After the fiasco with nuclear workers, one might have thought DOGE would think about needs before more mass firings. 
A Walk in the DOGE Park
The Wall Street Journal comments Trump’s Walk in the Park Turns Into a Stumble
Donald Trump’s hiring freeze came at a bad moment, just when the park service needed to hire temporary summer workers, and DOGE’s reforms have left some parks in disarray.
The only pilot for Alaska’s roughly 14-million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias park was fired, according to Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers. Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park lost its only plumber. Supporters of Pennsylvania’s Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site are begging for donations to feed its sheep and red devon steers.
The National Park Service has struggled for decades. According to congressional reports, even before Mr. Trump took office America’s national parks had billions of dollars in deferred maintenance of crumbling roads, outdated facilities and unrepaired trails. Intelligent budget cuts and a complete reordering of the Park Service budget is long overdue and would serve Mr. Trump’s agenda well in future years.
Take DOGE’s $1 spending limit on most government-issued credit cards. According to former officials, many parks in recent years spent through such cards instead of normal procurements. That can be fixed in future years, but for now some parks aren’t able to get supplies for the summer: broken window fixings, toilet paper, water filters.
Or consider the ping-ponging of employees this year. On Jan. 20 the president implemented a governmental hiring freeze. In response the Park Service canceled more than 2,000 job openings. On Jan. 28 the administration offered buyouts, which more than 700 park employees took. Then, on Feb. 14, the Park Service fired 1,000 probationary employees, often dubbed the “Valentine’s Day massacre.” Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California ordered them hired back on March 13. This week the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal. All of this has left Park Service staff demoralized and uncertain.
“This is going to be a difficult year,” says Daniel Wenk, a former superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, but he wonders how much everything in the news will actually affect tourists. “I hope it goes without a hitch.”
Phil Francis, a former superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, adds, “I’m not sure everything that’s been said is going to happen will happen.” But the situation is “still chaotic, and there’s confusion,” with different offices “handling the same situation in a little different ways. We don’t know where the priorities will be.”
Cheryl Schreier, a former superintendent of Mount Rushmore, says one reason for the chaos is that “in the Midwest region, there are only three people that have credit cards that they can actually purchase items with.”
Asked for comment, the National Park Service replied that it is “committed to advancing the Trump administration’s priorities of fiscal responsibility, operational efficiency, and government accountability.” But it also warned, “It’s always a good idea to leave your trip plan with a trusted friend,” who can “let authorities know if they haven’t heard from you.” Sound advice, especially this year.
This is a post I mentally prepared many weeks ago, without any details, because it is what I excepted.
But after the fiasco of firing then rehiring hundreds of nuclear workers, I thought there was a chance DOGE would learn something about firing first then aiming later, if at all.
The lines at national parks are horrendous. It can take many hours to get into Zion NP, near me. Arches NP is even worse.
I am a firm believer in making people who use services, pay for them.
If parks are losing money, raise the fee instead of closing trails and making people wait hours to get in.
It is a political disaster to piss off millions of people, ruining their vacations.
Appeals Court Rules for Trump
Please note Appeals Court clears the way for Musk, DOGE to resume cuts to USAID
A federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to resume their efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower-court judge’s injunction that had temporarily blocked Musk and DOGE from playing any role in dismantling USAID.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, a Maryland-based appointee of President Barack Obama, ruled that Musk and his DOGE allies were likely exercising an unconstitutional amount of power because Musk has not been formally appointed to a Senate-confirmed position. He blocked Musk and DOGE from proceeding with USAID cuts.
All three judges on the 4th Circuit panel agreed that Chuang’s block should be lifted, though they did not all agree on the reasoning.
Judge Marvin Quattlebaum, a Trump appointee on the appeals court, wrote that Musk’s actions are not unconstitutional because he is a valid presidential adviser, and his efforts to cut USAID were approved by officials with direct authority over the agency.
Judge Roger Gregory, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, agreed with the end result — lifting Chuang’s injunction — but disagreed strongly with the rationale.
He wrote that Musk likely has been operating in violation of the Constitution’s appointments clause and that the dismantling of USAID likely violates the “express will” of Congress. But he said Musk and DOGE were not the appropriate defendants in the case. In his view, the plaintiffs — various USAID employees and contractors — should have sued officials with formal authority over the agency.
