The Union of Concerned Scientist’ Center for Science and Democracy is reportedly establishing an anonymous hotline for NOAA scientists—federal employees—to report if and when the new President “meddles” with their work as federal employees.

The Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has established a hotline for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) employees to report political meddling. There’s currently concern among NOAA scientists about who Trump’s pick to head the agency will be. “I am hearing a lot of worry,” union director Andrew Rosenberg told Bloomberg. “The worry is that they will be putting another ideologue in place.”

This is getting ridiculous.

A hotline. For federal employees. To report the President. For “meddling” with their work.

It would seem that the left’s efforts to delegitimize the election have really paid off.  Since the election there has been a constant flow of tears and flop sweat from scientists who fear that Trump will doom the planet by changing federal priorities with regard to climate change science. Now people are actually behaving has if the chief executive of the United States doesn’t have the authority to make decisions concerning Executive Branch agencies.

Other ominous signs for scientists include the Trump transition team request to the DOE for the names of all employees and contractors who attended annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years, scientists who have worked on climate change, and the professional memberships of lab workers. On Dec. 13, DOE spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said the agency would not honor the request—after which the Trump team denied the questionnaire was authorized and withdrew the demand.

I suspect the Trump team either found another way of gathering the requested data or they just decided to wait until the new cabinet is sworn in to request it again. It’s hard to imagine federal employees refusing to comply with the requests of their agency’s chief administrator. However, at one time I would have thought it hard to imagine a hotline for federal employees to tattle on the President for being President. If career feds stand in open rebellion to the President, it may turn out to be an opportunity for Trump to use his catch phrase, en masse.

The only similar instance I can think of is when federal air traffic controllers union staged an illegal strike during the Reagan administration. That ended with Reagan firing many and banning them from future federal employment. That ban lasted until Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Someone should explain to federal employees that they don’t get to ignore the outcome of elections. Those who opposed President Obama’s agenda had to accept that he was duly elected.  As President, Obama famously said to those who dissented from his agenda, “Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won.” Disgruntled federal employees should remember that.