How federal employees and other insiders are fighting Trump.
- Dozens of diplomats and foreign service officers are considering signing a formal letter of dissent against Trump's Muslim ban. Updated Jan 30, 2017 ago
- State Dept. top advisers resign en masse against Trump's foreign policy.
- Trump's war with the National Parks employees was, shall we say, unpredicted.
Jan 30, 2017A policy which closes our doors to over 200 million legitimate travelers in the hopes of preventing a small number of travelers who intend to harm Americans from using the visa system to enter the United States will not achieve its aim of making our country safer.
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State Dept. top advisers resign en masse against Trump's foreign policy.
"It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember." And these aren't people who can be quickly replaced.
Trump's war with National Parks employees was, shall we say, unpredicted.
After Trump directed several federal agencies, including the EPA, HHS, USDA, and Interior Department, to freeze all communications, social media managers at various National Parks began tweeting out climate statistics and the like:
"Free speech, exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where the people are free." TR, 5/7/1918
— TR Inaugural Site (@TRInauguralSite) January 25, 2017
2016 was the hottest year on record for the 3rd year in a row. Check out this @NASA & @NOAA report: https://t.co/rLJUC56xqi pic.twitter.com/AKhFzYw6l6
— Golden Gate NPS (@GoldenGateNPS) January 23, 2017
The Times dismissed the outraged reaction online as "unrealistic," but the order seems genuinely alarming, with anonymous career bureaucrats all but promising Politico that they will be working against Trump's policies and leaking what they can to the press.
Lawsuit asks court to rule that the President of the United States is a lawbreaker.
Norman Eisen and Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyers under Obama and Bush, respectively, filed a lawsuit against Trump asking a federal court to rule that Trump has already broken the Constitution's Emoluments Clause.
Eisen and Painter have both joined the board of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, part of David Brock's tentacle organization, but Brock appears to have ceded control to them.
Trump muffles government scientists, hindering climate work—and scientists roar back.
As soon as today, reams of climate data used around the world will be taken down from the EPA website. The agency has already frozen its grants program. And it looks like further EPA research will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by political officers before being published. While it's normal for administrations to take a moment to get their ducks in a row, the targeting of scientists in a specific agency hostile to Trump's fossil fuel cabinet is cause for alarm.
It's not just the EPA: A major climate change conference organized by the Centers for Disease Control was unexpectedly canceled. And the Dept. of Health and Human Services was told to cease communications with public officials, including Congress, which seems pretty insane. Many of these agencies adopted scientific integrity policies under Obama—but are now finding them toothless.
But there are causes for hope:
—Archive.org has saved copies of the EPA website.
—The USDA quickly rescinded an order to scientists not to publicize new research.
—And pissed-off scientists are gearing up to run for office with support from a new nonprofit. They also joined marchers on Saturday and are planning their own march.
Get regular updates on how President Trump is further destroying the Earth.
Columbia Law School launched a Climate Deregulation Tracker on Trump's first day in office, so at least we have an idea of how badly the planet is about to get fucked.
The Editors' Longreads Picks
- An excellent essay on poverty and writing by Starr Davis. Updated May 31, 2022
- Novelist Héctor Tobar tries to understand the 1992 Los Angeles riots through the experiences of a single high school.
- Steven Johnson with a long assessment of the current state of A.I. and language. (The illusion has gotten very good.)
Welcome to The Morning News Tournament of Books, 2017 edition.
- Our championship match is decided in the Tournament of Books, with news of a Rooster surprise debuting this summer. Updated Mar 31, 2017
- In Thursday's action, Reyhan Harmanci sets up a colossal final.
- The Zombie round opens with Buzzfeed's Isaac Fitzgerald reading The Nix and The Underground Railroad.
Все ваши Белый дом принадлежит нам.
- "Will Putin expose the failings of American democracy or will he inadvertently expose the strength of American democracy?" Updated Mar 3, 2017
- Wilbur Ross just wanted to make some money in ethically gray areas (that should've prevented him from taking office).
- Jeff Sessions's spokeswoman can't help but continue to lie.
The oceans are under assault, and not just from the White House and friends.
- Trump's assault on the environment begins with American headwaters. Updated Mar 1, 2017
- Don't just blame the oil companies for destroying the oceans—blame sushi restaurants.
- Nothing escapes the deepest trenches of the ocean floor. Not light, not nutrients, not pollutants.