This is not that unexpected nor does it contradict what I said.
The name of the department does not matter. What does matter is whether money officially approved by Congress will get spent.
People without standing filed the suit. If and when those with standing have funds cut, Trump will lose those cases.
USAID Cancellation by Trump, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Details
I discussed this in USAID Cancellation by Trump, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Details
The Good
Rooting out fraud and ridiculous unauthorized payments is good. Moreover, there is grounds to fire everyone who sent out checks without questioning a single one.
The lead image is a great example. In addition there is $8.2 million payments to Politico.
And there is strong evidence that Politico was paid to suppress stories on Hunter and Joe Biden.
The unseen is undoubtedly worse. It’s good to root out all of this fraud and corruption and prosecute when appropriate.
The Bad
Sorry DOGE, but a blanket cancellation of all payments is unconstitutional.
I get it from both the Left and Right because I want both parties to follow the law.
The Ugly
Elon Musk has no power to do anything but advise the President and make recommendations.
Musk, the head of Trump’s government efficiency initiative, announced the shutdown in the middle of the night in an audio-only appearance on his social media site X.
But Musk has no power to shut down anything.
No one should defend this because the only legitimate role of DOGE is to make recommendations.
If you disagree then please tell me how you would have felt if Biden authorized George Soros access to the system to shut down payments he disagreed with.
Hypocrites make excuses. I don’t.
There probably won’t be an appeal on the basis of standing. But I do suspect more cases with proper standing.
Any payments explicitly funded by Congress will eventually get paid.
In case you missed it, please see DOGE Makes Huge Mistake Firing Nuclear Workers, Now Seeks to Rehire Them
When you fire people without understanding what they even do, you make big mistakes.
No one wants to discuss why approximately 350 employees were fired only to rescind all but 50.
I would want to sweep this under the rug too.
Musk may be a genius. I think he is. Look no further than Space X.
But Musk is also an idiot as this shows. DOGE is still in a cut first, think about it later mode, assuming there is any DOGE thinking at all.
And now DOGE is about to hit the national parks. It’s likely legal, but it’s politically very stupid.
It’s like expecting Musk to make a steak from a giant pile of sh*t. There is no political will to make these cuts and we are heading towards a debt cliff. Something must be done and if vacations at national parks are disrupted, so be it. Also, we should charge way, way more for national parks because the demand is so high. Less people is better for the environment, right?
Really just grasping at anything at this point….
Musk meme with raised chainsaw above head … ‘Chainsaw?, Hatchet?, or Scalpel?’
As a former emergency medicine physician of 40 years, chainsaw injuries can be tough to repair because of tissue loss.
If we’re going to have national parks they should at least be well-managed. Most libertarians support privatization. I think I would keep the land public and outsource the management to a private company. I want us to preserve some wilderness.
There are times when it makes sense to outsource, and times when it doesn’t. The private sector is great at growth. So if a government function has great similarities to a private sector function and has opportunities to grow income, outsourcing is a great solution. If it doesn’t, it almost never works. The private company simply cuts maintenance and looks for ways to charge more. 10 years later you get worse service at higher cost (albeit great profits). Almost all road and building construction have been outsourced very successfully. Running parks may not result in the same.
Musk is way smarter than most but he is also a bull-shi**ter when it came to full-self-Driving and SOLAR ROOFS for his Tesla’s. He speaks before he thinks or he is PURPOSELY doing it. Either way, I lost my admiration for him when he was caught lying about his Telsa’s.
Paying for government services used is a slippery slope. Many service charges reflect government policy, not total cost recovery: it’s a social service. Once you try to recover all associated costs, the service charge naturally reflects this and you end up with a growing bureaucracy and a service for the rich. Many lower income people use the parks because that’s what they can afford. No, I don’t have the answer.
I think lower income people tend to use parks close to home. State and local parks (weekend getaways) are important to them.
Driving to a national park out west – they’d have to spend a lot on gas, take a lot of time off work. (And have a reliable vehicle).
You don’t think people live near national parks?
Also, as Mish said, many of these trips are vacations where people travel to get there.
