It looks like the emperor wants to appoint someone who lobbies against the national weather service while being part of a business that consumes its data for selling weather services to the public. What do our resident pardians make of this textbook definition of conflict of interest? 🤔

Personally i think the govt shouldn't be spending tax dollars on weather services entirely and people should prepare for the weather themselves and do their own research.

https://oceanleadership.org/trump-taps-accuweather-ceo-head-noaa-breaking-precedent-nominating-scientists/

Barry Myers, the chief executive of the private weather forecasting company AccuWeather, is President Trump’s pick to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The appointment of Myers, a businessman and lawyer, breaks from the recent precedent of scientists leading the agency tasked with a large, complex and technically demanding portfolio.

(From Washington Post/by Jason Samenow) — The agency oversees the National Weather Service, conducts and funds weather and climate research, and operates a constellation of weather satellites as well as a climate data center. It also has critical responsibilities in monitoring and protecting the nation’s coasts, oceans and fisheries.

Myers’s supporters say he brings valuable experience from the private sector that will help NOAA advance its capabilities.

“n an Administration that places high value on business acumen, Barry brings a strong track record in growing one of the most successful companies in the weather industry,” said Ray Ban, co-chair of the Weather Coalition, an advocacy group for strengthening America’s weather industry across sectors.

Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher, NOAA administrator under George W. Bush, said Myers is an “ideal fit” for the position. “Barry brings with him an outstanding record as a leader and manager as well as many years of experience in all aspects of meteorology,” he said.

But others are concerned about his potential conflicts of interest and lack of science background.

As NOAA administrator, Myers would be in charge of the Weather Service whose data are heavily used by his family business, based in State College, Pa.

AccuWeather has, in the past, supported measures to limit the extent to which the Weather Service can release information to the public, so that private companies could generate their own value-added products using this same information. In 2005, for example, Myers and his brother Joel gave money to then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who introduced legislation aimed at curtailing government competition with private weather services.

“Barry Myers defines ‘conflict of interest,’” said Ciaran Clayton, who was communications director at NOAA in the Obama administration. “He actively lobbied to privatize the National Weather Service, which works day in and day out to protect the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, to benefit his own company’s bottom line.”

Myers’s appointment is strongly opposed by the labor union for the National Weather Service, the NWS Employees Organization, for this same reason. “As NOAA administrator, he would be in a position to fundamentally alter the nature of weather services that NOAA provides the nation, to the benefit of his family-owned business,” said Richard Hirn, a spokesperson for the union.

There's certainly the potential for conflict of interest, but at least this person has experience in the industry the agency oversees, unlike so many other Trump appointees.

basically my thoughts. beats Ben Carson who's experience in housing and urban development was "once lived in an urban setting".

That was the first person who came to mind.

I'm uneasy with this to a large degree. Hiring a guy to be the head of an agency he's been at odds against in order to push the profit/marketing of their weather predictions just looks bad.

The National Weather Service is committed to being scientific to predicting the weather for a public service. So a guy who is basically wasn't just a person apart of Accuweather, he was literally a person at the top, this just should not be allowed period. And if you are in favor of this, it's almost like you are admitting you're okay with corruption just being allowed to take place.



Trump had to give Carson some type of Bone for being willing to endorse and follow him , if it wasn't Housing and Urban Development, it would have been something else.

This post was edited by sir_lance_bb on Nov 6 2019 11:36am

HHS would have been a better fit, considering Carson is a physician.

i think carson could have gotten an advisory role of some kind. the reason it makes me mad is the lack of progress in the HUD dept. it's not only that Carson is unqualified, it's that he was either put there out of ignorance of how little he'd get done or worse he's a stooge put there just to stall the dept. the democrats don't use this line of attack, when i think it could be a really persuasive argument for them against Trumps to black people specifically. obviously there's not many swing voters in that demographic, which is maybe why the democrats avoid it. or they dont want to attack a black man in power based on the optics. it's just odd that we have a spotlight on Betsy DeVos every time she cuts a gasser but no one is talking about the utter failure that Carson has been as a secretary other than his lavish furniture purchase.

Fuckk Accuweather, and fuck the idea of turning the national weather service into a for profit organization. This nomination is a big fat NO from me.




Spot on.






I just think the Dems dont want to bring any public attention to the fact that there's a black dude in Trump's cabinet. To low attention low information voters, the optics of this would counteract the "Trump is the worst racist in decades"- and the "administration of old white men"-talking points. Particularly with black voters who arent very engaged in politics, bringing attention to Carson would be risky for Democrats.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 6 2019 06:25pm

If he backs off of his assets while appointed there is nothing wrong with this.

So were only allowed to appoint useless people into government by your uptight rules?



Its fun to watch the race baiters sputter and short circuit when you bring up Ben Carson. They literally spawn conspiracy theories about Ben Carson being en uncle tom.

This post was edited by EndlessSky on Nov 6 2019 06:37pm