Faith Based Science

August 4, 2017

Feeling mystified

Yeah, the Donald’s so alarming on so many levels. He’s hacked the political discourse, recoding debate into Twitter shouting matches. He’s vilified ethnic and social groups thus making bigotry great again. He’s appointed preposterous leaders to federal agencies who then proceed to dismantle those agencies. He’s weakened civil rights by declaring equal protection does not extend to our Trans children and by refocusing on discrimination against the white population. Oh, and he’s alienated our allies while embracing mother Russia.

The man’s a walking, talking, tweeting disaster. Yet, thirty-seven percent of us love him and feel he’s doing just fine – my president, right or wrong. The Donald requires, and somehow gets, faith based loyalty.

With all the culture war stuff going on, it’s easy to miss one of the most troubling aspects of the Trump regime: his war on science. Since election two-hundred-sixty-nine day ago the Donald’s lashed out against science and reason. He’s crippled the EPA by slashing the budget and redirecting agency focus from climate research and protection to regulatory roll back. Yeah, Trump feels we know enough about climate and it’s time for the government to get out of the way and let the free market take us where it will. He has faith.

The Donald’s 2018 budget slashes NIH funding by 22%, figuring we’re healthy enough, God’s got the rest. He’s cutting off NASA atmospheric carbon monitoring. After all, there are scientists (employed by Exxon) who say there’s no climate change. So, it’s disputed, faithfully. He’s dumping the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, after all, there’s no point, Rick Perry’s running that agency on faith in the market.

Hell, Trump’s suspended The Department of the Interior advisory committee activity. Apparently, the government doesn’t need advice from the private scientific sector anymore. He had the EPA eject most scientists from its Board of Scientific Councilors. Guess he’s just trying to be fair – for too long the elitist scientists have controlled science, what we need now is talk radio host, Sam Clovis, in the Department of Agriculture’s top science post. Talk show science will make America great again – have a little faith.

Well, the republic counts on science, real science, and has faith in the laws of physics, chemistry and mathematics don’t give a fuck what the Donald or his faithful believe. Those laws don’t care about any of us and, if we ignore them, will snuff us all out with no more concern than Trump’s concern for the truth.

Resist,
osv