Denver Women’s March – “Nasty Woman Scientist”

The young woman holding this sign , “a nasty woman scientist” – at the march (January 21, 2017) does so both because of her status as  a woman and scientist. There were many other similar posters. So many proud to be “nasty women!”

“The nasty woman” theme originated, when during the October 19, 2016 debate. At one point, Trump interrupted Hillary Clinton’s support for having the rich pay more into the social security fund. The idea of sharing even a tiny bit of his wealth with retirees who actually worked for a living was too much for the Tweeter-President, Trumpty-Dumpty.

Hitting below the belt as he often did, Trump commented , “she’s such a nasty woman!” The remark was embraced by women all over the country and thrown back into Trump’s face an example with one of his many misogynist remarks during the campaign. It shouldn’t be surprising that there were “nasty women scientist” posters and many variations on that theme at the march.

Trump’s “nasty woman” comment is part of a broader attack on women’s rights, particularly women’s reproductive rights, cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, eliminating Title IX federal protections, Trumps crumb offered to the Christian Right element of his base. Defense of those reproductive rights was one of the main themes of the Denver march (as will be exemplified in the many of the photos to come. Certainly given Trump’s downright vicious attack on women help explain why women  would spearhead this dramatic turnout – 2.9 million people in over 600 marches nationwide.

Trump’s “nasty woman” comment is part of a broader attack on women’s rights, particularly women’s reproductive rights, cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, Trumps crumb offered to the Christian Right element of his base

The Trump Administration’s attack on Science

As for the “scientist” part of her sign, science too has been under attack by Trump.The attack on science had a number of sources. It plays well with the oil and gas industry intent on squeezing out as much fossil fuel from under the earth’s surface as possible, thus aggravating global warming and climate change in particular. Just after being elected Trump, who called climate change “a hoax” asked for – and was denied – the names of all government employed scientists and independent contractors doing work on climate change and global warming. That request was denied by the Department of Energy.

Add to that an administration hostile to all forms of regulation, much of it determined with people with technical scientific backgrounds and one can understand that this particular poster represents the worries of many government employees. Scientists involved in regulatory agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency in particular, but many others including the United States Geological Survey will have to struggle to maintain their agencies in tact and their jobs.

Taking this further, the civil service as a whole is under threat of devastating cuts. There is a good possibility it is these agencies where the fight back against Trump’s policies becomes the most intense. Although there are government unions that have been around for a long time, and since the Reagan years have had to be very creative about defending jobs and working conditions, they have never faced the kind of outright onslaught they are about to endure.

Another strand in this attack on science has been what can only be described as a vicious and stupid campaign against Darwin’s theory of evolution. This comes not so much from the oil and gas industry. The very search for oil and natural gas is based upon geological knowledge of evolution, as the stuff in both liquid and gaseous forms is found at specific concrete levels of the earth’s history…that is its evolution.

Another strand in this attack on science has been what can only be described as a vicious and stupid campaign against Darwin’s theory of evolution…To be scientifically illiterate and proud of it, is to be a special kind of stupid. Those who think that such ignorance does not have long-term consequences in the economic and social spheres are mistaken.

Vilifying Darwin is another crumb that Trump offers to the Christian right, ie, those who take the word of the Bible, especially its opening farce about how the world and humanity was created, literally. They’ve long had something of a burning hatred for evolutionary theory, a theory which, is one of the fundamental basis of modern science…of all modern science.

Not to know the basics, the dynamics, of Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection is to be in the 21st Century, scientifically illiterate, nothing less. Darwinian evolutionary theory is at the root of virtually all medical research. To be scientifically illiterate and proud of it, is to be a special kind of stupid. Those who think that such ignorance does not have long-term consequences in the economic and social spheres are mistaken.

The David Gelernter – William Happer Story

As an example of Trump’s hostility to science, to the great tradition of American science, take David Gelernter, possible White House science adviser in a tight race for the position with William Happer. Two nut cases firmly within the Trump tradition of destroying whatever agency or institution he has chosen the members of “his dream team” to lead. The Trump people had to dig the bottom of the barrel to find them, but find them they did.

A computer “genius” at Yale University, Gelernter is particularly hostile to institutions of higher learning, universities in this country. He once referred to Obama as “a third-rate tyrant.” Gelernter claims that most American universities advance a combination of political agendas and enriching administrators. He predicts – or hopes – that “over 90% of U.S. colleges will be gone within the next generation, as the higher-education world inevitably flips and sinks.” The future of higher education, according to this nutcase would entail “throwing out” the arts and humanities.

Gelernter is in a tight race for the position with Princeton physicist, William Happer who was recently quoted as saying, “My views are that the whole climate hysteria is greatly overblown. I really do believe more CO-2 will be good for the world.”  One of 16 scientists who signed a Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled “No Need to Panic About Global Warming, “Happer is involved with a range of other climate change denial groups. He is on the Academic Advisory Council of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the United Kingdom’s most high-profile climate denier group and is also member of a group titled Climate Exit (Clexit), founded in the summer of 2016. In contrast to the overwhelming percentage of scientists worldwide who consider increased CO-2 levels as a danger to life on earht, Happer blithely takes the opposite position:

“We’re doing our best to try and counter this myth that CO2 is a dangerous pollutant. It’s not a pollutant at all.”

So, the “nasty woman scientist” is on to something, no?

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