SCI NASA launches unofficial Twitter account in defiance of Donald Trump

[Melodi]

I am not a scientist but I am a "fen" (science fiction/fantasy geek) and there are a lot of science types in my life. I find it interesting that NASA employees are now doing this even though as far as I know they are not under gag order and Trump even mentioned going into space as important (NASA suffered a great deal from Obama administration silliness) but even these scientists don't like seeing scientists under gag orders.

Honestly while I understand his intent, I think Trump blew it on the Twitter account thing and if he's smart he will just ignore this "protest" and it will go away - if he fights it - he's going to tweak off even more geeks and find out they will get what they consider to be actual science information out one way or another.

However, I think anyone is stupid who things they can't be found out - of course they can; but as long as they do it on their own time (not on the job) and don't release government secrets actually firing an employee over this would not only be very difficult (a court case the government would almost certainly lose) but again just attract even more comments and distractions.

Oh and I agree most of the climate change data has been tweaked but banning it rather than refuting it with actual data - well its probably not going to bring the change that is desired - now bring on the facts and often it will.

This started with the Forest Service, then EPA and now NASA...



NASA launches unofficial Twitter account in defiance of Donald Trump
By Bill Palmer | January 25, 2017 | 0

You can count NASA as the third federal agency in the past twenty-four hours to defy Donald Trump by launching unofficial non-government Twitter accounts which Trump can’t control or sensor. First it was the National Park Service, which went rogue on Twitter after Trump forced deletions of factual tweets he didn’t like. Then the EPA went rogue earlier today. And now NASA has launched its own rogue Twitter account in order to make sure its truths are heard against Trump’s will.

If only Trump would leave earth.

The rogue Twitter account in question, which is literally called @RogueNASA, has only existed for five hours and has already gained a significant popular following. It started off by tweeting “We cannot allow Mr. Trump to silence the scientific community. We need peer-reviewed, evidence-based research MORE THAN EVER now,” while adding “How sad is it that government employees have to create rogue Twitter accounts just to communicate FACTS to the American public?” The account has since been tweeting the kinds of scientific facts and climate change data which Trump is most likely to want censored — and there’s not a thing he can do about it.

Because the identities of the NASA employees running @RogueNASA Twitter account are unknown, there is no way for Donald Trump to discipline them or fire them over it. And he can’t get the account forcibly shut down, because the NASA employees aren’t doing anything that would violate Twitter’s terms of service. In other words, Trump’s Twitter shenanigans have officially backfired.

The rogue NASA account has also been retweeting climate change data originally tweeted by Congressman Mark Takano, who has stated that he’s doing so specifically because Trump is trying to keep the data quashed. If you want to follow the unofficial NASA Twitter account, which now has more than forty thousand followers, you can find it here.
If you appreciate the investigative reporting of Palmer Report, consider making a contribution:

Bill Palmer
Bill Palmer is the founder and publisher of the political news site Daily News Bin
http://www.dailynewsbin.com

 

[hunybee]

as with the other defiant tweets in other depts/agencies, it all comes down to the "who" it is that is actually doing this.

 

[Caplock50]

Lol, I think Trump got from this exactly what he wanted. Instead of 'sitting' on information the public has a right to know, they are 'defying' him and posting everything they can... Trump has also 'discovered' more 'elites' that need to be watched or replaced.

 

[Melodi]

Lol, I think Trump got from this exactly what he wanted. Instead of 'sitting' on information the public has a right to know, they are 'defying' him and posting everything they can... Trump has also 'discovered' more 'elites' that need to be watched or replaced.

I don't want every scientist replaced, I also don't want any ideology - Obama's, Trumps or the Vulcan Ambassador to dictating scientific policy; Obama's demands that for example, NASA concentrate on "climate change" instead of space flight was insane; but telling scientists they can't speak, publish or put out for peer review information they feel to be at least worth a review is also a profoundly bad idea.

I kind of understood putting a temporary (like to sunset in three weeks) break on the EPA because it had some of the worst "greenwashing" issues in terms of tweaking "facts" to make them look other than they actually are; but to do it whole-sale across the board with no end in site.

