{"id":324601,"date":"2017-09-04T22:12:34","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T21:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trump-picks-another-non-scientist-for-science-post-and-makes-a-disastrous-choice-for-drug-czar-2\/"},"modified":"2017-09-04T22:12:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T21:12:34","slug":"trump-picks-another-non-scientist-for-science-post-and-makes-a-disastrous-choice-for-drug-czar-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trump-picks-another-non-scientist-for-science-post-and-makes-a-disastrous-choice-for-drug-czar-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Picks Another Non-Scientist for Science Post and Makes a Disastrous Choice for Drug Czar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Rep.Rep. Jim Bridenstine visits City Year in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 12, 2015. (Photo: City Year<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump’s newly-announced<\/a> nominee to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an elected official with no science credentials.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Ohio), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, is “unlike previous NASA administrators,” Newsweek<\/em> notes<\/a>, as “the 42-year-old Michigan native does not have any formal qualifications in science or engineering, having earned a triple bachelor’s degree in economics, psychology, and business from Rice University, and later an MBA from Cornell University.”<\/p>\n

“Some might say that the government has seemed increasingly reluctant to leave science to the scientists,” writes<\/a> CNET<\/em>‘s Chris Matyszczyk.<\/p>\n

The former Navy Reserve pilot also served as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum before being elected to Congress in 2012.<\/p>\n

“NASA scientists have led the way in documenting the scientific reality of climate change,” writes ThinkProgress<\/em>‘ Joe Romm.<\/p>\n

\n

But in 2013,\u00a0Bridenstine not only gave a speech on the House floor filled with standard denier talking points, he actually ended his remarks with a demand that President Obama apologize<\/a> for funding research into climate science.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“Mr. Speaker, global temperatures stopped rising 10 years ago,” he falsely claimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ArsTechnica<\/em> reported<\/a> last month that Bridenstine “was championed by several commercial space companies because he is open to increased privatization of U.S. civil and military space activities.”<\/p>\n

The pick also drew criticism<\/a> from Florida Sens. Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D). Rubio mentioned concerns over his “political baggage,” while Nelson told Politico<\/em> that the “head of NASA ought to be a space professional, not a politician.”<\/p>\n

Reacting to the nomination, Bill McKibben tweeted that Bridenstine “seems a tad murky on the topic of how planets work.”<\/p>\n

\n

Um, Trump’s nominee to head…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Jim Bridenstine visits City Year in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 12, 2015. (Photo: City Year) President Donald Trump’s newly-announced nominee to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an elected official with no science credentials. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Ohio), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-324601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}