A Follow-Up To Donald Trump's War On Colorado: Now Denying Disaster Aid

The NCAR building in Boulder, Colorado. There's been
more fallout related to this, including Donald Trump
denying disaster relief from Colorado, and a 
looming brain drain from the United States. 

You might remember my post a few days ago, in which the Trump regime is breaking up an important and renowned climate and weather research center in Colorado. 

The Trumpsters said they plan to break up the National Center For Atmospheric Research or NCAR which conducts a wide array of meteorological and climate research. 

The Trump people said they want to break up the science center because they are guilty of "climate alarmism," whatever that is 

The timing of the announcement was interesting, to say the least. 

Former Mesa County, Colorado Clerk Tina Peters is still cooling her heels in state prison, having been found guilty in a state court for giving Trump supporters unauthorized access to a voting machine after the 2020 election. 

Trump earlier this month tried to pardon Peters, but he can't do that because she's convicted on state charges. Colorado refuses to touch Peters' nine-year prison sentence. So, it appears Trump might be exacting revenge on Colorado for this unforgivable slight - insert major eye roll here).

Well, there's even more signs of possible revenge by the Trump folks. President Trump has rejected requested disaster declarations for two wildfires and a serious flood earlier this year in Colorado. 

The denials got strong responses from Colorado's governor and the state's congressional delegation. 

"President Trump's decision to deny Colorado's request for critical federal assistance is unacceptable," said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado. "Trump continues to use Coloradans for political games; it is malicious and obscene. A disaster is a disaster, regardless of what state in the country in took place."

Gov. Jared Polis said: "Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing."

Colorado will appeal Trump's decision.  

Trump's denial of disaster assistance echoes what he's done in other blue states where he is especially unpopular. In October, Trump denied federal assistance for flooding in Illinois, Maryland and Vermont, all blue states. But Trump did approve disaster aid in red states like Alaska, Nebraska and North Dakota. 

In their joint statement today, Colorado's Polis, Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper hinted that they could play Trump's game, too. 

The three pointed to a recent study that showed that for every $1 Coloradans pay in federal taxes, the state only receives $0.90 in federal investments.  

Meanwhile, the potential breakup o NCAR could well contribute to a brain drain from the U.S. brought on by Trump's virulently anti-science agenda. 

Canadian climate scientists say dismantling NCAR would not only harm climate science worldwide, it would also cause a loss of expertise on emergency responses, and innovations in weather forecasting.

But as CTVnews.ca reports, Trump's actions could be an opportunity for Canada and Europe. American scientists have already left the U.S to work elsewhere. Canada has already announced funding to attract top talent to the nation, including U.S. researchers. 

"This is an opportunity for Canada to really establish itself as a leader," said Anna Soer, co-president of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada.  

Trump Administration Breaking Up Renowned Climate Center; Retribution Against Colorado Governor Suspected

The National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colorado. The Trump administration
wants to break it up saying the scientists there
are "climate alarmists" with no evidence to back
that up. It appears the announcement might
be related to Colorado refusing to release
from jail a 2020 election conspiracy theorist.

One of the world's leading climate research centers, in Boulder, Colorado, is targeted for closing because Donald Trump has his head in the sand. 

And also probably because he's still butthurt that Colorado won't release a 2020 election conspiracy theorist from jail.

At issue is the National Center For Atmospheric Research, or NCAR. It was founded in 1960 and has resources like supercomputers, data sets and high-tech research planes that conduct meteorological and climate research. It's also an educational center for future scientists. 

As you'd expect, scientists are almost uniformly outraged by the plan to dismantle NCAR. 

Katharine Hayhoe, a Texas Tech University professor and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, called the center "quite literally our global mothership," and said "Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet."

