Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach — crossposted from my blog, Skating Under The Ice
Let me start by saying that I’m a huge fan and frequent user of our National Park System. I’m also a dedicated and lifelong conservationist, concerned with our natural environment that is the basis of all life. So please don’t take the following as being opposed to true environmentalism. I’m not. I’m opposed to political activism under the name and imprimatur of the National Park Service.
After the Trump Administration told the Department of the Interior to shut down all their Twitter accounts because they were being used for partisan political purposes by Democratic government employees, some National Park Service employees got in a huff about how their rights were being violated. So they put together a new Twitter account called AltUSNatParkService. Here’s the header on their page, in case they change it:
I cracked up when I saw that, I thought “Man, they just hung themselves out to dry, they just blew it bad!”.
Setting that question aside for the moment, under the aegis of this new account they are all about the climate and other virtue-signalling subjects, viz:
They’re organizing meetings and the like because of these fears. Gotta say … I’m getting tired of people trotting out their fears and using these fears to justify all kinds of actions. I get it that folks are afraid. And I know that the fear they feel is real. But that is not sufficient reason for me to automatically take their fears seriously and buy into their fright, particularly if nothing untoward has happened to date. It’s just baseless fears.
In any case, they’ve shot themselves in the foot. They are putting themselves out as if they represent or are part of the real National Park Service, both by their name and even to the extent of using the official arrowhead emblem of the Park Service on their Twitter site, as seen above. Clearly amateur hour. Here’s more about the arrowhead, it’s not some random symbol.
What is the origin of the National Park Service arrowhead?
The arrowhead was authorized as the official National Park Service emblem by the Secretary of the Interior on July 20, 1951. The components of the arrowhead may have been inspired by key attributes of the National Park System, with the sequoia tree and bison representing vegetation and wildlife, the mountains and water representing scenic and recreational values, and the arrowhead itself representing historical and archeological values. Read more about the history of the arrowhead and other elements of NPS visual design.
Why is their using the arrowhead a huge mistake? Because using it is not just a bad idea. It is a crime to use the official NPS “arrowhead” emblem without specific permission from the NPS:
Use of the NPS arrowhead symbol and badge is governed by 36 CFR Part 11. Unauthorized use is a criminal offense, punishable in accordance with 18 USC 641 and 701.
And because that defines it a Federal crime (USC for “US Code”), that lets the Administration call in the FBI to identify the anonymous folks behind this account. And being NFS employees they can hardly claim ignorance of the law. When they sign on, in their New Employee Handbook they are given links to the following:
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Documents Containing Selected Topic
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As a result, it should be very easy to find and fire these government employees for cause, because they are falsely representing themselves by using the official NPS arrowhead, and they know or should know that’s both illegal and wrong. However … civil service laws may get in the way.
And if the civil service laws do get in the way, I sincerely hope Trump adds those laws to his list.
The best part to me about these kinds of spontaneous outbursts of righteous indignation is their generally Darwinian nature … and after eight years of government employees being allowed to run wild as long as it was the approved liberal and Democratic style of wild, I suspect we’ll see more of these outbursts before we run out of candidates for the Bureaucratic Darwin Award.
The tragedy in this is that it detracts from majesty and mystery of the parks that these folks are supposed to protect, and makes them into a political football. That we don’t need.
w.
PS-If you are commenting please QUOTE THE EXACT WORDS YOU ARE DISCUSSING. That way we can all understand just what your subject is.
UPDATE: 1/27/17 9:45AM
It seems they had to abandon use of the official park service logo shortly after this post by Willis was published:
And this is what their Twitter page looks like now:
Alt-Idiots. They probably aren’t aware of the Acceptable Use Policy for the government run Internet accessible network. That will be their next challenge.
-Anthony
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My understanding of the Trump directive (via Sean Spicer) is that the Agencies are directed to respond to their staffs twitter outpourings in line with the agency guidelines, rather than turn a blind eye …….btw…..Looks like the CO2 haters have been directed to attack this site …….jeez jeef what does it feel like to be a puppet ?
Willis,
?itok=iMN4I9ez
I urge you and the good folks responding to READ the current (as of 1/27/17)
U.S. Department of Interior’s official web page on :”climate change”.
https://www.doi.gov/climate
You’ll understand why some National Park Service employees, as the foot
soldiers for Interior, feel abandoned and betrayed.
