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By Dave Levitan By Dave Levitan March 24

Science, more than many fields, feeds on a collaborative spirit. Former staffers from President Barack Obamas science office have taken this to heart: They are fanning out, finding jobs in academia, at nonprofits and elsewhere, but they continue to work together, largely behind the scenes. This science diaspora, as one former staffer called it, is ready to both push forward on the ambitious science-related agendas of the previous administration, and to defend against the attacks on science emanating from the new White House.

There was a pretty explicit sense of community-building as people walked out the door, said Kumar Garg, who served as a senior adviser inside Obamas Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). People have this really strong sense of mission that they want to carry forward.

OSTP is housed inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the White House and is part of the executive branch. Its director John Holdren under Obamabut currently among the unfilled positionsin the current administration traditionally also serves as the science adviser to the president. OSTP offers up technical expertise on a wide range of issues, helps the president launch science-related initiatives, and in general serves as the science and technology support system for much of the government.

Arguably, OSTP just wrapped up its most influential eight-year period since the science advisers early days under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. (OSTP was officially formed by statute in 1976, though other similar offices preceded it.) Phil Larson, who focused on space exploration issues at OSTP under Obama for five years before leaving for SpaceX and now the University of Colorado, said the way Obama and Holdren emphasized science and technology left a mark on those who worked there. Their time at OSTP specifically under President Obama and Dr. Holdren galvanized a whole new kind of passion from them, because they saw it being paid attention to at the highest levels.

After Donald Trumps election, though, it quickly became clear that science would not have such a prominent seat at the table after the self-proclaimed nerd left office. OSTP staffers decided to form a sort of phalanx of science- and tech-friendly experts and policy wonks. The coalition is informal they stay in touch via Facebook and Google groups and lines of communication they established before heading out the door.

A position at White House OSTP means that you have developed a pretty amazing network, said Cristin Dorgelo, who served as chief of staff under Holdren.

Most of OSTP left when the administration turned over, with a staff that peaked around 140 people now down to a much more bare-bones cohort. (OSTP would not divulge the exact number currently on staff.)

We cant walk across the hall to each other anymore, said Kei Koizumi, who was a senior adviser on research and development budgeting at OSTP and is now a visiting scholar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The team may have moved on, but we still think of ourselves as a team.

The former staffers aim to push forward on STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics education initiatives, on specific research programs, on clean energy and climate efforts, and they consider themselves on call to help where needed.

I can check in and say, Heres a little bit of a fire drill, who is interested? Garg said. His focus was on technology innovation and STEM education initiatives, and that portion of the new defense team now encompasses as many as 50 people spread out across the country. Thats a very tight-knit group where I can call somebody and they can drop what theyre doing and help.

[The science whiz who dazzled Obama has schizophrenia and his family faces crushing expenses]

The fire drills may involve helping out on Capitol Hill when congressional staffers need input on science-related policy issues, connecting experts with the government office or an NGO that needs them, or, importantly in the coming weeks and months, working on responses to the presidents and congressional budget requests.

Many former staffers said the budgeting battle is a primary focus. The White House released a preliminary budget blueprint this month confirming the science communitys worst fears. If enacted, the cuts would be staggering: The Environmental Protection Agency would lose more than 30 percent of its budget. NASAs earth science section, which contributes enormously to our understanding of climate change, would lose four entire missions and more than $100 million. (Budget director Mick Mulvaney called all climate change spending a waste of your money.) The National Institutes of Health, the primary source of biomedical research funding in the country, would lose 20 percent of its $31 billion. The Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E) would disappear entirely, and on down the line.

Now that these battles are taking shape, one former OSTP staffer said many in the group are in touch with agencies, politicians, NGOs and advocacy organizations, making sure all the groups are ready for what is going to be a pretty consequential budget fight.

Some members of the diaspora are reluctant to give away specifics of their plans. Why offer up your playbook to the opposition as the game is just getting started? But the Google groups and phone trees are becoming more and more active, one staffer said. We are preparing, we are talking.

The OSTPers would have stayed in touch and collaborated regardless of who won in November, but the specifics are certainly different than anticipated. There were some things that the administration said specifically about scaling back certain policies that made people more alarmed, said Thomas Kalil, who served as OSTPs deputy director for technology and innovation for the full eight years of Obamas presidency and has now moved back to the San Francisco Bay area. Instead of simply passing on their knowledge to a new administration that would likely have treated scientific issues similarly, staffers instead began to focus on playing defense.

