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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

#431

Post by rayiner »

dylan604 wrote: post #309
rayiner wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system has specific, well-defined checks and balances. For example, Congress can limit the executive’s control over spending by enacting specific appropriations bills with concrete line items. But it hasn’t done so for decades. It has done things like appropriate single $1.7 billion line items for USAID, leaving it to the executive’s discretion how to spend it with only the vaguest guidelines. Congress having don…

> And your point about immunity is misinformed. The Supreme Court held that the President has immunity for official acts. We'll have to agree to disagree here. You'll never convince me that a phone call from a candidate trying to convince someone to "find" extra votes is an official act of office. Nor is assembling a league of fake electors because the official ones will not bend the knee

Please read the Supreme Court’s decision. It didn’t say either of those actions was protected official acts. The Supreme Court remanded to the district out to figure out which were official acts and which were not: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

This was entirely Jack Smith’s bad lawyering. He chose to write an indictment that mixed together the acts you mention along with things like Trump’s instructions to DOJ officials.

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

#432

Post by rayiner »

watwut wrote: post #335
rayiner wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is democracy! You can say it’s a bad idea or whatever. But Trump had Musk on stage promising to do this then we elected him. That’s democracy. Tyranny of the majority. Also people like it: https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/HHP... (pp. 29-32)

Democracy involves rule of law.

In a sense, but not in the sense of all the political branches having to run every decision by lawyers and judges.

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

#433

Post by directevolve »

cyberax wrote: post #337
Braxton1980 wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are states exactly flush with cash to plug even small gaps in school budgets? You mentioned CA which is rebuilding from massive fires, can they afford that? What about Arizona, 2021 to 2022 19% of their schools budget was federal funding. What happens if there is a natural disaster, Trump can withhold funds to force changes. Can a state turn down that level of assistance? They would have to prioritize recovery I assu…

> You mentioned CA which is rebuilding from massive fires, can they afford that? Yes. > What about Arizona, 2021 to 2022 19% of their schools budget was federal funding. They are an outlier, but mostly because they spend so little: https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti... > What happens if there is a natural disaster, Trump can withhold funds to force changes. Can a state turn down that level o…

I doubt Democrats would threaten to yank hurricane relief funds.

Republicans would.

The shoe only fits on one foot.

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

#434

Post by rayiner »

dashundchen wrote: post #301
rayiner wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For context, you should read about how USAID historically has acted to interfere in the politics of other counties: https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/04/03/cuban-twitter-and-other... ; https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/15/when-is-for... ; https://www.jstor.org/stable/4017728 As to Bangladesh specifically: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/usaid-b... ; https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/29m…

Neither of your articles have any proof or evidence the $20 million funds to Bangladesh are real. It's just what Trump claimed off the cuff. Trump is a known liar. It's why his supporters are always telling other people not take him literally They lied about $50 million for condoms in Gaza, just like he lied about Haitian immigrants eating pets and the dozens of other lies he spews out daily. DOGE has posted a ton of…

https://www.highergov.com/grant/AID388A1700003/

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

#435

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

lonelyasacloud wrote: post #395
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.

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.

I genuinely believe that Elon Musk just "wants to do something , because he promised efficiency" , does the worst job at it because he's incompetent at such stuff and tries to oversell what he does.

I once saw a video of a guy explaining genuinely how elon can technically reach its number of $ tax payers saved, it required US to invest highly in a digital system like that of estonia.

But oh no , he's going to take your grandma s social security.

Elon musk is both stupid and malicious.

I am not pro billionare , I genuinely believe that there might be very billionaire who aren't ruthless in their business and even a little malicious.

I think its totally possible that Elon can be stupid and be the richest man in the world. I have gotten a Elon Musk biography and I really used to admire him untill he bought twitter and renamed it X. to me , it was something of a collosal waste of branding. Twitter is Twitter , not X , yet Elon made it X , what is its relation ? , its like facebook naming itself J or whatever , I don't know.

It has all been a bad show after that. I think he has shown signs of being both stupid and malicious. He called somebody a pedo without no reason I think. He has a fragile ego , I don't know .

I think we need to stop glorifying ruthless bussinessman like billionaires , I think its hard to say this on a startup forum.

I don't know , I think you can appreciate startups / the freedom it brings (if you are genuinely interested in some tech and feel limited by current employment opportunities) and also dislike billionaires if they are fragile ego.

These two aren't contradictory.

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

#436

Post by DFHippie »

rayiner wrote: post #303
archagon wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a modern nation, it’s not tenable to flush the federal government down the toilet every four years.

To the contrary, in a modern, diverse country, it’s not tenable for the same people to keep running the government in the same way regardless of who wins elections. That was okay when we had a more homogenous, slower-changing country with widely shared values. That’s untenable today.

Engineering, statistics, science: these things do not change every four years. How to dig a trench or survey a boundary does not change. How to conduct clinical trials, combat disease, deliver mail: these things do not change.

What is not tenable today, or ever, is firing the people with these skills every four years and re-hiring replacements, to the extent that this happens at all, based on ideological tests.

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

#437

Post by rayiner »

pjc50 wrote: post #382
rayiner wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> it’s an excuse for the U.S. to impose its values on the rest of the world Some of this is bad (war on terror), some of this is good (liberal democracy), and ultimately if you don't like a liberal international order wait until you see what the illiberal one looks like (e.g. Chinese overseas police stations).

No, “liberal democracy” is bad too. It involves doing things like involving western moral standards in muslim countries and interfering in elections under the pretext of “human rights.” Fighting terrorism is at least beneficial to the U.S.

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

#438

Post by UncleMeat »

rights_reminder wrote: post #243

I know these cuts make almost no difference to the massive federal spending, but they are putting a spotlight on our nation's dire financial situation. Most young people have no hope of owning a home or having kids and our federal government is "borrowing" money to pay for all of these things. Last year it added 1830 billion dollars to the national debt while paying 1126 billion in interest. Take a look at the dollar…

I assure you that in the world where the oligarchs have destroyed the post-new-deal world and established their CEO-king fiefdoms, houses will be less affordable.

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

#439

Post by DFHippie »

bruce511 wrote: post #271
devin wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 nothin…

If all but the most bubbled media have been brought to heel by billionaire owners or threats and the ordinary voters, the ones who sat out the last election or thought it was about the price of eggs, are exposed only to authoritarian-friendly propaganda, I don't have a lot of hope for the next elections.

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

#440

Post by laughingcurve »

dmix wrote: post #239
nullstyle wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you care about nuclear safety, dmix? Is that the waste you're talking about?

Posting multiple replies under my comments, then replying again in other threads is some weird attention seeking behaviour... But yes I do think it is very wasteful, as the article says it can cause serious inflation issues to dump $1T into the economy like that. Not at all economically conservative nor a useful behaviour of an agency claiming to want to save money, similar to the federal firings I critiqued as non-p…

Just because you talk a lot about the same damn topic on different threads does not mean your opinions are atomized and not seen in their totality.
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