Last week, we discussed the cosmic alignment of Trump’s felony convictions and the continued demise of Florida’s heat and disease-ravaged orange industry.

Well, wait until you hear about the fall of the humble banana. Better known for its delicious bread, Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” song, and the preferred cellular device for goofy dads nationwide, it’s fallen in with some bad apples.

How bad, you ask? International terrorism, cold-blooded murder, ruthless political battles, and the systematic annihilation of our environment.

I expected that behavior from a pineapple but not a banana.

Earlier this week, a federal jury in Florida held the illustrious Chiquita banana company civilly liable for the murder of eight men by a now-defunct right-wing Colombian terrorist group. The company was ordered to pay the families combined damages of $38 million. It denied the accusations and, unironically, I’m assuming, said it would appeal.

The plaintiff’s lead attorney in the case told the court how the paramilitary group evicted and executed farmers and union reps to clear the way for the now Switzerland-based Chiquita to transform locally owned plantain farms into corporate banana goldmines.

Alongside corporate-funded killings, large-scale banana farms are also not great for humans and the environment. They often lead to mass deforestation in precious places, like the Amazon rainforest, and pesticide-poisoned waterways that harm wildlife and people. That’s before they are loaded onto boats and planes for delivery around the world.

And just when you thought the term “banana republic” couldn’t be resurrected in a more literal sense, the ongoing judicial tug-of-war between the Trump and Biden camps has pulled it back into society’s collective lexicon.

In the aftermath of Trump’s felony convictions last month, the former President, GOP politicians and even Dr. Phil used the term, inferring the country was teetering on the edge of becoming an actual banana republic—defined as a politically and economically unstable nation dependent on the export of natural resources, exploitation of its working class, and consolidation of power by political and corporate elites.

Hard to tell if the U.S. qualifies. After all, it only grows 0.01% of the world’s bananas. However, it imports the most of any country.

Political experts and commentators are also using the banana republic to describe the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page ultra-conservative plan to radically overhaul the federal government should Trump win in November.

This week in The Meltdown, we’ll peel back the layers of the foundation’s Project 2025 agenda and end with a short history lesson about Chiquita bananas.

Drizzle

Fortunately for me, Reckon’s editor-in-chief, Ryan Nave, has already looked at various parts of Project 2025, including plans to cancel so-called “woke” words while reshaping reproductive health legislation and overhauling the U.S. education system.

Like Trump did during his first term, Project 2025 advocates for dismantling environmental protections, which are apparently nothing more than irksome barriers to oil and gas profits. Don’t forget, Trump asked oil executives for $1 billion in exchange for rolling back a lot of Biden’s green agenda.

The plan calls for gutting key agencies and slashing funds for clean energy initiatives, including closing the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, and the Loan Programs Office. It also calls for significant reductions at the Environmental Protection Agency by firing new hires and eliminating the environmental justice department while reviving Trump-era policies and scrutinizing specific grant programs.

In response, a group of House Democrats have formed a task force to combat Project 2025. “If we’re trying to react to it and understand it in real-time, it’s too late. … We need to see it coming well in advance and prepare ourselves accordingly,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California told the Associated Press of The Stop Project 2025 Task Force.

Compost Dump

I find myself often explaining to friends the lengths corporations will go to make money. The East India Company, for example, is known to be the original corporate raider. The long-defunct company is alleged to have killed up to 100 million Indians over 40 years by purposefully starving them.

Oil companies have long been accused of fueling global conflicts, but they have also been implicated in more sinister acts, such as rape, murder and torture in Africa.

But it takes a lot of work to dethrone the Chiquita banana, formerly the United Fruit Company.

They are why the term banana republic was coined in the first place. In the 1920s, the company asked the Colombian military to break up a worker strike. Between 1,000 to 3,000 people were killed in what is known as the “banana massacre.” It was also involved in a CIA-planned coup in Guatemala in the 1950s, which nearly resulted in it buying the whole country. The public only found out about that in 1997.

The company was fined for funding terrorism in 2007 and is now liable for murder. Pretty wild for atropical fruit company based in Switzerland, which is almost as absurd as its Irish-owned rival, Fyffes.

See you next week

Over the last two weeks, we’ve talked about oranges, apples, bananas and lemons—alongside the ravages of climate change, the undermining of democracy, and even murder. It’s all a bit sad as we continue pushing into what is already a very divisive and polarizing presidential election year.

I hate to channel everyone’s mom, but why can’t we all just get along?

Anyway, I’ll leave you with this sweet little quote from the great Kostas “Gus” Portokalos, the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

“We all different, but in the end, we all fruit.”