'Toontime: Blowback

credit: Bish

Latest: A three judge panel of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit handed a victory to the regime stonewalling Congressional subpoenas.  In the McGhan case, the panel ruled 2-1 that federal courts cannot interfere in "political disputes" between the Executive and Legislative branches by judicial enforcement of congressional subpoenas.  The ruling is a severe blow to congressional oversight authority, and of dubious validity according to many constitutional scholars.  Paradoxically the Repugnants in the Senate trial were arguing that the House investigators should have tried to enforce their subpoenas  in court before charging King Orange with obstruction,.  The two judges who ruled in favor of the regime are Repugnant appointees.  The decision is likely to be appealed to the full Court of Appeals by the House, and then to the Supreme Court.  This ruling highlights the corruption at the heart of the GOP.

The House Judiciary Committee requested interviews of the four career prosecutors who quit the Roger Stone case after the demented Douche directly involved himself in the sentencing process.  Stone was convicted on seven felony counts including lying to Congress; his prosecutors recommended to the presiding judge that he serve nine years incarceration. Judge Amy Jackson sentenced Stone to forty months, saying "the truth still matters".  Speculation is rampant in the Swamp that Trumpilini will pardon his favorite political operative, as he seeks to undo the consequences of the Mueller investigation.

Chairman Nadler not only wants to talk to the Stone prosecutors, but also a long list of Justice Department officials who oversaw cases dealing with associates of 'King Orange, the Antichrist', such as Jeff Jensen, selected by AG Barr to review the conviction of former national security advisor Michael Flynn. He also wants to talk to Justice attorney Jessie Liu who oversaw the Stone prosecution. Chairman Nadler set a deadline for response of March 13th.  Barr himself is supposed to appear before the Committee on March 31st.  He is unlikely to comply with the Committee's requests, nor are any earthshaking developments expected to come from the continuing inter-branch standoff.

First Balllot Bernie

Now that Bernard has won three primaries, it is time for progressives to unite behind one standard to give him the Democratic nomination on the convention's first ballot.  The plutocracy has one effective weapon remaining to deny the people's choice the Democratic Party's nomination: 700 odd "superdelegate" votes.  These party office holders and insiders can only vote on the second and subsequent ballots at the convention in Milwaukee.  Sanders has proven his electricity by energizing a new generation of voters.  He has defeated the candidates of the Democratic establishment, and opportunistic plutocrats in plebeian clothing attempting to buy the nomination with their personal wealth in head-to-head primary contests. He is likely to strengthen his lead after Super Tuesday.  Sanders will go into the convention with the most pledged delegates from a crowded field. All progressive resources must now be concentrated on defeating the anti-Christ in office by giving Bernie a first round knockout. Feel the Burn!

'Toontime: Prezident fer Sale!

credit: Joe Heller

US Person cannot decide which is more disturbing:  Bloomberg's miserable performance in the last Democratic debate, or the mass hysteria on display at a Trumpist rally in the evangelical stronghold of Colorado Springs.  Pick your poison; either one is bad news for 'Merica.

credit: Milt Prigee 
Wackydoodle sez: Hey Mirror--who all's the best mob lawyer of all?

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COTW: Tiger Comeback in India

India's Prime Minister made an announcement Monday that is good news for tiger admirers like US Person. Mr. Modi said India's tiger population rose from 2226 to 2967 in 2018. India is home to about 70% of Earth's remaining tigers. [chart] The copuntry conducts a census of its tigers every four years, an arduous task that involves looking over 193,000 square miles of remaining habitat.  He said the latest figure is something about which every Indian should be happy and represents a major conservation success.

Between 1875 and 1925 about 80,000 tigers met their death at the hands of man. By 1960 tigers were close to the edge of extinction in the wild. A ban on hunting and establishment of a system of reserves has aided the big cats recovery. Even "problem" cats enjoy a degree of protection from the government under a strict conservation law enacted in 1972.  By 2006, tiger populations began to grow.  Now, overcrowding and loss of habitat are the major threats to tigers in the wild.  Human-tiger conflict is also growing.  Tigers breed only in a small part of the available habitat. Overcrowded tigers sometimes venture into human territory in search of food and mates. 

