Normal Jet Contrails Send A Florida Congressman Into A Chemtrail Conspiracy Tizzy

The alleged chemtrails Rep. Greg Steube said were
over Florida "sky's" over the weekend. These 
are standard issue jet contrails, but I guess
weird conspiracy theories are moree fun. 

 I'm in an abusive mood today, so I'm going to pick on somebody you don't know, but it'll be worth it.

We're talking about Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida), an esteemed member of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. 

We're going after Steube because over the weekend he took a short video of a beautiful blue sky streaked with a few jet contrails.

To most of us, those contrail streaks are bits of frozen water from the exhaust of passing jets. They are just long, streaky clouds. To Steube, the white streaks in the sky were the dreaded chemtrails. (insert ominous music notes here).

Steube, posted on X  three times on Saturday, with photos and a video of the sky.  Steube wrote the following on one of the post; "Was a clear sky this a.m., now this. Didn't Florida ban spraying chemicals in our sky's (sic). We need to ban it nationwide. There is no way that water vapor would stay that long in the sky." 

Um, then how do other clouds stay in the sky for hours or even days?

Most of the contrails in Streube's photos seemed to be heading in the same direction, suggesting an established flight path. So it shouldn't have been surprising to see contrails. The video included a jet leaving behind a fresh contrail, which I guess to Steube was "proof" of the chemtrail attack. 

To illustrate how ridiculous the post was, a community note was added to it, noting chemtrails are just a conspiracy theory, and what Steube saw in the sky was standard issue contrails.  

Chemtrails don't exist, no matter how often some people insist otherwise  A few people who see the enemy everywhere think jet contrails are a secret government plot to spray chemicals into the air for some nefarious purpose. Mind control? Population control? Who knows?

The debunked conspiracy theory dates back to at least the 1990s. But with an ever-widening social media audience, people are still cranking out the idea that harmless ice crystals are out to kill us. 

Most of those posting about chemtrails probably know they don't exist, but spreading weird, scary false stories is great for clicks and views, I suppose. 

Speaking of scary it's more than a little frightening that a U.S. Congressman believes in chemtrails.

As Raw Story tells us:

"Given the important role Steube plays as a sitting member of the influential House committee, that frequently receives highly classified briefings on national security threats, helps shape intelligence laws and policy and oversees intelligence agencies like the CIA and FBI, his apparent reference to a decades-long debunked conspiracy theory alarmed some onlookers." 

Note in Steuben's X post that reference to Florida banning spray chemicals in, as Steube, put it, the "sky's."

Florida, and some other mostly Republican states, have passed laws banning or restricting geoengineering and weather modification. The impetus behind these laws is, surprise! chemtrails.

Around the time Florida passed its law, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier talked breathlessly of Florida being under attack from "toxic particulates being sprayed into our atmosphere."

The toxic particles beings sprayed into the atmosphere are thse chemtrail screamers. You'd think an allegedly educated politician would know better.

But apparently not.  

 

Why Trying To Save Money During The Winter Can Be A Bad Idea

Here's what the top of a washing machine in Quebec 
looked like after they shut off the heat in the apartment
while away to "save  money" The pipes burst, and
this was some of the result

Heating a home in the winter is expensive, we all know that. 

We're all torn between keeping warm and affording to keep the furnace on. But somebody in Quebec took the desire to save money way too far. 

In Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, along the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, an apartment tenant recently left for an extended period, probably on vacation.  

That tenant apparently thought to themselves,  "Why pay for heat in my apartment when I'm not going to be there?"

It appears they said this. In January. In Quebec. 

You guessed it! The inevitable happens. Pipes froze and burst. The toilet cracked, sending water through the floor into the living space below.  The results are captured in a video at the bottom of this post. 

Pretty much everything ended up being covered in ice inside that building. The landlord said the ice on the kitchen floor was nearly a foot thick. The washing machine looked like an elaborate ice sculpture. Clothes folded atop the dryer were just one big frozen mass. 

Put it this way, the apartment "ice castle" in Trois-Rivieres is not nearly as grand as Elsa's castle in the movie "Frozen," as the CTV reporter dryly notes. 

The landlord seemed to be taking the mess in pretty good humor, if we can judge from his CTV interview. He said the whole apartment will need to be ripped apart and rebuilt. That is, after the ice eventually melts. He's got heaters in there to bring a spring thaw to the apartment, but as you'll see in the video, it'll take awhile.

The former tenant whose name is on the lease was formally evicted earlier this month after having moved out several months ago without paying rent. It's unclear who was living there and turned off the heat just prior to their departure. 

The "ice castle" apartment is part of a triplex, but the tenants living in the other two units within the building were not affected.

Here's the video. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Trump Pulls Out Of Climate Treaty, Continuing His Quest To Turn U.S. Into A Pariah Nation

Donald Trump is pulling out of a basic but hugely
important global climate treaty as he continues
his march to make the U.S. an economic and
political pariah basket case. 

 Donald Trump continued on with his desire to turn himself and the U.S. into a worldwide embarrassment Wednesday by announcing the United States is pulling out of a longstanding critical climate agreement. 

The agreement Trump is pulling the plug on is the overarching global treaty on climate change. It's called the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC.  We will now become the only nation on the planet not part of this agreement. 

The agreement, ratified by Congress in 1992, doesn't force the U.S. to cut fossil fuels or reduce pollution. But it forms the basis and sets up the process for climate agreements like the Kyoto Protocol in 1995 and the Paris Agreement in 2015. Both the 1995 and 2015 accords are considered two monumental moments of global cooperation in the fight against climate change, as CNN notes. 

Trump has already started the process of pulling the United States out of Paris Agreement. The process finishes up this month, which leaves the U.S., Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries not committed to the Paris accord.  

 The U.S was the first industrialized nation to join the UNFCCC treaty and it will be the only nation ever to leave it. So it's another sign of how far we've fallen under Trump, as if we need more evidence.

The UNFCCC was one of 66 organizations the U.S. is abandoning, as the administration announced Wednesday. 

"Many of these bodies promote radical climate policies, global governance, and ideological programs that conflict with U.S. sovereignty and economic strength," said a statement from the White House.

Which is rich, since we've been stomping all over other nations' sovereignty lately. 

Trump and his minions are part of a small and ever-shrinking group of holdouts who still think climate change isn't happening, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. The years 2023 or 2024 were the world's hottest on record. As of this writing, the number crunchers were still trying to figure out if 2025 was the world's second or third hottest year on record. 

