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Heard on CBC radio from Toronto/Ottawa and also just posted to BBC --
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38324045
A special archiving event is being held in collaboration with Archive's End of Term project. Since 2008 this has saved US government websites at risk during government transitions.
Canadian "guerrilla" archivists will be assisting a rushed effort to preserve US government climate data.
Environmentalists, climate scientists and academics are collaborating to protect what they view as fragile digital federal records and research.
They want the data saved before Donald Trump takes office.
The CBC report interviewed a Canadian scientist who described some of the scientific data that was lost during the Harper government.
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @03:10PM
Forget executive orders and simply look at the man who has been chosen to lead the EPA, as well as the Congress likely to approve him.
A Trump Presidency is a case study in risk. If you don't prepare now, you risk getting burnt alive.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @06:54PM
> Forget executive orders and simply look at the man who has been chosen to lead the EPA, as well as the Congress likely to approve him.
Or his appointment to lead the Dept of Energy - Rick Perry - who famously wanted to eliminate the entire agency in 2011 [latimes.com] but was such a bumblefuck he couldn't even remember its name.
Obviously as head he won't eliminate the agency. What he will do is dismantle as much of it as possible, except for the parts that prop up american oil companies. That means all the research into green energy engineering and energy conservation is at risk.
This is Trump's pattern - put people in charge of agencies who haven't just been critical of the agencies but are opposed to much of their official purposes. Like the hardcore religious billionaire DeVoos who wants to privatize public education being appointed to the department of education. I suspect that what's really going on is that Bannon is pulling the strings. He's publicly said he wants to tear down the institutions of government and put (his version of christian) religion in charge. [theguardian.com]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday December 16 2016, @08:04PM
In a nutshell, to destroy and annoying agency, you appoint someone who wants it gone, and therefore won't fight when it loses huge chunks of its budget next year.
You make it pretty clear down the ranks that the boss isn't interested in some causes. Then the hammer comes down because of the budget cuts, with projects eliminated based on the boss's priorities.
It sucks all motivation out of the workers, and they either quit or produce nothing you didn't want to hear.
When both Congress and the Executive want to zombify an agency, there are no checks and balances. How many votes do you lose crippling the DOE and the FCC?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @09:38PM
0 votes until at least 2018 or 2020. Until then, it's open season.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @11:48PM
Another outcome is that the rank-and-file employees of the agency rebel and throw a shitstorm until they replace the head. Remember James Watt, the head of Interior who wanted to sell off all the public lands?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday December 17 2016, @12:01AM
It's not 1980 anymore, and I'm pretty sure Trump would love to get some Reagan-cred by firing as many terrible, bad members of a useless department as possible.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @01:53AM
Christian religion? You do realize this is the guy who listed Dick Cheney, Darth Vader, and Satan [cnn.com] as being among his heroes. Whatever else you might call him, Christian just doesn't quite fit him. It still leaves me gobsmacked that somewhere around 80% of evangelicals in America voted for Trump even though they were well aware of the peculiar values of his campaign CEO and many others of his inner circle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @03:15AM
> Whatever else you might call him, Christian just doesn't quite fit him.
I said his version of christianity. His whole schtick is that america was founded on judeochristian values and america has declined because we've turned away from them. [patheos.com] Of course, as you've noticed, his version of judeochristian is peculiar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @08:28AM
You forgot that Satan is a goddamn angel, and the other two are just his role models.