Opinion Theodore Roosevelt: Big Stick Energy

[Deorum]

TR smiles down on the nation from the heavens, his greatest legacy preserved for another generation of Americans.

Breaking: Mike Lee's Public Land Sale Plan Is Dead

Sources in Washington D.C. say the public-land provision in the Senate reconciliation bill is officially dead thanks to pressure from hunters and conservationists.

www.outdoorlife.com

Facing overwhelming opposition from all Democrats and a growing number in his own party, Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee tonight withdrew his proposal to sell millions of acres of public land to help balance the federal budget.

Senate leaders, hurriedly working to get the budget to a floor vote this weekend, gave Lee the opportunity to pull his provision, pages 202 to 211 of the thousand-page Big Beautiful Bill, knowing that it would have faced certain defeat by the Republican-majority Senate. That language would have forced the sale of BLM land in 11 Western states to offset tax cuts and royalty rebates to gas and oil drillers.

The language in those pages, sponsored and revised over the last two weeks by Lee, would have created the largest disposal of public land since the Homestead Act. Tens of thousands of hunters, anglers, hikers, and public-land recreationists have pummeled the offices of their congressional delegations with increasingly strident demands to kill Lee’s bill.

That continued pressure from a broad and vocal coalition of rural hunters, suburban hikers, livestock producers, Main Street business owners, anglers, dirtbag climbers, and whitewater rafters made the difference, says Montanan Randy Newberg, host of Fresh Tracks and a vocal public-land advocate.

“Mike Lee did something that we’ve not been able to do, to have all Americans become focused on one issue, no partisanship, no Rs, no Ds, and in the process I hope they have sent a message that public lands are that third rail of American politics,” says Newberg, one of several social-media personalities who rallied his audience around defending public lands. “I think you could also say the same of the Senate, they put partisanship aside to kill this bad idea.”

 

[Deorum]

Straight fucking alpha, that's for sure.
Incredible life of accomplishments and helping to progress the ideas of freedom and conservation. GOAT tier, as evidenced by his inclusion on Rushmore. Donald Trump isn't fit to drink from the pot that this man pissed in.

The contributions he made to natural history and nature conservation are truly beyond comparison and without equal. You could frame a biographical account of his entire life within the context of those things alone and still have an absolute tome on your hands.

One of the all time greats. I feel someone like him might be what our country currently needs.

Fave quote I ever heard about him and can't recall who said it ... death will have to come for him when he's sleeping otherwise there's gonna be a fight.

"The President unites in himself qualities that rarely go together. Thus, he has both physical and moral courage in a degree rare in history. He can stand calm and unflinching in the path of a charging grizzly, and he can confront with equal coolness and determination the predacious corporations and money powers of the country. He unites the qualities of the man of action with those of the scholar. He unites great austerity with great good nature. He unites great sensibility with great force and willpower. He loves solitude, and he loves to be in the thick of the fight. He is doubtless the most vital man on the continent, if not on the planet, today." -- John Burroughs ("Oom John"), 1906.

TR is my favorite president and The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris is one of the best bios I’ve ever read. He really did have a remarkable life and the amount of ridiculous badass events he was involved in are unreal.

Did you read the next two?

TR is the best. I have an oil painting in my office of him and named my dog after him.

These are the threads we need.

He would HATE Trump.

This is easily one of the greatest adventure-horror stories I've ever read, a page-turning masterpiece that was consumed within a few hours -- and it's non-fiction. He saved the best (and by far the worst) for last. An expedition to chart an unmapped river through the world's most notoriously inhospitable and uncompromising jungle of torrential rain, impenetrable vegetation, raging rapids, relentless swarms of disease carrying insects, and cannibalistic indigenous tribes; personally plagued by dysentery, infection, and malaria with the ever-present compounding threats of jaguars, wild pigs, coral snakes, pit vipers, poison dart frogs, anacondas, caimans, piranhas, and all manner of parasites galore.