Pretty much everybody outside the MAGA sphere thinks pulling out of the UNFCCC is an incredibly dumb idea. 

Politico is among the many news organizations giving us some examples:

"Of all the wreckage Donald Trump is leaving in his wake, this one could be among the most consequential and damaging, particularly for future generations," said John Podesta, the climate policy coordinator for Presidents Obama and Biden.

World Resources Institute U.S. Director David Widawsky said withdrawal from UNFCCC is "a strategic blunder that gives away American advantages for nothing in return."

Other critics point out that the United States will now miss out on billions or even trillions of dollars in clean energy investments as the world moves away from fossil fuel consumption. Whether Trump likes it or not.

Like pretty much everything Trump does, we don't even know if withdrawing from UNFCCC is legal. The Senate ratified it, so we don't know from a legal standpoint if Trump can unilaterally pull the plug by himself. 

But since we have a MAGA-majority Congress and a MAGA-majority Supreme Court, both of which have given up their authority to Trump, it doesn't really matter.  We used to be a nation of laws. Now, apparently,  the law is just what Trump says it is. 

If sanity ever returns, getting back into the UNFCCC would also be complicated. So would rejoining other pacts, like the Paris Agreement.  (The Paris agreement is the one that pledges to keep global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-Industrial levels. It's getting more and more doubtful that goal can be accomplished, so now the goal seems to be shifting to 2 degrees).

As Politico tells us:

"Some legal experts say the Senate's consent does not operate in perpetuity after the U.S. leaves a treaty. Others argue that if a president can unilaterally leave a treaty, a future could rejoin it without a new vote.

Whatever happens, Trump is once again diminishing the nation's strength, influence and leadership, even as he somehow thinks he's increasing it. 

Trump is sort of the mascot of the Dunning-Kruger effect, part of which suggests that stupid people think they know a lot more about subjects than they do.  To Trump, as his narcissistic personality disorder rages out of control, thinks he alone is smarter than all of the climate experts out there. 

Plus he wants to keep his fossil fuel oligarch buddies happy, so there's that.  

Trump Marches On With His Goal To Make World Hotter, More Polluted, Less Safe

Energy Secretary Chris Wright seems to understand coal,
but doesn't appear to know what batteries are. He's demanding
to coal plants in Indiana stay open because he figures
solar and wind energy doesn't work because sometimes
the weather is cloudy and calm. Sigh. 

Donald Trump has been in the headlines lately for his attack on Venezuela, his threats to other nations and his long held wish to earn a Nobel Peace Prize by (checks notes) bombing, attacking and threatening other nations. 

But Trump is no one-trick pony, no siree! He's got to continue his mission to worsen climate change and make the environment less safe for both humans and wildlife. 

We've got yet another example, as if we needed it. Let's go to Indiana to find out more:  

E&E News by Politico reports:

"The Department of Energy ordered two Indiana coal plants Tuesday to postpone retirement and continue operating, expanding President Donald Trump's campaign to aid fossil fuels."

DOE had previously ordered two other coal plants to stay open. The new orders to keep the Indiana plants operating came less than a month before they were to close down permanently.  Energy Secretary Chris Wright said data center construction will create the need for more capacity. 

The orders to keep the plants open technically expire March 23, but you can bet a cloud of ozone air pollution that the Trumpsters will insist the plants stay open way past then. 

Then, as Wright often does, he either demonstrates extreme stupidity or he's such a cult follower of Donald Trump that he'll say things like this:

"Keeping these coal plants online has the potential to save lives and is just common sense. Americans deserve reliable power regardless of whether the winds is blowing or the sun is shining during extreme weather conditions."

Wright still hasn't heard of batteries? A little alarming, considering he's the Energy Secretary.  

Wright's critics, and there are a lot of 'em, say that keeping the tottering old coal plants running would actually drive up electricity prices while doing nothing to increase reliability. Environmentalists and consumer advocates point to a Michigan coal plant that was previously ordered to stay open by the Trump administration.

The big old coals plant in Michigan has cost ratepayers $80 million. I wonder how much a few wind turbines or solar panels would cost in comparison

In this current mess, the 800-megawatt Schahfer plant in Indiana was set to close Northern Indiana Public Service  Co (NIPSCO) was planning on getting out of the coal generation altogether and replace them with solar and gas facilities. 

The utility was planning to install 2,600 megawatts of gas generation at the site of Schahfer to serve new Amazon data centers. 

Which sounds more efficient and able to keep up with data center demands than an old coal plant. So I'm not sure why the Trump gang is so wedded to coal here. NIPSCO hasn't really addressed how the "you must burn coal' directive will affect their ability to supply electricity to the data centers.

NIPSCO did say that it is essential stuck. 

"Compliance with this directive is mandatory. We are carefully reviewing the details of this order to assess its impact on our employees, customers and company to ensure compliance," the utility said in a statement. "While this development alters the timeline for decommissioning this station, our long-term plan to transition to a more sustainable energy future remains unchanged."

What has changed is any attempt to go toward a more sustainable future has to wait until Trump and his minions disappear and are replaced by a government that actually follows both the law and logic. 

In the meantime, air pollution will increase or at the very best not get worse. And once again, Trump will contribute to one of the few things he's good at: creating more intense climate change.  I don't know what's worse. The hot air out of his mouth or the hot air created by his quote, unquote policies. 

EPA Scrubs Mention Of Human Caused Climate Change From Its Website

The EPA in recent weeks has scrubbed their websites 
of pretty much any information that climate change
is caused by humans. It's denial, and a way to 
help the fossil fuel industry. 

Once again, the Trump administration has wildly concluded that eliminating mention of human-caused climate change will somehow "prove" that it doesn't exist. 

Never mind that anybody with half a brain understands that by far the main driving force behind our warming world is us humans. 

The latest censorship and anti-science move is on an EPA website, on the page that explains the causes of climate change. Though it no longer accurately does that. 

Oh, on this page, climate can change, alright, the EPA admits. But whoever revised it is Mr. or Ms. Excuse coming up with all kinds of reasons the climate changes. Like these:

The Earth's orbit and rotation can change.

There's variations if solar activity.  

The Earth's reflectivity changes.

Volcanoes can blow up and the stuff they belch into the atmosphere changes the climate

There might be natural changes in carbon dioxide concentrations. 

They're so, so, close on that last one. As everybody except the Keystone Kops of the Trump administration know, humans are increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide, and that's making the world warm up. 

