At some point there’s got to be a Watergate moment (unlocked door) that brings this house of cards down. Let’s hope it’s a weather forecast.
20
Inherently, subordinates are assumed to have pledged a natural allegiance to their superiors; the question is: what should they do when the superior is a fool and a mad man? This may sound like a rhetorical question at certain levels, but it becomes an existential drama when the survival of a country and of its people is at stake.
11
It is official, Trump is a Banana Republican. Wilbur probably leader this from his friends in Russia and China. Teach those annoying scientists to back the party line!
4
Of course the president was right. This is a bit like 17 of 19 hijackers were Saudi so let's attack Iraq.
I mean the storm wiped 0ut Bermuda which is next to Birmingham.
I am mostly amazed we are still listening and shocked when he makes these wild mistakes, but will there be no burning at the stake?
My MY the Emperor has such a lovely new suit.
8
IF Ross did this... he has to go, and in a very public way. Science should always triumph over politics. Without verbal scientists we are doomed.
10
And just what were these meetings about for which Ross was in Greece? We need to know.
And we need to know what happened to the executive personnel in the ICE-raided chicken processing plants who illegally hired undocumented immigrants?
I
9
One thing I've not read in any of this reporting regards the likely genesis of this whole scandal: President Trump probably mistook Georgia—or maybe South Carolina?—for Alabama.
The reason all of this happened is that Trump does not know basic US Geography.
I would love to watch him do one of those flash card sets that we all did in grade school showing each state with no name and see how it goes ...
11
What absolutely blows my mind in all of this mess is that all Trump had to say was that he was very busy and made an honest mistake. Had he done that nobody would have even thought twice about it; small and understandable mistake, moving on now.
Instead the man takes a sharpie to a hurricane forecast map - one a 4th grader wouldn't be fooled by, brings attention to the issue for days on end making sure the whole country is aware, and then has one of his cabinet members threaten to fire people if they don't support his lies, further extending the lunacy and bringing even more attention to the issue.
Well played Don, well played.
9
Re Mr. Ross: He was never a "steel magnate." He was a bankruptcy lawyer who became a vulture investor, taking near-bankrupt steel companies into bankruptcy during which they dumped their underfunded pension liabilities on a US-backed entity then emerged as profitable concerns. I don't believe he's "a billionaire." Didn't his federal disclosure state he was worth roughly $700 million? This is after him lying to Forbes for years telling them he was worth around $3B. It's astonishing the NYT would cover his role in the census without mentioning he lied about the origin of the citizenship question claiming it was requested by DoJ to ensure they were properly enforcing the Voting Rights Act. Mr Ross is by turns laughable, untrustworthy, corrupt and evil. The perfect Trump cabinet member/lackey.
9
Let's hope Bolton's exit doesn't bury this NOAA story.
2
Abuse of power. It's that simple. Add it to the growing large pile of his other impeachable offenses.
6
The Ministry of Truth reflects the Party's belief that power is the only truth and that those with the power can make the "truth" into whatever they choose.
☆1984 by George Orwell ☆
8
Another diversion to delight fossil fuel interests. Anything that keeps attention off climate change, no matter how ridiculous.
3
The emperor not only wears new clothes - he thinks he's a meteorologist.
4
The one thing this article could address but didn't is the question (that some Trump sympathizers might have): was it necessary that the Birmingham NWS office warn Alabamians about "The Great Divider" Trump's disinformation? Was it likely some in Alabama would be misled by the president's tweet, so that a counter-tweet from NWS was necessary? I assume the answer is yes, but it helps to complete the story by addressing the situation thoroly.
2
Bringing 'politics' into everything, 45's broken record of lying about his lying, is corrupting every inch of his administration. Bullying and coercion is the rule of the day with NO boundaries as sacred. This war on science and truth to protect a delusion will not end well.
The mindset of doing anything you want, but if caught neither admit the error or plain lie about it is not only unethical and immoral, it is often criminal and seems to be all that the GOP is about. This Alice in Wonderland government of chaos may be what Libertarians want, but it is not what most Americans want. Going down this path will lead to anarchy (i.e. no government) and will allow those who bully their way to fortune at the expense of everyone else (think Koch brothers) to avoid any responsibility for the destruction of our democracy. Delusion is not a strategy.
9
The difference between the United States and other failed governments is that we can pick ourselves up off the floor in a new election, whereas, for example, Russian, Chinese and Zimbabwean dictators are much harder to force out.
The U.S. is not immune to the disease of totalitarianism, indeed, because we are so tolerant of a wide range of behavior erring on the side of liberty, we can allow ludicrous and dangerous dictatorial leaders to express themselves such as Trump has. But, we can vote them out and get immediately back to a decent, trusting, thoughtful and reasonable leader in new elections. This applies to all elected officials.
What, however, does it say about the U.S. that we vote these very problematic leaders into office in the first place? Trump is not alone, he is just a more rude and boorish version of many Republican leaders who have shown repeatedly their penchant for party over country and their preference for corporate persons over human persons. (I risk sounding partisan by not including the likes of neoliberal democrats, so yes, they too are the same species, and it is only because they are such smooth operators many do not see their errant ways.)
To answer my question, it says that we are like any other nation of people who got swept up by their malevolent leadership throughout history and that we could support stupid or evil leaders in ways that would shock us but for our ability to vote out the tyrants in peaceful transitions of power every so often.
6
Ross NEEDS TO GO. Call and write your Congressman; this guy needs to be subpeonaed and held to account. Will it do any good? Who knows--but we can't give up our country without a fight.
13
Do we really have to wait until 2020? Can we do it like the Italians (just not that often)? Dissolve parliament + have new elections?
6
At least Trump, through his lackey Wilbur Ross, only threatened to fire people (allegedly). Trump's heroes and BFFs- Putin, Kim Jong-Un, Bone Saw Mohammad and Duarte - actually have them fired upon, or worse.
3
“The dispute at NOAA is also one of several instances of the Trump administration taking actions that undermine scientific findings.”
“eppur si muove.”
--Galileo
5
Who ever thought that the sharpy insertion would not be noticed as an obvious deception should be fired. Trump cannot even cheat correctly.
6
what do you want to bet that it was Trump himself who wielded the Sharpie.
2
Difficult to understand why the entire country isn’t outraged at this attempt to manipulate even the weather reports by our govt, even threatening to fire those who want to report truth.
Is this nothing but a display of power by this administration, supported by this repub party that reeks only of authoritarianism/fascism?
What will it take for repubs to act to protect our democracy...or...maybe...they care nothing about a democracy?
6
Five years ago, nobody could have believed this would ever happen. Now this kind of thing is a daily occurrence and part of the coordinated effort to turn the USA into a dictatorship.
Impeach!
7
Ok Mr. Ross, I think I have it now. After Dorian decimated Alabama, it headed north towards the 13 Colonies, right? Or is that an out dated map? Let me think. Off with their heads and full steam ahead!
2
So who is running the show, Trump is just the circus barker but the real agenda is set by those who have Trump as their cover. We focus on Trump's idiocy but the real intent and purpose is deadly serious.
6
Ha. The Birmingham office was trying to embarrass the president. Heck, that's his job.
1
The photo of Trump at the table says it all...blank human being.
5
Child to mother in Alabama: “but The President said we needed to be scared, that the hurricane was coming here. I’m sacred, mama. The president wouldn’t be wrong!”
3
It’s amazing Wilbur Ross is still there. He’s an old grifter with the same loose relationship with the truth as trump. Time to say good-bye Wilbur.
4
Forcing people to lie is the lowest form of dishonesty.
Trump is a national disgrace.
5
This is sheer lunacy on steroids.
3
Of course they threatened anyone who dared to tell the truth, even if it contradicted the Liar In Chief.
This administration has more in common with a mafia crime family than with a functioning government.
3
Trump is dysfunctional.....Ross is ???? Sorry, can't come up with words to define these two and the likes of them without causing my computer to implode.
2
Anyone read the article in The Atlantic today about Trump's mental condition? Here's the link: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/donald-trump-not-well/597640/?utm_medium=offsite&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=newsstand-ideas
Time for a change in the White House...
2
He who denies science and direct photographic evidence from space is a real sharpie!
2
I reject your reality and substitute my own!
2
these guys and gals at the WH are a bunch of buffoons. I'm done reading about it. good day sir!
This must be against the law and Wilbur Ross should be looking for a new job.
4
Wow, Wilbur Ross is more of a toad than I thought. Seems he has some problem with the truth. First the census and then this dangerous provocation.
2
https://blogs.nasa.gov/hurricanes/tag/dorian-2019/
While Wilbur's at it,fire a few astronauts too....
Where is Congress, get rid of Ross.
2
This is what a Banana republic looks like.
2
Wilbur Ross needs to resign -- immediately.
2
The President should be glad Alabama wasn’t hit by Dorian. More money for his fence.
To you people who voted for him, haven’t you had enough ?
2
Who are these hacks that are supposed to be running a government yet not one single one of them has a scintilla of courage to stand up to this imbecile in the oval office.
Worse, that they could consider firing people, wrecking lives, families, over it.
Just like Ross attempted to cover up his citizenship question reasons, you can guarantee he also threatened people's jobs to cover up for the child in chief.
These are nothing but frightened little boys and girls without a shred of decency.
And the sharpie? Does the base EVER hang their heads in shame, and rethink their choice? His base in Alabama? That anyone would continue to follow this shill into cartoon land, makes them worse. At least he has an excuse, he's always been a malignant narcissist.
2
Why is Wilbur Ross in any position of power along with his boss they both belong in jail!
2
Alabamans will start to receive their Hurricane Dorian trailer repair checks from FEMA on Monday.
3
What more needs to be done to prove the case for Impeachment? We are far far beyond the point of proving this dictator is mentally incapable and unstable. Impeachment the poor insane trump for crying out loud.
2
Can Ross be impeached?
2
Trump's Weathergate just wreaks of ridiculous idiocy, from many angles. It's entertaining from a comical point-of-view. It's disturbing from practical and moralistic points-of-view. Way to go, Trump Administration!
1
Kim Jong Un would be SO proud!
3
This whole incident is a farcical "Pirandello" reality show called "A Whole Nation in Search of a Real President." And we are all sucked into this nightmare day-after-day by a relentless media that must do its job and cannot spare us. Will we ever recover our sanity?
All courtiers of President Trump may want to pay heed to this:
When the emperor’s shame is dangling in front of him, nobody expects a courtier keen on keeping his job to join the crowd laughing at the spectacle. But an honest courtier would at least remind the emperor in private that he is inadequately clothed. In this case, one of the courtiers is going to the other extreme: He is proclaiming to the world that the emperor is fully clothed. He doesn't stop at that. He is threatening to punish those who did the honest job of pointing out why the crowd is laughing.
The crowd has now started laughing at the shame this courtier is dangling in front of him.
2
When “he’d even lie about the weather” is not just a joke, absurdity is reality. When that’s the truth about your president, your country is a joke.
1
Sounds like a hostile work place, thought there were laws against that
1
I thought the Weather Gaffe That Wouldn't Die was at the lowest point for pettiness yesterday... I was wrong... can this go any lower? Tune in tomorrow...
does anyone at the GOP believe the sky is blue? anyone...anyone. next week trump will say its red...goes better with his tie and "American Carnage" themed presidency.
will someone please wake me up from this nightmare.
2
To me, as many op-ed columnists have pointed out, this situation is the Mueller investigation reflected in microcosm. Trump and his administration believe that rules don't apply to them, and consequently break some. When confronted with a correction, their response is to mine the endless depths of corruption, malice, manipulation, and insult. *This* is why the president is a threat to liberal democracies here and everywhere: there is no rule he won't break--laws, treaties, and ethics included--if it stands in the way of him looking like a rich stable genius. It's a narcissism that breeds evil.
2
Trump. Let's stop beating around the bush. The man is poison.
2
What Donald should have a haircut like the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, because these two are growing and behaving more alike by the day...
1
Every single member of the GOP failed to push back against this behavior, which we now know is actually criminal. The GOP is rotten from top to bottom. They are a case study in cowardice. I hope our children can ignore them.
2
So, amongst all the other things we learn from this debacle, Wilbur Ross proves that in the Trump Administration (and I'm guessing a lot of big businesses) leadership despises competence. Why? Because it exposes the fraud one has perpetrated by their rise to power; for reasons other than competence. Whether it's daddy giving you a lot more money than you would have needed to get where you are today as it turns out with Trump, he can't even beat the stock indexes. Or because you fooled people into thinking you know what you're doing. And now you're stuck blustering and threatening people's jobs when they prove you are a fraud simply by doing their jobs competently. This is one of America's biggest faults. The Peter Principle.
1
Once again, we have a White House grasping at any distraction they can to divert attention from the high crimes and misdemeanors of this president and his staff. Here's hoping a Sharpie and the weather in Alabama do not distract the American public from the Mueller report, misappropriated funds, children suffering and dying in American detention, etc.
3
“And the clocks were striking 13....” George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
2
not a person is able to put this in order.
gas light.
Science schmience. It’s good to be the King.
2
"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." — George Orwell, “1984”
5
The child in chief can't admit when he's wrong. Time to end this nightmare presidency once and for all. Get it done congress if not now when? We can't wait until 2020. Hasn't this odious man done enough harm already?
2
animal farm, 2019
2
Well, I think we can all agree that Putin got his money’s worth in Mr. Trump!
3
The "president" always looks like he doesn't have a clue as to what's going on...
2
The emperor has no clothes
1
We need Hong Kong style protest to end this. Enough. Impeach!
3
Maybe now we could use this to rid ourselves of Mr Ross. From his connection with the money laundering Bank of Cyprus to his lying about his disenvestments this man has slithered his way through various deals much the same as our lying president. That he should be forced out as Secretary of Commerce is obvious but I for one think he should be in jail.
3
Yes and when the great leader was 10 he hit 18 hole in ones at his first game of golf. He was born on a magic mountain in the West, a gift from the Gods, born with a magic sharpie in his hand.
4
Apparatchiks are found in dictatorships. Collaborators supported Nazis.
Wilbur Ross, like most Trump Cabinet members, already had serious ethics issues if not criminal ones in his background.
While national weather service scientists were working around the clock to provide critical updates on a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane, Trump was at a golf resort.
Trump is a broken weather vane.
5
Still more now-predictable examples of the emperor's lunacy and craven subordinates' reactions to his equivalent of "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest."
6
@Jethro Pen
Footnote: Bless search engines. The king was Henry II and the question without more resulted in four knights going off and killing the Archbishop of Canterbury. See also, "Murder in the Cathedral."
2
The amazing thing is that there are so many crooks in the Trump Administration. Have they always been crooks, or did they just learn it recently from Trump? Or is it, perhaps, an essential feature of the Republican Party?
6
"...a desire to embarrass the president..."
Really? Any rational person who has not been in a coma for the past few years knows that Trump cannot be embarrassed. Embarrassment can only occur when one has inbuilt moral standards and can recognize when one has done wrong. One of Trump's mental defects is that he *knows* that he is always right.
8
For a change, Trump made an honest mistake. He couldn't even admit it. Now he is escalating it the to a full-fledged political faceoff. Come on, Emperor Donnie, it's the weather! It's not political. Accuracy should never be called into question simplify because your ego is out of control. What the heck is the matter with you? And what is the matter with your supporters in Congress who keep you in office despite insanity like this?
4
The fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes” no longer needs to be read; we are living it.
2
Under no circumstances should science be abandoned for the fly by the seat of his pants on fire president. His unfitness to serve screams incompetence at best.
4
Let's go over the Trump Rules again:
—everything Trump says is a lie or mistruth
—anything Trump accuses someone else of is something he is guilty of
—anyone who doesn't agree with him completely is a "loser" (and Trump is never a loser)
Combine that with never apologizing for absolutely anything and doubling (or, in this case tripling) down on any lie he has proclaimed, and you get a complete sense of the C+/D- high school sophomore who is now our president.
