The governmental “Shutdown” is for the most part bogus:  the consensus seems to be that only 17% of all government employees are on furlough:  not expected to get a paycheck on the 15th or 31st of October (remember, even Federal employees are paid AFTER they work, whether they opt for mid-month or monthly pay: they DID get paid on Septermber 30th for work they did last month).  But for one government sector, the shutdown is REAL and impacting millions of Americans as well as tourists from overseas.

Related to this, Mama Liberty referred me to this article in the Wall Street Journal:
NBC/WSJ poll: 60 percent say fire every member of Congress

Mama’s Note: They’ve got the right idea, but for the wrong reason… and the wrong solution, of course.

Nathan: Actually, I am hearing people talking about necktie parties and bombing.  People are really angry, and the national park fiasco has gotten people mad.

Why do I say that?

First, it has an immediate and direct impact on tens of thousands OTHER than NPS employees: the business owners, operators, and employees of thousands of motels and hotels, restaurants and fast food places, campgrounds, tour guides, bus lines, and more in and around the national parks, from places like Carlsbad, New Mexico to Hulett, Wyoming, to New Market, Virginia and more.  If the things that draw people to these communities are closed, the businesses that survive by furnishing goods and services to these people are going to starve:  and THEY won’t have sugar daddies in Congress to pay them their back pay and profits.  And they in turn have relatives, and suppliers (grocery stores and food service supply businesses and bottlers and linen supply services and gas stations and mechanics and more) who will ALSO be hit for tens of millions of dollars.  And they have friends and relatives and other businesses.

Second, Americans view these places as OURS – NOT the government’s but ours, in part because the government constantly tells us they are “for the people,” and protected for us and our future generations.  Third, this isn’t something that people see on their television screens: it is something that they drive past everyday.  And they see the uniformed goons guarding the gates and cones to prevent anyone from entering or (sometimes, even looking).  And the anger burns deep.

On Friday, I saw this article from Breitbart (but first in the Durango paper, of all places):  (NOTE: Comments, unlike normal practice, are interspersed in a more lengthy than usual quote from the news story.)

The Obama administration said Thursday it will allow states to use their own money to reopen some national parks that have been closed because of the government shutdown. Governors in at least four states have asked for authority to reopen national parks within their borders because of the economic impacts caused by the park closures. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the government will consider offers to pay for park operations, but will not surrender control of national parks or monuments to the states. (Two things to note with this statement:  “will consider” – betcha they take weeks or more to “consider” and decide – also bet at least some of the governors will not wait.  Second point: it is interesting that this “messiah-minion” has to be careful to emphasize that they are not going to “surrender control” to the states.  Apparently, someone behind the scenes (and maybe not just us mad, radical, extremist self-governors) has hinted at such a thing.  Good for them!) Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said his state would accept the federal offer to reopen Utah’s five national parks. Utah would have to use its own money to staff the parks, and it will cost $50,000 a day to operate just one of them, Zion National Park, said Herbert’s deputy chief of staff, Ally Isom.
(Understandable, though:  I am told that Zion alone is costing the folks in Moab and nearby as much as $500,000 a day by being closed.) It was not clear if the federal government would reimburse Utah later. The Utah Legislature would have to convene in special session to appropriate the money, Isom said. Governors of South Dakota, Arizona and Colorado have made similar requests to reopen some or all of their parks. It was not clear Thursday if they would accept Jewell’s offer. (This is probably why:  even that piece of work Hickenlooper (as big a bootlicker of the “messiah” as you can find in the West in government circles) has threatened to use National Guard and State Patrol to take over Trail Ridge Road from Grand Lake to Estes Park – arresting Park Rangers/Police – to keep Estes Park supplied with food and such.  Don’t think he took a stand – yet – on the dozens of other sites, but traffic and visitors and sales are way down in the Cortez area because of Mesa Verde and Hovenweep.  (Wonder if Yucca House N.M. is closed?  Must go see.) In Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead’s office said the state would not pay to reopen two heavily visited national parks or the Devil’s Tower national monument.  “Wyoming cannot bail out the federal government and we cannot use state money to do the work of the federal government,” Mead spokesman Renny MacKay said Thursday

(I see his logic, but then, it is an excuse.  Why not just introduce a bill in the Legislature to simply nationalize everything and take it over – including revenues?  Yellowstone and Grand Teton draw FAR more in visitor fees than they cost to run, even with the inflated government budget/manpower.  Devils Tower would probably MORE than pay for itself just through visitor donations.) Meanwhile, the park service said it is reopening to tourists a highway pull-out area that can be used to view and photograph Mount Rushmore from a distance following complaints that the agency was intentionally blocking viewing areas.  The national memorial in South Dakota has been closed because of the government shutdown. (Again, they don’t point out:  the parking garage at Mount Rushmore was built by private, donated funds, and is operated by a private foundation, which pays for its operation, maintenance, and future replacement by collecting the parking fees.  It receives NO money from the USG, unless it is also charging NPS personnel to park there. Hundreds(Try “thousands”) of tourists have complained that park rangers have placed cones along an area highway to stop drivers from pulling over to take photos of the iconic monument, which features the stone-carved faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.  (This is really not accurate: the cones have been disappearing, courtesy locals, travelers, and National Guard.  (IF two people I know very well had gone on Borglum Highway as they intended and forgot last Wednesday, the cones would have been gone that day:  they are member of the Continental Society for the Succor and Care of Homeless and Lost Traffic Control Devices, (CSSCHLTCD) and they certainly considered these cones to be lost.) The park service never intended to ruin anyone’s view of Mount Rushmore, said Patricia Trap, deputy director of the agency’s Midwest region. (Again, reports from nearby and the few rangers willing to speak out indicate that THIS is a bald-faced lie.) The agency has a limited number of rangers available during the shutdown, and some pull-out areas were blocked with cones out of security concerns because there weren’t enough rangers to monitor those areas, she said.(Which proves the boldness of the lie:  the exact scenic view pullout [lay-by is such a Brit but useful term] which was one of several closed off is one I have driven past, visited and stopped at hundreds of times, and maybe 1 time in 50 (and only in the summer, Memorial Day to Labor Day) have I EVER seen a ranger there.)

I do think that the “messiah” has finally overstepped so badly that the revolt might finally be triggered.)

How much is TOO much?  I hope we have reached that point.

Mama’s Note: I’ve got my tar, feathers, pitchfork and rope all ready…  But this is the really hard part… at what point are we – who follow the non-aggression principle – truly justified in firing the first shot. What is that “line in the sand?” What is it we are waiting for? I don’t want to be the aggressor, by any means. But there IS a breaking point, and I’m afraid we’re darn close to it.

And these controllers have shot themselves in the foot, to a great extent. They might have gotten away with some nasty form of “gun control” even a year ago. Now? The first move toward federal confiscation of firearms will set this whole country on fire. Guaranteed. And any state that tries it now won’t get any different results. I’m not too sure it would even work in Massachusetts anymore.