There's even a chart, right there, under their reasons for climate change list, that shows atmospheric carbon dioxide rocketing upward like mad since the Industrial Revolution started.   

On the social media site Bluesky, climatologist Daniel Swain wrote how he was able to compare the EPA web site that was up on October 8 with the current iteration. 

Human-caused warming was removed from the causes of climate change page that I described above. Swain also noted that there used to be "indicators of climate change" pages on the EPA website that have been scrubbed entirely. "The pages no longer exist; there are numerous dead links on the current/live EPA site, and no indications they have been moved to a new URL" Swain said. 

Other pages that describe how climate change can affect children's health and low income populations are also now gone, as the Washington Post notes. 

Not only is climate information deleted from the EPA sites, the web pages out and out lie. Earlier versions of the web site say the buildup of greenhouse gases have resulted in "dangerous effects" to humans and the ecosystem. Now, the pages say the greenhouse effect "is natural and necessary to support life."

Sure. unless you let the greenhouse effect spiral out of control via all us humans belching fossil fuel emissions. 

 Swain, wearing his Captain Obvious hat, had this to say:

"...it is still profoundly alarming that the primary regulatory body for environmental protection and pollution control in this country is not actively ignoring scientific evidence. This will end poorly."

The response at the EPA of these questions raised by Swain, the Washington Post and others is typically juvenile and nonsensical of the Trump administration. 

Hold your nose as you read this missive from EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch. :

"Unlike the previous administration, the Trump EPA is focused on protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback, not left-wing political agendas.... As such. this agency no longer takes marching orders from the climate cult."

It's always a projection from Trump and MAGA, isn't it?  Our minion Brigit describes solid science as a cult. Meanwhile, MAGA seems to be like the ultimate cult.  

The recent revisions on the EPA site might well be an effort to tee up a move to get rid of something called the endangerment finding. 

That's a legal and scientific foundation for standards and rules put in place back in 2009 that serves as a legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. 

That's because Trump, and by extension EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, want to gift the oil and gas industry with more ways to make money atop their already record profits. 

The EPA, at Trump's behest. also wants to roll back controls enacted in 1990 that limited sulfur dioxide pollution. Sulfur dioxide in the air causes smog and acid rain. 

By the way, I did see little "oopsie" they left in at the top of their "climate change causes' page:

"Natural processes are always influencing the earth's climate and can explain climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s. However, recent climate changes cannot be explained by natural causes alone."

Looks like one of the climate deniers over the EPA didn't proofread as much as Trump might have hoped.  

Ice Barbie Exults Glorious Leader Trump For PreventIng U.S. Hurricanes Landfalls In 2025,

Kristi "Ice Barbie" Noem praised Donald Trump 
yesterday for keeping hurricanes away from the U.S.
My guess is he used a Sharpie to do that. 

Hurricane season ended last Sunday, and with that, we can rejoice that the United States was not hit by a hurricane this year for the first time since 2015. 

And to whom do we owe that great fortune? President Trump himself! 

We learned this via one of Trump's cabinet meetings, this one held on Tuesday. .You know the ones, where each cabinet secretary praise glorious leader to an extreme that would make North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jung-Un blush.  

Meanwhile, Trump snoozes. 

Which gets me to the hurricane story. None other that Homeland Secretary Kristi "Ice Barbie" Noem, said to "daddy" this gem. "Sir, you made it through hurricane season without a hurricane....Even you kept the hurricanes away. We appreciate that."

Well, I for one definitely appreciate that the U.S. was not hit by a hurricane this year. Gawd knows we have enough problems with adding hurricanes to the mix. 

Ice Barbie did not disclose how Trump kept the hurricanes away. My guess is with a Sharpie, but I don't know how exactly he pulled that off.   

I do see a scandal brewing Trump's Great Hurricane Accomplishment, though. Trump somehow failed to prevent that big flood during the July 4 weekend, the one that killed 135 people, several of whom were girls at a Christian summer camp. 

Christian summer camp? You would have thought the god-like Trump would have intervened, since he and his MAGA follows tell us they're such good Christians. 

There was, of course, trouble with hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean this year. Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of Jamaica in late October.  I don't think Trump had any influence on that storm, but what does he care? It's not as if he's into helping other nations anyway. 

Other hurricanes that did not hit the United States still caused trouble, like stirring up waves that washed seaside homes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina into the ocean. I guess Trump should have nudged those storms further out to sea, or made the go away with his Big Beautiful Bill, or some damn thing. 

Meanwhile, I'm not really happy with the weather here in Vermont. We're expecting snow squalls and bitterly cold air. Can't Trump push that away from us?

Oh, wait, we're a blue state. He's probably pulling that wintry weather our way as punishment. Even if he has to import it from Canada. What is the tariff rate on cold fronts? 

Illinois Disaster Appeal Rejection Shows Once Again Trump Puts Loyalty Above All Else

Flooding in Chicago this past July. Donald Trump is
blocking disaster aid to Illinois, probably mostly
because he doesn't like the state's governor. 

Donald Trump is not liking the Illinois governor, and he's taking it out on flood victims in the state. 

The Trump administration turned down another request from Illinois to help the state recover from severe flash floods in July. That, according to the Washington Post, is despite a recent assessment detailing the the widespread damage and financial losses associated with the disaster. 

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement tried to paint the Illinois detail as fiscal responsibility. "Gone are the days of rubber stamping FEMA recommendations," Jackson huffed, saying the Trump administration is "committed to empowering and working with State and federal governments to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes, making response less urgent and recovery less prolonged."

In other words, states must somehow looked into their crystal balls, determine when and what kind of disasters will strike in the future and cough up the millions of dollars they don't have to do these mythical resiliency projects.

Of course, few believe Trump is trying to help Illinois.

First of all, Illinois is a blue state. More importantly, Trump is feuding with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, because the governor objects to Trump's idea of sending  the National Guard deployment in and around Chicago and legally dubious ICE arrests (some would say kidnappings) of people in Illinois. 

Trump, ever the statesman, keeps insulting Pritzker over his weight  (calling the governor a big fat slob on Wednesday) rather than actually dealing with the governor in a rational way. If we're going to get into body shaming, Trump isn't exactly the most svelte character I've ever seen. 

Things have gotten so ridiculous in Illinois that, in early November, Illinois and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had to remove personnel who were surveilling flood damage in Chicago neighborhoods.