3
It's too bad you folks don't have the weatherman I have. His predictions are always 100% correct, no matter how far into the future he has to go.
For goodness sake, the man made a comment about where a hurricane might go a week before it hit land, and it didn't go there. You're acting like he missed the Second Coming, or even better, lied about its course.
Get a life.
In Trumplandia you can't trust anymore even the weather forecast. #fakenews #trumpnews
3
Do you think anyone has dared to tell the President that the earth is not flat, it’s round, and that the sun does not revolve around the earth?
2
Where’s Hunter Thompson when he’s needed...” when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Fitting.
3
No need to try and embarrass him. He embarrasses himself all on his own.
3
OMG!!! Is it possible that the Secretary of Commerce actually instructed the NWS to change a weather prediction based on scientific evidence to one based on political preference. Surely something as ridiculous as this story appears can't be true. Even the Trump administration could not have conjured up something so inane, could it?
2
So what the POTUS NEEDS TO BE EMBARRASSED. He has now became an official weatherman. GOD HELP US ALL!
2
Trump's toad appointees must regularly and heavy-handedly remind career government workers "Do not correct our Dear Leader, especially when he's wrong."
3
Well, there you have it, folks. What more do you need?
1
Cowards. NOAA leadership should have stood its ground and told the Commerce Secretary where to go.
3
And while sick and corrupt old Ross wastes time and money while also harassing the professionals, the real needs of people affected by the hurricane are told “the US is closed” to them. Has there ever been a more disgusting gang of decrepitude in charge of this country?
5
The Commerce Chief needs to be fired.
3
To understand the situation best, just take a close look at the picture that is attached to the article. ‘The President’ sits in a closed room with a cap on (makes him look presidential) and has a deer in the head lights look. I’m thinking he a) just woke up b) got pulled out of his TV room or c) had nothing better to do after a round of golf. He could care less and his dumpy body language shows that.
3
@Aww Nuts I noticed that body language and the cap pulled down over his confused eyes, his arms tightly crossed across his chest, his confused, stumbling and repetitive language, and I think it signals something far more ominous (and sadder) than just not caring.
He is mentally unfit for office, and continued progression of his condition is inevitable.
2
Now Trump thinks he commands the weather, and his change agent of choice is the sharpie marker.
Trump can do this country a great favor with that sharpie market: Trump needs to get a 2020 calendar and pen a note on November that says, “headed back Mar A Largo. Lost the Oval Office. “
Well, one can only hope!
2
Trump was correct in stating that a hurricane was heading towards Alabama. It’s called the 2020 election
3
I suppose that your political job is more important than your professional or personal integrity. How easy it has become to pressure people to lie to protect Trump’s ego. The patriotic solution would have been for these traitors to take the pink slip and give the real story to the public. Come on, isn’t the economy teeming with jobs?
1
Does anyone think that W. Ross , the former co-chair of the Bank of Cyprus when it was the favorite bank that Russian oligarchs et al laundered their money , would be a little crooked ?
America , you are better than the Trump-Kushner crime family and their abettors ………….aren`t you ?
5
The GOP wants to privatize government and has been trying to do that since Reagan. This is no joke. NOAA cannot be politicized because American lives are at stake. We need NOAA, EPA, FDA, CDC and Health Departments to be completely outside the political arena. Our lives and our children lives depend on it. Sec. of Commerce should be fired for trying to fire people doing their jobs.
7
If the contradiction of the President was done for political purposes, then there should be firings and possibly indictments. I myself heard Alabama was a possible impact target on major network news.
3
It's the height of arrogance and drunken power. Now he thinks he can control the weather? If the sky were blue, I guess he thinks he can convince his base that it's actually green... 'cause he says so. The emperor not only has no clothes, his boundaries seem to be missing as well.
5
If this was not so sad it would be funny. The depths that this administration sinks to know no bounds.
3
Just whittling away at our freedom of speech. Inspiring fear of dissent. When will Trump’s accomplices think first about our country, instead of their loyalty to a wanna be tyrant.
2
Trump is right, there is fake news out there, but it's coming from him and his mouthpiece Fox News. Hypocrisy and projection is the Republican way. I thought the Reagan and Bush II administrations were anti-science, but Trump takes the cake. This is all facilitated by the evangelical right and his poorly educated base. We destroyed K-12 in this country and this is what we get.
3
You either admire the emperor's splendid sartorial selections or hit the road.
3
Once again he gets the last word even when lives are at risk. Another example of loyalty above lives, the law, anything....
3
It’s doubtful that Wilbur thought up this very peculiar action of his on his own. Who but Trump would think of having the weather reported to suit him?
Trump did this before when he implied God held back the rain during an outdoor speech of his. Actually there was some rain, but Trump couldn’t tell, apparently.
2
Trump was trying to curry favor with Alabama by acting like he was their great protector and defender. He got called out for his ignorance and dishonesty and should have apologized. Ross' alleged actions are totally believable because that's what differentiates big business from government. And I don't mean that as a compliment.
4
This is not a mistake by Trump. This is his reality, which he makes up as he goes along, takes precedence over real reality, which most of the rest of the world can see. Calling it a mistake minimizes the seriousness of his disfunction. It's actually psychosis, masked by psychopathic defenses and by money.
5
This is not a joke. Lives and livelihoods are at stake. Have you lived through a hurricane? I have, Irene and Sandy. Both disrupted our lives tremendously. People drowned inside their own homes. How is it acceptable to this man's supporters that he would lie about a matter this important?
6
Michelle Obama once said that the presidency does not change who you are. It reveals who you are. It seems that this is not only true of the person who occupies that office. It is true of all who are connected to the person.
203
I have a feeling we may be witnessing the longest lines ever at the voting booth next time.
5
Executive Privilege currently has few constraints. All it takes is a few appointed cronies who will protect the president. We don't have time before the election to take every bad decision to the Supreme Court. All we have is the Press. Please do your job.
1
near end of article, paragraph on Ross refers to his support of President's traffic on "steel exports." oops. should have been steel imports. these science reporters need to be careful when we writing about economics.
1
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
2
who said it?
This whole thing definitely got to me. But we set ourselves us for this folly and all that led up to it. How many times did you hear
"Just run it (government) like a business!" - Trump is
"Those people on the public payroll are lazy and worthless" - which means you can discount what they say.
"We need to quit compromising!" - Unfortunately, the Constitution actually is set up for compromise which provides the brake on the executive.
Maybe the lesson learned here is that government is not a business and doesn't put profit over people. That we do want the sides to work together for the betterment of all. And that finally let us not kick the public sector employee who actually is doing their job.
4
Is there any lingering doubt about this President?
It’s time to elect an adult in the next election.
1
The question becomes: how do the people of the US retain the necessary power to have ALL of Trump's cabinet cronies dismissed? We didn't vote for them. We trust that the people, for whom we are allowed to vote, choose competent people to fill such posts. In the case of the Trump administration, it seems that four years is too long a time to overturn these malignant incompetents doing the bidding of our country's oligarchs.
1
Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said that political appointees served at the pleasure of the president and the cabinet secretary and could be fired at will.
"But, he said, threatening to fire staff members under these circumstances “goes against the norms and traditions that have been important to the government and are important to a functioning democracy.”
Little by little, Democracy as we know it is eroding, and we've seen what can happen.
4
The real danger of this kind of debacle comes when there is a genuine need to believe statements coming from the White House or anyone representing DJT and his cabinet. Nothing they say is reliable or trustworthy
A government that cannot be trusted or relied on is worse than no government at all. So much effort is going into pretending that our institutions are holding up where everything points to the fact they have failed us in important ways. Being so off course also brings dangers of overcorrection when power changes hands. Clearly something has to be done to prevent such a group from taking over the top executive positions to use all the resources of the country for serving themselves and their own whims and interests. Our institutions and government has some serious flaws that have to be corrected if we are to remain a democracy.
5
Trump's blunder morphed into an opportunity to undermine the scientific integrity of a government institution. Without a credible NWS, the public would have to rely on privately owned weather services. Is it paranoid to conclude that this aligns with their goal of "smaller government?"
1
There are experienced government employees seriously rethinking their careers right now, because of the unethical actions of POTUS.
3
"...threatening to fire staff members under these circumstances “goes against the norms and traditions that have been important to the government and are important to a functioning democracy.”
Norms and traditions? What about ethics, morality, and plain old common sense? Not to mention, what Trump did might also be illegal. In fact, if Trump did it, only he can escape punishment for it; if he throws anyone under the bus for it, they CAN be indicted while Trump is in office.
But I still have to wonder: why Alabama? This feckless act, and all the follow-up: why start it at all? Even the early maps that showed Dorian might graze Alabama don't support "Alabama will be hit hard" unless you 1. totally misread the maps, and 2. don't bother to verify your interpretation with an expert.
I have to wonder, what did Trump (or perhaps one of his cronies) have to gain by focusing misinformation on Alabama? Or is the specific state merely incidental to a more sinister strategy: discredit every agency that depends on scientific knowledge and integrity, so that Americans in confusion can just believe whatever President Trump tells them to believe?
Hmm.
3
After this how can we trust any data coming out of the Federal government.
6
The NWS has just been put on notice; whatever Trump says the weather is that is what it is, or else . Forget any future contradictions.
6
Politics interfering with science. These guys are in positions of authority/power. Trump's America.
3
Am I the only person who gets what’s happening here? Trump was making an invitation to Alabama to get FEMA money. By extension he is signaling that any federal money he can get his hands on is up for sale.
1
This is yet another battle in Donald Trump’s war on truth, where he firmly believes he is the only trustworthy source of information. How dare anyone question the validity of a statement made by the man who knows more about weather and hurricanes than any scientist or meteorologist? He does not care enough to consider the profound effect his words will have on the populace he pretends to represent. His only considerations are how his words plays out in the media, and how they burnish his image. To have spent all this time focusing on himself, rather than on the victims of Dorian, represent the greatest waste of time imaginable.
3
A simple misunderstanding, a correction, a sharp(ie) denial of that correction, investigations, threats of retaliation: proof that the inmates are running the asylum.
1
Someone who cannot ever admit making a mistake is dangerous. Someone who will threaten subordinates when they disagree is dangerous. This combination shows up in the Trump administration all to regularly. Apparently, truth and integrity do not mater to those who continue to support this administration.
5
I have seen little attention given to the potential harm the President Trump's message did to people in Alabama who thought they may be in danger from this storm. Further what was the purpose, what did the President hope to gain from such misinformation. The scary part is this misinformation focused on a storm and fortunately the misinformation did not cause any apparent harm or at least any that made public news. what if it had been more serious misinformation that really did lead people to take action that could lead to more serious outcomes. Lastly, the continued harm he does in raising doubts about the reliability and validity of data based on scientific and technological data . Yes not 100% correct 100% of the time but certainly more reliable than a President's OPINION or wishful thinking. I have not been in favor of a Democrat attempt at impeachment but I am in favor of Trump's staff blocking his announcements of 'false facts'!!!! He scorns others; yet he is a leader in promoting 'false facts' some of which may lead to devastating consequences.
1
The Party of Trump has always called our government their "enemy," and now they are actively causing brain drain of talented and highly educated public servants from government agencies.
Government agencies were created by Congress under laws signed by previous presidents to perform critical functions for We the People, like predict the weather so farmers and others can plan. These employees are hired under these laws based on qualifications and experience.
The Party of Trump derides the "administrative state" as some kind of enemy, because it was created under law, under the Constitution they attack. There is a "Trump Administration" because the point of a Constitutional government is to administer the workings of the state. The political appointees in the Trump administration refuses to do their actual jobs, because they would rather bring down our government than make it work as the law directs.
Trump appointed a bunch of mega-rich individuals who have made careers of fighting with government agriculture to dismantle them from the inside and he to down. Frustrated public servants are messaging in droves.
It is possible to undo most of what Trump has done by executive order, but you cannot undo thousands of early retirements and resignations of intelligent, hard working people who's job it is to make a modern country function smoothly and fairly.
Trump's attacks on the administration of law is yet another category of his High Crimes against the Constitution.
2
Trickle-down economics doesn't work, but apparently trickle-down bad leadership does. Trumps minions leap at the chance to do whatever they perceive he may want, including the United States Senate. If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is important and what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for dirty tricks and destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
2
And you can be sure that the reason why the NOAA employees were chastised by the higher ups was the fear of being on Trump's radar (pun intended) and losing funding or worse!
2
NOAA & NWS: You are superb organizations. Keep doing the quality science that's earned you the reputation you have!
7
This is another example of how the Trump administration tries to make their boss, President Trump, look accurate when, indeed, he talks and Tweets without understanding the facts or listening to the scientists and professionals.
9
So, Wilbur Ross phoned from Greece where "he was traveling for meetings". Where does travel of politicians, elected and not, at taxpayer expense end? Senators, congressmen, cabinet members, governors and mayors seem to be traveling endlessly overseas to locations which are great for a good time, but appear to have little relevance to the duties to which those people were appointed or elected. Do these folks ever sit at a desk, and do any actual work?
17
Didn't need a news investigation to see right through this one. But the story did help to remind me I do not have to humor my 4 year old grandson every time he 'wants' to be the winner or right.
23
I guess we’re well past the point where we can believe any factual statement coming from the White House, other than the present time or date.
Trump didn’t make a mistake—he wanted an excuse to shovel money to Alabama for political reasons. That’s why he held onto the story so hard. He’s used to getting away with this sort of thing.
22
This situation with Mr. Ross and Dorian looks similar with what was happening in Texas government (Governor’s office and the state environmental protection agency) a number of years ago with active thwarting of scientific investigations to detect public health hazards. Unfortunately several of these same people are now advising the US Environmental Protection Agency and running the Department of Energy. I am pretty sure that the problem of politicizing science on the federal level is more widespread at this point than just with the Department of Commerce.
33
Thing that scares me most is in Dennis F. post a few items down, "The long-term effect could be that only third-rate people decide to go into government service". We need to affirm, reaffirm and reaffirm again, regardless of political leanings, that there is nothing wrong and a great deal right about civil service.
35
Having lived on Cape Hatteras for many years, I watched and compared weather news. NOAA was always accurate and unfettered by money making or political influence. They were science, maps, interpretations, predictions. I made connections between NOAA, various wind data sites and local news on the east coast. We rely on NOAA for storm information. We trust this agency. What are we to do now?
62
@Pamlico
1. Trust the NWS.
2. Ignore anything Trump days or that NOAA releases that is unsigned and is designed to support Trump.
3. Vote Democratic, party line, for all offices, in 2020.
75
@Marsha Pembroke
4. Thoughts and prayers for a pulmonary embolism.
The lead photo shows the Sept. 1 press conference discussing the 11AM advisory, which was briefly aired nationally. The 11AM Advisory 33 that Sunday morning clearly showed the projected path hugging the east coast up to the Outer Banks, and nowhere near Alabama.
Trump repeatedly asked questions about how certain they were that the storm was not headed west. No wonder, since his tweet including Alabama was sent out at 10:51AM. Oops.
26
@Vicki: Trump's sense of time is so warped he probably did not recollect when, exactly, he saw the projection he later marked up by sharpie.
1
Voters: Let's Make America Credible Again.
84
@farhorizons
Let's make America America again.
2
Rampant corruption. Filtered (sic) Alternative News. This isn't going well for America the Beautiful at all. November 2020 can't come fast enough.
51
@David
Unfortunately trump can and will do a lot of damage to our once great country before the election and even after. If he is not re_elected he will still have 2+ months to do his dirty work.
He must be impeached before the election or the US of A will not survive.
1
Bottom line is how many people could have been killed because of the President fantasy?
26
People of the US, why are you all so shocked by this? As usual, they will get away with this, because your laws and 1/3 of the population don't care. You can get all angry and shout from the hills but it won't matter a dime. Your congress is impotent and your courts are easily influenced. The only way to win this is to change the presidency.
