You don’t run up a national debt of $33.5 trillion without finding imaginative ways to waste money — like $100 million flushed away in the name of “tree equity”:

The U.S. Forest Service is allocating more than $100 million for grants meant to achieve “tree equity,” according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis.

Even the $100 million is a small fraction of the waste:

The Forest Service announced on Sept. 14 that it had allocated over $1 billion toward expanding “access” to trees, including 17 grant proposals that promote “tree equity” with a total value of $101,096,371.

“Tree equity” means providing trees specifically to people who belong to politically favored identity groups.

The grants are funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate law.

There is zero chance of the grotesque legislation affecting the climate in any measurable way, but it has helped keep inflation high, as wasteful government spending always does.

Tree equity entails spending our money to plant trees even where there are already plenty of trees:

While trees cover nearly half of Atlanta, the most coverage in the nation according to Trees Atlanta, the Forest Service approved a grant to the city for $10 million to “address issues related to tree equity” and develop a “sustainable, diverse nature-based workforce.” Similarly, San Francisco had 14,543 trees per square mile as of 2021, and the Forest Service allocated $14 million to plant more trees this year, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.

With our liberal rulers, the issue is never the issue; the issue is always moonbattery:

A grant to the Oregon Department of Forestry worth $22,857,196, one of the biggest individual grants approved by the Forest Service, promises to use “Indigenous ecological knowledge” to train people in planting, maintaining and monitoring trees. Another grant to the Ebiil Society for $740,000 will also use “Indigenous ecological knowledge” to teach people about trees.

Biden’s ongoing tsunami of illegal aliens have not been forgotten:

Aurora, Colorado’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Open Space received $5,000,000 to plant trees in neighborhoods with “high immigrant and refugee populations” in order to “prioritize equity, social justice and sustainable urban forest management.”

Urban forests are suitable places to set up Third World encampments. Just don’t try walking through one alone.

Constitutional scholars will search in vain for the clause that grants the federal government authority to waste our money on this nonsense.

Thanks to formerly limited government, the USA’s economy has been mighty for generations. Spending it into total collapse hasn’t been easy. But Democrats are up to the job.

On a tip from R F.

Not even the dead are safe from the dysfunction that is inseparable from moonbattery:

The awful smell seeped from a neglected building in a small Colorado town for days, followed by a report that made police take a closer look at the “green” funeral operator’s storage facility. Inside, they made a gruesome discovery: At least 115 decaying bodies.

Investigators were tight-lipped Friday about exactly what they found inside the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, but their plans to bring in teams that usually deal with airline crashes, coroners from nearby jurisdictions and the FBI pointed to a grim mess.

On the bright side, FBI agents inspecting rotting corpses at environmentally correct funeral parlors may be too busy to investigate Trump supporters.

On a tip from Chris Neilson.

Remember the Tea Party rallies? Hundreds of patriots would gather to express their resistance to creeping socialism, open borders, and Obamunism in general. Afterward, you wouldn’t see so much as a gum wrapper on the ground. Compare that with a gathering of moonbats, like the Burning Man debauch:

Burning Man attendees ditched their cars and left heaps of trash across a miles-long stretch in a Nevada desert as thousands of festival-goers began a mass exodus out of the muddy site, a local sheriff said.

Sheriff Jerry Allen of Pershing County — where the week-long annual music and art festival is held — told the San Francisco Chronicle in an email that every year there are “large amounts of property and trash strewn from the Festival into Reno and points beyond.”

This year was even worse than usual, thanks to torrential rain that resulted in many moonbats leaving behind not only trash but even their cars.

Meanwhile, these same neohippies will elect Democrats to micromanage each picayune detail of our personal lives on behalf of the environment.

On a tip from Steve T.

Psychotic malice? Or enviromoonbattery? At this point, there isn’t any difference:

[Creepy moonbat zillionaire Bill] Gates’s organization, Breakthrough Energy, has plowed $6.6 million into the project led by Kodama Systems.

