Jacques Leslie
@jacquesleslie.bsky.social
LATimes contributing op-ed writer. Wrote Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People & the Environment. Expelled from two countries, evacuated from a third. Named Enemy of the Week by American Spectator. Riding out Trump catastrophe in VT.
Here in Woodstock, VT, residents and visitors have been protesting Trumpist authoritarianism every day for more than a year. Here's what appeared yesterday-- and stay to the end to see the glorious Leslie Leslie's sign! Thanks to stellar videographer Marion Abrams of madmotion!
January 26, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Here in Woodstock, VT, residents and visitors have been protesting Trumpist authoritarianism every day for more than a year. Here's what appeared yesterday-- and stay to the end to see the glorious Leslie Leslie's sign! Thanks to stellar videographer Marion Abrams of madmotion!
Reposted by Jacques Leslie
OPINION | Even by Trump’s standards, his latest letter is so dangerous and so delusional that there is no longer any question that the president is mentally “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” as laid out in the 25th Amendment.
Trump’s Insane New Threat Leaves No Doubt: It’s Time for the 25th Amendment
There is no longer any denying the president is unable to carry out the demands of his office.
trib.al
January 19, 2026 at 12:19 PM
OPINION | Even by Trump’s standards, his latest letter is so dangerous and so delusional that there is no longer any question that the president is mentally “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” as laid out in the 25th Amendment.
Insanity. Trump throws a tantrum over not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which he deserves about as much as Pol Pot, threatens to turn the last of our allies into enemies, and Repubs say "Sure, that makes sense." Is there not an ounce of courage in the GOP?
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
Trump ties Greenland takeover bid to Nobel Prize in text to Norway leader
Trump’s push to take over Greenland and unleash a trade war with European nations has sparked the greatest transatlantic crisis in generations.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 19, 2026 at 8:29 PM
Insanity. Trump throws a tantrum over not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which he deserves about as much as Pol Pot, threatens to turn the last of our allies into enemies, and Repubs say "Sure, that makes sense." Is there not an ounce of courage in the GOP?
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
Reposted by Jacques Leslie
Krugman: The Stupidest Trump Move So Far open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
The Stupidest Trump Move So Far
Just kill me now. Or tariff me. Whatever.
open.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Krugman: The Stupidest Trump Move So Far open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Here's my latest, about the inadvertent weakness built into the Endangered Species Act and the way that the Trump administration is poised to bulldoze the Act.
dornsife.usc.edu/icw/2026/01/...
dornsife.usc.edu/icw/2026/01/...
The Endangered Species Act Meets the Klamath River Basin - Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
Jacques Leslie is the author of Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment, winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for its “elegant, beautiful prose....
dornsife.usc.edu
January 17, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Here's my latest, about the inadvertent weakness built into the Endangered Species Act and the way that the Trump administration is poised to bulldoze the Act.
dornsife.usc.edu/icw/2026/01/...
dornsife.usc.edu/icw/2026/01/...
Maduro’s Ouster Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/o...
Opinion | Maduro’s Ouster Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands
www.nytimes.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:38 AM
Maduro’s Ouster Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/o...
Reposted by Jacques Leslie
The rate of global mean sea level rise has increased from ~2.1 mm/year in 1993 to ~4.5 mm/year in 2023. www.nature.com/articles/s43...
The rate of global sea level rise doubled during the past three decades - Communications Earth & Environment
Global mean sea level rise amounted to 4.5 mm per year as a result of warming oceans and melting land ice, more than twice the rate of 2.1 mm/year observed at the start of satellite data in 1993, base...
www.nature.com
January 3, 2026 at 9:18 PM
The rate of global mean sea level rise has increased from ~2.1 mm/year in 1993 to ~4.5 mm/year in 2023. www.nature.com/articles/s43...
If there's one thing that works better than colonial rule, it's certainly remote colonial rule.
January 5, 2026 at 12:30 AM
If there's one thing that works better than colonial rule, it's certainly remote colonial rule.
Reposted by Jacques Leslie
This is obviously more bad news re: the AI bubble and coming bailouts, stated or unstated. The more personally invested Trump is in the hype cycle, the more he will use public money to delay truth time. But for now he has a notional technology saving his failed media company. Good times!
I've been waiting to find out exactly how Trump was going to personally profit from the AI greed frenzy he has unleashed because there was no way he was *not* going to get a piece.
Now we know: a $6-billion merger of his failing media corp with an AI energy corp
www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025...
Now we know: a $6-billion merger of his failing media corp with an AI energy corp
www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025...
