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Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

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Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#221

Post by _heimdall »

consumer451 wrote: post #180
_heimdall wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not evaluated efficiency cuts. Just thrashing about. Personally I'm not sold on their tactics so far, but there is another way to view this than thrashing out. Non-probationary federal employees are protected and not easily fired. If one honestly believes the government is bloated and so far into debt that the budget needs to be balanced at all costs, cutting anyone and anything you can may make sense. Normally you…

Where exactly is the proof that the ship of government funded science in the USA was sinking? If you don't mean just US funded science, then what evidence is there that the USA was sinking in general? When I look at the graph of debt increase, it was actually decreasing. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1366899/percent-change-n...

I meant US budget in general. If they believed the ship that is the US federal government balance sheet is sinking, they would jettison whatever they could.

It isn't about funding science in my scenario, its about funding the government.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#222

Post by malcolmgreaves »

bruce511 wrote: post #173
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree. Trump is behaving in a way that's consistent with his prior rhetoric. Where I disagree is that there may have been an expectation that the systems outside of "The President" would have stood up for themselves more, offered more resistance and slowed him down more. The slow-moving of government is (was though to be) it's own protection to some extent.

I'm not sure what evidence suggests that Republicans in congress would grow a spine to resist this. Conversely the evidence since 2016 suggests they actively applaud it. The voters have voted out any congress people who resisted, sending a clear message that they want this path. This may not be the pretty side of democracy, but it is democracy. My point above (which I see is being downvoted) is not thst I see this as…

Except it’s not really democracy. You have gerrymandered districts. You elect a leader not by who gets the most votes, but who wins a system that was designed for the benefit of white slave owners.

And of course, who really believes the election results when you have Trump saying that Musk rigged some voting machines in his favor.

Face it, the US no longer creates its government from the collective will of its citizens. They’ve replaced politicians with corporate backers for the actual corporations themselves.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#223

Post by bruce511 »

vel0city wrote: post #207
bruce511 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk's motivations are simple; the rich have been promised tax breaks, which means deep spending cuts. So gutting the parks service means no parks open to the public, but balances a tax break to billionaires. Same for "science". That's a long term investment with long term returns. Kill that now for immediate tax breaks. Let someone else worry about the fallout 10 years from now. Then there's direct interest. The CFB…

> So gutting the parks service means no parks open to the public, but balances a tax break to billionaires That's the stupid thing in the end. Gut the parks service, here's your $500 tax break on your several hundred million+ income.

It's a lot more than $500. For the few. It's $0 for the masses. A 1% reduction in corporate tax means millions in their pockets.

Billionaires aren't the ones going to national parks. So they don't care if they're closed.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#224

Post by brigandish »

_heimdall wrote: post #182
digitaltrees wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not far away from dying. I would argue that it’s already too late. The trump administration has shown that it can seize the power to control spending which is constitutionally an exclusive power if congress and courts can’t and won’t do anything about it. We are past a constitutional crisis, republicans had a theory of a unitary executive and prove they can stream roll other branches. Now trump and others are ta…

Trump is continuing a trend that has been going on since at least Bush Jr. Presidents for a couple decades now have been moving more power into the executive branch. Obama and Biden both talked about undoing this, but neither did. The Patriot Act still exists, three letter agencies still have authority to spy on American citizens, and immigration laws still defy what's written on the Statue of Liberty (I think most h…

Since Woodrow Wilson.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#225

Post by rurp »

bruce511 wrote: post #121
andix wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot "wilfully letting go of democracy". US democracy is far away from dying, but who knows how much longer it can keep holding up.

Bearing in mind that this administration won the election and a lot of what they are doing is more-or-less what they campaigned on, I'm not sure democracy is at risk. One can pick around the details, but for example with regard to the firings, voters clearly approved of the concept of smaller, cheaper government. Which is basically what's happening. This is essentially democracy in action. Yes, the voters may come to…

> voters clearly approved of the concept of smaller, cheaper government. Which is basically what's happening.

