UC Berkeley Researchers Beg State to Create $23 Billion Science Slush Fund
The intention is to place this inanity on the ballot for this November’s election. It looks like the campaign will paint Trump as an anti-science madman; therefore “experts” should be able to use California tax dollars to fund nonsense research.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly proposed large cuts to federal climate and climate-related science programs, targeting agencies like EPA, NOAA, NASA, USGS, USDA, and international climate aid, and basically gutted Biden’s “Green New Deal” while clawing back money diverted to woke science projects that were rapidly dispersed before Trump returned to office.
To add to the woes of climate change grifters, once avid supporters like billionaire Bill Gates no longer believe global warming is an immediate existential crisis.
And many no longer believe the hoaxes asserted by climate “experts”, which is a victory for science over pseudoscience.
Other questionable, woke-oriented research has also been slashed at the NIH.
However, activist researchers will not be deterred and are now begging for funding from the state of California…to the tune of $23 billion.
Scarlet Sands-Bliss, a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley, typically gets up at 6 a.m. to make the drive to rural Lake County, where she’s researching how community members can prepare for extreme heat events. Last Monday evening, after a long day of meetings with tribal representatives and behavioral health workers, she hit the road again, racing down country byways to a pop-up science fair and lobbying event in Sacramento.
Along with a couple dozen other students and postdocs from universities across California, she was there to present her work to state lawmakers and urge them to set up a $23 billion scientific research fund, at a time when the federal government is stepping back its support.
It’s not the kind of advocacy Sands-Bliss originally envisioned when she embarked on a public health career. “I have some professors at Berkeley who really believe that we’re scientists and it’s not our job to discuss the implications of our work,” she said.
The intention is to place this inanity on the ballot for this November’s election. It looks like the campaign will paint Trump as an anti-science madman; therefore, “experts” should be able to use California tax dollars to fund nonsense research.
Early-career scientists like Sands-Bliss are helping lead the campaign to set up the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, which would dole out grants for projects in health, agriculture, earthquake and wildfire safety and other fields – with priority going to ongoing studies that have seen their funding axed by the federal government. Legislation authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener would place a bond measure to fund the proposed foundation before voters in November.
The bill’s supporters say they are responding to the second Trump administration’s disruption of research in California. The administration has canceled or threatened to cancel federal grants for studies not aligned with the president’s priorities — including those that deal with diversity, race and gender disparities, or climate change.
Useless climate "researchers" want California taxpayers to borrow $23 billion to fund useless climate "research."https://t.co/5dxfdCYtNW
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 6, 2026
The California Legislative Analyst’s Office projects an $18 billion deficit this year, reflecting a combination of higher‑than‑planned spending and revenue gains that are largely locked up by constitutional formulas rather than available to close the gap. There is no extra $23 billion to give Berkeley’s band of science Marxists, or anyone else in this state…no matter now nobel the cause.
California’s fiscal situation will not improve as corporations and residents flee the state for less grasping local governments elsewhere.
I suspect that when California voters consider their own expenses, what “science did for them in the Covid era and what it is doing to them in terms of energy prices and wildfire threat, they will turn down the opportunity to squander more money on narrative-based research.
If there were any science of value being offered, surely some innovator or entrepreneur would help fund it. These young scientists will learn that, in the post-Covid era, “science” is no longer trusted or automatically respected.
Respect, as well as funding, must be earned.
If the “young scientists” have difficulty securing funding, there are plenty of promising and profitable employment opportunities through trade schools. Alternatively, joining the military and serving the nation while applying science is another option.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Legislation authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener
So appropriately named!
Wiener is a government turd responsible for many of the bad legislative ideas in CA. If he is for something I’m automatically against it.
“We won’t create a new fund, but we’ll let you share the reparations fund.”
The reparation fund is like a huge jug with no bottom being held over the drain where funds go through the jug and down the drain faster than the prep for colonoscopy goes through your colon.
