In addition to monitoring Earth systems and the environment, the venerable National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a new role, running cover for a president with failing mental faculties.
Hurricane Dorian may have come and gone, but apparently the debacle over Donald Trump’s faulty Alabama forecast has yet to reach rock bottom. Before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration debased itself Friday by siding with Trump, a top NOAA official gave staff the downright Orwellian warning not to contradict the president’s bad take, according to the Washington Post.
Hours after Trump erroneously tweeted that Alabama would be among the states “hit (much) harder than anticipated” by the storm last week, staff for the National Weather Service, a part of NOAA, received an agencywide directive, per the Post’s report. It warned them to “only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arise from some national level social media posts which hit the news this afternoon.” Staff members were also warned against expressing their opinion about the matter. According to a NOAA meteorologist the Post spoke with on the condition of anonymity, this directive came after the NWS Birmingham office tweeted that Trump was full of crap and Dorian was too far east for Alabama to be impacted by it.
“This is the first time I’ve felt pressure from above to not say what truly is the forecast. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around. One of the things we train on is to dispel inaccurate rumors and ultimately that is what was occurring— ultimately what the Alabama office did is provide a forecast with their tweet, that is what they get paid to do.”
It's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that has shown its willingness to protect the president's fragile ego at the expense of public safety. NASA has yet to be put to the test.
ReplyDeleteCap
You're right Cap. My mistake. Now to edit.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
.. this is ridiculous horseshite.. that Mound or others have to ride to the rescue, like Paul Revere or Laura Secord.. not mainstream media.. not our so so called government, not Gerald Butts or the Prime Minister.. no Globe n Mail, no CBC.. no CTV panel.. its left to Indy Media to level the playing field.. call it out.. re the weakling Scheer and famished Hamished and Trudeau sillymen n sillywomen.. earth to Ms McKenna.. Mother Earth callingya ya out.. .. the wild salmon cry out to you.. orca as well.. why play bullshit poker wih Mother Nature.. she the dealer, the wheeler, the healer.. the cosmic force all rolled into one enchilada.. jam all the Bitumen you can up your arse or off to China .. or both all a twonce.. Ya wanna buy into the strange twilight of Jason Kenney.. well amen amen I sez unto you.. but don't mess with British Columbia and yer precious so called 'tidewater' .. ya never looked at a tidal table in yer life Jason Jerkwater.. you wouldn't know a tide from a tidal wave or a toad.. or a full moon from a monkey.. Its hard to know who's the dullest knife in the 'conservative' drawer, Harper, Hamish, Scheer or Kenney... but here comes Doug Ford.. to make it a good rat race..
ReplyDeleteUtterly shameful. I am reminded of the embargo on truth during the Harper years; now NOAA has surely debased itself and its future credibility, Mound.
ReplyDeleteAfter the utter disaster of Hurricane Dorian hitting the Bahamas, the next actual landfall was Nova Scotia. Not Alabama. Right here. Thanks for all the sympathy, of which I've seen none whatever online so far, but I'm in catchup mode as I only got power and internet back this afternoon, three days after the hurricane hit.
ReplyDeleteDandy Jim JT and shuffling Uncle Ralph Goodale turned up today to wander around with damage as TV backdrop to offer unctuous platitudes and disavow any responsibility for conveying Nova Scotians concerns about cell service standards to the CRTC. Service went down mere hours into the hurricane, not because cell towers blew down, oh no. Backup batteries were drained rapidly when the power went off, and that was it - we were fucked, as landlines failed with tree damage. No 911. Such great planning, such great standards for telcos whose main business plan is to insert hand into customer wallet and extract cash at extortionate prices and abandon customers when the chips are down.
Fully 80% of Nova Scotia Power customers lost electricity provincewide, and you didn't have to be a genius to figure out why. It's called high wind. Yet, JT and Goodale advised numerous citizens and reporters to complain to the CRTC after this disaster when repeatedly pursued on the comms issue.
What the hell are these politicians for anyway? I mean to say, it was gobsmacking horseshit to advise such a course of action when the PM and deputy PM sanding right there for Chrissakes could get something done now by getting the CRTC bureaucrats off their comfy chairs while they wait for catered lunches. Never have I been so pissed off as I have been with the total lack of shouldering responsibility that these Liberals showed. The 20% of Nova Scotians still in the dark never heard their nonsense. Thanks so very, very much Uncle Ralphie, stepping out for photo ops on a glorious late summer day. And then abandoning responsibility.
Bigger backup batteries for cell towers when the power goes down is not rocket science, and hardly rates as infrastructure improvement as the cost is minimal. Just corporate greed at your service. By comparison, Nova Scotia Power and its planning and workers are absolute saints. A hurricane with full deciduous tree canopy is a disaster, but at least NSP has a website that works well to keep customers informed of restoration - and it's good if you have power to access it. Have a gander, and realize Bell and Rogers have NOTHING comparable whatsoever, and then refuse to tell the media what their problems are as it's apparently a great big secret.
http://outagemap.nspower.ca/external/default.html
Fuck it, I'm pissed off beyond reason. Vote Green and get these regular Lib and Con bloodsuckers off our backs. And if you vote Con for some completely inexplicable reason where logic is ALWAYS completely off the table, do not pass go, head straight for jail as an incomplete and failed human.
BM