It’s Friday, May 20th, 2016…and every now and then an item comes across our computer which requires us to stop the presses and shift the batting order.  Courtesy of Bill Meisen and FrontPageMag.com, just when you thought Progressives couldn’t be any more detached from the real world…

The Racist Trees of Our National Parks

 

Mickey Fearn, the National Park Service Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance, made headlines when he claimed that black people don’t visit national parks because they associate them with slaves being lynched by their masters.

Yellowstone, the first national park, was created in 1872 in Wyoming. Slavery was over by then and no one had ever been lynching slaves around Old Faithful anyway. But false claims of racism die very hard.

Now Alcee Hastings, an impeached judge, and a coalition of minority groups is demanding increased “inclusiveness” at national parks. High on their list is the claim that, “African-Americans have felt unwelcome and even fearful in federal parklands during our nation’s history because of the horrors of lynching.”  What do national parks have to do with lynchings? Many national parks have trees. People were hung from trees. It’s racial guilt by arboreal association. Trees are racist down to their roots.

The origin of the bizarre racist lynching theory of national parks appears to be Carolyn Finney. Finney was an actress noted for, apparently, little more than an appearance in The Nutt House. Then she became a cause célèbre for race activists when she was denied tenure by Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management because her work didn’t meet academic standards. (Editor’s note: how bad would a Black PhD have to be to be denied tenure at Berkeley?!?)

“I coulda been a contendah…I could been somebody…except for all the racists at UC Berkeley!”

Her supporters blamed racism, rather than her academic shortcomings, and protested vocally.

These days she’s a diversity advisor to the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board. What wasn’t good enough for UC Berkeley is good enough for national parks. She is also the author of Black Faces, White Spaces. In it she claims that “oppression and violence against black people in forests and other green spaces can translate into contemporary understandings that constrain African-American environmental understandings.”

Finney cites the work of Joy DeGruy Leary who invented a Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome that she claims black people suffer from. Affected by PTSS, black people experience “fear and mistrust of forests and other green spaces.” According to Finney, the tree is a racist symbol to black people.

And complete and utter nonsense at that!

“Black people also wanted to go out in the woods and eat apples from the trees,” Finney explains.” But black people were lynched on the trees. The tree became a big symbol.” Black people are triggered by trees and suffer Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome flashbacks. You can’t expect them to go to on a hike.

What shall we do about the racist trees? Finney is front and center at the new “inclusion” initiative, “You’re sitting here making up a rule and assuming that everybody is going to feel comfortable to come to the woods and go on a hike,” she whined. “Maybe they’re not interested in doing that, that’s not how they like to come to the woods.”

How many urban Blacks prefer to come to the woods…at least in city parks!

In addition to complaining about the racist trees, the inclusion initiative also claimed that national parks alienate Latinos because of the “color of the uniforms that rangers wear.”

What’s wrong with the color of park ranger uniforms? According to the Hispanic Access Foundation, they look too much like the border patrol. Even though the uniforms are actually completely different. But much like the lack of lynchings at Yellowstone National Park, the truth doesn’t matter here.

Three quick thoughts immediately come to mind: first, if the existence of a “National Park Service Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance” and a “diversity advisor to the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board” isn’t proof there’s more fat to trim from our federal budget than on Hillary’s thighs, we don’t know what is!

Second, coming on the heels of the professionally sensitives’ reaction to a recent poll confirming some 90% of American Indians express no concern whatsoever over the name of Washington’s football team…

“But Suzan Harjo, the lead plaintiff in the first case challenging the team’s trademark protections, dismissed the Post’s findings. “I just reject the results,” said Harjo, 70, who belongs to the Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee tribes. “I don’t agree with them, and I don’t agree that this is valid way of surveying public opinion in Indian Country.”“

…it’s concrete confirmation, as if any were needed, of Progressive’s persistent refusal to acknowledge even the most irrefutable facts and growing detachment from anything remotely resembling reality.

Third, if it’s the trees that are keeping Blacks from frequenting our national parks, why aren’t the good citizens of Compton, East St. Louis, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Atlanta blazing a trail every chance they get to Death Valley National Monument…

….the Anza-Borrego…

…or Monument Valley?

And why don’t they have an inordinate fear of rope?!?

The illogic expressed in this tale of utter inanity reminds us of one of our favorite scenes from The Jerk…

…but it’s the trees instead of the cans.  There will always be reason to fear the forest… 

…but flashbacks to lynchings with which 99.9% of living Blacks have absolutely no connection, real or imagined, ain’t one of them.  However, it does give us yet another reason to not only dismiss most anything Liberals say…but be glad we live in the woods!

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, courtesy of NRO via Speed Mach, the great Victor Davis Hanson introduces us to…

The Pajama Boy White House

Meet the 30-somethings who are running our federal government.