Trump Media to merge with nuclear fusion company to power AI
The all-stock deal comes amid growing energy needs for the tech sector.
www.aljazeera.com
December 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
This is obviously more bad news re: the AI bubble and coming bailouts, stated or unstated. The more personally invested Trump is in the hype cycle, the more he will use public money to delay truth time. But for now he has a notional technology saving his failed media company. Good times!
My latest L.A. Times op-ed: the triumph of salmon vs. Trump's sabotage.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Contributor: Salmon's comeback pits nature against Trump administration
The Trump administration is using illegal funding cuts and questionable regulatory sleight of hand to divert water to farmers and away from tribes.
www.latimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM
My latest L.A. Times op-ed: the triumph of salmon vs. Trump's sabotage.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Release of the complete Epstein file is to Trump what going to prison is for Netanyahu. Both prospects are so intensely resisted that making sure those things don't happen becomes the foundation of their policies. N. comes up with endless war; T. embraces a passel of harebrained schemes.
August 20, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Release of the complete Epstein file is to Trump what going to prison is for Netanyahu. Both prospects are so intensely resisted that making sure those things don't happen becomes the foundation of their policies. N. comes up with endless war; T. embraces a passel of harebrained schemes.
This prison is the ultimate embodiment of Trump's (and Bukele's) sadism, ineptitude, and ruthlessness.
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
No One Was Supposed to Leave Alive
Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration say they were tortured during their four months in CECOT.
www.theatlantic.com
July 24, 2025 at 1:13 PM
This prison is the ultimate embodiment of Trump's (and Bukele's) sadism, ineptitude, and ruthlessness.
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
A piece about the Yurok tribe's lawyer that was a pleasure to write. He's a graduate of Boston College Law School; thus the story in the BC Law School Magazine. With brilliant photography by Jordan Gale.
lawmagazine.bc.edu/2025/07/the-...
lawmagazine.bc.edu/2025/07/the-...
Boston College Law School Magazine | The Tribal Victory of the Century
With discretion and respect for Native Americans, a BC Law alum helps restore a river, its salmon, and its people to their rightful places.
lawmagazine.bc.edu
July 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
A piece about the Yurok tribe's lawyer that was a pleasure to write. He's a graduate of Boston College Law School; thus the story in the BC Law School Magazine. With brilliant photography by Jordan Gale.
lawmagazine.bc.edu/2025/07/the-...
lawmagazine.bc.edu/2025/07/the-...
Fascinating, revealing conversation about the mostly unacknowledged conflict between agriculture of all kinds and a healthy climate and environment. We obviously need food to survive, but the way ag is conducted now won't work much longer.
I had a dream that my energy & climate hero @volts.wtf, who absolutely fucking hates talking about food & climate, would do an episode about WE ARE EATING THE EARTH. He did it!
It was so fun and I am so grateful.
www.volts.wtf/p/reducing-t...
It was so fun and I am so grateful.
www.volts.wtf/p/reducing-t...
Reducing the climate impacts of food and farming
Michael Grunwald joins me to discuss how to increase agriculture's output while reducing its carbon footprint.
www.volts.wtf
June 28, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Fascinating, revealing conversation about the mostly unacknowledged conflict between agriculture of all kinds and a healthy climate and environment. We obviously need food to survive, but the way ag is conducted now won't work much longer.
Here's my latest, a story about the Klamath River basin that, for a change, is upbeat. e360.yale.edu/features/kla...
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath
In the long-contentious Klamath River watershed, an experiment that turned a barley field into a wetland not only improved water quality. It also offered a path forward for restoring populations of tw...
e360.yale.edu
June 17, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Here's my latest, a story about the Klamath River basin that, for a change, is upbeat. e360.yale.edu/features/kla...
Reposted by Jacques Leslie
The extraordinary elite propaganda effort on behalf of nuclear power has worked: public support for nuclear power is at record highs.
This took place during a period in which the only nuclear plant built in the US is 10s of billions over budget. Pretty impressive.
This took place during a period in which the only nuclear plant built in the US is 10s of billions over budget. Pretty impressive.
Nuclear Energy Support Near Record High in U.S.
Americans support nuclear energy and offer mixed views on fracking and offshore drilling, while a diminished majority prefer renewable energy development over more fossil fuel production.
news.gallup.com
June 16, 2025 at 5:44 PM
The extraordinary elite propaganda effort on behalf of nuclear power has worked: public support for nuclear power is at record highs.
This took place during a period in which the only nuclear plant built in the US is 10s of billions over budget. Pretty impressive.
This took place during a period in which the only nuclear plant built in the US is 10s of billions over budget. Pretty impressive.