65
@John
Oh John, Thank you so much for your insight and wise words to us, we who would be lost without your guidance. Now that you have set us straight, we will fix things up tomorrow. Cheerio!
1
It seems that totalitarian dreams lead to ridiculousness. In Chile we had a dictator who made statements about people who had watched Virgin Mary crying or certain accidents caused by the passing of a comet in order to distract people's attention.
33
Ross is a typical Trump appointee: Say no more!
33
I feel sorry for the women and men of the NWS. During times of severe weather events, they work 24-7, using scientific models to gather the most accurate data possible to protect us. With this rediculous "sharpiegate" and subsequent fall-out, they have been disrespected. In this case, the scientists and the American people lost while the ignorant and sycophants won.
39
President Trump announced an unprecedented blizzard for Washington, D.C. next week. He cited the snow’s early arrival at the nation’s capital as further proof that the climate was not warming. After carefully consulting the entrails of a carrier pigeon, the rechristened TOAA confirmed the President’s prognostications. The While House announced that federal offices would remain open despite the blizzard, in order to help reduce the deficit. It was a great idea, he said.
28
@Spencer
The entrails of the Carrier air-conditioning company?
1
The gaslighting has gotten ridiculous. I'm not just shaking my head like April Ryan, I'm aghast.
41
I take solace in knowing that Trump and his old cronies are near the end of their better days. What an awful way to be remembered.
32
A normal person, Republican or Democrat, female or male, etc. , would have quickly made light of his or her mistake and turned the page.
Therein lies the problem: this President is not normal. I’d add that sycophants such as Wilbur Ross have their own issues as well.
67
Why hasn't Trump been baker acted yet?
18
Correction: Trump has shown NO deference WHATSOEVER.
4
Just look at Mr Ross. He represented investors in Trump’s casinos in the 80’s, failed to disclose his financial ties with Russian companies, ...the list goes on and on. So if Wilbur called to threaten NOAA employees, who called Wilbur, Donald or Vladimir?
55
The is why we will no longer hire Republicans here in Silicon Valley anymore..
44
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde
35
once again...Orwell was prescient. the ministry of truth corrects the record! Winston rewrites history and we all blissfully look at our 401k and watch American football. it's so spot on its ridiculous!
27
DT isn't becoming a dictator. He is a dictator, always has been, and always will be.
24
When you read nonsense like this, the story about the story about the story generated by "officials", you know the government is collapsing under its own deep-swamp self-indulgent weight, especially the CIA and FBI. Let's hope it's sooner than later so we can get on with accepting the failure of gov'ment. Time to start over. So sad for Wall Street, though.
3
Trump is a danger to this country and should be removed from office asap.We cannot take four more years of this fiasco and I will vote for anyone that runs against him.
53
No need to shut down the government when you can destroy it from within.
39
When I turn on my TV, I don’t know if I’m watching Trump or a Seinfeld rerun.
22
Seinfeld was funny.
1
King Canute orders a Government Agency to change a hurricane forecast. A government agency that advises on powerful natural disasters that bring death and destruction! This government is out of control. The Secretary of Commerce must be fired.
36
The IG is wrong. Her statement that the actions “call into question the NWS’s processes, scientific independence, and ability to communicate accurate and timely weather warnings and data to the nation in times of national emergency.”
Should read...“call into question Secretary Ross’s processes, scientific independence, and ability to communicate accurate and timely weather warnings and data to the nation in times of national emergency.” This Ross and Trump. Not the agency.
19
When Ross held up 2 aluminum cans of soup/soda saying tariff war would not harm commerce, he revealed himself to be a political hack eager to please his boss. So this threat of firing, unseemly and disturbing it may be, should not surprise anyone
28
After seeing he spent days on Twitter trying to defend his error, eventually going so far as to falsify official documents, I am not surprised that he pulled this issue into absurdum.
"Never admit a mistake!" must be his motto. Considering the number of mistakes he makes, it must be a motto hard to live with.
In almost every tweet he also blames the media, calling them the enemy of the people and worse.
That man must be impeached and removed now. His Presidency should not be part of a strategic plan for the Democrat's, he must simply be removed ASAP for the sake of humanity.
30
"How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?"
"Four."
"And if the Party says that it is not four, but five...then how many?"
"Four."
The word ended in a gasp of pain.
25
This guy would have fired Galileo for claiming that the sun was in the center of the solar system.
38
@Bruce Egert The Catholic Church threatened Galileo with excommunication for his heliocentric heresy, didn't it? We should make Wilbur Ross a retroPope.
1
The Commerce Department will be inspecting itself?
Republicans have mastered doublespeak, corruption and hypocrisy. I know there are intelligent Republicans out there.
Or am I wrong?
14
They might be intelligent, but it doesn’t matter if they have no spine.
1
I’m a Fed and I can tell you this is not an isolated case.
36
@Smokey
Do tell
1
Up until now Trump has been America's major progenitor of fake new. Now he has an additional role: the creator of Fake Forecasts of the weather.
13
This is a stark reminder that we currently have an authoritarian dictatorship growing and festering in our country. One where truth does not matter but only heaping praise on our dear leader, regardless of how vile or ignorant his behavior.
How fast and how far the US has fallen in just a few short years. Republicans in Congress will be primarily blamed when this era is analyzed because they were too afraid of losing their wealth and influence to speak out for democracy. They have shown themselves to be a party of traitors with no regard for the founding principles of this country.
34
I don’t remember anyone at NOAA or the weather service being fired for being wrong .... CONSTANTLY. How many times have they yelled, a category 5 is coming, oh wait a category 4 is coming ..... oh wait maybe its a thunderstorm. Its coming right at you ... oh wait it turned left.. well maybe it turned right. Its Mother Nature folks.
Yes. And for that reason the only way to predict the weather is through the use of mathematical probabilities. The cone on the map shows the potential area of the hurricane might occupy given the math. The farther out in time the less certain hence a wider cone. So to your point NOAA, is also showing what probably happen (or what you mislabel as ‘wrong’) Trump’s scribbles just over Alabama just more unlikely than NOAA What good would a prediction be if it included every potential outcome equally. You’d basically show a path over most of the US. A better question is why Trump doubled down on this and why his Commerce Secretary is willing to threaten professional weather scientists to appease him. Is that the way you want the tax dollars you pay to be used to tell you whether or not a tornado is coming your way or some other catastrophic event?
1
Do please provide a list if those mistaken forecasts.
1
It’s all about probabilities. You might want to do some research to better understand what weather forecasing is all about.
2
This is the 2nd time Mr Ross has been involved in rewriting history to support this administration. The first time he actually perjured himself before Congress. One has to wonder why a man of such wealth would want to squander the last quarter of his life defending the indefensible. Proving Ross has even less moral rectitude then the tiny bit already associated with him.
Sharpie-Gate, just one more reason Trump needs to be impeached.
27
@Leslie We must make lying as a member of the presidential cabinet a felony punishable by at least 20 years in prison, at hard manual labor.
2
Another Trump term in office risks turning his administration into a totalitarian regime that tramples on the rule of law and forces its citizens to live in lies and terror.
Now the weather forecast has been politicised, just because Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, a Trump lapdog, who oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and its subdivision, the National Weather Service, has threatened to fire those who contradicted Trump’s erroneous warning about Alabama being affected by Hurricane Dorian.
Last week Trump showed a “doctored” hurricane chart in an effort to cover up his Twitter lie, with the NOAA discrediting the weather forecasters, claiming they were more “motivated by a desire to embarrass” Trump rather than concerned for the safety of people in Alabama.
Now Trump’s supporters have more faith in him than in the NWS, allowing him to change the reality of the weather, misleading and misinforming the population.
In Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu, the official temperature was never below 10 degress Celsius (14°F).
No matter the snow and ice, the weather reports would always have temperatures above 10 degrees. If they fell below that, the law required the heating to be turned on in public places, and Romania couldn’t afford this.
The dictator was executed by revolutionaries in 1989 after the fall of his regime.
18
This was very clumsily handled by both parties the NWS statement should have said that Alabama is no longer threatened by Dorian. It would have solved the problem of Alabamians being needlessly alarmed and would have given Trump an easy out. Trump's reaction is obviously over the top and shows an alarming state of mind, but could have easily been avoided.
1
While I agree that there are always more diplomatic ways to tell people they are wrong, in the case of a potentially damaging event the safety and peace of mind of the citizens of Alabama is infinitely more important than Trump’s ego. People make bad decisions when they’re panicked. The chaos of storm prep is expensive and stressful. Not to mention the economic effect of wasting money on unneeded supplies and lost work hours.
@Alan
You would be correct if the only source of storm information was Trump, but it wasn't.
We shouldn't have to placate, fawn at or make excuses for the president's clear lack of integrity, truthfulness or intellect. PERIOD.
2
How did it come to this? to a time when “never before” nightmares are now the new normal? and worse, Trump will get four more years because the Democratic party currently insists on pushing agendas like Medicare for all - that are unaffordable, will dismantle an entire industry and with it millions of jobs, and will render them all unelectable. How did we get here? Governance by twitter and every candidate guilty of sound bite politics that ignore the details of simple truths. But I know how it happened, Americans don’t get out and vote and our electoral processes in the states are not uniform and are vulnerable on every level; this being one of the many details that does not translate well into a catchy one second phrase and is therefor ignored by a nation that can only communicate in and hear tweet length sentences - if you can call them that.
6
@Marie Inserra Those who can vote and do not really ought to lose their citizenship. Voting is a reaffirmation of citizenship in a Democracy. Those who have the franchise and don't vote don't deserve citizenship.
1
The government now runs on tweets and accusations and the furor surrounding Trump wherever he goes. It is preventing serious work on anything. Chaos is the result. This government is a joke, and it is also a dangerous hiatus in authority and credibility for the US and the lack of a steady hand at the helm is causing this ship to head for the rocks.
27
Remember when things like this would have been shocking? I’m shocked that only three years of this administration have brought us to this point.
30
Many of us worried that America would at some point "get use to" Trump. After becoming inundated and fatigued by his temper tantrums and bizarre behavior, we'd reach a point and just give give up. At 32 months, Weathergate is revealing of 3 things: Trump and his minions are still wacky and a grave error, Federal Employees and the Military continue to correctly exercise their proper and expected work for the American People, and the masses are actively involved in maintaining their Patriotic duty to be informed and loyal to the real United States. One forecast this President could accurately make is that catastrophic winds and an outrageous deluge of anger will remove him in 2020.
18
Wilbur Ross along with Trump and most of his appointees are unfit for the offices they fill. They are all either from the industries they are in charge of regulating , have issues of questionable criminality in their background, or both.
33
Let’s get this straight. trump (ie the President) disseminates (ie tweets) misinformation in the face of a potentially catastrophic national emergency, and the Executive Branch believes that it is more important not to embarrass him (ie the President) than it is to correct him. Clearly trump's reaction to being corrected is not normal. He has a serious problem. The GOP reaction? Nothing. We have a serious problem.
31
Trump demands loyalty. How many ways has Ross, as Secretary of Commerce, shown his loyalty? We do not have an answer for that.
8
Since when has this administration cared at all about
"the public's health and safety." Rather the reverse. Because of loyalty to the leader and party solidarity. Since from the January swearing-in. The most corrupt administration and House and Senate in the past 50 years.
9
Wilbur Ross should have known better, since Donald Trump obviously does not. Thanks to the sane and rational government workers who do the right thing. What a sad day for our country. But another opportunity for the voters to notice they were lied to and vote this administration out of office.
14
Hello. NASA astronomer here (yes, really). I would like to get ahead of a developing story to set the record straight on an important issue that is likely to capture the attention of the Whitehouse in the coming weeks. To clarify, there is a reasonably strong scientific case, backed by theory and supported by recent observational evidence, that Earth’s moon is not made of cheese.
41
Hope I’m on the civil jury when they sue for being fired for telling the truth.
48
Are we really having a discussion about this? Doesn't anyone understand that this is just further proof that not all the bulbs in the mans box are lit?
The office of POTUS requires, no it DEMANDS, more of its occupant than this man is capable of providing. He's mentally and emotionally incompetent and unfit for the role he was given. And he compounds it by surrounding himself with minions in his image.
We fret and hand wring when the solution to this situation is screamingly obvious. He should be fired. History will laugh at America's inability to do this so simple a task in the face of all the obvious facts about his character and capabilities.
John~
American Net'Zen
65
It's hard enough getting people to evacuate when an oncoming hurricane is objectively predicted. Politicization of weather forcasts will not make things better.
39
We have billionaire children running our government.
50
NOAA has political appointees? Who knew? When Republicans are in power do the winds always blow in from the right?
38
@Bryan Young
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." Trump must have heard "Subterranean Homesick Blues". Who knew? President by the Whirlpool looking for a new fool.
3
Trump, not content to alienate all our allies, throw his friends under the bus, cause his rural supporters to lose millions, now picks fights with the weather - nuke hurricanes and threaten the messengers who won’t bend to His will, ie forecasters. Will the second coming of God take on the Sun next ?
This little emperor will never be able to hear he wears no clothes - and end up in the looney bin.
32
Authoritarian process is irrefutably perfect and fair. Nothing can, or will change this tenant of rule. Obviously, 1/2 of the population prefers things this way and will fight to the death over the leaders right to declare everything, outright.
4
No. “Half the population” does not prefer things this way. Trump lost the popular vote by almost three million. Only 61.4 percent of the voting population voted in the 2016 election. Trump does not represent the will of the majority in the United States. People should stop saying, or even thinking, that he does.
19
tenet.
Loyalty to the Supreme Leader above all. No wonder people question his loyalties and those of his billionaire cabinet secretaries.
14
The swift contradiction of Trump's assertion by the National Weather Service's Birmingham, Alabama, office, and the tone of the all-caps stridency of that contradiction -- "Alabama will NOT see any impacts... We repeat..." suggest that they were, indeed, career bureaucrats from a previous administration, with no love for the president, trying to embarrass him. Politicization can go both ways. It is well known that Dick Cheney had a vast network of political imbeds-turned-untouchable-careerists in the federal bureaucracy who did their best to undermine Obama. It is also well known that Obama holdovers regard Trump with the same disdain every other Democrat does. It takes little imagination to suspect a political dynamic at work here, with the intended effect that Trump's attempt at justification using earlier alternative models would bring accusations of the behavior of a dictator.
1
Either that or the swift contradiction of Trump’s erroneous tweet was the result of career professionals wanting to give the public accurate information in a time of emergency. If people in Alabama erroneously thought they were in the direct path of the hurricane, some would have started evacuating the area. Had they gone east for safety, they could have been heading into the greatest danger. Even going away from the hurricane, thousands of people on the highways desperately trying to get to what they thought was safety would have created another crisis requiring the deployment of people and resources at a time when there was a real and present danger to the east.
In a crisis you do not want to deploy resources away from the real emergency. The consequences of Trump’s wrong information created the potential for unnecessary danger to people. Just maybe NOAA officials were doing their job of giving people accurate information with which to make an important decision.
Some people are still willing to take the risk of contradicting false information from Trump in the name of the public good.
It does make you wonder, after this, how much longer people will be able to make that choice. That is the lesson from this pathetic demonstration of Presidential ego taking precedence over the public good.
19
That actually takes a lot of imagination to come up with that conclusion.
9
While facts may have political consequences they are not in and of themselves political. They are just facts. You make them political if you choose to. In the case of Trump, every fact that he misuses or misunderstands becomes political because he’s just too intellectually lazy to understand things before he acts or speaks. He should just stop Tweeting,
2
Too bad NOAA didn’t predict all the damage hurricane Trump would do when he barreled across the US. He is leaving a path of destruction that will take years to clean up.