Except that this is completely false. These haphazard cuts are a miniscule portion of the federal budget, even assuming they don't incur a whole bunch of second and third order costs. The exact same administration doing those is going to burn literal orders of magnitude more money on tax cuts for billionaires, border security theater, and other corrupt nonsense. Federal finances were in bad shape a year ago and are going to be absolutely horrid a few years from now.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#226

Post by malcolmgreaves »

_heimdall wrote: post #215
trhway wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We're looking at the US wilfully letting go of the possibiility of remaining the most powerful nation in the world. many here see it way (me too, though i'm well aware that many times whenever i was critical of Musk, he happened to be right, and in this case - Musk is naturally not anti-science guy, so i'd guess there must be some other reason for him doing that which i'm just not able to see). I wonder whether some…

Well I'm not from "the other side" as I don't align with either party, but I do live in a very red part of the country. In the short term, as I understand it, the goal is to root out fraud and abuse. For decades many people from both sides of the aisle have believed the government wastes money, that is nothing new. The current moves somewhat rhyme with the early Clinton administration. Whether that is Trump's goal or…

The Democratic Party is about as far away as you can get from any sort of Marxist political ideology as you can. There’s not a single even minor US political movement that is even remotely related to Marxism.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#227

Post by rights_reminder »

sneak wrote: post #58
arrobbiato wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you require taxpayers to consent to every single line item, voting is going to become rather cumbersome.

[flagged]

I will bring this up every time someone mentions this, but your money is not being taken without consent. You are signing tax forms without knowing what they mean in law and voluntarily (incorrectly) giving it to them. Income taxes are excise taxes.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#228

Post by bruce511 »

malcolmgreaves wrote: post #222
bruce511 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what evidence suggests that Republicans in congress would grow a spine to resist this. Conversely the evidence since 2016 suggests they actively applaud it. The voters have voted out any congress people who resisted, sending a clear message that they want this path. This may not be the pretty side of democracy, but it is democracy. My point above (which I see is being downvoted) is not thst I see this as…

Except it’s not really democracy. You have gerrymandered districts. You elect a leader not by who gets the most votes, but who wins a system that was designed for the benefit of white slave owners. And of course, who really believes the election results when you have Trump saying that Musk rigged some voting machines in his favor. Face it, the US no longer creates its government from the collective will of its citize…

I buy the gerrymandering concept at the congressional level.

But Trump won the popular vote. He increased his numbers in 90% of counties. He grew across all demographics.

This was not a structural failure. It was very clearly a country-wide mandate.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#229

Post by scarface_74 »

bruce511 wrote: post #219
scarface_74 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump specifically disavowed Project 2025 when he ran and now is embracing it. He never said he was going to put an unelected billionaire in charge and disregard the Constitution. > And the lack of reaction by Republicans in congress suggests that they feel the best way to be reelected is to go along with it. They are worried about getting primaried and their primary opponent being financed by Musk.

He disavowed project 25, but it was written by all his inner circle, and he hired them into govt. So, if the voter believed him, well duh. Musk was a big part of the inner circle before the election. His track record is well known. In other words everything that is happening was predictable and predicted. Voters knew what they were voting for. Those who are surprised really weren't paying any attention.

Voters could not have known that Trump would make a concerted effort to do anything unconstitutional. This is nothing like he did his first term or any other Republican has ever done.

He is going after departments that are conservative darlings like the Defense department. I can’t remember any serious person saying we need to cut spending and fire people at the FAA.

If he had thought that voters wanted Project 2025, why would he disavow it during the campaign?

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#230

Post by _heimdall »

malcolmgreaves wrote: post #226
_heimdall wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I'm not from "the other side" as I don't align with either party, but I do live in a very red part of the country. In the short term, as I understand it, the goal is to root out fraud and abuse. For decades many people from both sides of the aisle have believed the government wastes money, that is nothing new. The current moves somewhat rhyme with the early Clinton administration. Whether that is Trump's goal or…

The Democratic Party is about as far away as you can get from any sort of Marxist political ideology as you can. There’s not a single even minor US political movement that is even remotely related to Marxism.

That seems like a hard claim to stand behind when Harris's father was a Marxist economist. BLM was also a very popular movement among the Democratic party, and it was organized and run by Marxists.

How do you land on the party being as far from Marxism as a party can be?

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