Wild Ass Crosses the Rail

credit: WCS

Look at this wild ass or Equus hemionus hemionus.  It made history on March 16th when it was the first of its species to cross the trans-Mongolian railway into the eastern Mongolian steppe in seven decades.  The ass was able to do so because the existing fence along the transcontinental rail line was modified to allow wildlife crossings.  The railway has been an impenetrable barrier since its inception in 1955 for large migratory animals inhabiting the Gobi Steppe, one of the largest grazing habitats on Earth, bigger than the famed Serengeti in East Africa.

Trans-Mongolian rail, credit: WCS

The khulan, a subspecies of onager, is the largest wild ass in the world, and listed by the ICUN as near threatened. It has been protected in Mongolia since 1953.  It can not crawl or jump over the existing railway fence. [photo, right] The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) convinced the Mongolian government to experiment with a wildlife crossing corridor by removing and modifying railway fencing in three locations so animals could migrate freely again.  The camera trap photo is proof that the idea is working.

Cameras have also documented crossings by herds of Mongolian gazelle (Procapra gutturosa) and goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa). Construction of the Trans-Mongolian railway from Ulan-Ude, Russia to Jining, China, cut the steppe in half along a north-south line. Allowing animals to cross at specific points along the right-of-way restores a huge region of steppe that was once habitat. The project is only a demonstration. More crossing points need to be established to restore normal migration routes and the steppe ecosystem. Conservationists including US Person hope there will be more fence removal if more wild animals use the pilot project, and there are no serious conflicts with livestock.

 For mine are all the animals of the forests,

beasts by thousands on my mountains.

I know all the birds of the air, and 

whatever stirs in the plains, belongs to me.

--Psalm 50:10-11

 

COTW: The Appentice's Deadly Fumble

Breaking:  Both the New York Times and Associated Press are reporting that Total Douche received a written intelligence briefing in February, 2019 about a unit of the  GRU, Russian military intelligence, offering and apparently paying bounties for the killing of US personnel in Afghanistan. According to one inside source, the chances he reads the daily intelligence brief by himself are, "basically zero".  John Bolton, the former US security advisor, has also told reporters that he personally informed the President about the intelligence in March, 2019. The story contradicts previous statements from the VWH that he was not briefed about the information.

{29.06.20} Even right-wingers are turning against the Antichrist in Office, forced to admit that the sociopath does not really care if we wear masks to slow the spread of the disease, or if more of US die because he is incompetent.  He will not even scold his helpful friends at the Kremlin for allegedly offering bounties on American servicemen in Afghanistan--because they have the dirt.

While the new Nero golfs, our democracy is failing before our eyes.  The tired rhetoric about he United States being the world's greatest democracy is now simply a myth:

Canada and Australia are rated "full democracies" while the US only rated "flawed democracy" by The Economist, hardly a bastion of socialist thought.  Today, other countries look to the United States as an example of how NOT to conduct democratic government.

US COVID-19 deaths (est.): 184,400.

A fan of TD?

'Toontime: Dreamland

credit: Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News
Wackydoodle sez: Bleach cocktails help too!

The premature re-opening of economies in Trumpland is proving costly in terms of the number of new COVID-19 cases. Texas, Arizona and Florida have had to reverse course and impose social distancing rules after an exponential spike of infections. In fact, thirty states are experiencing an increase in the number of new cases, setting a new single day high on Thursday of 40,184.

Of course, this means little to the sociopathic personality filling the Room Without Corners with toxic mendacity.  Incredibly, in the middle of this public health and unemployment crisis, Total Douche insists on pursing his revanchist dream of overruling the Affordable Care Act.  It is a statistical fact that nations with some form of socialized health care have performed better than the United? States in protecting citizens from SARS CoV-2:

The substitution in this country of deceitful rhetoric, false pride, and anti-social behavior for common sense, citizenship, and scientific knowledge has proven disastrous beyond reckoning. US COVID-19 deaths (est.)*: 182,000.  US Person is forced to revise his death toll estimate, considering the latest explosion of the infection rate.  The number of deaths by Election Day 2020: 300,000.

If I close my eyes, it will all go away....

*Overall, 48% of U.S. adults think the official death count is understated, while 26% believe it is overstated and 25% believe it is accurate.  US Person is obviously in the plurality camp.  His estimate of deaths is based on data collected by CDC.

Japan's Exotic Pet Trade A Danger to World Wildlife

Evegeny Lebedev who owns UK's Independent newspaper, started a campaign to Stop the Wildlife Trade, calling for an end to wildlife markets and international trade in wild animals. The campaign funded a study of Japan's exotic pet trade, historically one of the world's most active markets for rare species like slow lorises, pythons, and owls.  Demand for exotic pets has boomed, driven by 'social' and mass media.

An example of the pet trade motivating the illegal trade in endangered wildlife is the Asian small- clawed otter. Admittedly adorable, [photo] the endangered species became popular in "otter cafes", similar to cat cafes, where customers come in and interact with animals while sipping a their favorite beverage. Otters have very silky fur, which no doubt adds to their attraction. Importation of the animals was banned in November of last year, but not before several establishments were in business, one in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district keeping about 15 otters from Indonesia ranging in age from around 6 months to 2 years old.

