Environment / Environmental Law, Justice

Is This Vandalism Really The Best We Can Do?

There are ways you could disrupt the normal operations of Trump's golf empire, if you can muster some consistency and creativity.

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The environment is under attack from the Trump administration. That is the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from the appointment of Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, to the various proposals coming out of Trumpland.

In response, four eco-warriors snuck onto the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California and craved a message onto the greens near the 5th hole. “NO MORE TIGERS. NO MORE WOODS.”

Trump environmental vandalism

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Crunchy liberals are the worst. In the movies, the people fighting for Mother Earth are always attractive people who can make their own underwear, wizards, and of course, talking purpose-driven animals. The machine world sets its will against us, but the environmentalists always have guile and “forgotten knowledge” on their side.

In real life, Mother Earth employs four dudes on loan from Burning Man, an overworked frizzy-haired lawyer who will trade sexual favors for Westlaw access, and some Native Americans who are sick of the bulls**t.

It is possible to use vandalism to strike fear into your enemies. Look at how effective the campaign of Antisemitism has been in freaking us all out. When the Alt-Right wants to intimidate somebody or some group, they know how to attack, in ways great and small, to make people feel “unsafe” without firing a shot.

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Is anybody going to feel unsafe hitting the links at Rancho Palos Verdes? Is anybody even going to think twice about it? When reached for comment, an actual tiger said “grrr, grrr. GRRRR,” because tigers don’t mess around with cutesy little slogans.

There are ways you could disrupt the normal operations of Trump’s golf empire, if you can muster some consistency and creativity. Tee times are scheduled, in advance, right? I bet you could schedule some of those, pull out at the last minute before you were charged a cancellation fee, and screw up their bookings calendar. You could shame people who play there. If you are willing to commit trespass anyway, you could stand there peeing into the water hazards until someone stopped you. There are ways, man.

This is not one of them:

In a statement sent to The Washington Post, the group said the vandalism was carried out in response to the Trump administration’s “blatant disregard” for the environment. “In response to the president’s recent decision to gut our existing protection policies, direct action was conceived and executed on the green of his California golf course in the form of a simple message: NO MORE TIGERS. NO MORE WOODS,” the statement said.

WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN? Tigers are not indigenous to California, unless you are talking about the “saber-tooth” variety, in which case you are about 10,000 years too late to save the smilodon. Yes, there used to be woods where the golf course is today. But also farmland. It was the farmland that killed the trees. AND WHAT IN THE SAM HILL DOES IT ALL HAVE TO DO WITH SCOTT PRUITT?

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The current leader of the EPA is a lawyer whose old job was suing the EPA over regulations. There’s going to be a knock down fight over whether the EPA has to put forward any carbon dioxide emissions plan, after it guts the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.

This is a great time for environmental activism. It’s a great time for activism on any issue. But, I mean Jesus, FOCUS PEOPLE. Think BIGGER. We need civil disobedience. We need civil unrest. Why are liberals constantly bringing a selfie stick to a water cannon fight?

There’s a difference between protests and petulance. People who are willing to do the former shouldn’t settle for the latter.

Video shows environmental activists defacing popular Trump golf course [Washington Post]
Trump’s War on the Climate Begins [The Atlantic]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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