Damn, it’s crazy that we let one guy decide these things. Seems like the kind of thing that should be determined by a large legislative body that holds the power over our nation’s budget and the ability to write laws. Weird we don’t have one of those.
Almost as if this one guy is just a figurehead for a larger political movement.
Well one thing these last years have taught me is that the US president has way too much power.
It was never an issue before because presidents didn’t test it, but this is insanity.
The president largely doesn’t have too much power. Problem is the other two branches of government conceding theirs.
To be fair, in many ways the president doesn’t have the power. But Republicans in congress are complicit, so when he does incredibly illegal, batshit crazy stuff, none of the mechanisms to keep him in check function. Him being president is a big problem, but the real problem here is the complete abdication of responsibility by those meant to check him.
That’s definitely true, but I’d still say the president shouldn’t even have the power to issue such decrees. Many of these things wouldn’t even happen if the president would first have to convince the legislative body (even if controlled by his own party) to write a law. Reverting an already issued decree is harder than saying no beforehand, and politically much more delicate.
To be fair, in many ways the president doesn’t have the power.
Yeah. Want a minimum wage increase, legal cannabis, childcare, family leave, protecting Roe, protecting democracy itself, pursuing justice for January 6 or Epstein’s victims, and the president is conveniently powerless.
Want to ignore the law to sell weapons for genocide and the president is fucking omnipotent.
He is de facto incredibly powerful, but he is de jure not. He’s only capable of doing those things because the checks and balances failed through the coordinated efforts of hundreds of Republican congressmen. Every heinous act that goes unchecked bears the implicit seal of approval of the entire Republican party. He could do many of the things you claim he’s powerless to do, too, but he doesn’t want to, and all the mechanisms meant to force him to have failed.
I was talking about the previous administration. I don’t expect anything good out of this one. And I was a fool to expect anything good out of the last one.
Which is what shocked me. I can understand that there are a few foul eggs in politics and if they take the wheel shits going down.
But since his second term literally nobody did stop any illegal shit from him.
The whole system is corrupt and broken. Nobody dares to defy the president even if they are supposed to!
I don’t think it’s so much “fear” of defying the president as it is they’re getting what they want from him (white christo-fascism), and they’re getting bribed by the same people. Most of the Dems are also dependant on the same interests as well (not necessarily the white Christian-nationalist stuff, but the same money). The concentration of wealth has put far too much power into too few hands. These same people are heavily influencing politics and public opinion worldwide. Idk, how we get out of this mess; have to bring the entire global economic system to its knees; forcibly redistribute their wealth or make it worthless I guess.
What is happening with this administration is exposing the great flaw of electoralism that anarchists and other leftists have been warning about for nearly a century.
That if we do not restructure our society, our politics and our culture leave us manipulatable to where these corrupt individuals could systematically consolidate power and out themselves or their allies into positions of power.
This is the result of not a decade but over a century of political and systemic manipulation by the owning-class.
Living in the US during this time has radicalized me so much against the system.
Also: The same party has both houses of Congress who pretty much abdicated their power to the Executive branch.
Another 35000 people lose their job thanks to Trump. People who also prevent forest fires. But that has never been in issue in the US, right?
Right?
RIGHT?!?
‘Fire, Water, Burn’ by the Bloodhound Gang for the curious.
Trees are for liberal pussies
I mean. You have to give it to them. They are really going all in on destroying anything that actually made America great.
I’m not sure if that was the original goal, or even the intent now, but even with how terrible this news is, if the goal is to systematically dismantle a country, these guys are very very good at it.
The National Parks were literally the last thing that would entice me to travel to the US
It’s like whoever is directing his actions just wants to twist the knife a bit. But there are so many evil fucks to choose from that it doesn’t really narrow it down. Could be a Putin “fuck the americans” thing, could be a Miller “fuck everybody” thing, who knows.
They’re running it like a business. Sell everything of value, bail when it crashes.
You don’t have to be good at anything to destroy things, which is why it’s all they brag about.
I guess you are right. The staggering thing for me is the shear apathy required to do what they are doing. It’s revolting and frankly terrifying, but fascinating.
There is a yet to be diagnosed mental illness involved here, for so many people to so callously trumpet and parade toward things that actively and directly hurt them as well, just to prove some imaginary point.
It’s like psychopathy mixed with a side of Stockholm flavoured bias soup.
Fascism is a mental illness, luckily it can be treated at home.