 

“Cleverness is not wisdom.” — Euripides, Bacchae

“What exactly has birthed the Pajama Boy aristocracy — our overclass of pretentious, inexperienced, and smug 30-something masters of the universe?

Prolonged adolescence? Affluence? The disappearance of physical chores and muscular labor? The collapse of traditional liberal education and the triumph of the therapeutic mindset? Disdain for or ignorance of life outside the Boston–New York–Washington corridor? Political correctness as a sort of careerist indemnity that allows one to live a sheltered and apartheid existence? The shift in collective values and status from production, agriculture, and manufacturing to government, law, finance, and media? The reinvention of the university as a social-awareness retreat rather than a place to learn?

During the showdown over Obamacare, the pro-Obama PAC Organizing for Action put out an ad now known as “Pajama Boy.” It showcased a young fellow in thick retro-rimmed glasses, wearing black-and-red plaid children’s-style pajamas, and sipping from a mug, with a sort of all-knowing expression on his face. The text urged: “Wear pajamas. Drink hot chocolate. Talk about getting health insurance. #GetTalking.”

Most men in Dayton or Huntsville do not lounge around in the morning in their pajamas, with or without built-in footpads, drinking hot chocolate and scanning health-insurance policies. That our elites either think they do, or think the few that matter do, explains why a nation $20 trillion in debt envisions the battle over transgender restrooms as if it were Pearl Harbor…”

Not to mention asserts…with a straight face…a mythical “African-American” aversion to timber, or almost non-existent “Native American” repugnance for “Redskins”.

Since we’re on the subject of the repugnant, as Matt Vespa reports at Townhall.com…

Financial Analyst Says Clinton Foundation Books ‘Riddled’ With ‘Inconsistencies,’ Rises ‘To the Level Of Fraud‘

 

“…After more than a year of research, a Wall Street analyst is arguing the Clinton Foundation’s books are riddled with financial inconsistencies that rise to the level of “fraud.”

Charles Ortel, who gained recognition for correctly identifying problems with General Electric’s financial statements in 2008, has prepared 40 reports highlighting discrepancies that he said proves the Clinton Foundation has covered up cash flow since 1997.

The financial whistleblower said his 15 months of research revealed gaps in the amount of money donors claim to have given and the amount of money the foundation claims to have received.

…There are two issues here with Clinton’s public relations nightmares concerning the Foundation and her email server. With her private email system, we know that it wasn’t “absolutely permitted,” though she says it was in various interviews. We know that it was an unusual setup that was highly discouraged by U.S. officials—and that even if it was permitted for Clinton to send communications on systems outside of a government agency’s email system—it has to be preserved for the public record per a 2009 regulation from the National Archives and Records Administration. Clinton did not follow these regulations—and she lied when she said there was no classified information on her server.

With the Foundation, we have shoddy tax returns, over 1,000 foreign donors that weren’t disclosed, the largest individual donor to the Clinton Foundation has conducted business in Iran that could be in violation of U.S. sanctions—and Clinton Foundation donors lobbied the State Department when Hillary was our top diplomat. The Clinton Health Access Initiative never handed over foreign donor information, which was promised to assuage concerns about these types of donations.

We have serious ethical issues here, especially when Clinton has been known to do 180-degree turns on policy when dollars begin to flow into the Foundation. Just look at what happened with the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. More disconcertingly, look at the increase in arms sales to nations that gave millions to the Foundation. You cannot deny that there is a pattern here, one that should have everyone–Democratic and Republican–pondering the ethical ramifications of the power couple’s other ventures. We have a woman who could be the next president of the United States, whose family runs one of the largest, most influential non-profits that runs like a bank to cash in favors from wealthy donors––both foreign and domestic.“

Next up, also from Matt Vespa writing at Townhall.com, we learn…

South Carolina Bans Abortions After 19 Weeks

 

“…The South Carolina Legislature passed a bill Tuesday prohibiting abortion after 19 weeks, becoming the 17th state to pass the restrictive (“Restrictive” HELL, as we discuss below!) ban.

…Similar laws are in effect in 12 states. They’ve been blocked by court challenges in three others, and the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on the ban’s constitutionality. A South Dakota law signed in March takes effect this summer. In Utah, a related law, also signed in March, requires doctors to provide anesthesia to a fetus at least 20 weeks in the womb.

…The ban allows exceptions only if the mother’s life is in jeopardy or a doctor determines the fetus can’t survive outside the womb…”

Which simply means women intent on slaughtering their unborn children can still legally kill them in South Carolina; they just can’t wait more than 19 weeks to do it.  Oh, the inhumanity and hardship.  We only wish the drug companies lining up against capital punishment would express the same concern for truly innocent lives!

And in the Follow-Up segment, again courtesy of Townhall.com, Michelle Malkin weighs in on the…

TSA’s Union Power Grab: Thousands Slowing Down Airports

 

When it comes to public employee unions, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.

