Ben Nelson

5 consecutive days of college football begin tonight! 🏈🎉

Ashley Babbit dishonored her service by committing insurrection against her country. While her death is absolutely tragic and I wish it hadn’t happened, the Air Force giving her honors is in itself a dishonor.

Duffy to announce nuclear reactor on the moon This is the first major agency effort by the interim NASA administrator, who is also the Transportation secretary and a former Fox News host.

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Duffy will announce expedited plans to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, his first major action as interim NASA administrator.

Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

The anti-science Trumpers may be planning to destroy two working satellites that provide vital measurements about carbon dioxide & climate (and data that forecasts crop yield, drought conditions, & more). They cost $750 million to make but only $15 million/yr to operate.
www.npr.org/2025/08/04/n...

Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows A Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by TNR signals top-level discussions about a potential escalation of the Pentagon’s domestic anti-immigration role, and lays out new details.

NEWS --> An internal Homeland Security memo suggests Trump's use of military for domestic enforcement is about to get worse. It details top-level talks between Defense Department and DHS on what this should look like. Experts say it's alarming.

We obtained the memo:
newrepublic.com/article/1987...

Catastrophic Flooding In Texas - Were There Warnings? Deadly flooding in the flash flood alley of Texas is raising questions about warnings. Here's a preliminary (but not conslusive) analysis.

My deep dive on whether there were adequate weather warnings for the catastrophic flooding in Texas. Mentions Alan Gerard Balanced Weather and Jordan McLeod. I am really interested in your thoughts on my take.
www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature.

https://go.nature.com/44Ugf9V

Look at the cover for the apple pie that Dr. Masson made for us at the National Weather Service Jacksonville! Thanks for the opportunity to present to your class.

Any CEO who looked at Trump in 2024 and thought he’d govern more like Ronald Reagan than Hugo Chavez is too stupid to run anything larger than a lemonade stand

The mass firing of both new hires and recently promoted senior staff within #NOAA, including mission-critical and life-saving roles at the National Weather Service (#NWS), is profoundly alarming.
1/11

El Capitan displays a massive American flag upside down—the traditional signal of distress or extreme emergency.

BREAKING: Tsunami advisory for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, magnitude revised to 7.6 - USGS/PTWC

BREAKING NEWS: 8.0-magnitude earthquake hits the Caribbean Sea - PTWC and USGS

Updates to come.

How did January 2025 temps look compared to the previous 20 times the monthly ENSO (ONI) value was between -0.5 and -1.0 (weak La Nina)? The first map show a 20-year weak La Nina Jan departure composite (using detrended climatology). The second map shows Jan 2025 departures. @alaskawx.bsky.social

NIH doesn’t just support infectious disease research—it drives breakthroughs in cancer, childhood diseases, heart disease, diabetes & more.

Thanks to NIH, we have:
💉 Cancer immunotherapy
❤️ Cholesterol-lowering statins
🩸 Insulin for diabetes

Investing in NIH = investing in life-saving discoveries.

NIH plans to slash support for indirect research costs, sending shockwaves through science The NIH said Friday night that it would slash support for indirect costs on all existing and future grants to 15%

DECIMATION OF SCIENCE—Trump WH has announced it will slash NIH indirect grant support across the board to 15%… from previously 50-70% for big universities. ➡️This is what normally keeps the lights on & subsidizes tuition at major scientific institutions.
www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/n...

In December, NYT revealed that Elon Musk and SpaceX were failing to meet govt reporting protocol designed to protect state secrets while they haul in billions in Pentagon contracts.

This triggered three reviews, according to the NYT. One was from the Defense Department inspector general. 1/

Around 35% of SpaceX’s revenue comes directly from the federal govt.

Less than 1% of NPR’s budget comes from the federal govt.

National Labor Relations Board accused Elon Musks SpaceX of labor violations
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Elon sues federal govt arguing it shouldn’t exist
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Trump takes office and appoints Musk
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NLRB drops its own defense against the claim, setting itself up to lose and be dissolved.

Oligarchs doing oligarch things

Trumps Secretary of Defense appointee, Pete Hegseth, is spending $50,000 of tax payers payer dollars on an “emergency” paint job for his new house.

The party of fiscal responsibility indeed

The public won't get to see Elon Musk's financial disclosures. Here's why that matters. The wealthiest man in the world is in charge of a powerful new government task force fundamentally changing the government.

The public won't get to see Elon Musk's financial disclosures. Here's why that matters.

New York and 18 other states sue Trump administration over DOGE access to federal systems New York Attorney General Letitia James said "this level of access for unauthorized individuals is unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable."

NEW: 19 states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing DOGE of engaging in unauthorized access to sensitive information that includes Americans' data on federal computer systems at the Treasury Department. https://cbsn.ws/4aQ6FWt

Senior USAID security officials put on leave after refusing Musk’s DOGE access to agency systems | CNN Politics Two top security officials at the US Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave Saturday night after refusing to allow officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Ef...

Two top security officials at the US Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave after refusing to allow officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access systems at the agency, multiple sources familiar told CNN

The Trump administration has placed two top security chiefs at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave after they resisted turning over classified material in restricted areas to Elon Musk’s staffers. America, please stand with us—we are fighting to defend this country!

Army identifies helicopter pilot Capt. Rebecca Lobach among 67 killed in DC plane collision. Here are some of their stories | CNN All 67 people on board the American Airlines regional jet and US Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided midair Wednesday night are presumed dead – a grim tragedy that has left a heartbreaking trail ...

US Army officially ID'd the Black Hawk helicopter co-pilot in the deadly collision as Capt. Rebecca Lobach, 28, a "driven and hardworking" officer.

NEW: Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it.

I think this is our future unless someone stops him. Musk’s plan for X has been for it to replace the entire banking system. His keen interest in seizing control of Treasury payments (and its tech) may forebode an intention to have such payments go through X www.theverge.com/2023/10/26/2...

The buyouts email sent by OPM uses the same headline as what Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees when he took over the company — “Fork in the Road.” It also has a similar “click yes or no” form at the end of the email.

www.opm.gov/fork

Rescinding money that Congress authorized is unconstitutional. Telling kids that they need to go work in the factory after school so they can pay for lunch is immoral. Saying all this just to get in Trump's good graces is sycophantic. Offensive on every level.