The page reads like an executive summary of a warmist’s manifesto and
action plan. All the rhetoric fits under the Department’s official logo
Or an accurate summary of actual scientific fact and findings…
shutting down comment from govt employees/scientists because it contradicts a political position is shameful.
It’s a pack of lies.
The Obama regime silenced the real scientists who have so easily shown CACA to be a fr@ud.
Griff
go find your polar bear
They can express their personal opinions as long as they do it at their homes with their own money and in their spare time. What they cannot do is to use the name of public institutions, public logos and public resources to disseminate political propaganda while they are on duty.
This from the guy who approves of having skeptics shut down.
Shutting out research findings that contradict the authoritative commentary of govt employees/scientists is more shameful. Now it’s their turn.
The National Park Service is long overdue for a huge management overhaul. Over half of the park employees are ideologically on the same page as the uni-bomber. I was talking to a Park Ranger at Mt. Rainier in Washington State and his position was that the park should be closed to humans to preserve it as a pristine ecology. Meanwhile the gift shop has sourced most of the trinkets from China because the made in usa trinkets only yielded a 500% mark up and now they’re getting 1000%. Same with the food service contracts from ARA with that nasty, overpriced $5 hotdog yielding less than $1 going to the vendor and $4 of pure profit going to the Park Service; yum. Oh, and the park signage? That has to be a special White Pine that only grows in Virginia, so overpaid Federal Employees, by law, must ship signs, White Pine only, to parks 5,000 miles away in Alaska; what ever happened to “not bringing wood into the forest”? No resource is so scarce that it can’t be wasted by a central bureaucracy. Love the nature, but the greedy fools that mismanagement it? Not so much.
The USFS (Ag) and BLM (Int) are just as bad.
Or worse, in the case of the BLM.
“This site has never been just about the science part of climate science. It is also about the political aspects of climate science”
Seems to me its more than a bit tilted towards a political view of climate and ignoring the science lately?
It’s been heading that way for some time Griff. It is to a large extent a cheer leader for right wing politics. There are occasional voices who buck the trend, but they are usually shouted down by the good ‘ole boys.
Translation: Like a good socialist, I cannot believe that these right wingers are still allowed to voice their opinions.
MarkW, it’s not giving their opinions which is an issue, it’s the way it is done with threats and insults. That is never a good basis for informed debate.
Since they are breaking the law, what’s wrong with pointing out the consequences of that?
Climate science was politicized 30 years ago. There is definitely jubilation in the air at the prospect of the politics being kicked out the door by new science advisor, hopefully Dr. W. Happer.
Griff
“Seems to me its more than a bit tilted towards a political view of climate and ignoring the science lately?”
But it still allows people like you, who knowingly slanders and lies about scientist who have the nerve to do research that doesn’t fit the CAGW mantra, to spew your garbage.
Go meet your polar bear, you creep.
There’s a lot of political activity at present.
So there is a lot to comment on.
I love it when you whine about what others are talking about. You might as well just admit defeat. It would be more dignified.
This would be a good time for Trump to say, “You’re fired!”
thanks Willis, your replies are as good as your article.
cheers
I have a senior pass to the national parks, and although I haven’t visited a park in a few years, it used to be that you couldn’t go on a walking tour with a ranger or some other guide without getting a lecture about how global warming was destroying the park. Similarly, it seemed that all of the displays in the visitor centers were devoted in whole or in part to “educating” the public as to how they were destroying the environment and the park with human carbon emissions. It became tedious and I quit visiting.
In the tradition of that arcade game Mortal Kombat….. FINISH THEM.
They abused their power and positions, they pursued activism above that of facts and truth, they have brought conservation and science into disrepute….. Yes. Finish them.
Actually, if they use national park service symbology and web contacts on their page and then take a political opinion for or against any issue that is contradictory with the political leadership’s positions, they are in a position to be immediately terminated. If they post on their personal twitter accounts and their profile says they work for NPS that is perfectly fine. They just can’t cause ANY misrepresentation of for whom they are speaking. That is a clear termination offense even in our messed up Civil Service System.
