Storms Kill Dozens as Trump Crushes Weather Service – The Monday AM Quickie 5/19/25
Good morning to all, especially Violeta, the baby spider monkey rescued a few days ago during a major drug bust in California. - Whitney

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THE BIG NEWS
Dozens Dead in Storms After Trump Slashed Weather Service Staff
Dozens of people died and numerous homes were ripped apart after tornadoes and heavy storms hit three states Friday, according to the AP, NBC News, and the NYT. As of Sunday evening, the storms had killed 28 people in Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia; that number may rise. The severe weather system also brought tornadoes to Wisconsin, a heat wave to Texas, and cast a dust storm over Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois.
The deaths by catastrophic weather come as the pro-climate-crisis Trump administration has hobbled weather forecasting and rescue services, including firing or pushing out via early retirement about 500 National Weather Service workers. In Kentucky, where at least 19 people died because of Friday’s storms, there are no meteorological supervisors in any of its three NWS offices. At the office in Jackson, Kentucky, the workforce is stretched so thin that it has had to stop overnight work – though workers saw the incoming storm early enough to call all hands on deck to manage the incoming crisis. “For most of the last half century NWS has been a 24/7 operation — not anymore thanks to Elon Musk,” Tom Fahy, legislative director for the NWS workers’ union, told The Washington Post.
We’ll see how long people can hold up in this kind of overwork – air traffic controllers are in a similar position because of Trump’s cuts and some have taken trauma leave because “lack of sleep, coupled with stress, is a killer,” as one controller told the Wall Street Journal, adding that a six-figure salary doesn’t make the job worth it, but properly staffing the Federal Aviation Agency might.
If you needed more proof that Trump and Musk do not care whether you die in the air or on the ground, they have also eviscerated the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which ghastly reality-TV hopeful and cosmetic dentistry shill Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary, wants to “eliminate.” In the meantime, she’ll stand by as it fails to handle hurricane season, which starts in two weeks. “As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood,” a document obtained by CNN states. “Thus FEMA is not ready.”
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Joe Biden Selecting Treatment for Incurable Cancer After Using Presidency to Deny Others Healthcare
Former President Joe Biden has prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone, an indication of “a more aggressive form of the disease,” a Biden’s personal office said Sunday, according to The Washington Post and The NYT. In fact, the cancer is incurable after it spreads to the bone. But news outlets softened that yesterday, highlighting that his disease appears to be hormone-sensitive, which “allows for effective management,” and saying the 82-year-old is reviewing his options for treatment. Media coverage also focused on Democratic hand-wringing about whether the oldest-serving president in US history should have abandoned his reelection campaign earlier. Which, fine. But let’s take a second to remember that this guy is presumably going to get some of the best healthcare around to make his final years comfortable, after he stood in the way of the rest of us having the same. He opposed universal healthcare and suggested he would veto “Medicare for All” – then maintained that position even after Covid made the vulnerability of the human body plain by sickening people the world over and killing more than 1 million in the US alone. And now look. There were more than 27 million people in the US without health insurance last year, and Trump wants to increase that number by millions more. He’s taking away funding for medical research, too.
Prostate cancer is the second-deadliest type of cancer for men and kills about 1 in 44 men annually. If you’re a man near, in, or past middle age, and if you can swing it financially, look after yourself and get checked out. These types of medical tests are no fun. But knowing if you have prostate cancer early is way better than finding out too late. Good luck out there.
Man With “Nihilistic Views” Bombs California Fertility Clinic, Dies
A car bomb explosion outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, was “an intentional act of terrorism” that left the alleged perpetrator dead, the FBI said, according to CBS News, The Guardian, and The Los Angeles Times. Four others were injured. The alleged attacker, 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, had “nihilistic views,” was attempting to live-stream the attack, and believed that in vitro fertilization was bringing people into the world against their will. So he rigged up a large vehicle-borne improvised explosive device outside the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic and set off a blast so powerful it was felt two miles away. It also killed him, the FBI said yesterday. Police found an AK-47, an AR-platform rifle, and ammunition next to the blasted-out car. The clinic’s lead doctor said that although the bomb damaged the office, the IVF lab and the embryos were unharmed.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- Israel’s ‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots’ Kills 140 Palestinians in 24 Hours The mass-murdering regime aims to “achieve all of the war goals in Gaza” and got a boost from fellow génocidaire Trump, who said he wants to turn Gaza into a “freedom zone.” via The Guardian.
- Trump Will Call Putin, Zelenskyy Today to Negotiate Ceasefire in Ukraine “HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END,” he shouted on social media ahead of the two separate calls. via The BBC.
- FDA Restricts New Covid Vaccine to Elderly and Those With Underlying Conditions Only Everyone else who wants protection for themselves or their loved ones can now only get the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines – and those stand to be restricted, too, under the anti-vaccine quackery of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. via the NYT.
- NJ Transit Strike Over After Union and Management Reach Tentative Agreement Buses will run normally today and trains will restart tomorrow – a delay needed for workers to inspect equipment. via NBC News.
SOME NUMBER
24
That’s how many days hiker Tiffany Slaton survived with little more than her skills alone after falling off a cliff in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Not only did she lose consciousness for two hours after the fall, she also had to splint one leg and pop the knee of the other back into place. Slaton, a traveling dialysis technician, skilled archer, and trained horticulturist, said she journaled every day to stay sane. “The worst thing you can do in an emergency situation is panic,” Slaton said.
ON THE SHOW TODAY
5/19: Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Quinn Slobodian about his new book, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right.
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
Republicans Working Extra Hard To Make Their Voters' Lives A Living Hell
The bottom line is that they do not care if you die from hunger or any other deprivation.
Bernie Demolishes RFK's MAHA Nonsense During Health Care Hearing
Kennedy is lying again. And what’s that he’s drinking? A cold glass of Rock Creek sludge?
PARTING WORDS
“They come up to me every single conference. People in their 50s and 60s. All in good jobs. And the diagnosis helped them with their relationships. A lot of these older adults, it was a relief. Now they understand why some of their relationships may not have been going all that well.”
-- The legendary Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and advocate for people on the autism spectrum, on the reception she receives from people who have been diagnosed with autism late in life. Grandin offered her thoughts on the reasons for increased autism diagnoses and how funding should be spent researching autism in the wake of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ignorant and dangerous remarks supporting the lie that vaccines cause autism and saying that he wants to create a registry of autistic people.
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