Friday, August 30, 2019

Giraffes Now Listed as Vulnerable

Trade in Giraffe body parts will now be strictly regulated since countries signatory to the CITES convention voted on August 22nd to list the single species Giraffa camelopardalis under Appendix II as vulnerable to extinction. [photo credit: Getty Images]  Giraffe numbers have fallen by 40% over the past thirty years in what the ICUN  has called a "silent extinction".  The listing does not ban the active trade in giraffe parts, but will provide critical measures of the trade, the first step towards halting it altogether.  Between 2005 and 2016 the United States alone recorded the importation of 39,000 giraffe specimens equivalent to 3,751 giraffes; around 95% were hunting trophies.  Trafficked parts include carved bones, tails, meat, and hides.

The NRDC and other conservation organizations sued to force the US Fish & Wildlife Service to consider listing the species as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  The Service has responded with a positive "ninety day finding", saying there is a substantial presentation of facts which may be a basis for protection under the Act.  The Service took an entire year and the lawsuit to finally respond to the original petition to list the species.  The fact that giraffes are a target for trophy hunters probably explains why the agency took so long to respond to the listing petition.  Il Douche and his son, MiniMe, are known to support trophy hunting.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Toontime: Showstopper

So now we know that Il Douche is a Kremlin asset; the latest example of which is his demand that Valdimir Putin be allowed to attend the next G7 meeting after his country was ousted from the group for annexing the Crimea.  MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell hinted a week or more ago that serial bankrupt Il Douche needed co-signers for his massive loans from Deutsche Bank.  Those co-signers are Russian oligarchs close to President Putin, O'Donnell reported last night.  According to his source at the bank, which has copies of Trump's tax returns, Il Douche pays little in income tax (no surprise) and needed co-signers for his loans.  Think of it as the spoiled rich kid asking Daddy von Deepockets to sign for a car loan. O'Donnell said on air, “If true, that [story] would explain every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin. If true, that would be a significant factor in Vladimir Putin’s publicly stated preference for presidential candidate Donald Trump over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.” An NBC national political analyst said the existence of Russian co-signers connected to the Kremlin would make impeachment proceedings "inevitable". The story has caused a social media storm overnight.  One post shows Paul Manafort, then campaign chairman, telling a reporter that Il Douche had no financial connection to Russian oligarchs.  NOT.

US Person has long suspected and predicted here at PNG that the Russian Connection always had a financial basis. But he is willing to allege more than an ostensibly legal co-guarantor relationship, something more sinister and potentially criminal: 'dirty' money from Russia found its way into Trumpillini's cash-short real estate and casino empire where it was washed clean. Robert Mueller's investigation did not go there. This allegation should be the subject of intense investigation by House committees, and if documented, would form the rock solid basis for an impeachment trial in the Senate. And according to O'Donnell, House investigators have said they are seeking information about Trump's loan applications in connection to a money-laundering inquiry.

credit: Steve Sack, Star Tribune
BC Idonwanna sez:  By the cojones!

Monday, August 26, 2019

The Amazon on Fire

Amazon river dolphin, credit: Getty Images
Update: Leaders at the G-7 summit in Biarritz agreed to $20 million aid package to fight the intentional fires ravaging the Amazon basin. Brazil recently admitted it does not have the resources to fight the fires. Significantly, the Tangerine Nightmare was not in the room when the agreement was reached to provide the aid. The United States was represented by a senior functionary. President Macron of France also announced that he had reached agreement in principle with Chile and other basin nations in attendance to replant cleared rain forest land and begin a program of long term conservation. Both President Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkle called the fire storm a global crisis and insisted it be on the agenda of the G-7 meeting.  After being blamed for encouraging clearances President Bolisonaro* said in a statement on national radio and television today that, “We will act strongly to control the fires in the Amazon,” For his part Il Douche announced he wants to hold the next summit at one of his golf resorts and invite his bosom buddy, Valdimir Putin.  Nothing like funneling official business cash into your private business empire.  Emoluments? Who needs stinking emoluments?


{22.08.19} If the climate news could not get any worse, it has.  The lungs of the planet, the Amazon rain forest, is ablaze. (20% of the Earth's oxygen supply is produce in the Amazon Basin) The sky of São Paulo turned black from smoke on August 19th. There has been an 85% increase in the number of fires over a year ago caused by rampant deforestation according to an Amazon research NGO.Brazil is now led by a nationalist president who is pro-development.  Norway, who has been contributing to Amazon forest preservation, suspended a $33.2 million payment. President Bolsonaro, displaying the same symptoms as the malignant narcissist who sacrilegiously calls himself "the chosen one", reacted by suggesting NGOs were behind the fires as retaliation. “There could be… a criminal action by these members of NGOs to call attention against me, against the government of Brazil,” he said according to a São Paulo newspaper. The rate of deforestation has surged during his seven month administration to more than three football pitches a minute. Trees are critically important to maintaining climate stability claim scientists.