Why? Because immigration agents were patrolling and conducting raids nearby, according to the Washington Post. 

WaPo goes on:

"The decision to halt the disaster assessment teams' work on Nov. 6 came amid an ongoing immigration crackdown in the city, leaving the coordinating state an agency officials worried that FEMA's efforts could put residents as well as surveyors at risk. 

The shift meant about 10 groups of federal, state, county and local workers had to stop work surveying hundreds of homes that sustained heavy water damage in parts of the city hit hard by recent storms - assessments that help the federal agency document disaster impacts, and ca make a case for why an area may need help paying for recovery." 

The whole thing seems suspicious.

Toward the end of October, FEMA's regional administrator told Homeland Security officials about upcoming surveys in the area, as a heads up to avoid conflicts with Homeland Security's immigration crackdowns in Chicago.

As WaPo explained, "It is unclear why immigration agents the ended up in the same place as emergency personnel. Multiple FEMA employees said there were discussions meant to prevent that from happening."

Instead, as FEMA workers set off into a flood-damaged neighborhood, they suddenly saw ICE vehicles and heard whistles - which is a warning people give when ICE comes into an area

So the assessments weren't done. Which might be part of the excuse as to why Trump keeps rejecting disaster aid for Illinois. 

As if the fine citizen of Illinois would suddenly turn MAGA to keep our Orange Cockwomble happy.   

Trump Cancels Green Energy Projects In Mostly Blue States To "Punish" Democrats For Disobeying His Lordship.

Trump canceled nearly $8 billion in clean energy projects,
and many observers think this to punish states
that lean Democratic. 

Democrats are "the enemy" in Donald Trump's world. 

So why not make the best of a government shutdown to punish those Democrats?

Per the Washington Post:

"The Energy Department on Wednesday canceled $7.56 billion in funding for 223 projects aimed at research and deployment of clean energy and other climate-friendly technology mainly in Democratic-led states."

People in the Trump administration could barely keep a straight face when they said that this wasn't a punishment against Democrat-led states. No! It was just about rooting out waste of taxpayer dollars. 

 More WaPo

"An Energy Department press release late Wednesday said the projects 'did not adequately advance the nations energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.' 

But of course the Trump people just can't help themselves.  The money that was shitcanned was "Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda," said Office of Management and Budget Director in a post on X.

So much for high government officials showing any semblance of dignity. 

 Of the affected states, 17 are led by Democrats, and seven are led by Republicans. But one of those Republican-led states is Vermont. The governor, Phil Scott is a moderate, non-MAGA type, and as everybody knows, Vermont is politically as blue as blue can get.

The cuts include:

$1.2 billion for a public/private partnership to kick start the hydrogen industry in California.

$1.1 billion in energy grants for Washington State, including the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. 

$400 million to add 28 gigawatts of new energy generation the Minnesota power grid, mostly from wind and solar.

$90 million to build Pennsylvania's biggest solar array on the site of an old coal mine. 

$30 million for battery storage at a California children's hospital. 

Under the Trump administration, the job market is getting shaky. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the hydrogen project would have created 200,000 jobs.

But screaming that climate change is a hoax is more important than creating jobs, I guess. 

The cuts we're talking about here. came on the same day the Trumpsters froze $18 billion in funding for two big infrastructure projects in New York City.  The city is represented in Congress by some of the nation's most prominent and popular representatives. 

One of those New York Democratic congress people is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said, "Instead of playing politics with the shutdown, President Trump should be working on bipartisan solutions to lower Americans' costs and create jobs."

Good luck with that. Trump spent the weekend playing golf. To be fair, the weather was awfully nice. 

As CNBC reported, some of the projects involve manufacturing, which Trump allegedly wants to promote. For example, $500 million was earmarked for a project that produces carbon-neutral cement. Another canceled project in Massachusetts was aimed at manufacturing low carbon cement.  

But the Trump and his minions don't care. It's all about revenge and whining instead of governance with these folks. 

Trump War On First Amendment Continues: FEMA Letter Writers Under Investigation

The Trump administration is investigating
FEMA employees who signed an August
letter warning of mismanagement at
the agency. Loyalty to Trump, well,
Trumps public safety. 

Back in August, about 180 former and then-current Federal Emergency Management Agency staffers signed a letter saying staff DOGE cutbacks and incompetent leadership was endangering U.S. citizens who will inevitably experience terrible disasters like hurricanes and severe floods. 

The dissent letter noted there was no Senate-confirmed and qualified emergency manager running the show, there were cuts to disaster mitigation and recovery efforts and training programs. Also, new policies limited employee autonomy. Micromanagement was already slowing disaster responses.

The letter also urged against politically motivated firings. 

True to form, not much came of the letter, except, of course, an investigation by the Trump administration. And possible politically motivated firings. Gawd forbid anybody even faintly criticize anything he does. 

But we're not talking about the fate of a rich late night talk show host. This is potentially life and death if disaster strikes. But no matter. Dissenters must be punished, lives and the Constitution be damned. 

Per CNN:

"The Trump administration has launched an internal investigation into FEMA employees who signed a public letter to Congress warning that the administration's overhaul of the disaster relief agency is undermining emergency response and endangering the public.

As part of the prove, the agency has ordered the employees - who were placed on leave in August - to sign non-disclosure agreements and schedule interviews with investigators, according to five sources nd internal emails reviewed by CNN

At lest seven FEMA staff emails....from investigators at the Office of Professional Responsibility, which included the non-disclose forms, the sources told CNN."

Shortly after the letter became public, FEMA put some employees on paid leave, but didn't say how many. 

The emails employee received recently said the inquiry is not a criminal investigation (at least not yet, given Trump's reputation). 

Some of those were ordered to submit to interviews within 24 hours, with requests to seek legal counsel first ignored, according to CNN.

The non-disclosure form said targets of the inquiry couldn't tell anybody about it, "except as may be appropriate under applicable law."  Failure to adhere to the gag order would lead to discipline 

CNN says, "The non-disclosure specifies that the agreement does not supersede existing whistleblower protections. However, lawyers for the FEMA employees argue the investigation is an intimidation tactic and likely constitutes illegal retaliation against the workers for exercising their first amendment and whistleblower rights."

In August, similar dissent letters came from employees at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health.

Staffers at the EPA have gotten similar messages to those their colleagues at FEMA received that announce this Trump administration investigation. 

You can be sure Trump, Ice Barbie Kristi Noem and other minions are not exactly investigating the facts of the August FEMA letter. That would make way too much sense.

