Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Trump fires NSF's oversight board

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 383 posts

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#301

Post by datsci_est_2015 »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #161
selectodude wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the best case scenario - requires a lot of people currently involved in this to be jailed or executed before we can even begin to move on though. I’m not super optimistic.

Let us not say executed. It's a harsher punishment that they live to see the rebuild of what they turned to ash.

Let us not hesitate to seek justice.

I fear that the capture of American media and the DOJ is too far gone, and that following through with proper punishment for the naked corruption of this regime would be unpopular. “Let bygones be bygones.”

Oh, to live in an America where white-collar crimes and financial treason were actually punished…

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#302

Post by DennisP »

p-e-w wrote: post #82
DennisP wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those protestors are out there because they love America. They love it enough to try to make it better.

Serious question: What exactly do they love America for? I just don’t get it. Seems like in every way that matters to the common people, the US is at best mediocre. Could it be that they secretly subscribe to a different version of the same mythical exceptionalism as the president they despise?

People love their home sports teams, even when they're losing. They love their kids, even when they're getting mediocre grades in school. It's like that.

You're thinking of nationalism, which is when people think their country is the best one. Real patriotism is loving your country just because it's yours.

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#303

Post by datsci_est_2015 »

juniperus wrote: post #277
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article II says no such thing. Humphrey's Executor established a useful compromise between "the Constitution is silent on removal" and "come on, is it really impossible to fire a postmaster?", but Trump has chosen to defect from that compromise so I no longer feel bound to accept it. Until he reinstates all independent agency heads he's purported to fire, I don't accept any removals he performs without explicit autho…

if a court overturns or reinterprets that, then it is the law. America is a common law country, not a civil law country. The process of litigation and court precedent is how laws work in a common law country, so I don't see how your framing of the situation is really all that valid.

Common law countries also benefit from common interpretations of laws, which leads to stability for both the citizens who live and businesses that operate in that country. “Calvinball” is technically possible in all common law countries, as long as you move fast enough for the courts to not catch up. So while you are technically correct, I do not want to live in the version of America where your technical correctness is tested to the limit of its bend-but-not-break strength.

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#304

Post by nixon_why69 »

stogot wrote: post #297
nixon_why69 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China absolutely has a national academy of sciences: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Academy_of_Sciences They have and do oversight, generally with scary commie sounding names but presumably the same day-to-day as the NSF.

The article talked about the board pushing back on political decisions. Do you really think Chinese oversight boards push back on political officers? Do they take to the press to lambast Xi?

Politics are different in China, certainly nobody is going to the press.

But they also have a culture where lots of politicians have technical degrees, and they've gotten better results as far as government and science. You don't have the problem of "global warming isn't real for cultural reasons" in the first place.

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#305

Post by datsci_est_2015 »

hakrgrl wrote: post #185

Trump is a disruptor. I am interested to see how this plays out and whether he replaces anyone. One thing I've learned since COVID is, unfortunately, to be more skeptical of medical authorities. We were lied to in so many ways and all the while forced to "trust the science" and so called experts. But they were caught either wrong or lying way too many times. So I am not going to assume outright all the people he fire…

Funny that you mention TDS, as it sounds like you might have Covid Derangement Syndrome. I.e. an unhealthy obsession and preoccupation with Covid, leading it to warp your view of the world in sharply irrational ways.

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#306

Post by 0xy »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #249
0xy wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The current administration has openly admitted multiple times that they want to completely eliminate anyone from government who isn't "one of their people". Their current efforts, both the ones in Project 2025 (ex. reclassifying career civil servants so they can replace them all with partisan hacks) and those without (voter ID laws, gerrymandering, replacing the Fed chairman), are specifically designed to create a 1-…

[flagged]

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#308

Post by kasey_junk »

nixon_why69 wrote: post #304
stogot wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article talked about the board pushing back on political decisions. Do you really think Chinese oversight boards push back on political officers? Do they take to the press to lambast Xi?

Politics are different in China, certainly nobody is going to the press. But they also have a culture where lots of politicians have technical degrees, and they've gotten better results as far as government and science. You don't have the problem of "global warming isn't real for cultural reasons" in the first place.

The Soviet Union had great math & science research infrastructure and leaders who were science and technologists. They still had political pressure that conflicted with science.

Why would we think China is any different?

Re: Trump fires NSF's oversight board

#310

Post by mindslight »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #281
juniperus wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The superpower built on the US dollar fiat monopoly that was enforced by military lead? The one that Trump is trying to reassert in a misguided attempt at preventing a decline in US quality of life down to a more realistic level? You seem to think Trump is the cause of this, and not the world gaining the ability to dictate their own affairs and not be the victim of CIA global chess games and other neocolonialist mach…

US financiers enjoy the benefits of the global dollar, and have immense political influence. What's completely incomprehensible is that the people suffering consequences of the Triffin Dilemma double down on the US dollar as the reserve currency. If they really wanted to bring back manufacturing, jobs, and compete with China, we'd give up the dollars special status. It's amazing how easily it is to misdirect blame to…

> If they really wanted to bring back manufacturing, jobs, and compete with China, we'd give up the dollars special status

IIUC that was actually an explicit goal laid out in Ron Vara's book. It's obviously hard to tell where the line is between deliberate policy and mere narrative-chum for useful idiots to latch on to. But the impression I've gotten is that many of Grump's moves are in line with this goal, but fail to achieve it because the Dollar is so damn sticky (at least in the near term).

Also, the truth is that supporting manufacturing jobs to compete with China could always have been straightforwardly done by taking the surplus wealth gained by being the world reserve currency (ie being able to trade paper dollars for real goods), and directly spending it on subsidies for domestic manufacturing. But the policy over the past several decades has been instead to simply give away that wealth to Wall Street in the form of artificially low interest rates that create an asset bubble (ie the fake "fiscal responsibility" that the Republican party had been promoting)

Post reply on HN