Currently, there are almost 75,000 fires consuming acres of rain forest.
[map courtesy Global Forest Watch] These are not wildfires, but fires set by humans in the process of land clearance for ranching and agriculture.  Trees are cut and left to dry out, then fires are set to reduce the wood to ashes which enrich the soil allowing pasture to take the place of trees.  The ten municipalities  with the highest deforestation rates have the most fires data shows.  Usually slash and burn takes place before the rainy season which starts in late September. The fires are early this year, which indicates there could be more to come.

Brazil has gone backwards fast in terms of forest conservation. Successive governments have rolled back a conservation rate that reached an 80% reduction rate during the period 2006 to 2012. Last year the deforestation rate rose to a decade high 13%.  Bolsonaro has weakened conservation laws and effectively put environmental protection under his ministry of agriculture, headed by a farm lobbyist. His foreign minister has dismissed climate change as a "global Marxist plot".; He has criticized the forest protection agency, Ibama, and encouraged exploiters who want to cut down the forest for commercial purposes and land speculation. Brazil under Bolsonaro is fast becoming the new 'wild west'.

*Bolsonaro, a right-wing extremist, has a long track record of making abusive comments about women, black people and minorities. One of his most infamous remarks came during a heated debate in parliament with left-wing congresswoman Maria do Rosario in September 2014."I wouldn't rape you because you don't deserve it," Mr Bolsonaro told Ms Rosario.  Seems he has been taking lessons from Don Veto Trumpillini.  Bolsonaro wants international assistance to control the fires, but criticized foreign leaders for having "a misplaced colonial mindset in the 21st century".  Bolsonaro mindset is positively barbaric by comparison.  His willingness to sacrifice the Earth's greatest tropical rainforest to the detriment of the globe cannot be more apparent.  He ordered his environment minister, Ricardo Salles, to sack 21 of 27 senior officials at Ibama, the country’s environmental protection agency.  France and Ireland now opposed a trade deal with Brazil's trading bloc that was decades in the making because of the Brazilian president's complete lack of rational stewardship.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Fifty Years from Yasgur's Farm

I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes riding shotgun in the sky
turning into butterflies above our nation....

US Person was in high school when half a million young people--representatives of the anti-war generation--without the aid of social media gathered at a dairy farmstead in upstate New York to enjoy rock music, drugs, and free love. Woodstock was a "happening" in the parlance of the time that may never be repeated again. Fifty years on, the aspirations of that generation now in their "golden years" have not been realized, but the spirit lives on.

It is highly appropriate that there is now political movement to make American society more equitable. Unlike fifty years ago, the movement has gained much political credibility as the masses become more aware of the gross exploitation by the plutocratic class. The US is still at war, but on a smaller scale than in Southeast Asia, and establishment political leaders are at least negotiating a way out of Afghanistan after eighteen years of failure. The nascent ecological movement then did not face the existential threat of global climate change, but it altered our thinking enough to grasp what the scientists are warning us will happen if we do not change our dysfunctional consumption of the Earth's limited resources: "We have to get ourselves back to the garden," CSN&Y sang to the crowd. To allow the movement to be co-opted by the corporatists as happened to the Populist Movement more than a century ago would be a betrayal of the promise of Woodstock. We can still turn the bombers into butterflies if we rock on!

Friday, August 23, 2019

"Toontime: The Chosen One?

credit: Ed Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune
BC Idonwanna sez:  He come from Greenland!

Besides his delusional self image, Trump is prone to issuing fiats.  The latest being ordering "our great companies" to "immediately look for alternatives" to China in his tit for tat trade war. China slapped a new tariff of 5 to 10% on $75 billion of US imports this week; Wall Street responded by dropping over 600 points. His reelection chances are fast becoming chop suey, although Il Douche dismisses recession woes saying, "I always find a way to win."

credit: Matt Davies, Newsday
Wackydoodle sez: Can't have Whitest House neither!

