Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

710 followers 1.4K following 280 posts

Recovering Lit Prof. Early Modern. Tragedies. Global Higher Ed, curriculum, online, & ISD consultant. Fighting for agnostic & secular education, arts, & humanities. Nerd. Bibliophile. Education matters.

FIGHT Anti-intellectualism. FIGHT Bullies.

Posts Replies Media Videos

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

We need to start using a different metric and set of descriptors than “Death of Democracy,” “fascism,” “authoritarianism,”or “Freedom.”

We need a Doomsday Clock thermometer/ countdown visual for the Boiling Frog of Freedom we are experiencing.

September 4, 2025 at 2:40 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

July 3, 2025 at 5:49 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

Message displayed on the Old North Church in Boston on the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride:

Let the WARNING ride forth ONCE MORE: TYRANNY is at OUT DOOR

April 19, 2025 at 7:41 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

March 10, 2025 at 10:00 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

"OAR is, however, the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism. The preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded." - P. 676

"Ensure Appointees Agree with Administration Aims." - P. 677

Downsize the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
OAR provides theoretical science, as opposed to the applied science of the National Hurricane Center. OAR is, however, the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism. The preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded. OAR is a large network of research laboratories, an undersea research center, and several joint research institutes with universities. These operations should be reviewed with an aim of consolidation and reduction of bloat. P. 676

Ensure Appointees Agree with Administration Aims. Scientific agencies
like NOAA are vulnerable to obstructionism of an Administration’s aims if political appointees are not wholly in sync with Administration policy. Particular attention must be paid to appointments in this area. P. 677

February 28, 2025 at 11:03 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

"...mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable." - P. 675

Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity. This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable. That is not to say NOAA is useless, but its current organization corrupts its useful functions. It should be broken up and downsized. P. 675

February 28, 2025 at 11:03 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

6 NOAA OFFICES:
-National Weather Service (NWS)
-National Ocean Service (NOS)
-Oceanic & Atmospheric Research (OAR)
-National Environmental Satellite, Data & Information Service (NESDIS)
-National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
-Office of Marine & Aviation Operations & NOAA Corps

P. 664-5

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
Break Up NOAA. The single biggest Department of Commerce agency outside
of decennial census years is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
which houses the National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service,
and other components. NOAA garners $6.5 billion of the department’s $12 billion
annual operational budget and accounts for more than half of the department’s
personnel in non-decadal Census years (2021 figures).
NOAA consists of six main offices:
l The National Weather Service (NWS); P. 674

The National Ocean Service (NOS);
l The Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR);
l The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS);
l The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS); and
l The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and NOAA Corps.

February 28, 2025 at 11:03 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

Perhaps you don't understand just how bad this is.

The FAA & airlines depend on accurate weather forecasting. Do you want pilots to fly (& LAND) NOT knowing the weather forecast?

During hurricane season, who do you think tracks storms & PUTS OUT ALERTS?

#ItWasInProject2025 - Pages 664-677

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories. PAGE 664

February 28, 2025 at 11:03 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

The new Administration must end the prior administration's abuse of the agency's payment pause and HEA loan forgiveness programs, including borrower defense to repayment, closed school discharge, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness. (PAGE 340)

Eliminate Grad PLUS loans (for graduate students) and Parent PLUS
loans (for parents of undergraduates).
Graduate students are already eligible for unsubsidized Sta!ord student loans;
Grad PLUS loans are redundant. They also lack some of the safeguards of Sta!ord
loans, such as annual and aggregate borrowing limits. Parent PLUS loans are also
redundant because there are many privately provided alternatives available. (PAGE 354)

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which prioritizes
government and public sector work over private sector employment,
should be terminated.
Whatever Congress chooses to do with future loans, there is still the question of
the government’s responsible stewardship of the existing student loan portfolio—a
substantial taxpayer asset. The current Administration has recklessly engaged in
the policy fetish of forgiving and canceling student loans with abandon. (PAGE 354)

February 27, 2025 at 10:20 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

STOP THE FEDERAL RIF BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

This has gone on long enough!

(Text of message to elected officials included below)

Text SIGN PNBLKP TO 50409 to sign with @resist.bot

resist.bot/petitions/PN...

STOP THE FEDERAL RIF BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE This has gone on long enough. The memo sent today to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies within the federal government from Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget and AUTHOR of PROJECT 2025 targets full time federal employees whose salaries would have a MINIMAL impact on debt reduction. This is NOT the way to “save money” and “be more efficient.” (https://apnews.com/article/trump-elon-musk-federal-workers-layoffs-d295d4bb2cdd5023c27d9cb03754e81b) This action will create a POINT OF NO RETURN for the dismantling of the federal government, services paid for and depended on by millions of Americans, and safety nets that keep the economy healthy.

If the goal of DOGE is to “increase government efficiency” then before these cuts are even CONSIDERED there needs to be a proper, vetted accounting of exactly HOW these terminations will positively impact the deficit. These handful of individuals making these knee-jerk decisions are impacting not just the individual lives of the workers and their families, but threaten to completely cripple the federal government and any ability for its workers to fight back against illegal actions taken by this administration and the appointees that have been named. This is NOT the time for rhetoric, handwringing, claims that “we don’t have the power to do anything/stop them,” or posturing on the floors of congress. This is the time for you and your colleagues to STEP UP and MAKE THIS STOP.

All the American people see is the ongoing terrorization of federal employees, threats to the vast majority of American livelihoods, and the likelihood of a massive, devastating economic crisis, for which NO ONE in this country is prepared to survive. This is the moment where you choose a side as an elected official—You either stand WITH and FOR the people in meaningful ways, or you join this administration and cosign their every action by your INACTION. This administration is no longer playing by the rules of our democracy, by rules of decorum, and while you all try to figure out how to respond based on the rules of a game they no longer acknowledge, they are destroying the lives of MILLIONS of Americans. I strongly urge you to stand against this reckless administration and these unjust actions. GET CREATIVE.

GET CREATIVE. They’re playing by what the rules DON’T SAY because no one thought anyone would ever do those things…. DO THE SAME. Use the letter of the law AND the options NOT DEFINED by the law to bring this nightmare to an END before we no longer have the ability to intervene.

February 27, 2025 at 4:08 AM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

This has to stop!

@resist.bot

Text SIGN PNBLKP to 50409 to send the letter to your elected officials!

Instructions to send a letter to your elected officials through Resistbot.

Title: Stop the Federal RIF before it's too late

TEXT SIGN PNBLKP to 50409

February 26, 2025 at 8:36 PM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

So when is the class action hostile work environment employee suit kick off call? Asking for 2.3 million friends.

February 23, 2025 at 12:57 AM

Academic Firebrand

@lyriquetragedy.bsky.social

When I went to Chicago in high school I went to the Chicago Museum of Art and was transfixed by Francisco de Zurbarán’s “The Crucifixion.” I’m not a religious person but every time I go to Chicago I now stop in to go sit and experience that stunning painting.