The study was based on analysis of seizures made by Japanese customs, conviction records and media reports.  Under current Japanese law according to the study, there is minimal protection for nonnative species listed in Appendix I of CITES.  There were no more than ten seizures each year over the last twelve of listed animals, the majority of which were reptiles.  Among the mammals seized, 185 were primates and ten bats, both banned under infectious disease control laws.  Both species are known to be reservoirs or vectors for viruses that cause serious human diseases.  Virtually all the species appearing in seizure records can be sold legally as pets in the domestic market, bringing an average price of between $14,000 and $33,000.  Wildlife trade routes into the country from Thailand, China, Indonesia and Hong Kong are mostly by air, although some unfortunate creatures are shipped by mail.

Since 2007 18 defendants, all Japanese, were prosecuted.  Four were pet shop owners.  TRAFFIC, the organization which monitors international wildlife trade, said Japanese authorities are becoming increasingly aware of the seriousness of wildlife trafficking, despite the lack of jail sentences for those convicted.  The maximum sentence handed down in three cases that imposed incarceration was just one year and ten months.  Japan's custom laws recommends fines for violations instead of criminal charges. TRAFFIC has called for greater enforcement efforts of existing regulations, and a review of laws governing domestic sale of live animals in Japan.

would you eat this?

In a positive development in the fight against trade in endangered species, China has removed pangolins from its official pharmacopeia of traditional remedies. The animal's scales are used in folk medicine and pagolins are consumed as exotic food. [photo] Wildlife advocates called the move the greatest single action to protect the species from extinction. In China, pangolins will now receive the same protections as tigers and pandas.

Nevertheless, the illegal trade in pangolins and their body parts will go on as long as there is a demand.  Last year, authorities seized 130 tons of pangolin products, estimated to represent 400,000 animals. Pangolins are ancient insectivores about the size of a domestic cat. Some scientists think that pangolins incubate the SAR CoV-2 virus that has swept the world in the COVID-19 pandemic. Pangolins were known to have been sold in the Wuhan wet market were the pandemic is thought to originate.

COTW: Defund the Police--And a Lot More

Right wingnuts licked their propaganda chops when the Left came up with the ambiguous slogan, "Defund the Police".  They have been preaching anarchy and doom ever since Mr. Floyd was murdered.  The facts are that policing in 'Merica is NOT serving and protecting the citizens, but is often violent, brutal, and oppressive.  Yet despite a decline in violent crime, municipalities are straining under the burden of exploding police budgets ignited by personnel and pension costs. This chart summarizes the situation:

Some anarchists may want to completely do away with police departments in favor of self-policing, see CHAZ.  US Person does not think that idea is viable given current social conditions, which seem conducive to violent criminals.  But the maligned slogan also includes the ideas of cutting some types of police funding and dedicating that money to other urgent social needs like mental health services and low cost housing.  Here is another chart to look at.  It shows electric vehicle charging stations in Chicago.  Not charging stations that exist now in that city, but in 1917:

What if a city like Chicago had the extra money to rebuild electric vehicle infrastructure, perhaps funds from its police budget allocated to purchasing military equipment?  You get the idea.

  

“our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas: 

its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro

 is not equal to the white man; that slavery is his natural … condition".

--Alexander Stephens, Vice-President, C.S.A. whose statute stands in the US Capitol 

Bears and First People Enjoy Victory

It took three decades of advocacy and litigation by the Kutunaxa Nation to save 170,000 acres of the Qat'mak valley from a giant ski resort development proposed by Glacier Resorts Ltd.  The Jumbo Valley resort would have been the largest and highest such development in North America with 6,000 beds and year around human activity--literally building a small town on top of a mountain glacier.  The Ktunaxa achieved their goal of preserving their ancestral lands by enlisting a long time ally, the grizzly bear.  Ktunaxa revere the "grizzly spirit" that inhabits this valley of sheer cliffs, thick pine stands and glacier-clear water.

The resort would have intruded on the habitat of the Purcell-Selkirk grizzly population, about 600 strong that is fairing well according to ecologist Michael Proctor, who has studied the bears of the region for twenty-five years.  Grizzlies in North America now live in isolated pockets of habitat unlike their ancestors that freely roamed a vast, undisturbed wilderness. Today their range is just 2% of what it once was.  Conservationists have been attempting to connect these pockets of bear country to allow healthy gene flow and sufficient habitat to expand the total population.  Canada lists the grizzly as a species of special concern while the US lists it as threatened.  Conservationists say grizzlies need more help than  the law currently provides as their numbers decline in the face of human encroachment, especially below the border.  Building the Jumbo Valley resort in the middle of their Percell Mountain redoubt would have been disastrous for the population's survival.

Kathryn Teneese, Chair

The Ktunaxa Nation took the legal battles over the resort all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court in 2017, where they lost.  They did not give up the fight to protect land they have lived in for 10,000 years.  When the Canadian government pledged to protect 17% of its land mass, the tribe applied for money under the Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas program.  Government granted the Ktunaxa $16.2 million.  The nation collected an additional $5 million from conservation groups, and used the money to buy out the resort's investors.  After six years of court battles, the company's environmental impact assessment had expired.  Non-indigenous residents of the valley supported the tribe's fortitude and perseverance in opposing another clearing of the land for profit. “I have lived in this valley since 1985,” says Proctor. “Even among the non-Indigenous population, this decision was applauded almost universally in the area where I live.” Qat'mak's grizzlies woke up this spring in their home undisturbed--the Grizzly Spirit is pleased.

