Commerce Chief Threatened Firings at NOAA After Trump's Hurricane Tweets, Sources Say
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at NOAA on Friday after the agencys Birmingham office contradicted President Trumps claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion. That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disavowing the offices own position that Alabama was not at risk. The reversal caused widespread anger within the agency and drew criticism from the scientific community that NOAA, a division of the Commerce Department, had been bent to political purposes. Officials at the White House and the Commerce Department declined to comment.
The actions by the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur L. Ross Jr., are the latest developments in a political imbroglio that began more than a week ago, when Dorian was bearing down on the Bahamas and Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter that Alabama would be hit harder than anticipated. A few minutes later, the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Ala., posted on Twitter that Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama.
Mr. Trump persisted in saying that Alabama was at risk and a few days later, on Sept. 4, he displayed a NOAA map that appeared to have been altered with a black sharpie to include Alabama in the area potentially affected by Dorian.
What on Earth Is Going On?
Mr. Ross, the Commerce Secretary, intervened two days later, early last Friday, according to the three people familiar with his actions. Mr. Ross phoned Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA, from Greece where the secretary was traveling for meetings and instructed Dr. Jacobs to fix the agencys perceived contradiction of the president. Dr. Jacobs objected to the demand and was told that the political staff at NOAA would be fired if the situation was not fixed, according to the three individuals, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the episode. Unlike career government employees, political staff are appointed by the administration. They usually include a handful of top officials, such as Dr. Jacobs, and their aides.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/climate/hurrican-dorian-trump-tweet.html
riversedge
(69,721 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,305 posts)In the "business" world, "appearances" matter more than substance. This became a "P.R." problem, regardless of the fact of the actual need for the BMX (Birmingham CWA) office to relay the correct info due to their office suddenly receiving concerned messages from the public.
riversedge
(69,721 posts)getting the order from Trump to Threaten them. Trump loves to fire people, he just likes others to do it for him
BumRushDaShow
(127,305 posts)Ross was told to "take care of the problem" and obviously all hell broke loose and the entire NWS was thrown under the bus on the road to doing that.
tanyev
(42,359 posts)durablend
(7,416 posts)LiberalLovinLug
(14,154 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,153 posts)threatening scientists who point out inconvenient facts at odds with the Great Leader's thoughts. Who needs a scientist to get it wrong when Trump can?
jpak
(41,742 posts)People depend of timely accurate hurricane forecasts.
Trump has destroyed the credibility of NHC - to what end?
My guess...
?w=476&h=345
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,305 posts)He was obviously "directed" to "take care of the (P.R.) problem". And we saw the result.
Having worked for the federal government for 30+ years (now retired), when the "big boss" barks (and the "yap" only needs to be a sentence in an email or a phone call to a deputy), then shit hits the fan down the line. I.e., it can get ugly real fast as the severity of the "order" gets magnified like an avalance as it moves down the chain of command to the bottom of the rung employees.
PSPS
(13,512 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(56,895 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,305 posts)CatWoman
(79,283 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(56,895 posts)Wow - Louis Uccellini, director of National Weather Service, has broken with his NOAA bosses and backed the Alabama NWS forecasters.
Uccellini is a big deal in meteorology. He literally wrote the textbook on big northeast snowstorms with Paul Kocin.
https://washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/09/noaas-chief-scientist-will-investigate-why-agency-backed-trump-over-its-experts-dorian-email-shows/
Link to tweet
NOAAs chief scientist will investigate why agency backed Trump over its experts on Dorian, email shows
National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini has also broken with NOAA leadership
By Kayla Epstein, Andrew Freedman, Jason Samenow and Kate Harrison Belz
September 9 at 1:35 PM
....
NWS director backs agency forecasters
Also on Monday, National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini got a standing ovation at a major weather industry conference in Huntsville, Ala., when he broke with his bosses at NOAA by enthusiastically backing his agencys forecasters regarding their performance during Hurricane Dorian.
Uccellini, who has been part of NWS since 1989, praised Birminghams NWS office for clarifying that there was no threat to the region and upholding the integrity of the forecasting process.
They did what any office would do, Uccellini told the crowd of hundreds of meteorologists. With an emphasis they deemed essential, they shut down what they thought were rumors. They quickly acted to reassure their partners, the media and the public with strong language that there was no threat.
They did that with one thing in mind: public safety, Uccellini said. And they responded not knowing where this information was coming from. Only later, [when] the retweets and the politically based comments came into their office, did they learn the source of this information.
