Trump's Interior Department retaliates against whistle blower who revealed how climate change was affecting Alaska villages.

Courtesy of ADN:

An Interior Department executive-turned-whistleblower who claimed the Trump administration retaliated against him for publicly disclosing how climate change impacts Alaska Native communities resigned Wednesday. 

Joel Clement, a scientist and policy expert, was removed from his job by Secretary Ryan Zinke shortly after the disclosure and reassigned to an accounting position for which he has no experience. Clement was among dozens of senior executive service personnel who were quickly, and perhaps unlawfully, reassigned in June, but he was the only person who spoke out. 

Interior's inspector general is probing the reassignments to determine whether the process was legal. By law, executives are to be given ample notice of a job switch. Many of those reassigned say they were given no notice, according to attorneys who are representing some of the employees. The inspector general said Clement is on the list of employees being contacted, though Clement and his lawyer say that hasn't happened in the more than two months since the evaluation launched.

Zinke is looking to cut about 4,000 jobs at the Interior Department, and has publicly stated that about 30% of the employees there are "not loyal to the flag." Which we can assume means they are not buckling under to pressure to lie about scientific findings, or to push push the Trump agenda.

As for the affect of climate change in Alaska....

...trust me that those living in rural communities are all too aware of what it is doing to the state.

President Obama had an actual plan to help, and to rescue native communities in danger.

Donald Trump apparently just has people fired who point out the obvious.

Well now Donald Trump's ignorance about climate change is directly impacting Alaska.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

The Trump administration has moved to dismantle climate adaptation programs including the Denali Commission, an Anchorage-based agency that is crafting a plan to safeguard or relocate dozens of towns at risk from rising sea levels, storms and the winnowing away of sea ice. 

Federal assistance for these towns has been ponderous but could now grind to a halt, with even those working on the issue seemingly targeted by the administration. In July, Joel Clement, an interior department official who worked with Alaskan communities on climate adaptation, claimed he had been moved to a completely unrelated position because of the administration’s ideological hostility to the issue. 

“We were getting down to the brass tacks of relocation [of towns at risk] and now work has just stopped,” Clement told the Guardian. He has lodged an official complaint over his reassignment.

“Without federal coordination from Washington DC, there isn’t much hope. This will take millions of dollars and will take years, and these people don’t have years. I think it’s clear I was moved because of my climate work. It feels like a complete abdication of responsibility on climate change.” 

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, 31 Alaskan communities face “imminent” existential threats from coastline erosion, flooding and other consequences of temperatures that are rising twice as quickly in the state as the global average. A handful – Kivalina, Newtok, Shishmaref and Shaktoolik – are considered in particularly perilous positions and will need to be moved. 

“It was clear from the start of the Trump administration that there was no interest in helping Alaskan communities, particularly coastal communities, adapt to climate change,” said Victoria Hermann, president of the Arctic Institute. 

“There’s now no liaison from Washington on the issue. The biggest loss has been momentum. It feels like the Obama administration was kickstarting something useful but now it has dropped dead.”

It should be noted that Alaska natives overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton, and in an unusual move even endorsed her during the 2016 campaign.

They knew what the danger was in electing Donald Trump, and they feared what he would do to the country and how it could negatively impact their lives.

And they were right to fear.

These villages are in a very dire situation, and without government help they may lose the home they and their ancestors have inhabited for literally thousands of years.

The Denali Commission in Anchorage is working right now to raise funds and help them, but as it turns out they are also targeted for elimination by the Trump Administration.

When President Obama came here in 2015 he saw the problems facing our native communities and he implemented plans to help them.

If Hillary Clinton had won this election you can bet she would have kept those promises made by her predecessor.

Donald Trump on the other hand wants to literally undo EVERYTHING President Obama set in motion to help this planet and her people.

Like I said, the Alaska natives knew. Too bad so many failed to listen.