If Brazil's Foreign Minister Lauro Müller was nervous about Roosevelt’s decision to descend an unmapped river, Henry Fairfield Osborn was thunderstruck. The news, which Frank Chapman delivered to Osborn after receiving a letter from Roosevelt, set off alarm bells at the American Museum of Natural History. Horrified, Osborn immediately sent a blistering message to Roosevelt that he would “never consent to his going to this region under the American Museum flag.” This was not remotely the journey they had agreed on, and Osborn fumed that he “would not even assume part of the responsibility for what might happen in case [Roosevelt] did not return alive.”

Roosevelt’s admission that his new plan was “slightly more hazardous” than the original was, according to Frank Chapman, the understatement of the century. “In a word,” the ornithologist curator later wrote, “it may be said with confidence that in all South America there is not a more difficult or dangerous journey than that down the River of Doubt.” To Osborn, Roosevelt’s decision to descend this river seemed insane if not suicidal, and he ordered Chapman to tell the former president that the American Museum of Natural History expected him to adhere to his original plan.

However, when Chapman’s letter, with all the weight of the museum behind it, reached Brazil, it had less effect than a leaf falling in the rainforest. Having found the challenge he had been yearning for, Roosevelt was beyond the reach of Osborn’s persuasion. In a letter to Chapman, Roosevelt wrote, “Tell Osborn I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and if it is necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am quite ready to do so.”

 

[Rob Battisti]

The contributions he made to natural history and nature conservation are truly beyond comparison and without equal. You could frame a biographical account of his entire life within the context of those things alone and still have an absolute tome on your hands.



"The President unites in himself qualities that rarely go together. Thus, he has both physical and moral courage in a degree rare in history. He can stand calm and unflinching in the path of a charging grizzly, and he can confront with equal coolness and determination the predacious corporations and money powers of the country. He unites the qualities of the man of action with those of the scholar. He unites great austerity with great good nature. He unites great sensibility with great force and willpower. He loves solitude, and he loves to be in the thick of the fight. He is doubtless the most vital man on the continent, if not on the planet, today." -- John Burroughs ("Oom John"), 1906.




This is easily one of the greatest adventure-horror stories I've ever read, a page-turning masterpiece that was consumed within a few hours -- and it's non-fiction. He saved the best (and by far the worst) for last. An expedition to chart an unmapped river through the world's most notoriously inhospitable and uncompromising jungle of torrential rain, impenetrable vegetation, raging rapids, relentless swarms of disease carrying insects, and cannibalistic indigenous tribes; personally plagued by dysentery, infection, and malaria with the ever-present compounding threats of jaguars, wild pigs, coral snakes, pit vipers, poison dart frogs, anacondas, caimans, piranhas, and all manner of parasites galore.



If Brazil's Foreign Minister Lauro Müller was nervous about Roosevelt’s decision to descend an unmapped river, Henry Fairfield Osborn was thunderstruck. The news, which Frank Chapman delivered to Osborn after receiving a letter from Roosevelt, set off alarm bells at the American Museum of Natural History. Horrified, Osborn immediately sent a blistering message to Roosevelt that he would “never consent to his going to this region under the American Museum flag.” This was not remotely the journey they had agreed on, and Osborn fumed that he “would not even assume part of the responsibility for what might happen in case [Roosevelt] did not return alive.”

Roosevelt’s admission that his new plan was “slightly more hazardous” than the original was, according to Frank Chapman, the understatement of the century. “In a word,” the ornithologist curator later wrote, “it may be said with confidence that in all South America there is not a more difficult or dangerous journey than that down the River of Doubt.” To Osborn, Roosevelt’s decision to descend this river seemed insane if not suicidal, and he ordered Chapman to tell the former president that the American Museum of Natural History expected him to adhere to his original plan.

However, when Chapman’s letter, with all the weight of the museum behind it, reached Brazil, it had less effect than a leaf falling in the rainforest. Having found the challenge he had been yearning for, Roosevelt was beyond the reach of Osborn’s persuasion. In a letter to Chapman, Roosevelt wrote, “Tell Osborn I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and if it is necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am quite ready to do so.”

