Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/05/new-foiad-emails-reveal-the.html
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The past few years must have had a lot of life-long public servants questioning their career choices. When this is over (I hope it’s “when”) their perseverance despite incidents like this should be recognised, since they’ve kept things from getting even worse than they already are.
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found themselves torn between protecting the public, and protecting the president’s fragile ego
How the fuck is that a difficult choice?
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Because there have been and continue to be dire personal and career consequences for public servants who dared choose the former. Not to mention the prospect of having one’s agency gutted.
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This was not a blunder.
Drumpf was deliberately and actively trying to making the National Weather Service look bad, because his GOP cronies from Pennsylvania (starting with notable homophobe Rick Santorum) have been purchased by Accuweather. They have been trying to convince Congress to privatize weather prediction services for many years, so they will have the monopoly on forecasting, along with the ability to charge for it.
In 2005, they tried a significant online comment spam campaign to sway a sleazy bill prohibiting the NWS from publishing their product for free, claiming the government shouldn’t compete with the private sector; and gave Santorum the text of a bill to repeal the laws requiring the government to provide naval forecasts for the Coast Guard. They’ve greased Santorum’s stinkhole of a campaign with wads of filthy cash, and they believe Drumpf’s reign is the perfect season to reap the harvest they imagine they’ve paid for and somehow deserve.
Fortunately, they failed. But with Dear Leader in charge, they’ve been working double time to try to reinstate their coup.
One amusing fact stands in their way: their own forecasts are horribly inaccurate in comparison to the NOAA and NWS output.
Anyway, screw Accuweather, screw Santorum, and screw Drumpf. And use weather.gov instead of accuweather[.]com whenever you can. Don’t ever give Accuweather a dime!
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Not sure I buy the “there’s a method behind the madness!” claims. Remember he’s Biff Tannen, not Niccolo Machiavelli.
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Sometimes the truth is the best defense:
“We have been informed by the President that Alabama will be hit hard by Hurricane Dorian and directed by the Administration to warn the public correspondingly.”
He’s done this consistently with many of the Federal agencies. He’s tried to taint the EPA, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, Health and Human Services, the State Department, the FBI, the Department of the Interior, etc.
Besides, it’s Putin’s strategy, not Drumpf’s. (Technically, the strategy came from the Kremlin, as it predates Putin by a few decades.) Russia’s official strategy is to destabilize the Main Enemy by sowing doubt in its ability to carry out it’s duties, making them look weak on the world stage, and fomenting internal dissent. Ultimately, they expect the collapse of the US to make the world embrace the cool, competent leadership of Russia.
Biff is just following orders.
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I don’t think the weather map nonsense was an example of him following orders; exactly no one benefitted from him making himself look like a reality-denying fool in opposition to the National Weather Service.
I think that incident was just Trump being the narcissistic moron that he always is, picking a fight with objective reality simply because it had the gall to disagree with him.
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I guess we see things differently. You see Biff, and are satisfied that he is simply a deranged moron with a tenuous grasp on reality. And that’s OK.
But I’ve studied the KGB’s history, and I see the hands who deliberately selected the moron to serve as a chaos agent (“useful idiot” in KGB parlance), and who turned him loose on America. Putin didn’t specifically tell him to “destabilize the NOAA.” He chose Drumpf expecting him to act chaotically and destructively across all of the Federal government. (And I expect during Drumpf’s annual performance review meeting with his handler Putin, Vlad simply has to stroke his ego, validating his neuroses by saying “I also find being a strong leader is hard and often unpopular. You’re doing a great job at ignoring the naysayers, sticking to your principles, and showing the country you’re capable of making tough decisions!”)
You’re absolutely right that it wasn’t Rasputin’s direct command to “muck with the NOAA”, it was just the current random path of the destructive force that is Drumpf’s existence, each minor disaster fitting nicely into his master’s plan.
The desire to specifically destroy the NOAA comes from the profiteers running the GOP, Drumpf’s public master; and his little pea-brain is at least capable of making every Federal agency look bad on their behalf. (No doubt at their request) Drumpf appointed the former CEO of Accuweather to serve as the head of the NWS. But his drive to clumsily destroy fits with the goals of both of his masters.
Ultimately, though, Drumpf is Putin’s “dirty bomb.” He’s not targeted at a specific agency, he’s a terrorist weapon intended to cause general panic, mistrust, disorder, and disaster.
Mission accomplished.
I’m pretty sure weather.com is owned by IBM. I’ve written water conservation articles from them, and that’s where my check comes from…
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Fixed it, thanks.
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