According to one prominent tiger conservationist, Ullas Karanth, if all of India's available tiger habitat in state owed forest reserves were brought under protection, and prey species allowed to flourish, India could support about 10-15 thousand tigers.  That is a density of only 5 tigers per 100 sq.km; some parks already have densities of 10-15 tigers.  India does have bush meat consumption in rural areas that is depressing prey species such as deer, pig and antelope but according to Karanth it is not as intense as what is occurring in southeast Asia.  

a tiger cub checks out a camera trap

Human development pressure is also rising.  The Modi administration has an agenda for rapid economic growth and is driving highway right of ways through tiger reserves, say Karanth, instead of adopting mitigating measures.  Tiger reserves currently occupy only 4-5% of the land area.  Karanth says,"the aim [of wildlife conservation] is to protect nature in as intact a manner as possible, not create a Disneyland with artificial manipulation of habitat."  In Karanth's lifetime India's human population has quadrupled and the daily wage increased from 3 to 300 rupees.  India is a living example that you can have both tigers and prosperity. 

Reduced Rhino Poaching in South Africa

Some good news on the rhino poaching front.  South Africa, home to the largest rhino population reported a decline in poaching kills for the fifth strait year.  Sill, a tragic 594 rhinos were poached in 2019 for their horns.  The declines are attributed to a number of factors by the government including faster reaction times, improved intelligence and more cooperation between regional and national authorities.  2015 was the worst year on record with 1300 animals killed, 1175 in South Africa.  Kruger National Park lost 327 rhinos to poaching in 2019; 178 alleged poachers were arrested within its boundaries.

South Africa is taking further steps to eliminate rhino poaching.  A national integrated strategy is on the country's Cabinet agenda for the first half of 2020. In a press release the government noted that wildlife trafficking is a highly sophisticated form of transnational crime which threatens national security.  A strategic framework to follow is needed to attack the problem with sufficient resources and public support.  Minister of Environment, Barbara Creecy, credited the dedication and efforts of the nation's rangers who put their lives at risk to combat poaching. [Kruger white rhinos, credit B. Gagnon]

The international black market demand for horn, composed of medicinally useless keratin, drives the poaching epidemic.  The price of horn has dropped by two-thirds from $65,000 to $22,000 per kilogram, which has a beneficial impact on demand. But part of the decline may be due to the fact that the most accessible animals are gone and their are fewer rhinos to poach.  There is still a need for continued prosecution of high level smugglers and longer incarcerations for poaching and related crimes.

'Beautiful Wall'--No Problema, $5 Ladders

credit: Getty Images

This story was so predictable, it is not even funny any more: smugglers are using $5 ladders made of re-bar to scale Donald Douche's 'beautiful wall', which is costing million in diverted Pentagon funds.  El Paso's urban stretch of the wall is littered with rust colored re-bar ladders left by smugglers and illegal immigrants. The wall [photo] is such a monstrosity it was bound to propagate methods of evasion. The ladders began appearing after the wall was reconstructed and finished in May.  Illegal crossings have increased ever since, according to the Border Patrol.  From October 2019 to January 2020 10,030 adults were apprehended, compared with 5,150 in the same period a year ago. Single adults are the most likely to make the climb to the presumed land of opportunity.

This low-tech solution is made by hand out of two 3/8th inch re-bars and four thinner bars fitted with steps and a bent hook for attaching to the top of the wall.  The ladders are difficult to spot against the rusting wall. Six meters of re-bar costs about $5.30 in a local Ciudad Juarez hardware store.  About $10 billion of taxpayer money has been spent improving sections of the wall 100 miles in length. 'King' Donald, the Antichrist who took a victory lap this weekend at the Hillbilly (Daytona) 500, deceitfully claimed Mexico would pay for the cost of building a wall border to border, about 2,000 miles.

