“Democrats aren’t blameless … I went on a rant, didn’t I?” – Obama
Demise of Democracy
“An executive order issued by US President Donald Trump has sown confusion and fear among government scientists in the country. Announced by the White House on 21 October, the order creates a job category for government workers in “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating” roles. The Trump administration has described the order as a way to remove poorly performing employees from their jobs. Researchers fear that the directive could make firing some agency scientists and hiring others for political reasons easier.” – Nature Monday 2 November 2020.
Trumps attack on the independence of the US public service continues – see Nature Briefing article below. This appears to be a deliberate strategy to get rid of scientists in particular who attempt to offer unbiased information and analysis to government on environmental issues.
Is the same happening or likely to happen in Australia? Certainly we have seen key director generals and key policy advisors to government all come from the fossil fuel industry to help write government energy/climate policy. The revolving door as it is called.
See this recent update https://www.michaelwest.com.au/fossil-fuel-gaslighting-accept-climate-change-but-undermine-action/
Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in the national polls for the presidential election. The result is not clear until one of the candidates concedes defeat.
But that doesn’t guarantee the Democratic candidate victory. Hillary Clinton also had a clear lead over Trump in the polls for almost the entire 2016 campaign. She ended up losing in the electoral college.
Because the presidential voting system assigns each state a number of electoral college votes, which go to the state’s victor regardless of the margin of victory (with the exception of Nebraska and Maine), a handful of swing states will probably decide the election and be targeted heavily by campaigners.
Obama explains the gerrymander better than most in this YouTube response to a student journalist’s question:
Obama authorised more extra-judicial killings than any other President.
Al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a U.S. drone strike without the rights of due process being afforded. President Barack Obama ordered the strike which was effectively ordering the execution of a U.S. citizen without a trial.
A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau.
The American Civil Liberties Union tried to bring a case against the government, challenging its right to kill US citizens at will. That case was struck down. And rumours persist that a small number of other US citizens have also been approved for assassination – a subject on which the government remains silent.
| Pakistan | Yemen | Somalia | Afghanistan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strikes | 3 | 38 | 14 | 1071 |
| Total people reported killed | 11-12 | 147-203 | 204-292 | 1389-1597 |
| Civilians reported killed | 1 | 0 | 3-5 | 65-101 |
Notes on the data: The Bureau is not logging strikes in active battlefields except Afghanistan; strikes in Syria, Iraq and Libya are not included in this data. To see data for those countries, visit Airwars.org.
– Bureau of Investigative Journalism