It’s becoming more and more clear that DOGE is not about reducing waste and fraud in government. If anything, it’s about increasing waste and fraud in government. Hear me out. The argument runs as follows. GAO has for many years claimed there is waste and fraud of several hundred billion dollars, concentrated in three main areas: (1) Medicare and Medicaid (overcharging/fraudulent claims); (2) Defense contracts and purchases (routine cost overruns and over billing); and (3) Tax administration (underreporting and fraudulent refund claims). What is DOGE doing? It’s firing people, many of whom may actually be trying to stop waste and fraud in the three areas highlighted by GAO. The record so far: DOGE has done nothing about (1). (2) puts the finger directly at Elon Musk—is he going to check whether his own dealings with government are ridden with waste and fraud? But DOGE is clearly acting on (3) … by firing tax collectors to reduce the IRS’s ability to reduce waste and fraud.
My sense is that DOGE is just warming up. When you start up something like this, you don’t go after the big nightmare problems first, you start with the “low hanging fruit” as a way for your teams to gain necessary practice and experience.
Similarly in sports, for instance – the Big Game is at the end of the season, not the beginning.
The people using the park are the ones forming the line to pay their entrance fee to get in.
My friend suggested that the most popular parks aught to be available for Americans only during the busy season. Iceland should only be available for Icelanders and Greenlanders during the busy season. Foreign tourists have made a mess of chic destinations.
The clueless one is not DOGE but Mish. If he consulted knowledgeable legal sources before opining on legal matters, he might actually publish something that turns out correct. It is most likely that no one has standing to sue because government grants are usually paid in stages of a project and the approval of one phase does not mean subsequent phases will be approved. As an example, the government could award a grant of $5 million for construction of a bridge. Each step in the process must be approved before funds are received. So the government could approve $40k to draw the plans. $20k for an environmental study. Then the government might change its mind and cancel the project in its entirety and nothing can be done. Even when the government wrongfully cancels the contract, the only court with jurisdiction to hear the case is the court of claims. These loser judges know they have no jurisdiction to hear the case but they don’t care. Federal judges who do what they want, irrespective of the law, because they have a lifetime appointment should be impeached.
Musk isn’t the genius he claims to be. It is an aura he has built up much like Trump. Do your own diligence. He may be an engineer but he isn’t inventor or originator of ideas he claims are his.
One is a complete narcissist and the other has serious Asperger’s. That’s why Twitter was a complete disaster. Now the two are enabling and feeding off each other. The only thing worse than one grossly incompetent jackass is two incompetent jackasses. Musk “might” be a good or even great engineer. But he has absolutely no EQ. He thinks the world can be run by an algorithm. In his Twitter fork in the road email he said the company at its core was a software and servers company. You mean like Cisco, Amazon Cloud, or Google??? Umm no. Twitter was a media company which basically breaks down to eyeballs and advertisers. If you don’t get advertisers, you don’t get paid. But, Elon, said f the advertisers! Genius, pure genius!!! He is also definently suffering from some magalomania. I think burning a few Teslas finally “woke” him up a little. You see what I did there?!!!
I have lived near Glacier National Park for 28 years. Forever, locals could decide on a moments notice to go to the park and enjoy all it has to offer. High country camping was available. But now since Covid, everyone in the country has decided to come here, just like all the other Western parks.I get it, the National Parks are owned by everyone. It’s a small community and I have no clue where they are staying or how they are getting around. There used to be no more than a few flights into the Kalispell airport. Now, seems like there’s one every hour. Non-stops from all over the county. Delta is having a field day.
The Park service instituted a lottery system to get a ticket to get in. Of course, some enterprising companies figured out how to beat the system and got tickets for their customers. There have been tweaks to the system every year, and of course no one is satisfied.
Covid, and the stresses of big city life, have combined to attempt to ruin local communities in the Western states. Montana is no exception and is a favored hunting ground for the nouveau cowboys and girls..Just check out Bozeman, the epicenter of the madness caused by the “Yellowstone” series.
I recall my mother, a Southern lady, telling me 30 years ago when I announced my move from Atlanta, “Son, you’re going to freeze to death”. I just thank the good Lord that we had a wonderful and peaceful 23 years before the insanity struck.
I hate it and despise the people who refuse to stop trying to make Montana into an image of LA and Silicon Valley. All you need to know is there are Starbucks here and people wearing cowboy hats who have never been on a horse.
i was there 50 years ago camping….. pro tip, people come. old saying here in my hometown i’m back in, nyc. if you want to see a neighborhood change, just stand on the corner for a few hours. ask an amerikan indian that question.
