The Oh So Competent (evil)Trump Administration (1 Viewer)

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    At the Transportation Department, enforcement of pipeline safety rules has plunged to unprecedented lows since President Donald Trump's inauguration.

    Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for showerheads and other household appliances.

    And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt most work related to antidiscrimination laws.

    Across the government, the Trump administration is trying a new tactic for gutting federal rules and policies that the president dislikes: simply stop enforcing them.

    “The conscious effort to slow down enforcement on such a broad scale is something we have never seen in previous administrations,” said Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy.

    “It amounts to a dramatic assertion of presidential power and authority.”

    This account of the Trump administration’s efforts to scale back application of many laws is based on interviews with more than a dozen federal employees across seven agencies, as well as a review of internal documents and federal data. The employees spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

    Trump officials say these efforts will allow the president to swiftly scrap regulations that are burdening a variety of businesses and industries.

    “When you have a new regulation, it’s really, really hard on business,” Kevin Hassett, who directs Trump’s National Economic Council, told CNBC on Monday.

    “They’ve got to hire all these engineers and lawyers to figure out, ‘What are we going to do with this new regulation?’” Hassett added. “And so by pausing that, already, we’re having a big, massive, positive effect.”

    Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely...…..

    Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn't like

     
    Sometimes it all gets so demoralizing that I just want to escape into some pleasing fantasy. I might watch The Book of Eli and amuse myself imagining why the MAGA part of the audience would be irritated about why would God help this black guy shoot up the town’s mayor and his police force. 😝
     
    Science is under siege.

    On Friday evening, the White House released an executive order called Restoring Gold Standard Science.

    At face value, this order promises a commitment to federally funded research that is “transparent, rigorous, and impactful” and policy that is informed by “the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available”.

    But hidden beneath the scientific rhetoric is a plan that would destroy scientific independence in the US by giving political appointees the latitude to dismiss entire bodies of research and punish researchers who fail to fall in line with the current administration’s objectives. In other words: this is Fool’s-Gold Standard Science.

    According to the order, “Gold Standard Science means science conducted in a manner that is:

    (i) reproducible;

    (ii) transparent;

    (iii) communicative of error and uncertainty;

    (iv) collaborative and interdisciplinary;

    (v) skeptical of its findings and assumptions;

    (vi) structured for falsifiability of hypotheses;

    (vii) subject to unbiased peer review;

    (viii) accepting of negative results as positive outcomes; and

    (ix) without conflicts of interest.”

    The order mimics the language of an active reform movement in science to increase rigor and transparency of research – a movement commonly called the open science movement, to which some of us are contributors.

    Science is, by nature, a continuous work in progress; constantly self-scrutinized and always looking for opportunities to improve.

    We should all be able to celebrate any administration’s investment in improving the openness, integrity, and reproducibility of research.

    But, with this executive order, we cannot.

    Instead of being about open science, it grants administration-aligned political appointees the power to designate any research as scientific misconduct based on their own “judgment” and includes the power to punish the scientists involved accordingly; this would weaponize government counter to the public interest.……..

     
    The Trump administration’s Department of Labor announced on Thursday it would suspend operations of the Job Corps training program, prompting bipartisan criticism.

    “The Department should have attempted to fix them but, instead of working with the contractors and helping students, they’ve just decided to send the students home,” Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, wrote in a statement.

    “The Department of Labor apparently has no plans for an improved product or a new approach. This careless approach will upset the lives of too many ambitious members of a future workforce, and should be condemned.”

    Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, also said she “strongly” opposes pausing the program as part of the administration’s push to cut spending, calling the Job Corps centers in her state “important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults.”


    The Labor Department announced the shift on Thursday, saying it “reflects the Administration’s commitment to ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers.”……….

     

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