MAGA, NOT!

Total Douche did not draw enough asses [photo] to fill the 19,000 seat arena in Tulsa, OK last night. The AP reports about 6,200 of the delusional risked infection and death to catch a glimpse of 'der Leader' live, or to serve as an incidental background prop for his ego. The overflow area was empty, so he cancelled a planned speech to the anticipated mob outside. An unqualified APPRENTICE in the VWH is finding that posing as El Presidente is not fun anymore. Time for him to get back to making another crooked real estate deal; his mob should go home, drink a few beers, and vote by mail. [photo].

Meanwhile® his firing of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York blew up in his face.  According to some observers only the President has the authority to fire Mr. Berman, who is court-appointed, in the absence of a Senate approved replacement. However, just before leaving for his Tulsa love-in, Total denied having anything to do with removing Berman, placing the onus on his side-kick, Reichsmarshal Barr. Barr wrote to Berman on Saturday telling him the President had removed him from office effective immediately since he refused to resign on Friday. The Department of Barr had issued a late public statement suggesting Berman was voluntarily quitting his post, a move Bergman denied in writing. After a tense twenty-four hours, Geoffrey S. Berman, stepped down in favor of his deputy, and not the regime's favored successor, Jay Clayton, a golfing partner and Chairman of the SEC. Berman's office is conducting several investigations that touch upon Trumpillini's financial dealings, and his go-to guy, Rudy Guilliani. SDNY must be getting warm.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, (D-NY) chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the committee would investigate the firing of Mr. Berman as part of a larger inquiry into undue political interference at the Justice Department. This weekend, Rep Nadler called Senate Repugnants, "corrupt" for failing to impeach Trumpillini over the Ukraine affair. John Bolton's exposé has revealed that illegal demand for foreign election interference is part of a pattern of corruption within the regime. US Person again calls for Bolton's testimony under oath before House oversight committees in order to set the record strait on the regime's corrupt behavior, and vindicate the authority of congressional oversight of the executive branch.

US COVID Deaths (est.): 173,400. Tragically and reluctantly, US Person predicts in excess of 200,000 deaths due to SARS CoV-2 by Election Day.

 SPACE AVAILABLE IN BLU HEAVEN!

Toontime: Fading Away, NOT Soon Enough

credit: KAL, The Economist

Now the dangerous Antichrist in Office wants to replace Supreme Court Justices who ruled against him in two decisions this week upholding the rights of alternative genders and immigrants. In both cases, Chief Judge John Roberts joined with the liberal minority.  Apparently, his presiding over the impeachment trial in the Senate has had an effect on his jurisprudence.

Total 'Fake News' Douche has already done significant damage to the rule of law, which is why Bernie Sanders called him the most "dangerous president in modern history."  His latest affront to the nation's welfare is his claim that the corona virus crisis is over, despite increasing numbers of new cases and no vaccine in sight until at least the end of the year.  As former advisor John Bolton belatedly revealed for profit*, Total Douche's entire policy-free regime is driven by one goal: his reelection in November.  Total US COVID-19 Deaths (est.): 172,300

“These people should be executed,” Trump told Bolton. 

 “They are scumbags.”

*US Person supports efforts in the House to subpoena former National Security Advisor John Bolton requiring him to appear and testify under oath about his former boss' repeated efforts to obtain foreign interference in US elections, and his offer of help to Turkish President Erdogan with on-going US investigations. Bolton defeated previous attempts to secure his testimony before House investigating committees, preserving the profitability of his exposé to the determent of constitutional law and order. He offered to testify in the Senate trial, but that move was blocked by Repugnant senators who refused to hear witnesses, as Bolton certainly expected. Hypocritically, Bolton criticizes the House impeachment effort for not including more instances of illegal solicitation of foreign election interference.  
The House committees should question him extensively on the exchanges Total Douche had with Chinese President Xi in which he solicited Chinese economic aid to bolster his reelection chances, going so far as to tell the Chinese head of state, "Make sure I win".  This incredibly incriminating statement is allegedly  part of an unredacted version of the exchange, which was removed from the book by national security censors, but which the magazine Vanity Fair says it has in its possession.  If this exchange actually took place as reported by Bolton, it constitutes another express quid pro quo that could form the basis of yet a second impeachment of the disturbed occupant of the Very White House. Mistaking a powerful man's crumbling sanity for divine enlightenment is the path to Hell. 666...

North Korea Blows Up Relations with South

Secretary Mike Pompeo: “Zero probability of success.”

North Korea blew up its liaison office with South Korea in retaliation for alleged provocations from the South consisting of balloons loaded with anti-regime propaganda floated over the DMZ by defectors from the North.  The building, located in Kaesong near the demilitarized zone, was empty. According to John Bolton's venal exposé, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a very dim view of Total Douche's diplomatic overtures towards North Korea.  Allegedly Pompeo passed a note to Bolton during a 2017 meeting with the North Korean dictator, 'Rocket Man' Un, saying their President, "was so full of shit." No, really?