All you travelers stuck in mile-long TSA security lines are pawns. Convenient political pawns. Big Labor bosses want more power and more money. Stranded travelers are just the latest victims in this age-old game of D.C. extortion.

Union leaders want you to think the fault lies with a stingy Congress unwilling to fork over enough money to fill screener shortages. White House spokesman Josh Earnest poured more partisan fuel on the fire last week by blaming the nationwide slowdowns on “the inability of Republicans in Congress to govern the country.”

What a load of flying horse hockey.

The 15-year-old Transportation Security Administration now has a massive annual budget of nearly $7.6 billion and a workforce of nearly 60,000. They had enough tax dollars to waste on an idiotic $1.4 million iPad app that randomly points left or right; $3 million on more than 200 useless explosive detection “puffer” machines that didn’t detect explosives reliably; and unknown gobs in awards and automatic bonuses to senior TSA managers at a time when the agency was repeatedly failing internal tests of its ability to stop weapons, bombs and terror threats.

Yet, last week, with airlines, airports and customers all raising holy hell, Congress scraped together $34 million more to pay TSA screeners overtime and fund nearly 800 more screeners to address the summer travel crush.

It’s still not enough of course. It’s never enough. Since last fall, the TSA workforce (unionized under the Obama administration) has staged protests at major airports (including Dallas-Fort Worth, JFK, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Atlanta) organized by the American Federation of Government Employees, which is demanding full collective bargaining rights under federal labor law, along with hefty pay increases.

Obstruction is priority number one…”

And those of you footing the bill for this bloated bureaucracy be damned!

As Greg Corombos notes at WND…

“But perhaps even worse is TSA’s penchant for directing its ever-increasing budget into the wrong areas. “TSA has spent many billions of dollars on things that don’t work,” Edwards said.

“As a result, they’ve starved their budget from hiring more screeners to reduce congestion.”“

In a closely related item from FOX Business, here’s a real shocker:

Post Office Workers Paid for Doing Nothing

 

Try googling “public” or “government employees paid to do nothing“: you’ll only get about 400,000,000 hits!

Then there’s this from Derek Hunter, again writing at Townhall.com, who accurately informs America…

Facebook Owes You Nothing

 

“There’s a lot of pearl clutching on the political right this week, so much so you’d be hard-pressed to differentiate it from the constant pearl clutching on the left. Facebook, it is alleged, “censors” conservative news. But does it really? And does it matter?

There are not many people in the United States younger than 50 who don’t have a Facebook account. Exactly none of them were forced to open one. When they did they accepted the fact that they were playing in someone else’s backyard.

Facebook owes the government no justification as to how it conducts its business as long as it is legal. And no one is alleging Facebook’s supposed activity is illegal. Unseemly, yes, but not against the law. It owes users even less.

…To quell the storm, Zuckerberg has convened a meeting with conservatives, most of whom have nothing to do with journalism. Radio hosts, TV pundits, campaigns – the loudest voices of a pearl-clutching chorus demanding redress of their supposed grievances – got their audience. But they’re not aggrieved. They’re just seeking attention. Which was why they clutched their pearls in the first place.

Having self-appointed representatives of conservatism elevating themselves to a status demanding a meeting was bad enough, but when Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., started demanding answers, that crossed the line. Both groups are acting like progressives, using indignation as a weapon.

Facebook owes you nothing, and you owe nothing to Facebook. If your only or main source of news is an obscure feature on a social media website, you deserve the perverted worldview you get – just like if you get your news only from conservative or liberal sources. Rather than expressing anger that an obscure section of a social media website might not have been giving you an unvarnished view of the world, maybe you should ask yourself why you’re expecting to find it there in the first place.“

Amen, brother; amen!

Which brings us to yet another sordid story straight from the pages of The Crime Blotter:

Chicago 13-year-old, mother charged in killing of 15-year-old girl

 

“A 13-year-old girl and her mother were charged with murder Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of a 15-year-old girl over the weekend in Chicago.

Prosecutors said the 13-year-old, who has not been publicly identified because she is a juvenile, got the knife from her mother, 35-year-old Tamika Gayden. The victim, 15-year-old De’Kayla Dansberry, was stabbed during a fight that broke out Saturday evening in front of a housing complex on the city’s South Side.

We’re gonna go out on a limb here and conclude the unidentified juvenile who got the knife from her mother…drum roll please…is the daughter of the lady who gave her the blade!  We can just see Barry taking a break between shots on the first hole yesterday to inform reporters the fatal stabbing demonstrated the effectiveness of Chicago’s stringent anti-gun laws.

Turning now to The Lighter Side…

Then there’s this from the closest thing to Hope ‘n Change we know, Michael Ramirez:

No…it’s a f*#in’ serial, pathological liar!!!

Finally, we’ll call it a week with a series of pictures…

25 Celebrity Photos That Almost Broke the Internet

 

…none of which, we’re proud to say, we’ve ever seen in our life!

Magoo