I get a sense of self loathing when I think about men like TR, not that there are many, who live their lives to the fullest. Someone who did everything with all they had. No reservations. No regrets.

Not that they are remotely similar, but when Rory Mcilroy won the masters and he had a full emotional release on the final putt of the playoff — that feeling, of working your whole life toward a specific goal and to actually achieve it — alludes nearly all of us. It brought me to tears.

 

[Deorum]

I get a sense of self loathing when I think about men like TR, not that there are many, who live their lives to the fullest. Someone who did everything with all they had. No reservations. No regrets.

Not that they are remotely similar, but when Rory Mcilroy won the masters and he had a full emotional release on the final putt of the playoff — that feeling, of working your whole life toward a specific goal and to actually achieve it — alludes nearly all of us. It brought me to tears.

️

I can see that perspective, but you full well know TR himself would scoff. It can't be taken as anything other than inspiration and motivational fuel. Aren't you around 40 or so? Many of Teddy's greatest adventures took place after he left the obligations and restraints of the presidency at 50. The last decade of his abbreviated lifespan was the Bull Moose era.

 

[Rob Battisti]

️

I can see that perspective, but you full well know TR himself would scoff. It can't be taken as anything other than inspiration and motivational fuel. Aren't you around 40 or so? Many of Teddy's greatest adventures took place after he left the obligations and restraints of the presidency at 50. The last decade of his abbreviated lifespan was the Bull Moose era.

TR would hate what I just said.

This fired me up!

 

[Deorum]

TR would hate what I just said.

This fired me up!

He would because pushing you to live your life to the fullest without reservation or regret is only asking the bare minimum. Your life. Nobody is ever going to replicate the shit he did or accomplished. In most cases, that's literally impossible. He had and took on many forms: author, cattle rancher, big game hunter, police commissioner, assistant secretary of the navy, army colonel, governor, vice president, and POTUS. He was the first president to own an automobile, first to ride in a submarine, first fly in an airplane, first to travel abroad while in office, first to win a Nobel peace prize.

He was the first to break corporate monopolies and first to enact significant consumer protection laws. He founded the first and longest surviving conservation organization with the Boone & Crockett Club (since 1887), which was the driving force behind the first enforceable American conservation laws. He established the first national monuments and first national wildlife refuges in addition to doubling the number of national parks and being solely responsible for 75% of all national forests in the country today.

The Smithsonian-Roosevelt expedition to East Africa provided the Institution with its foundational collection of specimens for the National Museum. There were so many that they took nearly a decade to be fully cataloged, and several remain on public display today. The Roosevelt-Rondon expedition to the Amazon to chart a treacherous unmapped river likewise brought back thousands of specimens for the American Museum of Natural History, an institution whose founding charter was literally signed in the living room of his childhood home.

 

[Crazy Source]

He would because pushing you to live your life to the fullest without reservation or regret is only asking the bare minimum. Your life. Nobody is ever going to replicate the shit he did or accomplished. In most cases, that's literally impossible. He had and took on many forms: author, cattle rancher, big game hunter, police commissioner, assistant secretary of the navy, army colonel, governor, vice president, and POTUS. He was the first president to own an automobile, first to ride in a submarine, first fly in an airplane, first to travel abroad while in office, first to win a Nobel peace prize.

He was the first to break corporate monopolies and first to enact significant consumer protection laws. He founded the first and longest surviving conservation organization with the Boone & Crockett Club (since 1887), which was the driving force behind the first enforceable American conservation laws. He established the first national monuments and first national wildlife refuges in addition to doubling the number of national parks and being solely responsible for 75% of all national forests in the country today.

The Smithsonian-Roosevelt expedition to East Africa provided the Institution with its foundational collection of specimens for the National Museum. There were so many that they took nearly a decade to be fully cataloged, and several remain on public display today. The Roosevelt-Rondon expedition to the Amazon to chart a treacherous unmapped river likewise brought back thousands of specimens for the American Museum of Natural History, an institution whose founding charter was literally signed in the living room of his childhood home.

