US agriculture department suspends data collection on honeybees

I spent the summer of 2017 as an intern in the department of the interior. At the time, the white house was proposing to cut the DoI's budget by an order of magnitude. I went to a fascinating talk about how they strategize when faced with budget cuts. They don't just cut things from least to most important, they start by cutting things that have champions. For example, the first things on the chopping block at the time were Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay restoration, because those programs have champions in Congress who would fight to get them funded again. More obscure programs don't have that advantage, so if they get cut they're just gone.

So while Europe is warning of a insect apocalypse the US is following a eyes closed approach. sigh...

But meanwhile we can give the military more money than they asked for, with zero accountability.

It's not about money, this is a war of ideology.

Such a shame, not only are bees incredibly fascinating beeings we also need them a little bit maybe.

Ever wondered how we pollinate our food without bees?

What do you do when your prevailing ideology fails, well double down on it obviously. Any economist worth her salt will tell you all you need to do is pay more and you can get all the insects and honey bees you want. Same goes for animals, environment, natural resources. You just gotta pay more and the invisible hand will produce these things. It's really magical thinking that works.

The Republican Party has repeatedly demonstrated that if actual facts stand in the way of their god driven view of the world they just stop collecting facts, or claim that facts are a conspiracy by “liberals” and “socialists”