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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

#391

Post by graemep »

bruce511 wrote: post #209
jltsiren wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is based on a too literal interpretation of democracy. Democracy had a bad reputation in the ancient world, because unconstrained majority decisions often led to terrible outcomes. In the modern world, democracy usually means liberal democracy, which includes things like the rule of law and constitutional protections. As a rough approximation, a constitution exists to prevent the government from doing what the v…

Ultimately the checks and balances are also elected. Directly in the case of congress, indirectly in the case of the judiciary. (Mitch McConnell obstructed merrick garland and was rewarded for it.) Of course unrestrained majority decisions lead to terrible outcomes. This is well understood, and has been demonstrated over and over recently (think Brexit.) Democracy is objectively a flawed system for this reason. It ha…

> This is well understood, and has been demonstrated over and over recently (think Brexit.)

That is a matter of opinion. Most of what is terrible about Brexit is "the media hate it". Economic outcomes have been in line with comparable EU countries so the promised "project fear" disaster (e.g. the Treasury prediction of a collapse of the economy in the wake of a vote for Brexit - not even on implementation) did not happen.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80772140f0b...

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

#392

Post by fwsgonzo »

pjc50 wrote: post #371
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.

Yep, the amount of contradiction one can hold probably has no bounds when not subjected to some kind of deprogramming. I occasionally look at conservative messaging boards and most members are just asking for what to think not really asking why something (really bad) happened.

Among endless examples, here is a Trumper begging to be educated on why Trump said he is king: https://old.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/1itkmen/expla...

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

#393

Post by ruytlm »

zombot wrote: post #380
esalman wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

To put it simply: this is not adequately explained by stupidity.

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

#394

Post by koolba »

majormajor wrote: post #172
koolba wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

When in the last forty years have Republicans shown any real interest in funding any new worthwhile research projects at the federal level? Versus just cutting what already exists? The money being saved ain't for you.

What about Operation Warp Speed[1] or the creation of the Space Force[2]?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Force

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

#395

Post by lonelyasacloud »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #268
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We may be looking at a lost decade. We're looking at the US wilfully letting go of the possibiility of remaining the most powerful nation in the world. Reduced health, reduced education, reduced funding for research, reduced international aid programs (which both garner goodwill whilst also creating a bulwark against those who profit from misery), reduced oversight / regulation of the power of capital, alienation o…

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.

The confusion is caused by a belief that it is Trump [0] who is making calling the shots.

[0] He probably believes it as well.

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

#396

Post by XorNot »

exe34 wrote: post #358
try_the_bass wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just that there is no practical difference between "seeming unaccountable" and "being unaccountable", especially if, as you say, "the levers of accountability could have been pulled", but weren't. If the departments aren't being held accountable, they are, by definition, acting unaccountably. You seemed to disagree, and be trying to make a distinction where no practical difference can be found. You also seem to agree…

> but weren't Does that imply unaccountable, or does it mean Congress thought they were doing a good job?

Exactly this. People say "unaccountable" but the follow up question is "for what?".

The misinformation era means there's a gulf of frequently incorrect assumptions about what the Federal agencies actually do.

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

#397

Post by aaron695 »

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…

[dead]

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

#398

Post by koolba »

digitaltrees wrote: post #124
koolba wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

When legal and predictable processes are undermined no one can rely on the government being a good actor. A good reputation takes generations to establish and seconds to destroy. No one will trust the government now.

> When legal and predictable processes are undermined ...

Being legally undermined is hardly a bad thing. We voted for unified Republican control of both branches of the legislator and the POTUS. You might not like the outcomes, but there's nothing illegal about what the executive branch is doing, how it's doig it, or the legislation that Congress will be passing in the coming months.

> ... no one can rely on the government being a good actor. A good reputation takes generations to establish and seconds to destroy. No one will trust the government now.

The prior administrations should have kept that in mind before they squandered our money. It's unfortunate that useful and deserving projects will temporarily get caught in the blast radius. But there's been so much waste an lack of accountability that something like what we're seeing for the past few weeks is the only recourse.

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

#399

Post by kelnos »

coliveira wrote: post #287
jltsiren wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is based on a too literal interpretation of democracy. Democracy had a bad reputation in the ancient world, because unconstrained majority decisions often led to terrible outcomes. In the modern world, democracy usually means liberal democracy, which includes things like the rule of law and constitutional protections. As a rough approximation, a constitution exists to prevent the government from doing what the v…

One thing Americans don't seem to realize is that the current constitution needs to be rewritten once we get out of this mess. One of the consequences of dictatorships is that they deform the constitution for their purposes. It seems that republicans have done enough to deform the system in an irreparable way.

Not sure how a "rewrite" would even work. Our current constitution does not have any provisions for discarding it and starting over. The amendment process requires too many states to agree for any sweeping changes. (We couldn't even get enough states to pass something as simple and seemingly uncontroversial as the equal rights amendment before it expired.)

And I think this is -- at least for now -- actually a good thing. Because if we could rewrite the constitution, I suspect it would be rewritten by the same kind of people who wrote the Project 2025 playbook.

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

#400

Post by kelnos »

pstuart wrote: post #279
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.

> 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.

Fortunately the federal government doesn't run or control elections, so the current administration doesn't really have a say here.
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