I bet you are a blast at parties.

 

[Versez]

We would need more men like him today, now the west is falling at a fast pace.

 

[Crazy Source]

We would need more men like him today, now the west is falling at a fast pace.

A man like Teddy would not survive today. There could be a Teddy Roosevelt/Jesus Christ ticket and they would lose.

 

[Versez]

A man like Teddy would not survive today. There could be a Teddy Roosevelt/Jesus Christ ticket and they would lose.

You deserve your double yellow, hope you get banned !

 

[Crazy Source]

You deserve your double yellow, hope you get banned !

What did you disagree with?

 

[Deorum]

I bet you are a blast at parties.

I don't drink, do drugs, or keep much association with people who do so, yeah, not really. I'm a lot more engaging and fun on a camping trip or wilderness hike, lol. I just had a full day out on the lake, about to grill some ribeyes and watch another nature documentary with my son. Life's Great. What's going on in Trump's America?

 

[Crazy Source]

I don't drink, do drugs, or keep much association with people who do so, yeah, not really. I'm a lot more engaging and fun on a camping trip or wilderness hike, lol. I just had a full day out on the lake, about to grill some ribeyes and watch another nature documentary with my son. Life's Great. What's going on in Trump's America?

Sounds wonderful. Ribeyes are my favorite steak. I really appreciate your history lessons in this thread. The Bull Moose Party.

Girlfriend- "Where are we going?"

Boyfriend- "To a Bull Moose party"

Girlfriend- "What does that mean?"

Boyfriend-

 

[Long Dark Blues]

I don't drink, do drugs, or keep much association with people who do so, yeah, not really. I'm a lot more engaging and fun on a camping trip or wilderness hike, lol. I just had a full day out on the lake, about to grill some ribeyes and watch another nature documentary with my son. Life's Great. What's going on in Trump's America?

 

[Andy Capp]

Where do you rank him amongst US presidents? Amongst all-time great Americans in general? Are there any favorite anecdotes or stories? It's pretty difficult to get more badass than being shot in the chest and still delivering a 80+ minute speech while bleeding out with the bullet lodged in; few things have probably been cooler than the President of the United States having a boxing ring installed in the White House and staging sparring sessions as a participant. In fact, he is the reason the Executive Mansion is known as the White House. He was also the first to invite a prominent African American (Booker T. Washington) to dine there in an official capacity, sparking outrage in the South.

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."



The youngest person to ever take office at 42 years old, none have ever been so physically and mentally robust upon assuming the role, and very few have ever managed to wield it with so much force. One of the reasons his achievements and legacy are so enduring is not because he attempted to govern through executive fiat and flimsy authoritarian orders but rather his deft ability to enforce and utilize pre-existing federal statutes codified into U.S. law by Congress over a decade before he became President (the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 and General Revision Act of 1891 in particular) combined with a strength of personality and the political cunning to work with his legislative branch.

One of his highest priorities was to break the corporate monopolies that had run roughshod over the country throughout the Gilded Age, and he did. TR's DOJ filed no fewer than 44 anti-trust lawsuits, taking direct aim at the likes of J.P. Morgan's Northern Securites Company and John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, both of which were ultimately broken up as a result. An avid outdoorsman, Teddy is literally, single-handedly responsible for the establishment and conservation of over 230 million public acres of American wilderness in the form of 150 national forests, 55 national wildlife refuges, and 18 national monuments (six of which were later upgraded to National Park designation by Congress, including the Grand Canyon).

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches, or its romance.”

Amongst the legislation he guided through Congress and enacted into law was the Pure Food and Drug Act (first significant consumer protection law in American history), the Federal Meat Inspection Act (making it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat products), and the Hepburn Regulation Act (ICC control over the imposition of exorbitant railroad shipping costs). He secured the agreement and initiated construction of the Panama Canal to greatly enhance American geopolitical power and global commerce. He brokered the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese war (and won the Nobel Peace Prize). He organized the Algeciras Conference to relieve tensions between Germany and France. He substantially upgraded US Naval power and projection, sending off the Great White Fleet. He didn't start nor send any American son to war, despite the fact that all four of his own would go on to serve in World Wars with distinction and three of them didn't make it out alive.

