Casey Wetherbee is a freelance writer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He shares his long-form essays on his Substack, Meanderings.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is equal parts asinine and dystopian. We can only hope that, by virtue of how insufferable all involved are, DOGE’s relationship with the Trump administration flames out spectacularly.
The selection of Lee Zeldin — a devoted Trump ally with no meaningful environmental expertise — to head the Environmental Protection Agency threatens to gut crucial protections for clean air and water while giving corporate polluters free rein.
As climate disasters intensify, conservative politicians are systematically undermining the agencies meant to protect us — slashing budgets, firing experts, blocking climate data from informing policy, and weakening enforcement against corporate polluters.
It’s not just Hurricane Helene: Donald Trump has a record of politicizing disaster relief in a way that distorts the truth and flirts with right-wing conspiracy theories. If he wins again, Trump’s ongoing demonization of FEMA will have serious consequences.
America’s top colleges send a huge share of their graduates to work directly in finance. This pipeline between elite universities and Wall Street is the result of a deliberate campaign of influence, and it’s made the world significantly worse.