COTW: Red Flags

This chart is from the St. Louis Fed via Wolfstreet.com:

Not good news for job seekers in this miraculous economy for plutocrats.  In two months there has been almost a million fewer job openings (938,000).  On a non-adjusted basis, job loss is the steepest since the Great Recession. December was the seventh month in a row of year over year declines. Here is another indication of current economic trends:

Delinquencies among sub prime auto loans (below 620 credit score) are soaring.  Serious delinquencies, more than 90 days, rose 15.5% from a year ago.  Remember, these are the good times!  This situation is not caused by job losses, but the avarice of the subprime lenders who make a bundle on higher, even usurious, interest rates.  Think of it as junk bonds for the masses.  These loans get packaged into asset backed securities (ABS) which investors love because of high rates of return.  The same securitization of high risk loans occurred in the mortgage industry a decade ago end in the Great Recession of 2008,  The delinquency rate for ABS is now higher than it was during the crisis.  Not big enough to take down the global banking system, but still indicative of what one pundit calls the "hollowed out economy".

Creature Feature. Buds on the Prowl

This remarkable footage shows the cooperation that exists between two predators. The coyote encourages the badger to follow him through the culvert as they hunt together; the badger obligingly follows, waddling through the culvert behind the coyote's lead. People think predators are normally intolerant of other predators, but Nature is not that simple. Coyotes and badgers often hunt together because the chances of making a kill are increased; they also kill and eat each other. This video shows cooperation in action. Their comfortable familiarity with the other, and their intelligence is obvious.

Perhaps we, as a species, are discarding the mistaken perception of animals as stimulus and response, biological robots.  They have complex social lives and recognize other animals as individuals. Distinctive personality traits are observable in animals living in distinct environments.  Researchers have shown population level genetic changes between urban dwellers and country dwellers of the same species, such as coyotes.  So it is understandable that sensitive humans have given animals human-like personalities in their stories and legends--not just romanticized exaggeration, but reflective of what they saw occurring in Nature. Animals are dynamic, complex, thinking beings--sentient beings--that deserve our respect and compassion.  This video was taken in the Bay Area and is the first time the behavior was captured on camera there.

'Toontime: Department of Barr

credit: David Fitzsimmons

Wackydoodle sez: He jist can't do his job!

In a delicate piece of political theater, Herr Barr told an interviewer that he can't do his job because of Trump's interference in the Stone sentencing process and demanded his boss stop tweeting. That is like telling an alcoholic to stop drinking. Rest assured, Judge Amy Jackson will not be deterred by Donald Douche's digital ravings. Her boss, Chief Judge of the DC Circuit, has already put out a press statement to that effect.  Anyhow, DOJ sentencing recommendations are merely advisory. Is there real justice remaining in the oligarchy euphemistically called the United States? The radical US Person wants to know! Heil, Il Douche!

Death on the Highway

a biologist with his subject: A.Gomez

A new study by a Brazilian conservation group shows that the giant anteater population growth has been cut in half due to road kills. Giant anteaters, Myrmecophaga tridactyla are very distinctive animals, which use their extended, fused jaws and long tongues to lap up 30,000 ants and termites a day. Between January 2017 and December 2019 researchers from Bandeiras e Rodovias (Anteaters and Highways) project tracked 44 anteaters with GPS, interviewed truck drivers and monitored over 50,000 miles of highway in the Cerrado savanna, a grain growing area serviced by a large fleet of trucks. They recorded 725 road kills. The anteater is nocturnal, slow moving and has poor hearing and eyesight. In other words a walking obstacle for motorists, especially at night. Many drivers expressed remorse over collisions with anteaters, but said trying to avoid an animal that steps in front of a truck with a long, heavy load would be disastrous. The fragmentation of their natural habitat make road collisions more likely. Brazil's truck fleet grew by 2.8% per year from 2011 to 2017 with almost 2 million vehicles on the road by the end of that period. Researchers equipped study animals with a reflective vest containing the GPS transmitter which reported the animals location every twenty minutes.

The Bandeiras e Rodovias organization is working with interested parties, including highway personnel to educate the public about wildlife and the effect of motorized traffic on anteaters and armadillos, another species subject to being squashed by traffic. The collected GPS information shows those points at which animals are crossing frequently. This information could be used to build culverts allowing anteaters and humans to cross the road safely.

