Lynn W. Thorp

DC born PG resident. This is my personal account not my water geek account.

[Lynn W. Thorp @lynntdc]

#IStayHome 4 my daughter & my son

[Maryland DNR @MarylandDNR]

During tonight's full moon, horseshoe crabs will return to the shores of Ocean City as part of their annual spawn. This spectacle happens during the full moons and new moons between May and July, because horseshoe crabs wait for these high tides to lay their eggs in the sand. Thousands of horseshoe crabs crawled onto the shores in search of a mate during the new moon this month.

The spawn is thought to be the oldest wildlife migration in the world. Horseshoe crabs are not crabs, or even crustaceans, but are a type of arthropod more closely related to spiders and scorpions. These living fossils are part of an ancient lineage of animals that have scuttled the world’s seafloors for 450 million years, long predating the dinosaurs. Horseshoe crabs are very well adapted to their environment and haven’t needed to change much in their long history. The Atlantic horseshoe crabs you can see on the East Coast today are nearly indistinguishable from fossils found in the Jurassic Period, 148 million years ago.

Aside from providing yet another generation of this ancient species, this spawn is also important for feeding our migratory birds, many of which depend on horseshoe crab eggs during their stopovers on beaches.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Did the rapture happen overnight? Fox & Friends is broadcasting from a completely empty Trump state fair on the National Mall

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Trump ripped up the walkway between the West Wing and the mansion to replace it with polished African granite carved in Italy. "Paid for by me," he claimed. Except that's not true. Taxpayers paid $689,232, per documents obtained by @michaelscherer https://t.co/7l2bkD0MIH

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Gov. Mike DeWine on the Mullin v. Doe: "It's a mistake for a number of reasons…You cannot fly into Port-au-Prince…It is clearly not safe…It is worse than it has ever been…It's not in the U.S. interest, certainly not in Ohio's interest, to have people who are working every single day, who are supporting a family, who are buying houses, fixing up old houses, starting businesses, and put deep roots in this country and really are contributing — and yank them out…That is a huge, huge mistake."

[Matthew Cappucci @MatthewCappucci]

Have weather forecasts seemed less accurate lately? There's a major contributing factor: nearly half the morning weather balloons in the Lower 48 are "missing."

This is an ongoing crisis that is degrading critical severe weather forecasts that we all rely on. It's having real, tangible impacts on degrading forecast quality.

If you work in transportation, agriculture or commerce, this should matter to you.

Regardless of the causes, this negatively affects people of ALL political backgrounds. Weather affects everyone. And it's impacting ALL of us negatively.

We can't look at weather balloon data that doesn't exist. We can't pump nonexistent data into models. We can't rely as heavily on models that don't "know" what's happening above our heads.

This is especially concerning for severe weather forecasts. We can't go 18 hours without ascertaining how the atmosphere is layered, how much storm fuel has built up and if severe thunderstorms are going to erupt. The Storm Prediction Center has even acknowledged forecasting frustrations in at least one public bulletin.

As an atmospheric scientist myself, I can say firsthand – the forecasts I'm able to offer you are less accurate than they would otherwise be. I'm not able to predict severe weather with the confidence I normally would. That is extremely concerning.

The United States is "supposed" to launch balloons at 0Z and 12Z ideally – a.k.a. around 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern time. That's not happening. Many sites, due to staffing issues stemming from broader political and organizational issues, have pushed to 18Z, or early afternoon. That's not helpful for morning severe weather forecasts. In other words, you get less lead time. Less advanced notice. Quicker ramp-ups and ramp-downs to the forecast.

We're not able to get jet stream, temperature, moisture or wind profiles of the atmosphere each morning like we otherwise would.

Moreover, the World Meteorological Organization encourages 12Z soundings; that data is shared via the Global Observing System (GOS) under the World Weather Watch (WWW). That's not happening.

[Charlie Warzel @cwarzel]

Every Trump debacle follows the same 13 steps. The reflecting pool fiasco is just one of the lower stakes versions of it.
1. Devise unnecessary spectacle
2. Disregard expertise
3. Bypass normal procedures
4. Declare victory too early (bonus if done by AI-slop post)
5. Spend way more than estimated
6. Ignore the haters
7. Realize it is not going well
8. Bypass normal procedures once again
9. Allege conspiracy and sabotage
10. Redeclare victory
11. More blaming
12. Losing interest
13. Pretend it never happened, and move on to the next thing

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

It takes a special level of callous cruelty to gleefully quote song lyrics when cheering on forcing 350,000 people, the majority of whom have been 100% compliant with the law, to lose their jobs, their safety, and potentially their lives if forced to return to Haiti.

[Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg]

This week someone targeted my family for harm with a false report. We’re physically OK, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t harmed. I am beyond furious.

Whatever your politics, this is awful, wrong, and can never become normal. https://t.co/72wxaVLzVT

[Andrea R. Flores @Arosaflores]

This decision could impact 1.3 million people on TPS, some who have been here since the early 90s. This is a devastating loss for millions of American families, and countless employers will soon be losing workers. This is the biggest de-legalization moment in modern history.

[Jeremy Konyndyk @JeremyKonyndyk]

When people say asylum seekers shouldn't cross the border illegally and should instead come in the "right" way...

...bear in mind that the Trump admin just went all the way to SCOTUS to ensure that there IS NO "RIGHT" WAY.

[Governor JB Pritzker @GovPritzker]

The Supreme Court is handing Trump a blank check for his cruel agenda to expel those fleeing violence and disaster.