Well I don't know about you but I'd rather like the Centers for Disease Control to be looking out for epidemics and I'd rather like NASA to keep tracking asteroids and letting the world know if one may be about to smack us.

When it comes to climate, I want the REAL information; show me some ice cores and real-world temperature; the problem wasn't the science it was how it was being spun. The Earth simply is or is not doing certain things; the WHY this is or isn't happening is what the propaganda was all about (as in "we need an excuse for more carbon taxes...").

 

[TheSearcher]

as with the other defiant tweets in other depts/agencies, it all comes down to the "who" it is that is actually doing this.

Exactly. "NASA" the agency is almost certainly not behind this, it's a special butthurt snowflake doing this in violation of the agency's orders. The administrator of NASA is not directing a rogue campaign to undermine his boss' orders.

 

[Dozdoats]

Twitter is a two-edged sword.

Getting in a tweetwar with Trump is a BAD move.

Meanwhile, put your stuff out there in the open in front of the people and let's see what you got.

Trump does....

 

[TheSearcher]

I kind of understood putting a temporary (like to sunset in three weeks) break on the EPA because it had some of the worst "greenwashing" issues in terms of tweaking "facts" to make them look other than they actually are; but to do it whole-sale across the board with no end in site.

I understand your discomfort with this, but NASA has been greenwashing pretty heavily, too. I think what has been ordered here is indeed a temporary halt to the whole twitter communications stream to give the administration a window to clear the air and bring some logic back into those communications. Allowing the twitter feeds to flow at the same time the agency is trying to clear out the dross breeds confusion. It's better to set the policy and posting guidelines while the whole process is at a halt. It'll be moving again soon.

 

[Melodi]

You would not believe the attention this is getting in the scientific world - I don't think this is "just a bunch of snowflakes" it might have started out that way but it isn't staying that way...and again I personally think some of the "climate change" data needs to be re-looked at, revised etc but this whole scale blacking out of scientific web pages is backfiring; at least in the scientific community - review is a good thing; black-balling no matter who does it is not.

From Science...

Trump officials suspend plan to delete EPA climate web pages

By Robin Bravender - E&E News, Hannah Hess - E&E NewsJan. 25, 2017 , 1:30 PM
Originally published by E&E News

Trump administration officials appear to have walked back plans to scrub climate change references from U.S. EPA's website.

"We've been told to stand down," an EPA employee told E&E News today. That new directive comes after staff were told yesterday to remove the agency's climate change page from its website, worrying climate change activists and sending data specialists scrambling to download files.

The backlash that erupted after reports surfaced last night that the climate page would be eliminated may have prompted administration officials to change course. News of the plans was first reported last night by Reuters. EPA's press office did not respond to requests for comment today.
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It's unclear whether the agency's climate page will remain indefinitely, or only temporarily. "It's not imminent," the EPA staffer said of its removal.

Just yesterday, staffers had gotten opposite instructions. "The word that came down was 'scrub,'" that employee said. The directive was "clearly from the political people. ... It came from the White House."

The controversy over the climate change page comes after EPA was directed to halt its social media and scale back communications with the press. The Trump administration removed the White House climate change website on its first day in office. EPA career staffers, former agency employees and environmentalists view the changes as a troubling sign of how the new administration plans to deal with climate change policies and the agency's workforce.

The directive to remove the climate change information didn't sit well with career employees, the EPA staffer said today. It's "world class" data, and a lot of work went into making it accessible to the public. "And it's true," the source added.

As of press time, EPA's climate change website remained in place, featuring data about last year being the warmest on record, the health impacts of climate change and interactive maps that allow users to see the local impacts of a changing climate.

To some stakeholders, revamping websites to align with the new administration's priorities is par for the course.

"I would say it's probably expected under the circumstances," said Scott Fulton, who was EPA's general counsel during the Obama administration. "Each time there's a new administration, we're in a slightly different era in terms of social media and web messaging, and I think this is a modern expression of the desired alignment," said Fulton, who is now president of the Environmental Law Institute.

He added, "Folks who want to see the climate program continue on will be understandably concerned about it."

