←back to thread

CDC data are disappearing

(www.theatlantic.com)
749 points doener | 10 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
Show context
CalRobert ◴[] No.42898165[source]
This is part of a broader rolling catastrophe. Musk is evidently seizing control of the Office of Personnel Management

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-01-31/exclus...

Nasa took down their applied sciences page and is evidently scrubbing the data

https://www.reddit.com/r/gis/comments/1icqchv/why_is_the_nas...

(https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/)

Lots of other data sets are disappearing too:

https://mashable.com/article/government-datasets-disappear-s...

There is active discussion of this at https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/

as well as at https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/

replies(7): >>42898380 #>>42898383 #>>42898615 #>>42898874 #>>42899224 #>>42900288 #>>42900376 #
hypeatei ◴[] No.42898383[source]
I would just like to point out that Musk is the richest man in the world and is now directing critical areas of the U.S. government. Surely he doesn't have ulterior motives and is looking out for the average person?
replies(6): >>42898461 #>>42898466 #>>42899308 #>>42899441 #>>42899615 #>>42905425 #
nimbius ◴[] No.42898461[source]
If you look back at Germany in the 19th century, nations like Prussia and Austria had this sort of power struggle between the merchant class and the nobility at the advent of steam power.

in this case the de-facto US nobility (rank-and-file career politicians) are being usurped by the bourgeouise (billionaires like Musk) at the advent of AI and tech by promising the working class a combination of culture war policy and relief from the very capitalist excess they themselves endorse. by reducing congress and senate to a simple debate team (conversely similar to the German National Asssembly) the tech-elite are able to seize power once reserved for the crown.

the question will be, after four years, will they abdicate their power or concentrate it?

replies(9): >>42898533 #>>42898860 #>>42898901 #>>42898942 #>>42899095 #>>42899197 #>>42900443 #>>42900670 #>>42904686 #
marcosdumay ◴[] No.42899197[source]
I laughed when those people self-identified as accelerationists... but holly shit! they knew what it means and were honest.

Historically, they are just a bunch of rich morons that got lucky, got power, and decided to stage a coup. This is not some enlightened movement trying to replace the social norms. It's just your run of the mill personal power switch, and the only notable things about it are it's on a country that has been extremely stable before, and those people are stupid enough to willfully destroy it.

replies(1): >>42899705 #
1. tialaramex ◴[] No.42899705[source]
> it's on a country that has been extremely stable before

The US is a known bad design, nation builders working for the United States stopped trying to use this design for new countries in the 20th century, it doesn't work. It's inherently unstable and you previously got very lucky, although you have had a civil war and numerous close calls.

It's like oh, why don't we make coal-powered cars. Well because it's a known bad idea. We actually did try that, it's a bad idea, don't do it again.

replies(3): >>42900816 #>>42903129 #>>42906169 #
2. SmirkingRevenge ◴[] No.42900816[source]
And the bad design has severely limited our ability to self-correct.
3. ambicapter ◴[] No.42903129[source]
[Citation Needed]

I'd love to read about the new designs.

replies(3): >>42903482 #>>42905393 #>>42905401 #
4. JumpCrisscross ◴[] No.42903482[source]
The core is the President is kept from becoming a dictator by nothing more than norms. If Trump staffs the military with loyalists, there isn’t much anyone can do to make him do anything. Most other countries have power over the military, particularly in domestic contexts, much more shattered.
replies(1): >>42903981 #
5. alexvoda ◴[] No.42903981{3}[source]
In those "newer designs" there is no electoral college. Also various alternative electoral systems have been tried. The winner-takes-all system of the US is known pathological and inevitably results in a two party system. Democracies in Europe most often result in many parties and a necessity to form coalitions. Ireland even goes as far as using IRV and STV.
replies(1): >>42906980 #
6. ◴[] No.42905393[source]
7. smallerize ◴[] No.42905401[source]
Literally every other existing democracy is newer. Dig in.
8. linuxhansl ◴[] No.42906169[source]
While I absolutely do not like what is happening right now, I cannot agree with your general statement. Could you elaborate?

The US has proper separation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The legislative has a per-state and popular representation. Which part of this is "inherently unstable"?

The only part lacking a proper proportional representation (as in a parliament).

replies(1): >>42909245 #
9. vkou ◴[] No.42906980{4}[source]
The issue isn't even in how votes are counted, it's in parliamentary versus presidential republics.

The latter inevitably slide towards autocracy. Too much power is concentrated in one person, who is almost impossible to legally remove before their term is up, and who will happily punish dissenters within the party.

In parliamentary republics, every PM is one internal party vote away from being deposed. You tend to see less of the tail wagging the dog in them.

10. marcosdumay ◴[] No.42909245[source]
The US Executive is way more powerful than the other powers. It can act as it wishes, and consequences only come years later, if ever.

Also, the per-state representation doesn't seem to lead to good results at all. As you said, the popular representation isn't proportional, what is a more relevant flaw than anything before this point on this comment.

And that is before you get into the details that are actually bad. It's incredible that they managed to stay stable with that electoral system, for example.

That said, looks like they will have an almost perfect opportunity to fix some of those in a few years...