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Chairman Nadler has asked four committees of the House to share information they obtain to aid his committee's impeachment inquiry.  His letter--addressed to the leaders of the House Intelligence, Financial Services, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs panels--appears to be a direct response to objections from regime lawyers that the House Intelligence and Finance committees may not use impeachment as a grounds for justifying their requests for the 'Chosen One's' personal financial information held by Deutsche Bank and Capital One.  Under the Constitution, the Judiciary Committee alone has the power to recommend articles of impeachment.  Mr. Nadler has represented in court that his committee is conducting an impeachment inquiry without holding a formal committee vote on that step.  Well over a majority of the Democratic House caucus now publicly supports opening an impeachment inquiry of Il Douche.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Video: Gaming the System

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and professor of public policy at UC Berkeley has produced a series of informative videos on the grossly unequal economy of 'Merica. In this one he explains with the aid of some quick drawing how CEO's game the system to rake in grossly unfair amounts of income compared to the average worker:

 

Note bene: "In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries". Daniel 11:21

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

COTW: Signs of the Times

This chart comes to PNG courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See also, John 4:48.
 

Saturday, August 17, 2019

'Toontime: Trump the Destroyer

credit: Horsey, Seattle Times
BC Idonwanna: Animal species not rich!
Iowans, bless their bucolic souls, may not want the "Prezdent" impeached, but that does not mean he does not deserve to be held accountable. A majority of 'Mercans did not want "Tricky Dick" Nixon impeached, either. The Judiciary Committee is coming back from recess early to consider gun legislation, which it surely should.  Bottom line there, Mr. Nadler, is reenact the assault weapons ban and start from there.  It makes absolutely no sense for giving a convicted felon the means to stand off police for eight hours in Philadelphia with one hundred fired rounds.  But that urgent policy matter should not divert the committee from an equally urgent task: impeaching Il Douche.

The House Intelligence committee, which did not exist during Watergate, has an important role to play in filling out the bill of particulars against the disloyal occupant of the Very White House.  This impeachment inquiry is different from the one over forty years ago because there is a foreign actor involved.  The Intelligence Committee, with its greater access to intelligence information, can aid the Judiciary Committee in its deliberations.  Intelligence and counter-intelligence information cannot be publicly revealed, at least short of a vote on Articles of Impeachment and a trial in the Senate. The full House would have to vote on declassification in the public's interest.

Reportedly Chairman Adam Schiff,  who prosecuted the only convicted FBI agent for espionage, has agreed to support the impeachment inquiry and has suggested approaches to dealing with the unique circumstances of Trump's Moscow Tower project.  Many observers, including US Person, think that Trumpilini's incongruous relations with the Kremlin during his campaign and after are motivated by personal financial pressures, or even worse, the Russian possession of kompromat with which they can leverage favorable treatment from the Trumpillini regime.

So far Chairman Schiff has remained aligned with Nancy Pelosi's refusal to begin formal impeachment proceedings.  However, his willingness to cooperate with the current inquiry, formal or not, may signal a shift in his thinking.  Significantly the Chairman told reporters that, “If the [subpoena] litigation takes too long — that is, if they are able to legally string this out too long — we will have to make a judgment about whether to go forward with articles of impeachment, even in the absence of being able to bring these witnesses in and obtain these documents, because the obstruction of Congress itself will have risen to that level."  Be sure to include this form of obstruction as one of the several articles of impeachment, Chairman Nadler.  If this 'high crime' was good enough for Dick, its good enough for Il Douche.

credit: Sean Delonas
Wackydoodle sez: He's emotionally unstable!

Friday, August 16, 2019

Fighting the Good Fight

an endangered cactus species
One question US Person was consistently asked when he lived overseas was: why are Americans so litigious?  The short answer is because "they can", but a less flippant answer is provided by the horrendous example of the current regime.  You may have read that Il Douche is gutting the Endangered Species Act by including, for the first time, monetary considerations when deciding weather to list a species under the Act for protection.  This obviously pro-development rule change is contrary to the express provisions of the Act itself.  Jamie Rappaport Clark, former head of the Fish & Wildlife Service and now head of Defenders of Wildlife said the changes will definitely make it harder to designate critical habitat; “This effort to gut protections for endangered and threatened species has the same two features of most Trump administration actions: It’s a gift to industry, and it’s illegal"  The conservation advocacy group Earthjustice as already said it will see the regime in court.  Bad law makes litigation a necessity. Despite being passed in 1973 with strong bi-partisan support, the Act has lately become the favorite target of pro-exploitation conservatives--one indication of the law's effectiveness in protecting species on the path to extinction at the hands of man.