Michelle DePass, who led EPA's international and tribal affairs office during the Obama administration, called talk of the climate page removal "deeply troubling."

"Scientific integrity is incredibly important, and keeping that integrity ensures that decisions are made in the right way," she said. "Muzzling science, detracting from education and transparency and free and open ideas sharing is a very disturbing turn in the way our democracy operates."
'Guerrilla archiving'

Activists, up in arms over the news, promptly organized a data preservation gathering this afternoon in Philadelphia — where congressional Republicans are huddling for their annual legislative retreat (E&E Daily, Jan. 25).

A professor involved in the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) has invited people to huddle for a three-hour event focused on preserving "uncrawlable" data on the sixth floor of the University of Pennsylvania's Charles Patterson Van Pelt Library.

Scientists and university professors all around the country and in Canada who have been engaged in "guerrilla archiving" with EDGI since President Trump's election said today that EPA data are now very well-preserved.

EPA is now the best-represented agency in the "End of Term" archive, established by San Francisco-based nonprofit Internet Archive and others. The Internet Archive announced in late November that it would create a copy of its digital collections in Canada as it prepared "for a Web that may face greater restrictions."

News about EPA's climate change website "confirmed our fears," said Jerome Whitington, a faculty member in New York University's anthropology department who has attended multiple data rescue events over the past two months and is organizing a New York City event in February.

"But there's also relief that we got a fair amount of work done before the inauguration," Whitington said today.

EDGI has its own monitoring team, which is tracking to see exactly which webpages and links change. Activists plan to produce a report after Trump's first 100 days in the White House detailing the changes to public data, as well as funding, staffing and programming within agencies (Greenwire, Jan. 5).

Michelle Murphy, a University of Toronto professor who co-organized a daylong "hackathon" in December, said new threats provoke a "spot check" to make sure the data are still online, in addition to the systematic web crawling (Greenwire, Dec. 19, 2016).

Lessons learned under former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative who was accused of muzzling scientists during his term, initially energized a "race" to save the U.S. government's climate data. Activists also studied policy papers by members of Trump's transition team to get a sense of what might be at risk.

But what they have witnessed so far has been "unprecedented," Murphy said, and "much more intense and publicly celebrated" than the precedent set in Canada.

"The transition team and Trump administration are very upfront and promoting of this plan; it's not that this is surreptitious," Murphy said.

Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from E&E News. Copyright 2017. E&E provides essential news for energy and environment professionals at www.eenews.net
Posted in:

PolicyScientific CommunityTrump administration
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/trump-officials-suspend-plan-delete-epa-climate-web-page

DOI: 10.1126/science.aal0654

 

[Melodi]

I understand your discomfort with this, but NASA has been greenwashing pretty heavily, too. I think what has been ordered here is indeed a temporary halt to the whole twitter communications stream to give the administration a window to clear the air and bring some logic back into those communications. Allowing the twitter feeds to flow at the same time the agency is trying to clear out the dross breeds confusion. It's better to set the policy and posting guidelines while the whole process is at a halt. It'll be moving again soon.

I hope so, and thank you for understanding the concern...because real gag orders on science are terrible and they don't work, they may send work outside the US but they tend not to stop real research (and that includes the green washing the Obama administration was trying too).

 

[Melodi]

Twitter is a two-edged sword.

Getting in a tweetwar with Trump is a BAD move.

Meanwhile, put your stuff out there in the open in front of the people and let's see what you got.

Trump does....

I do believe the geeks of the world may be taking up this challenge - I'm not sure anyone is really going to "win" but perhaps some truth will get out on in spite of the noise.

 

[hunybee]

I hope so, and thank you for understanding the concern...because real gag orders on science are terrible and they don't work, they may send work outside the US but they tend not to stop real research (and that includes the green washing the Obama administration was trying too).

i don't think trump wants a gag order on true science. it has appeared that he wants good solid research and science to actually explode

 

[TheSearcher]

I hope so, and thank you for understanding the concern...because real gag orders on science are terrible and they don't work, they may send work outside the US but they tend not to stop real research (and that includes the green washing the Obama administration was trying too).