47
As Trump’s behavior becomes more bizarre, and the complicity of his cronies becomes more reckless, the chances of his re-election must become slimmer. No, his fanatical supporters won’t desert him, but enough other Americans will want him out to redeem the honor of the swing states.
That’s the first step. Then comes the task of crisis management — by whom, I’m not quite sure — when he refuses to go peacefully. Nixon was the first president to resign. Trump could become the first to require eviction from the White House.
29
Given Trump’s delusional penchant for claiming credit for everything good that happens, I am surprised he has not insisted that Alabama was not hit by Dorian thanks to him. I keep expecting to see a tweet along the lines of “Despite the predictions, Alabama was spared Dorian. Where’s the gratitude? So unfair!”
41
We have a dysfunctional government which clearly & unequivocally dedicates itself to serving the needs of 1 sick individual while disregarding the well being of its own citizens. Trump has the US careening inexorably towards a dictatorship. No Republican has the integrity & courage to try to stop this.
Our only hope for a government which values country over party is to vote Democratic in 2020.
20
What is science? A hobby? If you really want to know what is knowledgeable in the world, you need to sale real estate in New York and bankrupt casinos. It will make you an authority on all things.
The real question is does the Trump Organization have some property in Alabama that could benefit from some emergency disaster relief from FEMA or others.
16
The Fed is expected to bail him out when his trade policies affect the economy, the Justice Dept "investigates" those he doesn't like, and now the Commerce Dept comes to the rescue. For a man who has needed to be rescued from himself all his life, what else would he expect in the Presidency - and pad the swamp to get it?
20
Meanwhile back at the ranch in the US the EPA is being gutted (already air quality is plummeting), the CFPB is being dismantled, Dodd–Frank is being compromised, the deficit is going through the roof, the wholesale sell off of huge swaths of public lands, world free trade seriously assailed, the justice department is being revamped with a slew of GOP biased judicial appointees, and all while the nation’s intelligence agencies and the FBI are being disemboweled.
24
Thank you for reporting the facts in such detail. I wish I could personally thank each reporter and every NOAA and National Weather Service individual wh stands with integrity in the face of the administration's effort at disinformation and subversion of the truth. You all deserve appreciation and hugs.
43
“This is just to cover up an embarrassing mistake the president made,” he said.
Let's not forget about how what Trump did is a crime and he's now trying to obstruct justice on that.
50
One is reminded of an old legend involving a veracity challenged lad fond of shouting out warnings of imagined danger; in his case it was a wolf. In Trump's case were treated to fevered warnings about whatever pops into his head.
Both situations are corrosive to public trust and leave the victim society in peril of deadly cynicism. We need to trust that the president's public pronouncements are considered and accurate. The next post-Trump president will have a monumental challenge to restore trust in the office. We still have another year and a half of downward slide in front of us.
Shame on Wilbur Ross for carrying out the demand for vengeance. I would have expected such a titan of the investment world to be built of sterner, and more temperate, stuff. Alas, we now know him for the sniveling lackey he is.
Oh how Trump throws the mighty down. Too bad they're all his "friends."
19
US president directs commerce secretary to threaten to can government employees for correctly forecasting the weather.
"Insanity" has become too feeble a term for what goes on daily in the Trump administration.
51
I saw on TV News one of the original Hurricane charts before Trump saw them. Two alternatives were shown: (1) the hurricane turning north at the Florida coast and missing Florida and (2) the hurricane going straight across Florida before turning north where it would hit Alabama. Trump was right and was stunned to see everybody go nuts over the truth.
1
@Compurad: No, Trump was wrong. At some point, there was a 11% probability that a tiny sliver of Alabama might experience a few mild wind gusts due to Dorian, but by the time Trump made his pronouncement, that was already superseded with more recent information excluding any part of Alabama. Trump should never have said that “Alabama would be hit” indiscriminately anyway, scaring all Alabamans and making them wonder if they should evacuate. And then he persisted by altering a chart with a Sharpie. If you saw something different that showed Alabama would be hit significantly enough that Alabamans needed to take precautions, then why wouldn’t Trump show that information to prove he was right? Then why were they not asked to evacuate?
56
@Compurad
I think your two alternatives were:
1 - Probability cone for the hurricane itself. This went right up the coast, as you say.
2 - Earliest possible arrival of tropical storm-force winds. This did show a slight possibility of wind getting to the edge of Alabama.
Two different charts, showing different things.
4
A hurricane even that big traveling across the state of Florida and not returning to water (as the sharpie showed) wouldn’t be a hurricane any longer! Your fearless leader was talking out of the side of his neck. When he does this in the presence of facts, the facts always win!
Politicizing an agency which deals solely with facts is dangerous for people that require them to protect themselves and others!
4
Yes, our President should stay off Twitter and stop with the ego, but seriously, all this fuss over a line on a (changing by the minute) map?
OK, if the "Press spanking" will get him to sit down and let the professionals do their job, but piling on when the guy blinks is getting "over the top".
1
NO!!! This is far, far, far from a trivial matter. He falsified a map (obviously and crudely, as a small child would), presented it to the world as proof that he had seen maps showing Alabama in the storm path, expected everyone to buy that, and when asked if the black line had been added, said he didn't know. Not to mention that: we all know hurricane paths have to be monitored; anyone merely watching tv news saw how the storm had progressed before his tweet about Alabama, but we were told he was getting hourly updates (while he was playing golf); he would have been shown NOAA maps, not that early Florida water department map that someone dug up after the fact; and a rational president would have gotten the latest update on the hurricane before firing off a tweet about who was in its path. And then he discredited NOAA by making them back him up. What Donald Trump has done illustrates (some) of his profound flaws, and every one of us should be aghast.
74
You good with threatening weather officials for daring to set the record straight?
50
Why does the recommend button reduce the number when it should increase the number ? This is a reasonable explanation and a good comment.
11
With the load of dirty laundry Wilbur Ross carries, it occurs to me the one who should be fired is him. Mr Trump, time for one of your executive board room moments.
26
The relief in all of this is the rapid response from the civil service to Trump's mendacity and threats. It is a powerful resistance to corruption. And it's a model for other government professionals now charged with guarding the country from a presidency still with 16 months left to go.
35
I don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows...
29
The President correctly located Alabama on the map for which he got no credit.
64
Just as the skies have been clear over Alabama, its clear our business maker in chief wants to privatize an agency that dates back to our first president.
We can vote this despot out of office
Let him buy his own umbrella.
32
Serious looking old men behaving like seventh graders.
34
@Jim Hindes
Third graders is more like it. Seventh graders are more into sex and sports than who said what arguments.
5
This is how Trump’s cronies should behave. Ross’ action does not surprise me. People’s lives? Who cares. The king’s cloth is more important.
28
I have been wracking my brains for anything Trump has said that I think is true. I'm sure there must be something. But I can't think of what. It isn't just that he lies nonstop; I actually don't think he has the capacity to weigh, analyze, or concisely state facts, or arrive at reasoned conclusions based on those facts. Far from a "stable genius," without Daddy's money I genuinely wonder if he would have made it through high school.
55
well. he speaks the truth when he says his name. That is something.
4
Dr. McClean and Ms. Gustafson and the entire Birmingham Office are to be commended for standing up for scientific standards and the health and safety of Americans.
Donald Trump once again demonstrates how he is a danger to our Country. Unfortunately, Republicans has cast away their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and laws of our Country and Democrats are too frightened of their shadow to rid our country of a monster.
37
“The spokesman declined to comment on whether Mr. Ross had spoken with the NOAA administrator or ordered the agency to rebut the statement contradicting the president’s assertion about a threat to Alabama.”
In other words, YES, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HE DID!
Very shameful!
21
If I recall correctly, the only model which showed Dorian heading toward Alabama was one iteration of the European "spaghetti" models when Dorian was trashing Bermuda. Glad to see that the President is listening to, and taking advice from, foreigners, (again).
4
That's a crime against our country - treasonous stuff,
15
It's the corruption stupid. Has Nancy Pelosi awakened from her perpetual nap. Somebody needs to wake up 79 year old Nancy Pelosi and tell her she must immediately resign. We need strong leadership to counter the Trump malignancy and she is failing. Impeach Now.
14
@Marc Castle Finally you're here. The whole country has been waiting for your comment on Pelosi to help us understand the path of Hurricane Dorian.
5
@Marc Castle
Why insult Nancy Pelosi over this mess? Insulting her age is ridiculous, she is doing a great job. NOT impeaching Trump is a legitimate political position to take. It acknowledges that an impeachment conviction will never get through the senate, and that we can haul him before a court of law after he leaves office and throw him in jail for a while. Nancy Pelosi is the adult in the room.
2
Trump could declare it was raining blue poodles and his cabinet would break their necks nodding in agreement. No, it's not a fairy tale, it's the sad and frightening state of our current dystopian reality.
34
It’s time to drain the White House. Donald Trump — Enemy of the People.
29
Everything Trump touches dies- now that includes NOAA.
Nobody could make this stuff up.
If the daily, senseless destruction of this moronic and insane administration were in a Hollywood script, it would get rejected as too far fetched.
34
Can't wait to see the gag reel of this Presidency.
10
Does anyone want Wilbur Ross predicting the weather?
22
Every day I think it can’t get any worse than it has. Every day brings another example of the most horrible clown show possible. I wonder how much more can people take.
28
It’s time to fire the king - er, President.
Forget Russian meddling. This to me shows very clearly that our Chief Executive is more interested in his own agenda than that of American public safety and wellbeing.
If all of this is not grounds for impeachment by Congress then pray tell me what is???
18
Anything Trump touches becomes corrupt.
20
If he created his own hurricane map, he will create his own re-election results. I doubt he will leave office willingly. We should prepare.
40
@Phoebe. This is it exactly.
5
Is it possible to trust anything said by any member of this administration any more? The entire staff of NOAA should quit in protest ... and make a lot of noise doing it. Why would anyone want to work for an outfit if their job is to lie for our"dear leader" anyway?
12
It's crazy that so many in the Executive cater to a man spectacularly corrupt and out of touch with reality. Not just in the Executive, we have Barr Trumpifying the Dept of Justice and the Pentagon handing millions over and Moscow Mitch refusing to put bills making elections safer up for a vote. Hey, maybe Putin told Trump inviting the Taliban to bargain with him at Camp David on the anniversary of 911 would be a great triumph. That's how un American and insane it all seems.
21
On petty and argumentative levels President Trump personally attacks the citizenry, including gov't employees, of the country he's been elected to lead. Showing the disrespect and dislike President Trump harbors against those he leads. Trump's personal attack is an auto self-defense reaction directed toward those who discredit and/or contradict him. In Trump's head, Trump is never wrong. In fact, it's an impossibility for him to be wrong. It is all a part of the Power of Positive Thinking the Norman Vincent Peale teachings that the Trump family from Fred on down adopted and twisted to their own needs. President Trump has no class, no humility no humbleness. Not to mention honesty. Sad, sad, sad. It makes America look sad, sad, sad.
18
This daily slow motion train wreck will continue until we are beyond repair. And Nancy Pelosi still refuses to pursue impeachment. The Democratic establishment is responsible for this ongoing national nightmare for ignoring the polls in 2016 and foisting HRC on us, much like they are trying to do with Biden.
5
The people who voted for Trump are responsible, along with the Republicans in Congress who could stop him but choose not to. Blame those who actually deserve the blame.
33
I just had a wave of denial come over me and was struck all over again with the shock that Donald Trump is President of the United States of America. This has happened many times in the past couple of years, but just now was a doozy, and my spirit has just been crushed.
26
“That official suggested the Twitter post by the Birmingham forecasters had been motivated by a desire to embarrass the president more than concern for the safety of people in Alabama. The official provided NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THAT CONCLUSION.”
Same old song-and-dance from the Republicans.
13
What do you want to bet that Trump threatened the NOAA annual budget with severe cuts if they didn't agree to be silenced and reel back in their weather reporting to allow Trump to save face? Or that Ross did.
14
This is one of the most terrifying things I have heard about this maladministration.
Silencing people for contradicting an erratic, uninformed president is veering towards totalitarianism.
39
Isn't it time to stand-up and say FIRE ME! If this is how you conduct business, I want nothing to do with it. My reports on the weather are life and death for people, and I won't cow-tail to a lying president or any official who threatens loosing my job, because I refuse to 'go along with games this president or any official want to play! Not on my watch...we need backbones people...it is wrong on all fronts!!!
31
@Betsy. Easy enough to say someone else should commit professional suicide when they have a family to support and might never work again. Is this really the issue you’d have them fall on their sword for?
6
I know, it's a really tough call for potential whistleblowers. But, I don't think anyone who tells the truth about this corrupt, lying mess of a government will have long to wait for vindication. Within a year or two, they will be declared national heros.
7
Mr. President, it’s evident that you never learnt to say sorry in your privileged childhood and adulthood.
But we are giving you the opportunity now.
19
One incapable of admitting error, of not owning up to mistakes, of not taking responsibility for his actions, certainly does not deserve the trust of the public let alone head the government. There will be a reckoning. Time is not on the side of the liar-in-chief. He will fall. Tyrants, phonies, frauds, disctators, despots, liars, thieves, traitors and grifters may think they are "getting away with it," but it catches up to them eventually. It will be a rich day for justice when we are rid of this wretched excuse of a human.
29
What a shame ... Mr. Ross if you had any shame you would resign!
This is how despots and dictators creep in ... when citizens let down their vigil ... alas that’s the way it feels these days!
Please God let our nation stay awake.
29
The insulated, isolated, self-important bubble world occupied by Wilbur Ross and Donald Trump is one plane of existence, while planet earth and the rest of humanity is a whole other place.
22
Goodbye Wilbur
16
@John Mullowney
Fat chance.
4
Of course they were.
2
Every day, in every way, Donald Trump and his cronies prove, that The Gutter Has Come To Power in The United States! Sad.
19
“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.” -1984 by George Orwell.
49
George Orwell made the prediction that eventually two plus two would equal five. But there is always a logic behind the manipulation of facts. It must be beneficial to the government or the leadership. It makes me wonder if the Trump Organization has businesses in Alabama that might benefit from disaster relief.
3
Applaud the NYT. This is why we need journalism. Keeps people in power in check when they attempt to abuse it.
37
George Orwell predicted this and here we are. Science and facts twisted BY OUR LEADERS into fantasy and lies. Blatant lies! It would be unbelievable and funny if it weren’t true, ladies and gentlemen.
29
Now you see why Trump's investors removed him from any position of management back when he ran his (well, their) company over $4B into debt.
27
I have no doubt that it’s going to get worse. That’s the truly scary part of this story.
24
@Chris Mayer, I feel it is more scary since it is happening in the USA out of all the democracies in the world.
7
If the Democratic Party had their own Press Secretary, this would be the news she would cover today. I've been stating it in these comments for months... the Democratic Party should appoint a Press Secretary. Someone charismatic, smart, funny, articulate. If this Press Secretary is compelling, she will grab the attention of the media, and thus, the nation. The Democrats need to try something new to gain exposure in the media. Without media exposure, too many Americans remain ignorant to what's really going on.
55
@Tom and I've been trying to circulate your great suggestion. It needs to gain traction ... this is precisely what is needed..
17
Democratic leadership just doesn’t get it. Your’s is a great idea.
13
@Tom
Great idea. Elected reps have lost their ability to speak in a compelling way.
10
The Constitution provides that any office holder in the executive branch and any federal judge can be impeached. Since Secretary Ross' s actions seem clearly inappropriate, weak denials notwithstanding, this might be a good chance for the House to flex some impeachment muscles before the main event.
This might serve as an opportunity to put some initial pressure on the Senate to not ignore public malfeasance in the service of the President. As "Sharpie-Gate" has moved from comical stupidity to abuse of power in its defense, this might provide Republican Senators with an opportunity to test the waters with a lesser figure, and if public backlash is not great, re-calibrate their own approach to a likely impeachment of Mr. Trump. Perhaps some might find a bit of courage they did not think they could still display. Might this be the Joseph Welch moment before the fall?
