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Government Shutdown is Putting a Damper on Science in Seattle and Elsewhere (geekwire.com)
It's been called the "Super Bowl of Astronomy," but when the American Astronomical Society's winter meeting plays out in Seattle this week, some of the stars won't be taking the field. From a report: The AAS meeting is just one of the scientific endeavors diminished by the partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., which entered its 17th day today. NASA representatives, and researchers whose travel would typically be funded by NASA, have had to cancel their plans to be in Seattle due to the tiff involving the Trump administration and Republicans on one side, and Democrats on the other.
The shutdown affects only a quarter of the federal government -- which means that the Defense Department and the Energy Department can continue research and development activities. Work continues as well at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at the National Institutes of Health. But most employees at NASA as well as at the Agriculture Department, the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service are on furlough. Further reading: National Parks Face Years of Damage From Government Shutdown.
The shutdown affects only a quarter of the federal government -- which means that the Defense Department and the Energy Department can continue research and development activities. Work continues as well at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at the National Institutes of Health. But most employees at NASA as well as at the Agriculture Department, the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service are on furlough. Further reading: National Parks Face Years of Damage From Government Shutdown.
Yea, it will only cost you 5 Billion and the next national election..... Don't be fooled, this isn't about money... it's about votes.... For BOTH sides.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I thought that was why they charged 50,000 a year and had a 10 billion dollar endowment...but it turns out that was just to pay for the Diversity Officers.
to figure out that if your employer is $21 TRILLION dollars in DEBT, your job and its regular paychecks are hardly guaranteed.
Given the state of global warming, wouldn't we all be better off if this "conference" was held virtually in cyberspace instead of wasting fossil fuels for everybody to travel?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Why are you on Slashdot, if you hate science this much?
"Hating" science is not the same thing as disagreeing with how it is funded. Something is wrong with our society when space science funding is suspended because of a political disagreement over "The Wall". It is hard to imagine two things that should be more unrelated.
Where was your outrage when Obama did the EXACT SAME THING over ObamaCare? Hypocritical clowns.
Considering that never happened, it's hard to see any hypocrisy here. Assuming you mean the 2013 shutdown, Obama was using the veto threat only to prevent new legislation to de-fund Obamacare from being passed. Congress was free to strip new legislation from the bills and get them passed. In this case both the House and Senate have shown willingness to pass bills without new wall related legislation (the 115th Senate was literally unanimous) to keep the government funded.
Both scenarios may have resulted in a shutdown, but no meaningful details are similar.
Trump and McConnell are the ONLY problem actors here. Trump for threatening veto and McConnell for refusing to bring a bill to vote. Any somewhat functional Senate would just override Trump's veto.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Yea, it will only cost you 5 Billion and the next national election..... Don't be fooled, this isn't about money... it's about votes.... For BOTH sides.
This is the type of thought which allows people like Trump to get elected. Once you convince yourself no politicians actually care about the electorate at any level, who cares who gets voted in?
What caused Trump to get elected was lack of any other choices, and the high entertainment value.
I have nothing against having a woman as president. Just not a Clinton. or a Kennedy. or a Bush. We've had enough of that.
With very few exceptions, there aren't that many Congress Critters that should be re-elected.
Tell Pelosi and Schumer to stop putting a damper on science in Seattle!
Or maybe Donald should keep his campaign promises. He said the Mexicans would pay for the wall, and now he wants my taxes to pay for it.
Nancy and Chuck should hold him to his word. Good for them.
Only Democrats use science anyway.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Congress is free to keep the border wall in the legislation.
The border wall was not in the last budget, so adding it is not the status quo. Shutting down the government because it won't fund your pet project is not the same thing as vetoing bills trying to affect previously passed legislation by de-funding it. This isn't rocket science here.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
It's kind of amazing how quickly this turned into a "Trump vs Democrats" issue when Republicans still hold the Senate and also the house when the budget impasse started. It's a theater, and someone is playing their part very well, to shift the blame in that way.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Not necessarily. I worked on an experiment at Fermilab for a few years during a period when FNAL had furloughs (IIRC due to surprise budget cuts) and their employees were not even allowed to turn up to the office on their furlough days under threat of discipline (although to be honest I think it was more bark than bite). I thought it was rather bizarre at the time because they had no problem working weekends but apparently furloughs were not the same. This just goes to show that when dealing with government regulations in unusual circumstances common sense is not a good guide.
I can't possibly imagine why Trump supporters aren't infuriated at being asked to pay for a wall that he repeatedly promised he wasn't going to make the American taxpayers pay for.
And the answer is to decentralize the funding sources.
That is one solution.
Another is to create endowments for basic science, so funding is not buffeted by every political tantrum.
Yet another solution would be to ban peacetime deficit spending, so that the proposed wall would require an immediate tax increase.
Really? I cannot see Clinton whining about and generally causing NATO headaches. And she was unlikely to be Putin's cockholster. I doubt she'd be stupid enough to start a trade war with China. And she wouldn't have been snookered by that whore Erdogan on Syria and sell out our allies, the Kurds, and then backtrack on the decision, and the lie about how he wasn't backtracking. She wouldn't have been stupid enough to think some idiot Great White Wall would solve immigration and drug trafficking, all in one shot...it's one amazing wall. She also wouldn't have declared war on the environment and science in general.
