Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Friday, June 27, 2025

Teaching lies in Oklahoma; MAGA kleptocrats claw their way into weather forecasting


Fact checker Snopes reports that Oklahoma will teach high school students that MAGA's 2020 election-fraud lies are facts. Disinformed and deceived students is MAGA's concept of good public education.

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The Latin Times reports that the MAGA administration is stopping accumulation some of the data gathering and analysis needed to predict and track hurricanes.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense declared it would stop processing and transmitting microwave data collected from a trio of weather satellites jointly operated with NOAA, Local 10 News reported. These satellites provide crucial scans used by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and others to detect storm structure, estimate intensity and track development over oceans where on-the-ground observations are limited or nonexistent.

The move was formalized the next day in a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) service change notice and will take effect by June 30.
FWIW, Project 2025 explicitly calls for dismantling NOAA and privatizing weather forecasting services. It says that NOAA "should be broken up and downsized" and characterizes it as "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry." The plan specifically proposes that the National Weather Service should "fully commercialize its forecasting operations" and focus primarily on data collection while leaving forecasting to private companies.

There is solid evidence of a coordinated effort by private weather companies, particularly AccuWeather, to limit government weather services. Barry Myers, former CEO of AccuWeather, was nominated by Trump in 2017 to lead NOAA despite having no scientific background. Myers had previously lobbied** to restrict the National Weather Service from providing free weather forecasts to the public, arguing that the government should "get out of the forecasting business." 

** Pxy: The vast majority of claims in the Reddit post are factually accurate and well-documented. The most significant allegations—about Myers' background, the location tracking violations, the ineffectiveness of extended forecasts, Santorum's legislation, and the sexual harassment investigation—are all supported by credible sources including government investigations, court documents, and journalistic reports.