A Flood of Trumpism
Yet another deplorable week in review
We have a lot to talk about this morning, including an unspeakable tragedy out of Texas. While it’s important not to rush to judgment before we have the full picture, attention ought to be paid: “As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas - NYT (Gift Link).
The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers.
The Weather Service’s nearby San Antonio office, which covers other areas hit by the floods, also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer, Mr. Fahy said.
Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.
That office’s warning coordination meteorologist left on April 30, after taking the early retirement package the Trump administration used to reduce the number of federal employees….
If only we had been warned that performative chainsaw spending cuts might have consequences: This is from May: “How Trump’s National Weather Service Cuts Could Cost Lives” | Scientific American: “Weather experts warn that staff cuts at the National Weather Service that have been made by the Trump administration are a danger to public safety as tornadoes, hurricanes and heat loom this spring and summer.”1
Happy Sunday.
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Trump’s July Hatefest
Trump is a terrible loser. This is known. But, as we also know, he is also a craptacularly ungracious winner. And so we got this: “Trump Kicks Off Celebration of America by Declaring His Hatred for Democrats”
Taking to the lectern behind thick bulletproof glass in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, Trump immediately started firing off political potshots. “They wouldn’t vote only because they hate Trump, but I hate them, too, you know?” …
“I really do. I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country.”
Exit take: Once upon a time (and many of you will simply have to take my word for it), we had presidents who at least pretended to represent all Americans and tried to unite the country, if only briefly. Good times.
(COMING IN MONDAY’S NEWSLETTER: A Blunt Look at the BBB Fails (tough love warning for those of you want safe spaces.)
Anatomy of the GOP Cave
Has anyone checked in on Lisa Murkowski this weekend? You’ll recall that right after she cast the decisive vote to pass the MegaMagaBill, she offered this bit of disingenuous naivete:
“We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination,” Murkowski told reporters. “My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.”
You know the rest. The GOP House not only did not improve the bill in any way, it choked down the whole thing. Because lemmings gonna lemming.
Even so the serial surrenders were illustrative. After weeks of posturing, strutting, and strongly worded statements of principle and opposition, only two House Republicans voted against the BBB. As Politico noted, “Everyone else — running the ideological spectrum from Don Bacon (R-Neb.) to Chip Roy (R-Texas) — got on board.”
The emphasis here should be on everybody.
The invertebrate House Freedom Caucus collapsed like a gaggle of slinkies.
The “moderates” did what they always do, and raced off the same cliff as their wingnut colleagues. Many of them had expressed alarm over the bill’s deep Medicaid cuts and warned that it might kill many of their constituents. They voted for it anyway.
Ditto: members of the alleged pro-Ukraine GOP caucus could have used its leverage to push back against Trump’s latest shocking betrayal. Not one did. Not one.
“What did they get?” asked Politico. “Honestly, it doesn’t seem like they got anything.”
Exit take. Maybe they’ll get the t-shirt:
Because the Brutality is the point.
This may come as a surprise to you…
…. but Trump is already lying about what’s in the bill; and the flood of disinformation is just beginning. Via the Guardian: ‘Blatant misinformation’: Social Security Administration email praising Trump’s tax bill blasted as a ‘lie’
An email sent by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) that claims Donald Trump’s major new spending bill has eliminated taxes on benefits for most recipients is misleading, critics said….
However, the spending bill does not actually eliminate federal taxes on social security due to the rule constraints of passing a bill this way – through the reconciliation process, to avoid a Democratic filibuster.
Instead, the legislation provides a temporary tax deduction of up to $6,000 for people aged 65 and older, and $12,000 for married seniors. These benefits will start to phase out for those with incomes of more than $75,000 and married couples of more than $150,000 a year.
Previous SSA officials said that the Trump administration’s framing of the bill was misleading. “People are like: ‘Is this real? Is this a scam?’ Because it’s not what they signed up for,” Kathleen Romig, a former senior adviser at the SSA during the Biden administration, told CNN.
Nota bene
The resignation letter of FBI official Michael Feinberg: Goodbye to All That — Lawfare.
(Michael Feinberg is a former Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he spent the overwhelming majority of his career combatting the PRC’s intelligence services. He is a recipient and multiple times nominee of the FBI’s highest recognition, the Director’s Award for Excellence, as well as numerous other Bureau honors and ODNI commendations.)
The specifics of my experience may be unique—details often are—but the broad strokes of the story have become unfortunately common in recent months, as more and more special agents are driven out of the Bureau on mere suspicion of political unreliability. These developments should be concerning to all Americans. In the past six months, the FBI—and, for that matter, the Department of Justice and intelligence community as a whole—has been forcing out a wide range of experienced personnel needed to protect our nation. Under Patel and Bongino, subject matter expertise and operational competence are readily sacrificed for ideological purity and the ceaseless politicization of the workforce. At a time of simultaneous wars across the globe and a return to great power competition, this makes us all less safe.
A week of commentary
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Sunday dogs
Our French dog, Zoke, is missing his people (who are all here), but, apparently, is making the best of it.
From May:
Now meteorology experts are urgently warning that the Trump administration’s staff firings and funding cuts at the National Weather Service (and its parent, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) threaten to disrupt these crucial operations and turn back the clock on forecasting.
“Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life,” wrote five former NWS directors from both Democratic and Republican administrations in an open letter on May 2.
See also: The Atlantic: “Hurricane Science Was Great While It Lasted” [Gift Link]
For years, the National Hurricane Center has been improving the accuracy of its forecasts, and one short year ago, the United States was better at predicting storms’ tracks than it had ever been. But the Trump administration has been cutting the forecasting staff and budgets. And now these satellite data will be missing too. The U.S. is rapidly losing state-of-the-art hurricane forecasting, just in time for hurricane season’s busiest months.
“Because lemmings gonna lemming” is such a succinct description of today’s Republican Party.
The depletion of staffing is across the board. I see it with the Park Service where I am a volunteer. I have a close working relationship with senior rangers. Superintendents and senior staff are having to cover multiple sites because of retirements and resignations.
It will be very hard to undo the harms across the government.