Thank you, Julie. Even beyond the things that didn't make it in this timeline (death threats, constant awareness of government and corporate surveillance, and risk of physical violence while often alone and isolated) it was and is profoundly traumatic to develop such a deep relationship with a place — I lived there for a good portion of two full years during this campaign, camping and walking on the land every single day — and then see it destroyed.
Thanks for the article, Max. La lucha continua. It was great being in the zoom audience with you a couple nights ago at the Protect Lane County watersheds initiative campaign. I have been pushing the planning committee to have you scheduled as a guest speaker. I also want to thank you again for copy of "We choose to speak". I finished it weeks ago and have been meaning to send thanks. I don't know how much I can discuss the contents by email. I am not a computer person. But I found the book very motivational.
The photos alone are reason enough to protect/defend the natural world. Pardon the wordplay but it's true, Orwellian and then some for the perpetrators of the shitshow "...trespass for providing bathrooms to native elders at Thacker Pass, fining them $49,890."
Thank you Mankh. I agree. Beauty is important. People see Thacker Pass as a wasteland because it has no redwoods, no coral reefs, no great peaks. It's a shallow definition of beauty. That land is incredibly special — just as all land is, or would be, if it were allowed to flourish.
Yeah, Max, like a 'tourist definition' of beauty. As some of your vids/photos showed, the place, as with all places, is teeming with living beings--sadly less so b/c of the 'blindness'. In suburbia there are little 'wildflowers' that grow yet often labeled 'weeds' so people literally remove tiny little wildflowers so they can buy larger more showy ones to plant. Plus in recent years i noticed oregano spreading and growing next to or right through the cinder block wall, another reason not to be so precisely obsessively neat with yard maintenance.
Heartbreaking. Am I correct in my understanding that even though this work may have started under the first Trump administration, the majority of it came to pass under Biden, especially with Deb Haaland as the secretary of the interior?
In 1995 Kirkpatrick Sale explains this all so well in one paragraph:
"The industrial regime hardly cares which cadres run the state as long as they understand the kind of duties expected of them. It is remarkably protean in that way, for it can accommodate itself to almost any national system —Marxist Russia, capitalist Japan, China under a vicious dictator, Singapore under a benevolent one, messy and riven India, tidy and cohesive Norway, Jewish Israel, Muslim Egypt— and in return asks only that its priority dominate, its markets rule, its values penetrate, and its interests be defended."
from ‘Rebels Against The Future: the Luddites and their War on the Industrial Revolution’
We live with hope a change of government will fix things but while the 'industrial regime' (capitalism) runs the show which it does everywhere, nothing will change...' its interests will be defended' by whoever is at the top of the hierarchy.
It is brutal to hold this reality and I am not sure what it means for the long run and for our individual hearts ... keep trying to slow the devastation is all I can think of until the cancer kills its host, until capitalism eats itself.
I forgot, I actually found my way to Sale's book from this quote in 'Bright Green Lies'... which of course you know rather well... thanks for all you do!
Are there records of Haaland being personally confronted about her BLM/ BIA approvals of Thacker Pass mining & blanket rejection of tribal efforts to protect the Pass? Did she meet with Lithium Nevada or GM lobbyists? After all, she's noted for being proud, as a Native American, of her other efforts on climate & federal lands protections, slowing permitting of oil & gas drills, etc. ...and yet rejected the environmental and cultural arguments of multiple tribes in the Thacker case.
Thanks to you & Will for doing everything you could.
Hi Brian. The Tribes reached out to her multiple times throughout this period, including sending numerous letters and making phone calls to her office. She never responded. She was even in Reno, near Thacker Pass, at one point in 2022 I believe, but didn't make time to meet with the Tribes litigating over Thacker Pass (as head of the DOI she was the named defendant in some of the these lawsuits).
Our interpretation was twofold. First, we think she is truly bought into the green energy agenda. And second, we think she was likely under overwhelming pressure to not hold up the Thacker Pass mine in any way. The project was seen by the Biden administration as a keystone national development project, and so our guess is that she was told in no uncertain terms: "shut up and don't do anything about Thacker Pass."
It must have. been galling for the tribes. After decades of recognizing it as common practice, it still infuriates that decision makers so easily & routinely avoid accountability simply by ignoring queries. I've sent 4 emails to my environmentalist Dem Rep Jared Huffman re his past support for arms to Israel. No response. Emails to directors of multiple legacy enviro/climate orgs re their uncritical promotion of renewables non-solutions have gotten me one brief response (Sunrise).
I wish I could be at a Haaland For Governor New Mexico town hall to ask her why she failed to defend Thacker Pass. Then I would be hard to ignore.
It’s a concrete example of how captured by corporate interests the whole government is and has been for decades. Sad that Sec Haaland was a figurehead — at least in this case.
Absolutely. That's always been the case. Obama is a case in point as well. Politicians are brilliant at leveraging identity politics for gains at the polls, but rarely if ever act in true solidarity with oppressed communities.
Hi Maureen. Suffice it to say, I know the feeling. My heart is broken by what is happening there. I'm sorry you didn't know. And even more sorry that we didn't win. Nonetheless, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Thank you for your dedication and persistence. This was both inspiring and devastating. I can only imagine the toll it took on everyone involved.
Thank you, Julie. Even beyond the things that didn't make it in this timeline (death threats, constant awareness of government and corporate surveillance, and risk of physical violence while often alone and isolated) it was and is profoundly traumatic to develop such a deep relationship with a place — I lived there for a good portion of two full years during this campaign, camping and walking on the land every single day — and then see it destroyed.
