some may even call him stupid
i sure do
from twitter, and checked:
Trump just fired all 24 members of the National Science Board. Every single one. By email. No warning. No reason given. The board has existed since 1950.
The National Science Board is the independent body that oversees the National Science Foundation, the agency that distributes $9 billion in research grants every year.
Its members are scientists and engineers from universities and industry. They serve six-year staggered terms specifically so they cross presidential administrations and stay independent of whoever is in power.
On Friday, every single one of them got the same boilerplate email from Mary Sprowls of the Presidential Personnel Office: "On behalf of President Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service."
That's it. That's the whole letter. For 76 years of institutional independence.
The NSF funds the basic science behind MRIs. Cellphones. LASIK eye surgery. GPS. The internet itself. The Antarctic research stations. The deep-space telescopes. The research vessels mapping the ocean floor. Every breakthrough that made America the world's leader in science for the better part of a century traces back through grants this agency made and this board approved.
The board chair, Victor McCrary, was actively advising Congress on Trump's proposed 55% cut to NSF's budget. The board was helping fight back. So Trump fired the board.
Marvi Matos Rodriguez, one of the fired members, told reporters she had been reviewing an 80-page report as part of her board duties just days before being terminated.
Keivan Stassun, a physicist at Vanderbilt, said NSF's leadership had already stopped responding to board oversight requests months ago. "We would ask them, 'Are you following board governance directives?' And their answer would be, in effect, 'We don't listen to you anymore.'"
Now there's no board to answer to.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House Science Committee, called it "the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation. Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won't stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries?"
That's the actual question.
Because while Trump is firing American scientists, China is building research universities at a rate we cannot match. The CDC just buried a study showing vaccines work.
RFK Jr. runs HHS. The EPA is gutted. The Forest Service is being broken. Half of American children are breathing dangerous air. And now the people who decide what gets researched in the United States have all been fired by email on a Friday afternoon.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/us/politics/trump-fires-board-members-scientific-research-group.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01361-7
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2026/04/25/national-science-board-members-dismissed/
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-04-26/trump-purges-national-science-board-scientists-warn-of-ai-shift
From the LA Times Article you posted, this move is "potentially ceding American scientific dominance to global competitors."
The National Science Foundation was created more than 75 years ago as an independent federal agency when President Truman signed the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 to boost U.S. science for national security and international competition during the Cold War.
“The establishment of the National Science Foundation is a major landmark in the history of science in the United States,” Truman said back then. “We have come to know that our ability to survive and grow as a nation depends to a very large degree upon our scientific progress. Moreover, it is not enough simply to keep abreast of the rest of the world in scientific matters. We must maintain our leadership.”
Even if you're one of those right-wing science deniers, at least the idea of America leading the world should be something you'd want, right?
@vivify saidyou haven't stopped watching the news
This is why I stopped watching news and stopped following politics. This is depressing and anger-inducing.
you haven't stopped following politics
you read at least one of the links provided
and replied twice
the incompetence of the current administration IS depressing
watching the foolish moves they make IS anger inducing
and even tho we may feel helpless against a giant tyrant
hiding one's head in the sand, or doing nothing, isn't the answer either
hang in there @vivify, yer doing well
@rookie54 saidIf some foreign power wanted to destroy a great nation, without risk of military confrontation on the battlefield, this is how to do it: put a blackmailable psychopath into the White House.
some may even call him stupid
i sure do
from twitter, and checked:
Trump just fired all 24 members of the National Science Board. Every single one. By email. No warning. No reason given. The board has existed since 1950.
The National Science Board is the independent body that oversees the National Science Foundation, the agency that distributes $9 billion in rese ...[text shortened]... decide what gets researched in the United States have all been fired by email on a Friday afternoon.
@vivify saidDemographics are against the conservatives, and the clever ones among them know it. Repeated studies have indicated that the more highly educated people are, the less likely they are to vote conservative.The stupidification of America is planned. Stupid people are easier to control than smart ones.
From the LA Times Article you posted, this move is "potentially ceding American scientific dominance to global competitors."
[quote]The National Science Foundation was created more than 75 years ago as an independent federal agency when President Truman signed the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 to boost U.S. science for national security and international competiti ...[text shortened]... ience deniers, at least the idea of America leading the world should be something you'd want, right?
@Ponderable saidTrump hates science, he hates scientists, and he hates facts, first because he is certifiably stupid, and second because they contradict his control of the narrative.
I am hardly able to believe this. Lets see who will follow...
@vivify saidWhiney voice: "But it was all a LIB idea!"
From the LA Times Article you posted, this move is "potentially ceding American scientific dominance to global competitors."
[quote]The National Science Foundation was created more than 75 years ago as an independent federal agency when President Truman signed the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 to boost U.S. science for national security and international competiti ...[text shortened]... ience deniers, at least the idea of America leading the world should be something you'd want, right?
@Ponderable saidIts incredibly bleak, and extends well beyond NSF.
I am hardly able to believe this. Lets see who will follow...
The NIH is run by a podcaster who fired thousands of people and now can't figure out why it isn't working anymore. Cancer research funding is not going out to labs, and they are being fired by their institutions and closing their labs because of it. The shifting priorities don't make any sense and no one understands how to write grants anymore that NIH/NSF/DoA will actually fund. Instead of doing science, US science right now is focused on rewriting grant applications. The only exception is nutrition science, which RFK Jr. loves funding because it shows that you don't need to quit cigarettes to kick lung cancer, all you need is 10 milligrams of this horse tranquilizer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/science/trump-nih-funding-research.html
@wildgrass saidIf some foreign power wanted to destroy a great nation, without military confrontation, this is how to do it: put a drug addict science denier in charge of public health and medical research, and wait a generation.
Its incredibly bleak, and extends well beyond NSF.
The NIH is run by a podcaster who fired thousands of people and now can't figure out why it isn't working anymore. Cancer research funding is not going out to labs, and they are being fired by their institutions and closing their labs because of it. The shifting priorities don't make any sense and no one understands how ...[text shortened]... is horse tranquilizer.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/science/trump-nih-funding-research.html
@moonbus saidDoesn’t seem to be a subject our trump rimming maga supporters seem to want to weigh in on.
If some foreign power wanted to destroy a great nation, without military confrontation, this is how to do it: put a drug addict science denier in charge of public health and medical research, and wait a generation.
At some point they’re going to have to stick their heads out the orange and brown cleft and smell some coffee. Surely?