Villagers prepare celebration for launch of 2010 census in Noorvik Alaska. Also on high alert to repel possible attack from Michele Bachmann.

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The U.S. Census Bureau is launching its 2010 count of the nation's residents in a remote Alaska village.

Census Bureau Director Robert Groves is flying to Noorvik in northwest Alaska on Monday to count the first household in the Inupiat Eskimo community of 650. Groves and other arriving officials are scheduled to be taken to the village school by sled dog teams driven by schoolchildren.

The first to be counted will be Clifton Jackson, a World War II veteran and the oldest resident, according to residents.

Villagers have prepared a day of festivities at the school to welcome Groves and other visiting federal, state and tribal officials. The residents plan to hold traditional dances, an Inupiat fashion show and a feast of subsistence foods including moose and caribou.

The school also will serve as lodging for Groves and most of the 50 visitors, who will bunk down in empty classrooms.

Census workers and trained locals are expected to take a week to interview the rest of Noorvik's residents, using the same 10-question forms to be mailed to most households on March 15. Census workers also will visit 217 other rural Alaska communities in the coming weeks. (Click title to read entire Washington Post article.)

Oh the poor simply people of Noorvik Alaska! Apparently they are completely unaware of the danger they have just put themselves in by allowing these so-called "census takers" to come to their village.

For one thing WHY does our government need to know we exist? I mean who needs to track population growth, get more money allocated for local schools, and determine if more money is needed to house those living in poverty? No wait that sounds kind of reasonable.

Well what if Alaska attacks America? Then these villagers could find themselves placed in internment camps just like the Japanese during World War 2. Wait, what?

Here maybe Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann can explain it better.



Wow! Did he just say that ACORN is coming to Alaska?

Internment camps and ACORN? Are those really things that people should fear by filling out a census form? That is a whole new level of crazy.

And do you know what is truly ironic? If every single person in Minnesota does NOT fill out a census form, Michele Bachman may lose her congressional seat.

Minnesota's state demographer estimated the North Star state could be within 1,000 people of losing one of its eight congressional seats, WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, reported Monday.

The district that's most vulnerable to being lost? Bachmann's 6th District, experts said.

It is at times like this that I start to think, you know maybe there is a God!

In my effort to find positive stories about Sarah Palin I bring you this: Palin proposes new effort for rural Alaska

Gov. Sarah Palin appointed members of her Cabinet on Thursday to a new group charged with finding ways to make Alaska's rural areas better places to live.

Called the Rural Subcabinet, the group of top department heads will be told to look at two big issues, energy costs and out-migration from rural Alaska, and make proposals aimed at creating well-paying jobs, stronger schools, safer communities and better public works facilities.

In announcing the new subcabinet, Palin said that while some out-migration was natural, it isn't always.

"I want the Rural Subcabinet to look for ways to make certain migration is a result of personal decisions, not despair or a lack of choice resulting from economic pressures or other factors," she said.

Tracked by school enrollment numbers, population in rural Alaska has been shrinking steadily but dramatically over many years.

I have been very critical of Governor Palin for some time lately, and I am confident I will find many reasons to do so in the future, but on this issue I am happy that at least Palin recognizes there is a very serious problem in rural Alaska.

These villages are struggling for their very survival. Alcohol and drug addiction are rampant in the villages, the cost of heating oil is through the roof, and there have been a rash of teen suicides this past month.

Something needs to be done. And while I am not terribly confident that this Rural Subcabinet will solve the problem, at least Palin is trying. So that is a gold star for her.

But don't think I am going soft on our limelight seeking Governor. I am still seething over her lack of response concerning those racist e-mails, and I want to know how much she knew about the drug activity of her future in-law, Sherry L. Johnston. I mean how can somebody live in a tiny community like Wasilla and NOT know that the mother of the guy sleeping with your daughter is involved with the distribution of drugs? Not to mention Palin was once the MAYOR of that town!

Something stinks here, and it is not just the smell of Methamphetamine cooking.