Attention America: The President Stole Your Land
Hours after Donald Trump confirmed the shrinking of two national monuments in Utah by around 2 million acres, Patagonia says it plans to sue the Trump administration to halt what it says is an “illegal move” that will cause the “largest elimination of protected land in American history.”
“The President Stole Your Land,” outdoor apparel firm Patagonia declared in a message on its website Monday.
Patagonia is joining environmental and Native American groups challenging Trump’s shrinking of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, which he called the result of “overreach” by the Obama and Clinton administrations.
Related: Trump, Taxes, National Monuments, and the Rape of America
The two massive monuments will be downsized into five smaller ones, with the protected Bears Ears land shrunk by 85%.
“Americans have overwhelmingly spoken out against the Trump administration’s unprecedented attempt to shut down our national monuments,” Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario said in a statement to Ad Age. “We’ve fought to protect these places since we were founded and now we’ll continue that fight in the courts.”
Legal challenges to the move will focus on whether the president has the right to reverse his predecessors’ creations under the Antiquities Act. Hours after Trump signed the proclamations in Salt Lake City, the Navajo, Ute, Ute Mountain, Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo tribes filed what they said was a historic federal lawsuit against Trump’s “slap in the face.” KUTV reports.
It’s true you know. Donald Trump, using the power of his office, stole your land, in one of the biggest giveaways to the oil, gas, and coal industries in the history of the nation. What did Utah state lawmakers say about it? One described opponents as “bunny lovers” and “rock lickers.”
We need to keep writing, and writing hard, but we also need to actually do something beyond keyboard exercises. We need to march. We need to gather and protest loudly. Donald Trump has to go, before he completely destroys our nation.
Edited liberally from Newser.
I agree as well. Americans are now endangered.
I agree. Endangered as humans and as people with a voice in determining our future. Mad World, mad kings.
I’m starting to think we’re endangered species….
My views might sometimes annoy some MMA readers but, ultimately, we’re all ‘the little people’ and, boy, are we endangered right now.
I look to him to do away with the endangered species act any day now.
Once upon a time President Kennedy said (somewhat improperly) “Ich bin ein Berliner” as a statement of solidarity with the citizens of Berlin. Perhaps it’s time to express some solidarity to the former owners of all the land which we just took, or stole as you prefer. At least we were holding it in trust for all Americans.
“This land was made for you and me” was Woody Guthrie’s refrain, but Trump’s refrain is never said out loud because it goes: this land is given to the Koch’s.
Pave it, strip mine it, frack it and fuck you all very much if you object. From the redwood forests to the New York Island, This land was made for Donald Trump.
I remember, years ago, reading a Newsweek article called They Paved Paradise, speaking of the destruction of Key West, Florida. With this Cthulian beast in the Oval Office that headline could apply to large parts of America.