Removing the propaganda arm of a leftist climate religion is not improper. Deleting/Blocking the EPA climate page is not unreasonable when you understand that the AGCC cult has militantly corrupted that agency and others. You have to put on the brakes to reverse direction. That's all that is. The science still remains.


That's the real misunderstanding here: Invested parties are bellowing that "Trump's stopping the science!" when what is being done is stopping the advance of an invading force. Yes, it's that bad, that pervasive.

 

[Melodi]

i don't think trump wants a gag order on true science. it has appeared that he wants good solid research and science to actually explode

And if he wants to give the appearance of this, backing off was the right thing to do; as I said I think a good deal of what is up there on some of those sites was political instructed to be there; but rather than looking like a war on science; a war on fake science is what is needed - no matter WHO is doing the faking.

I'm willing to wait and see how this works out; I think the administration may have just realized they had created a situation they really didn't mean to create; go slowly and appeal to facts and most science types will generally go back to their labs.

One serious issue was the across the board nature of the Administrations actions which meant on-going (paid for) experiments, graduate students in the middle of the term on grants and other people who normally wouldn't give much thought to a website were suddenly stranded; no matter the topic or subject they couldn't send in a paper for review, get supplies for an on-going experiment or even talk about their situation.

If it had just been restricted to making the website "dark" for a few days or even a couple a weeks, I think it would have been fine; but this really did punch people in ways that some of the might not recover or at least not be able to recover their experiments, work or on-going studies.

 

[Medical Maven]

I can't feel sorry for these ideologically driven scientists. They have been riding the gravy/glory train for years. A little adversity will do them good.

 

[packyderms_wife]

When it comes to climate, I want the REAL information; show me some ice cores and real-world temperature; the problem wasn't the science it was how it was being spun. The Earth simply is or is not doing certain things; the WHY this is or isn't happening is what the propaganda was all about (as in "we need an excuse for more carbon taxes...").

How about some real information like hmmm the Sahara was a grassland savannah at one time, and parts of Iowa, Nebrasaka, Kansas were an ocean at one time. The reality is the climate on this blue marble does change and there isn't thing one we can do about it.

 

[Yogizorch]

Like NASA has been so honest and forthcoming in the past......yeah, right.

 

[hunybee]

And if he wants to give the appearance of this, backing off was the right thing to do; as I said I think a good deal of what is up there on some of those sites was political instructed to be there; but rather than looking like a war on science; a war on fake science is what is needed - no matter WHO is doing the faking.

I'm willing to wait and see how this works out; I think the administration may have just realized they had created a situation they really didn't mean to create; go slowly and appeal to facts and most science types will generally go back to their labs.

One serious issue was the across the board nature of the Administrations actions which meant on-going (paid for) experiments, graduate students in the middle of the term on grants and other people who normally wouldn't give much thought to a website were suddenly stranded; no matter the topic or subject they couldn't send in a paper for review, get supplies for an on-going experiment or even talk about their situation.

If it had just been restricted to making the website "dark" for a few days or even a couple a weeks, I think it would have been fine; but this really did punch people in ways that some of the might not recover or at least not be able to recover their experiments, work or on-going studies.

i get what you are saying and agree with much of it, melodi, but it also works the other way. the exact thing that is being claimed is what has been occurring for many years in other areas of scientific research. if it didn't fit a certain desired viewpoint, it wasn't allowed. that is not true science either. like you, i am in a wait and see stance with this.

Removing the propaganda arm of a leftist climate religion is not improper. Deleting/Blocking the EPA climate page is not unreasonable when you understand that the AGCC cult has militantly corrupted that agency and others. You have to put on the brakes to reverse direction. That's all that is. The science still remains.


That's the real misunderstanding here: Invested parties are bellowing that "Trump's stopping the science!" when what is being done is stopping the advance of an invading force. Yes, it's that bad, that pervasive.

i have to agree here, too.

