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NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

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Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#661
post #612
post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You obviously understand how these actions benefit the country of which Donald Trump is the President. Why don't you explain it to the rest of the class?

[flagged]

You just said a lot of things that are easily disproven.

>war being waged in an unknown place

It's Ukraine. They've been an ally in a strategic location for decades. Just because you can't find it on a map doesn't mean I can't.

>for an unknown reason

They were invaded by Russia.

>But funding the dictator Zelensky so that he can capture people who do not want to fight for him and send them to certain death in storm troop units is unreasonable behavior, and from a Christian point of view, even disgusting.

Thanks, comrade.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#662
post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you have believed a few months ago that the US government would be trying to strong-arm foreign nations who are nominally allies into compliance with its policy preferences? Here's another recent example of that: https://www.dw.com/en/france-voices-shock-at-us-calls-to-dro... I have been warning for years (often here on HN) that the US risks tilting into a failed state due to political extremism, and its genera…

>Would you have believed a few months ago that the US government would be trying to strong-arm foreign nations who are nominally allies into compliance with its policy preferences? What do you mean? Hasn't the USA pretty much ALWAYS done this? >The whole hysteria about illegal immigrants is based on the specious claim that one party is importing them wholesale and somehow converting them into voters to steal election…

The USA has not always done this. It has historically thrown its weight around (see any history book) but has historically maintained a far greater emphasis on diplomacy and international comity rather than the outright bullying we see now. You will note that I specifically referred to the US' behavior toward nominal allies. If you disagree, please provide some examples.

> millions of illegal immigrants who are committing huge numbers of crimes

A trope wholly ungrounded in fact, which has been debunked any number of times.

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU01/20250122/117827/HHRG...

https://www.cato.org/blog/new-research-illegal-immigration-c...

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6241529/#S14

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#663
post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the American experience that decisions are made at the executive level based on faulty intelligence, while people working at the coal face such as yourself have a much better understanding of what's really going on. Case in point the Vietnam war, which cost thousands of lives because decisions were based on statistics from the field which had been heavily manipulated as they percolated upwards. Right now, just a…

"Faulty intelligence" accepts that DOGE / Russell Vought / Project 2025 are sincerely concerned with government spending. The evidence says that this is deliberate sabotage of government functions to erode public trust. Consider: Douglas Holtz-Eakin (former Republican CBO director) noted DOGE is specifically "going into agencies they disagree with" for ideological reasons, targeting programs that are a tiny fraction…

Something, something small enough to drown it in the bathtub.

This isn't new. Republicans have always worked to erode government offerings to justify further cuts. What is new is the scale and speed.

Is there literally nothing Congress can do or are they just doing nothing?

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#664
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every DEI program I've ever been involved in has been 100% about selecting people _purely_ on merit. Not race, not gender, not whether or not they're trans. The DEI trainings are about completely ignoring those factors when hiring. I'm curious what they call your trainings on the matter.

IF they are so into selecting people based on merit, why do they want to know who/what am I having sex with, what do I think I am, what race I am, did my parents went to college, etc? Have you tried to apply for a job online in the last 10 years?

I have applied for jobs online in the last 10 years. I was never asked who/what I was having sex with, what do I think I am (??), or where my parents went to college. I was asked about my race, presumably to comply with anti-discrimination laws. I always had the option of refusing to disclose.

It sounds like you actually haven't applied to jobs in the last 10 years or have been applying to some seriously messed up places.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but the Prez was blocked from carrying out the wishes of his constituents (on a terrible argument and on that surprise surprise McConnell reversed his position on once Trump was in).

Indeed. McConnell has done an incredible amount of damage to America over the course of his time as a Senator (blocking supreme court nominations, refusing to call witnesses during the first Trump impeachment, use of the filibuster, delaying/obstructing health reforms, and on and on). Quite incredible, in a way (depressing).

I detest what he did and agree his actions were very damaging to the US both short and long term, but I have to admire his political abilities.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The focus is robbing the treasury to give tax breaks to the rich.

Trump said yesterday he wants to raise taxes on people earning over $2.5MM[1] People on the left are going to be caught totally flat-footed if they don't pull their head out of their bubble. Trump is a populist president. He was elected by working class individuals and so far he has shown every intent of following through for them. People on the left don't recognize it because they don't recognize the tools that righ…

> Trump said yesterday he wants to raise taxes on people earning over $2.5MM[1]

He also said he would end the Ukraine war on day 1.

> He is clearly not working for billionaires when he tanked the stock market and spiked bond rates playing his tariff game. Stop using that dog whistle because it makes it clear you are ungrounded from what is happening, unless all you care about is praise from other detached people.

Of course not. Why would anyone get the idea that Trump is working for billionaires? It's not as if he hawked cars on the White House lawn for the world's richest man.

Speaking of ungrounded, detached people..

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#667
post #458

The fastest way for the US to lose its competitive edge and status as global leader is to reduce funding for scientific research and academic institutions. They are the Crown Jewels and the primary attraction for talent from around the world. The damage for the next four years is done. The question is, even if there's a major shift back to sanity with the next prez elections, it'll take years to build up trust and th…

"China will try but their credibility is low" Not in my field of engineering. Don't confuse China in 2005 with China today.

I'm talking about scientific research at academic institutions, not industrial implementation.

Other than the handful of institutions I mentioned, the best and brightest are _not_ going to China to do their PhD or postdoc. Sure they might be employed by industry there afterwards--there's good money to be made and China is cutting-edge when it comes to industrial implementation--but that's a different matter than what's discussed here.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#669
post #11

The NSF funded my graduate research. It feels like someone is going through my past and burning all of the ladders that helped me grow and succeed.

Same here. NSF funded my grad research and I have the same feeling. Seeing this nation eat its seed corn to fund some bullshit tax cuts makes me sick. None of this is theoretical. Talked to a Stanford prof two week ago- her DOE grant is on hold. Talked to some UCSD profs- and they said they only admitted just over half the number of grad students as last year due to funding uncertainty. I fear my kids might have to go to another country to get advanced training, and that next generation of American tech entrepreneurs will be fewer or lost.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Faulty intelligence" accepts that DOGE / Russell Vought / Project 2025 are sincerely concerned with government spending. The evidence says that this is deliberate sabotage of government functions to erode public trust. Consider: Douglas Holtz-Eakin (former Republican CBO director) noted DOGE is specifically "going into agencies they disagree with" for ideological reasons, targeting programs that are a tiny fraction…

Something, something small enough to drown it in the bathtub. This isn't new. Republicans have always worked to erode government offerings to justify further cuts. What is new is the scale and speed. Is there literally nothing Congress can do or are they just doing nothing?

They’ve been doing nothing for decades.
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