ICE Barbie Is Out At DHS; But I'm Not Optimistic About How Replacement Will Manage FEMA

ICE Barbie is out, and this guy, Markwayne Mullin is
nominated as the new Secretary of Homeland Security.
That position also oversees FEMA. It's unclear how
he'll do as that agency deals with an increasing
number of disasters, some of them climate-
related. These might be famous last words
but he likely can't do a worse job than
Kristi "ICE Barbie" Noem. 

As I'm sure you heard on the news, Donald Trump finally had enough and is firing Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi "ICE Barbie" Noem and is going to replace her with a dude named Markwayne Mullin. 

Mullin is a Republican U.S. Senator from Oklahoma and is definitely right up Trump's ally. 

Trump's statement was "A MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter, Markwayne truly gets along well with people and knows the Wisdom an Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda."

Part of the DHS Secretary's job is overseeing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is why this news story landed in a weather and climate blog.

With an ever rising tide of weather and climate calamities, FEMA's role is incredibly important in helping people recover from those disasters. The nation's spring severe weather and tornado season this year appears to be gearing up to start literally today and tomorrow with a likely significant severe weather outbreak. 

Oklahoma is in the path of these storms, so I suppose Mullin will be at least a little sympathetic if the storms get too bad.

ICE BARBIE'S DEPARTURE

I'm definitely getting a "Ding dong the witch is dead" vibe coming from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington now that ICE Barbie is headed out the door. 

FEMA mismanagement was the least of the problems people had with Noem. She oversaw the siege of Minnesota by ICE agents this winter. Two border security officers shot and killed two American citizens. Noem lied about those deaths, and oversaw the chaos in Minneapolis and other cities in the past year, Chicago, Charlotte and Los Angeles and others come to mind.  

Pretty much everybody, including Trump, was getting more and more dissatisfied with ICE Barbie. It appears what finally drove Trump to dump Noem was all about him, of course. It always is.  

ICE Barbie testified in front of U.S. Senate and House committees this week and it did not go well.  The part that Trump didn't like, according to NBC News were her answers regarding her role in a $220 million ad campaign encouraging immigrants to self-deport. 

Funding for the ad campaign seemed shady, as is usual in this administration, but Trump was described as "pissed" that Noem said during the hearing that Trump new about her decision to approve the ads.

Speaking of pissed, that can describe likely thousands of disaster victims.  The FEMA work force is decimated, and the Trump administration is still trying to find ways to either get rid of the agency or gut it into near-nothingness. 

Even GOP political were annoyed by ICE Barbie's micromanaging, which seriously delays help for disaster victims. Barbie decreed that she must personally approve each expenditure amounting to more than $100,000. As you can imagine that created huge bottlenecks in getting help to people who lost their homes or livelihoods to extreme weather. 

Noem's interference with FEMA payments might have violated the law. 

ICE Barbie has also advocated eliminating or severely downsizing FEMA. 

WHAT ABOUT MARKWAYNE?

All eyes of course remain on immigration agencies and their lawless campaign to rid the U.S. of non-whites. But FEMA is also an important part of the DHS Secretary's oversight role. 

Frankly, I couldn't find much on Mullin or how he would deal with FEMA and disaster relief. I found a Fox News interview with Mullen in the autumn of 2024 where he said it's the neighbors that help during calamities like Hurricane Helene, and the response if there is any is too bureaucratic.

Reading between the lines, it felt to me like Mullin was advocating a far smaller role for FEMA rather than reforming its bureaucracy, which certainly needed and still needs reform. 

Climate change is driving many of our disasters, and Mullin's record there isn't great, to say the least. He has a 100 percent rating from Independent Petroleum Association of America. He was opposed to the Biden administration's rejoining of the Paris Climate Agreement, and presumably approved of Trump's decision to leave it. 

There is a bipartisan effort in Congress to take FEMA out of the control of DHS and make it an independent agency. It really has withered every since it was put under the DHS purview in the early 2000s.

Mullin needs Senate confirmation before he gets the job, though he could serve as "acting secretary" if confirmation doesn't happen by the end of the month. 

