Trump's Disdain for Science

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/opinion/trump-disdain-science.html
Trump’s Disdain for Science
By NEAL F. LANE and MICHAEL RIORDAN | JAN. 4, 2018

After almost a year in office, President Trump has yet to name a science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Since World War II, no American president has shown greater disdain for science — or more lack of awareness of its likely costs.

The O.S.T.P. was authorized by Congress in May 1976 to give the president “independent, expert judgment and assistance on policy matters which require accurate assessments of the complex scientific and technological features involved.” It has played an important role in coordinating national science and technology activities and policies among federal agencies.

The previous O.S.T.P. director, John Holdren, a physicist and energy-policy expert from Harvard, was named to the position hardly a month after the 2008 elections and was then quickly approved by the Senate. He served throughout President Barack Obama’s two terms. In June 2001, five months into his first term, George W. Bush nominated the physicist John Marburger, then director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, to the post; he served until Dr. Holdren stepped in.

Today, the O.S.T.P. maintains only a skeleton staff led by the deputy chief technology officer, Michael Kratsios, a technologically inexperienced Silicon Valley financier holding just a bachelor’s degree in political science. The posts of deputy director and four congressionally mandated associate directors remain vacant.

[n2doc]

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[dalton99a]

2. +1. He knows more about thinking than any thinker

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Thanks for posting...I was wondering...

the other day that when I was watching Nova on my PBS channel, I was hoping that tRUMP and his folks won't negatively impact this show by cutting funding (and other good shows on PBS)...