Yesterday, I warned about the ferocity of the administration’s war on knowledge, and the incredible damage Trump and MAGA are doing to America’s long dominance in science and technology.
Lest you think I was over-reacting, allow me to share some recent headlines.
Foreign universities hope to lure scientists from the US after Trump research cuts | AP News
The World Is Wooing U.S. Researchers Shunned by Trump – The New York Times
International students see fewer pathways to US careers under Trump
“‘A fear campaign.’ Students around the world are shocked, scared and saddened by US visa pause” — CNN
“America’s Coming Brain Drain: Trump’s War on Universities Could Kill U.S. Innovation” — Foreign Affairs
‘Major brain drain’: Researchers eye exit from Trump’s America; “In the halls of US universities and research labs, one question has become increasingly common as President Donald Trump tightens his grip on the field: whether to move abroad.” — AFP
“US brain drain: the scientists seeking jobs abroad amid Trump’s assault on research: Five US-based researchers tell Nature why they are exploring career opportunities overseas.” — Nature
The Economist warns: “America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain”.
(Links to each of these reports is available at the primary link.)
According to the Economist,
Springer Nature publishes Nature, the world’s most prestigious scientific journal. It also runs a much-used jobs board for academics. In the first three months of the year applications by researchers based in America for jobs in other countries were up by 32% compared with the same period in 2024.
In March Nature itself conducted a poll of more than 1,200 researchers at American institutions, of whom 75% said they were thinking of leaving (though disgruntled academics were probably more likely to respond to the poll than satisfied ones).
And just as American researchers eye the exit, foreigners are becoming more reluctant to move in. Springer Nature’s data suggests applications by non-American candidates for American research jobs have fallen by around 25% compared with the same period last year.
As any sentient observer might have predicted, MAGA’s war on knowledge is a win for China, which is offering big salaries to entice disaffected knowledge-workers to relocate there.
According to an essay in the Washington Post, the administration’s inability to understand the consequences of its actions is based in large part on its lack of historical knowledge. In “Houston, J.D. Vance has a problem,” Mark Lasswell reports that Vance “barely grasps the history of the U.S. space program.”
Last week, Newsmax interviewer Greg Kelly took a break from slathering Vance with praise to delicately broach the possibility of a “brain drain” from American universities if researchers decamp for more hospitable institutions overseas. The White House, as you might have heard, is working energetically to dissolve arrangements between several research universities and the government that for the past century helped make the United States the most powerful and innovative country in the world.
“I’ve heard a lot of the criticisms, the fear, that we’re going to have a brain drain,” the voluble vice president told Kelly. “If you go back to the ’50s and ’60s, the American space program, the program that was the first to put a human being on the surface of the moon, was built by American citizens, some German and Jewish scientists who had come over during World War II, but mostly by American citizens who had built an incredible space program with American talent. This idea that American citizens don’t have the talent to do great things, that you have to import a foreign class of servants and professors to do these things, I just reject that.”
As Lasswell sardonically notes, “Vance seems to think a defunded brainiac who happens to be an American citizen is going to tell a recruiter from Aix-Marseille University, “You can keep Provence. I’d rather work on nanotechnology in my garage. U-S-A!”
The actual history of America’s space program–and scientific dominance–is rather different from Vance’s version. After the war, both the United States and the Soviet Union recruited German and Austrian scientists, engineers and technicians. (Without, as the essay notes, being too picky about their Nazi connections. I enthusiastically recommend Tom Lehrer’s “take” on Von Braun...) In the mid-1950s, they created the U.S. space program. “Von Braun and his many, many colleagues were instrumental to U.S. space supremacy — and, according to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, most of them became naturalized citizens in 1954 or 1955.”
We may not have been picky about their politics, but we did understand–once upon a time–that a nation’s health and wealth depend upon its respect–and support– for empirical knowledge.
MAGA=Morons Are Gutting America…..
When scientific knowledge and research becomes just another playing field for competition between countries it’s time to re-evaluate our priorities.