I've found Mullin to be a jerk at times on the Sunday morning news talk shows. But I can't picture him mugging for the cameras and cosplaying like ICE Barbie did all the time. I'll hope that he'll at least be a better administrator that Noem.

In interviews today, Mullin and both GOP and Democratic Congress creatures pledged to play nice during the confirmation process. Let's see how that turns out.  

Meteorologist Fired For Instagram Blast At Elon Musk: What It Means For Other Meteorologists

Sam Kuffel a Milwaukee television meteorologist, was
fired after she posted on social media criticisms of
Elon Musk after he made gestures that many 
believed to be Nazi salutes. 

A television meteorologist named Sam Kuffel was fired recently from a Wisconsin television station for blasting Elon Musk's gesture during President Trump's inauguration. 

The meteorologists, who had worked at WDJT CBS58 in Milwaukee for more than five years, was canned not long after her rather strident posts. 

I know this is a weather and climate blog, and the only relation to these topics is the fact that a meteorologist was involved, but it's an important topic. So I ought to cover it. 

More importantly, what is the duty of on-air meteorologists to report facts that contradict the Trump administration?   With Trump's climate denial, it's more important than ever for meteorologists to offer true but not sensationalized information on climate change.  Should meteorologists speak up if the Trump administration blunts the expertise and truthfulness from the National Weather Service? How far should meteorologist go to speak truth to power?

Unfortunately, Kuffel, likely unwittingly, chose a not-so-important hill to die on. Sure, Nazi salutes are beyond horrible, and they need to be called out. But we face years of climate denial, anti-science gaslighting that needs to be combated full-throatedly. 

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, Kuffel posted a picture of Musk doing his thing and wrote "Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration." You (expletive) with this and this man, I don't (expletive) with you. Full stop."

She then posted a GIF from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" with a caption. "Screw that old (expletive). He's a Nazi."

Her posts caught the attention of conservative activists, as these things do.  Radio host Dan O'Donnell accused Kuffel of "spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute."

To me, it sure looked like a Nazi salute, though Musk's defender said it was just an awkward gesture, not intended to support Nazis. I would have liked a statement from Musk explaining what happened, but he's not one to do that. 

For her part, Kuffel said she "never intended to harm anyone" with those social media posts. "I was just voicing my personal opinion on a private social media account that was not accessible to the general public."

There's actually more moving parts here than you'd think.   Many news organizations have codes of conduct when it comes to social media.  When I worked at the Burlington Free Press until 2013, I already had active social media accounts.

I had to be careful what I posted so as not to make my political opinions known. It was part of our code of conduct, something many news organizations have.  Given the need to not appear biased, journalists need to keep their political opinions close to their chests, even when they're not on the clock. 

"People who aren't bound by journalist codes of ethics can give any opinion they want, and it doesn't have to be nuanced, but it's an opinion....If you're related to a media organization, you have a deeper responsibility to show your math," said Jill Geisler, the Bill Planet Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity and Loyola University Chicago told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel .

It's unclear whether CBS58 had a code of conduct, as it's not displayed on its website. For transparency's sake, many news organizations publish their conduct codes online.

This gets into First Amendment issues, too.  Yes, an employer can fire you for your actions, even if you were not at work when you did them. 

But Musk is now at least nominally part of the federal government. The First Amendment guarantees the right of free speech free of government suppression.  Neither Musk nor anybody in the Trump administration ordered the television station to fire Kuffel.

However, given the current political climate, did the station feel compelled to can the meteorologist, to protect itself from whatever repercussions they might receive from Trump's minions? 

The bottom line is on air meteorologists have more responsibility than ever to tell the truth about everything, even if it touches on politics.

I hear people say meteorologists should exclusively stick to the weather forecast. Just tell us if we need to bring an umbrella today.   But partly sunny with a chance of showers is only part of their job. The meteorologists on your local television stations are also journalists. 

Most of them, I trust, have more than enough integrity to give us the science and climate news with the best information available. 

The Kuffle firing over Musk's likely Nazi salute probably is just a sideshow that has already exhausted its life in today's rapid fire news cycle. 

But it's a signal to us all.  Meteorologists have a responsibility to tell us the truth. And the public has the right to demand it.