Senator Stace Nelson will probably try telling us this impact isn’t happening either….
As occupant of the White House, Donald Trump is lazy, ignorant, and selfish. By shutting down the National Park Service, Trump is bringing out laziness, ignorance, and selfishness that are damaging our national parks:
David Lamfrom, director of the California Desert and National Wildlife Programs of the National Parks Conservation Association, said the volunteer efforts can’t supplant the work of the park service.
“People are walking off trails, bringing their dogs,” he said. “People are trampling and destroying the things they want to preserve without knowing it. … People are camping where they want or showing up really early or late at certain watering holes so animals like bighorn sheep won’t come down to drink” [Ray Sanchez and Chris Boyette, “Trash, Toilet Odor Build at National Parks amid Government Shutdown,” CNN, 2019.01.01]
Trump was too lazy to build a wall or even lock the gates to protect our parks from damage:
Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.
“We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts,” Garder said. “We’re concerned there’ll be impacts to visitors’ safety.”
“It’s really a nightmare scenario,” Garder said. [Ellen Knickmeyer and Locelyn Gecker, “Garbage, Feces Take Toll on National Parks amid Shutdown,” AP via Rapid City Journal, updated 2019.01.02].
Trump’s shutdown is also harming businesses at the parks:
Greg Henington, owner of Far Flung Outdoor Center in Terlingua, a town just outside the park, said he voted for President Trump but blames the president for the shutdown, which he says creates confusion and uncertainty for local businesses.
“If we are going to continue to use the federal government as a weapon for not getting what we want in the sandbox, then this is untenable for small business. We can’t make decisions, we lay off employees, we take cancellations,” he said [Meghan Cuniff, John Waters, and Joel Achenbach, “In Shutdown, National Parks Transform into Wild West—Heavily Populated, Barely Supervised,” Washington Post, 2019.01.01].
Dusty Johnson, who is neither lazy, ignorant, nor selfish, goes to work in the Pelosi Congress tomorrow. Perhaps he can show some leadership among his fellow House freshmen and join Speaker Pelosi and the majority Democrats in approving funding for the National Parks and the rest of the federal government by a veto-proof margin.
Sadly Dusty Johnson will toe and tow the Trumpian line. If he does anything other than that I will personally shake his hand and thank him for being his own man.
The disgusting treatment of our public parks shows the deep immoral character of the trumpians. But now, the money men are starting to be worried. Mitt Romney came out in an op-ed disparaging trump while still singing from the same music sheet. As the stock market tanks and the economy constricts, there will be more republican voices against trump’s decisions regarding their checkbooks. They all still embrace the racist thingy, but they soon will be seeing what the loss of SNAP and the loss of healthcare for the poor really mean to the business community as a whole. You cannot have capitalism unless the whole citizenry is included…even the sick and the poor.
… unpardonable ( In CO we voted for Clinton and we’re using an innovative plan to circumvent the cheater who stole the election. Our four Nat’l Parks (Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon, Great Sand Dunes and Mesa Verde) are open, as directed by Washington. However, the roads going in are closed. Hoof it in, if you choose. There’s nothing to see near the entrances and the recent snowfall in the mountains makes these treasures virtually unspoiled by Trumpist tantrums. )
Jerry — regarding capitalism (our version of it, at least), perhaps you meant to say “you cannot have capitalism unless the whole citizenry is duped …”
Indeed sir, let me kind of step back. Capitalism means that someone is a looser. You cannot have capitalism without a looser, simple as that. There has to be a profit made from someone else’s hard work… or their minerals.
Capitalism in the US works that way as well. You buy stuff and then you sell it at a higher price. Regarding SNAP, we the people knowingly give huge subsidies to ranchers and farmers so they can have a profit by providing food stocks to all the citizenry. When they fail to provide for those of us who have the least, then they show their ignorance on how they get that subsidy for their livestock and their food commodities.
These parks that are overflowing with crap and lawlessness were paid for with broken treaties and then subsidized by all of us taxpayers. That means we now own it, all of us. We simply cannot allow trump and the republicans to destroy those lands and grounds.
Jerry, I’m assuming you mean “loser,” because if you do mean “looser,” then your statement is total gibberish rather than simply wrong.
If I ask you to build something for me, I shall pay you an agreed price. I might then sell the thing you built to someone else for more money than I paid you. That, to me, looks like three winners. You got paid for your time and skill, I got paid for my marketing genius, and the final owner got a product (s)he can use to improve her/his life.
Perhaps minerals were used. Who loses by their use?
BobNutz … The loser is the poor and lower middle class. Capitalism is inequality of opportunity. In capitalism, we have to buy possibilities in exchange for money. Opportunities like education and investments in different areas are always the privilege for the rich whereas the poor are stuck in the poverty trap.
Spelling, always the spelling, dang it. I meant loser and still do, thanks for the correction.
Where did the raw material come from for me to build something for you? That is the loser. I will give you this example. Looks at your grocery shelf or your meat counter. Think of the trail they have gone to before they end up in your shopping cart. Who produced them, how were they paid? Was it done legally? Were the providers of the materials provided benefits of any kind? Were diamonds used in the production of the materials used to bring your building to finish? Were these diamonds, blood diamonds?
The minerals used in the whole process, were they looted? The fish fry you had to celebrate your endeavor, did they come from illegal fishing or slave labor to process those tasty morsels? Capitalism cannot survive without there being someone who got screwed somewhere along the line. Take a look at your computer and tell me that a worker that put together the intricate works there was not screwed to give you a better price at Sam’s Club.
I stand behind what I said, even if I can’t spell worth a damn or kill the King’s English.
Sorry Jerry ……….
Those “minerals” were extracted by LABOR. The fish were caught by LABOR.
Per your argument, who’s the entity getting screwed? It sure as hell ain’t Labor.
… but as Bob Dylan said, “.. the time they are a changin'”
Indeed LABOR, “Children as young as seven are working in perilous conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine cobalt that ends up in smartphones, cars and computers sold to millions across the world, by household brands including Apple, Microsoft and Vodafone, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International.
The human rights group claims to have traced cobalt used in lithium batteries sold to 16 multinational brands to mines where young children and adults are being paid a dollar a day, working in life-threatening conditions and subjected to violence, extortion and intimidation.” https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/19/children-as-young-as-seven-mining-cobalt-for-use-in-smartphones-says-amnesty
The times never change, they just move from one continent to another while we look the other way. As long as there is a profit for what we need, capitalism will work it’s might…over the bodies of those it crushes for the almighty dollar.
That LABOR for fishing, yep “Our money is with [the owner], so he can decide to give us permission [to change jobs] or not. They hold all the power and we can’t do anything.
–Sinuon Sao, Cambodian migrant on a fishing vessel, Mueang Rayong, Rayong, November 2016” https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/01/23/hidden-chains/rights-abuses-and-forced-labor-thailands-fishing-industry
Slave labor and abuse of workers to deliver what we need. We capitalists are slackers man, we get to drunk to fish.
Jerry, Grudgnutz and the rest of you, here’s a philosopher who’s been thinking about a new way to operate an economy that includes equality.
Dr. Elizabeth Anderson, in Michigan, thinks about the very same things we argue about– $, fairness, etc. It’s a lengthy article, but even if you don’t get all the way through it, and I hope you do, there’s still a lot to ponder.
https://goo.gl/z92SWb