 

[hunybee]

i do have to say though in all of this, it is the wrong way to handle it in regards to the tweets that are using official accounts or trying to imply an "unofficial" official "unofficial" or whatever account. these are individuals. individuals using the name of the agency they may work in as a cover to make it appear as though everyone is in agreement with them and this is an agency tweet, when it is actually the person tweeting it. they are NOT representative of the department or agency they claim to be. they should instead tweet from their own account or at least give an identifier as to who saying this. it does make a difference.

if i am not mistaken, there are agency rules on this sort of thing anyway, yes?

 

[Adino]

When those in the climate change cult want to wow me with real science - that which fully utilizes the scientific method and not grant money as the impetus for research - I will pay attention to them once again.

Until then they are really nothing other than really high placed/paid whores.

And should be treated as such.

Someone take the twitter away from the whores, please.

Its for the children.

 

[Caplock50]

If they'd just shut up and work WITH Trump and his people, a 'shut down' would be over almost before it'd start. But the harder they 'buck the system', the longer a 'shut down' will last. As has been stated in the original article, all Trump wanted was time for his people coming in to get settled in and do a (quick) review of things.

 

[WalknTrot]

i do have to say though in all of this, it is the wrong way to handle it in regards to the tweets that are using official accounts or trying to imply an "unofficial" official "unofficial" or whatever account. these are individuals. individuals using the name of the agency they may work in as a cover to make it appear as though everyone is in agreement with them and this is an agency tweet, when it is actually the person tweeting it. they are NOT representative of the department or agency they claim to be. they should instead tweet from their own account or at least give an identifier as to who saying this. it does make a difference.

if i am not mistaken, there are agency rules on this sort of thing anyway, yes?

Agree with hunybee. These scientists are on the government payroll. They need to get off their Twitter accounts and back in the lab. I see the same sort of garbage coming from the EPA scientists in my local bailiwick. Time to tighten up the ship from the top down.

If they have legitimate business to conduct with colleagues, fine - use gov't resources...but leave politics out of it. "Climate change" is politics with a little science thrown in for decoration. Official chit-chat with the public from NASA should come through the PR wing of NASA.

If these guys have a personal agenda, there are plenty of private organizations and private forums from which they can speak - totally separate from the NASA label.

 

[TerryK]

Trump's nominee for EPA hasn't even been approved yet. NASA also needs a new appointee.
What we have right now are government agencies heavily infiltrated by Obama picks. They are angry because they know that they will soon lose their job.
After almost a decade of Obama these agencies are not only poisoned by Obama's political appointees at the very top, they are laced throughout with leftist leaning ideologues that were hired over the last decade by Obama appointed directors.
It will take some time to get rid of these people who are using their job to make political statements.

In the mean time, almost every government agency has administrative disciplinary rules that allow for termination of employees that publicly bring discredit to their agency or publicly criticize their agency , which this NASA person certainly is doing. These rules have been part of the new employee indoctrination requiring signatures acknowledging them, during the first week of employment.

These discipline rules used to be applied most frequently to people who appeared at demonstrations and public gatherings to speak against the official policy of their agency. In the last 10 years blogs and twitter account have taken the place of appearing in public demonstrations. These new web tools are the equivalent of demonstrations in the past, and action can be taken against people who publish online things against their agencies policies.

So NO, you can not be a prominent NASA or EPA employee and start blogging and tweeting or start opposing websites in opposition to the agency that is employing you.


Once Trumps people get appointed to these agencies you will hear a squeal across the country as spoiled snowflakes discover they can lose their jobs over what they tweet or publish online, just as they could a decade ago for appearing at public demonstrations.

Change is coming, and it is a change we have waited decades and decades for.
These special snowflakes, be they the Denver Secret Service supervisor, NASA or EPA people will be sought out and replaced once Trumps people are in place and on the job. Right now these people are getting away with the freelancing crap they are doing, only because there is no one in charge and a lot of high level Obama era hires are still there.

 

[TerryK]

On another note, NASA should be less engaged in climate change and more engaged in building a rocket and space capsules that will enable us to get back into space without having to ask the Russians for a ride.
Hell I bet NASA even has a department with Obama hires, dedicate to finding ways to make moslems proud.

It's a tragedy what NASA has become once the government took their funding for actual hardware away.