The regime is being sued every ten days on average by National Resources Defense Counsel.  The organization has amassed an impressive win record: of forty-seven cases resolved so far, NRDC has lost only three. Some of the landmark wins for Earth:
  • a federal appeals court reversed the approval of twenty-five drilling permits issued by the BLM in the Greater Chaco region, a landscape considered sacred to native Americans;
  • upheld the permanent ban on offshore drilling against the regime's effort to begin drilling in the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic coastal zone;
  • forced the government to consider protection of giraffes under the Endangered Species Act.  Giraffe populations in Africa have declined by 40% in the last thirty years.  The US is a major importer of giraffe carcasses and bone;
  • forced the National Marine Fisheries Service to grant protection to the highly endangered Bryde's whale in the Gulf of Mexico.  An estimated 22% of the population was exterminated by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  Only thirty-three of these whales remain;
  • a federal district court stopped an effort to eliminate rules insuring fossil fuel companies paid a fair amount of royalties for operating on federal land. The "valuation rule" was repealed by the regime with no logical justification other than the bare claim that it was “burdensome” to the fossil fuel industry!
So, in order to minimize their extremist agenda of planetary destruction, conservation organizations must keep suing.  That is just the way it is in Trumpilini's 'Merica.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

A Cure for Ebola?

The latest Ebola outbreak in the Congo may be ended soon as a two new treatments have been developed in the decades long fight against the disease.  The antibody-based treatments are working so well that it will be distributed to all Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Scientists said Monday that there is a 90% recovery rate for treated individuals.  The effectiveness offers hope to people infected with the high-mortality virus that causes hemorrhagic fever.  The disease has haunted the African continent for forty years; fear and mistrust have been major obstacles to treating the disease.  In eastern Congo, which has been racked by civil unrest, rumors have spread that the disease is a myth, or that treatment teams are engaged in witchcraft to steal "precious bodily fluids" or body parts.  The latest outbreak in the Congo has infected 2800 known patients, of which 1800 have died. This outbreak is the worst of the ten that Congo has endured.

The treatments are cocktails of monoclonal antibodies infused intravenously into a patient.  The antibodies are created in the laboratory and attach themselves to the virus, preventing it from invading a cell and turning it into a zombie, producing more viruses.  One of the cocktails is produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of Tarrytown, N.Y. and the other by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, a Miami company. Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, joined Dr. Fauci and Dr. Ryan, in announcing the trial results.  Both drugs will be produced to insure a supply if one source is disrupted.

Dr. Muyembe is credited with pioneering work that led to today's effective antibody treatments.  Decades ago he used survivor's blood serum containing antibodies to save dying patients.  Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases called Dr. Muyembe, a "true hero" who has been fighting the disease since 1976 when it first appeared in what was then Zaire.  When contacted about the new treatments based on his research, he said he was "a little sentimental" because he had been waiting for this moment for a long time, but he is "very happy" that a cure has finally been developed.

Regeneron is offering its drug for free based on "compassionate use" according a company spokesperson.  A price for the drug has not been established. Despite the existence of an effective treatment, the outbreak has spiraled out of control due to the adverse political circumstances in the region.  The State Department prohibited Americans from working in the area due to security concerns.  DRG's disease response has been hampered by yet another power struggle within the government. Dr. Muyembi is now heading a panel of experts who control of the government's disease response, and is making efforts to win the trust of residents by offering food, routine medical care, and vaccines against other diseases, like measles.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

COTW: Changing the Face of the Earth

This graphic shows how man has radically impacted the Earth.  US Person notes how little of the surface remains in a natural state (16%).  Industrial agriculture consume most of the planet's surface, producing large amounts of heat trapping gases.  Rice production, on which most of the world's population depends, produces a third of carbon dioxide emissions.  Worse still is the West's dependence on meat production that produces large amount of methane that traps ten times more heat the carbon dioxide.  Obviously not a sustainable business model.

.
The charts come from a massive report by the Intergovernmental Climate Change Panel.  The Panel's report makes it perfectly clear that the way in which in man uses the Earth's surface has to change drastically.  Sustainable agriculture must replace industrialized production units, and more land (~33%) has to be set aside untouched if the worse effects of climate change are to be avoided.  Since the 1960's there is nearly an eight-fold increase in the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, and an unprecedented loss of biodiversity. The artificial Anthropocene Era may prove to be as disastrous for the human species as the Cretaceous asteroid impact was for the dinosaurs.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Social Dinosaurs

credit:G. Funston
Dinosaurs are still with us, the archetypal survivors.  Small feathered dinosaurs survived the apocalypse of asteroid impact and catastrophic climate change.  We should be so lucky.  More fossil evidence of the evolutionary connection between modern bird species and dinosaurs has come to light in central Asia, where Mongolian custom seized a very unusual fossil specimen in 2006. [photo].  A vertebrate paleontologist, Fredrico Fanti, at the University of Bologna placed the age of the fossil at 70 million years, and its location in the Gobi Desert, probably the Goblin Tsav site.


