View allAll Photos Tagged GovernmentShutdown
We must find a way to live in harmony and look after our wildlife and environment. If we are unable to it will be too late.
Love is the answer, not hate! If we sit down together, listen and compromise we can find solutions!
Thank you for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day! ❤️❤️❤️
I took a drive and a short hike inside the national park Saturday before the visitor center and cave tours reopen Sunday morning. They have been closed during America's longest government shutdown.
The park was quiet.
I took this photo of a sunbeam hitting a cross beam after the sun set.
First light on Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah.
The government shutdown apparently means that there may still be access to many National Parks, but no services will be available. No rangers, no visitor centers, no camping, etc.
Our representatives are doing a great job!!!
About 3"-4" of snow near Sand Dune Arch early on New Years Eve, just before I found out they were closing the park road and kicking everyone out due to dumb drivers. Conditions were no problems whatsoever for my winter commuter set up Honda Civic so very disappointing to have to leave early. Studded snow tires ftw.
Because of the government shutdown in early October 2013, we could not visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park. So unfortunately remained just the view from a distance (from the Great Sand Dunes Lodge).
Please press L for a larger view!
Wegen des Government shutdown Anfang Oktober 2013 konnten wir den Great Sand Dunes National Park nicht besuchen. So blieb leider nur der Blick aus der Ferne (von der Great Sand Dunes Lodge aus).
Danke für deinen Besuch! Thanks for visiting!
bitte beachte/ please respect Copyright © All rights reserve
One Step for a Nation, One step for Humanity?
Where is the Mr. or Ms. Smith when we need them the most? Maybe this will be the person and he or she has arrived in Washington to help the little guy and do the right thing for our nation & for the world.
Our nation is at a cross road and the path ahead isn't very clear to many of us. Whoever wins this election the road ahead for them will be always full of political situations and obstacles that will always be changing, that will be the true challenge. I pray that those decisions will reflect the best interest of the average individual of this nation.
Or is this just a pipe dream that I'm having again?
Grateful to whoever cleared the walking paths on the Arch grounds. I imagine they're not being paid for their work right now.
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
One Step for a Nation, One step for Humanity?
Where is a Mr./Ms Smith when you need them?
Maybe this is the person and he has arrived in Washington to help the little guy and do the right thing for our nation & for the world.
Or is it just a pipe dream that I'm having again?
Still going at it... It's unfortunate to see what un-furloughed (too soon?) at the Capitol yesterday. Hope our dysfunctional government can reach an agreement to continue many of the services to our citizens. What are our tax dollars paying for?
If you want to find some humor in this whole thing, check out what our creative citizens have come up with #shutdownpickuplines.
Grand Escalante National Monument, Utah. Hiked this in 2013 during the Government shutdown. Had the place to myself!
October 26, 2025 - Gulf Islands National Seashore, Florida - Entrance to Fort Pickens and the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Closed due to the government shutdown.
Leica M3, Kodak Tri-X, 90mm Summicron
Sign outside of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, during a prolonged government shutdown.
I wanted to post some old photos to show people some things that belong to all of us, not just Americans but the world. These places do not belong to the politicians that we vote fore and put in power and our taxes pay for there nice cars and expensive houses. They have forgotten they represent all of us, not just the small portion who share there narrow view of what a person should think and believe in. They are putting more guards to keep the people out than they ever did keeping us and these places safe. Shame on us all for allowing this to happen.
A vet that has earned the right to enjoy the places he helped defend
Standing atop a mountain near Eureka Peak, in the southern part of Joshua Tree National Park.
The San Bernardino Mountains seem to ripple on forever, disappearing momentarily while a distant rain storm moves through.
Mt. San Jacinto is in the distance, standing y’all and mighty as always.
The storm eventually made its way into Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree, and brought with it powerful floods that created deep washes in the dirt roads that run into the Covington Flats Entrance.
My students were unable to go inside Carlsbad Caverns during the government shutdown. We found things to do on the surface instead, but it was still a disappointment.
I wanted to post some old photos to show people some things that belong to all of us, not just Americans but the world. These places do not belong to the politicians that we vote fore and put in power and our taxes pay for there nice cars and expensive houses. They have forgotten they represent all of us, not just the small portion who share there narrow view of what a person should think and believe in. They are putting more guards to keep the people out than they ever did keeping us and these places safe. Shame on us all for allowing this to happen.
