From Wiki (there are other lists available)
Consolidated list by President
President Total Orders Order Number Range
George H. W. Bush 166 12668 - 12833
William J. Clinton 364 12834 - 13197
George W. Bush 291 13198 - 13488
Barack Obama 235 13489 - 13723…
40 more rows, 3 more columns
The orders you list pre-date George Bush senior.
Rumours abound - everywhere.
Sorry Peter, but it’s your geopolitical knowledge that is at best faulty. And as for Obama’s executive orders listed above, again sorry, but those numbers come from the early 1960’s (Cuban missile crisis times), and are probably re-introductions of orders from earlier times of crisis (WWII?) please get your facts right. I have no doubt that most, if not all governments including our own have their own set of emergency powers for times of crisis, quite sensible really if you look at it logically! You are quite entitled to be as anti-US as you like but get the facts right. You say that you’re not biased but whereas you can blame the US and CIA for just about everything you seem quite prepared to believe the the USSR/Russian Federation and the KGB and it’s successor have clean hands, come on, what one is doing for their side the other is doing for theirs, it’s called “war by proxy” as has been going on for decades!
After several phone calls I had to make (MOT - Medical appointments - renew road tax - everything comes at once) I was about to same the same thing - Cuban missile crisis, before that, and afterwards, the cold war. All grounds for a National Emergency status in the USA. As Countryboy says, no doubt similar orders exist elsewhere in the Western World.
Saudi Arabia, yes I’m painfully aware of who, what and when they do what they do, Sunnis against Shia throughout the middle east - and elsewhere. Unfortunately a large bulk of wealth exists in that country, and that becomes a burden others have to carry, for investment, finance and subsidising arms industries. I totally agree we should sort that out, but many UK, European - and American jobs are in the balance, and while they keep sticking orders in, who wants to be responsible for creating thousands of workers on the dole? Money is a two edged sword, without it - no work; with it - war in the middle east.
Yes - it’s immoral, but so is putting workers on the dole, either way it’s a no-win situation. Obama made reference to the middle east - and Saudi in his speech, along with all then other countries he had a go at.
While the CIA may be responsible for recent uprisings (not proven, but proof is withheld) I imagine it was with the aim of introducing democracy, and removing autocratic rule. That in itself is also something to think about, the Middle east is divided in three ways - religious, tribal conflict and disagreement, whereas previous autocrats delivered an authoritarian peace - of a sort, usually Baathist party inspired.
Shias were the underdogs. That brew has been festering for many years, and like any brew, would either dry up (all Shia’s dead or incarcerated) or break into conflict. If you stick your finger in that pot - you’re gonna get scalded. S*** happens!
As here - and prominent in America, Saudi has fingers in the pie within the seats of power, and not much Obama or any other stand alone president can do about it, but my take on that speech was him finally saying what was really on his mind, and not what congress and the senate wanted to hear. (Big grins from the white house staff at the UN) Eight years of frustration finally came through, and it brought tears to my eyes, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I also grinned at world criticisms he made.
He didn’t stop at the middle east either, anywhere in the world where he sees suppression, political imprisonment, nuclear threats, tribal and national conflict and even disagreement came into it. The Jewish lobby in both US political houses were probably squirming too, as he outlined what was wrong between Palestine and Israel. It was the most truthful and realistic summing of the world status as he (and I) see it, and can only be described as his last shot, so politeness and diplomacy went out the window. As I said to start with, there are things he said about America which don’t hold true - like inequality between black/brown/white for example, but you can’t say he hasn’t tried to balance the scales on those issues. In the last few days, two negroes have been shot dead in parts of America and both apparently totally innocent - despite police claims to the contrary. So civil rights has a long way to go yet. Blame Obama? No - I blame red neck yanks. We’ve got our own red necks here too. So has France, Germany and other European countries, which we term ‘Fascism’ - erroneously IMHO. Yobbos are yobbos - wherever. We aren’t permitted to say “Call a ‘shovel’ (O/K word) a shovel” anymore - - - -
Back to the original point; was this a good speech or not? It was ok; there was some shakey grasp of history, somne twisting of the facts, som exagerration, delivered well. All US Presidents get to do a final UN speech, and some of them, the 2-termers, even know its their last one. So for those 2-termers, their speech writers have 4 years to work on it.Most of these speeches are much the same; reflect on the past, consider the present, look to the future, end on an optimistic note, blanks to be filled in closer to the time. As a speech, it might as well have been directed at an empty room, moreso than on most occasions. Usually, assembled heads of state aren’t all that interested in what a departing head of state has to say; his word matter slittle. Sometimes it might matter a little if his successor is likely to continue his foreign policies (the UN Assembly doesn’t care about US domestic policies). But in this election, both candidates effectively repudiate current US policy.Was his speech directed at the world? I doubt it. Its directed at history. History will judge this President, like previous ones. President Carter was considered at one time the worst 20th Century President, but time has been kind to him.Its premature to fully judge Obama, and indeed, Bush.