COTW: More Economic Myth

This chart shows the ever increasing amount of debt, public and private that is fueling the latest bubble economy.  Il Douche's budget proposal of $4.8 trillion, which favors the military, extension of tax cuts for the rich, a ludicrous "space force" and vanity wall building over social programs will add to the outstanding debt:

Douche said Monday that his budget proposal would bring the deficit close to zero in “not that long a period of time” Add that to the ever-increasing number of lies by the current occupant. What should you expect from a rich kid huckster who filed for bankruptcy six times?

COTW: The Economic Boom Myth

Il Douche, the Impeached, is going to run on his 'economic miracle'.  The truth is that the miracle is only occurring on Wall Street, not Main Street.  Look at the charts:

Real wages (adjusted for inflation) have not kept pace with economic expansion.  Fringe benefits like health care and paid leave are available for high wage earners, but not those in the so-called "Gig" (translation: ripped-off) economy:

The real value of fringe benefits has declined overall by 1.7%. Finally, the Labor Department's U-6 unemployment measure, the broader and more accurate measure of actual unemployment since it includes those who have given up looking for work, is at 6.6% for December, three points higher than the propaganda figure.  The only good thing about this chart is its negative slope, showing a down trend from a whopping 17% post Great Recession:

America's Dark Passge

More:  US Person thought there was hope for 'Merica when Tricky Dick was forced to resign by his own party's senators back in '74.  The pathetic. supine catering displayed by party accomplices this time around was truly disturbing and disheartening. If reelected it will be the end of republican government in this country.  Exhibit One: the Douche's own version of the infamous "Saturday night massacre" in which Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor, was removed by the President directing the toady Robert Bork (thus, "Cork the Bork" when he was nominated for the Supremes). Douche fired Col. Vindmin, and his twin brother, and Ambassador Sondland on Friday. Twits indicate he is considering firing the Intelligence IG, Michael Atkinson, who was required by law to forward the whistle blower complaint to Congress.  Needless to say such retaliation is against the law, but thanks to careerist Repugnants, the nation is in a new era where presidential crimes do not matter, and dictatorship awaits.  Hitler also wanted to build his own architecturally consistent capitol for the "tausend jahres Reich".  All dictators are obsessed with there own monument building. Only you can take 'Merica back from the this slide into fascism.

Wackydoodle sez:  He's got a lifetime supply of Maybeline!

{08.02.20} Consistent with his consensus personality profile, the Douche has begun his vendetta against those persons who testified to his corrupt extortion scheme.  Col Vindman was fired and escorted from the Very White Shack, Ambassador Sondland was also on the hit list. And the latest threat to issue from the disordered personality encamped there is a whopper: he demands the House expunge his impeachment, or else.  Wow, want this idiot does not know about the federal government would fill a book or two.  There is no expungement provision in the Constitution or in the federal code for impeachments.  The House fulfilled its constitutional duties; Senate "accomplices" voted to acquit him on purely partisan lines.  End of story.  For him to imply consequences for the House failure to comply with his nonsensical demand reeks of his personality disorder.

For her part Nancy Pelosi told the press that the House will continue to stand up for the truth and constitutional democracy She wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post, "President Trump is impeached forever, disgraced in history for his abuse of power and contempt for our Constitution. He will go down in history as the first president to be impeached with the support of a majority of Americans, and the first to ever face a bipartisan vote to convict him in the Senate." She made more news at the State of the Union Speech, which the Douche turned into a pep-rally, by tearing up his printed remarks on camera. What did the 'house mama' earn for her efforts: a threat from an Alabama bubba-cop to kill her with a roadside bomb.  Only in 'Merica, folks; and it is going to get worse!

'Toontime: The Socialist Menace?

The story out of confused Iowa is this: Bernard Sanders, democratic socialist, won. He did it with a massive, on the ground movement that reached out to underrepresented persons, alienated by the system. He did it by his volunteers knocking on half-million doors. He did it by offering an alternative social reality opposed to more trickle down neoliberalism wrapped in progressive rhetoric that has only enriched the already super rich.  The party elite's tech fetish that caused them to rely on an app that was untested, did not work effectively, but produced by an insider, may be the final downfall of the Iowa Caucus as a political bellwether.  The Iowa caucus process is already frighteningly complex, so adding another layer of technology proved disastrous. In elections, nothing beats paper. The medium is durable, tangible, accurate, and reproducible, and with enough counters, fast.  Iowa caucus officials ended up counting paper ballots at the last resort.