"I’m the only one who can fix our problems"...

Hotspot: Above the Arctic Circle

Temperatures above 30℃ have been reported above the Arctic Circle in Nizhnyaya Pesha, an area of Russia about 1,300km north of Moscow.  Siberia has also experienced temperatures 10℃ above normal, part of the world experience of the hottest May on record, 1.3℃ above pre-industrial levels,  The persistent high temperatures have led to the melting of permafrost thought to be a contributing factor to the disastrous fuel oil spill at the end of last month.

The Paris Climate Agreement, which the Antichrist in Office has repudiated, aims to keep global temperatures from rising above 2.0℃ to avoid the  most catastrophic effects of global warming.  That goal is becoming increasing problematic.  The last decade and the previous five years have been the hottest on record.

COTW: Blaming the Spotted Owl

Oregon's rural communities in the Coast Range are hurting financially, like a lot of other local governments and communities across the nation.  Their story is somewhat unique because their economic life and public infrastructure depended on timber. Demise of the timber industry is often blamed on "tree hugging" environmentalists and spotted owl enthusiasts by former loggers and local politicians alike. The federal government did restrict logging on federal land in order to preserve an important ecosystem. Coast range counties lost federal tax revenue as a result; those losses are less than loss of state severance tax revenue. Half of the eighteen counties in Oregon timber country lost more money from tax cuts on private forests than from the reduction of logging on federal lands. For example, Lincoln County lost $108 million in federal timber payments, but $122 million in state severance tax revenue for the same period.  Lincoln received an average of $7.5 million a year in severance payments, but that has shrunk over the years to just $25,000 last year as tax reduction measures were signed into law.

A recent article by Pro Publica shows the old growth forests in the Coastal Range are rapidly being replaced by tree plantations owned by giant investment trusts like Weyerhaeuser and Hancock Forest Management whose investors receive advantageous tax treatment as REITS (real estate investment trusts)  These entities, outside of local control, clear-cut trees at a faster rate to increase profits. Douglas firs can live centuries; the average age of a plantation tree in the Coast Range is 50 years and declining.  The environmental impacts of such practices on other species like salmon and song birds are devastating. The amount of forest these companies own has more than doubled since 2006:  Look at the chart:

 

 yellow: Weyerhaeuser

red: Hancock

Economic impacts on villages and towns of the new business model are also devastating. Companies lobbied for elimination of the severance tax the state imposed on logging companies during the long tenure of former governor Ted Kitzhaber, who was forced to resign over an ethics scandal in 2015. Timber severance tax was used to fund local governments.  This chart shows what has happened to severance tax revenue over the years:

Timber severance tax is now only paid by the smallest forest owners, who can continue to pay it to reduce their property taxes. Logging trusts also pay property taxes, but those are at greatly reduced rates since timber is treated as a crop, not a depleting natural resource.  If Oregon had not phased out its severance tax in response to timber interest lobbying, it would have generated an estimated $130 million for local governments in 2018.  California and Washington still tax the value of logs harvested by the same companies that operate in Oregon.  The state would have received an estimated $59 million under California’s tax system and $91 million under Washington’s system, an investigation by OPB, The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica found*.

Short term profitability is what is important to these companies, not ecological sustainability.  Concern for profits is what caused timber companies to ship raw logs to Japan for milling, and small milling towns like Valsetz to become ghosts. Pro Publica points out: When trees are cut down before reaching the peak of their ability to absorb carbon, it stunts one of the state’s biggest assets in combating climate change. The use of herbicide on clear-cuts and the lack of mature trees have deteriorated habitat...

Ironically there is a small, fifty-one acre remnant of old growth forest protected by the federal government named Valley of the Giants near Falls City, Oregon, a once vibrant logging village. The valley contains moss covered giants older than the Republic. It's rarity has made it a tourist attraction, but the village cannot benefit from proximity to the reserve because timber corporations control the only access roads, and they are often closed, especially during fire season. Yes, there is crushing poverty and social disintegration in rural Oregon, but blame the state's politicians, not the spotted owl.

Strix occidentalis

*Study methodology can be reviewed in the 06/14/2020 edition of the Oregonian.

Uganda Looses a Star

courtesy: Uganda Wildlife Authority

Four poachers who killed the Uganda silverback, Rifiki, with a "sharp object" that penetrated his internal organs--probably a spear--were arrested by authorities after the famous twenty-five year old went missing on June 1st. His body was found a day later. The perpetrators of this crime against Nature face up to life imprisonment if convicted of killing an endangered animal. Rifiki lived with his family of seventeen in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The family was habituated to humans, making Rifiki an easier target. He was one of only about 1000 wild gorillas. Without its leader, his mountain gorilla family is unstable, subject to aggression and take over by another silverback.

The primary suspect, Byamukama Felix, was tracked to a local village, where he admitted unlawfully hunting small animals in the park. He claims he killed the gorilla in self-defense when he was attacked. Take over of his family by a wild silverback would dissuade the group from proximity to humans, thus affecting tourism which supports Uganda's park system and conservation efforts. Uganda lost an estimated $1.6 billion in revenue due to its pandemic shut down. The ICUN took mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei, off the critically endangered list in 2018 after intensive conservation efforts increased their number in the wild. They are now listed as endangered.