This makes sense to me. After all, Indiana has been experiencing brain-drain for decades, and is low (or last) on most of the quality-of-life scales such as education, health, personal finance, etc, and MAGA would like to make all of America like Indiana; poor, sick, and uneducated. MALI! Make America Like Indiana!
“In Cherman und English
“I already count down
“Und I’m lerning Chinese
“Says whether von Braun”
Sorry for the unfortunate typo in my first comment. Auto-decorrect strikes again.
The hagiographic biopic of Von Braun depicted him as non-political, only interested in his rocketry work.
Righ-h-ht!
Vance is in quite a predicament after his softball comments about the Trump/Musk feud. His 100% complete loyalty to Trump’s Cult is now a question in Dear Leader’s mind. Let’s watch that…
Brain drain, which Indiana excels at practicing, does not align with the “America First” rhetoric outlined in Project 2025, a concept often repeated by Trump. He either doesn’t understand the idea itself or doesn’t understand the consequences of his decisions. Probably a lot of both!
Since Heritage Foundation wrote the book, Koch’s dark network of oligarchs felt like this was a preferred path to take. Why would oligarchs want to end programs that benefit them? I mean, we taxpayers fund research and development, and then private interests profit from those findings, giving us taxpayers nothing in return. The government socializes the cost, and then the oligarchs privatize the profits. It’s a great deal for them.
So, maybe now the oligarchy will be in charge of both the costs and profits so they can control the process. A significant amount of research and innovation falls into the category of “progress” or “progressive,” which doesn’t benefit profit maximizers at all. Consider climate research for coal-burning and mercury-emitting super plants that pollute our air and water. The connection between mercury and high infant mortality was spreading rapidly.
We cannot have that kind of research project, so the oligarchs will sacrifice the people funding research on a broad scale, allowing the oligarchy to control which projects are funded and which ones are never seen.
In my mind, we must think like the oligarchs who wrote Project 2025, and not focus on the illiterate reasons given by politicians and our entertainment media.
Theresa – The scientists I know and have read about have always understood that cold war politics, or the disease of the day can bring funding for basic research, and worded their grant applications accordingly. For example, Katie Hafner’s history of The Internet, “Where Wizards Stay Up Late”, points out that the DARPA funders had cold war motivations, while most of the scientists involved had more purely academic interests.
As we have been discussing, WaPo is only half right. The MAGA crew does not understand the ramifications (or what they are doing), but the true goal is destruction because people who can think independently are a danger to the oligarchy. Fearless leader will tell you what you are to know and believe, and you will listen and obey — until he changes his mind, and then. you will unquestioningly do the same.
The only silver lining is that academics are mobile, being lured from here to there for better facilities, more support — or tenure. I have a few friends who spent a year as Visiting Scientists in different European countries (set up through friends or connections) before returning to the US or Canada for faculty positions. Add to this the difficulty most Americans have with foreign languages, and the lure of “returning home”, and this might (just a might here) lead to a quicker recovery of the brain drain. Some may decide to stay abroad unless the new government has grown a backbone and acts quickly and forcefully to repair the damage.
Thanks for the Lehrer reference, Sheila. Satire is needed more that ever now, although Lehrer declared satire dead when Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize for bombing Cambodia or when Nixon got elected President, depending upon which version you read.
“Starting in 2025, colleges will be able to opt into revenue sharing with athletes. Athletic departments will be allowed to use their own funds to pay players, with a cap expected to hover around $20 million annually per school. That figure is intended to cover all athlete compensation across varsity sports — not just those that generate revenue.”
Moving college acceptance to “brawn vs. brain” will add to “The Brain Drain” current federal movement to end the vast tuitions amounts paid by foreign students and our own wealthy and add to the tuition costs which are already a federal issue regarding the battle over past tuition loan assistance or removing the loans outright. So, Sports Fans, what lies ahead in higher education as MAGA tries to end public education to where many of our greatest sports figures have come from to increase the voucher system primarily to religious schools nationally? Will the future college level athletes who are using their education system to head for the pros be provided with tuition as part of the payments? Or will those who are seeking to be educated to build a future working to better their lives and employment in areas to better the world around them be paying the millions to replace sports budgets which have already increased basic college tuitions?