Here is the other takeaway from Iowa: Joe Biden, bless his tortured soul, is yesterday's politician. He came a poor fourth; the Democratic anti-Bernie establishment is now embodied by the boy mayor, Pete Buttigieg.  Bernie may be old, but his politics are not: class struggle is still relevant in a capitalist society, and even more so after three decades of skewed economics. This is the moment the people have been waiting for so long, and they are willing to seize it to throw out the corrupt, tangerine poser that oppresses them while pandering to their most divisive instincts. Ignore the corporate capitalist mass media--the people full steam ahead to New Hampshire for Bernie and victory.  Get serious, vote for the Bern!

Warning: Anti-left propaganda dies hard.

Orangutans Need Our Help

the stark forest battle line

Orangutans, the people of the forest. in Bahasa and Melayu are loosing the
battle for their disappearing habitat.  Their forest home is being rapidly converted to palm oil plantations, so ecologically sterile that they cannot survive there.  A 'viral' video captured the brave efforts of an orangutan attempting to fend off a bulldozer as it destroyed its home.  Orangs are considered agricultural pests by palm industry workers, either shot on sight or poisoned. Yet the world remains largely unconcerned about the highest primate besides ourselves.  Perhaps that is due to the fact that palm oil is a pervasive ingredient in our processed foodstuffs.  The eighteen million acres of palm oil plantations in Borneo produce 87% of world supply.  Today the orangutan is critically endangered, only about 104,000 survive in the wild,  sacrificed to palm oil industry, which slashes and burns 80% of the forest.  The clearances produce so much air pollution the index hits 1000 according to the World Bank.  300 is considered hazardous to humans and animals.

The Indonesian government supposedly has a moratorium on new palm oil plantations since 2918, but it is not enforced, and local governments ignore the federal policy with impunity  Palm oil companies that already hold local permits can still establish new plantations.  The reason for the destruction of so much of Borneo's forest cover is straightforward: economics.  Palm Oil surpassed oil and gas as the biggest contributor to Indonesian GDP in 2016.  The industry employs about 30% of the workforce. As one orangutan conservationist said, "ou cannot talk conservation with hungry people. Give people a way to find an alternative livelihood." 

In 2011, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation was unable to release a single rescued animal back into the forest.  Unable to obtain help from the federal government BOSF turned to local governments.  In Kalamatan, they reached agreement to allow the group to purchase palm oil plantation licenses, valid for sixty years, and pay property taxes for suitable habitat.  The group now has 557 orangutans in captivity waiting for a chance to live again in the wild. Many orangutans and other animals are too old to be released back into the wild and must remain in captivity as permanent residents--a life behind bars.  A volunteer working in a rescue center told interviewers, “For example, most of the national parks are already full of eagles, and eagles are territorial, so we almost can’t release more .The forests are overfilled and conservation centers are at maximum capacity. The solution isn’t to make more cages, but to build enclosures, sanctuaries and mini-forests...“You go to rehabilitation centers and see the big orangutans who have already spent 15 years in the cage. You see their eyes. They look empty. No hope; it’s like a loss of soul. I work so hard, not for the baby eyes, but to get these orangutans out of the cage,” [photo: J. Sihite]

If the orangutan is to be saved, part of the solution must come from reducing the demand for the product that is destroying lives and forest.  Developed countries must required the substitution of palm oil in food products that use it.  Norway did not ban palm oil but demanded sustainability production; other countries need to follow Norway's lead.  Indonesia alone is not going to prevent the orangs extinction, there is too much money riding on the industry, It is illegal to kill an endangered species; doing so could result in up to five years in jail and a fine of $7,400. Despite some arrests of individuals, the Indonesian legal system has never handed down a full sentence commensurate with the crime.  Every day 25 orangutans die due to habitat destruction. Without international pressure, and perhaps a complete ban on palm oil imports, the people of the forest will disappear, forever.