The move will see 70m acres of forests, mostly in the Western United States, cut down.

After the trees have been chopped down, they will be buried.

According to the project organizers, “scientists” say “burying trees can reduce global warming.”

Trees are the climate’s enemy now.

Burying trees won’t improve the weather, but it can make people rich without generating any wealth whatsoever thanks to government intervention in the economy via carbon offsets.

Think what 70 million acres of lumber could do for rising housing prices. But no doubt housing offends the climate too, in addition to being racist.

As we have seen from their war on whales, there is no greater threat to the environment than enviromoonbats.

This isn’t even the most sinister plan supported by Gates, who also wants to address the imaginary crisis of climate fluctuation by reflecting the sun’s life-giving rays back into outer space.

Someone needs to infiltrate the next Davos confab and get the word to Bill Gates, John Kerry, et al. that the climate will be pleased if enough liberals simultaneously lick their own elbows. If we can keep our rulers harmlessly occupied, the forests will be safe.

On a tip from taxpayer22.

Liberals aren’t into saving the whales anymore, so it is up to countermoonbats to rescue cetaceans from their primary threat: absurd green energy boondoggles:

The increase in whale, dolphin, and other cetacean deaths off the East Coast of the United States since 2016 is not due to the construction of large industrial wind turbines, U.S. government officials say.

As usual, the government is lying. Michael Shellenberg sounds the alarm, having executive produced the new documentary Thrown to the Wind:

The film documents surprisingly loud, high-decibel sonar emitted by wind industry vessels when measured with state-of-the-art hydrophones. And it shows that the wind industry’s increased boat traffic is correlated directly with specific whale deaths.

The deafening noise disorients whales and splits mothers from calves. Economically idiotic wind farms threaten the North Atlantic right whale with extinction.

Its population has dropped to 340 from over 400 over the last few years.

Wind turbines are not an efficient or reliable means of generating electricity. However, as Obama proved, they work well for laundering taxpayer money before distribution to campaign donors. Also, they serve as gigantic symbols of leftist hegemony. Whales don’t vote Democrat anyway, so our rulers don’t mind killing them off.

On a tip from taxpayer22.

A favorite liberal cause is to signal virtue by forcing us to use inferior paper straws in the name of saving the allegedly imperiled planet. This should surprise no one:

A new study found that a vast majority of so-called “eco-friendly” paper straws contain more toxic “forever chemicals” than plastic straws.

Ninety percent of the paper straws progressives have been imposing contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

PFAS are commonly called “forever chemicals” because they do not degrade easily in the environment and barely break down in human bodies. …

Studies have shown that exposure to certain levels of PFAS may lead to decreased fertility, developmental issues in children, increased risk of some cancers, reduced ability of the body’s immune system, and interference with hormones.

If moonbats want to force you to do something, that implies they do not expect you to do it voluntarily, which in turn implies you would be wise not to do it.

PJW has a good laugh:

Where did liberals get the idea to declare jihad against plastic straws? Literally from a 9-year-old, who invented the absurd but popular statistic that Americans use 500 million plastic straws per day.

On tips from Occam’s Stubble, Steve T, and KirklesWorth.

Nothing is safe from Democrats, not even ice cream trucks. Brooklyn City Councilweenie Lincoln Restler finds them environmentally incorrect:

Restler’s proposal advocates for a mandatory shift from fuel and diesel-powered ice cream trucks to more environmentally friendly alternatives such as electric or solar generators.

As always with envirotyranny, there is a downside:

While the shift to electric or solar generators is viewed as a positive step toward reducing pollution, some operators fear the associated costs might threaten their livelihoods.

However, to quote liberal luminary Shrillary Rotten Clinton,

“I can’t be responsible for every undercapitalized small business in America.”

We have a climate emergency, after all. The climate doesn’t like ice cream trucks.

Also, there is competition with the Left Coast to consider. Squeaks Restler:

“California is working on a similar effort. I hope we can continue to take the lead in New York City for climate justice.”