This is not commonsense reform — it’s only fueling Trump’s desire to attack people because of their skin color.

[Jim Stewartson, Decelerationist 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇺🇸 @jimstewartson]

In his continuing “Pool Monologues,” Trump hits a record ELEVEN AND A HALF MINUTES sitting with the NATO Secretary.

I cannot emphasize enough… Try and read it. I dare you.

1/3
“The pool? Yes. It's in great shape. No. Ready? Thugs. They just told me a little while ago. Six have been arrested and like six or seven are under arrest. They have pictures and everything else. They went to the bottom and it's not a paint job. It's very expensive. It's not rubber but it's like rubber. And they went down with probably a box cutter or a very sharp razor of some kind of a knife. They cut and then they started ripping it up. You know why? Because there's sick people. And then the side of the pool, right at the water level, they took razors and they started cutting this very expensive stuff. It's incredible stuff. It's beautiful. And it's still beautiful. We have one area where they cut it. It's still holding. It's not leaking. But they hurt it so probably maybe after July 4th or maybe before. I don't know. Well, let a little water out because it's at the edge. They'll cut it. They'll replace it and it'll be as good as new. But these people should go to jail for a long time. You know, there's a statue that I saw when I had my first here that if you do anything to hurt statues or monuments, fountains in Washington, D.C. or federal fountain, it's actually federal all over the country. But you go to jail for 10 years and there's no shortcuts. In other words, it's not five years for good behavior. It's a very tough statue. And so tough that it really hasn't been used very much over the years. But I used it when they had a problem in Washington where they were trying to hurt the sickos, would try to hurt things, and I announced it. As soon as I announced it, read it, announced it. And I said, 10 years for anybody, everybody dropped what they had, including ropes. They had ropes. They were tying ropes around Thomas Jefferson's head, Andrew Jackson right up there, that a rope around his head on that incredible statue. I said, as soon as I invoked it, everybody left, that's still in play. They could go to jail for 10 years. They better be careful. They have a gash on that beautiful pool. It's a reflecting point. This is a very expensive material. Then on top of it, we did a much bigger job than we said we were going to do because we did all the outer areas. We did a beautiful job. It's like a piece of glass. And for some reason, this disturbed the radical left lunatics. You know, the guy that one of the guys, he's a member or a big pair to act blue. He's a big Hillary supporter. He's a big supporter of Sleepy Joe Biden. No, this is a very political thing. But as I understand it, six are under arrest. This was pure vandalism. It's an amazing thing that we did. Don't forget, it hasn't worked properly since it was built because it always leaked in 1922. So it was built in 1922. So that's 100 years more ago. It's never worked properly. I always said, had great potential. And I said in my first term, I'm going to do something. So Biden and Obama, between the two of them, spent over $100 million. It was a disaster. Obama, because of the environment, took the water from the Potomac, and it was horrible. It was bad. I don't want to have to tell you what happened, but it was really bad. You can read about it. Biden, he didn't have any idea what the hell they were doing because he didn't know what anything was happening. But they spent over $100 million. We spent 14 or 15 in a lot less than that because a lot of these people worked for the Parks Department anyway. So they're going to work. So I would say a lot less. And we put a great surface on it. This is a world-class surface. It looked beautiful. But they came in and they cut it. And then they grabbed it and they pulled it up. That's why it's all ripped. And who would even think of it? They're sick people. So I think they're in big trouble. But here's the bottom line.”

[Jeffrey Goldberg @JeffreyGoldberg]

Donald Trump summoned the Smithsonian's Lonnie Bunch to the White House in order to criticize him for excessive wokeness. But he forgot the purpose of the meeting, and instead talked about Oval Office chandeliers, the space shuttle, his need to rename Dulles Airport after himself, and his desire to paint the Old Executive Office building white. All the details in this story:
https://t.co/dIjguQVYFT

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

MAJOR BREAKING: Iran’s delegation has just left the venue where negotiations were supposed to take place with JD Vance in Switzerland, because of Trump’s threats.

Iran is demanding Trump apologize.

What a shitshow.

[Amanda Carpenter @amandacarpenter]

Bad news: The Kennedy tarp is still up.

Good news: It doubles as an incredible projector screen!

[MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch]

“Who would do such a thing?”

You. You did it.

[Alex Taliadoros @AlexCTaliadoros]

They’re so embarrassed they’re inventing new crimes.

[Keith Edwards @keithedwards]

The FBI just showed up at my door because I tweeted about people picking up paint debris and sending it to me.

I asked them where's Savannah Guthrie's mom

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

The Trump administration just paid Invenergy $765 million to cancel four wind projects. That brings the running total to roughly $2.5 billion in taxpayer money spent to stop energy from being built.

Think about that.

At a time when electricity demand is rising, the Trump administration is spending billions to reduce the amount of power that could reach the grid.

Trump has spent years attacking wind turbines as ugly and inefficient. He is entitled to his opinions about how they look. He is not entitled to make taxpayers finance those opinions.

Seven states have already sued over earlier agreements. Federal courts have repeatedly found legal defects in this administration’s efforts to halt offshore wind development. The administration has cited national security concerns while providing little public evidence to support them, and judges have said they were not convinced.

Strip away the politics and what remains is hard to defend.

Billions in taxpayer money paid to private companies to cancel planned energy projects during a period of rising demand.

Governments usually spend money to build things.

This administration is spending billions to make sure some things never get built.
https://t.co/rB2naxc27j