So, lets forensically rip the speech to shreds, because there were howlers.
There is still an effort to take away safe havens. 2 weeks ago, North Korea conducted nuclear tests, allowing the fitment of miniturised nuclear warheads to medium range missiles I doubt many countries will agree the Iranian nuclear issue is resolved.
Is Venezuela the new Cuba? And the new leader of Burma; she didn’t do much to stop the pogroms.
Powerful Nations make international law; international law is not made by weak nations.
Colonialism collapsed over a period of 20 years, ending 50 years ago. It didn’t herald an age of enlightenment and freedom, but heralded the rar of the gangster leader, which we are dealing with still. Ask how many of the former Soviet republics are democratic?
Well, never say never. Retiring British general pointing our remaining SAM systems could just about defend Whitehall from (specifically) Russian attack, but not much else.The seconds to midnight might just have moved a bit closer. Peaceful Union; Slovakia has promised that Brexit will be painful…
Whats remarkable about China is the collapse of its growth coinciding with a massive expansion of Chinese power projection…
The United States owes the UN $1.3 billion in arrears. This was after a 1999 deal for the US to cut its subs. Of the money owed, $700m will never be paid. This is on your wathc, Mr Obama.
Party political. He just spent time railing on about how terrible Communism was , But apparently that was in the minority after all. The far right believes in all sorts of things. The Amish believe in a life that is simpler, and free of outside contamination; are they part of this far right.
I suspect he thinks he is being clever here, with a swipe at Trump. Israelis might debate how effective their wall has been in improving the safety of its citizens.
This is drival. American Unions undermined themselves; whether it was Hoffa and the Teamsters doing deals with the mob. Or the UAW getting £70 an hour packages at GM. Anyone would think that American Unuionism is on its knees; the UAW continues to unionise now at the transplant factories.
This is his advice to the rest of the world; go ahead and copy what the West did, and be saddled with the same crippling social security debts as we have. Doesn’t sound like a new solution. Obama claiming this as his idea is a bit like Al Gore claiming he invented the Internet.
And nearly all of thee are white collar jobs at blue collar wages. New jobs in the US have been almost entirely graduate level, but with not of the salary premium graduates used to get. The result has been the collapse in the prospects of the ordinary working American; the abandoment of the industrial cities like Detroit, and probably explains the performance in the Primaries of Trump; he tapped a nerve certainly.
More drivel. Oligarch is a Russian term referring to people who became incredibly rich through the corruption of the public secotor, and who actively wield political power. But here he is equating any one who is wealthy with the corrupt and criminal. Fact; society doesn’t ask the wealthy to pay less. In countries with variable taxation rates, the wealthier you are, the higher your tax rate. Thats pretty universal; its another debate to say the 1%ers should pay even more. For the US, the top 1$ pay 24% of income taxes. The bottom 40% of earners contribute 4% of income tax revenues. Yhe rich do not pay less than me.
Can’t dispute that. But of the 13 years US forces have been battling and spending in Iraq, 8 of those have been under the orders of the CinC Obama. So for the last 8 years, was he admitting that he wasn’t particularly smart, or is it actually, life isn’t that simple.