A vet that has earned the right to enjoy the places he helped defend
During our recent trip to southern Utah, we were lucky enough to enjoy the Arches national park for a couple of days, when it remained partially functional due to funding from the Utah state. On day three of our stay however, a big snowstorm shut down the park completely. On that day, I got chatting with a stranger in our Moab hotel elevator. Staring at my tripod, he asked if we were headed to nearby national parks for photography. I replied in the affirmative. To that, he expressed his disappointment at the state of affairs in the country and how national parks and everything else were under the political weather. In response, I told him that I knew what he was talking about first-hand.
In 2013, as a federal worker on the east coast, I was furloughed and then worked without pay for a while. While I was paid in full after the government reopened, many of my colleagues who worked as government contractors, weren’t. Those were dim days when nothing made sense. How could an employer expect its workforce to function when deprived of fundamental rights, like, food, medication, safety, and happiness? Sadness, anger and frustration coagulated into shades of dislike for inefficiency of D.C office bearers. It was painful and very humiliating. When the government reopened, I silently vowed to never work for the federal government again. So far, I haven’t but the anger is revisiting me these days.
Today, 800,000 federal workers are experiencing an extended form of the harrow I experienced in 2013. I have resisted talking about it so far on this platform, because I do not want the dirt of politics on the beauty of our creations. However, how can creativity remain beautiful if distress and sadness of fellow human beings are ignored? So here I am, bringing it up. We are all sad, disappointed, and angry. I get that and I am glad we are human enough to feel this turmoil, even if it's second hand. My question for all of us is, what have we done to fight back? What have we done to stand next to those 800,000 federal workers? What can we do? Answers are not easy, but irrespective of your political color, here are some ideas for you to consider: Call/email your representative as a concerned citizen, sign anti-shutdown petitions and let those knuckleheads know you have a heart bigger than any of theirs, please donate to your local food-bank (yes, many fed workers find this to be their last resort), and last but not the least, please please please… offer all the human warmth you can afford to any furloughed federal worker that you may know. Do something. Anything. Channelize that anger. I promise, you will feel a bit more human afterwards.
Let me end this post on a positive note. After learning about my 2013 experience, the Moab elevator stranger said, “I’m so sorry to hear about your experience. Thank you very much for your services to the country.” A mere thank you – reflecting more humanness than casual formality – pierced me and felt like mint-balm on that old scar from 2013. I thanked him back for saying what he said. I should have thanked him also for being such a wonderful human being.
PS: To reward your patience for reading so far, here is a true story. While shooting the balanced rock (above), I asked Rishabh if he thought the precariously placed rock would fall anytime soon. He said, ‘Yeah, sometime after dinner tonight’.
When the government shut down everything.This is a shot from the Mojave Desert Preserve in California
Some job's you simply can't walk away from, duty, honor, ...
Not my work, but I'm proud to share it.
Arches National Park, now closed of course. More to come from here eventually, as I think it rivaled Monument Valley. While I have a ton of material still left from our Utah trip, I have a photoshoot Saturday, so I'll be switching back to portrait mode for a while.
With only a few days left to avoid another government shutdown things are not looking good for many in our Federal workforce. During the recent and pointless closure they went for almost a month with no pay ! And what was the *heartfelt* reaction of our fearless leader ? To quote:
“I can relate, and I’m sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments — they always do — and they’ll make adjustments,”
That's the Trump version of "Let them eat cake." And FWIW that shutdown put a permanent 3 billion dollar dent in the U.S. economy.
Best viewed LARGE.
Monday, September 30, 2013 - NASA Goddard civil servant and contractor employees were invited to an all hands meeting with Center Director Chris Scolese and members of the senior management team to learn the latest information about a possible partial government shutdown that could happen as early as midnight.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Bill Hrybyk
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Attribution: Smithsonian's National Zoo
A new production from old videos finds Bei Bei ruminating to the Apple jingles Pastel Slide and Newborn. Larry Mouse makes an appearance to censor Bei Bei. For what?–you'll have to watch to find out.
Enjoy!
A squirrel jumps into a messy Madison Drive, NW, which is closed and not being tended to because of the government shutdown.
