Can we talk about Trump's war on the scientific community?

[Aoi Magi]

Source and reason? The freeze in contacts and grants is real, the data being scrubbed from sites and pages disappearing is real and visible, although I don't give much credence to BuzzFeed, this seems quite real

[pocaracas]

1984 and Idiocracy were not meant to be instruction manuals!!!

I can only hope that the rest of the world shies away from this poor example of leading humanity to the future.

The recent Austrian elections did restore some of that faith in the future of humanity...
As always, anyone wanting to move to the great country that is Portugal, is free to do so. You'll have a welcoming committee and all!

[Pat Mustard]

So your source for "authoritative" comment is a blog by an idiot creatard liar? Wow, RoadRunneer this is a new low, even for you.

Is that as low as name calling, and resorting to the genetic fallacy?   Also they do cite back to Reuters if you would prefer.

And again, I'm still waiting for a little more direct and detailed testimony, for evidence; rather than what appears to be vague gossip. Here we do have a reputable news source, referring to an official statement by one of the agencies.

While I do fear, that too many on both sides are heading in this direction; I also have hope that we haven't gotten to that point yet.  Or at least, that it doesn't escalate further.

But I think that ideas should be judged based on their content and reasons, not based on the source or its conclusion.

I've read many posts on uncommon descent, including the one you linked, and not one single one of them told the truth. It is common knowledge that that blog is written by a lying crank who shuts down debate and censors anyone who dares to correct him.

As I said citing the blog is a new lo for you.

[RoadRunner79]

Is that as low as name calling, and resorting to the genetic fallacy?   Also they do cite back to Reuters if you would prefer.

And again, I'm still waiting for a little more direct and detailed testimony, for evidence; rather than what appears to be vague gossip. Here we do have a reputable news source, referring to an official statement by one of the agencies.

While I do fear, that too many on both sides are heading in this direction; I also have hope that we haven't gotten to that point yet.  Or at least, that it doesn't escalate further.

But I think that ideas should be judged based on their content and reasons, not based on the source or its conclusion.

I've read many posts on uncommon descent, including the one you linked, and not one single one of them told the truth. It is common knowledge that that blog is written by a lying crank who shuts down debate and censors anyone who dares to correct him.

As I said citing the blog is a new lo for you.

I would encourage you to search a little.   You can find similar stories on Scientific American or a number of other places if you prefer.  Your claim would appear to be false.

[flagbears]

What war on the scientific community ? He would need their help, sooner or later.

[downbeatplumb]

Good luck with that

I don't need luck since it is already happening. Donald Trump is President of the United States and parties that oppose mass immigration are gaining ground in Europe.

Indeed, it is a terrible time.
Looks very similar to the world just before world war 2.

[I_am_not_mafia]

This is going viral. Make of it what you will.

"So I work at the EPA and yeah it's as bad as you are hearing: The entire agency is under lockdown, the website, facebook, twitter, you name it is static and can't be updated. All reports, findings, permits and studies are frozen and not to be released. No presentations or meetings with outside groups are to be scheduled. Any Press contacting us are to be directed to the Press Office which is also silenced and will give no response. All grants and contracts are frozen from the contractors working on Superfund sites to grad school students working on their thesis. We are still doing our work, writing reports, doing cancer modeling for pesticides hoping that this is temporary and we will be able to serve the public soon. But many of us are worried about an ideologically-fueled purging and if you use any federal data I advise you gather what you can now. We have been told the website is being reworked to reflect the new administration's policy. Feel free to copy and paste, you all pay for the government and you should know what's going on. I am posting this as a fellow citizen and not in any sort of official capacity. If you share, please do so with copy and paste"

[CWoods]

And the straight-up censorship that's coming with it?

Trump bans EPA employees from giving social media updates, talking to reporters

This is pure censorship.  These departments are now not permitted to disseminate any info on federally-funded research. This is research citizens have paid for and we deserve to have access to the results. The EPA was told to remove all info about global warming from its website. 

I'm old enough to remember when the Russians launched Sputnik that the U.S. was on a mission to improve science education and train scientists.  Now the govt is acting like science is less important than opinion or has no importance at all.