credit:M Skrepnick
What makes this seemingly indecipherable jumble of bones special is it represents the first fossil evidence of dinosaurs roosting together like modern birds. [color diagram above] Birds and bats roost in groups to regulate their body temperature while they sleep.  These three oviraptorids from the Cretaceous were young, sleeping close together, perhaps for warmth when they perished. Two of the dinosaurs, more complete than the third, are in a crouched position with their bellies on the ground and their necks extended over their back.  This position is similar to the pose of ostriches and emus when they are in deep sleep.  These are a new species of oviraptorids, which walked upright on two legs and had a crest on their head similar to the cassowary. [artist's impression]  According to the size of the thigh bone they weighed about 45 kg each.  A handful of previous fossil finds catch dinosaurs sleeping when they died, but this fossil is the first to capture a group roosting, suggesting a complex social life. The trio “clearly had a quite close bond”, since they died touching, a researcher says. Oviraptorids browsed for food in groups and probably flashed their crests at rivals or potential mates.

Friday, August 09, 2019

'Toontime: Hater-in-Chief

credit: Steve Sack, Star Tribune
BC Idonwanna sez: Put dog whistle on shopping list!
By now the 'Merican public is up to speed on the neurotic they put in the Very White House.  It is not pretty: Il Douche exhibits all the classic markers of a malignant narcissist.  Perhaps his corporate enablers are coming around to this shared opinion since they are now complying with the subpoenas issued by the House committees investigating his finances and Russian connections.

The Very White House is still fighting on all fronts however. Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-NY) authorized a lawsuit on Wednesday to enforce the subpoena issued to former White House counsel Don McGahn for his testimony. Committee lawyers called McGahn's testimony "critical", and that he is the "most important fact witness" to Il Douche's obstruction of justice detailed by Robert Mueller in his report. One committee lawyer compared McGahn to John Dean, former White House Counsel under Richard Nixon. One big difference: Dean complied with the Judiciary Committee's demands for his testimony that implicated the president and the attorney general. (He was granted use immunity.) McGahn has refused to comply saying through his attorney that he is obeying  his former employer's order not to divulge any communications on the grounds of "absolute immunity". Committee counsel say the Very White House has made up this concept and that no such immunity exists under law. The committee has already obtained documents subpoenaed from McGahn, but his testimony is what they want to provide favorable optics for continuing their investigation of grounds for impeaching Il Douche. Mr. Nadler told a CNN interviewer that, “We are investigating all the evidence, we're gathering the evidence. And we will at the conclusion of this — hopefully by the end of the year — vote to vote articles of impeachment to the House floor. Or we won’t. That’s a decision that we’ll have to make. But that’s exactly the process we’re in right now.” A Nancy Pelosi spokeswoman also said there’s no daylight between the Speaker and the committee leaders when it comes to executive oversight. Really? US Person can only hope.

credit: Steve Sack, Star Tribune
Wackydoodle sez: Told y'all we're the exceptional country!

Thursday, August 08, 2019

A Real 'Infestation': Asian Carp

Silver carp in Fox River, USF&WS
Asian carp are an invasive species that voraciously eat the food native fish on which native fish depend. They infest the Illinois River and its tributaries [photo] and are moving towards the Great Lakes. The species that can grow to 100 lbs was originally imported to control algae in southern fish farms and waste treatment plants. They escaped into the Mississippi River basin.[video] A century ago, Chicago rerouted its sewage into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to avoid dumping it into Lake Michigan. The canal has proved to be a link between the infested drainage and the lower Great Lakes. Since 2010, 5.5 million pounds of carp have been pulled from the Illinois River, which researchers say has the highest concentration of silver carp on the planet. A recent study found that the invasive fish could thrive in parts of Lake Michigan, posing a threat to the $7 billion fishing industry. Conservationists were alarmed when an adult, 8 pound silver carp was caught past electric barriers in the Calumet River just nine miles from the Lake. Five states unsuccessfully sued the Corp to sever the link between the lake and the Mississippi Basin.


The regime suppressed a report from the Army Corps of Engineers for months in 2017 that contains a plan to stop the invasion at the Brandon Roads Dam on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, IL. The report was supposed to be released February 28th but sixteen Repugnants funded by the barge industry lobby group, American Waterways Operators, asked the White House to block the plan until a new head of the Corps is confirmed.  No one has been nominated for the position. It was finally released after a vote on a bill to force its release by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The barge operators are concerned that new barriers will "disrupt commercial activity". The lobby gave $108,500 to House representatives that voted in June against an appropriations bill to fund preliminary work on new barriers. That bill will now go to the Senate, where the industry PAC has invested $50,500. The plan was original estimated to cost $275 million, but is now projected to cost as much as $832 million

Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Was Sirhan the Real 'Manchurian Candidate?"