The Democrats should be using the impeachment process to make the case that the election of Mr. Trump was an error that should not be repeated, that his administration has from the first been mainly corrupt lackeys, and that they can offer better.
They should open up the investigation as broadly as time allows, since they have already parked legislation at Mr. McConnell's door, which was their plan. Mission accomplished, agenda markers laid.
Starting with Ross might seem trivial, but it is not trivial to push back against the most corrupt administration in U.S. history. Grant and Harding included.
19
"Mr. Trump himself has shown less deference than his predecessors to the traditional boundaries between the political and Civil Service sides of the government."
A rather tame characterization of his utter and complete corruption.
27
I do not need any President to give me the weather report or the hurricane watches or warnings.
That's why we have NOAA and other professional services. Keep it basic: just say that all resources available will be used to help, and then just shut up.
If Trump did not have an insatiable need to be the center of attention all day and night, there would be a lot less anxiety and fear in our country.
34
I don’t talk politics. But this is simple. Trump goofed up. His forecast was old. The Birmingham Weather Forecast Office was mostly correct, albeit without the caveats you sometimes hear with the uncertainty in hurricane forecasts. What’s so hard about this stuff? Please President Trump: Admit the goof and move on. Why try to bend reality to your will? None of us are the writers of our own graphic novels of reality—as much as that would be really cool!
9
@Curtis This is who trump is. It's who he's always been and who he always will be. At this point, it's about more than just admitting one's own mistake. It's an incredibly destructive and dangerous way to run a country. I wish his followers could see the larger picture here.
17
In May of 2018, Politico and a few other news sources reported that the White House, along with the EPA's head, Scott Pruitt, sought to block publication of a federal health study on a nationwide water-contamination crisis, after an aide in the Trump administration warned it would cause a "public relations nightmare". I was surprised by how little media attention this important story got at the time.
This latest fiasco involving the NOAA comes with similar underlying motives -- protect trump's image (and his ego) at all costs, even when it creates a risk to public health and public safety.
This is such a dangerous way to run a country. Trump has to go in 2020.
38
So Mitch McConnell sold his soul to the devil for this guy? When will the holier-than-tho Republicans actually start acting holy and stand up to this thug?
33
@Tom. They clearly will not. They are all soulless and care not for the country.
10
Air Force One Pilot: "Sorry, Mr. President. We can't land because a tornado is blocking the runway."
POTUS: "Nonsense. My magic marker says the tornado is in Alabama. Land the plane as scheduled."
26
What a sad charade.
29
With each passing day the country inches closer and closer to dictatorship.
41
We have arrived
What is it going to take. Impeach! End this nightmare and let’s restore the country that so many have died for.
22
The Emperor has no clothes
25
A method to his madness:
Think; the Shell game, flash bombs, & red herrings.
While he can keep the nation eyes glued to a marker loop on a map, with it being the main fodder of news channels & talk, what aren't we looking at?
Plenty. Secret meeting with the Taliban on US soil (Camp David!), Letting & wanting the Amazon to burn. Proposal of G-7 at Mir-a-lago WITH Putin, nearly 200 lobbiest & foreign Nationals quietly staying at Trump resorts while pitching their causes, climate change clearly reading it's head with Cat.5 hurricanes right here, forced censorship by Secretary of Commerce who threatened to fire top employees at the federal scientific agency responsible for weather forecasts, using by sicking the AG + Justice Dept like a personal hit squad on CA & auto makers who choose to continue green forward policies, profound devastation of abaco's in Bahamas islands w/ ^death tolls, caged & lost& mistreated children in detention camps, dark money, taxes, kopromate busting at the seams, etc.
Why does Trump keep bring Al back up, why not drop it? There's your answer. What was that weird video Trump tweeted with a cat lable CNN? A direct taunt & bragging about how easily he can distract CNN & create his own focus points & keep them going.
You see by the time the marker incident has blown over so to will all the big things that went virtually unspoken & his supporters will call all the attention to a sharpie line silly & presidential harassment.
19
Guy's name is Wilbur. I take comfort in knowing he's been made fun of his entire life.
16
Isn't this fascism? Putting the dear leader's beliefs, though completely false, above the palpable provable scientific truth? (It's for sure like the emperor's new clothes on steroids.) What is wrong with 40 per cent of our country? Do they really want this, or have they just slipped into fascism due to self interest and convenience? It's not a pretty picture. Americans with no decency ruling the land.
33
I remember on at least two occasions, President Obama said of a misstep, "It was a bonehead play." Not that difficulty if you are capable of grace and humility. How on earth did we get from that...to this!
36
Wilbur Ross made his reputation on Wall Street as King of the Junk Bonds. Now he's peddling junk science and flacking for a junk president. No surprise for a man who according to Wikipedia has a career overflowing with controversies and accusations of illegalities. A perfect match for Trump!
27
What in the world are they trying to distract us from with this daily clown show? What's the evil we're not paying any attention to because we're (media AND us) so wrapped up in the new episode of this ridiculous "reality show"? I'm truly frightened about what this band of grifters may be up to.
36
I'm pretty sure the whole "sharpie-gate" is just another distraction.
I read on CNN yesterday that the CIA pulled a top-spy from Russia in 2017 because they were afraid Trump would blurt out his existence or even name.
Why this came to light right now is unclear, but if there is more of that stuff in the pipeline one can expect Trump to draw doodles on everything with his sharpie soon...
32
the trump administration displays the raw and ugly excesses of american business as personified by trump, ross et al. villains out of central casting. you wouldn't buy it on the big screen but the party of god, guns, and greed is foisting it on us all. if you do not like it then get down in the trenches and get out the vote for democratic candidates up and down the ballot. how ironic that the gop has figured out 'in unity there is strength.' let's take back our government and then sort out the details. all of you who were too pure to get out the vote for clinton - this is on your head too. now you get a second chance.
19
Orwell’s 1984 is alive and a daily reality in the USA
20
@Sophia
He should have called it 2017. However government intrusion began under Nixon in 1968 but escalated in 1972. So the book could be called any of those dates.
The book was better than the movie though.
1
The identity of the “anonymous” author of the NOAA memo supporting Trump’s lunacy will eventually come out. It always does in the end. Two bucks says that it was Wilbur Ross himself who wrote it. Secretary Ross will forever live in infamy.
13
Trump and his cabinet is running a criminal enterprise as though they support a monarch, excuse me, a president with unilateral power to redefine our government.
21
Trump packs a lot into a single small mistake. Incompetence, corruption, vanity, abuse of office, and blatant disregard for citizens' safety. All in a few sentences. Most corrupt acts take thousands of pages and that's not including phone calls, meetings, complex webs of intrigue, and money trails.
You might not like the act but you got to admire the efficiency.
21
_Animal Farm_ is here.
Oh, and you need to put Wilbur Ross's name in the headline -- he needs to become a household name, esp once he's fired because he'll stand as proof that we still have a functioning gov and not a banana republic.
16
Mr. Wilbur is an opportunist and tool for Mr. Trump. They both support fake news.
14
They are sick, evil, traitors to America. I just want to know what amount of money it takes to become a Benedict Arnold? What are they being paid to sell us out?
16
Reading this, I immediately thought of how Joseph Stalin fired, jailed, and executed scientists that didn't sign onto pseudoscientific Lysenkoism in the 1930s. The field of genetics in Russia was crippled until Stalin died in the 50s. Bad things happen when a society's intellectuals are silenced.
37
Such as climate scientists.
3
This is the same guy who lied about the reason for the citizenship question on the census.
28
What kind of meetings does the US commerce secretary have in Greece. Vacation maybe? Are we paying for his “executive time” too?
17
@RFleig
Look up Ross' connections to the Bank of Cyprus.
11
I suppose we should not be surprised that a Commerce Secretary who repeatedly lied about the proposed citizenship question in the census -- and was judged to have lied by no less than the Chief Justice -- would threaten to fire the head of NOAA because of a truthful statement by dedicated scientists. Not surprised, but disgusted (again).
28
Isn’t Commerce dept. secretary Wilbur Ross the malefactor who lied to Congress under oath about the provenance of the census citizenship question - after persuading the DOJ to “ask” for that question to be included? Didn’t Mr. Ross insist on including the citizenship question against the advice of census professionals?
Didn’t the lawyers defending the administration lie to the Supreme Court in their brief?
Yes to all of the above.
Mr. Ross is a fine piece of work. He does what Mr. Trump tells him to do.
Article 2 of the Constitution states that one of the three primary duties of the President is enforcing the laws of the United States. Not joking, look it up. (The other two primary duties and powers are foreign affairs and commander-in-chief)
Watch and learn: the NOAA employees who acted in the public interest with professional integrity will lose their jobs for daring to contradict Our Beloved Leader, who had his head in the usual location. The administration will of course wait until the public’s attention is elsewhere.
I think the Americans should come for Trump’s clown show.
15
We already had the fake news. Now we have the fake weather. I can’t wait for the fake sports. Maybe the Jets finally win another Super Bowl.
25
We the People need to find a way to oust an incompetent, anti-democracy, self-enriching, anti-law president much better than the nightmare we are going through. The past two years (much less having someone in the Oval Office who was placed there against the votes of the majority of Americans) have been a mockery of our democratic republic, one that is supposed to be based on checks-and-balances to prevent the rise of an autocrat - and which, until now, had been an example to other countries trying to establish democratic rule for their own people.
We cannot let this continue. If Trump (and Pence and all the cronies, including Ross) is not thrown out and our system restored, we will end up with an autocrat who is actually intelligent and competent - and we will form the third part to the world dictator triad - Russia, China, and what will be the USSA.
13
I’ve always wondered did The Beatles parody Chuck Berry and The Beach Boys or make fun of the US with “Back to the US, back to the US, back to the USSR”?
1
Like it or not, this is where we’re at as a country right now.
8
Amongst the multitude of tragedies that now beset the USA and this entire planet is that we all seem to have lost our sense of humor. The clearest indication of that is that the entire government of the United States has become an hilarious performance of a consistent piece out of one of the Marx Brothers wonderful comedies and very few people seem to grasp how funny it all is.
9
As a Florida resident, one of the first things I do in the morning is go on the national hurricane center site to see if any waves have come off the coast of Africa. There are many other weather sites who offer up the same information, but I have always relied on NOAA. I won’t anymore. They have lost all credibility bowing to this dictator
28
But you should note that all the other weather information sources you might look up use NOAA as their primary source. Weather prediction is a public resource we pay for with our tax dollars. No one else is out there doing it for free. All the more reason to be appalled.
41
1984 is happening in its full glory.
IMPEACH!
32
I just posted the following at www.facebook.com/NWS/....
Dear Dr. Uccellini,
I just saw the video of you speaking at the conference in Huntsville. I would like to thank you for having the integrity to support the folks at the Birmingham office of NWS. Thank you and all of those at your agency who work every day to keep all Americans safe and for having the courage to not allow your agency to fall under political pressure. I am sure that there are many other Americans who support you.
I hope that the person who administers this facebook page publishes it. I urge others post comments in support of Dr. Uccellini and his staff on Facebook and other social media sites.
SEE:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/director-of-national-weather-service-birmingham-stopped-public-panic/vi-AAH2I5J
32
Twitter Trump is Failure Trump.....time for the Republicans to find some “Tory Party” courage and call Failure Trump out.
23
They can call us Socialists all day long but they are clearly developing a fascist regime with accountability to no one but the leader.
Fixing our democracy will take a long time from January 2021.
37
Alabama should declare an emergency and file for federal disaster relief, and see if they get it.
50
@JeffW
Alabama is ranked 49th according to USNWR. Almost worst in health care and education. It should declare an emergency without the help of a Trumpian hurricane hoax. But that would mean accepting deep state money.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alabama
6
@JeffW. Thanks for the laugh! On the other hand...
5
@JeffW. Brilliant
4
How utterly Orwellian!
To quote Orwell, "Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two makes four."
Clearly, Government agency's ability to state basic facts is being wrested away for political ends. We are now in a very scary place.
25
Do they have any evidence of Ross threatening anybody, or is it all hearsay.
If it is, then he will get off scot-free.
3
it's time to really "drain the swamp"
14
This entire controversy demonstrates the left's, not just lack of substance, but, lack of the ability to reason.
They are wasting everyone's time once again with an inanity.
Trump's depiction of the potential for Alabama to suffer some storm damage has made Liberals go mad.
Trump gave us a weather forecast.
If Trump gives a weather forecast and he's wrong, obviously he must have been lying, with evil intent.
How many weather reporters have you labelled serial liars?
Never mind that the official National Hurricane Center forecast of the hurricane did in fact show that Alabama might be impacted, pretty much just as Trump depicted.
But alas, Alabama was spared. And it just drives the left crazy.
A weather forecast.
@Ken, you may have missed the point. If you don’t like the coverage, don’t watch, but if the President says a category 5 hurricane is very likely to hit your town (not several days ago which was how old that potential storm paths map was (the spaghetti map) but soon)), would you like to be able to rely on that information?
If you lived in Alabama, how would you feel if the President contradicted the National Weather Service?
Any why one earth would Trump waste so much of his time tweeting, doing videos, and talking about this - shouldn’t he be running the country and dealing with those who were actually affected by the storm?
It’s journalists job to talk about things - across a spectrum of perspectives. It’s the presidents job to stop tweeting about journalists and focus on the task at hand.
33
You don’t get it. It’s not about what trump said about the weather. The issue is commerce secretary Ross threatening the NOAA employees with the loss of their jobs.
25
The left? The left didn’t do anything. This is NOAA officials, many of them appointed by Trump, objecting to him lying about their forecast rather than admit he was wrong.
15
Dear Trump supporters: have you had enough yet? This is an administration that will actually try to lie about the weather report .
38
@Aero, as a follow up to your comment to Trump supporters: according to Trump you would support him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue. We got that.
The question is, what if it were your son? Even then?
It is cringeworthy, but at this point, for some, the answer might very well be yes.
4
Since Trump would be using a good old American firearm I am sure they would be fine with it. What greater an honor than to be shot by Trump!
4
Trump’s Sharpie is mightier than the truth.
21
They have a moral/scientific imperative not to cave on this, up to and including being fired or quitting. Trump and his fellow clowns can rule political departments and agencies (for the time being), but not scientific ones. The truth shall always rein in those, at all costs.
13
Another billionaire appointee to go along with the multi millionaire Republican appointees like the Secretary of Education Betsy who also knows nothing about her portfolio. A supposed billionaire appointing his cronies is a far way from “draining the swamp”. They only care about themselves and their wallets. Other people who aren’t born into their lives of privilege don’t matter.
25
Hard to believe any advice coming from Government controlled weather centres. Nature ignores politics.
5
@Christopher, in the current state of the US government your comment is understandable. However, it’s not “the” government, it’s “our” government and we do (though at the moment this is being threatened) have a say in it - through our votes, our institutions, our rule of law, and especially our free press.
Would it be better to have weather services be privately owned? Where one would have to pay to receive updates? With high Premium fees to target the wealthy to get the most immediate updates for storms?
When one questions “the government,” one also needs to take into account realistic available options. In the US, private business can not be trusted sufficiently to be granted rights over our national weather service. The only available option is to make sure there is oversight of our government agencies and keep political parties and toddler presidents hands off (and yes, unlike Stalin and Mao, most of us value our experts).
4
Up until now, NOAA was wholly science based. Even now, I believe it is, because the rank and file federal workers there have a “facts only, as good as we can get them” culture. I feel sorry for the folks who felt they had to bow to Wilbur Ross’s threat; I don’t know what they would have lost but when it’s a paycheck and maybe a pension at risk the stakes are just too much.
This is why the Fed must maintain its independence: imagine if Mnuchin had the power to fire Powell at will?!? There could be no trust in the value of anything.