"No man has had a happier life than I have led; a happier life in every way."

The irony of this ain't lost. Peak America.

Hey, leaving aside the thread topic for a sec, been awhile since I've seen you. Here's to hoping you've been doing OK.

 

[Rob Battisti]

I don't drink, do drugs, or keep much association with people who do so, yeah, not really. I'm a lot more engaging and fun on a camping trip or wilderness hike, lol. I just had a full day out on the lake, about to grill some ribeyes and watch another nature documentary with my son. Life's Great. What's going on in Trump's America?

Whenever you’re in Austin we will drink some whiskey together. Whether you drink or not.

 

[Deorum]

Hey, leaving aside the thread topic for a sec, been awhile since I've seen you. Here's to hoping you've been doing OK.

I'm Bully!

I hope you're doing well, Andy.

Whenever you’re in Austin we will drink some whiskey together. Whether you drink or not.

I'm definitely down for a glass of whiskey (or two) socially. It's just outright obnoxious drunkenness that I avoid and strongly dislike for the way it makes people behave under the influence. I've had to babysit way too many people and deescalate too many situations.

You should be about to embark on a trip worthy of all-time great life memories with R66 road trip and GC climax, and it's a damn shame that isn't going to happen this year. Thankfully, it will still be here for you. And you can thank Teddy. From "The Wilderness Warrior":

In Flagstaff, the world was full of geological possibilities. Roosevelt had clearly left the hysteria of national politics back in Washington, D.C., 1,900 miles away. He felt isolated and happy. Glory to the West! Glory to John Wesley Powell! Glory to the Arizona Territory! Glory to the Grand Canyon, which, at long last, he was going to see. Roosevelt was in a glorious frame of mind.

The president’s arrival at the Grand Canyon on the morning of May 6 would, in retrospect, become one of the greatest days in environmental history. The Grand Canyon seemed as if it had been born of a cataclysm, with no eyewitnesses or reliable records. Amaranth in color, with a weird purple-orange glow, it also seemed cosmic, full of yearnings and teachings. Roosevelt would later call the Grand Canyon “the most wonderful scenery in the world.” He also declared that “to all else that is strange and beautiful in nature the Canyon stands as Karnak and Baalbec, seen by moonlight, stand to all other ruined temples and palaces of the bygone ages.”

Many Rough Riders were there that May to stand and gaze at the canyon with him. It is not hyperbole to say that Roosevelt’s jaw dropped in disbelief. He had long suspected that the Grand Canyon was the premier natural wonder in America, and now his hunch had been confirmed. He was dying to learn more of its geological secrets. Preservation in this case was so obvious that even engaging in debate seemed almost criminal. To Roosevelt, the Grand Canyon was beyond debate by the locals: it must become the exclusive property of the United States to be saved for future generations.

Roosevelt’s attitude toward the Grand Canyon was uncompromising: he flat-out refused to let corporate avarice or citizens’ ineptitude desecrate the greatest American treasure. Roosevelt vowed to make sure that Arizona’s developers never drilled an inch of the Grand Canyon. He hoped his presidential visit would start a widespread grassroots movement to preserve it all—every damn acre in the 1,904 square miles—for perpetuity. Public education in Arizona had to be initiated at once. Too many Arizonans simply looked at the Grand Canyon, Roosevelt scolded, instead of living within its geological essence.

Overawed by its immensity, enjoying even the ground squirrels running across the naked rock, Roosevelt was in rapture. It was grander than all the music Roosevelt had heard; it was finer than all the transcendental poetry he had read. To Roosevelt’s mind, this ledge was a no-growth zone. Even industrial activity anywhere near the Grand Canyon wasn’t acceptable to Roosevelt. If Roosevelt had done nothing else while in office, his advocacy on behalf of preserving the canyon might well have put him in the top ranks of American presidents.

But there was so much more...