Classic film buffs know the taught 1962 thriller by director John Frankenheimer and featuring a surprisingly good performance by Frank Sinatra. The film depicts a Korean War buddy of Sinatra's character brainwashed by dirty commies to assassinate a presidential candidate on command. His psychic trigger is the Queen of Hearts. The film is another case of art imitating life because the CIA actually did extensive research after the Korean War into mind control using hypnosis and psychotropic drugs like LSD. At one point its program, known by the code name, MKULTRA*, involved 44 universities doing research into various aspects of brainwashing.  The agency's interest was prompted by the mistreatment of American POWs by North Korea.  95% of the GIs that were brainwashed reverted to their normal personalities with a few weeks of release, but 5% did not. It was that small group the CIA wanted to understand, potentially duplicate, and use as agents in the Cold War.

Sirhan B. Sirhan, the convicted assassin of RFK, has been in jail for fifty years; his death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972. His parole has been regularly rejected. A reason offered by the parole board is he “did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime”. To this day Sirhan claims he cannot remember anything of the events at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He does not deny being in the kitchen the day that Kennedy declared victory in the California primary. His legal appeals are exhausted. In January 2018 Robert Kennedy Jr. visited Sirhan in prison after reviewing the legal and forensic documents concerning his father's murder. He spent 3 hours with Sirhan; he did discuss what was said, but he came away with the conviction that the investigation of his father's death should be reopened. His sister, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, agrees. The siblings join Paul Schrade, a union supporter of JFK who was shot in the forehead as he walked behind Bobby, calling for the case to be reinvestigated. Schrade has been attempting to convince authorities to reopen JFK's murder since 1974; he thinks there had to be a second shooter.  He summarized his 2016 parole hearing testimony as, “while Sirhan was standing in front of Bob Kennedy and his shots were creating a distraction, the other shooter secretly fired at the senator from behind…”

So why would two of Bobby's children be willing to revisit the horrendous events of June 5, 1968? There are a few inconvenient facts concerning their father's murder in the hotel's kitchen. Today, audio evidence exists of thirteen shots. Sirhan's pistol, a .22 Ivers-Johnson revolver only contains eight cartridges. Sirhan was subdued by onlookers with that gun in his hand. No witnesses saw him reload or fire another gun; nor did he have time to do so. Bobby was fatally shot at very close range; powder burns were found embedded behind Kennedy's right ear by the LA coroner. Sirhan was standing in front of Bobby as he walked through the kitchen on his way to a press conference; eye-witnesses (Uecker, Hamil, Romero) say Sirhan was not close enough to shoot RFK from behind at point blank range. The two bullets found in Kennedy's body and five in surrounding victims could not all be matched to Sirhan's pistol. (Exhibit 55). In fact, an internal LA police document concluded that a bullet in Kennedy did not match a bullet found in a wounded bystander. (Weisel, Exhibit 54) The LAPD could not account for two bullet holes found in a door frame at the scene; the door frame was later removed as were two ceiling tiles. These facts are derived from the award-winning documentary, The Second Gun.>

Sirhan admitted his guilt on instructions from his attorney at the time of trial. Kennedy Jr told interviewers that Sirhan's trial was actually a penalty phase hearing--guilt or innocence was not contested. So the possibility of more than one assassin, or that Sirhan was acting under some kind of coercion that would have mitigated his guilt, was never tried. The debate rages to this day. More recently, Sirhan's attorneys have put forward the theory that Sirhan was acting under psychic compulsion induced by hypnosis and drugs. He was examined several times over eleven years by a Harvard psychiatrist, a prominent expert on trauma and hypnosis, Dr. Daniel Brown.

Dr. Brown says Sirhan is an excellent subject for hypnosis, being complaint and very open to suggestion. He declared in a parole board filing, "Mr. Sirhan is one of the most hypnotizable individuals I have ever met..." Brown claims to have made a startling discovery while Sirhan was in a somnambulent state. Upon a trigger command Sirhan would assume what the doctor calls "range mode", referring to the time Sirhan spent practicing with his pistol at gun ranges. He would mimic a pistol firing stance with hands extended in front of him as if gripping a pistol. This startling "range mode" was witnessed by Sirhan's attorney, Laurie Dusek. Sirhan would have no conscious memory of his actions upon awakening. During his trial, Sirhan's interrogation under hypnosis by Dr. Diamond was highly suggestive, but Sirhan continued to not remember his actions.