'Toontime: Plague Follies

credit: M. Kamensky

Even the generals are fed up with the corrupt clown in the VWH. Gen Milley felt compelled to apologize for his cameo in camo for the Antichrist's surreal PR stunt at St. John's Episcopal Church, borrowed Bible in hand.  Milley's is the latest comment intended to distance the US military from the regime and assure a nervous public that it will defend the Constitution, even from their unstable commander.

His equally bizarre and toxic pep rallies will restart even though the country faces increasing numbers of new COVID-19 cases. (in South Carolina, Florida, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Puerto Rico) The first rally will take place on Juneteeth in Tulsa, known for the Greenwood Massacre of 200-300 black people in their own neighborhood, May 31- June 1, 1921.  A pathetic twist to the already ridiculous: his co-dependent supporters will have to sign a liability release before being admitted into the Total Douche zone.

US COVID DEATHS (EST.) 164,200

credit: D. Cummings

Who's your Daddy?....

'MiniMe' Sticks Taxpayers to Kill Threatened Wild Sheep

More: NRDC tells US that the regime's trophy hunting lobby group, deceptively named International Wildlife Conservation Council, was disbanded under pressure from conservation groups. The groups sued the U.S. Department of Interior for setting up an advisory council almost entirely composed of trophy hunters and gun advocates. Federal law requires advisory groups to be balanced in the public interest. Rather than fight another lost cause, the regime told the court it would disband the council and not create similar ones in the future.

{11.06/20}The latest F*ck You! from the corrupt regime in the Swamp is that Mini Me, otherwise known as Trump Jr., took a trip last summer to Mongolia to shoot the rare argali wild sheep (Ovis ammon) for a trophy. Argalis are the world's largest wild sheep.  Reports say the hunting trip cost taxpayers $77,000 for various security arrangements and hangers-on to accompany him to the central Asian country. The trip was arranged by a travel company with connections to the Mongolian president's political party.  The company helped Mini Me obtain a coveted hunting license to kill the protected animal with impressive curved horns. According to wildlife experts the process to license killing a "national treasure" is opaque--controlled by politics, connections, and money.  MiniMe was accompanied by a major American political donor, and participated in a private meeting with the Mongolian president who had already visited his father in Washington.  No doubt he was arranging another Trump Organization business venture at taxpayer expense.

The grifter 'famiglia Trumpillini' has taken 12 times the number of taxpayer supported trips compared to the previous administration, about a thousand a year.  The latest in its long history of conflicts of interest was reported by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

 Who is this man and why is he smiling now?

Massive Oil Spill in Siberia

credit: Siberian Times

An Arctic river runs red in Russia--not with blood, but because a power plant spilled 20,000 metric tons of oil and diesel fuel. The fuel burst from a reserve fuel tank at an industrial site near Norlisk on May 29th.  A statement form Norlisk Nickel company which owns the site suggest it could have been cause by ground subsidence related to melting permafrost.  Rising global temperatures are thawing Arctic permafrost at an alarming rate.  Experts say these types of climate related disasters will become more common as climate change accelerates. A new study finds that the Arctic's built environment will be damaged by the thaw, even if nations meet their Paris Agreement climate targets, a goal becoming increasingly problematic. Roughly half of Russia's oil and gas infrastructure above the Arctic circle are in regions of ground instability due to thawing.

The spill is smaller than the Exxon Valdez crude oil spill which polluted Alaska's Prince William Sound for three decades.  Diesel fuel is a more a more potent form of pollution than crude oil.  Although the spill occurred in a remote region, it will likely cause long term environmental harm and risks to public health.  Clean up will be a prolonged process and costs billions.  President Vladimir Putin declared a national emergency to secure funds and resources to begin clean up.  The Russian federal government has also launched a criminal investigation into the causes of the disaster Norlisk Nickle, a mining company, was previously fined for a smaller spill into the region's rivers in 2016.

COTW: Pet Rock Performs

It is undeniable that the pet rock has become an alternative investment vehicle in modern times. Traditionally it is a safe haven from the the manipulated market subject to increasingly abrupt reactions to economic crises, and devaluation of fiat currencies. Gold has performed well since the gold standard was completely abolished by Nixon in '71.  Post 2000, gold's value has skyrocketed coinciding with the reliance of central banks on radical money creation. The smaller charts at the bottom of this graphic show that gold has outperformed the S&P 500 in the short (1 yr) and long term (25yrs.) This chart courtesy of Visual capitalist.com.

Meanwhile® the novel corona virus is still with us, despite what the regime would like to have you think before Election Day. Some states are experiencing high levels of positive test results. (AZ, MA, VA, NE, UT) Also, the WHO reports that last Sunday was a record for new cases worldwide.  Reopening economies continues in a time of plague.

US COVID-19 deaths (est.) 162,400

George Floyd Did Not Die in Vain

The most positive, tangible result of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis is the pledge by two-thirds of the city counsel to disband the existing militarized police structure and replace it with a community safety service organization.  The status quo is broken, admittedly beyond reform.  The city will do well to follow the example of Camden, New Jersey which replaced its corrupt police in 2013. Minneapolis should not wait for a DOJ civil rights decree from the current fascists in office before it unburdens itself of a police force led by an obstructionist union president.  Change needs to happen now--no justice, no peace!