3
I have an elderly father and he can sometimes become very defensive when he gets something wrong.
It is a bad sign of mental deterioration.
Trump and Ross have no business being in the positions they are.
46
And all the while the Democratic leadership remains silent and waits for an election that with this wannabee dictator and his Republican enablers in power might never happen or might be compromised by their Russian friends. Are we going to let our democracy die not with a bang but with a whimper? Do something now!
13
We now should expect political appointees to cowtow to Trump no matter what the truth is or whose lives hang in the balance. Meanwhile, this administration is turning away Hurricane Dorian refugees for lack of paperwork, and adding insult to injury, Trump says there are so many bad people and gang members in the Bahamas. (And giess what-- they're not white.) Maybe more heads will roll if someone else crosses this president. Can you say, "Fast track an impeachment inquiry" anyone?
15
Ross needs to be called before the House and held to account. Impeachment inquiry should begin ASAP and if the evidence shows that this story is true, impeached and removed from office. This behavior can't be the SOP of our democracy and should not go unpunished.
39
This statement was made by a couple of high level officials who could blown off their seats by Dorian. They shouldn't represent NOAA.
2
Wilbur Ross, like virtually all of Trumps' Cabinet appointees, should not have any place in any government in this country.
50
Trump supporters don't care about having a functioning democracy or public safety. The only thing that matters to them is deference to their political authority, Donald Trump (as absurd and ridiculous as that may seem). I always thought trump was a clown but his supporters are far, far worse. Shame on America!
42
Can you just impeach an entire administration?
47
Can you impeach the entire Republican Party?
20
After you, Secretary Ross.
8
We are no longer at war with Eurasia. We have never been at war with Eurasia. We are now at war with hurricanes and our president will soon appoint a great hurricane czar who will do great things. With nukes.
26
@alexander michael Sorry, Alex, but I missed the Eurasia connection. What are you referring to?
2
He’s quoting George Orwell’s book, “1984,” in which the Ministry of Truth tells everyone what to think (usually lies). The public have a compulsory “2 Minute Hate” where they learn to hate the enemy, Eurasia...until Eastasia becomes the enemy, per government dictate. Then all evidence that Eurasia had ever been the enemy is systematically erased and consistently denied.
5
Do they not teach George Orwell in Russia’s middle schools?
Funny that.
How much more can this country, its conscientious government employees and its citizens be abused by this mentally and morally degenerate president? He is a dictator. Having run all his adult staff out of his palace, he is now completely out of control.
28
@Ernest Murphy Not quite, Ernest. If he were, you and I would not be posting as we are now. So now is the time to save what we can.
4
@Ernest Murphy. We need to get into the streets… But nobody is doing that and I don’t understand why
2
The Twilight Zone, episode 2020, Rod would have a field day.lol
16
@M.G.N.M. Actually, it's more like "The Bad Seed."
9
@kenneth or the Outer Limits
lol
3
Not that the weather service professionals would stoop to such a thing, but I can imagine a forecast with a political slant neglecting to mention a category 5 hurricane bearing down on Mar-a-Lago.....
21:55 EDT, 9/09
12
Republican politicians are the most sleazy excuses for human beings in the world next to Boris Johnson, turning our nation into a circus and pawn shop.
Putin and Kim jong Un laugh everyday at how stupid and what push overs American Republicans are to favor Trump's gushy love for Russia and North Korea over America's allies and own citizens.
Total national and world chaos is Trump's strategy with help from his supporters and America's adversaries.
27
Wilbur Ross should be fired, not rank and file employees doing their job.
29
If Trump says the earth is flat, Betsy Devos will rush to change our school curriculums to teach our children just that...
51
"The powers of the president ... will not be questioned." - Stephen Miller
23
@Thorny On the other hand, the capability of the president . . . .
7
“They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.” - Plato
28
This whole administration has to go. The lies, the incessant infantile tweets, the complete incompetence of this unfit (and quite possibly mentally ill) POTUS who thinks himself a tzar & the spineless minions (aka--the entire Republican Party) who prance at his feet like lap dogs--it's pathetic. I have such an enormous respect for the Brits, who last week united as a whole, and had the courage & integrity to collectively shut down Boris Johnson as he went rogue---if only we Americans were so fortunate.
24
“Isolation is the beginning of incoherence.”
—Arthur W. Frank, “At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness” (1991)
7
@Cast Iron Incoherence was the beginning of the Inaugural Address.
10
Not a pleasant time for thoughtful Americans. Most of us just want to get along, like Rodney King said during the L.A. riots.
Charlie Manson had a lot of the exact same qualities I've been reading about here the past few years. Charlie never actually did the dirty work, just spoke in code.
Follow at your own risk. And remember, currently you have free will to leave at anytime.
8
Congress is ok with these threats and intimidation by a Cabinet member? It’s now fine to lose one’s government job, potentially, for performing it in a thorough, truthful and professional manner when a Cabinet member instructs you to cover up trumpian lies?
22
C'mon, Republican citizens of the United States. Are you really willing to allow this attack on the truth to continue just because the attacker is a Republican?
20
they all have to go. the entire administration. by any means necessary.
19
Mitch McConnell and every single enabler has sold their soul and ours along with it.
24
Even George Orwell couldn't imagine a Party that lied about the weather.
47
@Winston Smith It wasn't an intentional lie. He was just talking in his sleep over breakfast.
3
This is becoming like a farcical movie, except it's real.
The first time I ever belly laughed at Trump was when I saw the sharpie speech, but of course, real life has a back story, people and science suffer, and the manipulation goes on. My belly laugh was a two minute respite from this endless waking nightmare that is Donald Trump.
22
This is not surprising given Trump’s obvious preference for dictatorship vs democracy as demonstrated by his praise for Putin and Kim Jong Un, and disdain for our democratic allies. His style is reminiscent of that of Stalin who would certainly have banished to the gulag anyone involved in contradicting his pronouncements. Trump’s rule has not yet reached this level although I am sure he and his cronies will look to expand his power in these directions if he is re-elected. Eliminate the free press, imprison critics of his rule, government agencies reduced to mouthpieces for his propaganda. A scenario that could never happen here? We’ve already seen them push the limits of executive power, denigrate democratic institutions and principles. With his power further legitimized with re-election (don’t discount his ability to rig this next election either) I fear he may indeed further develop such dictatorial powers.
15
It is a felony to modify a weather forecast.
Trump modified a weather forecast and continues to claim he was right. So he is pleading guilty.
OK, we can't arrest him, but we can impeach him for confessing to a felony.
25
Next will be cutting off funding for any agency that refuses to use 3 for the value of pi in computations. After all, pi is said to be 3 in the Bible twice, in 1 Kings7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:2.
Pretty amazing that such an uneducated (and ineducable) president could find people with even less education such as Wilbur Ross to serve on his cabinet. But then the cabinet is replete with them. It would be funny were it not so serious to have a president who knows nothing, chooses his cabinet to support him no matter how wrong he is while making certain they often don't know better in any case, and then enforces his know-nothing decisions when they could be dangerous. Calculating satellite orbital station keeping maneuvers, initial orbital parameters, or ballistic coefficients for missile targeting using 3 for pi would be a bad idea. Fortunately the religious right does not understand what pi is so they certainly would not understand those two scriptures. Too bad Indiana Representative Taylor I. Record is no longer alive, as he would be the perfect member of Trump's cabinet to run NASA. Record was the Indiana representative who almost got a bill declaring pi equal to three passed in 1897. Maybe Ted Cruz would be able to push the idea.
6
It used to be said, "Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Well, that was then. Today, grown men in our government are determined that some heads must roll if those heads contradicted a Presidential opinion. Their attitude is "If you can't say something nice, keep your mouth shut!" The Emperor always knows best!
It probably never occurred to them that everyday people must make life and death decisions about whether to board up their windows, get the kids, grab some valuables, and drive to safety far from home. No one can predict the course of a hurricane with 100% accuracy. But satellites and computer simulations interpreted by trained and experienced meteorologists can make a big difference in protecting human lives and property.
Keep politics out of it.
14
Can you expect any different behavior from an adminstration that denies science altogether?
14
Will somebody please make this stop? I don’t think we’re going survive until the election.
17
Faking the forecast won't be enough. Next time he'll insist that the hurricane be made to go where he says it will. Maybe they'll use nukes to steer it.
11
@JeffW ... or where he says he wants it to go. all those "very bad people" need to be drowned.
4
Can you honestly say, that you could not see Trump making political enemies disappear, at some point, the longer he stays in power ?
45
I can honestly say that if he is reelected, and doesn't have to pay lip service to his base because they are of no further use to him, that there is no cruel, inhumane, indecent action I would put past him.
30
It's disappointing that the political appointees at the top of the NOAA didn't take a principled stand against the threats by the administration. Disappointing, but not surprising.
We can only hope that justice catches up with them eventually. They are cravenly endangering the American people.
19
It’s astounding that 1) Trump made the Alabama statement in the first place 2) that he then kept insisting, for days, that it was based on fact, ignoring many other issues that were actually important, 3) that then they tried to get other agencies to say it was true 4) that now there’s punishment for those who spoke the truth 5) and that now we’re in the second week of this ridiculous argument about the weather.
You would think the Mueller report would be the low point of this presidency, but I actually think it’s this.
26
@L No, almost nothing about this administration is"astounding" any longer.
The problem is that these perpetrators, like Nixon, Reagan, ...never get punished when they abuse their power. And with punished I mean really punished, like jail time. Not a slap on the wrist.
And so the eternal sin is committed over and over again.
23
@Richard I guess that's why they call it eternal.
1
1. Wilbur Ross is know as the "King of Bankruptcy” due to his history of making money by buying bankrupt companies at fire-sale prices and reselling for profit.
2. He is a long-time friend and associate of Mr. Trump.
Would be interesting if he bought any of the many projects/businesses that the president drove into the ground and bankrupted after welshing on contractors and investors.
Anyway, McDonald's has a special of a free drink when ordering a medium or large fries.
/s/
7
Trump is becoming more and more deranged all the time. Trying to make science and scientists bend to his will is going to ruin their credibility and create a danger to the public. Impeachment or the election can't come too soon.
21
Marx Brothers or WC Fields?
Luis Brunel or Billy Wilder?
Italio Calvino or Kafka?
4
Yet another false and extremely dangerous representation by President Trump, as this one had an immediate direct catastrophic safety effect on Alabama, and more critically for national constitutional governance, the purposeful falsification, manipulation and subversion of scientific public safety warnings by the federally law-designated civil service safety experts to the US and international general public, to gloss over the false and erroneous assertions by the President in this regard.
What would one anticipate as a US citizen if an event of catastrophic national or international consequence of immediate crisis were to occur?
Does the United States want to have a person of Donald Trump’s known inadequacy and disgraceful, dishonorable behavior as President if another 9/11 occurs?
10
Rule 1.
Don’t *ever* contradict the President
5
Did Wilbur Ross have his plane bound for Greece refuel in Ireland so he could spend a night at Trump Turnberry?
8
“I like Trump cuz he tells it like it is! Yeehaw!” Newsflash; Trump almost never tells it like it is. Which brings us to the inescapable conclusion that Trump voters like him because they think he is even dumber than they are, and it makes them feel smart.
30
Wilbur Ross is just another Trump lackey guilty of guile and craven cowardice. He and his ilk are complicit with all the crimes of the Trump administration.
History will rightfully judge him and his ilk harshly.
M
11
I know more than the Generals.. you were warned..
12
Currently around 7 million people die prematurely every year just from breathing pollution largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
The scientific illiteracy of the US government will help cause deaths which will dwarf 7 million.
Consider that a population of a few million human hunter-gatherers was apparently beyond the carrying capacity of the planet as most places where we showed up the megafauna disappeared.
Around 10-12,000 years ago, when large climate oscillations settled down, we developed agriculture which allowed us to double our population many times into the billions.
But agriculture faces big challenges if we don’t change our ways soon (1), as do our fisheries, and if they both decline significantly, forcing us back to being largely hunter-gatherers, history tells us that out of every 1,000 people you see maybe one survives.
Except this time it won’t be meat on the hoof with mastodons, large flightless birds and picking lobsters off the beach. Going back to trying to hunt and gather during the 6th mass extinction isn’t the best timing so one in a thousand may be wildly optimistic.
1 IPCC Western N America drought 1900-2100
http://icons.wxug.com/hurricane/2013/drought-western-us-1900-2100.png
4
It just gets weirder by the moment. What started off as a stupid mistake, never admitted to as usual, has turned into - insanity and dictator like behavior. Well, let the kids take the lead. Next Friday's Global Climate awareness strike.
15
Sec. Ross:
“The King absolutely, positively is wearing marvelous, wonderful clothes. That piddling thing you see there swinging a little is actually bigly covered by glorious, fabulous garments. Trust me (or you’ll be fired). Now go out and tell the peasants!”
18
No really, it DOES take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
20
@JeffW
And a hard rain's gonna fall
4
@Erik Frederiksen
When you're stuck inside of Mobile...
3
When can we get started with impeachment proceedings and get this entire corrupt crew out of office.
17
2304 comments. ugh. can we just agree supreme manipulator doesn't get elected.
19
I guess Kim Jong-un has had a greater influence over our President than we even imagined.
15
Just more evidence that this a government of incompetents simply being floated by sycophants. Time for Ross to go and hopefully his boss with him. And yet Nancy sits on her hands.......In effect aiding and abetting with her inaction.
5
Who wears a baseball hat inside at a formal government meeting?!
5
@opinions for free: its combover was having an extra-bad hair day or it didn't want the hurricane to flip it and expose the inglorious baldness along with the no-clothes bit.
7
@opinions for free
A garish one at that. I still mostly love my country, but my gawd. At least he (or more likely one of his handlers) had the good sense to ditch the MAGA version for the situation room.
2
Say as he says, or we shall never go.
In 2005, I remember watching the news and seeing the National Weather Service's/NOAA's alert for the upcoming catastrophic conditions for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The forecasters' accurate predictions were dire, advising of uninhabitable conditions for months to come. These national forecasters performed their jobs in the best way possible by trying to convince New Orleans' residents to leave to save lives.
Fast forward to 2019. We now have a president who can't admit to a mistake. Suppose a serious storm was coming to the coastal United States and Trump again gets the location wrong. Suppose the expected damage is to be catastrophic. Under Secretary Ross, does NOAA now completely change their report to correct the president's mistake, giving the wrong location to protect Trump's ego--even at the extreme risk to public safety? Suppose Trump thought Katrina was hitting Mobile instead of New Orleans? Under Ross, would the report be changed to Mobile to protect Trump? Ross needs to go.
28
@Donna....so does trump.
3
Do NOAA not read their own website or read the news.
Dorians path as late as the 30th of August at 1100 hrs showed Dorian's path to cross Florida and intensify over the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to hit Alabama and Mississippi.
A simple Google search showed the Greenville on line edition had project paths as did other newspapers.
1
Sigh... when trump said that the hurricane was going to hit Alabama it was Sept 1 and all recent data indicated by then that it was going to hit the Bahamas and then head up the eastern coast of the US starting with some part of Eastern Florida.
It’s not that there was ever a forecast where Alabama may be hit, it’s that trump included it in his remarks after it was quite clear that other states were In danger and NOT alabama. Hence the concern about needless panic it may cause
Trump could’ve just said, “right right that’s an old
Forecast and it’s going a different path now” but he didn’t. He’s just trying to prove himself right and getting increasingly silly as he does so. And then the media is getting sillier as it tries to report
10
@scott allen
"The confusion began on the morning of Sept. 1, when the President tweeted that the state, as well as Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia, would “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.”
About 20 minutes later, the National Weather Service’s (NWS) station in Birmingham, Ala., appeared to step in on Twitter to clear up the confusion about the storm’s effects on the state.
“Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian,” their tweet read. “We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.”
Who is the expert here?
Duh.