US Person finds the video describing Brown's evaluations of Sirhan very interesting: he describes how Sirhan got a job as a novice thoroughbred exercise jockey; how he dabbled in self-hypnosis; his fateful fall from a mount and hospitalization; his ranch boss' connection to the Detroit mob; the attractive woman in a black and white poka-dot dress who led Sirhan to the Ambassador kitchen pantry; and the mysterious "radioman" who may have programmed Sirhan using Morse code. Brown also claims to have been subjected to unwarranted searches by airport officials during his visits with Sirhan. Ridiculous fantasy? Decide for yourself by linking to You Tube and viewing the video.

*the existence of a vast mind-control program was made public by the Church Committee investigation in 1975.  CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of MKULTRA documents in 1973, so the investigation relied on first hand testimony and some documentation that survived the shred order. In 2016 another trove of documents was produced by the agency pursuant to a FOIA lawsuit.

Tuesday, August 06, 2019

EPA Refuses to Ban Harmful Pesticide

The regime continues on its dangerous odyssey of dismantling environmental regulations that protect public health.  Chlorpyrifos, a pesticide, was found by EPA scientists to damage children's brains.  The decision to allow agricultural use is one of a series of pro-industrial decisions allowing the use of dangerous chemical substances.  Most industrialized nations completely ban the use of asbestos, a known carcinogen, but the regime issued a rule last April to allow limited use of the red-flagged mineral.  Last week the compromised agency approved broad use of the pesticide sulfoxaflor, that is harmful to bees. Industry spokespersons expressed satisfaction with the new pesticide ruling.

The agency has also acted to weaken existing regulations allowing surprise inspections of chemical plants and human health studies such as the one that detected the harm chlorpyrifos inflicts on children's neurological development.  CropLife America, the main pesticide trade group, petitioned the agency to “halt regulatory decisions that are highly influenced and/or determined by the results of epidemiological studies”, unless universities were forced to share more of their data.  The effects of pesticides on farm workers' children is being studied by the University of California, Berkeley, and is funded in part by the EPA. The lobbyists labeled the study, "secret science". 

Chlorpyrifos, aka Lorsban, is used on 50 fruit and vegetable crops. In 2016 more than 640,000 acres in California were treated with the substance.  Hawaii has banned its use, and the EU is under pressure from environmentalists and consumers to do so.  EPA said in its ruling that data of harmful effects was not “not sufficiently valid, complete or reliable.” Tell that to the Berkeley scientists.

Monday, August 05, 2019

COTW: Res Ipsa Loquitor

The US has 270 million guns and 90 mass shooters in the period 1966-2012.  The US is the "exceptional" country in the upper right of the chart. (number of guns, horizontal axis)  No other country has more than 46 million guns or 18 mass shooters.  Adjusted for population (guns per 100) the chart looks like this:

Only Yemen, in the middle of a civil war, has a higher rate of mass shootings. (number of shootings, vertical axis) The US exceeds even Afghanistan in the number of mass shooters. According to a recent study from the University of Alabama, the number of guns in a society correlates with the number of mass shootings. That relationship holds even when the US is deleted from the data. Across multiple axis of analysis the result is the same: more guns corresponds with more gun deaths (130 studies from 10 countries). The US does not have more crime than other developed countries, but US crime is much more lethal. It is only one of three countries (Mexico and Guatemala) that give citizens the inherent right to own guns.

The mass homicide at Sandy Hook school in 2012 was the watershed for the gun rights debate according to a British observer, whose country instituted strict gun laws after a 1987 mass shooting. Australia did the same in 1996. New Zealand recently banned assault weapons after a March massacre in Christchurch. The British journalist wrote, “Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.” How much longer will 'Merica continue to pay the cost of unregulated gun ownership in human lives?  You decide*.

*The gun lobby spent more than $55 million to elect Il Douche and NRA allies in Congress. Political hacks for the gun industry attempt to frame the problem of mass shootings as a mental health one. NOT. So why would a society continue to provide guns to a populace with high rates of mental illness, if to do so endangers its safety? Answer: the historical anachronism this society is saddled with is being cynically used as a cover for profit making. No sane hunter or marksman needs a semiautomatic military weapon with 100 round magazines--a violent white supremacist bent on eliminating the "infestation" with high rates of fire, does.  Even Hitler was sane! The Heller decision, admittedly 5-4, states that bans on "dangerous or unusual weapons" such as machine guns, and imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” are constitutionally permissible.  It is time.