Use 1984 rules, reverse everything they say, that is the actual goal.
i miss what windmills are doing to our once beautiful country…
This is so outrageous that I find it hard to believe. The cost of the entire US Forest Service must be minuscule, especially if you compare it to cost of waging unnecessary, illegal, and unethical wars all over the planet.
I’m sure this isn’t really about saving money. It’s about destroying the US Forest Service. That’s the direct goal.
In a few years: “These unkempt forests are a real eyesore, what if we sell the land to private entities”
Within three years: “These unkempt forests…"
They’re going to try and steal as much of it as possible while Taco is in charge
Loving nature is woke.
Hell yeah! Nature rules
This is also the second time that he’s tried this. The first time was during his previous term, and though he was forced to reopen everything by the courts, the fact that he sold some of the federal land to (I think) oil companies was never acted upon, despite it being illegal to sell public land to corporate interests.
It’s about removing roadblock to “national parks are open for business”
It’s actually $9B a year…which I wouldn’t call “minuscule” like PBS was.
The point is Trump will never do anything that isn’t for deeply personal reasons. And he would never do anything solely to save money on the budget, he doesn’t care about that at all. So either he does this out of pure spite, because it is a “liberal” thing, or more likely he does it because he has been bribed by whatever industries are eager to turn all that forest into shortsighted profit.
Fine. But calling 9 billion dollars, an amount of money most people can’t even fathom, “minuscule” is pretty stupid.
In the federal budget context, that is literally a few dollars. It is super disingenuous to compare it to the budget of a single person.
0.1% of annual spending is minuscule.
Wildland Fire Management and the Wildfire Adjustment
The largest share of FS appropriations goes to the WFM account. The WFM appropriation funds preparedness, or fire prevention, detection, equipment and training; wildfire suppression; and salaries and expenses.
Overall, in FY2025, 51% of the agency’s discretionary appropriations, including supplemental appropriations, were provided for these two accounts (26% WFM, 25% wildfire adjustment).
What could possibly go wrong?
Yeah this is more of a re-org than an elimination. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/climate/forest-service-research-stations.html
Still seems like it might cause problems but it’s not the catastrophic change some people are making it out to be. And the Forest Service isn’t just a bunch of tree-hugging conservationists their mission is basically the sustainable exploitation of US forests. So for that reason they are very important to industry.
It’s “just a reorg” where they shut down all the research labs (which can’t be moved because they’re located by the forests they study) and hand leadership to pro-logging lobbyists.
It’s probably so they can destroy climate change research and distract people yet again from other atrocities. Oh and drill or whatever they want to do with the land.
President Javier Melei is a self described ancap and the inspiration behind DOGE. Wouldn’t surprise me if this is another attempt at shaping things by another libertarian group.
What the fuck
hope he dies by a thousand pine needles.
under a manchineel tree.
Since when is the President in charge of government agencies and their funding in any way?
I guess they know what they are doing.
Just kidding
Weird legal theories. They propose that Congress authorizes spending, but does not impose it. Therefore because Article II Section 3 requires “the President to ensure laws are faithfully executed”, he then controls how the department functions (if it all, apparently) and if there is leftover money it reverts to the Treasury.
The us treats legal texts like it does the Bible. Always twisting it to mean whatever they want it to mean, while pretending it’s an absolute truth.
Turns out laws are just calvinball and obeying them is for cucks.
Always has been.
Still gonna get called antisocial when i practice dentistry without a license.
Shout out to my wife’s uncle, the nature photographer who loves hiking and nature and voted for this chode to stop the woke mind virus. How’s that going bud?
Eh he is funneling money from everything he deems unnecessary (health, science, nature preservation, education, progressing human rights etc) to pockets of his buddies, Netanyahu and tech oligarchs.
his buddies, Netanyahu and tech oligarchs.
Aren’t Netanyahu and tech oligarchs his buddies too?
It feels more like he is Netanyahu’s attack dog and some of the tech oligarchs with dad issues treat him like one. The others just lick his ass for free pass to do whatever the fuck they want. Of course you may ask “aren’t these the only modes of friendship that exists in Trump’s life” and you may be right…
Even if Trump hadn’t raped children, being the exact opposite of Teddy Roosevelt would make him among the worst American presidents.
The child-raping thing makes it considerably worse btw.
and because the base also supports it, because they have rapists in thier ranks, where its only place acceptable.
