Rampell: The threat in Trump administration's war on data

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Don’t like the numbers? Invent new numbers instead.

Or make it harder to collect trustworthy numbers next time.

Or just put the squeeze on the number crunchers themselves.

Slowly but surely, the Trump administration has been chipping away at the independence and integrity of our federal statistical agencies, whose data is critical to keeping our democracy functioning and our economy healthy. So far as we know, the administration still hasn’t managed to pierce the citadel of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (the independent agency that releases jobs and inflation numbers) or Bureau of Economic Analysis (the independent agency that tabulates gross domestic product). But around the edges, it’s trying to compromise lots of other official government data.

This week, The New York Times reported that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to massage the model it uses to determine how many people die of pollution. The goal is to make the rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan look significantly less deadly than the current models suggest. This is also part of a broader administrative effort to downgrade official estimates of environmental harm resulting from the administration’s deregulatory agenda.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/rampell-the-threat-in-trump-administrations-war-on-data/

[procon]

1. These unilateral changes to standards and norm

should be allowed. Trump does not respect anything, and now it's apparent that we have no means to stop him from wiping out whole swathes of data and common practices on a whim.

This points out the flaws and inherent weaknesses in out current system that an unprincipled man like Trump can totalling remake our government. Dems will need to formulate new laws to restore and protect the existing foundational functions of government to prevent the next wannabe dictator from ripping out everything by the roots to boost his own power.

[murielm99]

2. I went to a town hall before the last election.

Our repiggie Congressman did not show up. We had a cutout at the front, and asked him our questions.

There were several people who stood up and spoke about their concerns. This was in a university town, so we heard from many types of professionals. We heard from someone from the EPA. Even then, data was being erased or simply not recorded. The gentleman told us that quite a bit of data was being sent to Canada. People there were safeguarding it until times got better again in the U.S. I don't know anything about the veracity of his claims, but he was willing to stand up in a crowded room and identify himself by name. It seemed that a lot of the people there knew him, too.

[machoneman]

3. Well, the only good news here is that our next and Democratic President can quickly...

reverse all these blatantly wrong moves by Trumpy and his equally evil minions!