Saturday, August 03, 2019

Defending a Way of Life

A great victory for conservationists: the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) was returned to the endangered species list on Tuesday. Tribes and conservationists pushed for returning the bear to federal protection under the Endangered Species Act over the objections of nativists like Rep. Liz Cheney who ridiculously claimed protecting the bear "violates the Western way of life".  A year ago a federal judge found the regime had exceeded its authority to de-list the species in a lawsuit brought by the Crow and Northern Cheyenne tribes who were joined by the US Humane Society and Wildearth Guardians.

The regime wanted to shoot Yellowstone bears for trophies and open the park to oil and gas exploitation.  Rep. Cheney claimed "radicals" were intent on destroying her white privilege and making protection rules that are “needless and harmful to the ecosystem.”  If right-reactionary thought processes were not so inverted and twisted, it would be amusing. NOT. Tribal leaders mocked the politician's "surreal" statements reminding her that at the time of Lewis & Clark, 100,000 or more bears roamed the western landscape, and Indians freely occupied the West from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.  Now there are just 2,000 bears, and Indians are confined to living in poverty on meager reservations.

There are about 700 bears in Yellowstone, but shooting them is obviously not the answer to possible overcrowding--expanding the Park is.  If park boundaries cannot be extended to include the entire Yellowstone drainage--it is not immediately clear to US Person why that cannot legally be done--then buffer zones should be established around the Park's borders to protect the ecosystem and its inhabitants from human encroachment.

'Toontime: The Walk and Chew Gum Tour

credit: Nate Beeler
Wackydoodle sez: Replaced by 'Nerdy' Nadler
A majority of the House Democratic caucus now publicly supports impeachment.  Apparently, the representatives have read the Mueller Report.  Chairman Nadler whose committee has the constitutional responsibility to consider impeachment articles before passing them on for a vote in the full House, has told a federal judge that the Judiciary Committee needs the grand jury material behind Mueller's referral to Congress to help the committee decide the issue of impeaching Trumpilini for high crimes and misdemeanors.  Under the Federal Rules of Evidence 6(e) grand jury materials are privileged, but an exception is provided for judicial proceedings, for which impeachment proceedings qualify.

Significantly Speaker Pelosi, who has been straining to restrain her colleagues backing impeachment, signed off on this representation in the House Counsel's motion for production.  US Person was under the impression that at least a vote in committee would be necessary to invest Mr. Nadler with the tools to pursue an impeachment inquiry.  NOT.  Rep. Deutch, who recently joined the impeachment forces, corrected the public record in that regard.  Due to changes in House procedure, instituted by Repugnants when they were in control, that formal step is unnecessary according to Rep. Deutch.  Then full speed, ahead Mr. Chairman, and damn the obstruction!  US Person is optimistic your New York state colleagues will be glad to add to the list of impeachable offenses.

credit: Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News
BC Idonwanna sez: He lost, big time!

US Person thinks the democratic nomination is headed to a brokered convention, where Joe's forces of corporatism will slug it out against the progressive wing of the party, represented by Sanders & Warren. Is a grand alliance of the left needed to withstand the purchasing power of Biden, Inc? Is that possibility out of bounds? Remember the convention of 1898, so stayed tune to this space.  One thing is clear: a good workman uses all the tools he has in his toolbox.


Thursday, August 01, 2019

COTW: Bushels of Dollars

The largest factor in the price of goal is the value of the US dollar.  Since the price of gold was unpegged in 1972, there has been an inverse relationship between the dollar and gold. That make sense because, excuse the pun, gold is a hard currency. This chart show what has happened to the value of the dollar since WWI:


The loss of value has been exacerbated by the central bank's policy of easy money (low interest) to insure global finance liquidity and stave off recession. After a brief hiatus, the Fed is continuing that policy. It reduced its prime rate by a quarter percent this week. Emergency measures during the Great Recession have become the “new normal.”  This new normal has been going on for over a decade now. Without proper fiscal policies, loose monetary policy engenders housing bubbles, speculation, and inflated stock values due to financial engineering by CEOs and their Wall Street accomplices. As one commentator has pointed out, lax monetary policy has become the handmaiden of the "speculation economy", or the triumph of financialization over producing goods.

Meanwhile (thank you, Steven Colbert), the national debt has surpassed a staggering $21 trillion, growing by $1 trillion in the past six months. Trumpilini's corporate tax cut was supposed to generate more jobs by repatriating dollars stashed offshore in tax havens. NOT. Corporations brought back only $664.9 billion of the $4 trillion (16.6%) the regime said was out there, and a lot of that went into stock buy backs and other forms of financial engineering.  Compare this display of patriotism to the $29 trillion in commitments received from the Federal reserve to bail out perp banks from the Great Recession.  So, just put on your MAGA hat and smile!