The right-wing, and apparently Joe Biden too, is misunderstanding, perhaps deliberately, the phrase, "defund the police"  No one, except anarchists, wants a modern society without functioning police.  What the slogan encompasses are policies to remove funding for military equipment and "warrior" police tactics and give funds to social services and non-armed community intervention programs.  US Person is aware of a recent circumstance in which such a new system could work.  A Midwestern family of siblings is experiencing discord over a probate estate.  They are unable to agree on distribution of family assets because of a legal issue.  During an argument at the former family home, a sister becomes fearful of escalation and calls the local cops.  No cop in his right mind wants to become involved in a family domestic argument, especially when no violence is involved.  Fortunately, the responding cops in this case de-escalated the verbal altercation without incident.  The siblings are fortunate, and white.  What would have happened if they were black?  A black man is 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than a white man, and black women are one and a half more likely than white women.

slave patrollers

Instead of armed personnel trained to respond to potential violence with
"dominating" force, what if trained social and mental health workers were dispatched to mediate the dispute, or suggest community resources and possible resolutions with distraught family members? If the social services team could not handle the situation, or it was deteriorating towards violence, police could be called for back up.  The point is the police generally react in one way: physical, potentially lethal force, and armed intimidation, which often is not what the situation warrants.  Not surprising, since the genesis of policing in this nation is in part the fear of slave revolts and runaways, that has metamorphosed into fascistic "law and order" bullshit® from sociopathic, white opportunists.

When leaders are fake....

Anti-Nature Trump Exploits More Wildlife

Behind the headlines of social unrest, inflamed by an unstable dolt hunkered down in his own Green Zone once known as the White House, more previously protected habitat is being opened to commercial exploitation.  In a presidential proclamation, the Antichrist in Office rolled back another Obama environmental initiative opening five thousand square miles of North Atlantic Ocean within an undersea monument to commercial fishing.  In making the decision, he said he could not see any reason for withdrawing so large an area, ignoring the justification for protecting endangered species and their habitat. The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument protects the habitat of endangered whales, sea turtles, and ancient deep sea corals [photo courtesy NOAA].

The order is just the latest installment in a concerted program of reversing environmental protection laws that irritate natural resource exploiters. The Antichrist signed an executive order allowing federal agencies to waive environmental rules to speed approval of energy projects like oil pipelines on Thursday. An NRDC spokesperson said the conservation organization is prepared to litigate his removal of fully protected status for the only North Atlantic marine monument.

Use the 3D system....

'Toontime: Fooled Again

The 'anointed' Total Douche, desperate to reverse his falling re-election prospects, celebrated the only positive headline available this week midst spreading virus and violent cops: the May jobs report from the Department of Labor.  It said that the unemployment rate dropped to 13.3% with 2.5 million jobs coming back.  Thanks for small favors; graphically the rebound looks like this:

The increase in jobs means 19.6 million jobs are still gone.  The official figure is without doubt an undercount, as the department itself admits. The figure only counts those who are actively seeking work.  U-6 is a better measure of unemployment because it counts those unemployed who have given up seeking a job, or are working a part-time gig but want full time employment.  That figure is at 21.2% in May.  US COVID-19 deaths (est.): 154,050

credit: M. Wuerker, Politico

 It's how I roll....

Animal Farm

The pandemic has caused havoc with existing social systems, making people question how our societies accomplish fundamental tasks like policing, energy policy, and food production.  The livestock industry finds itself in the center of this mounting debate.  Thousands of animals have been culled, often not humanely, as a result of the pandemic disrupting the for-profit market.  Mistreatment of farm animals influences the way meat packing workers are treated.  Workers are forced back to work despite plants becoming COVID-19 hotspots.  Ten of the fourteen rural counties with the highest infection rates contain meatpacking plant outbreaks.  These plants are owned by huge industrial farming operations like Tyson Foods, National Beef, Smithfield, Cargill and JBS.  More than twenty thousand workers have been infected.

dead pangolins at market, credit Getty Images

Factory farming is inherently cruel.  Domestic animals are treated as commodity units to be processed as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Pigs are intelligent animals who communicate, raise families, and have social structures.  Their health and well-being does not enter into a corporation's profit calculations.  It is clear, if one discounts the politically motivated hysteria caused by a dysfunctional national government, that factory food production in China is implicated in the genesis and spread of SARS CoV-2.  It could also happen here.  Workers and animals are crammed into confined spaces with lax safety standards, in humane killing methods, and overuse of antibiotics--ripe conditions for the creation of a zoonotic virus.  Factory farming should be abandoned in favor of decentralized, smaller, independent farming operations that existed before giant conglomerates captured the market through economies of scale that have become very vulnerable to market shocks.  Senator Booker (D-NJ) said the food system was "broken by large, multinational corporations because of their buying power and size, have undue influence over the marketplace and over public policy."  He introduced an agricultural reform bill that calls for a moratorium on factory farms.