Never forget Bobby Knight at IU University in Bloomington, “The chair thrown ’round the world”, his frequent and ridiculous temper tantrums or his long overdue firing and the astronomical amount (at that time) of his contract paid in full after he was long gone.
Please reread Theresa Bowers’ post at 6:56 this morning.
It used to be that the young folks here wanted to learn Spanish, now, they’re learning Mandarin! At least where Mandarin or one of its dialects is a choice. That’s being taken away as fast as possible.
Let’s face it, there wouldn’t have been a space race if it wasn’t for the Nazis! The Russians and the Americans were after the Nazi scientists. The United States had the financial resources to spend on a space race, and that’s the only reason The US had an advantage. The United States built an entire German Alps like village to house the Germans. Familiarity can foster confidence and happiness to a degree. And the United States was able to out Nazi the Nazis. Actually that was always the case anyway. It wasn’t only the scientists, but Hollywood welcomed the Germans in droves.
That program continued unabated through the ’60s. There were many Germans in Germantown in Chicago, who were here to work their 10 to 15 years, and then go home and collect American social Security. They lived like kings when they went back home to Germany.
All the while, melanin enhanced Americans lived in squalor, what does that tell you about a brain drain? How many of those disrespected Americans could have come up with amazing discoveries if they had the same opportunities? But the United States was never based on equality, fairness, compassion, empathy, and when I say based on, the Constitution, the one the originalists pay homage to and worship, was a document that actually endorsed its own history. The superiority of Europeans overall else, all comers, was obvious. And like I said, Native Americans, folks of African descent, the Chinese, the Japanese, we’re all considered inferior. The Chinese, the Japanese, the South Koreans, and the Vietnamese, seem to be bent on flipping that script!
Because in reality, the Europeans were just intellectual thieves. They took technology, the gunpowder, for one! Foods and spices was another, exploration was another. Remember when the big deal was made over Barack Obama’s preacher, I can’t remember what his name was, when he said the chickens have come home to roost? Well, they are now roosting, and they are laying a lot of eggs.
The United States has become a den of vipers, a clutch of carpet baggers, grifters, flim flammers, scammers, self-gratifying perverts, looking to prey on any flesh that tweaks their carnal desires! A den of iniquity.
You couldn’t get anymore depraved than Rome, well you probably could but, I think Rome would win the title! And this absolutely gave rise to European culture! Rome absorbed but was left of the Grecian powerhouse, and they laid the groundwork for Rome to come in and sop up everything. And here we are!
The remnants of the Roman government, who were actually Austrian, the House of Habsburg, and of course the Roman adopted religion, “Christendom.” Because it really can’t be called Christianity, as it doesn’t resemble anything of the original Christian beliefs, had permeated the West! The British, the Germans, and America, isn’t Rome beautiful?
Brain drain fostered by the brainless, you couldn’t make it up if you wanted to. Why is it so crazy right now? Because they realized if they didn’t move quickly, they might not ever be able to. Barack Obama scared the crap out of all of them. He lit a fire under their backside that is still burning bright right now.
Unfortunately that fire is going to burn down this entire house. That’s why this country didn’t want folks who are melanin in enhanced, because in essence, they were pretty smart folks. And it went directly against the fallacy of European intellect!
I’m wondering how much of our country we’re going to have left when Orange Jesus (OJ) is done. This morning, I’m watching news about California. Looks like Cali got set up to be the very first to have troops on the ground. OJ has activated the California National Guard, over the objections of the governor. OJ has already praised the work of the Guard in quelling the “riot”. The Guard is due to arrive later today.