9
Well that's keeping up with current events in the age of 24 hour a day news and weather by a President who stays up all night to tweeting everything he sees and hears on FOX. Are you suggesting Trump and FOX are days or a weeks behind? Wrong or late, we will all be dead before Trump Land gets anything right. Its all chaos.
4
Welcome to United States of America the only democratic country on Earth where science can and will be muzzled by its own president.
35
The Trump administration has given the phrase. "mad scientist" a new, more literal meaning in which every honest scientist in America is mad at the Trump administration for demanding Lysenko like loyalty to the President.
Memo to Speaker Pelosi. If it can be proven that Ross called Dr. Jacobs (one hopes Dr. Jacob put the Secretary of Commerce on speakerphone) to say Ross would fire the lot if they didn't lie for the President about Alabama, then impeach Ross.
House hearings on Ross should be a teaching moment.
24
I hope Dr. Jacobs has started recording all his calls.
3
The Trump administration has given the phrase. "mad scientist" a new, more literal meaning in which every honest scientist in America is mad at the Trump administration for demanding Lysenko like loyalty to the President.
Memo to Speaker Pelosi. If it can be proven that Ross called Dr. Jacobs (one hopes Dr. Jacob put the Secretary of Commerce on speakerphone) to say Ross would fire the lot if they didn't lie for the President about Alabama, then impeach Ross.
House hearings on Ross should be a teaching moment.
3
The Trump administration has given the phrase. "mad scientist" a new, more literal meaning in which every honest scientist in America is mad at the Trump administration for demanding Lysenko like loyalty to the President.
Memo to Speaker Pelosi. If it can be proven that Ross called Dr. Jacobs (one hopes Dr. Jacobs put the Secretary of Commerce on speakerphone) to say Ross would fire the lot if they didn't lie for the President about Alabama, then impeach Ross.
House hearings on Ross should be a teaching moment.
3
I truly can't imagine Trump's future presidential library being taken seriously if this is a typical example of what will end up being archived.
What an unholy mess...
12
Gee, #45 attacks the Fed Reserve Bank; the FBI; NOAA etc
Who's going to give him unbiased, fact-based, objective advice to run the country now?
8
The little voices in his head.
9
I wonder what Ross's explanation for the firings was going to be. My guess is that his fingerprints would have been wiped from the scene and there would have been some vague mention of cost saving 'cutbacks' at NOAA.
9
The stable genius, worlds best deal maker, and master business failure champion is working his hardest to include the US Government in his numerous failure accomplishments. His ego comes before everything.
24
Those of you who thought that the professionals within the government would save us from the absurdity of trump need to rethink things. Not only did NOAA lie to American tax payers just to soothe the feelings of the King but we also have the Air Force stonewalling Congress on information regarding the enriching of the King via the taxpayer in Scotland. Right now it appears we are on our own. There are no heroes in our government.
It's a shame isn't it?
41
The next 15 months are going to feel like the longest in history. But so much more havoc until Jan 1, 2020. God help us all.
23
rose Michigan2m ago
" ...Jan 1, 2020... "
2021. Jan 1, 2021.
Petty but I wouldn't want you to be accused of fake news.
I can only imagine McConnel and the tribe snickering with relish with each new lie, distortion and exaggeration - - while they continue to pull his strings. It is just not funny anymore. *** And where is that other man of supposed character and intellect who wanted to be president hiding? Are they pulling Romney's strings as well?
12
Imagine that. An ignorant rich white man with power seems to think he can bully anybody.
How did he get that idea?
17
Wilbur Ross is way past the "use by date" and should be fired. Typical of the appointments by the Current Occupant!
33
love Emperor Trump or you're fired.
12
The emperor is naked. And Wilbur Ross is too old to notice.
20
Real Easy... Wilbur Ross must resign... completely unacceptable to threaten this way.
18
I just finished the book “dear Leader” about North Korea. This article sent shivers down my spine. We’re headed towards a dictatorship if we’re not already there.
27
What kind of Country we are living in ?
President ha no cloths on and we are supposed to say what a fantastic suit you are wearing Sir !
NOAA are being threatened because they are doing their job precisely asthey are trained to do.
15
This country desperately needs a grown-up in the Oval Office.
22
My thought are that anyone in the most powerful position in the world, who so disdainfully abuses it, should be held fully accountable to the full extent of the law.
14
How dare you contradict the Supreme Leader!
Don’t you get it yet, or do you still think you live in a functioning Republic? How ‘bout those unemployment numbers? There for reals now, right? What changed? The Supreme Leader! May the glory of His stable genius shine upon us forever! To deny his glory is to show you are a traitor!
17
remember this is the same guy (Ross) who tried to "fix" the census. There is incompetence, but also the need for an authoritarian ruler to create his own version of truth and to maintain power.
29
"Commerce Chief Threatened Firings at NOAA."
From the Commerce Department:
“Secretary Ross did not threaten to fire any NOAA staff over forecasting and public statements about Hurricane Dorian,”
End of.
@ Mike Edwards. So, if the head of commerce says “I never said that”, it must be true? One who has demonstrably lied in public about other important issues?
3
I think nearly everyone has someone in their family similar to Trump. If they are contradicted in any way, it turns into such an uncomfortable moment where they either lash out or simply deflect with some absurd claim. These are the people you have to drag your feet to visit for Thanksgiving, or at a family gathering. They make everything else worse for everyone.
And we have one of those as President.
31
@Nick - Now imagine Thanksgiving at that dump Trump Tower, where literally every family member is like that,
5
@Nick " the people you have to drag your feet to visit for Thanksgiving,"
And D J Turkey is waiting for you there, making everything gravy again.
3
@Nick: narcissists are the absolute worst types to have to deal with - the worst.
5
There are multiple problems with Ross and his boss Trump totally unrelated to this. That said, trump made a ridiculously stupid statement of which he has zero expertise. Instead of just admitting he was wrong and moving on. Ross is a trumpist of many years but I'm pretty sure the entire citizenry of a state is more important than one person's hurt feelings. It's incredibly stupid to threaten anyone for doing the right thing, preventing panic & unnecessary, expensive preparation. This admin IS the swamp.
31
The last map I saw had Alabama northwest of Florida. Having watched CNN and other channels show a category 5 hurricane which might, or might not continue its northwestern path toward Florida, it’s pretty clear the storm threatened Alabama.
It didn't threaten Alabama at the time Trump was tweeting.
14
@Avid Reader
Clear to you but unless you state your credentials to analyze weather patterns, the public has no reason to trust your analysis.
10
@Avid Reader Now there you go again, being rational just to cause trouble. If the Don says it won't rain, then you should thank him for his omniscience and plan your picnic accordingly.
4
Ya just can’t make this stuff up.
Meanwhile Trump is in NC for another rally to promote a local candidate yet it’s really a MAGA rally again. And paid for you and me....
It’s live on Fox during Tucker Carlson’s show. Is he getting paid for doing nothing? I want that gig. Lol.
17
Imagine if the forecast was the reverse - that Alabama, or any other state - was declared by Trump NOT to be in danger and the weather office said it was. People could have died.
This administration is monstrous and has got to go.
37
Scientists are held to extremely high standards by their own with regards to ethics and publishing accurate findings. When a scientist alters an image, be it the PI or a graduate student, careers are ended and reputations tarnished for all involved, even if just remotely. Peer review requires that our competitors critique our work before it is accepted for publication. The system is not perfect, but nothing is and the community self corrects.
It is a total disgrace that the president with all of his "scientific prowess" knows more than the scientist who have dedicated their careers to their craft. True scientists respect one another and don't claim to know things in other fields that are orthogonal to their own amd that they know nothing about. That the president can alter a figure, which could have serious repurcussions to immediate livelihood and gets away with it is a shame. There is no "mistake" or gray area when it comes to falsifying data, which the president did. He either has a figure to back his claim, or he cant make it. No journal would accept "this figure is coming as I cannot find it but I can tell you that it looks something like this" amd have literally, a hand drawn figure.
18
It is time for Ross to step down. He has supported ridiculous positions of the head guy in the White House in the past, but now he is more than willing to endanger the public to do so. Any top official who places public safety ahead of politics is not doing their job, not serving the people, and must leave immediately.
21
"The Commerce Department disputed the account on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur L. Ross Jr. “Secretary Ross did not threaten to fire any NOAA staff over forecasting and public statements about Hurricane Dorian,” the department said in a statement issued by a spokesman."
Ross lied about the reason for adding the census citizenship question and he is lying now. Get rid of him.
32
Why doesn’t Trump just draw a picture of his wall with a sharpie?
If anyone claims it’s not real he can try to get them fired.
17
This brouhaha reminds me of a YouTube video of a toddler whose face is fully smeared with chocolate, which, of course, he can't see. Off camera we hear a mom-voice: Do you know where the bag of Halloween candy went? Big-eyed, innocent-faced, the child answers, No-oh!, shaking his head "no". And we laugh along with the mom-voice at this little child who has not yet grasped the finer points of lying to mom but who clearly doesn't want a time-out.
When a reporter asked Trump about the NOAA map that appeared to have been altered with a Sharpie, he answered "I don't know...I don't know...".
I could almost see his Sharpie-besmeared face.
21
Wilbur Ross, like his boss, is completely corrupt and believes himself to be above the law.
28
Ha Ha.
Look at that photo. They all have the same facial expression.
They should be fired. They're all robots with the same firmware.
12
Canada and the countries with health care and sane gun laws should be sending monitors to the 2020 elections now that America is a tinpot dictatorship replete with kickbacks, alternative facts and Orwellian double speak about the weather.
The message sent to American civil servants is support the Don man or you will be fired. Brett Kavanaugh understood this.
Did this Trump grifter bloke send even one twitter about the calamity in the Bahamas? His ego is even bigger than Dorian.
Like Dorian Grey's image, Donald is getting uglier and uglier.
28
Bob, those were exactly my thoughts when I read this headline earlier. And Trump also broke another law in the process, by intentionally misreporting the weather.
Thank you for putting this into words in a way that should make everyone shudder. As an American, I have been feeling as though I am living in an alternative universe since November of 2016. Cheers.
18
Enough was enough long ago. There are no words to express the naked corruption in the sense of putrefaction of this Administration. I could see why in the early days before Dorian made landfall it might well have made sense to warn Alabamans that they were in the potential, albeit unlikely, line of fire, Plenty of hurricanes have veered from their predicted tracks. Nothing wrong with that. But Trump as usual doubled down and made, to coin a phrase, a federal case of it. I'm sure that there are NOAA/NWS employees who want to resign but will not during hurricane season.
13
Get me out of here.
19
Still waiting for Pelosi to show up.
10
Ross, and his Boss, need to go!
12
Trump and his cronies must think that he has the power of Putin.
Is this where we stand now
8
Republican weather report: whatever Trump says.
23
Although it may seem hopeless, every decent American who values democracy and the rule of law should take a few minutes to call Republican senators and representatives to demand Ross’s resignation and let them know you will not support them, given their support of an administration that is more befitting a banana republic than the United States.
13
When the dear leader speaks or “tweets” why isn’t everyone turning their backs?
14
A real witch hunt is underway now. Bring in the dish rack and the comfy chair! If all that torment fails they will definitely succumb to the fluffy pillow.
2
Now need secretary agriculture, telling farmers to start harvesting bright sunny day in Washington DC. Though heavy rain in Mid West.
5
This is exactly why in the USA you have a civil service with regulation and laws to protect the employees.
From political retribution ....
Okay ?
12
Soothing the imperious ego of Donald Trump - paramount. The lives and well-being of every other American citizen - secondary, tertiary, expendable. Let's really start draining the swamp starting with Wilbur Ross who has betrayed the oath of his office in spectacularly reptilian fashion.
If Trump's goal was to prove how venal and corrupt and trustworthy US government officials can be, he has succeeded in spades with his appointments of all the least qualified, most self-enriching bunch of toadies is American history.
15
The emperor has no clothes.
17
@David Rosen Why would you believe a meteorologist when the man in the White House says otherwise? What kind of patriotism is that?
1
Wilbur Ross. Famous for encouraging federal employees who were furloughed during Trump's month-long "shutdown" last December to take out short-term loans from their banks. (This was also known as "let them eat cake" diplomacy.) Now this same Wilbur Ross is threatening NOAA people - ordinarily tasked with preserving the safety and well-being of our citizens - for having the audacity to call out Sharpie-boy's crazed hurricane reports. Unbelievable? Not really; welcome to Trumpworld. Liars get special privileges here.
33
@Metrowest Mom Trump wasn't reporting on what happened yesterday. He was simply saying what God had told him would happen next.
1
A) why is Twitter the medium for government chatter? B) nothing informs people's life experience the way weather (and transportation) does. C) Every cable station and broadcast tv uses weather to enhance their ratings. It was depressing enough that climate change was turned political, and I think I could have coped with the idiotic use of a sharpie to create a fake weather chart to "prove" an error, but the obsequiese sycophantic behavior of the commerce department's leader destroys our ability to trust in the noaa, period. Turn to european models...
As pynchon said, "its all theatre now..."
7
Clearly, Wilbur was peeved about having to interrupt his meetings at the Bank of Cyprus, where he was no doubt discussing money laundering tactics to hide his insider trading gains, simply to cover the latest example of puerile behavior from our insane president.
13
While all of this ridiculous nonsense is going on, is anyone in the Government even doing anything to provide aid to the victims of the hurricane?
And no, a bruised ego doesn’t qualify you as a victim of the hurricane.
16
Trump is a truly sad individual. His insecurity overwhelms his ability to function. And clearly the United States needs a functioning leader and we don't have one.
18
Fire employees because their contradiction was actually the truth?!?!? When are people going to get real about the literal danger that President Trump presents to us on a daily basis?
27
@Jane Smith When? Never, of course. And if something terrible does happen, he can always explain that it's all Hillary's fault.
4
Or Obama’s.
1
It's long past time for the incompetent, inept, untruthful, unable Ross to depart.
Of course, he never should have been in his current position in the first place.
Only Individual-1 could have assembled such a corrupt Cabinet. (With the appropriate tip of the hat to Steve Bannon, who--I have no doubt--developed the list of contemptibles from which the Cabinet was constructed. Each nominee chosen for his/her ability to destroy the department which they were tapped to head.)
16
I feel trapped on a 60’s episode of the Twilight Zone with a strange mix of horror, science-fiction and drama are keeping Americans on an “alternative” world where lies and “alternative facts” rule...
22
@CRL You'll get a chance to change channels next year...if there's no short circuit at the polls.
4
Here’s a forecast-political storms in Washington D.C. Batten down the hatches! They will increase in severity as the 2020 election approaches-there will be frequent “ tweet” storms and occasional high winds strong enough to shake the pillars of Democracy.Take precautions now-Congress vote to assure fair elections.!
12
Having been through over 8 hurricanes down here in Florida, it’s obvious Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama.
Any storm that could take a northwest path through Florida threatens Alabama as well as Georgia.
I had one miss my home in Florida, only to hit my cabin on the Alabama-Georgia border.
Now can we stop attacking Trump over meaningless trivia and talk about the budget deficit ?
2
@John
I guess you're not shocked that the President of our country deliberately falsified an official document.
It probably also didn't bother you that he falsified the truth by telling us that he had taken "a very very small" loan from his father and turned it into a billion-dollar fortune. That "small loan" was in the hundreds of millions of dollars...
11
@John
If you contradict trained, certified Weather Service employees, please state your credentials to do so. Being through hurricanes does make you en expert to analyze weather patterns and certainly not one that the public would have reason to trust.
The budget deficit? Is that the one that's mushrooming due to President Trump initiatives?
14
@ John.....the "talking" is being generated by trump.
7
Where are the Democrats? Where is Pelosi? Everyday another outrage worse than the day before and they sit on their hands. Not a word.
Everyone should quit both parties and become Independents. Neither party stands up for the American people. They all do whatever it takes to stay in office. Republicans goose step behind Trump and Democrats hide.