Jane Goodall, prominent scientist and conservationist, warned of the dire

bush meat, Equatorial Guinea, credit Getty Images

consequences of continuing down the path of the abusive exploitation of the natural world and intensive animal farming.  She told a webinar audience, "If we do not do things differently, we are finished.  We can't go on very much longer like this."  It is now well known that virulent diseases are pouring out of tropical rainforests and into wild meatmarkets where man has disrupted natural systems by his rampant exploitation. Ebola, which kills 90% of the people it infects, jumped the inter-species gap from chimpanzees to humans.  Ebola unleashed an unprecedented pestilance in Africa the 1990s and has returned today.  Not only Ebola, but SARS, H1N1, MERS and now SARS CoV-2 originated in animals. Rabies and bubonic plague made this journey centuries ago. New pathogens (Lassa fever, Nipah, Zika and West Nile) are crossing over into humans because of increasingly close interaction with previously isolated wild landscapes that we are rapidly altering and destroying.  The CDC estimates that three-quarters of new or emerging diseases that infect us originate in animals.  Zoonotic diseases are linked to environmental change and human behavior; scientific research has established this fact.

The "wet market" in Wuhan, were SARS CoV-2 is thought to have originated, was notorious for selling numerous wild animals including wolf pups, salamanders, crocodiles , scorpions, rats, squirrels, foxes, civets and turtles.  In has been closed down by Chinese authorities but not before it generated a pandemic.  The sad fact is that the poor in under-developed nations do not have refrigerators, and depend on wild meat to supplement their meager diets. Connections in the modern world have brought wild diseases much closer to human civilization.   In the end we, as a species that respects no other, will be responsible for our own demise.

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same;
 as one dies, so dies the other. 
They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.  
Ecclesiastes 3:19

Snake Oil

Related:  In the absence of an effective vaccine*, social distancing is the most effective way to control disease spread.  Sweden learned this lesson the hard way.  Its government refused to impose quarantines and is now paying the price. A state often criticized by unreformed capitalists as a "nanny state", had the highest death toll per capital in the world for the week ending June 2nd.   Agnes Tegnell, the government's leading epidemiologist, admitted to Swedish radio that there was “quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done”.  The government has given in to mounting pressure to investigate its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  It will form a commission to review its public health strategy of relying on "heard immunity".

Sweden overlooked its elderly care homes where half of the country's deaths have occurred.  It did ask for voluntary cooperation with social distancing rules, but avoided coercive measures.  Swedes have generally complied with their government's requests to restrict movement.  Norway and Denmark, which have lower per capita rates than Sweden announced last week that they would not let Sweden into their "travel bubble" for now. Australia and New Zealand are expected to resume normal travel between them soon, since both countries have substantially controlled the contagion.

The British medical journal, The Lancet, has retracted a study of the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine which it published after the medical community criticized the validity of data on which it was based.  The report was a case study, not based on a controlled experiment.  Since the publication of the paper on May 22nd, a randomized, placebo controlled experiment on the effectiveness of the antimalarial drug for treating COVID-19 has been completed and will be reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. A controlled UK study has produced a similar finding of no clinical benefit. The case study was based on hospital databases containing thousands of records.  The author's analyzed the data, wrote the their paper and submitted it to peer review in just over five weeks, much faster than usual.

{3/06/20} The old anti-malarial drug the Antichist in Office hawked as a miracle cure for COVID-19, and which he once claimed to be taking as a prophylactic, has proven to be useless in the first rigorously controlled study of the drug's effect on the disease.  A joint study between the USA and Canada of 821 patients showed the drug did not prevent the disease in randomly selected subjects who had were exposed. The study also employed a placebo control group, the most reliable way to determine a drug's effectiveness and safety. “The take-home message for the general public is that if you’re exposed to someone with Covid-19, hydroxychloroquine is not an effective post-exposure, preventive therapy,” the lead author of the study, Dr. David R. Boulware, from the University of Minnesota, said in an interview.  The results will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results confirm previous research on hydroxychloroquine.

Controversy has swirled around the off-label use of the anti-malarial compound since anecdotal reports of its effectiveness against COVID-19 reached the media.  Total Douche amplified the debate when he advocated using the drug by saying, "Take it, what do have to lose?"  What he failed to mention are the possible serious side-effects ranging from heart arrhythmia to hallucinations.  The medical facts have not stopped him from promoting hydroxychloroquine. On Sunday, his regime announced that it was sending 2 million doses of the drug to Brazil, to treat patients and help prevent infection in health care workers. Brazil is run by a simpatico nationalist president who is also burning down the Amazon rain forest.  There have been reports that members of the Trump family have financial interests in companies that manufacture the drug, and that Total Douche is a golf buddy of the drug distributor.

Another swing and a miss....

*Incredibly one in three 'Mericans turned to bleach to battle SARS CoV-2 according to the CDC.  In a survey, these misguided citizens used bleach and other household disinfectants in high-risk, not recommended practices including spraying these toxic substances on food, applying on skin, inhaling and ingesting. During a nationally-televised press briefing Total Douche suggested doctors and scientists should test the “injection” of disinfectants, like bleach or alcohol, into the human body as a way to cure coronavirus.  Makers of these cleaning agents immediately issued warnings against misuse of their products.