Ok, for at least 25 years, the US has been actively incentivizing the research into green technologies and biotechnologies. In 1989, I had the opportunity to engage with and demonstrate to President Bush senior, a system our team in Tennessee had created to clean up slag heaps, using the power of bacteria. A Green Climate Fund, funded by US taxpayers, would not be, presumably, allowed to fund a Chinese company to develop a product to put Americans out of work. Obama displays a poor grasp of economics, or a stakly cold attitude to the world poor. So “market incentives” will be used to get companies to invent new things, all fully funded by the public purse. Market incentives means turning a profit, but making a profit includes giving the devices away to the poor. Oh no it doesn’t. It means selling them the devices, albeit at a discount.
No he doesn’t. In a true democracy, there is no place for a Parliament. In a true democracy, there is a Brexit-like referendum every week. Only the Greeks praticed true democracy 9they invented it), and it was a disaster.
And hopefully they are also listening to the young people asking for the opposite.The paradox of religious extremism in the Middle East is that the leadership are not conservative old men wishing for traditional ways, but much younger people, who actively call for repression, oppression and rigid confirmity. It is wrong to equate age with liberalism. Thats a Western conceit.
Kumbyah, give peace a chance, why can’t we all live together…
Er, yet to see a mossie pass through matter.
Hopefully what he doesn’t mean is giving those poorer countries better facilities for diagnosing viral outbreaks. Ebola occurs in sporadic outbreaks; its high mortlaity rate ensures that the disease is relativelty limited. If you spend billions setting up fancy labs in those countries, the next time those countries have an outbreak, you will find those lab abandoned, broken down. Those countries do not have the resources to keep occasionally operated facilities serviceable. The money is better spent on less headline grabbing issues. For those high mortality events, the US is better off reinforcing its mobile military medicine units, that can be easily deployed when needed. In Liberia, the US military set up shop in an abandoned biotechnology research institute; a facility set up no doubt by well meaning benefactors, but of utterly no use to Liberians,
Right at the start, he announced that extreme poverty had been dramatically reduced; this was presented as a “fact”. Surely, he should have been saying here, if his statement was true, keep up the good work, we are well on track…
Saz - I was waiting for your views, so thank you. However, I have to say you have been a bit flippant in places, presumably searching for facts to match the quote. Mossies don’t fly through walls - they fly over them. You goofed on that one.
You do make some forceful points though, which I accept, though wasn’t sure how your demo before G. Bush Snr contributed to the rest of that piece. What was his reaction, and what happened afterwards? You didn’t illustrate that at all.
You have made me think about the speech though, especially when you say “It’s standard end of term response from a retiring president, and his crew had 4 years to write it - without the blanks.” One question though - if you don’t know the ‘blanks’ how do you compose the sentence or the paragraph? You can’t envisage ‘things will be the same’ after four years, three, two or even one, these days, events happen overnight in this world we live in. As one example - if the attempted overnight putsch in Egypt had more support, we might have seen a completely different Egypt the next day. Or maybe not, we’ll never know. Good or bad - what’s the difference?, except things would change. As it stands, a lot of people have died for nothing. - To be continued - --.
Frankly - I’m dissapointed, I expected deeper analysis from you. - Sorry.
Yes I admit to employing somewhat hurried research. I do apologise for that but time constraints affect us all I’m afraid. As stated previously I hadn’t intended commenting further but you appear to be asking me to? Ok, then let’s examine the character of the man who’s speech so impressed you.
Employing the logic of your explanation above. Would it be fair to say that someone driving opposite the traffic flow on the motorway could therefore be considered to be merely deviating from what the highway code allows? Obama purports to be a constitutional lawyer remember, and America is a Constitutional Republic.
Employing semantics to assert that the constitution remains untouched while the individual freedoms and liberties assured therein are infringed won’t fly. The National Defence Authorisation Act signed by President Obama on the 31st December 2011 (note the timing) authorises the indefinite detention without trial or indictment of any US citizen designated as enemies by the executive - or in other words of anyone he wants. Isn’t that what those dictators he speaks of are supposed to be doing?