6
Lets take names and remember these subservient employees. When we retake our government, they need to be removed for not serving the people.
3
The president and his politically motivated cronies forget they work for us. He, and his cronies, have given us ample evidence of their incompetence and lack of desire to do what’s best for the country and the American people. It appears to me that trump and crony were willing to possibly initiate an evacuation of coastal Alabama just to save face. This politicizing of our public safety agencies is inexcusable, and the only pink slips to be doled out should be received by the Incompetent in Chief.
6
I think the only reason Trump has kept this lie alive for so long is so that we don't talk about the $3.6 B that he has taken from the Pentagon for a wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. And it's worked; there's been much more coverage of his fake forecast than the consequences of his taking $3.6 B from the Pentagon.
A lot of Republican Senators couldn't be happier with the Trump's fake forecast superseding the real newsworthy story. If it weren't for the President, these Senators would have had to explain why they voted to give Trump the power to kill all of the military projects in their state.
Once again, the media fell for Trump's distracting tactics. Trump's fake forecast wasn't anywhere as newsworthy as the consequences of his taking $3.6 B from the Pentagon.
22
@Jack Edwards
A very good and timely reminder to keep our eye on the ball.
4
NOAA is constantly bowing to the Left and providing dubious ammunition for all their dire Global Warming claims. To think that NOAA wouldn’t try to damage Trump I’d beyond naive.
@JumpyGathers Except...NOAA has been correct.
10
@JumpyGathers
You are rights! Facts do have a liberal bias. And everybody is out to get Trump. Well, everybody except Trump, that is. And he probably shouldn't trust himself either.
9
@JumpGathers: Oh, please, just stop. Who drew a crude bubble on the map? NOAA?
11
All of this drama because of a 70+ year old man could not leave well enough alone. Like a small child having a tantrum he was not going to let go of this.
If he could of let this go the drama would already be over and he could have moved on to the next self inflicted disaster.
20
@Mary Ann If I coud like this x 1,000. I would.
5
The President holds ultimate responsibility for the entire country - its lands, its people, its infrastructure, everything.
What he did was grossly irresponsible.
Now THAT is an inexcusable and undeniable contradiction that proves Donald Trump is unfit to hold the office. Unfit now for sure, regardless of whether he ever was or not.
12
Pathetic. What this country has become is pathetic for allowing this poor excuse for a human being to continue to be the president.
15
A big hearty thank you to the chief scientist who said, in effect this is not how we at NOAA work.
Anyone who has used or relied on NOAA data over the years, like national temperatures or precipitation, can appreciate the accuracy, effort and integrity with which most government scientists gather the facts. Being in the public sector requires a commitment to the mission of the agency served; often ultimately the public.
Thanks for courage to reminding us that ,when given opportunity, we need to state the fact when the king has no clothes on. Thanks for your courage; we have your backs.
16
Wilbur Ross is the one that should be fired.
15
Sadly, I am becoming accustomed to this embarrassment. What causes me to really lose hope is how many of my fellow Americans and people around the world will dismiss this as fake news or some such. I used to think fox news was just pro business. But have come to believe they are actually seeking the demise of the U.S.
Try sleeping believing that....
11
What? I don’t understand. They want to punish scientists who told the public not to panic? They were responsible and used science. It you actually read what they wrote in the tweet at NWS Alabama, they did not contradict the president; they merely said Alabama was not in serious threat.
9
So off went the President in procession with his splendid new weather map. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, "Oh, how fine is the President’s new weather map! Doesn’t it predict the path of Hurricane Dorian to perfection? And see how Dorian will sweep across Florida into Alabama!"
Nobody would confess that the map had been changed, for that would prove the President either unfit for his position, or a fool. No other weather map the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had created before was ever such a complete success.
"But the map has been altered with a sharpie," a child said.
"Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?" said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, Jr.
And one person whispered to another what the child had said, “The map has been altered with a sharpie.”
"But the map has been altered with a sharpie!" the whole Country cried out at last.
The President shivered, for he knew they were right. But he thought, "This procession has got to go on." So the Secretary of Commerce threatened top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with termination, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disavowed the statement to the contrary by the Alabama Office, and the President walked more proudly than ever, as he held high the predicted course of the hurricane that wasn't there at all.
16
Trump needed to be able to fly into Alabama to console the people whose votes he desperately needs, and now that the hurricane didn't do his bidding, he's scared that no one will vote for him at all.
9
The lead photo looks like a still photo from the Netflix show Chernoble where the minions have to explain the explosion to the Communist Party!
7
I read some of the comments and notice a word that was not used describing this fiasco, PATHETIC. Trump and the GOP are pathetic, and we're quickly becoming a PATHETIC country to have allowed this to happen.
Where is the outrage, America?
28
How trivial can you get?
6
With Trump nonsense, one must always wonder what the media kerfuffle from some obvious stupidity is meant to distract from.
This week, I would argue it is the proposal that the U.S. is planning to eliminate all Refugee admissions.
12
The administration is denying that they threatened anybody's job, I don't believe them as they are the biggest bunch of liars ever.
8
For an obese man over six feet tall, the president is such a small man. Or as Anthony Scaramucci, his erstwhile communications director, recently put it: "A fat orange blob with self-esteem of a small pigeon." It's hard to put my finger on it, but this seems to distill the essential dissonance very well. I have to admit, the man can turn a phrase!
18
Another indication that Trump, with his political cronies are a danger to us all; not just in the USA, the world. There is a case for their removal, as quickly as possible. But would that be democracy, as Trump was voted in under the US system. So in reality, Trump is a failure of their type of democracy. How to fix this? I shudder to think.
4
You mean Wilbur woke up long enough to do something?
7
When his suggested solution to a hurricane is nuking it, one might expect trump to know a little more about geography.
Watch out Alabama!
5
How has Wilbur Ross not yet been impeached?
His qualifications for Secretary of Commerce seem to be his skills at Russian money laundering through the Bank of Cyprus.
Good job Wilbur! Maybe there’s a black Sharpie in your future as well.
16
trump is absolutely ridiculous in wearing a baseball cap with a suit on. . .was he having a bad hair day?
9
I am not at a loss
It’s time to toss
the dross—
Fire Ross
Impeach his boss.
16
This is madness! How is that moth eaten old corpse and the rest of these people not yet in prison? This is banana republic-level corruption. Unreal!
11
Detail, detail, details. I think this whole debacle is the result of Trump literally misreading Bahamas for Alabama. All those a's and b's and m's! It was probably and honest, lame mistake. We all make them. Why shouldn't the record be corrected? Pathetic.
6
@Marge: Agreed. And both regions are surrounded by such “huge waters!” It had to be so very confusing. Water traps, sand bunkers, bunker mentality, rain spoiling a perfectly good round of golf — “A lot of people say” they can’t tell the differences either. It’s all so very confusing when the wind is mussing your hair.
1
Why is such an obviously corrupt and ignorant man still president? Why? Why? If he isn’t impeachable, who on earth would be? Someone do something. Every single day donald destroys something else that matters.
12
Wow, when do we say we've hit banana republic status?
11
@RamS You just did!!
6
The lowliest employee at NOAA is worth at least 20 of Wilbur Ross--but I'm wrong. Twenty times nothing is nothing. You get my drift anyway, I'm sure.
4
This reminds me of the generals in the German army in the late nineteen twenties who thought Hitler was a joke and not quite right in the head--certainly not a person they had to worry about, and one who could be controlled easily. Remember how that turned out? We may not be quite that far gone yet, but we are moving towards the edge of the cliff at an ever faster pace.
13
While this may amuse many, it is very serious and needs to be investigated by congress. Ross needs to resign.
Creating confusing false warnings to an entire state that could potentially end in tragedy is dangerous governance and sets a disturbing precedent for agencies trying to help and guide the public in times of natural or human disasters.
Ironically it is Alabamans, who overwhelmingly voted for Trump, that this administration put at risk.
What happens the next time an agency tries to manage a fire or storm or flood and people wonder if they should listen to warnings or not?
This president has eroded so much trust in our government I’m not sure we will get it back even if he looses 2020.
The future safety of our nation’s citizens is gloomy.
13
Democracy in America!
1
There you have it, folks, the Emporer has no clothes.
6
And in the latest news ... Trump sends billions of dollars, millions of bottles of water, and even some paper towels to Alabama in order to prove that Hurricane Dorian was a threat to Alabama.
4
As in the country of Trump's pal Baby Kim, The Great Leader must never be contradicted -- got it, Americans?
6
Apparently our elected officials are fine with this kind of edict. This is not a Wilbur Ross-inspired threat; it has Trump written all over it. Ross is just the tired octogenarian sycophant paid to take the heat. The entire administration is a Fascist regime that has upended Democracy. Again, both houses of Congress are comfortable with this insanity. America is so close to being defunct, it’s not even remotely funny. Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue.
11
I feel like I’m trapped inside a weird episode of Firesign Theatre. Not to impugn their work. They just take note of the absurdity.
10
I'm calling it: Peak USA was July 20, 1969.
8
Where’s WILLARD SCOTT when we need him?!
6
More like John Hope. The deceased voice of reason when The Weather Channel was good.
1
The president's unseemly hissy fit about being corrected on a vital weather forecast is no longer surprising. What astonishes, however, is the collection of grown male and female ciphers who meekly volunteer to slink away from reality on the angry whim of a profoundly disturbed Commander-in-Chief.
Because Wilbur Ross said so? Are you kidding!?
17
Clearly Trump does not read the news about Dorian nor does he know where Alabama is. The coverup of the president’s lack of knowledge and his inability to consider he made a topographical error is the work of a charlatan. To say that the president is a joke in his role as president is an understatement. Any high school kid knows better then to place Alabama near the hurricane.
15
Apparently Wilbur Ross doesn't understand that the role of NOAA and the NWS is to illuminate conditions using all of the science at their command, not to obscure, obfuscate and self aggrandize like the shameless one in the Oval, to whom they are not subservient. Hey, wait, he does know that and he is. And he needs to go.
15
Alternatives facts.
George Orwell's 1984 was 35 years too early.
16
This is beyond laughable. It is unbelievable how the insecurities of an individual can have such repercussion. I do not know which one is worse, the temperamental or the one who justifies the tantrum. Just let it go!
13
Why is Wilbur Ross and other Trump errand boys still in office? ?
You know, the Constitution doesn't limit impeachment to the President.
Other officers under Trump can and should be investigated for possible impeachment.
16
This stuff makes the McCarthy hearings look relatively sane.
15
I am very disturbed that the reporters included the statement from the "senior government official" who state the "Birmingham office had been wrong" and "motivated by a desire to embarrass the president more than concern for the safety of people in Alabama. The official provided no evidence to support that conclusion."
Does that senior official have any expertise in hurricane forecasting that would justify saying the Birmingham meteorologists had been wrong? Or is that person merely a political hack with no background in science much less meteorology? With out doubt, the latter.
Does that senior official personally know any of the meteorologists involved in releasing that statement that would justify saying it was done only to embarrass Trump? Extraordinarily unlikely.
The official's first statement is demonstrably wrong: Alabama was not threatened. In the absence of evidence, the second statement amounts to character assassination and is frankly libelous.
That official's statement did not contradict the report that Ross ordered the statement under threat of firing. Including it is not balanced reporting, it is simply being an accessory to libel.
The Times should be ashamed.
4
Another shameless abuse of power by the Trump administration. And simply to save this petty-tyrant's fragile ego. Disgusting!
8
Wilbur ross, you need to quit. This had to come from you.
12
Heil, Mr. Trump, almighty, all-knowing, omnipotent ruler of all fact and fiction. We department underlings must obey our ruler or risk discipline. Sounds like the sign of a ruler, not a president, to me.
11
@Frank
Stormy might beg to differ about omnipotence.
7
Hey readers, instead of posting your thoughts to an echo chamber that gets off on1 your own sound (hey, I'm one of.you too!), deluge this corrupt puppet with emails
[email protected]
Your comments here have little bearing or influence, if any at all. Do something more productive!
13
This money launderer should be in jail!
5
@sandatucson
Why so if the money is now clean?
2
Wilbur Ross is a corrupt business man. His heading of an agency is a sham. He should not be allowed to interfere with scientific data from NOAA of the National Weather Service to please his boss who probably confused Bahama with ‘Bama.
16
The forecasters didn't conspire to make President Toddler look bad. President Toddler did that all on his own. It is beyond time we as a nation rise up and demand better.
11
so now it is better to not forewarn those in harm's way or cry watch out, as did chicken little, to those not under threat is a better alternative than correcting an expensive error? god help us
1
What does it say about the millions of Trump supporters who will not care one bit about this depravity? Worse, what does it say about our nation that has so many of these people?
It says that Trump voters' feelings matter more than facts, which means they could act irrationally, which means that 40 million people could seriously disrupt the objective reality of the world we live in, causing potentially catastrophic damage to society in ways no one has ever modeled, researched or studied.
9
I remember reading as a kid that there was once an entry in a Soviet encyclopedia that stated that Joseph Stalin was the inventor of the escalator. I recall wondering what it must be like to live in such a society. I never expected I'd live to find out.
14
"Dr. Jacobs is scheduled to address the conference Tuesday morning." There is really only one thing he needs to address. Did Wilbur Ross call him, (as the three unnamed sources in the article claim), and threaten to fire NOAA's political staff. Yes or no? If yes, Ross needs to resign immediately.
9
There are people at NOAA who know the truth and could prove it. Why aren't we seeing any whistleblowers that will seek truth. Is there no one brave or patriotic enough to call this out?
There are so many dangerous lies coming from the Trump administration and in many cases, there are people who know the truth (Epstein's cover up of his death comes to mind). And those who know the truth keep quiet. A sad statement on our crumbling democracy. British politicians from all sides moved to stop their insane prime minister. But not in the US.
9
If the king lies it is best that you lie with him or off with your head. Ross is his perfect stooge. Everyone can see this classical case of complete corruption of both morals and intellect. It is now a matter of whether we care.
6
Why is anyone still listening to the pathological liar in the WH. Look elsewhere for the truth about anything at all. Shame on all those who support this corrupt, sick administration.
19
Think of how much better this would have played out if the POTUS had simply ignored the contradictory tweet from NWS. If he had concentrated on the matter of governance and offered solace, comfort and encouragement to the storm victims, that would have been remembered long after his petty blooper had been forgotten.
11
1984!!!
6
Banana Republic!....this is what the White House cronies are....
7
Ross has no credibility. see the Census flap
for illustrative purposes
He is a liar in service of another liar
17
Wilbur Ross is an outrageous disgrace to his office.
15
@Comp
And his Office is an outrageous disgrace to the history of this country.
2
@Ken
Bet you don't know exactly what Commerce does, do you? Few people do. Most think it 'regulates Commerce'. It doesn't. Mostly what Commerce does is handle DATA. Like the weather.
I suggest you read The Fifth Risk.
1
What would Mitch McConnell do?
Take more Xanax , way more till November 2020.
9
Banana Republic. Tin-pot dictator. Making America grate again. Pitiful.
17
Oh, this is just precious, apparently you can contradict the "leader" just like in Russia or China, or else...
He managed to start a twitter war with John Legend & Chrissy Teigen so busy mister "president" running the country, so pathetically needy, aren't you...
Such small creature...do we deserve this?
13
Wilbur Ross. Just one more corrupt log on the rotting woodpile known as the Trump Administration. Anyone got a match?
20
How dare Wilbur Ross threaten government scientists who are paid with my tax dollars with losing their jobs for telling the truth.
Wilbur Ross, who is currently collecting a salary paid with our tax dollars, is not fit to serve in the government.
He is not even fit to be an American.
Wilbur Ross would be better suited for the Third Reich.
20
Wilbur Ross’s threats are a de facto acknowledgment that Donald Trump lied to the American people—again.
10