.. 

Donald Trump's Climate Remarks In UN Speech Were, Um, Something

Trump had some rather, um, interesting things to say
at the UN General Assembly Tuesday, including
some wild assertions regarding 
climate change and clean energy. 

That was quite a speech Donald Trump gave at the United Nations Tuesday. 

I wish I thought to count the number of untruths utter during the speech.  It sure had me reaching for my Tylenol, despite Trump and RFK's distain for the pain medication. 

Since this is a weather and climate blog, I'll ignore for all most of the problematic things Trump said on a wide variety of topics, and stick to the subject at hand here. 

Trump had plenty so say on climate change and clean energy in the rambling, hour long address.  They were things we heard from him before, that climate change is a hoax, that clean energy is bad, yada, yada, yada. 

Still, it's worth exploring just what he said, and doing some fact checking, just for laughs and giggles. 

As always, Trump has a remarkably dark vision of the world.

Climate change, he said, is "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.....The carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions, and they're heading down a path of total destruction."

I suppose we can make a case that we are eventually "heading down a path of total destruction," but that's not because climate change is a hoax. It's more because that climate change is inflicting more and more and worse and worse weather disaster on the world's populace. 

Trump dismissed the often forecasts climate change scientists have made over the years. "All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong....They were made by stupid people."

Never mind that climate prediction models, even those made half a century ago, were more or less accurate. But I guess we have to ignore all that, since scientists with years of education and training are clearly just stupid people.

Trump stuck with the subject: "They said global warming will kill the world, but then it started getting cooler. So now they could just call it climate change, because that way, they can't miss. It's climate change, because if it goes higher or lower whatever the hell happens, there's climate change."

I think Trump is referring to a worn out trope about some publications way back when the Bee Gees were discoing their way to fame and fortune back in the 1970s. 

The world started to warm a bit starting near the turn of the 20th century as our burning of fossil fuels began to have an effect. But then there was a very slight cooling trend from the 1940s to the 1970s.  That cooling trend is now understood to be the result of air pollution that dimmed the sun a little. Plus a natural climate cycle contributed a tiny bit to that cooling. 

By the 1970s, sensationalistic magazines informed us based on that bit of cooling a new ice age was coming. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, most climate scientists were accurately convinced the world was going to warm up. 

They were right, obviously. Air pollution was cleaned up, the sun shone more brightly as a result, the climate cycle ended, and that's when climate change really rocketed up. 

Trump added another overused trope when he made that crack about the terminology regarding global warming changed to climate change.  Calling it climate change is actually more accurate. Sure, the world is warming up.  But that's causing bigger storms, bigger floods, bigger droughts. Saying it's global warming is incomplete since so many other things are going on, too. 

But anyway, Trump plowed on. 

"Immigration and the high cost of so-called green renewable energy is destroying a large part of the free world........Countries that cherish freedom are fading fast because of their policies on those two subjects. You need strong borders and traditional energy sources if you are going to be great again."

He had more to say on the topic.   

"(Europe) has a long way to go, with many countries being on the brink of destruction because of their green energy agenda....Both the immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe."

It's probably way too much to get into immigration policy here, but I'm at a loss how clean energy will mean the end of nations. Trump didn't explain it, other than to say countries who have green energy policies allow the nations that emphasize fossil fuel to take all the manufacturing jobs somehow. 

Back in July, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared the world has "passed the point of no return" on the shift to renewable energy and said the fossil fuel era will end soon.  And I haven't seen evidence that nations with stricter green energy policies are doing worse than ones clinging to dependence on fossil fuel.

Trump also said that clean energy is too expensive and "doesn't work."  Which leaves me mystified.

If it doesn't work and is too expensive, why was 80 percent of the growth in electricity generation around the world from renewable and nuclear sources. And why does solar and wind account for 16 percent of U.S. electricity, surpassing coal?

You'd think the U.S. and other nations and international business interests would have long since abandoned renewables if they "didn't work." But whatevs. 

Trump had a wee bit of accuracy when it comes to China. He said China produces most of the world's wind technology, but doesn't use wind technology, Instead, it relies on coal and gas. 

That's partially true. Wind turbines and solar accounts for 20 percent of China's electricity generation, but China is still the world's largest coal consumer. In 2024 China accounted for 58 percent of global coal use.

It seems like much of the coverage of Trump's UN speech centered around a malfunctioning teleprompter and balky escalator at the UN. 

But Trump's climate and clean energy remarks, along with a whole host of other weird things he said. are an embarrassment to the U.S. And puts the world in just a little more danger it certainly does not need.  

Trump's Department Of Energy Apparently Has Never Heard Of Batteries For Clean Energy

If you take Trump's Department of Energy at face
value, then they apparently are unaware of the
concept of batteries. 

 Let's check in with those electricity generating wizards at the U.S. Department of Energy, shall we?

They had this to say on X

"Wind and solar energy infrastructure is essentially worthless when it's dark outside, and the wind is not blowing."

Hoo boy. 

Could it be that the fine Trumpian folks at DOE have never heard of this nifty gadget called a battery?

They're amazing! The sun's out, and the wind is blowing and all those solar panels and wind turbines charge up those nifty batteries. 

Then the sun goes down and the wind goes calm, and those batteries supply electricity until the wind blows and the sun shines again. 

Those DOE guys and gals should check those batteries out! 

I'm sure DOE loved the community post on the X pointing out batteries exist in the real world, if not in the MAGA atmosphere.

 The comments on that @Energy post are pretty withering, as you can imagine. The first comment I saw when I last looked at it came from Josh Morgerman (@icylcone) who wrote, "This is quite possibly the stupidest tweet I've ever seen from any government account, in any country, anywhere on Earth."

Can't argue with that! 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom as he does so much, couldn't resist the urge to troll DOE, and by its extension Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Newsom's staff posted the following on X: "We're excited for the Trump administration to learn about BATTERIES(we have them here in California and they've helped the Golden State shift to green, clean energy AND keep the lights on)."

Even Elon Musk weighed in, pointing out the availability of batteries. His response to the @Energy tweet was "Um....hello?"

Then again, a some named Emily on X (Emnode) wrote "It's crazy how much money Elon Musk spent to buy the United States government and leave us with a Department of Energy that doesn't know batteries exist."

By the way, people use electricity during the day,  believe it or not, so those solar panels come in handy on sunny days, with or without batteries.  And, believe it or not, the wind sometimes blows at night. 