Trump the Manipulator

It is no surprise to US Person that the regime manipulated wildfire data to promote its pro-logging agenda according to emails reviewed by the Guardian newspaper. Political appointees played up pollution information from California wildfires to compare with carbon emissions from the state's electricity sector, and then encourage cutting trees as a method of reducing carbon.  Experts dispute the claim that more logging would thin forests and prevent fires.
An executive order issued before Christmas instructs the secretaries of agriculture and interior to consider harvesting 4.4 billion board feet of lumber on public lands. That represents a 31% increase in logging since 2017.

2018 Camp Fire: the deadliest in CA history

Forest ecologists say logging our way out of the climate crisis which is causing more and hotter fires does not make sense.  Despite the science, the useful idiot occupying the Very White House has repeatedly blamed wildfires on poor forest management.  His executive order also directed "raking" of federal forests in which brush and debris would be systematically removed, pointing to Finland as an example.  Finland's president denied raking ever entered into his comments about Finland's forest policy.

James Reilly, a former petroleum geologist and astronut is the director of the US Geological Survey.  In a series of 2018 emails he asked scientists to "gin up" emission figures for him so he could make a decent "sound bite".  He cherry picked the data for figures that would make a "good story'.  A California forest ecologist and co-founder of the John Muir Project called the revealed strategizing a "blatant political manipulation of science."  The effect of logging on fires is highly variable, depending on weather conditions and methods used.  The regime has actively sought removal of climate change considerations from many of its decisions including amending the nation's foundation environmental protection law, the National Evironmental Protection Act (NEPA).

In November 2018, Reilly asked again for carbon dioxide statistics generated by two devastating California wildfires, the Camp and Woolsey fires.  An Interior Department spokeswoman emailed Reilly requesting the information so she could put out a statement by then Secretary Zinke.  A few days later, a secretarial press release had the title, "New Analysis Shows 2018 California Wildfires Emitted as Much Carbon Dioxide as an Entire Year's Worth of Electricty". Parroting the regimes propaganda line, Zinke said there was too much dead timber in the forests fueling catastrophic fires. He advocated mechanical thinning and other techniques to "improve forest health and reduce the risk of wildfires".  He failed to mention that the wildifire which obliterated Paradise, CA occurred in a forest that had recently been thinned.  A scientist from Oregon State University said if the comparison of wildfire emissions had been made to national carbon emission they would have found it amounted to only 1.7% of fossil fuel emissions.  Environmentalists say the regime overstated the carbon data as well as using it selectively to support an industry goal of more logging.

Impeachment Comes to a Disgraceful End

credit: RJ Matson

It is a bad day in Blackrock, 'Mericans.  Your supposed representatives in the Senate voted to close its collective ears and eyes to live testimony despite 75% of you wanting to hear from first-hand witnesses like John Bolton. This deliberate refusal to engage in the process created by the founders will reverberate through time to the Republic's discredit. The Senate can no longer smugly refer to itself as 'the world's greatest deliberative body' because a fearful majority chose to put politics above truth, justice and, yes, the "American Way". Now you know why US Person refers to them as "Repugnants": their crass, craven self-interest is antithetical to democratic self-government. Information will continue to leak out about Il Douche's corrupt conspiracy operating behind the cameras to enlist foreign interference in two elections, and perhaps three. This travesty of justice will only further enable the malignant narcissist occupying the Very White House. How you can prevent the downward spiral to dictatorship in the next election that might be rigged beyond the Electoral College, remains to be explained*. So vote, as if your vote mattered.

credit: Kevin Siers

*In the Swamp inconvenient paradoxes are simply ignored. Take for example the blatant conflict of interest of the lead defense counsel, Cipolloni. If John Bolton's leaked manuscript can be believed, Cipolloni was in the loop from the beginning, attending a May meeting in which Trumpillini ordered Bolton to call President Zelensky and have him meet with his personal flying monkey, Rudy Guilliani. then engaged in a pressure campaign to obtain a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens.