Frimmin' on the jim-jam, Frippin' at the krotz ...

In a victory for science advocates, a federal court blocks the Trump administration’s push to dismantle NCAR

By Sam Brasch

Jun. 1, 2026, 5:22 pm

A federal court blocked the Trump administration from taking initial steps to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) on Monday, marking a major victory for defenders of the marquee climate research hub headquartered in Boulder.

Colorado U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson issued the temporary injunction in response to a lawsuit filed in March by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the nonprofit overseeing NCAR.

The complaint argues that the federal government targeted the center as a part of a “campaign of retribution” against Colorado for imprisoning former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, violating administrative procedures.

Trump Has Given Up

No longer interested in governing, he is filled with rage and obsessed with revenge

Donald Trump will never admit that his gratuitous Iran war has been a total disaster. But the debacle has clearly broken him. So we are now saddled with a president who has given up governing, but will maintain his grip on power wherever he can. And his power will be exclusively focused on rage and revenge.

Hence Trump has appointed Bill Pulte as the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), a position critical to national security.

The word “acting” is crucial. The statute creating the position of DNI explicitly requires that the appointee “shall have extensive national security expertise.” Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no background in anything related to national security. So Trump is trying to bypass a Congressional confirmation process that would put Pulte under the spotlight. Even Republicans might shed their slavish obedience at this point, given Trump’s plummeting poll numbers and his betrayal of John Cornyn.

But pointing out that Pulte is unqualified for his new job doesn’t convey the extent to which Trump is trolling America with this new appointment.

Imagine you are trying to get an electrician so you can get your new homes wiring installed. Your neighbor, who hates you, really wants something bad to happen to you or your home. You are oblivious to this and, unfortunately, a rather lazy individual who doesn't even do the smallest bit of work to find the right guy to do the job. Instead, you hire someone you like, but who doesn't know what they are doing. Since he doesn't know what he's doing, he does a LOT wrong, and in the end, he doesn't get much done, but says he finished.

Want to guess what is the most likely outcome? Yeah, your house is going to catch fire and burn to the ground, and that neighbor of yours is going to be so happy. If they have enough money maybe they will come in and buy up your land that no longer has a house? Maybe they will just convince your other neighbors that you are bad and a threat to their homes and lives because of your stupid decisions.

Trump Humiliated as Staff Ordered to Remove All Traces of Him

All traces of President Donald Trump’s name must be scrubbed from the Kennedy Center by June 12—two days before his 80th birthday.

Lawyers for the historic performing arts center, which Trump slapped his name on late last year, informed employees in a Thursday memo that they “must immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center.’”

The memo also instructed that any changes to interior or exterior signage, including Trump’s name tacked on to the building’s facade, must be switched back to its original state by Friday, June 12, according to The New York Times.

Every fraction of additional warming increases the risk of triggering further damaging tipping points. These include a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that would radically undermine global food and water security and plunge northwest Europe into prolonged severe winters. Together, climate change and deforestation put the Amazon rainforest at risk of widespread dieback below 2°C global warming, threatening incalculable damage to biodiversity and impacting over 100 million people who depend on the forest. 

These climate tipping point risks are interconnected and most of the interactions between them are destabilising, meaning tipping one system makes tipping another more likely. The resulting impacts would cascade through the ecological and social systems we depend upon, creating escalating damages. Humanity faces a potentially catastrophic, irreversible outcome. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognises the right of humans to a safe climate, hence preventing irreversible harm to the climate system is a legal imperative. 

Even though the total area burned was relatively small, 2025 was the most economically damaging wildfire year on record, according to a new analysis published on Sunday.

The Los Angeles fires and a handful of severe blazes in other countries, including South Korea and Spain, drove up losses worldwide to at least $54 billion, the study estimates. It was the highest level of insured losses on record.

That figure does not include all indirect losses like missed work days, business closures and added pressure on health care systems. It is also a conservative estimate, because insurers do not typically share proprietary data and the damage can be difficult to assess in some countries.

When estimates of indirect losses are factored in, the fires that hit the Los Angeles area alone would add at least $100 billion to the total, according to the study.

Those fires tore through at least 90 square miles early last year, killing at least 31 people and forcing more than 150,000 residents to evacuate their homes. Some experts estimate that hundreds more died from indirect causes such as smoke inhalation.

The researchers gathered data on wildfire area and damage from 2025 events in the EM-DAT database, which is the product of a global, communal research effort to track disasters and their costs to society and to the natural world. It is not a complete picture, but it provides researchers and policymakers with minimum estimates for damage from fires, floods and other disasters.

The fire damage set a record despite the fact that only about 1.3 million square miles were burned worldwide, the second-lowest area hit by wildfire since 2002.

“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first. Nationalism is when hate for people other than your own comes first. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.”