As Commander in Chief he is ultimately responsible for the deeds of the military. His administration has also authorised and introduced the ‘extra judicial killings’ of Americans by drone strike without the trial or due process guaranteed to them under the constitution. I do love these new ways of speaking about things don’t you? State sponsored assassination and murder has now become ‘extra judicial killing’ just as dead civilians consisting of innocent women and children are as you say neatly sanitized under the heading ‘collateral damage’, after heavy bombing has first ‘depopulated the area’ of course.
You rightly assert that killing innocent civilians is immoral, then go on to say that so is putting people on the dole. So, burning children to death with white phosphorus Vs putting munitions workers on the dole? That is a moral dilemma of sorts, although not of equal import I might suggest. Not for Obama however, he allows the sale of billions of dollars worth of weaponry to a dictatorial regime to use against its neighbour, then stands up and speaks to the UN of ending war! You can’t absolve him in all cases by simply stating that his hands were tied.
Obama’s televised crocodile tears over the deaths of gun victims are equally sickening. The record shows that at times where genuine compassion is required, Obama goes golfing.
Nobel peace prize winner Obama also oversaw Operation fast and furious. This was an initiative to illicitly supply thousands of automatic weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels, many of which have been used in subsequent murders.
As for the CIA using colour revolutions as a means of introducing democracy and removing autocratic rule, what is the selection criteria for the target nations do you imagine? Perhaps our great ally and sponsor of terrorism Saudi Arabia has slipped under their radar? Whereas Assad has been targeted ever since he refused to allow the Qatar-Turkey oil pipeline to traverse Syria.
No countryboy I have no such illusions. But this isn’t a post praising a speech given by Putin.
Anyway, as I said before I’ve no wish to comment further. This is a forum about MX5’s largely, and politics I think we can all agree is a dirty subject. I would like to say one last thing Gerryn, which is that you used the term ‘my argument’ in one of your replies. I do hope you don’t see this as an argument, it isn’t intended to be, I’m simply expressing my repulsion for the double standards and hypocrisy spouted by Obama in his speech. (Yes I did hear it ) and suggest that perhaps it isn’t only me that is hearing what they want to believe. I do applaud his stance on the Palestinian question however.
For a more in depth impression of his speech please follow the link below.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/lies-and-truth-obamas-un-general-assembly-speech-dissected/5480566
Regards,
Peter.
Merely an example that Obama did not invent Federal subsidy of projects to improve the environment. His reactiuon was positive, but really nothi9ng to do with your reaction tb Obama’s speech
You expect an awful lot of a microbiologst. I am now expected to share with you insights into Presidential speechwriters. The speech was pretty generic, touching upon predictable themes, embellished with recent ludicrous fears, i.e. Zika. You make a speech to the UN; its bound to reflect on the establishment of the UN, on international bodies. International Law will crop up, as will people. That, after all, is what the UN is all about; war, law and people. Add in empty talk about the environment (and I remind you, way back, I cut my teeth in global climate control science, before moving into defence, and latterly healthcare economics)
Egypt? The 2013 coup was completely successful. Maybe you mixed up muslim countries. By all accounts, the Turkey coup failed because some luckless squaddies were caught with the plans, after they got lost.
Why?
Because you have a better mind, and deeper insight than most of us morons.
And yes, I did confuse Egypt with Turkey, much the same way as Peter (above) described Obama “killing thousands of Americans by drone strikes” - We all make mistakes, but you rarely do.
However the lesson learned is “Don’t believe everything your hear” - even if I like the guy. I’m also curious - does he wear a wireless earpiece, and those pauses between phrases are waiting for the next prompt? He spoke for some length of time, and apparently - as I said to start with, no visible signs of notes, or of a prompter. He rarely looked directly at the camera, so no prompter there?
I wasn’t aware that I’d said ‘Americans’ Gerryn. I think I said ‘innocent civillians’ which is correct. The mistake I made was in referring to the wrong executive orders I believe. The killing of Americans via drone strike is just one example of the Obama administrations breaches of the United States Constitution:
The Fifth Amendment reads in part, “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;”
Clearly Obama’s signing of the NDAA act authorising indefinite imprisonment without due process breaches this. As does the concept of ‘Extra judicial killing’.
