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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

#371

Post by pjc50 »

freen wrote: post #244

Modest proposal: hacker news is not the most left leaning of web forums, However, there seems to be a fairly consistent and relatively unanimous view that the actions of the current republican administration are deeply problematic. If you happen to be one of those people who thought that voting for the Republicans was in your best interest, yet you are shocked and horrified by what the Republicans are currently doing…

People will do the reverse: because they voted Republican, they will come up with increasingly complicated justifications for why things they previously held to be important should be destroyed to own the libs.

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

#373

Post by rubzah »

epistasis wrote: post #319
hedora wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that Clinton balanced the budget while also funding stuff like the NSF. His term ended with the dot com boom, which was clearly a long term win for the US economy.

While I think the economy was good, I think it could have been even better with a little deficit spending under Clinton. What we call "national debt" is just additional money supply. Instead of dollars they are bonds, that let us retroactively control the amount of them by merely changing interests rates at the Fed. Which is why they are superior to printing a ton of dollars and spending them directly. When the world…

The "additional money supply" is a (hidden) tax on people with fixed incomes and no hard assets.

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

#374

Post by HeatrayEnjoyer »

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.

Unless states have their own sovereign militaries that do not and cannot answer to the federal government that is of minor importance.

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

#375

Post by epistasis »

rubzah wrote: post #373
epistasis wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I think the economy was good, I think it could have been even better with a little deficit spending under Clinton. What we call "national debt" is just additional money supply. Instead of dollars they are bonds, that let us retroactively control the amount of them by merely changing interests rates at the Fed. Which is why they are superior to printing a ton of dollars and spending them directly. When the world…

The "additional money supply" is a (hidden) tax on people with fixed incomes and no hard assets.

No it is not. Inflation would reduce their spending power, but additional money supply is a different thing.

Additionally, most "fixed incomes" these days are inflation pegged, so even inflation is not a burden. But it's never a tax.

But since you put it so starkly, it must be pointed out that when we do not deficit spend when we could, it is to the detriment of productive members of society that are producing all the things that those on fixed incomes need.

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

#376

Post by tialaramex »

rob74 wrote: post #368
polairscience wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll be very lucky if it's a lost decade. One of the many factors that made the US a technical powerhouse were the long threads across disciplines where people could do focused research. you had to reapply for grants but generally could be sure that important programs would stay in place. This breaks all of that. It seems poised to break research as we know it. As one of the many researchers that will likely lose th…

And this is just one of many ways the US is currently shooting itself in the foot (or, if you prefer, cutting off its nose to spite its face). Thanks, Elon! Putin and Xi must be cheering... > Europe will gladly do take backsies on their WWII brain drain. ...until the extreme-right populists (supported by the current US administration) come to power there too?

Populism requires that you're popular. Brexit clones were extremely popular for the right across Europe right up until Brexit actually happened, and then suddenly they all remembered they'd never wanted anything to do with such a stupid plan and began scrubbing praise for it from their materials, back to "reform" and tinkering at the edges.

The trick is to be First. You can sell "Just do X and it'll be great" unless the people have already seen what a disaster X is.

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

#377

Post by Terr_ »

tialaramex wrote: post #376
rob74 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is just one of many ways the US is currently shooting itself in the foot (or, if you prefer, cutting off its nose to spite its face). Thanks, Elon! Putin and Xi must be cheering... > Europe will gladly do take backsies on their WWII brain drain. ...until the extreme-right populists (supported by the current US administration) come to power there too?

Populism requires that you're popular. Brexit clones were extremely popular for the right across Europe right up until Brexit actually happened, and then suddenly they all remembered they'd never wanted anything to do with such a stupid plan and began scrubbing praise for it from their materials, back to "reform" and tinkering at the edges. The trick is to be First. You can sell "Just do X and it'll be great" unless…

In the places that already did X, it will limp along as supporters try to deny that they that they chose something predictably dumb.

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

#378

Post by K0balt »

rayiner wrote: post #308
mindslight wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The executive power, as being laid out in the Constitution. Not all executive power. This is plainly clear by appointments requiring approval of the Senate. If the "executive branch" were meant to be a singular top-down command structure, then such approval (or ability to impeach) would not be required. This push for an authoritarian command structure is one pillar of what makes the term "fascist" appropriate. I was…

“The executive power” means “all the executive power,” in the same way “the judicial power” in Article III means “all the judicial power.” Or do you think the other branches can properly exercise some judicial power? Advice-and-consent isn’t an exercise of executive power, it’s a check on executive power, just like impeachment. Sure, Congress can change or clarify the mandate of an agency, and the President must go a…

Ummm no? The president is not tasked with those decisions , those are the purview of congress who should be pulling to make those expenditures benefit their constituents as may be possible..

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

#379

Post by pjc50 »

_heimdall wrote: post #175
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…

> 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…

This view of the balance sheet is of course bananas.

The worst thing is that the fear of the US becoming Argentina may drive a series of actions that turns the US into Argentina. Well, I'm using them as the poster child here, but really a lot of the Latin American countries have similar economic problems which have been through socialist revolution/CIA-backed coup or vice versa and come off worse each time. It seems this has spread north.

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

#380

Post by zombot »

esalman wrote: post #356
UncleOxidant wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep oscillating between are they just stupid or are they malicious and I'm starting to settle on the latter given the kinds of actions this administration is taking. Ironic that their voters thought they'd be mAkINg AMeRIcA gREaT aGAin when in fact they're going to cause us to lose our leadership role in many areas.

It's a good thing you are "starting to settle" 2025. I mean before 2020 they disbanded federal bodies for pandemic prep and look what happened.

Still, "never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".
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