The scientific community is up in arms about this. Two marches are being planned for DC with satellite marches elsewhere.  One is in support of science (date to be announced) and one on 4/29/17 about climate change.

Marches get attention, but we have to each do our part to let our Congress members know how we feel ---phone, email, postcards, letters.  Note, Paul Ryan has shut off his office phone and fax and has refused to accept boxes of petitions, so you must send letters or postcards to him.  (I have his home and office addresses if anyone wants them, but I'm sure you can find them online.)  Several people reported that Trump's phone line is off.  Someone suggested that if you cannot get through, to call Trump hotels and asking the staff to pass on messages. (Be polite --those people are not WH staffers, just the recipients of caller's opinions.) 

There was a post on the Daily Kos on 1/27/17 about leaks from White House staff about how Trump is given facts about all kinds of things, but he won't listen.  He has an idea in his head and goes with what he thinks or believes with no evidence.  (Apparently he never reads, does research, or consults experts or opposing opinions, just listens to Bannon.)  Most of the staff are coming to the conclusion that he is off-balance and crazy. The one whistle blower will certainly be fired if s/he is discovered, but has been posting to twitter anonymously.  Of course, that could mean s/he is or is not a real staff member at the WH. 

I read that some of the nominees to DJT's cabinet who have been confirmed were sworn in by Pence because they didn't want their pictures taken with Trump.  Because the VP is the President of the Senate, maybe that is who usually swears in cabinet members.  I tried to look it up, but couldn't find anything specific, but I saw some photos of the swearing in of JFK's cabinet and JFK seemed to be doing it himself ---or at least he was in the photos. And I understand Trump swore in a few.

I am convinced that DJT is suffering from NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder.)  Look up the symptoms online.  Some are that he has no empathy. He made horrible and ruthless comments about immigrants, Muslims, women, etc. yet a symptom of the disorder is that he can't take even the slightest of negative comments about himself.  He obsesses about  constant approval, apparently to the point that his staff is afraid to tell him the truth about things he obsesses about ----such as that he lost the popular vote and had a lot fewer attendees at his inauguration than W or Obama ---and can't stop talking about them, even though that puts his lower numbers in everyone's minds constantly. 

Almost every state has already reported there have been no, or only a few incidences of fraudulent votes.  The head of the election board in RI said she went back 20 years and found only 1 incident ---a college student who throughout she could vote where she went to school. It was considered to be a mistake and dismissed. In AZ there was one incident in 5 years of a person who moved to AZ and also voted in a different state.  That was fraud & dealt with.  In a PA court case opposing the voter ID law, the judge asked the legislature to report all incidents of voter fraud and they come up with zero. Almost everyone but paranoid Trump thinks its a non-issue, yet he will spend tax-payer money for a study in an attempt to prove millions of illegals voted against him (but only wants to investigate the states where he lost.) If they find that it didn't happen, I doubt he will believe it and then will lie about the results or claim it is a conspiracy against him.

As someone else noted, no one at govt agencies can guarantee that the info on their websites will ever be posted again, so suggested everyone who can or is interested in a particular study or info should copy and paste it somewhere to keep it.  I hope the staff do that, too. If they can get away with it, they should copy the info to flash drives and post it on an unofficial site, similar to the one created as an alternate site for the National Park Service after its twitter account was closed down.

[Pat Mustard]

@CWoods there are plenty of instances of voter fraud in the US, 75,000 at least in Michigan, 7 million more in a register of "double voters" so accurate that it lead to four arrests and no convictions (nit surprising considering that the only two comparison points on the list are first name and surname), and going back a while 80,000+ refused a vote on Florida because of crimes they didn't commit (some of which, according to the records used, not even committed as if today), crimes for which the citizen was punished and then had their voting rights reinstated, and "crimes" deemed unconstitutional years ago (such as voting while black).

The problem is that the Republitraitors don't want you to know about these frauds and the Democrats sre too pussy to pursue these treasons.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

On a tangential note, didn't I read recently that the chairman of the governmental science committee suggest that people ignore the news media and trust only what Trump tells them?

Boru