Just as the policy of Civil Asset Forfeiture breaches the 4th amendment of the constitution which reads;
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The Civil Asset Forfeiture law is now massively abused by law enforcement agencies in a bid to police for profit.
In short, as President Obama has knowingly and repeatedly violated the very principles America is founded upon. My point was always that while Obama says one thing very eloquently in public, he represents, and indeed carries out something entirely different behind the scenes. His apparent eloquence allows him to do so while still appearing credible. I posted initially as I was intrigued by your take on Obama’s speech, and wondered how we could both watch the same speech yet arrive at such differing viewpoints on it.
In content his speech was pushing for more globalisation, which means more corporatism, less sovereign democracy, and greater collectivism. He was advocating a system of global communitarianism (aka Communism) which will be enforced under agenda 2030. Those unwilling to give up their sovereignty will be ‘addressed’ accordingly!
The rest of his concerns regarding world peace and the prevention of injustice rang totally hollow given what his administration has actually been responsible for over the past eight years. Even his token comment on Palestine was made immediately after granting Israel 38 Billion dollars in aid, which given their track record may well be used to steal more Palestinian land and destroy more Palestinians. Finally, yes I believe his every word is communicated to him by some means even if it appears not to be. If you watch the speech from a different camera angle you can clearly see the teleprompters in front of him. Like Tony Blair, he is in my opinion a charlatan Gerryn, a snake oil salesman, which is why I felt the need to wade in as I don’t like to see good faith abused or good men hoodwinked.
Regards,
Peter.
Unfortunately the Middle East has been the scene of national, ethnic, tribal and religious turmoil and violence for many hundreds of years. Through the times of the Ottoman Empire, the British and French Mandates after WWI and the emergence of the current nation states after WWII, and I fear long into the future. It will take the good will of every person in every category to sort it all out, one man and one country no matter how powerful can do it on their own. So to blame one man who’s only been in power for 8 years for the whole mess and its continuation is, quite frankly utterly ridiculous!
I agree wholeheartedly with the condemnation of the killing of innocent civilians, but, like it or not there is a MORAL difference between killing them by design (President Assad) and by accident (President Obama). There seems to be one who sees Assad as a victim completely overlooking the fact that he and his father before him were murdering any of THEIR citizens who dared to oppose them, either in thought, word or deed. That person also seems to think that any Syrian who opposed/opposes those tyrants were/are nothing more than troublemakers working on the instigation of, and financed by the USA/CIA. They no doubt did/do get help from the West, certainly not from the Russians as they were/are supporting the Assad regime.
When you look at the history of the USA and its presidents some were good, some were bad, some were nondescript, a few were terrible and one or two were great. I think Obama fits in the “Good” category.
In four years time Obama should stand for president - Michelle Obama. A double whammy for the red-necks and racists, a BLACK WOMAN for president.
If I were a citizen of the USA she’d get my vote!
Peter-B,
I’ve heard of people bending over backwards to try and prove a point, but never of anyone standing on their head to do it till now.
!) Read your own previous post, regarding Obama ‘killing thousands of Americans’. It’s still there. While denying it subsequently, you then repeat it in your last post.
The American Constitution is binding on citizens of the United States, and applies only to them. It does NOT cover what they do outside of their country, except they are taught good manners and civilian decency.
While you - and I would argue that’s not always been observed in other countries, you should also remember our own laws don’t apply in other lands either, we are expected to follow the laws of the land we happen to be in. That’s NOT followed by many when abroad, be they British - or any UK citizen - or many other nationalities when overseas. Sharia law is different - it applies to all Muslims, and can be applied anywhere in the world where that law is accepted as final. It’s also more brutal, and because of that - effective. When you’ve had both hands chopped off, it’s rather difficult to steal, for a repeat offender.