Of course, we actually doubt the people at the Department of Energy are as stupid as they pretend to be.  (Quite an aspiration, pretending to be as stupid as Lauren Boebert).

We're picking on Wright and his department for stupidity, but they know what they're doing. I'm quite sure they are aware batteries exist. OK, I hope they really understand batteries exist. 

This ignorant posting is all about a larger Trump administration effort to spread misinformation. And to turn the public away from clean energy. 

After all, the official Trump position is that climate change is - against all evidence - a hoax and therefore clean energy is verboten. 

There's a percentage of Americans who don't understand solar and wind power and how they relate to batteries, so Wright is appealing to that base,

What the Department of Energy and its Secretary Wright and his Department of Energy is doing is blasting misinformation to convince people who don't have a lot of knowledge about clean energy.

For the rest of us, the misinformation is meant to make the rest of us mistrust solar and wind power. They hope enough to turn the majority of the public against it, so that climate changing fossil fuel will reign supreme. 

Wright, after all, is the former CEO of two former fossil fuel companies, specializing in shale gas and oil.   

 I don't have a problem with people questioning the efficacy of solar and wind power. As long as the questioning is based on reality and facts. Questioning anything when it's based on facts is a great way to make things better, no matter what you're talking about. 

But as climate change continues to take its worsening toll, we'd better be promoting and improving clean energy. Trump and his minions live in the 1950s, when we didn't know much about fossil fuel and how they contribute to climate change. 

Good changes happen as society learns more information.  The Trump administration, and people who work for him, are trying to take information away from the public. Because it benefits them, and to hell with everyone else.  

Trump Hatred Of Wind Power Comes To New England: He Stopped A Nearly Completed Offshore Wind Project

The Trump administration has unwisely paused
a nearly complete offshore wind project off
the coast of Rhode Island. 

Donald Trump is continuing his war on wind power, doubling down since my August 22 report on the issue.   

An almost completed wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island is almost complete, but Trump pulled the plug on it anyway. 

Per ABC News:

"Danish wind farm developer Orsted says the Revolution Wind project is about 80 percent complete, with 45 out of 65 turbines already installed. 

Despite that progress - and the fact that the project had cleared years of federal and state reviews - the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued the order Friday, saying the federal government needs to review the project and 'address concerns related to the protection of national security interest of the United States.'"

The Trump administration didn't say what those security issues are. My guess is there aren't any, it's just that our Dear Orange Leader just hates wind power, and that makes him feel insecure?

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont decried the stop-work order and will do everything they can to reverse the Trump decision. 

Revolution Wind is evaluating the financial effects of stopping construction. They are also considering legal options, as you would expect. 

Of course, we live in a new, rough era now. Even if judges rule against Trump, as they probably will, Trump will just ignore any rulings. 

Workers who have been building the work farm are perplexed and angry.

Union members are hoping to get back to work, somehow. The construction jobs required skilled labor, and payed six figures. Trump killed some really good jobs. 

Per USA Today:

"'A lot of building trades workers, a lot of union workers, voted for Donald Trump and his team. But they didn't vote to have union jobs shut down,' said Patrick Crowley, the president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which represents the contractors. 'It shouldn't work like this.'"

Not everyone opposes Trump's move against the Revolution Wind Farm. For instance, the fishing industry in Rhode Island is generally against the wind farm, saying it would damage fishing grounds and negatively impact the ocean. 

 The wind farm is fairly far offshore, located about 15 miles south of the Rhode Island shore; 32 miles southeast of Connecticut and 12 miles southwest of Martha's Vineyard. 

This project was going to be Rhode Island and Connecticut's first offshore wind farm, and would be able to power more than 350,000 homes.  

By the way, this affects us here in Vermont, since we're part of the New England electrical grid. 

Per offshorewind.biz:

"Katie Dykes, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) pointed out that ISO New England, the regional grid operator, said it was counting on that supply to keep the grid stable.

In a statement on August 25, ISO New England said it was expecting the project to come online and that the project was included in its analyses of near-term and future trip reliability. "Delaying the project will increase risks to reliability,' ISO New England stated."

Trump's move against Revolution Wind has other left companies wondering if their in-progress green energy projects will get the axe. Environmental groups are wondering the same thing. USA Today again: 

"'Pulling the plug sends a chilling signal to investors and developers that the U.S. cannot be relied upon to honor it commitments, even when project are 80 percent built  While China outspends us four-to-one one energy and transmission infrastructure to power its AI driven economy, the U.S. is stopping a fully permitted, privately, capitalized project that would strengthen our energy security. That is a dangerous path. Investors, workers, and ratepayers deserve better," the American Council on Renewable Energy said a statement. 

The wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that Trump and this minions are stopping ongoing construction. Or at last trying to get something transactional about it. 

As Axios notes. Earlier this year the Trump Interior Department halted the Empire Wind project off New York's coast, which crews had already 

 Earlier this year, according to Axios, Interior temporarily halted Equinor's Empire Wind project off New York's coast, which had recently begun construction. We don't know what will happen with that, but did say that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signaled to him some willingness to move forward on a gas pipeline project. 

Elsewhere, court documents released about a week ago say that the Trump administration is reconsidering prior approval for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project. That one is a planned $6 billion wind project offshore of Ocean City, Maryland. 

This fight over turbines, as mentioned, is just part of Trump's personal hatred of wind farms. The speculation is he considers wind turbines built off the coast of his Scottish golf course ugly, so as revenge he's going to fightable wind project. 

But who knows?

Here's one of the latest things he's had to say about the, per the Washington Post. 

"'They're ugly, they don't work, they kill your birds,' Trump said. 'They're bad for the environment. And if you look at them from a house, your house is worth less than 50 percent. So I'm trying to have people learn about wind real fast.'"

All of what he said is not true, or, at the very least, exaggerated. Unless you're taking about matters of taste. If you think they're ugly, then to you, they are.  

As for birds, cats kill a staggering 2.4 billion with a "b" birds annually. Glass windows are the demise of almost 600 million birds each year. Collisions with vehicles kill about 214 million birds. And wind turbines kill about 230,000 birds annually. So it's an unfortunate, but small percentage. 

I'm not sure how wind turbines are bad for the environment, at least compared to the fossil fuels that are changing the climate so radically that they could become an existential threat to humanity if we keep burning oil and gas and coal the way we are now. 