First of all, Garth, the US is not a Democracy. Democracy is mob rule.
This is the reason for the electoral college system.
As far as the US taking land from the occupying people, I suppose that
we should not have given the lands which we stole from the Third Rich
to countries which are known, again, as France, Belgium, etc.
The socialist tendencies which the US exhibited with President Truman’s were
Marshall plan were decried by many, but allowed western Europe back in
the game, economically speaking.
The standard of living in the US is somewhat lower than it could because of
the enormous burden of the defense which most of the “free” world shares
only lightly.
I am a capitalist, but do not believe in unbridled capitalism. I want a
somewhat level playing field as the Clayton, Sherman, Robinson-Patman acts,
etc. attempt to limit monopolies and cartels.
Thinking that AGW is is actually a science question is a mark of the success
of Maurice Strong’s ilk and his tools to establish global domination through
the UN.
I would be very happy if the question were only scientific, but it is not. When I
started reading about climate, it was because my daughter was coming home
from school, saying that we must stop using hydrocarbons because the CO2
was going to cool the atmosphere, and start the next Ice Age.
When that didn’t work out for the anti-capitalists, the same people did a
180 and we have AGW. Both were an attempt to stop the US version of the most
successful and productive economic system the world has ever seen.
In my opinion, the people who oppose capitalism fall into two main but very
different categories, those who are afraid of competition, or those who seek
power.
Trump is a capitalist. Reagan was a capitalist. My hope is that Trump will
attempt to better Reagan. His history leads me to believe that he will.
The world will be better off if he does.
Jerry
You left out those who like to have other people wipe their backsides.
How about an AltAlt National Park system that addresses user and citizen complaints about the parks like limited accommodations and camp sites, excuses for grizzly bear attacks on hikers at Glacier, and forest non-management.
Last Summer I was dismayed by an all-out political lecture from the National Park Service when visiting Alcatraz and finding myself and the rest of my tourist group under fire in the name of prison reform billed as an Alcatraz history lesson. I was a Canadian tourist for petesake.
Ditto for me a couple of years back when visiting a park in Florida. My wife actually tipped the guy after his little diatribe, and I didnd’t speak to her for the rest of the day as a result.
Well, well, they also underscored that Trump was right about the level of Dem partisan makeup of the service. Eight yrs of hiring and stuffing the civil service will do that. It will also be true of other departments. A bit of firing would sober them all up.
It would seem very strange that an employee of any organisation could be allowed to put up a fake website that mocks their own employer. Of course they can have personal opinions and be allowed to voice that on twitter, facebook, whatever as long as it is clearly their own personal account.
But how long do you think an employee would remain in their job if they set up say an AltFord website, that rather than listing all the features of their vehicles, pointed out all the faults instead? Not only would they not last 5 minutes, they may well face a lawsuit too.
Even on their own personal site, if the boss finds out about it, it can and will factor into your next performance review.
Embarrass and or hurt your employer, and you can expect your employer to react.
One thing the federal employees might want to note is that their
union was authorized by Executive Order by President Kennedy.
Trump has “A pen and a Phone.”
FDR was against public employee unions, for good reason.
ristvan January 26, 2017 at 7:27 am
So am I, for the same reasons. See my post here.
w.
Yup. Retracting JFK’s infamous Executive Order 10988 would be the best federal labor management move since Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers.
It’s really pretty funny, I don’t think Trump would have ever realized that the NPS is one of the organizations requiring a large scale purge of its employees.
I’ll bet he does now. Good job, guys.
As far as replacements go – how hard is it to find someone who can say “yes, it’s that way to the port-a-pots, ma’am” ???
For action, report the crime to: DOI’s Office of Inspector General
at https://forms.doioig.gov/hotlinecomplaint_form.aspx
Alt.Reality is the hallmark of the hardcore ideologues of the left, as we see from our faithful trolls and the melting down media that is devolving before our very eyes.
Well now the NPS employees can put the long running and divisive sexual harassment crises behind them. Expect many little acts of dissent from the true believers. Imagine the conversations taking place in tbe EPA.
Margaret Thatcher had their number, and knew all about where lofty good intentions lead to when she said
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money.”