White phosphorous - look it up (Wiki is a good source) Here’s one small part of it, while you used in your last post a comment taken from a photo from the Vietnam war. (Pre Obama)The result of Napalm B - not phosphorous. Here’s the info from Wiki:
World War I, the inter-war period and World War II[edit]
The British Army introduced the first factory-built WP grenades in late 1916. During World War I, white phosphorus mortar bombs, shells, rockets, and grenades were used extensively by American, Commonwealth, and, to a lesser extent, Japanese forces, in both smoke-generating and antipersonnel roles. The British military also used white phosphorus bombs against Kurdish villagers and Al-Habbaniyah in Al-Anbar province during the Great Iraqi Revolution of 1920.
In the interwar years, the U.S. Army trained using white phosphorus, by artillery shell and air bombardment.
In 1940, when the invasion of Britain seemed imminent, the phosphorus firm of Albright and Wilson suggested that the British government use a material similar to Fenian fire in several expedient incendiary weapons. The only one fielded was the Grenade, No. 76 or Special Incendiary Phosphorus grenade, which consisted of a glass bottle filled with a mixture similar to Fenian fire, plus some latex (see also Molotov cocktail, Greek fire). It came in two versions, one with a red cap intended to be thrown by hand, and a slightly stronger bottle with a green cap, intended to be launched from the Northover projector (a crude 2.5-inch black-powder grenade launcher). These were improvised anti-tank weapons, hastily fielded in 1940 when the British were awaiting a German invasion after losing the bulk of their modern armaments in the Dunkirk evacuation. Instructions on each crate of SIP grenades included the observations, among other things:
Store bombs (preferably in cases) in cool places, under water if possible.
Stringent precautions must be taken to avoid cracking bombs during handling.
Air burst of a white phosphorus bomb over the USS Alabama during a test exercise conducted by General Billy Mitchell, September 1921
These weapons were generally regarded as presenting a danger to their own operators and were never deployed in combat.[citation needed]
At the start of the Normandy campaign, 20% of American 81 mm mortar rounds were white phosphorus. At least five American Medal of Honor citations mention their recipients using white phosphorus grenades to clear enemy positions, and in the 1944 liberation of Cherbourg alone, a single U.S. mortar battalion, the 87th, fired 11,899 white phosphorus rounds into the city. The U.S. Army and Marines used white phosphorus shells in 107-mm (4.2 inch) mortars. White phosphorus was widely credited by Allied soldiers for breaking up German infantry attacks and creating havoc among enemy troop concentrations during the latter part of the war. US Sherman tanks carried a white phosphorus round intended for artillery spotting, but tank crews found it useful against German tanks. Unable to penetrate German Panther and Tiger tanks at long range, the phosphorus round would adhere to the tank, generate smoke, blind the optics, and often force the crew to abandon the tank or allow US tanks to close to a range where their armor piercing rounds were effective.
When American bombers raided Negros Island in the Philippines in 1945, there was a Japanese artillery use of phosphorus bombs during the air raid.[6]
Incendiary bombs were used extensively by both the Axis and Allied air forces against civilian populations and targets of military significance in civilian areas, including Chongqing, London, Coventry, Hamburg, Dresden, and Tokyo. Late in the war, some of these bombs used white phosphorus (about 1–200 grams) in place of magnesium as the igniter for their flammable mixtures. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians was banned by signatory countries in the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Protocol III. The United States signed Protocols I and II on 24 March 1995 under the Clinton Administration (and the amended article II on 24 May 1999) and later Protocols III, IV, and V, on 21 January 2009 under the Obama Administration.(End)
Finally, I’m not prepared to keep reminding of you of truth and reality, so further efforts on your point to defame Obama - or Americans per se WILL NOT Be replied to by me - you can take that as gospel, and bending my comments hasn’t been taken lightly either, but I have argued a point with sensible people and maybe not always won, but received acknowledgement that “I could be right”. If I’m wrong, then I’m the first to admit it, but history is my favourite subject, while not being a graduate I observe what goes on around me - near and far.
Finally - History, and the International Court of Justice may prosecute Obama at some point, if they feel he has committed any atrocity, or been party to it - Don’t hold your breath. There’s a long list before they get round to him - IF they do.
In your case, I wouldn’t volunteer to be a witness for the prosecution, if I were you quite frankly.