And with multi-billion dollar budget deficit and billions of dollars in un-funded pension mandates on the books just where is the state of California going to find $23 billion for this fund. I would imagine at this point the California taxpayer has barely anything left in their purse to hand over to the state. But there you go and here we are.
eot
“It’s not the kind of advocacy Sands-Bliss originally envisioned when she embarked on a public health career.”
It’s exactly what she trained for. She’s the supplicant and the state is the patron. She doesn’t ever do anything beyond creating her own group of supplicants. Then she and other like-minded supplicants (from various state agencies) gather at air conditioned public spaces, set up tables, and exchange brochures with each other. They make short videos and snap selfies with their cohort and then post those images on social media and declare how amazing and effective their astroturfed public spaces event turned out.
I see this behavior on Xtwitter day in and day out. It’s wholly normalized. One group spends three years planning the reintroduction of beaver on Tribal property.
“Last week, Tule River Tribe & CDFW reintroduced a family of beavers into the South Fork Tule River for the 1st time in over a century. This is expected to positively effect the water supply & improve drought & wildfire resilience.
Receipt here: https://x.com/CAgovernor/status/1804278550868218074
“This is expected to positively effect [sic] the water supply & improve drought & wildfire resilience.”
How, Gavin? By rebuilding the crucial dams you gleefully destroyed?
Three weeks ago the California Natural Resources Agency was bragging about our [Klamath] “dam removal-age,” their exact words.
They razed 4 dams.
Hubris, ignorance and nihilism.
There are literally scores of these agencies. Beware when they talk about tribal partnerships. Another group reintroduced coyote and 20 beaver on tribal marshland. I mocked them that the coyote ate 20 beaver and are now thriving.
California Department of Water Resources
While Bad Bunny brought the heat to the Super Bowl in California, incoming storms are bringing much needed rain to build our snowpack.
https://x.com/CA_DWR/status/2020941530287177930
Check the attached image. It’s Soviet agitprop.
Did they define “science” ? Slush fund we know what that means.
The sound you now hear are “ballot harvesters” laughing their heads off. The only way this goes down to defeat is if the Communist satraps running the state don’t want it.
As a California refugee now living Idaho (63 years in Ca), I wouldn’t be surprised to see such a measure pass. I can’t even begin to remember all the wasteful bonds I voted against, only to see them pass by large margins. Of course the not-so-fast train to nowhere started with a bond measure. Glad I’m out.
Well, you guys did vote against homosexual ‘marriage’. Don’t know if that would be the case today.
bad bunny merely televised the revolution
the black matriarchy is goose stepping or maybe some other “dance” step all over the usa
What happens when California runs out of other people’s money? What will they supposedly cut? (If they were so inclined, but they are not)
They might try to do what NYC tried with Rush Limbaugh – tax them whether they still live there or not.
“I have some professors at Berkeley who really believe that we’re scientists and it’s not our job to discuss the implications of our work,”
They’re like toddlers in adult bodies, making demands with zero accountability or responsibility.
“”no matter now nobel the cause””
Cute turn of phrase, whether intentional or not.
It now appears that even Zuck is looking to move to FL. CA will be lucky if the deficit is only $18B but keep these referendums coming it will be glorious to watch things like this and the wealth tax pass… until CA goes hat in hand for a federal bailout.
1. California does not have $23, let alone $23 billion, lying around.
2. If Sands-Bliss really wants to research the effect of heat on people, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Imperial counties would be better. During WWII, someone in the Office of Scientific Research & Development (OSRD) decided to investigate the effect of natural heat on different colored artillery shells. So, my dad was tasked with going to Death Valley in August to do the research. That makes more sense than going to Lake County to see how heat affects people.
Remember, California is now pursuing an inverse natural selection project for stupid, so as time goes by and the overall population intelligence of those who remain there diminishes, those left will become increasingly gullible, and thus ever more likely to support such zany shenanigans.
“Intersectionality! It’s got what tribes crave!”