Vladimir Lenin is also quoted to have said “The goal of socialism IS communism”, and “Communism is socialism in a hurry”.
Communism and socialism are two branches of the same toxic collectivist tree of thought from the Frankfurt school of Marxism. My father saw first hand what communism did to countries, He fought the Soviets in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and lived to tell the tale and become an American.
@ur momisugly CFT
“Margaret Thatcher had their number, and knew all about where lofty good intentions lead to when she said
The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money.”
Sadly, she forgot the rest of the quip:
The problem with Capitalism is that you run out of other peoples money to steal.
Capitalists don’t steal anyone’s money. That’s what we rely on socialists for.
Under capitalism the only way to get rich is to sell a product or service that someone else wants to buy.
Under socialism you get rich by having government take money from those who work in order to give it to those who vote.
A good example of socialism in Venezuela is the redistribution of
wealth under Hugo Chavez to his daughter.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/10/iron-fisted-socialism-benefited-hugo-chavezs-daughter-to-the-tune-of-billions-reports-say/
The park service employees going off “script” is but one example of the failure of middle to upper management in the government over the past few terms to actually “manage” the rank and file. The failure is that government structure (and to great degree US society in general) has become flat. There is no longer taught or enforced hierarchy, up – down responsibility. We’re ALL equal. What this leads to is everybody being responsible for everything, and no ONE being responsible for (anything) THEIR actions (or lack of actions) because – – everybody (else) is responsible for everything.
Now this is NOT entirely the fault management individuals, i.e., lack of ability to properly manage and make individuals accountable. To a great degree it is that management has been hamstrung by government unions. Allowing government employees to unionize was/is one the greatest mistakes (thanks President Kennedy, NOT!) ever made. And human nature is such that if, as a manager, you are forced to jump through hoops of fire (that put your own job in jeopardy) to terminate someone, your simply not going bother. In a flat organization it is easier to claim – it’s someone else’s responsibility.
In a properly structured environment and what promotes success in organizations, is the understanding that everybody has a right to their own thoughts, ideas, facts, etc., but not everybody has a right to their own actions. When you accept employment with any organization, you accede to that organizations definition of your rights and your responsibilities, what you can and must do, and what you can’t and must not do. It’s a legally binding contract. You will do this, you will not do this and we will pay you this. Period.
What stuns me is not that park service people do not recognize this, but rather they of all people choose to take a sharp stick and poke it into a sleeping bear’s eye! Take about stupid is, as stupid does.
It also has got quite a lot to do with loyalty. Having a different opinion is everybodys constitutional right. Being illoyal to a national agency by misrepresenting the US on a certain field, is misconduct, if exerted by their employees. A police officer who refuses to write summons or tickets because he doesn’t like the attitude the new Chief of Police handles these matters will soon be put on the dole.
Even if DJT isn’t everybodys darling he still deserves respect and an administration that follows his directives.
I recall one of the darlings of the Christian right refused to issue a marriage license to a marriage she objected to on religious grounds? Apparently she was sacked, eventually. ( Can someone check the details for me?)
She was reinstated.
You can google it just as well as any of us.
The government that employed her shared her opinion.
How the hell are you allowed to troll from solitary confinement? You already know NO ONE CARES about the venom you spew.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) is a part of the Department of Interior. It has always been the practice that all publications for the general public have to be reviewed and approved by management before publication. It is effectively a form of ‘peer review.’ Despite the fact that in recent years it has morphed into the USBS with the hiring of a large cadre of biologists and environmental ‘scientists,’ that requirement is still enforced. A retired, research-scientist friend of mine recently had his emeritus status threatened because he wrote something as an individual; however, the magazine publisher added a bio’, without his knowledge, that reflected his past employment with the USGS.
This vetting procedure is essential to be sure that the organization maintains its respected authority in science. If the USFS or NPS does not have similar standing requirements for publications, they should have, and it may reflect that some house cleaning is in order. The individual employees who have ‘gone rogue,’ and insist that they should be allowed to do as they please, simply reflects the breakdown of organizational structure that has occurred during recent administrations. It also contributes to skepticism when anarchists attempt to pass themselves off as representatives of the work of everyone in the organization.
But it is political. I think you have some good points about their lack of planning before moving, but this is about resources and it is political.