Musk and Trump Are Cutting Popular Programs. That's Deliberate.

[alarimer]

6. They are also cutting programs people are unaware of.

And of course anything having to do with science because you can't monetize that. Here is one example: the sea lamprey control program of the Great Lakes.

Which destroyed the lake trout fishery in the 30s. By the time they figured out how this happened and how to control, lake trout were not able to come back. Instead, they started stocking salmon. The end result, though, is a robust recreational fishery.

Trump (or Musk?) has fired numerous employees in that program. I hope they have a contingency plan because the return of lamprey (well, they were not eliminated, just controlled enough) will destroy these new fisheries. My heart sank when I realized this would also be on the chopping block. They have no idea the kinds of things government does, that ONLY government can do (in this case a Great Lakes Fishery Commission that includes Canada- well it DID include Canada anyway, not sure of that status either).

For me this is personal (I don't work in the Great Lakes or in freshwater at all). I have been a state government employee my whole working life and I am not a leech. We do important work; work that mostly cannot be done by the private sector.

Here is the trailer for the documentary (on Prive Video and also Kanopy)