NOAA Chief Speech: Some Trump Ass-Kissing, And Plenty Of Blah Blah Blah As NWS Morale Crumbles

[hatrack]

EDIT

Tuesday’s speech by Dr. Jacobs, which had been scheduled before the hurricane, represented his first comments on the statement and the controversy. It almost didn’t happen. According to three people familiar with the discussion, Dr. Jacobs met Monday afternoon with several Commerce Department officials, several of whom put pressure on him to cancel his speech. Dr. Jacobs, however, was adamant about appearing, the three people said. He began by praising Mr. Trump, calling him “genuinely interested in improving weather forecasts.” Dr. Jacobs also echoed the president’s position that Dorian initially threatened Alabama. “At one point, Alabama was in the mix, as was the rest of the Southeast.”

EDIT

Many forecasters declined to speak on the record for fear of losing their jobs or of ratcheting up the political furor surrounding what many have always viewed as a nonpolitical government job. The episode shined (sic) an uncomfortable spotlight on a quiet department best known for weather forecasting and monitoring oceans. A sub-agency under the Commerce Department with a budget that hovers around $5 billion, NOAA does little in the way of regulation or policy, and has for the most part avoided controversy under the Trump administration.

Richard Hirn, general counsel for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, said the Dorian episode had crippled morale among employees. He said that in the past few years the National Weather Service had suffered so much from understaffing that employees had hit the federal statutory cap on overtime pay to fill shifts and now felt even less secure in their jobs.

“I’m afraid these people are just going to hang up their hat and leave,” Mr. Hirn said. “And if substantial numbers wind up retiring, the National Weather Service won’t be able to keep open the 122 forecast offices open 24-7, and there won’t be anyone to watch the radar or issue severe weather warnings.” NOAA also has been without a Senate-confirmed administrator since the start of the Trump administration, the longest period without one since the agency was created in 1970.

EDIT/END

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/climate/neil-jacobs-noaa-hurricane-dorian.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate

[C_U_L8R]

1. Double down on deception

So dumb. Vainglorious Trump is on a mission to destroy anything good that outshines him.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. I think a nation that will accept all of these lies deserves whatever it gets