We’ve seen the work of ICE as they round up immigrants without regard to status. People who see their friends and neighbors rounded up and hauled away are reacting spontaneously. Even in red areas like San Diego, people backed the ICE agents away yelling “shame”. They say this isn’t what we voted for, but it’s exactly what they voted for. They weren’t listening when OJ said that people who crossed the border.at places other than the designated entry points are criminals.
OJ and his friends have been aching to invoke the Insurrection Act. Now they’re baiting us. It won’t be long before they give it a try.
Americans have long accepted that power should be shared between two parties. Some countries go further in sharing power among even more.
Republicans are the exception here because they see no value in sharing and have become ubber loyal to the concept of me over we. There are no better examples than our VP and Speaker of the House.
Like almost everything human, we all experience internal tension between ‘me’ and ‘we’. We have all won and lost by making the wrong choice. We refer to these losses as moral failures, or, if you have a religious faith, as sins.
I believe we will naturally recover from the egregious situation we put ourselves in. Still, again, like all things human, the longer we continue living under single-party control, the harder it will be to recover.
We have both short-term and long-term goals for recovery. The short term is how we each spend June 14, at home watching TV or on the streets, building up some steam.
The longer is how we spend November 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_elections. In between, there will be other opportunities to invest our time signaling our election intentions.
Make sound investment decisions.
My first comment today didn’t post. So, here’s a simplified versions:
Everything Trump touches dies. Stephen Miller is the NAZI in charge of ICE and the horror that is about to unfold. The civil war has started.
Vernon, I have long wondered what it was like to live in Germany during the 1930s. We are all now finding out.
Theresa, Yes. In the post that didn’t make it, I cited one of our relatives who works in cyber warfare for the Air Force. He/She will be kicked out taking all that knowledge and skill with him/her. Brilliant how fear and prejudice work in tiny brains, isn’t it.
Vernon, and Theresa nail it!
Vance lives in a determinedly, perhaps even, purposefully world of ignorance.
This has been reminding me of a comment attributed to Hitler, when he also drove out, or had killed, many scientists, including Einstein: “So, we will do without science for a few years!” Lot of good that, happily, did for him.
I’m reading a second book by Stefano Mancuso, a “…leading authority in the field of plant neurobiology.” This one is called “The nation of Plants,” and it presents what he refers to as “The Constitution of the Nation of Plants” He first proposed this in an address before the United Nations.
The Constitution represents the “voice’ of the plant world reminding us newcomer, puny humans that all life on this ONE planet known to support any form of life developed from the capacity to photosynthesize. And that we ALL, (even Vance) need to work in concert with all the forms of life here, in order to survive.
I expect that this is not news to anyone following Sheila’s great postings. But, it resonates with the Ubuntu “I am because we are,” and “All thriving is mutual,” given us by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Mitch, thanks for the insightful post. Thing is, with corrupt brains like the one Vance has, none of this resonates. Vance and his ilk are all about power and ascending to it no matter what. And it’s going to get worse – much worse.
Trump will die while in office, I suspect, and Vance will ascend to the Oval Office. He clearly isn’t smart enough either to understand consequences of his actions. Trump is a psychopath, so none of that understanding of a healthy mind pertains to him. He’s just a thug with a very small brain and an even smaller suite of knowledge. No wonder 77 million Americans voted for him. They share his traits.
But saving the country, our democracy and the Constitution from these monsters is more complicated. Will the troops on the streets actually start shooting peaceful, unarmed citizens? What’s the over/under for that happening?
I’m telling that relative to take the payout and get the hell out of here. Scotland and the U.K. are clamoring for science teachers. I’m too old, or I would be on a plane there tomorrow.
the heritage found, project 2025 and its think tank,right?
Vern,
The troops shot rubber bullets at the protesters in Washington during Trump 1.0’s visit to the church so he could pose in front of a church with his upside-down bible. They also launched tear gas into the crowd. So yes, the military, state, and local police will gladly defend the Republicans in power.
We also saw them in action during the campus protests against genocide.