Yeah … Starbucks! Whatever…
Deep thoughts😂
I was in Glacier National Park last June. No lottery tickets were required, we just drove right up and went in. This was on the east side. We had a great day.
Please continue to scare away other tourists so we can enjoy the park again sometime.
Zion and Arches national parks are indeed overcrowded.
A reservation system is a must and maybe you get to go to Zion like once per year.
The $80 America the beautiful lifetime pass, for those 62 plus years old, is a contributing factor to over park over crowding. There are many others.
If you disagree, what should the entrance fee be? Given what I’ve seen, $100 per person per day still would not decrease over crowding.
Most would say free enterance fees, and I get to go to a National Park eryday if I want. It is my park.
What should the National Park Budget be then?
Hopefully everyone on this board thinks more than the Russian/Ukrainian war costs us.
It is a question of priorities.
There are those that think war mongering should take priority over everything else.
WAR SPENDING is the goal. Not WARRING for “reasons” (Terror, etc).
We wage wars to feed the MIC TROUGH.
Wars are never for the stated “reasons.” “Stamping out Terrorists. Nuclear Iran. Syrian Dictator. Iraqi “weapons of Mass Destruction” (That pile of Bullshit was so obvious).
STOPPING THE COMMUNISTS in Viet Nam. YEAH, RIGHT!
Sunriver,
Make a few of the national parks free each year on a rotating basis. All other national parks charge Disney type entrance fees during that year.
Concentrate more manned resources at the free parks in each given year.
https://www.mind-war.com/p/orania-april-and-lessons-on-tyranny
If you read the two Project 2025 tracker websites you’ll see they are well on their way, ahead of schedule. Most unions were just nulified based on “national security” despite their existence being codified in law. The EPA and FDA and HHS are all being weakened. Nothing like getting sick from poisoness water, food or viruses. Ebola would make a great terror weapon with a kill rate of 50%. That’s why we’ve been going there, so it doesn’t come here. But no matter now.
A couple more: “Require all schools that receive federal funding to give students the military entrance test.” and “End Cybercom’s participation in federal efforts to “fortify” U.S. elections./Note: Secretary Hegseth ordered Cyber Command “to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions”.”
I’ll be waiting for the Reichstag moment when martial law can be declared across the country. Is this what the $400M for armored Tesla trucks was about??? Speaker Johnson wants to abolish lower courts (aka rouge judges). Bootlickers submitting a bill for a Trump third term. This is getting more and more like the 1930’s. Isolationism and now tariff wars? This will lead to denial of resources. This was the pretext for much of the axis powers to attack their neighbors. DT is turning our friends into enemies. Is it long before he calls them the boogeyman too? “How dare they exercise their sovereignty and rip us off? us? The greatest and most prosperous nation ever?”
If you think this new world axis order is a joke you haven’t been paying attention. Axis leaders don’t conspire per se. They just agree to keep off each other’s turf and any “help” is just transactional effort to maintain the order. There are no such things as friends or allies in the axis order. Let’s hope for gross incompetence and people waking up to realize this admin is a big mistake.
People say we should root for the prez to succeed. But succeed at what? And at what cost? Failure is apart of success. Lessons learned. And so it may need to go before we realize the mistake we’ve made. Carl Sagan: “Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
This is what you get when you have two silver-spoon, do-as-I-say aristocrats thinking they are smart.
“fire everyone and those crying are the frauds” come from people who haven’t really done anything but put money in. Social Security? They can do without a few payments until we root out the fraud is only said by those who don’t have, nor ever had to know a “need” for money.
Look at Musk and PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX – he brought money, but has no business skills and didn’t contribute at all except for his ego – at all. Trump? Same thing. Growing up as an aristocrat on daddy’s money, everyone just says yes, no matter the stupidity.
I LOVE the DOGE concept, but they are grossly incompetent in how it’s being implemented.
This was always going to be the outcome. #resist is real, whether it’s through the Administration’s actual errors, incompetence or communication or if it’s through the courts, or outliers being stood up as examples to draw attention or via protest or “harumpf-not-gonna-leave” squatting; actual shrinking of government, even if there’s waste, corruption and fraud was never going to be allowed. Or surely it wouldn’t go without much kicking, screaming and pulling out all the stops. The same MSM forces will ensure no error goes unreported so as to throw out the baby with the bathwater and resume profligate spending, grift and entrenched waste.