Garg agreed that the early days of the Trump administration have provided a host of issues that have galvanized the diaspora. Budgeting for research and development may be chief among them, but others such as making sure science isnt muzzled, and discussions about scientific integrity, have similarly energized the group topics that some staffers argue wouldnt even be on the table if the election had turned out differently. Also among the early projects has been coordination with the March for Science leadership, since many see it as a time to consolidate pro-science messaging.

The March will take place on April 22 in Washington, and in other cities around the country, and has the support of major organizations including AAAS, the American Geophysical Union, the Society for Neuroscience and many others. Kristen Gunther, the Marchs mission strategy leader, said the OSTPers have been incredible resources in planning and organizing, and in particular in forming those partnerships. They have also given us advice on the interaction between science and federal policy to help us better understand where we can effectively direct our efforts, she said.

[How Trump's travel ban could hurt science]

Of course, there are limits to what people on the outside looking in can accomplish, but some say that theyre also hearing from people on the inside looking for help. People now involved with some of the specific projects started under Obama and Holdren the BRAIN Initiative, say, or the Computer Science for All initiative are now looking to former OSTPers for guidance on how to maintain those projects in uncertain waters.

Were being called upon sometimes behind the scenes as a resource, said Larson, highlighting NASA and space-related issues as another area where that is occurring. I think youll see that continue, because I think its less politically based, and more [that] civil servants want to do good work.

The Obama administration was considered among the most science-friendly administrations in history, so it isnt surprising that his staffers at the center of that effort feel a sense of mission that carries beyond the White House gates. And now, with the Trump administrations assault on science taking form, that mission is rapidly increasing in scope and magnitude.

I think the moment does call for a certain degree of focus, Garg said. This is a really unheralded moment. People want to step through it together.

Dave Levitan is a science journalist, and author of Not A Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent, and Utterly Mangle Science.Follow him on Twitter at @davelevitan.

Read the rest here:
Obama's science diaspora prepares for a fight - Washington Post

Dad, youre embarrassing me. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP

It was a not-especially-balmy 49 degrees (the ground still slick with rain) when he appeared at the top of the stairs, preceded by security detail and, of course, Michelle. Diners at Upland, the California-inflected brasserie in Flatiron, would have a story they could tell their great-grandkids: about the day they saw President Obama gracious, handsome, tieless while taking forkfuls of little-gem salad. The appearance was just one stopover on Obamas victory lap through New York, in which the former president demonstrated his adjustment to normal personhood (or as normal as one can be while lunching with Bono). And like that, with a smile and wave, he was gone. Did we imagine him? Did he say hello to us? Did you see how good he looked?

There he was, sporty and smiling with Richard and Michelle on Necker Island, and then again, rocking a leather jacket and jeans at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. Pretty cool, wrote VanityFair.com. Fashion dad, proclaimed Mashable. Danny Zuko, said the Daily News. GQs Style Guy even tweeted that Obama was on his way to rocking Vetements. And its true, post-presidential Obama does look different energetic, more public, quicker to break into a grin. But while Number 44 certainly looks good, lets not overreach (though when has the internet ever trafficked in hyperbole?). If anything, Obama these days looks not fashion-y (or God forbid, cool), but perfectly, passably, post-presidentially appropriate.

Take a look at that photo with the leather jacket. A handsome brown shade, surely, but and GQ notes this a mite big. The dark-wash denim improves upon those infamous dad jeans, but the pants are still hiked up nearly to the navel. And in a classic dad move, his shirt is tucked in, exposing a wide belt that is less Vetements (or even Brioni) than Jos. A. Bank. Head to toe, the look is adequate: a post-midlife getup your dad might wear as he talks your ear off about his new standing desk or Bulletproof-coffee routine. But paper-doll the clothes onto Brad Pitt or Will Smith or George Clooney all within spitting distance of Obamas age and build and youd think they were on the set of some Noah Baumbach film, playing fathers in crisis.

