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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

#271

Post by bruce511 »

devin wrote: post #236
bruce511 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democracy is not about what he does. It's all about how he comes to power. In 4 years the people will vote again.

Optimistic.

I mean, to the degree in which I expect there to be an election in 2 years, and 4 years, I suppose that counts as optimism.

I've not seen any indication that elections themselves are under threat. Given that elections would happen at state level anyway (and absent disbandment of congress) those elections would elect senators and representatives. Which in turn have the power to remove a president.

So yes, I see nothing to suggest that elections themselves are at risk.

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

#272

Post by UncleOxidant »

cyberax wrote: post #170
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…

The US is a strong federative country. Individual states are almost literally _states_ (as in "country") and have a lot of power. They can impose their own carbon taxes, net neutrality rules, fund research, etc. And more importantly, their local democracy is going strong.

And yet states aren't allowed to form alliances with other states according to Article 1 section 10. Sure, states might be able to fund research, but most states on their own aren't going to be able to afford to do this effectively - but if several states could band together to, say, keep funding climate science that might help keep us on track and keep scientists employed until better times come back. But they can't do that.

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

#273

Post by consumer451 »

rayiner wrote: post #267
consumer451 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that people who by all appearances are intelligent human beings, could post things like this... Nero plays his cithara. I am at a loss for words. I guess the real problem with propaganda is getting high on your own supply. edit: As an example, the Supreme Court overturning Chevron deference was a decision against un-elected officials making government calls, instead of the law makers, aka Congress. Now, just…

You should read some books on history and foreign affairs. Most of the world hates the “liberal international order” because it’s an excuse for the U.S. to impose its values on the rest of the world. DOGE revealed that USAID was funding political unrest in my home country (where activists recently overthrew the government). The U.S. has finally turned a corner on it only because the deep staters started turning that…

> DOGE revealed that USAID was funding political unrest in my home country (where activists recently overthrew the government)

Let's just focus on this part for a moment. Could you please share this evidence?

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

#274

Post by UncleOxidant »

brigandish wrote: post #224
_heimdall wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

With a slight pause in the post-watergate era when Jimmy Carter was president.

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

#275

Post by try_the_bass »

mindslight wrote: post #259
_heimdall wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

... which has been allowed and caused by the Republican congressional obstructionism going on since the 90's. Bush, Obama, and Biden could have reduced their own use of executive power, but they couldn't undo it - rather it was Congress that would have had to reign them in and shrink executive power. Just as the current Congress is ultimately allowing Trump's ongoing authoritarian power grabs, rather than passing law…

> No, the agencies were created by congress, and have always been accountable to Congress. But Congress hasn't been doing its job, which is why they seem unaccountable.

If Congress hasn't been doing its job, then they don't just seem unaccountable, they actually are.

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

#276

Post by cyberax »

malcolmgreaves wrote: post #214
cyberax wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a strong federative country. Individual states are almost literally _states_ (as in "country") and have a lot of power. They can impose their own carbon taxes, net neutrality rules, fund research, etc. And more importantly, their local democracy is going strong.

Except that the states have no power because an unchecked executive branch can just claim that it had authority and the states have no recourse to resist. The US has an incredibly weak form of government.

Don't get so depressed. The Executive branch in the US does not have a lot of power when it comes to influencing the states.

For example, Trump can't actually force states to change their school athlete programs. It doesn't have any power over individual states (or schools). All his DoE can do, is to threaten to withhold funding. And even that is being contested because the Congress has not authorized it.

However, if he does manage to withdraw the funding, that's just 6% of total spending on schools in CA ( https://lao.ca.gov/Education/EdBudget/Details/900 ) and 8% in NY. The states will just shrug and go on.

The discretionary part of the US Federal budget is not large, on the scale of the country.

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

#277

Post by bruce511 »

rurp wrote: post #225
bruce511 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Oh, I agree, finances are going to be poor. But these departments cost a lot more than salaries, so firing everyone does save real coin.

And it plays very well with an electorate who wants to see "big changes". That thr changes will hurt them is the point missed by most.

Killing federal departments also plays well with those encumbered by red tape. If there's no CFB there's no one getting in my way to treat customers badly.

USaid buys (bought) a lot of food from US farmers , so in effect that subsidy is going away (without the bad press). The money "going to Ukraine" was being spent at US munition suppliers, so really, it'll hurt those suppliers.

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

#278

Post by throwawaymaths »

polairscience wrote: post #28

This is true for many programs for reasons that will be hard to understand if you aren't a scientist. The NSF program managers are often pulled out of academia for brief periods of their career to do various tasks as experts. This means they are often probationary. This is the only way to hire people with deep expertise on the topic-du-jour. The trump administration fired in wide swaths many probationary employees at…

there are two tiers of program managers. there are those that are pulled from academia, as you say, but theres a 3-5x? multiple of "junior' PMs that are say MS or BS scientists, rarely PhD (usually the case when the PhD is... subpar), these are career and eventually thet are promoted to senior management and decision making roles.

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

#279

Post by pstuart »

bruce511 wrote: post #212
amluto wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/19/donald-trump-king-i... doesn’t really sound like democracy.

Democracy is not about what he does. It's all about how he comes to power. In 4 years the people will vote again.

> In 4 years the people will vote again.

There's legitimate concern that won't be a viable option, and the admin has hinted that will soon be the case.

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

#280

Post by archagon »

cyberax wrote: post #170
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…

The US is a strong federative country. Individual states are almost literally _states_ (as in "country") and have a lot of power. They can impose their own carbon taxes, net neutrality rules, fund research, etc. And more importantly, their local democracy is going strong.

States need a military to enforce their independence, but almost none have one of note. The National Guard is under the executive branch and state guards tend to be tiny (e.g. just 900 enlisted for CA).
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