 

[dstraito]

I guess NASA. Fet better about their chief mission being to improve the Muslim see-image.


How about we start with a new slate of NASA management

 

[RB Martin]

If they'd just shut up and work WITH Trump and his people, a 'shut down' would be over almost before it'd start. But the harder they 'buck the system', the longer a 'shut down' will last. As has been stated in the original article, all Trump wanted was time for his people coming in to get settled in and do a (quick) review of things.

They, thankfully, seem unaware of the theory of keeping your head down if you don't want to be shot!

Self firing stupid liberals, are almost as good as self deporting illegal aliens!

 

[TerryK]

i do have to say though in all of this, it is the wrong way to handle it in regards to the tweets that are using official accounts or trying to imply an "unofficial" official "unofficial" or whatever account. these are individuals. individuals using the name of the agency they may work in as a cover to make it appear as though everyone is in agreement with them and this is an agency tweet, when it is actually the person tweeting it. they are NOT representative of the department or agency they claim to be. they should instead tweet from their own account or at least give an identifier as to who saying this. it does make a difference.

if i am not mistaken, there are agency rules on this sort of thing anyway, yes?

Yes there are. It is standard practice to explain about employees appearing in demonstrations, or making public appearances, or blogging or tweeting now, in opposition to the official agency policy or to discredit agency policy in any public manner.
Everyone signs papers saying they have been advised of the disciplinary rules when they go through employee indoctrination. In the last 10 years the internet/tweet/facebook/blogging has been added to the public statement part.

Just as NASA could fire an employee who said Obama was ruining NASA by changing it's mission to make moslems proud, so too can they now be fired for publicly criticizing the new policies being set by Trump.

 

[Last Resort]

I don't want every scientist replaced, I also don't want any ideology - Obama's, Trumps or the Vulcan Ambassador to dictating scientific policy; Obama's demands that for example, NASA concentrate on "climate change" instead of space flight was insane; but telling scientists they can't speak, publish or put out for peer review information they feel to be at least worth a review is also a profoundly bad idea.

I kind of understood putting a temporary (like to sunset in three weeks) break on the EPA because it had some of the worst "greenwashing" issues in terms of tweaking "facts" to make them look other than they actually are; but to do it whole-sale across the board with no end in site.

Well I don't know about you but I'd rather like the Centers for Disease Control to be looking out for epidemics and I'd rather like NASA to keep tracking asteroids and letting the world know if one may be about to smack us.

When it comes to climate, I want the REAL information; show me some ice cores and real-world temperature; the problem wasn't the science it was how it was being spun. The Earth simply is or is not doing certain things; the WHY this is or isn't happening is what the propaganda was all about (as in "we need an excuse for more carbon taxes...").

Caplock has the truth of it. Now Trump will know who the troublemakers at these agencies are. That INCLUDES scientists, who are just as prone to bias and self-delusion as the general population. There's also the little fact the Twitter is not known as a premier venue for peer review. There are literally hundreds of scientific journals and meetings for that.

No, just like the EPA and Interior, NASA has spoiled little government teat-sucking children throwing tantrums.

 

[Texican]

The data spinning/skewing scientists have their panties in a bunch that the President does not agree that their findings are beyond reproach, but it has been proven multiple times that these scientists have selectively modified their data to support their thesis statement - opinions regardless of the overall facts.

The light of the truth has come out and they can not stand the glare....

Go President Trump....

Texican....

 

[BornFree]

Their fake climate data is the information they are desperate to get out?

Maybe it is best they stay silent then. I thought Nasa's purpose was to explore the Universe.

 

[celtic-cat]

This is not a matter of "shutting down" government websites by Trump. In every change of administration, there is a period of review of materials to reflect the new administrations views and priorities rather than the outgoing administration. Just as the official website of the POTUS and of the FLOTUS are reviewed and redesigned, all government agency websites will change. This is standard operating procedure with each new admin.

The fact that the media is reporting this as some kind of outrageous case of censorship is the actual news here. I don't recall them all going berserk and calling Obama a tyrant and fascist when his admin did the same damned thing 8 years ago.