Washington DC, The US Capitol, around 6:30pm October 16, 2013. We were blessed with an exceptionally beautiful autumn sky this evening on the 16th day of the US Government shutdown. This is also the date when the failure to increase the debt ceiling starts to kick in a default on our national debt obligations. The Senate is in session at this moment voting to approve a resolution to end both the shutdown and the "deadbeats r us USA" debt embarrassment. Will the House follow? Most Americans are fed up with the ongoing right wing extremist attack on what's left of our fragile democracy. Could this be the end of the Tea Party influence in our politics? Will they get the drubbing they deserve in the upcoming elections? Let's hope so, but what we really need are many more tough progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and no more 'lesser of the two evils' war-mongering corporatist Democrats like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton etc.
Many attribute extremist Republican obstructionism to their deep ideological convictions against "big government" and deficit spending but that's baloney. They've shown no inclination ever to rein in the bloated sectors of the state that make them and their supporters rich. Relentless advocacy for budget-busting military spending on endless wars, the grotesque expansion of the state surveillance apparatus, cheerleading for radical global extractivism, the war on women's reproductive rights, scorn for the rights of anybody but the rich, the slaughter and mass incarceration of minorities for petty offenses, the militarization of our civilian police, voter suppression and other forms of election rigging, lavish corporate welfare handouts, brazen dismissal of science that conflicts with their business interests (e.g. climate change denial...) and the perverse promotion of boundless personal greed as an expression of religious belief do constitute an ideology but it is not Republicanism, it is not Conservatism and it's not anything like what my grassroots Constitution-loving Tea Party friends used to say that they believed in. This ideology has been variously shamed as American Facism, crony capitalism, plutocracy, oligarchy, kleptocracy, inverted totalitarianism and even neo-feudalism. Call it what you will but it is profoundly anti-democratic and out of step with the values and interests of most Americans.
The Congressional 'tea bagger' stooges who waged this latest attack on their fellow citizens were bought, paid for and sent here to run interference by our wealthy ruling elites who profit from the endless wars they promote, don't want to pay their fair share of taxes nor have their business activities regulated in any way, no matter how rapacious, cruel, lawbreaking and immoral (meaning that they violate the fundamental tenents of all religions including the ones they 'like' and the ones they don't know or care about...). Follow the money; that's the story.
Postscript. The Senate voted 81 to 18 to raise the debt limit and reopen the Federal government. The legislation was then taken up by the House where shortly after 10PM it passed by a vote of 285 to 144. In the early hours of Thursday, October 17 President Obama signed the bill. Furloughed workers will start returning to work today and Federal facilities will reopen. The shutdown cost our economy tens of billions of dollars, disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers and deprived many citizens of vital services. Will we repeat this sad scenario in just three months?
I wanted to post some old photos to show people some things that belong to all of us, not just Americans but the world. These places do not belong to the politicians that we vote fore and put in power and our taxes pay for there nice cars and expensive houses. They have forgotten they represent all of us, not just the small portion who share there narrow view of what a person should think and believe in. They are putting more guards to keep the people out than they ever did keeping us and these places safe. Shame on us all for allowing this to happen.
A vet that has earned the right to enjoy the places he helped defend
Well, we were hoping to hike from the Wahclella Trailhead over to Moffett Creek this morning, but the federal shutdown has closed all U.S. Forest Service parks and facilities. That meant parking at risk of being towed at Wahclella, so Gary Meyers and I went back to Yeon State Park instead.
I suppose you can still reach Moffett Creek from there using Gorge Trail 400, but it's a couple of miles further to hike. So we succumbed to laziness and went down McCord Creek to Elowah Falls for a couple of hours of shooting. At least I found some new comps, so it turned out to be a pretty cool morning.
Thanks for viewing, I hope you all enjoy the photo.
Copyright 2013 Josh Kulla Photography.
I wanted to post some old photos to show people some things that belong to all of us, not just Americans but the world. These places do not belong to the politicians that we vote fore and put in power and our taxes pay for there nice cars and expensive houses. They have forgotten they represent all of us, not just the small portion who share there narrow view of what a person should think and believe in. They are putting more guards to keep the people out than they ever did keeping us and these places safe. Shame on us all for allowing this to happen.
A vet that has earned the right to enjoy the places he helped defend
Even the elk seemed confused by the barrier preventing entry to Yellowstone Park in Gardiner, MT. Love the irony of the inscription "For the beneift and enjoyment of the people."
I was bound and determined to make it to Aspen following a recent snow storm to capture a scene such as this and had to drive over Independence Pass in a snow storm at 3:00 a.m. Unfortunately due to the government shutdown Maroon Creek Road was closed. Had it been open I would have been up at Maroon Bells lake on this fine morning but instead found myself with this fabulous view of Pyramid Peak.