So why are we grading on a curve? It may square more neatly with the post-presidential swagger narrative (How Barry Faced a Wiretap Accusation and Got His Groove Back), but the before-and-after gets a little fudgy with the facts. Its not exactly true that Obama ditched office and discovered style. Hes looked damn good without a tie for years. He looked pretty boss (and jacked) while on holiday in Oahu wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap back in 2014. And that same leather jacket has been in rotation since 2013 (even with those jeans). Its only now that were paying attention and heaping the president with sartorial praise.

The obvious truth is that we expect something different of politicians, who should be too busy devoting precious energy to pushing through a new health-care bill or waging campaigns against ISIS to tend to something so trivial as fashion. For all of us who considered Trumps Scotch-taped tie a fitting analogy for his Potemkin village of a presidency, there were those corners of the internet that applauded his thrift, relatability, and ingenuity. Theyre the same whod argue that comparing Obama to Pitt or Clooney is apples and oranges those guys are movie stars whose job it is to project glamour and celebrity. Obamas concerns, presumably, are loftier.

One president defied those expectations, though, with his tortoiseshell sunglasses, Omega Ultra Thin, and Top-Siders. John F. Kennedy the prototypical avatar of presidential style ushered in a notion of elegance (in all its well-bred, New England casualness) that mens magazines have been mining for decades. The (probably apocryphal) legend that Kennedy killed the hat endures because its plausible. We can believe that J.F.K. this politician could define an entire generations stylistic agenda with a rule-breakers attitude, as if someone had attempted to hand Kennedy his hat and he just lifted his hand: Nah, Im good.

So perhaps we should hold President Obama to a higher stylistic standard. Yes, he looks great right now better, perhaps, than 99% of men in America but we cant pretend hes aced the thing when we really mean to give him points for trying, for following boilerplate dictates like matching the jacket to the belt to the shoes or losing the stonewashed jeans. To borrow a metaphor, Obama right now is an unstylish persons idea of what a stylish man looks like. Obama looks nice. Relaxed, even. (In fact, the one dissonant moment in all of the post-presidential style discussion was the backwards cap, when Obama committed the cardinal sin of trying too hard.). But to call him fashionable much less trendsetting would be premature. Obama has yet to demonstrate what it takes to be truly stylish: a conviction that it isnt contradictory for a person of substance to care about the clothes they wear (something, by the way, that Michelle learned a long time ago).

But 2017 Obama offers glimmers of hope. Its only now spring, and his most recent appearances suggest that his style is in the parlance evolving, so who knows what summer or fall could have in store? Lets see him ditch the duct-tape belt for something a little trimmer from Berluti. He might lose the button-down (why is there a T-shirt underneath?) and pull on a Massimo Alba band-collar shirt. Or would Saint Laurent Chelsea boots be so out of the question? Thats the presidential style I want to see. Lets not take such a dim view of what a serious persons fashion aspirations can be Ill be ready to call Obama stylish when hes rocking extra-roomy, pleated Brunello trousers. And maybe we save the Vetements for 2018.

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Let's Not Call Obama Stylish Just Yet - New York Magazine

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I picked up the phone the other day and heard a familiar voice. It was Barack Obama asking me for a donation.

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President Obama's voice is used on scam phone calls the BBB says.(Photo: USA TODAY)

I picked up the phone the other day and heard a familiar voice. It was Barack Obama asking me for a donation.

I had been wondering what Obama was up to since I hadn't seen him around since late January. But I was pretty sure he wasn't raising money in a telemarketing scheme. So I hung up.And so should you if you get one of these calls.

Now the BBB is reporting that the scam is using various politicians voices in these "fundraising calls" which are nothing more than attempts to steal your identity. Here's the advice from the BBB:

The BBB said the calls that have been reported use the voices of Democrats. But the scam can be used for any politician. Don't fall for it no matter what party you endorse.

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Tell Mel: Barack Obama calling? - The News-Press

He called the fight "about more than health care," but rather, "the character of our country."

"We finally declared that in America, health care is not a privilege for a few, but a right for everybody," Obama said in a statement.

He cautioned that Republicans and Democrats working to build on the law should "start from the baseline that any changes will make our health care system better, not worse for hardworking Americans."

It's highly unusual for a former president to make such a public and political statement less than 100 days after leaving office, signaling Obama's concern for the law's future.

Obama touted the bill's successes, naming some of the law's key features.