Only one moonbat dystopia can be the leader in climate justice.

On a tip from Lyle.

It’s only a posture. Lefty pols couldn’t care less about the environment, or they would not tolerate much less impose wind farms, which are far more efficient at killing eagles, marring the landscape, and clogging landfills than they are at generating electricity. The libs running Scotland have cut down 16 million trees to make more of them:

The admission was made by Scotland’s Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon, a member of the ruling left-wing Scottish National Party (SNP).

She estimated that 15.7 million trees had been cut down since 2000 on land currently managed by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS).

To meet the goals of the climate agenda, the equivalent of more than 1,700 trees were felled per day.

Has this improved the weather? Of course not. Only a lunatic would expect it to.

If the trees were cleared for farmland, it would be constructive. But with leftists in charge, the environment is violated out of sheer moonbattery, with no benefit.

Meanwhile, vast reserves of oil can be found in the North Sea off Scotland’s coast.

“Renewable energy generated from wind farms is a key element in Scotland’s response to the climate emergency,” said a spokesman for the agency, which is under Gougeon’s purview.

When Big Government wants to do something particularly pernicious, it exploits an emergency. In this case, the emergency is entirely imaginary. Even if it weren’t, there is no chance Scottish windfarms will perceptibly alter the global climate.

Note that if global warming ideology were valid, cutting down the trees would make it be warmer, because trees absorb supposedly harmful CO2. Also,

“Not only are millions of [carbon-dioxide] absorbing trees being felled for turbines, hundreds of thousands of acres of ancient carbon-holding peat are being dug up too,” commented activist Lyndsey Ward.

But all that matters with leftist politicians is the pose.

On tips from Chris Neilson and Franco.

Enterprising Arizona criminals have found a use for the righteous green posturing that prevails on the Left Coast. Ecomoonbattery can be converted to cash:

Over the span of eight months, the United States Department of Justice investigated several recycling centers around [Riverside County, California] and found that the operators illegally redeemed $7.6 million worth of aluminum cans and plastic bottles that were brought over illegally from the neighboring state.

The criminal recyclers were exploiting the California Redemption Value (CRV) program.

The program allows Californians to return beverage containers to privately-owned recycling centers in exchange for $.05 to $.10 per container.

It’s funded by Californians every time they purchase an eligible item: the CRV tax is tacked onto the initial cost, but can be redeemed upon return. By redeeming ineligible items from outside of the state, scammers effectively steal money from the pockets of Californians.

The theft started with California bureaucrats stealing from those who are forced to pay extra for the eligible items. The out-of-state criminals just wanted a piece of the action. Both are doing their part to placate the planet by reprocessing garbage that would otherwise end up where it belongs: buried in a landfill.

This isn’t the first time:

Earlier this year, two Arizona business owners were arrested for their alleged roles in a $10 million recycling fraud scheme, in which they allegedly trucked over hundreds of tons of recyclables from Arizona to California to take advantage of the CRV program.

A similar scheme involving another group of Arizonans was busted in 2018 after defrauding California to the tune of $16.1 million.

Don’t worry, Californians. You will get your revenge by reducing Phoenix to a second Los Angeles as it fills up with refugees from your moonbattery-ruined state.

On a tip from Steve T.

In case you were running short of reasons to avoid New York City under moonbat rule, here’s another:

In an effort to reduce plastic use, New York will start fining restaurants and third-party delivery services that provide disposable utensils, soy sauce packets, and similar items without the customer requesting them.

Plastic is so useful that the Democrat religion regards it as unholy.

Of course the media is on board:

With the popularity of takeout and delivery steadily rising, this new rule is arriving at an opportune time. It will encourage businesses and consumers to be more conscious about plastic use habits and hopefully curtail the impact of single-use plastic on the environment.

Next Democrats will require forks to be made out of wood:

In fact, creating one ton of plastic cutlery results in roughly 1,350 to 3,800 more pounds of [supposedly] harmful carbon pollution than disposable wooden cutlery.

