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…The EPA, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Transportation and the National Park Service – all of which contain thousands upon thousands of taxpayer-funded scientists – were told a few days ago to cease and desist any form of communication with the public and the media when it came to their research.
…at the time of writing, the administrator of the scientific wing of the USDA rescinded this muzzling order.
There’s no update as of yet on whether or not the other federal agencies have decided to fight back against this information suppression.
Sudden changes at the EPA, USDA, and CDC under Trump, explained
Government scientists are being ordered not to talk about their research — and it’s only week one.
Trump appears to be muzzling scientists just like Canada did
A North American nation elected a leader known for hostility to science and affection for the domestic oil industry. After the new administration took power, government scientists stopped speaking freely to the press. Questions had to be sent by email and routed through central approval. Scientists were told not to talk about hot-button issues including climate, oil, forestry, and other environmental concerns. They had to get approval to attend scientific conferences. Before submitting to peer-reviewed journals, they were asked to submit keywords and predict policy implications of their work to higher-ups. Some were even asked to omit certain information from publications. The scientific community called it “muzzling.”
That’s what happened in Canada after Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected in 2006. And now it’s happening here under President Donald Trump…
Trump Administration Puts Gag Order on Several Government Agencies
Employees at several federal agencies including the Department of Agriculture have been barred by the Trump administration from making any statements, or providing any documents to the public or journalists, according to published reports.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services are also impacted by the orders, which were reportedly handed down this week, and include a prohibition against some of the agencies posting on social media.
A memo sent to EPA staff said that there should be no press releases sent to "external audiences" and that "no social media will be going out," according to a report by The Hill. The memo also says that a digital strategist will be coming in to oversee the agency's social-media policies, and that "existing, individually controlled social-media accounts may become more centrally controlled."
The memo also ordered that no new posts be made to any agency blogs, that staff send a list of any external speaking arrangements, that no new documents be uploaded to any public website, and that "incoming media requests will be carefully screened."
Staff at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service also got a memo on Monday telling them not to provide any documents to the public, including press releases and social-media content…
Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services were also told not to publish any new documents or correspondence in any public forum, including the Federal Register, and not to discuss any documents or rules with public officials "until the Administration has had an opportunity to review them,”…
The Interior Department was recently ordered to shut down its Twitter accounts temporarily, …
……MORE…..
'It's Day 4 and It's Already Happening': Rachel Maddow Sounds the Alarm on Trump's Science Gag Order
The MSNBC host warns the EPA has effectively been "brought to a halt."
Trump silences government scientists with gag orders
Employees at Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture are affected
Donald Trump stopping US government scientists from speaking out publicly is 'chilling’
The American Association for the Advancement of Science warns against 'censorship and intimidation’
Make America Gagged Again
Trump issues gag orders on science agencies.
USDA Scientists Have Been Put On Lockdown Under Trump
“Starting immediately and until further notice” the department’s main research division “will not release any public-facing documents,” according to an internal memo. UPDATE: The order was rescinded by the department on Tuesday.
According to an email sent Monday morning and obtained by BuzzFeed News, the department told staff — including some 2,000 scientists — at the agency’s main in-house research arm, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), to stop communicating with the public about taxpayer-funded work.
“Starting immediately and until further notice, ARS will not release any public-facing documents,” Sharon Drumm, chief of staff for ARS, wrote in a department-wide email shared with BuzzFeed News.
“This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds, and social media content,” she added.
Trump bans government scientists from sharing their work with the taxpayers who funded it
ATS 2005: U.S. Still Silencing Scientists
… "The pressure to alter scientific reports for political reasons has become pervasive at Fish and Wildlife offices around the country," says Lexi Shultz of the Union of Concerned Scientists. According to critics, the Bush administration routinely alters science to suit political objectives.
ATS 2006: Saving Public Access to Scientific Information
The Bush administration's 2007 budget cut the EPA Library Network's budget by 80 percent, and the EPA started shutting down libraries before Congress even approved the budget. Critics say this is another example of the Bush administration restricting public access to scientific information…
originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
originally posted by: UKTruth
Hopefully this means he is going to kill all the global warming fascism and start opening up the debate.
Time to bury Al Gore!
originally posted by: Rosinitiate
a reply to: queenofswords
Here's where I'm a bit lost.
If Trump (like Obama and Bush before) rely so much on executive action, than what good is congress and crafting legislation. Seems like we are getting closer and closer to dictatorship.
It's just weird that for decades you have this back and forth in congress and senate about bills. Now the order of the day is Executive Action. Granted our Congress and Senate is loaded with sleaze bags that are self-serving, but doesn't this present a double edged sword?
An executive order is an official document signed by the president that declares government policy. In an executive order, a president is giving instructions to government agencies and departments about how to operate in a certain area. An executive order is legally binding, and written into the official journal of the government, the Federal Register. Each executive order is numbered. Executive orders cannot reverse a law passed by Congress. Limited in scope, their sweep isn't as broad as a piece of legislation. President Trump can overturn any of President Obama's executive orders, just as Trump's successor can overturn anything he signs while in office.
Researchers who see the whole climate change/global warming theory as bogus and by no means a planet-ending crisis are hopeful that the incoming Trump Administration will allow their views to be heard. The Obama administration wanted to make it a criminal act to disagree with them — typical leftist attitude. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also banned skeptics.
Meanwhile, scientists have shown in a pilot project in Iceland that the purported climate-sensitive carbon dioxide they use to scare everyone can actually be safely stored underground. The CO2, in fact, becomes stone within a short period of time.
Hopefully, the Trump Administration will open this issue to real science instead of propaganda for tax hikes.
Martin Armstrong
Signing statements--official executive branch pronouncements made when the President signs a bill into law to assert his interpretation, raise any constitutional objections, and state his intentions regarding enforcement--are a manifestation of this phenomenon.1 Al-though signing statements originated in the Monroe Administration, (2) Presi-dents rarely used them as a policy tool before the mid-twentieth century. (3) Later, in the 1980s, signing statements became a staple of executive branch practice in the Reagan Administration and, since then, "have increasingly been utilized by Presidents to raise constitutional or interpretive objections to congressional enactments." (4) This phenomenon went largely unnoticed until the George W. Bush Administration. President Bush, while not deviating dramatically from his immediate predecessors in terms of the number of signing statements issued, challenged far more provisions of law with these statements, especially on constitutional grounds.
originally posted by: Rosinitiate
originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
originally posted by: UKTruth
Hopefully this means he is going to kill all the global warming fascism and start opening up the debate.
Time to bury Al Gore!
In snow!