 

Feds Arrests Firefighters Battling Washington State Wildfire As Immigration Crackdown Goes Wild

Federal law enforcement detains firefighters trying
to battle a Washington State wildfire. They
ended up arresting two of them. 

 The biggest wildfire now burning in Washington State is now short two firefighters for an infuriating reason.   

That reason is the Trump administration will go to any length to arrest and deport anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. 

Even if it disrupts heroic battles against dangerous wildfires. .

Per the New Republic

"On Wednesday morning, two different crews of firefighters were cutting wood while waiting for their superior to arrive when Customs and Border Patrol agents showed up in 'Police' vests. The federal agents made the entire crew line up and show ID, eventually detaining the two firefighters without giving them a chance to say goodbye to their fellow crew members and loved ones."

The Seattle Times broke the story, which spurred a fair amount of outrage among residents and lawmakers from Washington.  

The Times spoke to multiple firefighters anonymously. They did so for the sad reason so many are resorting to that type of anonymity. In likely violation of the First Amendment, the Trump administration retaliates against anyone who doesn't praise the Orange God to the high heavens. 

A lot of things were unusual and alarming about this whole thing, not just the fear of retribution. For one, why were agents heading out to an active wildfire, in a remote location like Bear Gulch to make arrests?

One of the firefighters told the newspaper that members of the crew were told not to take video of the incident. To their credit and bravery, some took video and photos anyway. 

Video and photos supplied to the Seattle Times by the firefighters show them in their gear sitting on logs, with federal officers watching them. Also in these images, ".... a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle is parked nearby. Officers wearing 'Police' vests are seen arresting a firefighter, while another appears to be restrained."

One firefighter was quoted:  'I asked them if his (family) can say goodbye to him because they're family, and they're just ripping them way,' another firefighter told the Times. 'And this is what he said: 'You need to get the (expletive) out of here. I'm gonna make you leave."

Government agencies were as vague as they usually are under the Trump administration when it came to explaining the arrests. 

According to The Guardian, the U.S. Border Patrol said it assisted the Bureau of Land Management after that agency asked for help after ending contracts with two companies following a criminal investigation. 

No information was provided on the details of that criminal investigation. Federal agents said they identified two people "present in the United States illegally," according to a Border Patrol statement. 

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington condemned the arrests at the wildfire site. "We count on our brave firefighters, who put their lives on the line, to keep our communities safe - this new Republican policy to detain firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous," she said. "What's next? Will Trump start detaining immigrant service members? Or will he just maintain his current policy of deporting Purple Heart veterans?"

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who also condemned the arrests,  posted on social media that one of the arrested firefighters was from Oregon, The man is represented by lawyers from the non-profit Innovation Law Lab, who said the firefighter was unlawfully detained, the Associated Press reported. 

True to form the U.S. government has "disappeared" the firefighter, at least for now. Lawyer from Innovation Law Lab can't find him even though he should be entitled to legal representation. "We demand that they allow him to access counsel as is his right afforded by the U.S. Constitution," lawyer Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega said in an email

Good luck with that. The only part of the Constitution the Trump administration seems willing to obey is the Second, the one involving guns. 

The Bear Gulch Fire, as this blaze is called, has burned about 14 square miles in the Olympic National Forest. Oddly hot, dry weather in the region has allowed the fire to rage for days.  It was about 13 percent contained as of Thursday afternoon.

No thanks to the Trumpers as to whatever level of containment has been managed so far.   

American Stupidity: Why Did Family Go Hiking In Blasting Phoenix Heat Wave

Hiking trails around Phoenix, Arizona do look lovely,
but what possessed parents in a family group to
take kids on a hike there on a 110+ degree day?

 You don't want to be outside for any length of time this time of year in Phoenix. 

That will seem obvious, given that Phoenix is probably the hottest major American city, at least in terms of temperature.  So anybody in their right mind would demur when somebody suggest a nice long hike in that weather, right?   

So why the living hell did, on June 29 a group of five adults and six children, mostly between the ages of 5 and 11, set off on a hike? They started around 10 a.m. and buy noon, they needed help. Desperately.  

A tactical rescue team was dispatched to the Holbert Trail, where the group was. "We basically dispatched the equivalent of a first alarm mountain rescue. We had upwards of five mountain rescue teams who responded. That's a lot of resources," Phoenix Fire Department Captain Rob McDade told AZFamily.com

"There's no reason to be on trails at 10 a.m. on an extreme heat day like this. Especially with younger children," McDade added, putting on his Captain Obvious hat.

I wonder if the Darwin Awards have a division for entire families instead of just winnings for individuals. Although I'd give the award to just the adults in the group. The ages of the children were 3, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 15. 

 The family also endangered the rescuers who had to go up and get them. The heat surely affected them, too, though I'm happy to report the rescuers survived the ordeal. At least until somebody else gets stupid in the Arizona desert summer. 

 Other members of the Phoenix fire department also panned the group.

"Trying to get the family out is very commendable but hiking on a day of extreme heat ad going around well-placed sigs that say 'This trail is closed,' is one of the worst decisions to make," Capt. Todd Keller of the Phoenix Police Department told the Arizona Republic. "The overwhelming feeling is not surprise, but disappointment."

Aside from common sense,  the family was not supposed to be there at all.  

The city of Phoenix closed most municipal trails, including the Colbert Trail that day because of the extreme heat. The city typically closes their trails from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on particularly hot days. 

The high temperature the day the family was rescued reached 114 degrees with an early morning low of a still sweltering 87 degrees. The normal June 29 high in Phoenix is 107, with a record high of 119.

So by any measure June 29 was a ridiculously hot day in Phoenix. 

Phoenix has a city ordinance that allows them to cite people who go into closed parks. Those convicted face a fine of $50 or more and eight hours of community service. 

 As azfamily.com reports:  

"You can face charges for leaving a child in a hot car, you could face charges for taking them hiking in the heat. Child crime experts say parents could be charged for neglect or abuse for knowingly bringing their children on hiking trails in extreme heat."

The Arizona Republic says people have died on Phoenix area trails when take foolhardy summer hikes. 

Ultimately, the hikers were not cited.  The city released this statement regarding the issue:

"While the city retains the authority to cite individuals for entering a closed park or trail, health and safety is the priority during an emergency rescue. The objective is to get individuals to safety off the mountain and connected to medical care as quickly as possible. No one should ever be deterred from calling for help out of concern or receiving a citation"

OK, fine, but inquiring minds want to know what possessed this group to go hiking in the first place. Alas, I could find no evidence of anybody from the group explaining what happened.  