And, I read an article about Palantir, Peter Thiel’s company, and the rabid Zionist CEO, Alex Karp, was bragging about his company helping to defend the elite during the upcoming revolution, where “heads will be lobbed off.” In other words, the oligarchy knows its decisions aren’t popular with the people, but it doesn’t care. They also know that people will soon be revolting against them, so Palantir is scraping data across the internet to assist local and state police. But, primarily with the FED.
I suspect the trigger will be the declaration of martial law and the cancellation of the 2026 election. At the rate Trump is implementing Project 2025, the revolution might happen before 2026, so we shall see…
People starting to get antsy, starting to riot, just plays into the hands of those who want to declare a national emergency. And with that national emergency, as we’ve all said a million times, comes with the suspension of habeas corpus, so the court systems will be run by military tribunals. Also, they can suspend Congress. Basically make everybody stay home. They could claim that there are instigators in Congress, so they’ll just bypass that whole branch of government. So the only thing left, will be the executive branch. And it’s King!
The thought process behind wanting to grab some bricks to lob, or Windows to break, or cars to burn, is exactly what these individuals were hoping for. They never wanted a Martin Luther King type of protest, they want a George Floyd brick-throwing store burning protest that, if they can catch one immigrant in the group, they’ve made their case for the country being under attack. Sometimes, the brain drain works both ways. And then you have the false flag operations, the last time we had George Floyd riots here, they caught the good old boys running around waving Mexican flags! Why would they be waving Mexican flags? Even the police kind of laughed, at least a little bit. It was obviously a false flag issue, riling up the good old boy network against everyone except the white dudes. Except the white dudes were the ones waving the Mexican flag!
Back in the day, they used to talk about trees loaded with purple fruit. Those were the hanging trees. I would venture to say, there might be trees loaded with pink rotten fruit, if everyone isn’t rounded up and shipped to the prisons that have been built in this country and are being built overseas or South America. If persons born in this country can be strip of their citizenship, then that means everybody born in this country, no matter who their parents are as long as the military tribunals agree, which they will! If you’re going to be active, it’s best to start learning Spanish, or Portuguese. Or maybe, Arabic! You’ll be working on the chain gang in the desert!
Never underestimate the introduction into peaceful demonstrations of agent provocateurs by the opposition. They generally are easy to spot because they are eager to insight illegal and or destructive actions, which then justify the use of force by the authoritative body.
The anti-intellectual GOP and MAGA crowd is going to leave it’s mark on America — and it will not be a good mark.
Looks like government agencies like Homeland security, FBI, local police drawn in and ICE are becoming more militarized. On the news reports they can be seen in protective gear, masks and carrying weapons getting pushy with people in the crowds. Instigating violence? Calling out the National Guard and possibly the military is definitely in their playbook. On that side is also the vigilante, violence prone proud boy types standing by locked and loaded.
What’s with the Supreme Court giving permission to the drug riddled DOGE team to continue collecting Americans personal data. It’s pending in lower court deciding if Doge is even legit. Where and why is that info going. That doesn’t seem safe or legal.
What to do if accurate information is blocked and sites like this are taken down? Plans for safety have to be taken seriously. June 14th while trump is feeling mighty watching tanks in the street should be a time of caution, while Americans take their peaceful protests to the streets across the nation. The mad King might decide to use force.
Never has a Broadway play been so clever as a brilliant protest of the current regime in Washington … viewed and heard around the world on CNN last night. Not once did the script mention the President by name. And yet it served a profound counter offensive by extolling virtue of journalism’s role to expose truth and facts. George Clooney got the last word as the star of the show, but he did not step forward on stage to receive audience acclaim alone. He allowed the caste to receive all the acclaim. What a tribute to his father and holding trust with truth about the remarkable impact of Edward R. Morrow to bring down a tyrant against all odds.
Good Night and Good Luck.
I’m with Norris @Good Night and Good Luck broadcast around the world. CNN is available in almost every country around the world. The ending video was brilliantly done. Recommended