News chunks: Another illegal MAGA attack on climate science; Regarding the MAGA attack on government

SciAm writes about another illegal MAGA attack on climate science: “Trump Dismisses Scientists Writing Key Climate Report -- djt dismissed hundreds of scientists working on the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, raising concerns about whether the void will be filled with pseudoscience. The Trump administration on Monday dismissed all of the scientists working on the newest version of the National Climate Assessment, a sweeping report that outlines the growing dangers of rising temperatures for lawmakers, policy experts and the public. The sixth installment of the congressionally mandated report, which was due to come out by 2028, has typically been put together by about 400 researchers, many of whom are top scientists at universities who volunteer their time. The assessment is used to craft environmental rules, legislation and infrastructure project planning. It seen by experts as the definitive body of research about how global warming is transforming the country.”

The SciAm article goes on to point out that djt and MAGA elites will replace those real scientists with among the few actual climate scientists who downplay global warming. One can reasonably expect some crackpot MAGA thug, non-experts to be included in the new cadre. For context, a 2021 survey of 2,780 scientists found that among all earth scientists, 91% agreed that human activity is causing climate change, but the figure rose to 98.7% among climate scientists and reached 100% among those with the highest levels of expertise (20 or more published papers). These results indicate that the consensus is strongest among those most deeply engaged in climate research. 

Welp, ladies 'n germs, it could not be clearer. djt and MAGA hate climate science, honest climate scientists, and the idea of global warming. They are cynical, lying climate science deniers. They know that climate science is true and global warming is real. But djt and MAGA elites could not care less how much human or economic cost there will be or how many species go extinct. Why? Because there is just too damn much money to be made in privatizing and trickling up profits from pollution, human deaths, species extinctions and global warming while socializing all the human and environmental costs and carnage. 

I call that MAGA’s moral rot.

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Some people assert that the firings and alleged cost cutting by MAGA elites and DOGE are targeted and at least modestly thought out. I keep trying to convey the idea that it is mindless and cruel, with little to no thought given to cost-benefit or the public interest. This is all about gaining more wealth and power for elite special interests. Available data indicate that cost benefit is close to neutral to negative, with costs (which MAGA never mentions) outweighing alleged, often false claims of benefits. The American Prospect writes: 

For the second time in three months, acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Russ Vought has tried to fire most of the staff and cripple its functions. The union for CFPB employees has successfully beaten both attacks back, and a hearing today will determine whether the second effort will formally fail. (See the update; the hearing was canceled because the union was victorious, for now, in blocking the mass firing.)

The idea that a particularized assessment of every employee and statutory authority could be done in less than a week stretches credulity is impossible. The leadership team MAGA thugs got key facts wrong in representations to the court, like misnaming what division the Office of Community Affairs sits in, suggesting that the process was less than meticulous knowingly sloppy, cruel and malicious. And attorneys who worked on the RIF literally copy-pasted from Google the results of a search for “CFPB organic statute” when asked what CFPB was required to carry out.

The declarations, mostly written by senior leaders in different divisions and offices of the CFPB, further show how Vought and company chose arbitrary head count numbers and “retrofitted” the RIF to reflect that number. None of these senior officers were consulted about the RIF, and many were themselves fired.

Even if saved from destruction, there isn’t likely to be any consumer protection going on at the CFPB through 2028. Vought and company have made that perfectly clear. But the hatchet job looks even worse in the details than what we all expected from the outside, and that’s valuable to know for when people are inevitably scammed and robbed, and are looking for whom to blame. 

 (emphasis added) (edits added to enhance clarity)

It cannot be any clearer. djt and his cadre of elite MAGA thugs hate government and the public interest. They have zero interest in what fired employees do or what costs are associated with losing government functions that serve and protect the public interest. djt and MAGA elites are literally using a mindless chain saw to eliminate useful, cost-saving, anti-corruption, public interest-protecting functions. MAGA elites and djt are corrupt and cruel to their 100% morally rotted core.