Just as what occurs when the government shuts down there’s a concerted effort to not empty trash cans in front of military bases, shutting down parks or clogging lines, pulling whiskers off cats. The intent is to keep the status quo.
You see everyone wants to have a balanced budget, debt reduced, deficits ended except if it actually inflicts any pain, disruption, discomfort. And since it must, without actual ending of grift/fraud/waste in an amount to attain the desired effect, well here we are.
Even if DOGE were flawless there would be another mechanism that would stop them–judges, CR can-kicking, burning of someone’s vehicles or business, mostly-peaceful protests, some random false-flag type event to side track and resume the MIC spending, daily besmirching of an unelected government worker–clearly different than the last 4 years of unelected government workers running things wink wink.
As long as Congress refuses to do their (*#!#)*_+ job and codify actual budgets that include cuts, this will persist.
#resist will persist
It will be impossible to flawlessly execute reductions without any misstep finding it’s place on page 1 of the non-Fox/non-Twitter MSM hightly motivated to cry foul (or this blog). And unless the House gets the budgets completed look for net-no-change.
I thought the parks didn’t get tax dollars, but fund themselves from entry fees. That’s how Colorado does it.
not a shot in hell was Trump and Musk ever going to trim one shekel from spending or debt, if you include department of war. both men seem to be agents of destruction and complete nihilists. how many fatherless kids is musk up to these days. all empires crumble in different ways, but alas they all crumble. from USSR to Romans. it’s pax amerikas turn now. trump is a nit wit like nero was.
lol
“ It is a political disaster to piss off millions of people, ruining their vacations.”
Yep. Now we are pissing off domestic vacationers as well as international vacationers.
And we are pissing off US manufacturers by raising their input costs with tariffs.
We need a new slogan. Not MAGA. Not Welcome to the Golden Age.
Maybe POE. “Piss Off Everyone”.
WSJ sure is nibbling away at Trump. I see article after article giving him the side-eye. It is interesting in view of FOX’s being his cheerleader camp and top-level recruiting ground. Rupert has walked a strange on-again, off-again path with Trump — is he hedging his bets?
Right oh. Rupert has flip-flopped. Which only shows his complete lack of integrity. HE is political demon who only wants to destroy one side. No matter what.
There’s a very good HIDDEN story about Charles Koch in similar corrupt fashion. Being from Kansas (Kock HQ) and Texas where I met famous floosy Anna Nicole Smith, 26, who married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, 89, in Texas. Great story the light of day should reach. After Marshall’s death Smith’s family tired EVERY WAY POSSIBLE TO TAKE HER INHERITANCE. What was the problem deep down? HER LAWYER told me (last year) it was that Marshall had sold the Koch Industries Refining patents (which used certain rare earths and became the cutting-edge method globally) to RUSSIA – yes Russia – through hidden channels! So Koch indirectly (oh what great conservative patriots Kock really is!), and directly with Marshall was involved in backdoor profiting of refining technology sales to Russia.
Anna’s lawyer worked on this intensely, and had zero reason to distort any fact in this matter to me.
I’m just say’n, Like Rubert like Charles Koch. And BTW many farming people from Kansas always said, and in some cases sued, to recover underreported oil site pickups from Kock. Great American Concervatives – NOT!
I’ve noticed that as well. Rupert Murdoch’s ownership of Fox and the WSJ may be trying to adjust to the fact that Murdoch and his son Lachlan lost their court case trying to reverse a non-reversible trust. The trust gave equal shares to the children of Rupert. Lachlan is the only one that thinks like Murdoch. The other three who own (will inherit) 75%, have different views about the world and our place in it. It’s possible, that Rupert is upset about trump, just for the moment. Rupert is also on so much borrowed time, being in his mid nineties…it’s hard to know if he has his wits about him at all.
Rupert used to be somewhat progressive in the context of 1960, but worked out he could make more money by exploiting sensationalism, distortion and hate. Lachie agrees with daddy. The rest of the family are moderate right with social conscious
The regime change dems unleashed BLM (Bureaucrats Live Matter) to destroy
Ilan to “save our democracy”. Pete Hegseth might order 10,000 Cyber Armored Personnel Trucks,
Yes, Musk is both a genius and an idiot. The problem is that he seems to becoming more and more of a stubborn idiot as time goes by. Case in point: the Cybertruck. A polarizing, idiotic vehicle design that sold less than a tenth of what Must planned for in its first year (and that’s with years of taking preorders for Tesla to deliver).