I also, wonder - and hope - whether child protective services is looking into the matter. 

Ominous Real World Effects Of NOAA/NWS Cutbacks Beginning To Show

Real effects of Trump administration cutbacks at 
NOAA are now starting to be felt, and it's going
to keep getting worse and worse. 

 At this point, I'd be willing to wager that the forecasts issued by the National Weather Service are now less accurate and less thorough then they were before Donald Trump took office. 

Between the firings, the slashing of funding, and the voluntary buyouts - another 300 National Weather Service employees were expected to take the latest buyout this past week - the NWS is already crippled. 

I fear the short staffing is already leading to missed forecasts during spells of dangerous weather. And this will only keep getting worse

Eight of the 122 NWS local offices across the nation will have seven or fewer meteorologists doing the work of 12 to 15 people, reports the Washington Post. 

Some of the worst staff shortages are in places where fast-developing and fast-evolving tornadoes, severe storms and flash floods are most common, especially this time of year. These offices include Kansas City, Louisville, Des Moines, Grand Rapids and Omaha. 

The Omaha National Weather Service just recently had to deal with an outbreak of tornadoes and exceptionally destructive hail storms. Those storms required careful monitoring of a complex set of severe storms and quick warnings to the public.  

The Omaha office still managed to do an excellent job of warning residents. However, a tornado that did not have a National Weather Service warning hit Storm Lake, Iowa, which is Omaha's coverage zone.  Sometimes developing tornadoes are missed by even the most conscientious meteorologist, but I still have to wonder if staffing shortages created the environment to miss signs the Storm Lake tornado was forming. 

Here's how things can get missed, as John Sokich, a recently retired director of congressional affairs for the NWS, explained to USA Today. 

Meteorologists are under particular stress during severe weather, when lives are at stake. '"'You're talking 12-hour shifts and you constantly have to be on point,' he said. 'It's physically draining to keep going like that and something will break. Working through high impact weather events for multiple days presents physical limitations is stressful and mentally draining.'

Even more draining when some of the tools you need to monitor the severe weather are no longer available.  

We've already reported on the reduction of weather balloon launches, which help forecasters understand the complexities in the atmosphere that can tell them when and where dangerous storms will hit. 

The Sacramento, California National Weather Service office will do almost all of its forecasting during days shifts, as the night will be minimally staffed unless severe weather is present. This change means that such things as fire weather watches and winter storm warnings will mostly only be issued during the day. 

If these warnings are not issued in a timely manner, that could give emergency managers left time to prepare for hazardous conditions. 

As I've previously reported, the research arm is taking the biggest hit, as the Trump administration thinks anything remotely related to climate change is off limits, because in Trump's addled mind, climate change doesn't exist.

The Pensacola News Journal sums up the effects of the NOAA research cuts just in Florida: 

"If the proposed budget cuts to NOAA are enacted as is, it would have wide-ranging impacts on climate research, significantly decrease the accuracy of hurricane forecasting, end climate monitoring for farmers reliant on the service and ultimately leave coastal communities, like the entire state of Florida, to fend for themselves during hurricane season."

On an even more macro level, the American Meteorological Association and National Weather Association, released a detailed, grim statement about the cutbacks. 

The statement said in part: 

"Without NOAA research, National Weather Service weather models and products will stagnate, observational data collection will be reduced, public outreach will decrease, undergraduate and graduate student support will drop, and NOAA funding for universities will plummet. 

In effect, the scientific backbone and workforce needed to keep weather forecasts, alerts, and warnings accurate and effective will be drastically undercut with unknown - and yet almost certainly disastrous - consequences for public safety and economic health."

This excellent joint statement between the AMA and NWA give us examples of how this all will affect you:

"Imagine what will  happen to tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings if we don't have a robust national weather radar network? What will happen to reservoir management when critical information on rainfall and runoff goes missing? What will happen when Hurricane Hunter aircraft are delayed or data from their instruments are not available to improve hurricane track and landfall forecasts?

NOAA research affects the lives of American taxpayers every day. It is vital to the work of the National Weather Service and the NOAA mission to predict the environment and share that information with businesses, communities, state and local government, and citizens."

 National Weather Service outreach to the public is being cutback too. The National Weather Service office in Sacramento said it would reduce overnight staffing, stop directly answering its publicly listed phone lines, post less often on social media and delay responses to media requests. 

That's fine I'm sure with the Trump administration, as transparence is anathema to them. 

The Trump administration is trying like hell to keep the effects of the cutbacks secret, as if it somehow won't become obvious to the public.

As evidence, here's a excerpt from the Washington Post:

"The Post spoke with 10 employees across the Weather Service and its parent agencies, NOAA and the Commerce Department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. Concerned with leaks to the media, the administration is installing monitoring software on NOAA employees' devices to track their communications, two current employees said."

 It seems the Trump administration has particular enmity toward the heroes in our American story. This administration is screwing over veterans, farmers, health care workers and aid organizations and National Weather Service meteorologists. 

And they are our heroes. 

On most days, the weather is routine and mundane, and we rely on these federal meteorologists just to let us know whether we should take an umbrella or our sunglasses to work with us tomorrow morning. 

Nice, but not critical.

But when the weather gets dangerous, these National Weather Service meteorologists save lives. I'd love to know how many over the years, but it's many, many thousands. How many people saved their own lives over the years because the fled to basements and storm shelters because the National Weather Service told them a tornado was coming?

How many of those people would have died had they not received the tornado warnings? Or not fled the coast because there was no hurricane warning saying you'd better get out or else?  . Or a flash flood was menacing their town?

I was eternally grateful to our meteorologists at the National Weather Service office here in South Burlington during our summer flood disasters in 2023 and 2024. 

The flood of 2023 killed two people in Vermont. The floods of 2024 did exactly the same. But how many people would have been killed or injured had the dire warnings the NWS released not happened? 

Neither the July. 10, 2023 nor the July 11, 2024 flood was a surprise because National Weather Service meteorologists bombarded us with warnings, detailed, accurate forecasts and great advice.

Surprises and inaccurate information are what kill people. Gutting the National Weather Service, and NOAA as a whole will greatly increase the likelihood that these inevitable, scary storms will take us by surprise.

Just more evidence that - false campaign rhetoric to the contrary - Donald Trump and his minions do NOT care about people like you and me. At all.