Police Beat: Floyd Killer Has Record of Excessive Force

More: After eight days of sometimes violent street protest against policy brutality across the nation, former police officer Derk Chauvin, who choked George Floyd to death during an arrest, has been recharged with second degree murder. Previously he was charged with third degree murder and manslaughter. Three fellow arresting officer who assisted in restraining Floyd have now been charged with aiding and abetting Floyd's murder.

The Secretary of Defense told the press he does not want to use the US military to suppress demonstrations in support of George Floyd. Mr. Esper said ordering active-duty troops to police American cities should be a “last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He said that, for now, this was not warranted. Reportedly, Antichrist Trump wanted to involk the Insurrection Act, which permits the use of military personnel to police domestic riots but was dissuaded by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Attorney General.  Tear gas and force was used by federal authorities on Monday to clear Lafayette Park near the VWH, so the Antichrist in Office could pose for cameras in front of nearby St. John's Episcopal Church. His stroll drew at the expense of demonstrators drew widespread disparagement in the press.

What does this grifter know of Christianity?

 Update: {30.05.20}George Floyd's family released the results of an independent autopsy today.  The results show he died of asphyxiation, not surprising considering the videoed fact that he was held in an inherently dangerous choke hold for over eight minutes by Derek Chauvin.  The report states Floyd's death was “homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.” Meanwhile® the unhinged occupant of the VWH told governors on a phone call to "dominate" protesters by throwing them in "jail for ten years" otherwise, "you're going to look like a bunch of jerks."  He offered them the use of the US military to control protests against police brutality.
 
{30.05.20}Derek Chauvin, who killed unarmed George Floyd by suffocation during an arrest for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill, has a pattern of abuse as a 19 year veteran of the Minneapolis police department.  Chavin collected 17 complaints that did not result in serious discipline.  Perhaps the worst incident occurred in May 2008. Ira Toles, a black man, told the Daily Beast that officers barged into his home unannounced after his girlfriend called them about domestic violence. Toles said Chauvin busted into his bathroom and beat him before shooting him in the groin at point blank range. He was left to bleed until paramedics came to his rescue. The bullet made a hole in his lower extremities that did not completely close. Toles was not armed during the violent incident.

Floyd's grieving family is requesting an independent autopsy, since an undoubted defense will be that he died of an underlying medical condition.  Preliminary results released by the Hennepin County medical examiner say Floyd's cause of death was the, "combined effects [italics added] of Mr. Floyd's being restrained by police, underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system." The report says, there is "no evidence of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation". Chauvin had his knee on his victim's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Floyd became non-responsive. 

resisting arrest?

depraved mind

Chauvin's latest example of uncontrolled rage was videotaped for the world to see by a bystander.  Chauvin put his entire weight on Floyd's neck with his knee for more than eight minutes while Floyd lay helpless on his stomach in the street, hands handcuffed behind his back. The Minneapolis Police Department manual states that neck restraints are basically reserved for when an officer feels caught in a life or death situation, clearly not the case during Floyd's arrest [photo above]. In the video a bystander exclaims, “You don’t have to sit there with your knee on his neck. He is enjoying that. You are. You are enjoying that. You could have put him in the car by now.” Floyd repeatedly pleaded with Chauvin that he could not breath.

His pleas were ignored by his former co-worker at a nearby night club. The club owner recalls how aggressive Chauvin became in response to altercations involving black customers. He responding to fights by taking out his mace and spraying the crowd, a tactic she told him was unjustified. ” “I’ve seen him in action and I’ve seen him lose it and I’ve called him out on it before,” she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I’ve told him it’s unnecessary and unjustified some of the ways that he behaves. He just loses it.” Chauvin can be seen in the video with a pleased look on his face as he chokes Floyd with his knee, a strangulation hold  that would not necessarily leave visible marks [photo below].  George Floyd's last words may have been,  "‘Don’t kill me. I’m about to die.'”

US Person cannot think of a clearer example of reckless disregard for life causing a person's death; but for Chauvin's use of a dangerous and unapproved restraint George Floyd would be still alive. Under the law, a perpetrator takes a victim as they find them.  Chauvin's conduct constitutes third degree murder in Minnesota, defined as murder without intent to kill*.  The penalty for that crime is not more than 25 years in prison. There appears to be evidence that could justify a more serious charge, second degree murder, which requires showing an intent to kill.  These facts are that Floyd's pleas for his life were ignored by all the arresting officers and the continued exertion of extreme pressure on his neck in a stomach down position after he became motionless and exhibited no pulse.  The maximum penalty for second degree murder is forty years imprisonment in Minnesota.  But what about the other three, now former, cops who assisted Chauvin while Floyd was dying?  They have not been charged with any crime as of this post.  At the very least, they are accomplices to Floyd's murder.
 
Minnesota needs to do more to respond to the understandable outrage people of color have towards their urban police departments. It needs to outlaw the use of dangerous restraint methods like the one that killed Floyd. Police recruits should undergo substnatial psychological testing to determine if they have personality traits or prejudices that are unsuitable to the dangerous duty to protect the public. Chauvin should thank the uniform he once wore that he will not be subjected to "street justice" for his crime.

*609.195 MURDER IN THE THIRD DEGREE.
(a) Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years.

Start shooting....