Trump’s attack on the two national monuments, after all, wasn’t just a lucky break, a gift that fell from the sky. Rather, it was the result of a savvy, multiyear campaign by a network of far-right organizations with powerful friends in Washington and financial backing from dark-money funds tied to the billionaire Koch brothers and their political kin.
Led by organizations like Utah’s Sutherland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heritage Foundation, and an array of allies, this network has labored assiduously over the last few years to undermine the legitimacy of federal lands across the American West. It has done this, in part, by working to erode public support for key conservation laws and institutions, including the Antiquities Act of 1906. And it has had great success.
Trump’s trip to Utah, his decision to destroy the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante monuments, is a consequence of that deeper, long-game campaign to chip away at America’s conservation system.
LINK (via: The Nation)
As a non-American, a Brit, living in a country with a different though not completely unsimilar set of “Hooray for our side” problems of its own, I can only suggest that a forthcoming Sunday Toona feature one of one of best tracks of all time – “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. Might make a few more, if not actually everybody, look and ask just what’s going down – in my country and in yours.