"Thanks to this law, more than 20 million Americans have gained the security and peace of mind of health insurance. Thanks to this law, more than 90% of Americans are insured -- the highest rate in our history. Thanks to this law, the days when women could be charged more than men and Americans with pre-existing conditions could be denied coverage altogether are relics of the past. Seniors have bigger discounts on their prescription drugs. Young people can stay on their parents' plans until they turn 26 years old. And Americans who already had insurance received an upgrade as well -- from free preventive care, like mammograms and vaccines, to improvements in the quality of care in hospitals that has averted nearly 100,000 deaths so far," he wrote.

And he defended against criticism of the bill, addressing rising premiums and charges that Obamacare is a "job-killer."

"Reality continues to discredit the false claim that this law is in a 'death spiral' ... so long as the law is properly administered, this market will remain stable. Likewise, this law is no 'job-killer,' because America's businesses went on a record-breaking streak of job growth in the seven years since I signed it," he said.

Obama has spent the early days of the Trump administration decompressing from his eight years in office, taking trips to Palm Springs, the Caribbean -- where he kite-surfed with Richard Branson -- New York for a play and a lunch with U2's Bono, and his native Hawaii for golf. There are reports, unconfirmed by CNN, that Obama is spending a month on the small French Polynesian island of Tetiaroa.

This isn't the first statement Obama has made since leaving office -- he penned his condolences on the death of Northern Ireland politician Martin McGuinness on Wednesday, and spokesman Kevin Lewis commented earlier this month about Trump's accusation that the President ordered surveillance on him, calling the charge "simply false."

And when protests sprung up across the country in reaction to Trump's initial rollout of a travel ban, Lewis said the President was "heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country."

CNN's Kate Bennett contributed to this report.

Read the rest here:
Obama defends signature health care law as GOP seeks repeal - CNN

A president's golf play is far from controversial: In fact, it's the most common pastime of the country's leaders. But before he ran for office, Trump was the most fervent critic of the fact that President Barack Obama regularly hit the links with friends, aides and advisers, arguing that it showed the president was unserious about fixing America's problems.

Now that Trump is President, the comments are coming back to complicate his golf habit.

Trump has visited the two courses near his Mar-a-Lago estate -- Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach and Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter -- 10 times in the first two months of his presidency.

"I'm going to be working for you; I'm not going to have time to go play golf," Trump said during a 2016 event in Virginia.

For the most part, aides have declined to confirm that Trump was playing golf on weekends in Florida, instead repeatedly telling reporters that the President "may" hit a few balls at his course but that they didn't know for sure.

On multiple occasions, though, Trump's games have been made public. CNN has seen Trump golfing -- driving up the 12th hole on his championship course at Trump International Golf Course -- multiple times during the former reality star's first two months in office.

Asked about playing golf before Air Force One took off from Florida, Trump said he played "very little" over the weekend.

It has also been revealed -- through golf blogs and media reports -- that Trump has played with top professional golfers such as Rory McIlroy, one of the top-ranked golfers in the world. While hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Palm Beach last month, Trump also played a full round with the foreign leader and professional golfer Ernie Els.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer defended Trump's golfing habit by citing the one day he hosted the Japanese leader, arguing that Trump utilized golf to "foster deeper relations."

"How you use the game of golf is something that he has talked about," Spicer said.

During his presidency Obama also golfed with foreign leaders, including Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, British Prime Minister David Cameron and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

Trump's preferred course by far is the one closest to his Florida home: Trump International Golf Club. He has visited the course all 10 times he has golfed since becoming President. Only one time -- while hosting Abe -- did the President also visit Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter.

Trump also visited his course in Sterling, Virginia, on March 11 for a meeting. It is unclear whether he played.

Trump made critiquing Obama for golfing a part of his 2016 message.

"I love golf, I think it's one of the greats, but I don't have time," then-President-elect Trump said during a December 2016 rally in Michigan. "He played more golf last year than Tiger Woods. We don't have time for this. We don't have time for this. We have to work."

And before he ran for president, Trump would tweet about Obama's golfing.

"Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the US, President Obama spent the day playing golf," Trump tweeted in October 2014. "Worse than Carter."

Now, citing the President's privacy, Trump's aides are left trying to conceal the President's frequent golfing.

This story has been updated.

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Trump, critic of Obama's golfing, regularly hitting the links ...