Karen Pence speaks on health benefits of getting outdoors

[Judi Lynn]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by JudyM (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Associated Press


Updated 7:26 am CDT, Wednesday, May 20, 2020

GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) — Second Lady Karen Pence visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park to talk about the mental health benefits of spending time outdoors as officials announced the second phase of a plan to reopen all park trails.

Pence was accompanied on her visit Tuesday by Deputy Secretary of Interior Katharine MacGregor, the White House said in a statement. Both took part in a ceremonial road reopening at the national park and hiked up a trail during their visit.

“National parks offer many mental health benefits and more than ever before, we must ensure that we are taking care of ourselves and each other,” Pence said.

. . .

“Karen Pence’s visit to Great Smoky Mountains National Park downplays the risks of visiting a crowded park,” David Lamfrom, southeast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, told Knoxville News Sentinel. “When people learn that the vice president’s wife visited the park, they may believe it is safe for them to visit over the long weekend. It’s not.”

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Pence-speaks-on-mental-health-benefits-of-getting-15282602.php

[Faux pas]

1. I

think the whole damned bunch of the hump's crew should just move into the great outdoors and should never be seen or heard from again.

[Ilsa]

6. No no no no no no no.

That crew is the last I want to see while visiting the great outdoors. They can hunker down on their golf courses, tennis courts, lap pools, and lacrosse pitches. I'll happily take the trails of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Rockies, the Ozarks, the Olympics, etc and hope to never cross paths with them.

[Faux pas]

8. How

about the Sahara Desert then. With a hundred mile perimeter, no fly zone and they could build their own prison?

[Ilsa]

9. We'll bring in a water supply from Flint Michigan.

Maybe then, something will get done after they whine about it for a decade.

[Faux pas]

11. Lol

like the water idea! As far as them complaining goes, we're not supposed to see or hear from them again, remember? I guess they can piss and whine all over each other.

[forgotmylogin]

2. Mm-hm.

https://www.npca.org/articles/2171-the-undoing-of-our-public-lands-and-national-parks

President Trump and the officials he has appointed have systematically undermined, degraded and outright attacked the laws that protect our public lands, the agencies that manage them and the irreplaceable resources these places safeguard for the American people.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2277446/public-lands-war-timeline

Immediately after he took office, on January 20, 2017, President Donald Trump and his officials began opening up public lands to the energy industry. Ever since, it’s been hard to keep track of all the regulation rollbacks and revoked protections.

First, there was the announcement on January 30, 2017, to reorganize government agencies, including the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior. Two weeks later, Trump repealed a rule that stopped mining companies from dumping waste into rivers. Then Ryan Zinke was confirmed as secretary of the interior, and from there the deregulation pace quickened. Zinke oversaw reviewing national monuments, streamlining oil and gas industry permits, opening Arctic waters to drilling, and, finally, shrinking two monuments in Utah.

There have been other, quieter rollbacks as well. That’s why this timeline, developed recently by the Wilderness Society, is so handy. It aggregates all the Trump administration’s public-land policy changes into a tidy interactive timeline. Public lands are obviously important to us at Outside—we even created a forum to discuss them. And not since the Reagan administration has a president so openly favored corporate interests over conservation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/04/trump-is-funding-his-fourth-july-stunt-expense-our-national-parks/

Celebrating Independence Day in a national park might be one of the most quintessentially American experiences. Nothing brings people together like national parks, and nothing unites us like our shared history. This is a time when people put politics aside and show our patriotism and love for our country. The Mall, America’s front yard, has played host to one of the biggest celebrations for decades.

I’m appalled that this year’s event is tainted by an unnecessary stunt at the expense of exactly what we should be celebrating: our national parks.

The Trump administration is reportedly siphoning off almost $2.5 million from the national parks budget to help pay for its Independence Day event on the Mall. This is almost certainly illegal and demands an official investigation into this unprecedented decision.

The administration is taking this money from visitor fees, a major funding source for park service and maintenance projects that lets Americans experience the national parks we all treasure. Doing this is a bad idea under any circumstance, but it’s even worse at a time when parks are already facing a financial shortfall and an influx of visitors. Making matters even worse, parks face the prospect of massive cuts in the president’s proposed budget.

[Ilsa]

7. Karen Pence is incapable of reconciling her

message in that speech with Lysol Von Syphilis' mission to appropriate public lands for corporate use and destruction. I doubt "Father" would do anything differently, no matter what Mother says in a speech.

[area51]

3. If I were married to Pence,

I'd want to get outdoors too.

[Paladin]

4. Stay out there, Mother.

You're not missed by anybody that matters.

[brewens]

5. They should get Michelle Obama to do a PSA on healthy outdoor activity. Reverse psychology.

All the half-wits will hole up and never go out.

[flibbitygiblets]

12. THIS 👆

[Solly Mack]

10. Whatever you say, Karen

[Lonestarblue]

13. If Mother is such a mental health expert, she needs to do something Closer to home.

She has lots to work with. She’s married to a grown man who claims to be a Christian yet gazes adoringly at a nasty bully who lies every day, and she has a delusional man in the Oval Office who doesn’t recognize the difference between a substance meant to disinfect a surface and one meant to treat an infection. Both of them need to be sent to the woods and hopefully never heard from again.

[maxsolomon]

14. I remember stories about people running into Laura Bush on WA NP trails.

Her enthusiasm was genuine; her husband's status as a War Criminal wasn't relevant.

So, I'm not going to hold this one against Karen. I loved GSMNP as a kid.

[LuckyLib]

15. Hey Karen -- my mental health will improve a hundred-fold

when the criminal cabal is GONE!

[Chemisse]

16. How nice. And I'm not being sarcastic.

Someone in the White House is saying something that is helpful and makes sense. And she's not even wearing a jacket that says "I don't care, do U?"

People should go out to the parks. The numbers allowed in the parks should be limited, (reservations would be a good idea) and social distancing required.

[BHDem53]

17. Now she thinks shes

Mother Nature?

[machoneman]

18. R.I.P. Karen Pence. Her tombstone will read: "Wow, was I a dummy!"

[paleotn]

19. Mother.....

go fuck yourself. Worthless piece of shit.