My friend, I did read what you posted but you interject politics a lot, why?
In the 70's it was global cooling with liberals, then it became saving wildlife in CA destroying every Industry that made CA great for decades.
90's it became a new fad with global warming continuing into the 2000's then becoming climate change once that got debunked.
Lumber industry, gone.
Mining industry gone.
Oil & NG industry, gone.
Fishing industry, gone.
I will put it this way just in regards to why the timber industry got ruined under the pretense of saving some none viable species, I never see the Sierra Club speaking about the million of acres that get burned every year where their precious things live that closed it all down.
The Timber industry created fire breaks, thats gone.
Arctic ice is growing yet not reported, in the 70's there was only around 10,000 Polar Bear's, now there is only around 30,000.
CA reservoirs that were built to sustain irrigation for farmers get cut loose to save some useless ancient delta minnow thats been ineffective, some species just pass away, called mother nature.
You claim to be a Scientist, rings on tree's showed CA had a 40 year drought a few hundred years ago, imagine that happening now.
Take a trip to NV and go out in the barren sage wilderness, it's pretty cool, huge lizards everywhere, rabbits everywhere and some times a deer popping out in the dessert.
"Yote's" seldom show themselves during the day.
no part of what I have posted here is political, exactly the opposite including my critique of Hegseths policy. His policy goes against the standard medical practice for prescribing TRT, how do I know? I'm prescribed TRT and it hasn't been all rainbows so it's a topic I've read a lot about. But there's nothing political about it and it's not my opinion, it's the Urology board's opinion. That's the key thing here, Science is apolitical when it's based on the best available data. It has nothing to do with what you like or dislike or think is good or bad, it just is. The Urology board is the panel of experts that interpret that data and make policy. It will likely change over time. But when someone makes policy that isn't based on data and isn't made by experts in the field, then it's political. Hegseths policy is political, critiquing it is inherently apolitical.
The rest of what you wrote is quite a mess, I'm not sure how you came to any of these conclusions because they are all political conclusions that aren't based in reality. But you are lucky because these are all topics I have worked on both professionally and personally as a hunter and fisherman who does volunteer work with hunting conservation orgs.
We can start with "fishing industry, gone". So I am guessing that you think that environmental regulations are why there aren't enough salmon and steelhead for commercial fisherman? How does that make any sense? They close the season so that we have any salmon at all, if there were no salmon at all there wouldn't even be a recreational fishery let alone a commercial one. What's the primary reason salmon have struggled? dams have blocked them from their natural spawning grounds. The dams that we need to keep agriculture going are why the fishing industry is gone because every major river is dammed. We need the water for ag and municipal use, but it's at the expense of wildlife. And when we release water from the dams to go to the delta, wildlife is only one part of it. A bigger part is salinity and agriculture. without a constant flow, salinity would creep up and out of the delta all the way to Sacramento. What's the biggest industry in the Delta? it's all agriculture. It's old agriculture too, they have pre-1914 water rights which supercede the building of the dams. This means that the dams HAVE to release water for the delta water right holders by law. The delta smelt is only one small component of why we release water. the other elephant in the room is just, we release water because IT'S A RIVER. can you imagine if the Sacramento, SJ, Merced, american and the delta were just dry every year in the fall? How many industries rely on there being water there least of all including FISHING!
But we do release water for the smelt, least of all because it's listed on the endangered species act. I'm sure you think the ESA is just a liberal conspiracy but you have forgottten that the EPA and ESA were products of famous "liberal" Richard Nixon. Either way, it's federally illegal for us not to try and save the smelt. It's odd though that you didn't mention salmon, because Salmon are the bigger reason we release water for environmental purposes and yet you were complaining that we killed the fishing industry. It's because you are trying to make a political argument and downplay the importance and try to paint it all as a very neat story to scapegoat all of the things that you lament into one group to complain about. What would you blame if you couldn't just blame "liberals" for ALL of your problems. It's just so lazy and disingenuous.
I could go on on all these other topics but I won't wast my time because I know how this goes, you already have your beliefs and it literally doesn't matter what I say. But at least think about this: where are you getting your information? if you aren't involved in these topics like I am you have to take someone's word for it, do they actually have your interests in mind? You have to refute data with data, so who has the data? if all of science says one thing but Tucker says another, why would you believe someone who is a purely political actor? You like his story better because it's easier. But reality isn't easy, it doesn't fit your neat and tidy narrative that "if it weren't for THOSE people everything would be fine". The reality is we live in a world with finite resources and that counts for both living and mineral resources. You can't have absolutely everything you want all of the time and anyone telling you that is lying. All of these issues are a very complex balancing act and the policy that governs wildlife will change over time, but you should defninitely not assume that letting the delta smelt die off will actually make your life better. Any changes in the policy for delta smelt should be science based and not political, that goes for all wildlife managment which means that we should also bring back mountain lion hunting and hunting bear with dogs. Sceince based wildlife management is the friend of hunters and fisherman so don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