Thanks, Max, for this sobering outline--and for putting the devastation of Thacker Pass in context of ecosystems far and wide.
You're welcome, Katie. Thank you for reading, and sharing, and for your work.
🙏 Deep gratitude!
Thank you, Steven.
Thanks for the article, Max. La lucha continua. It was great being in the zoom audience with you a couple nights ago at the Protect Lane County watersheds initiative campaign. I have been pushing the planning committee to have you scheduled as a guest speaker. I also want to thank you again for copy of "We choose to speak". I finished it weeks ago and have been meaning to send thanks. I don't know how much I can discuss the contents by email. I am not a computer person. But I found the book very motivational.
Thank you Jere! It was good to see you, too.
The photos alone are reason enough to protect/defend the natural world. Pardon the wordplay but it's true, Orwellian and then some for the perpetrators of the shitshow "...trespass for providing bathrooms to native elders at Thacker Pass, fining them $49,890."
Thank you Mankh. I agree. Beauty is important. People see Thacker Pass as a wasteland because it has no redwoods, no coral reefs, no great peaks. It's a shallow definition of beauty. That land is incredibly special — just as all land is, or would be, if it were allowed to flourish.
Yeah, Max, like a 'tourist definition' of beauty. As some of your vids/photos showed, the place, as with all places, is teeming with living beings--sadly less so b/c of the 'blindness'. In suburbia there are little 'wildflowers' that grow yet often labeled 'weeds' so people literally remove tiny little wildflowers so they can buy larger more showy ones to plant. Plus in recent years i noticed oregano spreading and growing next to or right through the cinder block wall, another reason not to be so precisely obsessively neat with yard maintenance.
Thanks for all your work, Max.
You're welcome, Rob. Same to you as well.
Heartbreaking. Am I correct in my understanding that even though this work may have started under the first Trump administration, the majority of it came to pass under Biden, especially with Deb Haaland as the secretary of the interior?
Yes, that's correct. It's been a thoroughly bipartisan project.
In 1995 Kirkpatrick Sale explains this all so well in one paragraph:
"The industrial regime hardly cares which cadres run the state as long as they understand the kind of duties expected of them. It is remarkably protean in that way, for it can accommodate itself to almost any national system —Marxist Russia, capitalist Japan, China under a vicious dictator, Singapore under a benevolent one, messy and riven India, tidy and cohesive Norway, Jewish Israel, Muslim Egypt— and in return asks only that its priority dominate, its markets rule, its values penetrate, and its interests be defended."
from ‘Rebels Against The Future: the Luddites and their War on the Industrial Revolution’
We live with hope a change of government will fix things but while the 'industrial regime' (capitalism) runs the show which it does everywhere, nothing will change...' its interests will be defended' by whoever is at the top of the hierarchy.
It is brutal to hold this reality and I am not sure what it means for the long run and for our individual hearts ... keep trying to slow the devastation is all I can think of until the cancer kills its host, until capitalism eats itself.
That's an excellent book. Thanks for reminding me of that quote, Greer.
I forgot, I actually found my way to Sale's book from this quote in 'Bright Green Lies'... which of course you know rather well... thanks for all you do!
Are there records of Haaland being personally confronted about her BLM/ BIA approvals of Thacker Pass mining & blanket rejection of tribal efforts to protect the Pass? Did she meet with Lithium Nevada or GM lobbyists? After all, she's noted for being proud, as a Native American, of her other efforts on climate & federal lands protections, slowing permitting of oil & gas drills, etc. ...and yet rejected the environmental and cultural arguments of multiple tribes in the Thacker case.
Thanks to you & Will for doing everything you could.
Hi Brian. The Tribes reached out to her multiple times throughout this period, including sending numerous letters and making phone calls to her office. She never responded. She was even in Reno, near Thacker Pass, at one point in 2022 I believe, but didn't make time to meet with the Tribes litigating over Thacker Pass (as head of the DOI she was the named defendant in some of the these lawsuits).
Our interpretation was twofold. First, we think she is truly bought into the green energy agenda. And second, we think she was likely under overwhelming pressure to not hold up the Thacker Pass mine in any way. The project was seen by the Biden administration as a keystone national development project, and so our guess is that she was told in no uncertain terms: "shut up and don't do anything about Thacker Pass."
It must have. been galling for the tribes. After decades of recognizing it as common practice, it still infuriates that decision makers so easily & routinely avoid accountability simply by ignoring queries. I've sent 4 emails to my environmentalist Dem Rep Jared Huffman re his past support for arms to Israel. No response. Emails to directors of multiple legacy enviro/climate orgs re their uncritical promotion of renewables non-solutions have gotten me one brief response (Sunrise).
I wish I could be at a Haaland For Governor New Mexico town hall to ask her why she failed to defend Thacker Pass. Then I would be hard to ignore.
There is little to no accountability in this system...
It’s a concrete example of how captured by corporate interests the whole government is and has been for decades. Sad that Sec Haaland was a figurehead — at least in this case.
Absolutely. That's always been the case. Obama is a case in point as well. Politicians are brilliant at leveraging identity politics for gains at the polls, but rarely if ever act in true solidarity with oppressed communities.
Hi Maureen. Suffice it to say, I know the feeling. My heart is broken by what is happening there. I'm sorry you didn't know. And even more sorry that we didn't win. Nonetheless, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.