Yep, you got yourself one fucking genius there, just ask him. By the way, he just informed us that no one knows as much about drones as he does. Lookup Dunning-Kruger effect sometime.
Even worse, this whole sustained government shutdown makes no sense.... why does Trump need approval for funding for the wall in the first place if Mexico was going to pay for it? Either the funds are effectively there because of this "fabulous new trade deal with Mexico" as he puts it, or else Americans are paying for it. Which is it?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Who's holding who ransom?
Did Democrats suddenly experience an outbreak of fiscal responsibility?
What do you mean sudden? Which party exploded the budget with $1.5T of tax cuts for the rich? Which party deregulated banks until it caused a collapse? Which party has continually made a total mess every time they have the majority?
I not a member of either party but even I can tell it's the Republican party that has unrealistic fiscal aspirations that have all but driven this nation into the ground.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
There are plenty of sad indictments of our country. Trump beating Hilary isn't one of them.
He was the lesser evil because of his inexperience and lack of connections. So far, the last 2 years (besides the hyperbolic press) have been mundane status quo governance. The most contentious things are undoing bad actions from the previous administration.
He may be a buffoon but we have always known this and that was on the table during the election. A dumb buffoon is better than a smart well established crook that is in bed with the media.
As you say, smart people can still be affected by tribal mentality. How tribal is it to have a policy of "anything against Trump". I mean, the whole Syria pull out is a prime example. Dems are now sounding like the warhawks.
1) The government may pay back bills when they get funded, but they most certainly will not reimburse even exempt employees for non-green lit expenses. And the employees who green-light are probably furloughed. 2) Odds are they're not even allowed to show up. I went to an event in the last shut down with heavy involvement by government employees. They weren't allowed to come into the offsite event while furloughed under threats of pretty bad punishments. Literally, they could go pretty much anywhere but their office or the event.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
I don't know why you say "lately". Reagan, Gingrich and Bush Jr. weren't fiscally responsible either.
I will say that H.W. was the most fiscally responsible leader we've had in Washington in 100 years, even sacrificing his approval ratings (and second term) to put the budget in order.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
The House just passed the same budget bill that the Senate passed 3 weeks ago. The Senate isn't reauthorizing it because Trump said he no longer likes it because Hannity told him he didn't.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Pretty much every Republican commentator says "we can get along without this". But, it's not a matter of balls. It's just a stupid assertion. You never point to a specific single thing you think is a mistake. You say "the sky hasn't fallen yet, so none of it must have been important." But there's no evidence you actually know the state of things.
I mean, if your plane's engines fail (as a passenger), you're going to still have a good amount of time before you'll even notice the issue, let alone crash.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
there's reports that "The Wall" was invented by his handlers in the campaign as a mnemonic to remember to hammer immigration. That's why it's almost childishly simple. It's not a policy, it's a memory trick to keep him from going too far off script. This is the level we're at now, folks.
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[Trump] was the lesser evil because of his inexperience and lack of connections. So far, the last 2 years (besides the hyperbolic press) have been mundane status quo governance.
Wow. I mean, wow. [...reading it again...] Wow. [...shaking my head...]
He may be a buffoon but we have always known this and that was on the table during the election. A dumb buffoon is better than a smart well established crook that is in bed with the media.
Okay ... I doubt anyone can get you to change your mind about Hillary Clinton being a crook. Fine. But consider this: given a choice between voting for the knave and voting for the fool, you should vote for the knave. Why? Because the knave is competent. But watch the knave like a hawk. Hell, watch anyone in power like a hawk.
As you say, smart people can still be affected by tribal mentality. How tribal is it to have a policy of "anything against Trump". I mean, the whole Syria pull out is a prime example. Dems are now sounding like the warhawks.
I guess you have been reading selective accounts of current events. Even the Rs don't like the way DJT is pulling out of Syria. And several erstwhile cabinet-members who are generals didn't like it either.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Which do you think will gain more popular support funding 10 guys looking for exoplanets, or keeping 10,000 construction workers from losing theirs to illegals ?
Can you expand on that? Because it looks a lot like a false equivalence. How is funding for "10 guys looking for exoplanets" mutually exclusive with "10,000 construction workers from losing their [planet? job? something]"? You're suggesting that if we spend our money on one of those, then we can't have the other one? Do the 10 guys have to be looking for exoplanets, or could they be doing anything that advances science? Do the 10,000 people need to be working in construction or could they be doing any manual-labor job? Or any job at all, maybe?
Moreover, why exactly are the guys losing their jobs to "illegals?" It's already illegal to hire people not allowed to be in the country, so why are their employers firing the US citizens and hiring undocumented workers to take their place? Shouldn't one of those ten thousand people report their employer?
Also, why are these even being compared? Those ten guys use government funding, sure, assuming that they're working for NASA, but why exactly are those ten thousand manual laborers being paid with public dollars? Don't they work for private companies? Are we subsidizing another industry now?
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black