles and stories, and some photography, but also expect a lot of trump and MAGA bashing. We Americans are getting what we collectively asked for, and I don't like it one bit regardless of the "collectively" word.

The items that bothered me. One, the idea of convening a panel to purge the military of general and admirals with whom trump may not agree on issues involving efficiency, equity and expertise. (He who avoided the draft because of alleged boo-boos on his feet, and who refused to visit the graves of our soldiers and sailors who died during the WWII invasion of France, calling them "losers" and suckers", and so on.) Two, the proposed appointed of matt gaetz as Attorney General. (He who has had plenty of credible fingers pointed his way about sex trafficking and having sexual relationships with underaged women.) Three, a proposal to adjourn the Senate and House so he can avoid the "advice and consent" requirements of the US Constitution respecting his Cabinet appointments.

Some of this junk and other proposed appointments reek of immorality and impropriety. Some have constitutional underpinnings, meaning that the US Supreme Court, with his six buddies on board, will be involved to bless his otherwise illegal and unconstitutional actions. They also reek of 1933 Germany and the rise of Hitler, and confirm that he has planned to implement Project 2025 regardless of his lies to his cult that he didn't know what Project 2025 was.

I will be posting links to articles about these and other appointments, and undoubtedly some sarcastic photos or cartoons. I will also be cancelling my subscriptions to the Washington Post and the LA Times, both of which played cowardly lion in refusing to endorse a candidate. So you won't see links to those newspapers anymore. No need to add a penny to jeff bezos' wallet or to the person who owns the Los Angeles Times. Too bad, because I know some of the reporters and columnists at both of those papers, whom I have always trusted. (I may find ways to work around the paywalls.)

Trump Chooses Lee Zeldin to Run E.P.A. as He Plans to Gut Climate Rules. (New York Times)

I know nothing about this guy, but I've already looked at the sky and the trees and the animals in the yard and decided that he's a fucking asshole. But I will otherwise withhold my judgment.

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Monday that he will nominate former Rep. Lee Zeldin, Republican of New York, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a position that is expected to be central to Mr. Trump’s plans to dismantle landmark climate regulations.

Mr. Trump campaigned on pledges to “kill” and “cancel” E.P.A. rules and regulations to combat global warming by restricting fossil fuel pollution from vehicle tailpipes, power plant smokestacks and oil and gas wells.

In particular, Mr. Trump wants to erase the Biden administration’s most significant climate rule, which is designed to speed a transition away from gasoline-powered cars and toward electric vehicles.

A former congressman from Long Island who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022, Mr. Zeldin, 44, is an avid Trump supporter who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election.

In a statement, Mr. Trump said Mr. Zeldin would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”

Mr. Trump added that Mr. Zeldin would “set new standards on environmental review and maintenance that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”

Perhaps more than many other federal agencies, the E.P.A. has been a particular target for Mr. Trump, who blames environmental regulations for hampering a variety of industries, including construction and oil and gas drilling. During his first term, Mr. Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental policies and regulations. President Biden restored many of them and strengthened several.

Some people on Mr. Trump’s transition team say the agency needs a wholesale makeover and are even discussing moving the E.P.A. headquarters and its 7,000 workers out of Washington, D.C., according to multiple people involved in the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the transition.

We are definitely among the "Leave the Leaves" crowd. We'll get them off what's left of our lawn and leave them in the gardens to provide a nursery for all the little things that grow and that will eventually become breakfast for the bigger things. Plus we get surprises in the spring of stuff growing that we know we didn't plant so we blame birds pooping in the leaves.

Excerpt from this Chicago Tribune story:

The green gardening practice known as Leave the Leaves isn’t closely tracked, but a recent poll from the National Wildlife Federation found that 15% of Americans leave their leaves in their yards, and some local leaf-leavers say they’re seeing signs of growing interest on social media.

Among the examples: a 2023 “Leave the Leaves” TikTok video by the foraging teacher Alexis Nikole Nelson got 1.2 million views and 3,400 comments.

Among the goals of formal Leave the Leaves campaigns sponsored by national conservation groups: to provide food and shelter for insects at a time when studies show drastic population declines.

“We’re literally throwing away the next generation of pollinators,” said National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski.

Mizejewski said it’s unclear who started Leave the Leaves, and lots of groups are promoting it. His organization drew attention to the issue early on with a popular 2014 blog post, and last year the wildlife federation started promoting October as Leaves the Leaves month.

Concern about a drastic decline in the insect population — sometimes referred to as the insect apocalypse — has helped drive interest.

An influential 2017 study in the journal PLOS ONE found a 75% decrease in flying insects in German nature preserves over 27 years, and in 2021 the National Academies of Sciences produced a special issue on insect decline, with the authors of one article writing, “Urgent action is needed on behalf of nature.”

Birds, many of which eat insects, are also struggling, with a 2019 report in the journal Science estimating that there were 29% fewer birds in North America than there were in 1970.

Some of the birds visiting our feeders today. We had about 13 of these, and maybe a couple hundred funny things with wings and feathers but these birds had a mission to harass the funny things with wings.

It's been several days since I did some serious Tumblr posting. Maybe soon, maybe later today. I'm still vacillating among the various stages of grief, so my mood can shift from "not giving a fuck anymore" to "fuck them" to "time to watch TV or listen to music while drinking wine or eating cake."

Excerpt from this Chicago Tribune story:

Where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron connect, powerful water currents rush in opposite directions over an antiquated pipeline known as Line 5. Along the pipeline’s route from Wisconsin to Ontario, via the Straits of Mackinac, more than 1 million gallons of oil have reportedly spilled in the past 50 years.

Experts say Line 5 is vulnerable to future leaks and poses a risk to the livelihood of Indigenous communities, the region’s thriving wildlife and the drinking water of millions of Great Lakes residents.

Decades-old battles to remove the Canadian-owned pipeline from the Bad River Band reservation by Lake Superior and the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac have played out mostly in Wisconsin and Michigan, respectively. Activists seeking the shutdown of Line 5 recently brought the fight to Chicago to consolidate a larger grassroots effort ahead of a presidential election that policy experts say will be critical to the pipeline’s future. 

“Essentially, what we are asking for and urging that the current and the next administration do, is come up with a regional plan that continues this clean energy transition we’re already on,” said Bentley Johnson, director of federal government affairs at the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “Let’s start by decommissioning the most dangerous infrastructure that we have — and we really feel like the facts show that Line 5 is America’s most dangerous pipeline.

“In Bad River, we’re one storm away, one bad flood away from eroding the river bank and exposing this pipeline,” he said. “In the straits, we’re one anchor strike away, we’re one crack away from a devastating oil spill that jeopardizes the drinking water for tens of millions.”

Clean water remains the top environmental concern for most Americans, according to a Gallup poll conducted earlier this year. And protecting the Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest surface freshwater ecosystems, has become urgent as population growth and human-made climate change cause water shortages in parts of the United States. According to research by Colorado State University, nearly half of the country’s 204 freshwater basins might not be able to meet monthly water demands by 2071.