House Republicans Are Targeting Scientists For Harassment and Intimidation

[babylonsister]

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/10/25/koch-house-republicans-targeting-noaa-scientists-harassment-intimidation.html

House Republicans Are Targeting Scientists For Harassment and Intimidation
By: Rmuse
Sunday, October 25th, 2015, 7:26 pm


Science is broadly defined as a systematic enterprise that gathers, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. No matter how one looks at science, it is curious that anyone of even reasonable intelligence could possibly find a cause to consider it as a devious tool to advance a dangerous ideology. However, according to Republicans beholden to the Koch brothers and fossil fuel industry, that is precisely what science entails and they have launched yet another taxpayer funded assault on scientific research about weather and oceans.

When a noted climate denier funded by the Kochs and the oil industry became chairman of the House Science Committee, it was feared Lamar Smith (R-TX) would do serious damage to any scientific organization remotely related to the Earth’s climate. Smith found an easy target in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tasked with studying and reporting on the condition of climate, weather, oceans, and coasts. Armed with “suspicious subpoena power,” the House Science Committee is using its authority to conduct a witch hunt against NOAA scientists for doing the job they are paid to do; study the oceans and atmosphere and publish the results.

The Koch committee is harassing individual scientists and, in particular, is launching an investigation into the actions of one specific climate scientist who committed a mortal sin by having the “temerity to express his personal views that fossil fuel companies should be held accountable for climate change.” Although the committee has not formally issued subpoenas an investigation has been initiated. Like the Republican Benghazi, Clinton email, and I.R.S. investigations, it is just another witch hunt. It is also a monumental waste of taxpayer money on several levels that is driven by the Koch brothers and the dirty energy industry.

Now, the committee is ramping up its harassment of government agencies that conduct scientific research and last week subpoenaed seven years of internal deliberations and communications among scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; including “any and all documents and communications” related to NOAA’s measurements and documentation regarding the atmosphere, oceans, weather patterns and how they relate to the Earth’s climate. Based on past Republican witch hunts, “all documents and communications” means every single email, preliminary draft, peer review comment, notes, audio recordings, and a “treasure trove” of other material. What that also means is that taxpayers will pay for federal employees who are not scientists to study and analyze literally hundreds-of-thousands of pages of empirical data and scientists’ records for no stated purpose whatsoever. The NOAA was given two weeks to comply or face sanctions. Here is the issue that should incite rage in the public; besides a cabal of Koch acolytes wasting taxpayers’ time and money harassing scientists, any and every last piece of that data under subpoena is already accessible to the public.

snip//

There is no doubt the Koch’s House Science Committee is on a witch hunt and wasting precious taxpayer resources at best. As other pundits have remarked, “It used to be tobacco and chemical companies, and the Church that harassed scientists.” Now, with the Kochs asserting their control over Republicans, Congress is embracing the anti-science playbook to harass, demoralize, and intimidate scientists guilty of measuring and reporting on the conditions of the oceans and atmosphere.

It is a sad state of affairs that in 21st Century America Republicans are using a government entity to specifically target scientists for doing their jobs and, by the way, helping to protect Americans. It is looking more and more like when Republicans scream they want to take their country back, it is to the Dark Ages and all that remains is for them to start burning scientists at the stake.

[DetlefK]

1. Oh shit. They also want the raw data that was produced over 7 years of research... Very bad call.

They are in for a bad surprise: Some kinds of experiments can generate Gigabytes of raw data, out of which only a few Mega- or even Kilobytes are interesting.



Indeed, they are in for a very bad surprise: Science has progressed to a state where scientists have to be extremely specialized in order to work in state-of-the-art research.
A colleague from the same field can duplicate your work right-away.
A colleague from a nearby field can understand your work and duplicate it with a few weeks and months of preparation.
A colleague from a distant field can understand what you are doing experimentally.
A colleague from a non-related field can take an educated guess on what you are doing.
A non-scientist won't understand shit. Well, he can read it, but he won't be able to tell whether it makes sense or not.


For example: The paper how Wickramasinghe found alien bacteria inside a meteorite. It seems to make sense, but it's actually chock-full of red flags in the experimental and technical details.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1303/1303.2398.pdf

[n2doc]

2. They don't care about understanding it

They want to mine it for any momentary lapses of decorum. Anything that can be taken out of context or blown up into a 'scandal'. I suspect they will just search the text for certain phrases or key words.

The raw data request is just there to cause people to waste time finding and organizing it, especially if it hasn't been published.

[hifiguy]

5. Shit, they'l l probably burn it all

in a huge bonfire, around which they will parade, chanting "ooga booga, Jebus yada yada yada. Just say NO to science,YES to gawd."

Fucking criminal morons.

[zipplewrath]

7. Could get interesting though

As was suggested, the volume of data could border on the "unmanageable". And with a bit of prior though, anything that the investigators might be able "read" much less understand could get swamped in data files that they can't even begin to process.

[Shandris]

3. What I will be watching closely is one simple thing:

How many hard drives come up 'missing' or 'unrecoverable'. If none, then I'll know for certain that the Republicans are and have been full of poo. If more than none, I'm going to toss all faith in what they tell us from NOAA.

The outcome will be determined before it even begins, in essence. I like quick and simple answers!

[dembotoz]

4. remember when global leadership in r and d was a good thing?????

not to worry. china will be there to assume the mantel of world leader.

happy i am older. history teaches us the ride from world leader to also ran can be bumpy and painful.
but we can still have snow balls on the senate floor.

[hifiguy]

6. A majority of the cave orcs and inbred. duck-fucking cretins

who call themselves Repigs these days believe that science is the Number One Tool of the debbil.



They want to see the world burn, quite literally, so they can make jebus come back or some such nonsensical horseshit.

[bemildred]

8. Corporate shills doing their master's work. nt

[pampango]

9. When facts, evidence and history are your enemies, scientists are not your friends. n/t