Not since Lincoln had America had such a folk figure as Roosevelt for its president. He was beloved. Groups from all over America wanted to memorialize Roosevelt, chisel his face in granite, or cast a bronze of his likeness. But such gestures were hardly commensurate with his accomplishments. The ‘inventory’ as Gifford Pinchot would say, included protected pinnacles, a crater lake, a rain forest and a petrified forest, a wind cave and a jewel cave, cliff dwellings, cinder cones, and a skyscraper of hardened magma, giant sequoia stands, pristine glacier meadows, and the grandest of all canyons. In seven years and sixty-nine days, Roosevelt had saved more than 234 million acres of American wilderness. History still hasn’t caught up with the long-term magnitude of his achievement.

 

[Deorum]

@Long Dark Blues, hopefully the awful cancellation doesn't mean you leave your boys behind when you do make it down here. There will be plenty of travels without them on the semi-retirement tour of America. Bring them to the GC at least. Teddy spent weeks in 1913, going rim-to-rim with Archie and Quentin because of course, lol. His description of the North Rim was actually quite accurate.





"The Colorado River, in its deep gulf, bends south, then west, then north, and incloses on three sides the high plateau which is the heart of the forest and game reserve. It was on this [Kaibab] plateau, locally known as Buckskin Mountain, that we spent the next fortnight. The altitude is from 8,000 to nearly 10,000 feet, and the climate is that of the far north. Spring does not come until June; the snow lies deep for seven months. We were there in midsummer, but the thermometer went down at night to 36, 34, and once to 33 degrees Fahrenheit; there was hoarfrost in the mornings.

Sound was our sleep under our blankets, in the open, or under a shelf of rock, or beneath a tent, or most often under a thickly leaved tree. Throughout the day, the air was cool and bracing. Although we reached the plateau in mid-July, the spring was but just coming to an end. Silver-voiced Rocky Mountain hermit-thrushes chanted divinely from the deep woods. There were multitudes of flowers, of which, alas! I know only a very few, and these by their vernacular names; for as yet, there is no such handbook for the flowers of the southern Rocky Mountains."

 

[Long Dark Blues]

@Long Dark Blues, hopefully the awful cancellation doesn't mean you leave your boys behind when you do make it down here. There will be plenty of travels without them on the semi-retirement tour of America. Bring them to the GC at least. Teddy spent weeks in 1913, going rim-to-rim with Archie and Quentin because of course, lol. His description of the North Rim was actually quite accurate.





"The Colorado River, in its deep gulf, bends south, then west, then north, and incloses on three sides the high plateau which is the heart of the forest and game reserve. It was on this [Kaibab] plateau, locally known as Buckskin Mountain, that we spent the next fortnight. The altitude is from 8,000 to nearly 10,000 feet, and the climate is that of the far north. Spring does not come until June; the snow lies deep for seven months. We were there in midsummer, but the thermometer went down at night to 36, 34, and once to 33 degrees Fahrenheit; there was hoarfrost in the mornings.

Sound was our sleep under our blankets, in the open, or under a shelf of rock, or beneath a tent, or most often under a thickly leaved tree. Throughout the day, the air was cool and bracing. Although we reached the plateau in mid-July, the spring was but just coming to an end. Silver-voiced Rocky Mountain hermit-thrushes chanted divinely from the deep woods. There were multitudes of flowers, of which, alas! I know only a very few, and these by their vernacular names; for as yet, there is no such handbook for the flowers of the southern Rocky Mountains."

Enriching my kids' lives will always be my #1 priority.

Even now that my oldest (25) makes more money than I do after only graduating college three years ago, and my youngest (16) signals heavily that he wants and has the mechanical aptitude to work in the skilled trades... I will always support these boys 100% in whatever they may endeavor to explore.

This country needs fathers, more so now than ever; and I'm raising my sons to fulfill that need and helping them become well-rounded, successful indivduals so that this nation as we know it shall not perish from this earth.

 

[Tyler Durden]

He's alright but kind of a huge asshole by today's standards.

Well, “today’s standards” are embarrassing.