I don’t think DOGE is politically tone deaf. It’s simply totally incompetent. Period. If they want to know how it’s done they can learn from the Clinton/Gore “National Partnership for Reinventing Government” effort of the mid-90s. But of course, that was (successfully) carried out by people with a “D” after their name so as far as the batch of clowns currently in government it never happened.
In the arc of every life, sooner or later, everyone jumps the shark. There are zero known exceptions (outside of religious narratives).
Musk is fast approaching the Howard-Hughes-Pissing-In-Jars arc of the story.
So funny😂
Really mean it😂😂😂😂
Who paid the possessed dems to burn Tesla ?
Reminiscent of Nixon’s suppositions about Vietnam war protestors, as organized by malicious foreign powers. (There was an investigation concluding that utterly no proof of such a thing could be found). Well, to those not card-carrying market fundamentalists, there are other reward systems than money. And other agitators than “dems.”
Nixon didn’t have the guts to blame Hubert Humphrey.
What billionaire is offering a million dollar prize to Trump voters in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election? Love us some billionaires owning America.. don’t you 😳
Thumbs down dude😘
When the smoke clears, Trump will accept and appeal what the courts want. Everybody knows more about Trump now. No matter what, let’s get the court cases started and fight the fight for what we want from all fronts. Then hit Congress for what can’t be gotten without resistance. What gets done gets done. Two years and bust or can the successes last?
Smokey the Bear is on the bread line.
I believe Trump’s recent language was, he will “liberate” federal lands. I assume this means clear-cut forests, and convert them to cronies’ real estate projects. Of course the bears and whatever wildlife will go with it into the chipper, and huge assets will be liberated from public hands, where they could only be mismanaged, into perfectly trustworthy, private individual profit-oriented hands. This happened so wonderfully in the former USSR, as the prelude to Putin’s wonderful Russia of today. To me, in a sort of Orwellian way, all this rhetorical liberation talk lately, is chilling.
Very chilling. Never thought I’d see the Republican Party jump in bed with the Russians. I’m gobsmacked. Putin is a dictator, President Xi of China is a dictator. Kim of North Korea is a dictator. Trump loves dictators. He’s going for full dictatorship here. If conservatives don’t see it, it’s because they want him to be a dictator, as well. The Don’t Tread on Me gang, is going full Tread on Others.
A propaganda narrative.
Sure thing. What propaganda narrative? The truth Peelo typed?
Whatever one thinks of Putin and the validity of Rus elections, he surely has greater support in Rus than the 50% of the 605% who could be bothered to vote for Trump/Biden/Harris had. Whatever the issues with lack of open democracy in Rus and China the massive increase in GDP, personal wealth and state services in those countries underpins real popularity. While in the US the rich get richer, the roads crumble etc etc
Sorry Mish, I know how much you love the outdoors and your pics are amazing but the truth is that this is just the beginning of the Trumpocolypse.™ Here’s more of what’s coming…
The Four Horseman of the Trumpocolypse™
White Horse (“Conqueror” Trump) – behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. (Greenland, Canada, Palestine to start).
Red Horse (“Signal” Segheth) -behold, a chatty red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from Earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
Pale Horse (“Wormhead” Kennedy) – behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the Earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the Earth. Already doing a great job with measles outbreaks, fungal outbreaks, and so much more.
Black Horse (Next Fed Chair TBD) – behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine”.
Don’t raise prices! As the wealth gap continues to widen, lower wage earners continue to get prices out of everything. With all the money wasted, they can’t find funding to provide access to our nation’s beauty for everyone? These parks become vacation destinations for the lower wage earner with a family. Most can’t afford a trip to a high-priced city or foreign destination. Don’t take that away too!
In the new way of things, there are only winners and losers. That is cash-based and has zero to do with morals in any formerly understood way, especially any ethos that is other than me, my family, mine. And this is opening new spaces legally and in business, already breeding a new level of predator. The competitive dynamics and market structure mean it MUST do so.