Hayhoe also said on her post on the social media platform X: 

"(NCAR) supports the scientists who fly into hurricanes, the meteorologists who developed new radar technology, the physicists who envision and code new weather models and yes, the largest community climate model in the world" 

Casper Amman, a former research scientist at NCAR, told the Washington Post the center plays a unique role by bringing together soiled specialists to collaborate on some of the biggest climate and weather questions of our time. 

"Without NCAR, a lot could not happen....A lot of research at U.S. Universities would immediately get hampered, industry would lose access to reliable base data."

Weather and climate services around the world use NCAR modeling and forecasting tools. It also supplies real time data to people dealing with events like big wildfires and floods. 

Of course, the Trump camp has a completely different view about their plans to dismantle NCAR.

 Here's a Trump minion on X:

"The National Science Foundation will be breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado......This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country."

One of Trump's favorite whines is climate change. Every chance he gets, he says climate change is a hoax and a con job, his words. He apparently thinks that he's smarter than the vast majority of scientists who tell us climate change is real. Those scientists are growing increasingly alarmed about that warming. 

 USA Today, which first reported this development, reported:

"The administration plans to identify and eliminate what it calls 'green new scam research activities' during an upcoming review of the center, according to the White House while 'vital functions' such as weather modeling and supercomputing will be moved to another entity or location. 

Efforts to dissolve the National Center for Atmospheric Research will begin immediately, the official said, with the plan being to fully close the center's Mesa Laboratory in Boulder."

NCAR's staff consists of 830 employees who are part of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of more than 130 colleges and universities. Those universities focus on earth system sciences. We don't yet know how many jobs or programs this dismantling would affect.

THE REAL REASON

There's almost certainly more to all this than just Trump's aversion to any true information about climate change. Trump's focus seems to be suddenly all about Colorado 

 As USA Today reports:

"The move to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research comes after the Trump administration earlier in the day announced the cancellation of $109 million environmentally focused transportation grants in Colorado that sought to boost electric vehicles, rail improvement and research into hydrogen and natural gas-powered trains."

Amid these announcements, and on the same day the NCAR breakup was announced, Trump called Polis "weak and pathetic" and "incompetent" because he refused to release former Colorado County Clerk Tina Peters from prison.

And there it is: Revenge. 

Peters was once the top election official in Mesa County. She's part of the election 2020 conspiracy gang, convinced the election that year was "stolen" by the Joe Biden campaign. There's no evidence that ever happened. 

Eventually, in 2024,  a Colorado jury convicted Peters of giving Trump supporters unauthorized access to a voting machine after the 2020 election. She's serving a nine-year sentence on those state charges. 

Recently, Trump said he is pardoning Peters. There's one teeny, tiny problem with that. The president can only pardon people who were convicted on federal charges and are in federal prisons.

Peters was convicted on charges brought by the State of Colorado and is in a state prison. 

"Tina Peters was convicted guy a jury of her peers, prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney and found guilty of violating Colorado state laws, including criminal impersonation. No President has jurisdiction over state law more the power to parse a person for state convictions," said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. 

How dare Polis stand up to Glorious Leader Trump!  So the Trump people brought out their usual mob boss schtick. "Nice state ya got there. Would be a shame to see anything happen to it."

Here's the quote to prove it:

"'Maybe if Colorado had a governor who actually wanted to work with President Trump his constituent would be better served,' a senior White House official told NOTUS in an email on Wednesday."

NOTUS.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news outlet.

The Washington Post said an unnamed White House official declined to say how Polis is not cooperating with the administration, but denied the move was in response to Polis and his team not releasing Peters from prison.

Sure, Jan. 

Colorado is already fighting back 

According to Politico,  the U.S. Senate adjourned for the holidays this past week without passing a government funding package that would prevent a partial government shutdown starting January 30. 

One big part of the holdup are Democratic Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, who said they would hold up the spending package because of the plan to dismantle NCAR.  

Trump appears to be in a weaker position politically than he was earlier this year. Stay tuned at this bat channel to see whether the plan to end NCAR really happens.

We should all hope not.