Please let us not try to overthrow the Iran regime, however odious it is. The U.S. might succeed in pulling off a coup, but it would lose the aftermath. Most people don't like having foreigners pick their governments for them. Whatever govt. emerges would be stained by its association with the U.S.
June 16, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Please let us not try to overthrow the Iran regime, however odious it is. The U.S. might succeed in pulling off a coup, but it would lose the aftermath. Most people don't like having foreigners pick their governments for them. Whatever govt. emerges would be stained by its association with the U.S.
"Our stadiums are monuments to the poverty of our civic ambitions and our inability to summon the collective will to use the land we have for the things we need. They are distractions from our inability to build anything else." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/o...
Opinion | Sports Stadiums Are Monuments to the Poverty of Our Ambitions
www.nytimes.com
June 1, 2025 at 11:29 PM
"Our stadiums are monuments to the poverty of our civic ambitions and our inability to summon the collective will to use the land we have for the things we need. They are distractions from our inability to build anything else." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/o...
The Trump admin is gambling that its laughably ill-suited but creepily telegenic cabinet members will not deliver up a catastrophe such as an epidemic fueled by lack of vaccinnation, an undetected hurricane, a gruesome plane crash... Not a bet I would take. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/o...
Opinion | A Hurricane Season Like No Other
www.nytimes.com
May 31, 2025 at 6:18 PM
The Trump admin is gambling that its laughably ill-suited but creepily telegenic cabinet members will not deliver up a catastrophe such as an epidemic fueled by lack of vaccinnation, an undetected hurricane, a gruesome plane crash... Not a bet I would take. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/o...
The #Trump admin's assault on Harvest is meant to show that if it can destroy Harvard, it can take down any other university. Leaders of other fields, particularly those Trump considers insufficiently supportive, such as, say, The New York Times, would be wise to get prepared.
May 28, 2025 at 9:43 PM
The #Trump admin's assault on Harvest is meant to show that if it can destroy Harvard, it can take down any other university. Leaders of other fields, particularly those Trump considers insufficiently supportive, such as, say, The New York Times, would be wise to get prepared.
"Half of Yemen’s children under 5 are malnourished — 'a statistic that is almost unparalleled across the world,' UNICEF says." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/o...
Opinion | The $7 Billion We Wasted Bombing a Country We Couldn’t Find on a Map
www.nytimes.com
May 18, 2025 at 4:41 PM
"Half of Yemen’s children under 5 are malnourished — 'a statistic that is almost unparalleled across the world,' UNICEF says." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/o...
The indispensable Naomi Klein passes on some insights about our global predicament. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Naomi Klein: 'What They Want Is Absolutely Everything'
The ‘Shock Doctrine’ author explains the dark logic of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s path of destruction and why billionaire oligarchs are so angry.
www.rollingstone.com
May 7, 2025 at 10:26 PM
The indispensable Naomi Klein passes on some insights about our global predicament. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
The U.S. is now on the Civicus monitor watchlist of repressive regimes for "unprecedented executive orders designed to unravel democratic institutions, rule of law, and global cooperation." monitor.civicus.org/watchlist-ma...
Watchlist March 2025 - Civicus Monitor
CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist: 5 countries where there has been a decline in civic freedoms
monitor.civicus.org
April 14, 2025 at 3:15 PM
The U.S. is now on the Civicus monitor watchlist of repressive regimes for "unprecedented executive orders designed to unravel democratic institutions, rule of law, and global cooperation." monitor.civicus.org/watchlist-ma...
Here's my latest L.A. Times op-ed, out today, on how the Trump administration's funding freezes and personnel layoffs have replaced hope and optimism in the Klamath basin with fear, uncertainty, and anger.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Contributor: DOGE and Trump quash a Klamath River basin comeback
The president's slash-and-burn funding cuts are betraying California and Oregon tribes, farmers and salmon along the Klamath River.
www.latimes.com
April 10, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Here's my latest L.A. Times op-ed, out today, on how the Trump administration's funding freezes and personnel layoffs have replaced hope and optimism in the Klamath basin with fear, uncertainty, and anger.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
#Trump will insist over and over that his tariffs are permanent right up until the moment when he decides they aren't. The current situation is so volatile that tariffs aren't likely to stay in place-- too many forces will align against Trump, including, I can even imagine, some elected Republicans.
April 7, 2025 at 7:25 PM
#Trump will insist over and over that his tariffs are permanent right up until the moment when he decides they aren't. The current situation is so volatile that tariffs aren't likely to stay in place-- too many forces will align against Trump, including, I can even imagine, some elected Republicans.