The Witness Chronicles, 3/16/25

The madness

Photo by Chris Gallagher on Unsplash

Erasing a Nation’s Memory? No, We Are Not Totally Idiots

Deleting EPA research on carbon and warming

Lee Zeldon, the head of the EPA under Trump, has been taking us back to before the Nixon administration when air pollution was so bad that even Nixon knew something had to be done. So, he started the Environmental Protection Agency. Now, as we face a global environmental catastrophe, Zeldon is taking the agency apart.

It took the EPA until 2009 to verify that carbon from burning fossil fuels was the principal cause of global warming, after years of denial by the oil companies and their lobbyists. Better late than never I guess. Now Zeldon is going to reverse that scientific evidence of something everyone knows is true.

The Trump people seem to think that erasing something makes it go away and that we will forget the truth. There’s a pattern to this across all their actions. We see it most blatantly in Elon Musk’s wild exaggeration of the cuts he is making, claims that instantly collapse when exposed to any scrutiny.

The science behind the carbon conclusion is extensive and irrefutable and that will not go away because someone deleted those EPA files. But this symbolic denial nonsense is about a fact that is accepted across society. But the erasure serves a different and more ominous purpose.

If the government says the science is wrong, it justifies not funding any more research. It also opens the door to blocking all kinds of progress we have made towards ending our reliance on burning fossil fuels.This is just a piece of the Trump war on science, which can only be explained by Trump’s monumental ignorance and willingness to kowtow to big money interests. And all of us are paying for it.

I don’t need to make a case for climate change because we can all see it every day with extreme weather, droughts and floods, and hurricanes, all occurring more and more often, even in places that do not typically experience these things. Last week’s fires on Long Island are just the most recent example, as were the fires in North Carolina earlier in the month.

The US has always been the global gold standard for innovation but without government support for research we will rapidly tarnish that reputation. Yet another long term consequence of this reckless destruction. One might question why technology leaders are backing Trump when they have become wealthy based on innovation and science. But they already made their money and now they want to play the DC power game.

And the operative term here is power. It is the ultimate drug in the nation’s Capitol and it appears that the Republican Party has decided its pursuit is worth leaving behind principles and decency. We constantly hear that Party members in private are personally horrified by the actions of their President and his ketamine addicted sidekick Elon Musk, but they still toe the party line in public and with their votes.

A lot of these elected officials represent states that are facing major disruption and destruction from climate-related disasters. Their loyalty to the Party and the President is more important than the welfare of their constituents and the economic health of their states, whose citizens gave them their power, not Donald Trump. It’s warped.

Speaking of warped, I would be remiss not to mention Trump’s deranged speech at the DOJ on Friday, possibly the most disgusting display in American politics, except that deranged displays occur weekly with this President. If you want to read the details, I recommend Joyce Vance, a former DOJ prosecutor, for the details.

This is a man possessed by anger and vengeance to the point of madness. And a man surrounded by people mesmerized by whatever charisma he has, racists like Stephen Miller and true believers like Attorney General Pam Bondi, who gushed over him like he was Elvis.

It is impossible to understand these people who stand at the pinnacle of power in the world, and can only imagine wielding that power to wreak revenge on Trump’s enemies, which encompasses nearly everyone. How they can ignore his history of turning on his supporters is incomprehensible, but virtually everything we are witnessing is incomprehensible.

The psychological toll this stuff is taking on the nation is immeasurable and not yet fully realized. We have an opposition paralyzed by a belief that they can operate the way they always have, half of the voting population trying to support the guy they voted for as they are decimated by his actions, and a business sector realizing his destruction is going to take them down too.

All in less than two months.

The question on the minds of those of us paying attention is how do we resist and eventually eject this person? And how do we do it if those we elected to enforce the laws sit weakly and watch him take them apart?

As I read the news my overwhelming emotion is shame, followed by anger. The shame is on us for letting this happen and the anger is tempered by a sense of helplessness. That anger is why I write daily. I feel there has to be a record of what we are seeing and feeling, at least what I am seeing and feeling.

I take some comfort in knowing I am not alone. This newsletter only reaches a small number of readers but at least I am trying. And I’m determined not to give in and just live my life in blissful ignorance. That is simply not an option anymore. Trump’s actions are reaching into the daily lives of all Americans, affecting every aspect of them in a negative way. Veterans, farmers, middle class people aghast at prices, and those of us who know that without the rule of law we descend into chaos, which is apparently the goal of this mad man.

I’ll stop now. But he isn’t stopping and resisting is not an option, it’s a necessity. In fact it may be our only option if men like Chuck Schumer keep pretending this is anything like normal. Not just Schumer and the Democrats, the entire Republican Party has folded into a whimpering herd of docile cattle. Shame.

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Thank you,

Martin Edic