Petty tyrants have constructed a petty tyranny, in which no detail of our personal lives is too trivial for woke bullies to intrude upon.

On the positive side, maybe the climate gods will be pleased at our obeisance when they see New Yorkers eating Chinese takeout with their fingers and send pleasant weather.

On a tip from Wiggins.

Remember when their bumper stickers admonished us to Save the Whales? Now enviromoonbats kill the whales — to please the climate:

Along the Jersey Shore, several companies, including Atlantic Shores (owned jointly by oil and gas titan Shell and the French-based utility company EDF) and Danish-based Orsted, are mapping the ocean floor—the first step toward construction of hundreds of mammoth offshore wind turbines. Many will be smack in the face of some of the wealthiest shorefront communities on the East Coast. But it wasn’t just the soon-to-be disfigurement of the magnificent ocean views that got people really agitated. It was all those dead whales and dolphins.

From last December to mid-April, there were forty-one marine mammal strandings along the New Jersey shore alone. …

If you include New York whale strandings during that same time period, two minke whales, four more humpbacks, two sperm whales, and one unidentified whale can be added to the tally. And during the writing of this article, ten more dolphins stranded off the New Jersey coast, with another dead female minke whale, two deceased humpbacks observed floating in New York waters, and another unidentified whale washing ashore in Hempstead on East Atlantic Beach, Long Island.

The deaths have apparently been caused by offshore surveying activities, for which official authorizations to “harass” marine mammals has been granted.

No worries; our moonbat rulers say this is all “disinformation”:

There is “no evidence linking the strandings to offshore wind energy development,” said the Marine Mammal Commission, a government agency that was established by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972 to provide “independent oversight.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, more commonly referred to as NOAA Fisheries, agreed, as did the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Quick to join in were environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which called any suggestion of a connection between whale deaths and sonar activity “a cynical disinformation campaign.”

Headlines soon started appearing, such as one in the Philadelphia Inquirer labeling suspicions of sonar involvement in whale deaths “right-wing conspiracy theories.”

No doubt the dead dolphins will rest easier in light of official denials from the liberal establishment.

The actual effect of windfarm activities on them is undetermined.

Marine mammals don’t matter. Whether hideous, inefficient, taxpayer-subsidized windmills have any effect whatsoever on the allegedly problematic climate doesn’t matter either. All that matters is righteous green posturing, which conveniently helps government officials launder taxpayer money.

On a tip from Bill V.

Nazi rule could not have been pleasant, but at least Germans were allowed to eat food when it was available. This will not be the case under envirofascists, according to whom a normal human diet offends the climate:

The German Nutrition Society (DGE) now recommends reducing meat consumption to 10 grams per day per person to combat global warming. … A sudden and radical renunciation: The average meat consumption of Germans is 109 grams per day, or about 763 grams per week. The population will therefore have to drastically change its eating behavior if it agrees to comply with this new strategy.

In the near future, Oktoberfest will feature celery sticks instead of brats — unless moonbats decide that eating plants oppresses them. By the way, brewing beer is also environmentally problematic.

On a tip from ABC of the ANC.

If it is worth having, moonbats will take it away from you in the name of their totalitarian ideology. This applies not only big things like cars, stoves, air conditioners, refrigerators, dishwashers, washers and driers, natural gas, and even essentials required to keep us alive like electricity and food, but to every other aspect of everyday life, including even windshield washer fluid:

A research study reveals that alcohols from windshield washer fluid contribute more significantly to vehicle emissions than previously thought. This holds true even with the increased adoption of electric vehicles, suggesting the need for future regulatory policies to address such non-fuel-derived pollutants.

No doubt bureauweenies will approve some less effective version of windshield wiper fluid acceptable to envirofascists. It will freeze when the weather turns cold, but think how much happier the planet will be when people are no longer allowed to offend it by keeping their windshields clean.

On a tip from Steve T.