Well, that’s how it works at my company. A few bad apples / actors can ruin it for everyone. Then you start fresh and build up from a clean slate.
The lines are long because demand exceeds supply and the government doesn’t want to punish the poor by raising fees. So people pay “in time” (by waiting) rather than extra cash.
This quote was pure government self-serving BS: “ According to congressional reports, even before Mr. Trump took office America’s national parks had billions of dollars in deferred maintenance of crumbling roads, outdated facilities and unrepaired trails”. I was in half a dozen national parks over the past year and they were all doing just fine. The nation’s prime wilderness is not supposed to be a luxury experience.
All the National parks I visited since Trump took office were functioning. Let’s hope there is enough staff to turn the waterfalls on this spring.
I agree with you, Mish, on the value of national parks and the likelihood of people getting ticked off at some cuts here. Personally, my family has already put a sizeable, nonrefundable deposit on an Outdoorsy RV and bought plane tickets and campsite reservations to stay in Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia and Pinnacles NPs this summer. We’ve done this in other national parks in the past, so this year will have to be a teachable moment for our kids to see what happens if we don’t want to fund these government services.
BUT… I think this also shows the actual difficulty in people analyzing the value (or not) of government jobs and services. You personally want a higher fee to pay for this, but NP entrance fees don’t pay the full costs of these parks. The opportunity costs of keeping this beautiful land available for all future Americans and tourists is not cheap. If everyone paid the full costs, few would go and it would be sacrificed for ever.
A lot of people on this site see ANY government expense as a luxury, a line item to be chipped away at. So any NP employee that can be axed is a deficit or tax that can be decreased, even if wait times for everyone also increase. Same for IRS audit employees, even if they keep other tax cheats paying their legal share. Same for FEMA employees, even if tornado victims have to sleep longer under a tarp, etc.
Saying government is bad is easy. Recognizing when you benefit from it is not as easy, UNTIL it bites your own butt. My guess is LOTS of people are going to recognize this over the next 3.5 years
Plenty of problems with the parks also during Obama, Trump 1, and Biden too.
Cry me a river. Tourists can crap outdoors. Fire the park managers who cause the long lines just to irritate the voters and defy DOGE.
You’re such a knucklehead. You say such ridiculous things. Literally, you must contain all garbage and human waste in the parks to prevent being attacked by wild animals. Crap in the park…do you do that at home? Crap in your backyard? Millions of people visit the national parks. Crap everywhere will be the new feature of the parks. Don’t forget your masks. Oh … right… you won’t wear a mask will you? Good!!!!
You do you kgb. Shit in the parks. And you’ll be lunch for a hungry bear. Silly bears…😅
It’s only Plumber? Why not hire a local plumber if you need something done? Is the plumber doing something everyday, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week?
So the Parks are in disrepair. Must have happened all since January 20th.
Privatize the national parks. Sell them for pennies on the dollar to pay off the federal debt. Charge extortion fees for access.
Rip a page out of the Chicago parking meter privatization playbook.
it would very insight for you or a reader to define the limits of the continuing resolution that is effect until Oct 1. My understanding is this limits spending amount to last years base line. Hence, payments that exceed the base line a commitment are not allowed. This means obligations that increase the base line budget or make a beyond October 1 are not valid.
This has major implications on approving various expenditures as during last years budget a number of expenses to approved in which one assume would be included in the current years budget
Cry me a river.
Every single president creates new protected areas, National Parks, or National Monuments for their legacy. It’s not a partisan issue and the parks are popular destinations for Americans and international visitors alike. The democrats like them to be affected when they shut down the government because it’s an instant pain point. Don’t mess with the Park Service.
What is wrong with firing DoE people who transport nuclear weapons? Just ship them via FedEx and save money.
Although I’m all for gov’t efficiency, DOGE is legally and tactically clueless as well. They are pulling a lot of unforced errors.
If we don’t cut off the Park Service, how can we keep spending a trillion dollars a year on “defense”, keep giving Israel everything they want and more and keep giving the Intelligence Community billions of off-budget funds to continue their evildoing?
trump and his minions want to destroy our national parks. The right has been after the parks system as far back as I remember. There’s gold in them there hills…profit over people…the American way!
Truth hurts people. Look it up. Resources is all they see when they look at the parks. Things to destroy and exploit for a very few rich men.
The headline to this article is much too kind.