Science and reason are up for one hell of a fight under the Trump administration. We now live in the Orwellian world of “alternative facts”, which are like facts, but bullshit. It’s surely only a matter of time before the Ministry of Truth is set up.

Right off the bat, controversial oil pipelines have been resurrected on the very same day Trump claimed to the automobile industry that he’s an “environmentalist.” References to climate change have been eradicated from the White House website, with orders for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to follow suit. Clean power plans have been scuttled, various scientific agencies are having their Twitter accounts censured, and scientific funding is being bled dry.

Now, as internal memos published by BuzzFeed have revealed, federal scientists were also briefly muzzled from speaking about their work with the press.

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.

Although still allowed to publish in scientific journals, any reference to their work in any other form would have been banned. News releases, photographs, infographics, fact sheets, and any social media content on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere would be prohibited in any form, according to the memos.

They did not explicitly reference President Trump or his new administration, but this is the only authority such a widespread gagging order could have originated from. However, at the time of writing, the administrator of the scientific wing of the USDA rescinded this muzzling order.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.

It’s worth noting that these agencies ramped up their investigations into climate change and environmental protection under the Obama administration. The climate change denial aspects of Trump and his cabinet has been extensively covered, so it comes as no surprise that they’re attempting to silence their communications to the public.

Worryingly, this is a tactic that has been recently seen in other democracies around the world, including in Canada (under the Harper administration) and right now in the UK.

Although many US governments have to some degree ordered scientists to keep quiet about certain research topics (particularly during a government changeover, as seen during the Bush-Obama transition) the speed at which the Trump administration is apparently seeking to muzzle America’s scientists is astonishing, to say the least.

“To our knowledge, there is not a precedent for large-scale communication freezes like this,” Gretchen Goldman, research director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told BuzzFeed News.

It’s difficult to completely ban scientists from researching on a particular topic. However, by preventing researchers from even talking about their work, they are clearly hoping the public will stop paying attention to the dangerously warming world and the increasingly decrepit environment around them.

Of course, scientists aren’t going to just stand by and let this happen. They are making it exceedingly clear, through protests, open letters, data salvaging, clever hashtags, and even renegade Twitter accounts, that they will not be silenced.

Ladies and gentlemen, fans of science and reason – welcome to the Resistance.

Raven wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 4:34am:


Raven wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 4:34am:



Quote:


The problem? The pipe-line will go through an injun reservation where the bulldozers will have their work cut out for them removing mountains of empty beer bottles to make room for the pipe-line ...   

Quote:


It's wonderful news that at last a realist is in the driver's seat who isn't going to pander to the multi-billion dollar Victimhood Industry that has grown up around the mythology of an anthropogenic Climate Change 'narrative'.

My only gripe against Trump so far is his anti-abortion stance.



Thank you Raven. Please keep us informed of further developments. 

I remember when the USA was a democracy.

Where are all the freedom of speech nuts when you need them ?

Isn't the freedom of speech a constitutional right in the USA ?

Does this mean that The Trump presidency have breached the US constitution ?

Rider wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 5:29am:



X 2

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 8:33am:


Trump is trying to hide valid scientific research - you guys would support anything he does in multiple apparently.

This is a disgrace in any terms.

Raven wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 4:34am:



You mean they should only go through PR people like in any large organisation? How terrible. Imagine if a cleaner from tha ATO gave an interview on practises.

Raven wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 4:34am:



Not true. They have been archived under Obama as previous things have been posted under their particular Presidents.

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/energy/climate-change

So Buzzfeed is a trusted source right?

lee wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 10:23am:


Stop doing a peccahead and playing the pedantry game. Raven is right. Archives are not the same as the actual current website.

longweekend58 wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 11:01am:



And you don't think disgruntled employees would issue politically massaged messages?

lee wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 12:11pm:


okay then... so moving to australia, you think absolutely no twitter, press releases, emails or any communication outside of any government department should be permitted until it has been approved by the Prime Ministers Department.

How do you think that would work out? I can tell you now what next months unemployment figure will be  3.0%. And our trade figures? MAGNIFICENT. Crime will be down and the budget will be in surplus.

And for all you know - or CAN know - that's the truth.

lee wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 2:22pm:


nothing funny about it at all, trumpoid.

You and pecca should go on a date and complain endlessly and pointlessly about the meaning of the word 'date'.

lee wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 5:40pm:


And you could convince yourself that being such an anti-environmentalist that he wants to close the EPA is even a sane policy. Can you really support such idiocy regardless of 'cripple' or 'shut it down'? You are purposely avoiding the question while laughingly denying your absolute and clearly unquestioning support for Trumpism and its dangerous actions.

Why do conservatives not believe any science produced since the 1950's that isn't about weaponry ?

lee wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 5:51pm:



you simply MUST be peccahead out of drag. Who else would try and debate the apparent difference between "close the EPA' and 'shut down the EPA'

Of course, a simple thing to do would be to say that you oppose the removal or significant degradation of environmental protections. You wont tho. Your King Trump has told you what to think.

lee wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 5:55pm:


Have a look at the topic it's fairly obvious.

Dnarever wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 6:10pm:



You do know the EPA doesn't do Climate Science? It gets its information from NOAA, GISS, NASA etc and then repeats it. So why the screams?

lee wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 6:42pm:


I didn't mention the EPA  however they are heavily involved in scientific research , you just made that one up in the hope that nobody would really know.

Quote:

Dnarever wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 6:51pm:


Now show me in the quote where they say Climate Research?

https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-air-climate-and-energy-research-program

Quote:

"EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) is a leader in the science of human health and ecological risk assessment, a robust scientific process used to determine how pollutants or other stressors may impact human health and the environment. "

https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-national-center-environmental-assessment-ncea

Not climate science

"EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) supports funding for high-quality research by the nation's leading scientists and engineers that will improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues. "

https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-national-center-environmental-research-ncer

Same.

Dnarever wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 7:38pm:


Climate science.

Dnarever wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 7:38pm:


Thank you for demonstrating the incredible over reach of bureaucracy. 

It will be awesome to witness it all shutting down and getting the hell out of the way.

Swamp draining has commenced.

longweekend58 wrote on Jan 26^th, 2017 at 8:35pm:


Not my fault if you go all girly hysterical. You make the claims and can't back them up.

Nor your offsider with the video.

Try posting facts instead hysterical Girls' Own pulp fiction.