Wow! What a powerful moment and moving show of support with a standing ovation for WFO Birmingham. Thank you @NWSDirector! #NWAS19
Link to tweet
Uccellini noted the strong relationships the Birmingham office has with local emergency officials, particularly in the wake of tornadoes that killed 23 in the region in March. He said these emergency officials praised the Birmingham weather teams speed in quashing the false information. ... Let me be clear: The Birmingham office did this to stop public panic, he said, and to ensure public safety.
.@NWSDirector offers a very impassioned defense of the @NWSBirmingham, stating they did exactly what they were supposed to do. The office received a standing ovation. So did Louis. The word integrity was used a lot. Kudos to him. #nwas19
Link to tweet
He then called for members of the Birmingham NWS office to stand, along with all NWS employees. Attendees gave them a loud, minute-long standing ovation, and also gave Uccellini a standing ovation. ... NOAAs Jacobs, who has a science background in computer modeling and has sought to improve NWS forecast models, is slated to address the same Alabama audience on Tuesday morning, and there is social media chatter of planned protests of his speech.
....
Colby Itkowitz contributed to this report.
Kayla Epstein is the social media editor for National at The Washington Post. She specializes in blending traditional reporting and social media to tell stories and engage readers. She previously worked for the Guardian US, where she worked in support of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that broke the National Security Agency stories. Follow https://twitter.com/kaylaepstein
Andrew Freedman edits and reports on weather, extreme weather and climate science for Capital Weather Gang. He has covered science, with a specialization in climate research and policy, for Axios, Mashable, Climate Central, E&E Daily and other publications. He was among the first contributors to Capital Weather Gang, starting in 2004. Follow https://twitter.com/Afreedma
Jason Samenow is The Washington Posts weather editor and Capital Weather Gang's chief meteorologist. He earned a master's degree in atmospheric science and spent 10 years as a climate change science analyst for the U.S. government. He holds the Digital Seal of Approval from the National Weather Association. Follow https://twitter.com/capitalweather
BumRushDaShow
(127,305 posts)I have passed it on to my weather forum!
IronLionZion
(45,258 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,305 posts)One operates on branding and the bottom line, where the "mission" is to turn a profit and doing so successfully can be impacted by "bad P.R.". Thus any negativity must be spun into blaming someone or something else for a failure in practices that miss expectations...
Alternately, the other operates as a "non-profit", where "P.R." (of any kind) has little or no impact on the financial health of the organization, but legitimacy and reliability is key. So "P.R." be damned when it comes to carrying out the "mission" on behalf of the tax-paying public as long as the public is getting the services and information it needs for their "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
The cognitive dissonance of business types like Ross and Drumpf are very obvious and run counter to how government is supposed to operate.
kyburbonkid
(251 posts)What a turd the secretary is to threaten NOAA - NWS employees with a firing. He's an ass****** and a-holes of this species deserve nothing but grief and should sweat in his seat when trumpo and the swamp go down in history as the shits they are. He is the toad that deserves to sink with the ship when TRUMP IS FIRED! Indeed not only should he be fired but he should be brought up for criminal action for attacking non-political appointees with political threats. Anti-sci rightwing flakes and nuts deserve prison followed by a long re-education camp!
Sorry, this story just pissed me off.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)Two Democratic lawmakers are calling for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's resignation following a report that he threatened top officials for contradicting President Trump's claims Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama.
Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) each demanded the secretary step down in statements late Monday, saying that Ross's reported threats were "an embarrassing new low."
"Wilbur Ross does not deserve the trust of the American people or a place in the Cabinet and he should be dismissed immediately," Beyer wrote.
"Reporting now suggests that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross put the safety of countless Americans at risk by compromising America's hurricane warning system just to protect the President's ego. If these reports are true, Secretary Ross needs to take responsibility and resign," Tonko wrote.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democrats-call-for-ross-to-resign-for-reportedly-threatening-to-fire-officials/ar-AAH2Vu2
BumRushDaShow
(127,305 posts)He has slimed and slithered under the radar for far too long.
dem4decades
(11,241 posts)Was that just bullshit or what?
Arazi
(6,829 posts)dem4decades
(11,241 posts)So sick of thinking the chickens will come home to roost. The only one paying the piper is Cohen and he actually helped the Feds.
If you obstruct you win, sick of it i tell you.
patphil
(6,033 posts)There should not be any politically appointed positions at NOAA.
Management should all be civil service.