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| After published reports that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross threatened to fire NOAA employees who issued accurate forecasts that contradicted Trump, I think this guy has gotta go. |
According to the New York Times, scummy Commerce Secretary and Trump plaything Wilbur Ross threatened to fire meteorologists and others who contradicted Trump.
As commerce secretary, Ross oversees NOAA and by extention the National Weather Service.
Apparently, accurate forecasts that warn people of danger are less important that massaging Trump's ego.
Ross denies the New York Times report. But Ross his lied before, so I don't trust him.
If you don't recall what started thsi whole mess: A couple of Sundays ago, Trump mistakenly said that Alabama was in the path of dangerous Hurricane Dorian. There had been some forecasts that had suggested this could be the case several days earlier, but by the time Trump made his statement, Alabama was off the table. Forecasters knew that state was safe from Dorian.
The Birmingham, Alabams office of the National Weather Service issued a tweet saying that Trump got it wrong: Alabama was safe. These meteorologists did this to avoid unnecessary panic in the state.
This is how the Trump people think: The New York Times said a senior administration official who asked not to be identified accused the Birmingham meteorologists of issuing their correction tweet because they were motivated to embarass the president and not out of concern over safety.
Yep, everything is apparently about the president. Anyone who does anything either does it to help or hurt Trump, seems to be the thinking. There's supposedly no other motivation.
In its report, the New York Times said Ross phoned Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA and ordered him to fix the agency's perceived contradiction of the president.
Meanwhile, fellow scientists are enthusiastically standing by the Birmingham NWS meteorlogists, which is a good thing. They're standing up for scientific accuracy and ethics. They're certainly not happy with Jacobs. There happens to be a major meteorology conference going on this week in Huntsville, Alabama, and Jacobs is scheduled to speak there today. That ought to be interesting!
At that conference in Huntsville on Monday, attendees gave the Birmingham meteorlogists a long standing ovation.
By the way, the New York Times article is definitely worth the read because it also summarizes how often Trump denies science to soothe his own ego.
As we've said here previously, this is very dangerous because the public needs to trust agencies like the National Weather Service to provide reliable, accurate, life-saving weather warnings.
Scientists within NOAA are fighting back.
NOAA"s acting chief scientist Craig McLean has said he will investigate why his supervisors at NOAA backed Trump's claim over its own forecasters.
In an email obtained by NBC News, McLean wrote that the unsigned NOAA statement that threw the Alabama meteorologists under the bus "inappropriately and incorrectly contracted the (National Weather Service) forecaster."
We hope this investigations sheds more light on this scandal.
Meanwhile, I know this won't happen, but if Ross had an ounce of dignity, which he doesn't, he'd resign.
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